Chicago Sun-Times

Blackhawks looking to hoist more meaningful trophy

Wed, 01 May 2013 11:45:50 -0500

RICK MORRISSEY: The regular season means a lot when you win the Presidents’ Trophy for racking up the most points in the league. It means that anything less than a Stanley Cup being hoisted will be a disappointment. It means that not making the Stanley Cup Finals will be a colossal failure. Is that unfair?

MORRISSEY: Openly-gay NBA player Jason Collins is the right man at the right time

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 02:26:22 -0500

Jason Collins has become the first openly gay male professional athlete in the four major American team sports. That’s a lot of modifiers, and it speaks both to the progress made in women’s sports and to the irrational fear that has always been part of men’s sports: You can’t have homosexuals in the locker room! But a new day dawned Monday, and the world didn’t end. No biblical plague arrived. Most people seemed … fine. ESPN’s Chris Broussard did say that homosexuality is an “open rebellion to God.’’ No, an open rebellion to God is failing to love your neighbor. …

MORRISSEY: Heredity made Long easy choice for Bears

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 02:19:08 -0500

I don’t want to minimize the work that Bears general manager Phil Emery and his staff did in preparation for the draft, the hours they put in and their lack of anything resembling a personal life the last year or so. But there’s no way in the world the Bears would have used their first-round pick on a guy with four college starts if his name had been Kyle Doe, Kyle Smith or Kyle Short. Or, to put it another way, if an inexperienced but hugely talented athlete named Kyle Elway were draft-eligible, they would have given him a long …

MORRISSEY: Nate Robinson came to play on Saturday

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 12:04:03 -0500

I don’t know where Nate Robinson is from. I know it says Seattle in all his biographical information, but that’s fiction and quite possibly a government cover-up. He’s from some other planet where everything is unstable and combustible, where people are up and down in the extreme, where the overworked fire department rushes from one explosion to the next. If you’ve watched Robinson at all, you know that the show he put on Saturday in the Bulls’ 142-134, three-overtime victory could have gone the opposite way — could have, in fact, ended up resembling a smoking crater. The guy fluctuates …

Gritty is good enough for Bulls in Game 3

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:32:38 -0500

RICK MORRISSEY: This is crazy, you know. The Bulls are made up of bloody bandages, average depth and a coach who welded the pedal to the metal at birth. Does that say “playoff success’’ or “please put us out of our misery?’’

Draft Manti Te’o? Bears should take him or leave him: Morrissey

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:40:32 -0500

I have a very good feeling and a very bad feeling about the Bears’ draft on Thursday. The very good feeling is that they’ll use their first-round pick on Manti Te’o. That’s the very bad feeling, too. The columnist in me absolutely loves the idea of the Bears choosing the Notre Dame linebacker whose story no one could make up but did. Can you imagine the media circus that would follow him? I’d be the one with the clown horn and the squirting flower on my lapel. The football observer in me thinks the Bears would be making a huge …

MORRISSEY: Bulls have heart, guts in abundance

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:55:47 -0500

We’re going to talk about the Bulls’ toughness, but we’re not going to comparison-shop. We won’t celebrate Joakim Noah’s heart as a way of condemning Derrick Rose’s. If you want to read or hear about how wimpy, selfish and misguided Rose is, go to Facebook, Twitter or your favorite radio talk show. But you won’t find that kind of nonsense here. If you know someone who has gone through major knee surgery, as Rose has, you know all about hell. So let’s talk about Noah and plantar fasciitis, a foot condition that, for many people, feels like an endless encounter …

MORRISSEY: We’ve heard Jay Cutler, coordinator trade praise before

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 02:58:17 -0500

Several weeks ago, a reader sent me a complimentary email. I can’t remember the subject matter, but I do remember to whom it was addressed: Mr. Mortuary. This is odd, I thought. A shot across the bow in the salutation, followed by glowing praise. Then it dawned on me. I emailed the gentleman, and it was just as I had suspected: His computer’s spell check had changed my name from ‘‘Mr. Morrissey’’ to ‘‘Mr. Mortuary.’’ The man was, fittingly, mortified. No, I wrote him, this is the greatest thing ever. Spell check apparently can correct errors and see inside the …

MORRISSEY: Cubs’ owners prey on your hopes by promising titles with Wrigley repairs

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:57:54 -0500

If I have this right, the Cubs are going to win a World Series soon because their long-sought-after renovation of Wrigley Field is on the horizon. At least that’s what chairman Tom Ricketts declared the other day. ‘‘We need this project in order to bring our fans a winner,’’ he said. Implicit in those words is that the futility Cubs fans witnessed the last 104 years was a function of weak ballpark-revenue streams and, therefore, a lack of quality, highly paid players. That probably will come as a surprise to the 2003 World Series champion Marlins, who, with a $48 …

MORRISSEY: Adam Scott becomes first Australian to win Masters

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:17:46 -0500

AUGUSTA, Ga. — I can’t say Adam Scott was carrying the hopes and dreams of every Australian with him Sunday because I don’t know that to be true. I do know the hopes and dreams of an Australian writer sitting near me were wired into whatever Scott was doing in the final round at Augusta National. When Scott ran in a 20-foot putt on the 18th hole to take a one-stroke lead, the writer shook his fists and let out a guttural roar that sounded like 10 minutes before feeding time at the lion cage. When Angel Cabrera, playing in …

MORRISSEY: Tiger Woods not necessarily a ‘gentleman’

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:06:00 -0500

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Golf is a gentleman’s game. Not my words, but words passed down over the years and held dear by the keepers of the sport. We’re different, golf says. We’re better, it says. It’s why Masters officials penalized a 14-year-old golfer for slow play Friday, a ridiculously draconian ruling against someone so young. But, fine, they made their ruling and we move on knowing that people in the game are zealous. Honor above everything else, right? Apparently not. Tiger Woods should have disqualified himself from the tournament for breaking a rule on the 15th hole Friday. That would …

MORRISSEY: By penalizing eighth-grader, Masters shows it doesn’t get it

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 02:13:12 -0500

AUGUSTA, Ga. — We’re dealing with a 14-year-old kid here. Let’s start with that. Try to remember what you were like when you were 14. Just because Guan Tianlang has been blessed with exceptional golf skills at a young age doesn’t change the fact that he’s lacking worldliness and perhaps maturity. If, during his round Friday, he had been fretting over how to work up the nerve to start a conversation with a girl back home, you’d understand. On the other side, we’re dealing with Augusta National, the place where having a clue goes to die. It took the club …

Teen wonder Guan Tianlang keeps cool in Masters debut

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 10:13:52 -0500

RICK MORRISSEY: Guan Tianlang walked up to the first tee at Augusta National on Thursday looking even younger than his 14 years on earth. If someone had announced a read-aloud story time, Guan might have sought out a lap.

Masters enters age of a new low for putters

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:46:08 -0500

MORRISSEY: I don’t want to say technology has gotten out of hand in golf, but it won’t be long before golfers are phased out of the sport entirely. The logical result of this technological arms race will be clubs that can break par all by themselves.

Masters favorite Tiger Woods no easier to read

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:50:33 -0500

RICK MORRISSEY: There seem to be two distinct approaches to Tiger Woods these days. The first is the old standby, the one in which opponents instinctively shake in their FootJoys at the mere idea of Tiger in a red shirt on Sundays. It says: He’s No. 1 in the world, and you’d be a fool to forget that.

MORRISSEY: Michigan’s Spike Albrecht reason we love NCAA tournament

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 23:49:37 -0500

ATLANTA — This is why we watch. We watch, hoping for the chance to witness something improbable, perhaps by the most improbable player on the court. That’s the dream. That’s the magnetic pull of the NCAA tournament. His name is Spike Albrecht. He is 5-11 and 170 pounds with unconfirmed reports of facial hair. He comes from Crown Point, Ind., went to a prep school after high school and had exactly one scholarship offer from a major university. That’s how he came to find himself on the floor for Michigan in the national title game Monday, but it doesn’t begin …

MORRISSEY: Cubs manager Dale Sveum had little choice but to change closers

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 22:57:19 -0500

ATLANTA — Cubs manager Dale Sveum was very succinct Sunday in announcing the demotion of Carlos Marmol. ‘‘He is no longer the closer,’’ Sveum said. ‘‘[Kyuji] Fujikawa will move into the closing role. We talked to them both. So we’re all done with that.’’ I loved the finality in those words. It was like someone saying, ‘‘We just killed the alien attached to your face, so there’s absolutely no chance of the creature’s embryo eating its way out of your stomach!’’ These are the Cubs, Dale. They are never all done with anything. There are no mop-up operations, only ongoing …

Inspiration, stifling ‘D’ late send Louisville to title game

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 02:40:18 -0500

RICK MORRISSEY: Louisville is a lot like an NBA team. But before you start with the salary-cap jokes, I’m referring to its ability to go on a run. During any given game, the Cardinals know the run is coming, their opponent knows it’s coming and — OK, fine — their agents know it’s coming, too.