Friday, June 11, 2010

“Hawks, fans set to celebrate Cup victory - Kane County Chronicle” plus 2 more

“Hawks, fans set to celebrate Cup victory - Kane County Chronicle” plus 2 more

Hawks, fans set to celebrate Cup victory - Kane County Chronicle

Posted: 11 Jun 2010 03:29 AM PDT

Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

By TOM MUSICK - Shaw Suburban Media

CHICAGO – In a city whose sports philosophy is based on waiting and wishing, the Blackhawks have delivered a refreshing perspective.

"Wait Til Next Year"?

No thanks. With this team, it's more like "Can't Wait Til Next Year."

Today, the Hawks will share in the excitement of their first Stanley Cup title in 49 years with anybody who wants to join them for a downtown parade. The tickertape celebration will start at 10:30 a.m. at Wacker Drive and Washington Boulevard, winding several blocks before reaching Wacker and Michigan Avenue for a team rally about an hour later.

If you're going, bring lots of film or clear some memory on your camera phone. Rumor has it that a 3-foot-tall, 35-pound, silver trophy will be among the featured guests.

"There's no cooler feeling in the world than holding that Cup over your head," Hawks winger Adam Burish said moments after Game 6. "I can't tell you how awesome it is.

"It doesn't compare to anything I've done in my life – going on an awesome vacation, kissing a pretty girl, whatever it is. That blows anything I've ever done away. It's unbelievable."

Unbelievable might be the most uttered word during today's parade and championship rally.

Depending on one's perspective, the celebration will mark the start of an all-summer love fest between the Hawks and their fans, or the continuation of a yearlong relationship that has included tens of thousands of commitment ceremonies from Lincoln Park to Lake in the Hills.

The Hawks, who shattered franchise records for wins and points in the regular season, were audacious enough to fulfill the team's "One Goal" marketing mantra only three years into a massive rebuilding project that was more extensive than any work on the Eisenhower.

Hawks owner Rocky Wirtz marveled that the team won a title by the margin of its motto.

"Isn't it something?" Wirtz said. "And in overtime, with Patrick Kane. It's just unbelievable."

In a few days, weeks or months, Wirtz and his staff will start to look ahead to the 2010-11 season in their quest for a repeat. It won't be easy, as salary-cap constraints could force the Hawks to move popular veterans such as Patrick Sharp, Andrew Ladd, Brent Sopel or others.

The team's top two unrestricted free agents, Burish and John Madden, could go elsewhere. And other clubs could increase the price tag for the Hawks to retain some of their top restricted free agents, including Ladd, Antti Niemi, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Ben Eager.

Save those questions for another day, Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. Today is meant to celebrate a team and its city, united as champions.

"We're going to have fun with it," Quenneville said.

The party is just beginning.

Comments

Add Comments

There are 35 hours, 54 minutes remaining to comment on this story.

Click here to read the rules for posting comments

'); relatedMediaItem.appendTo('#article_media_related ul'); }); } }); }

By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com

06/08/10 12:22 AM ET

TORONTO -- The Blue Jays have altered their philosophy about prep pitching under general manager Alex Anthopoulos. Toronto no longer shys away from high school arms early on in the First-Year Player Draft.

The Blue Jays put that approach on full display on Monday, when the club added a pair of high school right-handers -- Aaron Sanchez and Noah Syndergaard -- in the supplemental round on Day 1 of the Draft.

"We're open-minded to any player," Andrew Tinnish, the Blue Jays' director of amateur scouting, said prior to the Draft. "We're basically going to line our board up based on ability and take the best players available, regardless of whether it's a college shortstop or a high school right-handed pitcher.

"From our perspective, we don't want to pass on talent."

* Did not have a first-round pick

Under previous general manager J.P. Ricciardi, the Blue Jays leaned heavily toward collegiate arms in the Draft. On Monday, Toronto used the 11th overall selection on Georgia Tech pitcher Deck McGuire and the 41st pick on Asher Wojciechowski of The Citadel, showing that college arms still hold value.

Sandwiched in between those two selections were Sanchez (34th overall) and Syndergaard (38th overall), though. Those picks can be attributed to Toronto's shift in Draft philosophy, but Tinnish also pointed out that this year's crop of players included some talented prep stars. The signing deadline for all draftees this year is August 16.

"Every year has its strengths and weaknesses," Tinnish said. "This year, for me, I think it's pitching heavy, especially at the high school level."

Sanchez -- a 17-year-old out of Barstow High School in California -- has a commitment to the University of Oregon that could potentially play a role in his signability. That did not stop the Blue Jays from selecting the young right-hander, though, especially considering his repertoire.

The 6-foot-4, 190-pound Sanchez has a fastball that hits around 93 mph and has some natural sink to it. He also features a curveball and an occasional changeup. Sanchez -- an AFLAC All-American -- was ranked 59th overall in the pre-Draft rankings by Baseball America.

The Blue Jays earned the right to select Sanchez with the 34th pick, as compensation for shortstop Marco Scutaro signing with the Red Sox as a free agent in the offseason. Toronto will also receive a second-round pick (80th overall) as additional compensation for Scutaro.

Toronto received the 38th pick in this June's Draft as compensation for failing to sign left-hander James Paxton, after picking him 37th overall in the Draft a year ago. This time around, the Jays used the pick on Syndergaard.

Syndergaard, 17, is a product of Legacy High School in Texas. The 6-foot-5, 200-pound right-hander finished 7-3 with a 1.42 ERA and 85 strikeouts in 59 innings this season. Syndergaard was not among Baseball America's top 200 prospects heading into the Draft.

If that sounds risky, that is fine with the Blue Jays.

"The way we look at," Tinnish said, "we'll take a risk on a player that we feel has a chance to be a star."

Jordan Bastian is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Possum Philosophy: My buddy Marv - Southwest Virginia Today

Posted: 11 Jun 2010 02:21 PM PDT

Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

By ROBERT "ROCKY" CAHILL/Columnist

"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked."
~ Bernard Meltzer, a radio commentator for an advice talk show for many decades.

Charles Vernon Little was a true friend of mine. He was better known to his many buddies as Marv after his dad, Marvin Little (a really good guy in his own right). 
There are people you meet that you can remember the exact date, perhaps even the time that you met. There are friends that you remember when you met, maybe not the time, maybe not the date, but you remember the circumstances of your meeting.
Then there are old friends. Friends that you have had so long you don't remember meeting them. Friends that are more like family, they've always been there. Sure you may not see them every day. You may not see them more than a few times a year. But when you do see them, you just pick up where you left off, as if there had been little or no time-lapse.
Oh, you might spend a few minutes catching up. How's the family? How's work? That kind of stuff. But in just a few moments you are laughing about some dumb stunt one or the other of you pulled. Maybe some joke you pulled on a mutual friend. But it's mostly about the good times and the fun you've had together. And on some level, even though neither of you mention it, you know that, no matter what, no matter how much time has passed since you last met, the bond of friendship still holds tight. As they say these days, you know you have each other's back.
That's the way it was with Marv and me. In fact, that's the way it was with most all of Marv's friends. He was just that kind of guy. We might go nearly a year without seeing each other, but in five minutes or so, we were back laughing like a couple of old fools over some of the stunts we had pulled or situations we found ourselves in as kids.
Marv was one heck of a good mechanic. He had a weakness as did several of us for raggedy old cars, especially those made by Studebaker. But he could work on any of them. Make them run like a top too. He was easy going and I'd bet very few people who ever met him did not like him. He was the kind of guy you just automatically started thinking of as your buddy.
I don't think I could begin to count the many good times we had. Some of my fondest days were during our teenage years when we were all members of the Methodist Youth Fellowship, or MYF as it was called. We traveled often in a 1959 Chevrolet station wagon that belonged to Charles's dad. It was a huge gray wagon that we naturally nicknamed the Marvel-Wagon in honor of big Marv and our buddy Marv. Those were glorious days of a bunch of country boys going through that teen-age thing, not exactly boys but a long way from being men. 
I've been sitting here all morning scanning the old memory banks, in my head not my hard drive. Thinking of all the things I remember about Marv. It's strange the things that popped into mind. I remember when his youngest sister Martha was born. His mom had just gotten home from the hospital. Marv and I had been goofing around playing when she got home. He drug me in to see his new sister. He was as tickled as if his mom had just brought him a pet monkey or something.
I remembered his first (I think) car, a 1960 or so Studebaker convertible. He had financed it at the local bank. It was a pretty good little car, good looking, kind of cool in its own way. I remember that it seemed to break down periodically. As a matter of fact, for the first six months or so, each time his car payment was due, the old 'Baker was incapacitated, and Marv ended up walking to the bank to make the payment on it, something that did not make him a happy boy.
But I think one of the fondest memories of all came after we got out of high school. The movie The Night of the Living Dead was making the rounds of the drive-ins. This alone dates it, the fact that there were several drive-ins still playing in the area.
I ran into Marv one Saturday evening, and neither of us had a date. All our other buddies were out doing who knows what. So Marv and I decided to go see the movie. Now for those days it had pretty darn good special effects—lots of blood, guts and gore, with zombies eating regular folks and such. Like I said, pretty advanced horror effects for the time.
Marv had a little Maverick Grabber, a cool little orange car with decent power for its size.  We pulled in to the Moonlight Drive-In in Abingdon. A car load of teen-age boys pulled up on one side of us, a car load of teen-age girls parked on the opposite side. They immediately swapped over half and half and started doing what all parents fear teen-age boys and girls do at a drive-in.
Meanwhile the movie got louder and gorier. Finally, Marv looked over at me, grinned and asked, "Think we ought to slide down in the seat and act like we're makin' out so we won't have to watch the rest of this gory (expletive deleted)?" That was typical of Marv's sense of humor, dry, wry and hilarious.
Charles Vernon Little left us this week. I have to believe he has gone to a better place. He's a good friend and more importantly, a good person. I'm betting his best buddy, his faithful companion for many years, his old dog, Dawg, was there waiting to greet him. I hope so. They both deserve the old proverbial "better home up there," and I know they will be so happy to see each other. Rest in peace my friend. Rest in peace. You earned it by being a good person down here. We shall miss you terribly.

A freelance journalist, Robert "Rocky" Cahill writes regularly for the News & Messenger. His Possum Philosophy column appears in each Saturday edition. 

Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Posted by at

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)