THE QUIET MAN: Bears head coach Lovie Smith doesn’t shout or otherwise show emotion, which may be why Chicago fans haven’t warmed to him. But being the anti-Ditka has its advantages Read more
The man who defined the Go-Go Sox and led the way for black Latinos in Major League Baseball missed the Hall of Fame by three votes. Here's why his career represents an conundrum. Read more
The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which gave us both U.S. Cellular and the Soldier Field renovation, dips into the pockets of the city's taxpayers to make up a shortfall. There's a funny story about how we ended up with the ISFA in the first place. Read more
The Bears will lose their starting quarter back for the rest of the regular season, or most of it. But Cutler's not the most important element of the team, and Caleb Hanie has shown flashes of competence and confidence. Read more
One of the brightest of baseball’s new breed of data-driven front-office execs, Theo Epstein is being hailed as the Cubs’ savior. But don’t order those World Series tickets just yet Read more
When Michael Jordan was a player, he repped as hard as he could for the players union. Now he's on the other side, and just as tough. Is he a hypocrite? Or just a rational economic actor? Read more
The sex-abuse scandal at Penn State has underlined the university's dependence on college football, both economically and emotionally. Should it end the football program? Seventy years ago, the University of Chicago did, and it succeeded against the presumed odds. Read more
DAMAGE CONTROL: As evidence of the toll taken by head injuries in football continues to mount, the high-tech quest to create a better helmet advances, little by little, in the lab Read more
UNBROKEN: Five years after a bean ball ended his big-league career on the first pitch of his first at-bat, the former Cub still yearns to fulfill his big-league dream Read more
