Summer’s here, but the time doesn’t seem right for dancing in the streets.
Not about Chicago sports, anyway.
Certainly not about the Bulls after they traded Alex Caruso for Josh Giddey on Thursday, essentially pulling out their own heart and handing it to the championship-hungry Thunder while unofficially announcing the onset of a roster rebuild. And definitely not about the Cubs after pitcher Shota Imanaga got torched by the Mets for three early homers and 10 earned runs Friday, taking an air hose to his All-Star-caliber ERA while unofficially announcing that there might not be an obvious ace on the North Side after all.
The Sun-Times’ first “Sports Sunday” edition, after five-plus years of “Sports Saturdays,” does come on a very eventful opening Sunday of summer, at least. With Caitlin Clark making her first Chicago appearance as a WNBA rookie, the afternoon clash between the Fever and the Sky — a burgeoning rivalry whether or not the principals involved care to admit it — might be the game of the day in any sport.
Oh, footie fans bellied up to the bars at Cleo’s in Ukrainian Village, A.J. Hudson’s in Lake View or The Globe in North Center will swear the European Championship matches taking place throughout the weekend are so much bigger than women’s basketball. College baseball nuts — does Chicago have any of those? — will be all about Tennessee and Texas A&M in the final round of the College World Series.
But Wintrust Arena — and Wrigley Field — will be major places to be. Fever-Sky at one location; the Cubs unveiling a statue in Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg’s honor outside the other. Hot fun in the summertime. If only it would last.
Merely a few days into the season, is anyone else beginning to sense an encroaching case of the summertime blues? Perhaps I’m too cynical for my own good — OK, fine, there’s no “perhaps” about it — but I’m already shielding my eyes from what sports will have to offer around here for at least the next month.
The White Sox show no signs whatsoever of becoming watchable any time soon. Let’s just say they entered the weekend having won only one of their last 11 series — a stretch befitting one of the worst teams in the history of the major leagues, which, of course, these Sox are. They have an owner as beloved as heat rash, a vice president and general manager who was yanked up the ladder of a bumbling organization, a manager who’s almost certainly a lame duck and, come to think of it, those are the good parts.
Unless starting pitchers Imanaga and Javier Assad are Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, they’re going to come back down to earth at least somewhat and then it won’t matter if the Cubs finally start hitting and the bullpen finally stops approaching save situations like they’re the third rail on the Red Line tracks. We’d tip our beer helmet to president Jed Hoyer, but then we might spill a drop of something that’s actually useful. And how about that Craig Counsell effect? No, really, is there one?
Giddey, an Australian 21-year-old with clever offensive skills, great size and even better hair — he crushes Caruso in that department — might turn into a fine player. But by the time that happens, if it does, it’ll be too late for the Bulls to ever win anything meaningful with Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic. Then again, it has been too late for that for at least the last couple of years, yet here they still are and here we still are. Bulls fans, how does getting even worse sound? Probably not as fine as a summer breeze.
Angel Reese has outperformed early expectations, but the Sky are down deep in the WNBA standings. The buzz has been fun, but it might not last the summer if the current iteration of the Sky turns out to be just another Chicago team that’s a million miles from championship contention.
Have the Sox traded Luis Robert and Garrett Crochet yet? No? Phew.
Has Bears training camp arrived? Or the Paris Olympics? No on both? Bummer.
The Blackhawks get to draft Connor Bedard’s next partner in crime No. 2 overall next week. That exciting development could sustain us for a summer night or two. We should probably be thankful for it.
