Jon Greenberg

CHICAGO — The are in the midst of a bullpen crisis, the only guy left from the 2016 team had to be IL’d for his own benefit, the defense is mid, their lineup is muddled … and did I mention their bullpen, which gave up six runs in one inning Monday night? So how are these guys good again? Advertisement Well, timely hitting, some good fortune, the magic touch of Craig Counsell, and you know, starting pitching always plays. The starters are not only keeping the Cubs (21-15) near the top of the div…

CHICAGO — Catharsis came off the bat of and maybe, through the voice of John Schriffen. This past Saturday night on the South Side, Benintendi cranked a walk-off homer (his second home run of the game and the season) to beat the and give the their second victory in as many days. Advertisement As true baseball fans know, two in a row is a huge milestone for any team in late April, and Schriffen, the team’s first-year TV play-by-play man, let loose a call that understood the gravity of the mome…

DEERFIELD, Ill. — A former college athlete who captured the imagination of fans and stirred up a little controversy just by showing some personality was introduced in the Chicago area this week. A champion of the NIL age, where college athletes can now rightly make millions off their own name, image and likeness. Advertisement A charismatic young star-in-waiting from the D.C./Baltimore area drafted by a needy team, ready to bask in the spotlight of one of America’s great sporting cities. That’s…

It was quite the Friday evening for the Tortured Fans Department (Jerry Reinsdorf’s Version). The White Sox (3-16) got shut out for the seventh time in their first 19 games, while the Bulls got routed 112-91 by the Miami Heat in the final Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament game. At least the season is mercifully finished. The have months and months of losing baseball left. Mercy! After an entertaining in the first Play-In game Wednesday, the Bulls were just 2 1/2-point underdogs going into…

CHICAGO — No one has ever been able to truly answer the question: “If a tree falls in an empty forest, does it make a sound?” But Wednesday night, we found the answer to the ’s version of that famous thought experiment: If you score a career high in the Play-In Tournament, does it count as a career high? Advertisement “Hell yeah, it counts,” forward said, almost offended by the question. agrees. After all, he’s the one who dropped a smooth 42 points on the in a 131-116 victory at the United C…

CHICAGO — Inside the Advocate Center on Tuesday, the air was fragrant with the faint scent of hope. Maybe it was desperation. One of the two. It wasn’t Coppertone, because Cancun can wait (a few days). “I think our guys are excited about having the opportunity to play after the regular season ended,” coach Billy Donovan said. Donovan, the former college coach, sounds like he’s talking about the NIT. But he’s now speaking like the seasoned NBA Play-In Tournament coach that he is. Yes, the regula…

The ’s miserable start to the 2024 season is starting to look historically bad. On Monday night, they lost 2-0 to the . It marked the sixth time this season they’ve been held scoreless, which ties them with the 1907 Brooklyn Superbas for the most shutouts in the first 16 games of the season, according to Codify Baseball. They’ve been shut out once in all six series they’ve played this season. The only teams in MLB history to be shut out 6 times in the first 16 games of a regular season: 1907 Bro…

CHICAGO — You don’t expect to be in this situation, the toast(ed marshmallow) of Chicago, but in baseball, like in life, sometimes good fortune finds you before you even find yourself. That’s the life right now for the humble Campfire Milkshake, a confectionary comet that expected to be just a part of the menu and winds up as the main attraction in what’s looking like a historically awful season. Advertisement “It’s just one of those things,” Levy executive chef Ryan Craig said to me Sunday. “I…

has been ruled out for three to six months with a left adductor strain, which means his career could be over. Moncada is the third hitter to get injured while running to first base through the first 11 games of a dreadful season and the second to strain his left adductor muscle in his thigh. All three of the injured players were supposed to be the middle-of-the-order hitters for a World Series contender. Advertisement Little has worked out as planned. It all started this year when pulled up l…

CHICAGO — president Jed Hoyer was in the hot seat Monday morning. And that was before we started talking about his starting rotation. A heater located on the low ceiling of the home dugout was bright red when Hoyer sat down to talk to reporters. He quickly realized he had to scooch over. Let’s just say if Hoyer were wearing Ron Santo’s old toupee, it would’ve been trouble. Cubs president Jed Hoyer meets with reporters before the team’s 5-0 win over Colorado. (Jon Greenberg / The Athletic) Open…

CHICAGO — Jason Benetti didn’t know what to do with his hands. Over the last five months, Benetti had steeled himself for a return to the South Side. The baseball schedule-makers, obviously seizing on this juicy narrative, scheduled his first game as the voice of the for Opening Day at Guaranteed Rate Field, where he toiled for eight seasons as the play-by-play man for his boyhood team, the . Benetti was ready for the emotions that came with starting a new work life in his old home, but he didn…

MESA, Ariz. — Standing at his locker, stared at me like I was an idiot, and yes, I’m very familiar with that look. My question was simple: What are his expectations for the this season? His answer, complete with withering eye contact, was succinct: “To win.” From your lips to Pat Hughes’ ears, Dansby. That’s all Cubs fans want too. No one wants to hear about prospect rankings or the competitive balance tax. Everyone wants to hear “Go Cubs Go” at the end of a game. Advertisement “I don’t know t…

Last spring , I went to ’s corner locker in the Camelback Ranch clubhouse and asked him how he would advise fans to feel about the team’s fortunes going into the 2023 season. Anderson was still considered the straw in the Sox’s drink and his team, coming off a wildly disappointing 2022, had hopes for another playoff appearance, even if the projections were admittedly a little wan. There was roster continuity, record-setting free agent addition and new manager Pedro Grifol Advertisement There w…

Every year, , president Jed Hoyer sits down with me toward the end of spring training for a conversation. This time, on Thursday, March 21, he kind of leaned against a golf cart while two of his sons listened in. (“You know the rule, Daddy, no more media,” his youngest, Archie, said in protest.) The interview has been lightly edited for clarity and space. Now that you’re at the end of camp, what surprised you? To me, it was really fun to watch our young guys that I think are getting close to th…

The question everyone should be asking right now is: What have I done to deserve this? As a lifelong fan who covers the , for the second time in three years, I’m going to have to root for a quarterback that I covered, a quarterback whose tortured Chicago career I wrote about day after day, week after week, year after year. I get paid to write about failing Bears quarterbacks. I don’t want to have to watch them in a Steelers uniform in my leisure time. Advertisement But enough about me. Along wi…

is going to San Diego, is going to the bullpen and the are going to be really, really bad this season. Then again, they already were. And now they have more prospects. Remember the days of ogling minor leaguers, White Sox fans? Well, get used to it again. Lower than a limbo stick, the White Sox won 61 games last year. If they equal that total in 2024, they would hit the over for wins in some of the betting markets. If this team wins 70 games, give manager Pedro Grifol an extension. (Just kiddi…

Just after lunchtime Thursday afternoon as I was writing a column about Caleb Williams, I received a hot tip from a friend who is a season ticket holder: Caleb Williams was just spotted at the Chase Bank branch in Highland Park. According to my friend, his friend allegedly saw Williams leaving the bank. I talked on the phone with that friend-of-a-friend who didn’t want his name used. I’ll call him Deep Spiral. Here’s what he said happened. Deep Spiral was walking toward his car after going to t…

It’s a quarter to eight on a Sunday and a sportswriter gets up from bed to go into his home office. He tells his wife, a fan, that . “For a lot of money?” she asks. “Well …” As it turns out, it was a pillow announcement over a pillow contract for Bellinger, his agent Scott Boras and Cubs president Jed Hoyer. The Athletic ’s Ken Rosenthal confirmed Jeff Passan’s overnight report that Bellinger signed a deal that could potentially go for three years for a possible $80 million. Advertisement Real…

For all his mishegas and misdirection, chairman Jerry Reinsdorf is right on one thing: It’s either now or later. Either he’s asking the city and state for more than a billion bucks of public money for a new right now or someone else is going to be asking for it down the road. The prospects of the White Sox leaving town have been rumored for months, from the rumors of a Nashville interest to Reinsdorf’s more direct insinuation in that someone will buy the team and want to move it. Advertisemen…

Give it to owner Tom Ricketts. He knows how to take one for the team. On Monday morning, the Cubs debuted a new slogan for the 2024 season: “You Have to C It.” These marketing campaigns rarely go over well on Twitter (which I refuse to call X) and this was certainly one of those times it did not. In this case, they didn’t think through the hashtag and well, every team should have a focus group of their most sarcastic, vulgar and chronically online fans before they debut anything in the Twitter…