Growing up on the potholed streets of Chicago my local seafearing experience was limited to Gordon Lightfoot educating me about the Edmund Fitzgerald through song and the occasional showing of "Moby Dick" on Family Classics with Frazier Thomas (look it up). So maybe the upcoming Chicago Maritime Festival is meant for people like me.
At the upcoming annual event, slated for this Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., at the Chicago History Museum (Clark Street and North Avenue), members of the Chicago Maritime Society (and admit it, you didn't know we had a maritime society, did you?) will attempt to education landlubbers such as us about the city's rich maritime history through demonstrations, songs and historical artifacts. Look for life raft demonstrations, songs and model boat-building for kids, maritime art and knot tying demonstrations. A separate evening concert (7 to 10:30 p.m.) will feature maritime singers from both sides of the Atlantic. Also expected to be on hand is Bill Pickney, Chicagoan and the first African-American to sail solo around the world.
Tickets are $10 for the daytime activities (10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) and $20 for the evening concert. An all-day ticket is $25 and kids 12 and under get in free to the daytime activities.
It's a relatively safe way to get the entire Great Lakes seafearing experience and the only pirates you'll have to contend with will probably be of the Lincoln Park variety.
Covered in Mud, Beer and Blood, the Pony Shop tends to Chicagoland's Cyclocross Grass Roots
The bastard cycling discipline of cyclocross is a strange subculture of sport. A hybrid of road and mountain biking, with cross-country running tossed in and stirred well, cyclocross is a mutant and is equally fun, humiliating and painful. Short races of a mile or so, usually held in a municipal park, cyclocross racers must ride at full-tilt through mud, grass and short pavement sections, occasionally dismounting to hop over barriers or run up a steep pitch.
The races are short, an hour for those at the top of the sport, less for mere mortals, and the competition is fierce. At the start of a race, cyclists fighting for position through the first winding chicanes push each other out of the way, bump shoulders and, more often than not, come crashing down with those caught behind piling atop. Usually, everyone comes out bruised but back on the bike, teeth bared and clenched as they struggle through lap after agonizing lap.
For northern Europeans, the popularity of cyclocross is similar to how football is here in the States: their Super Bowl, the World Championships, draws tens of thousands to spectate, eat hot, steaming frites, and drink tall steins of beer. Cyclocross there is a religion - a Sunday cult that waits 'til everyone is out of church before starting with the sinning.
In America, though, the sport is underground, legitimized by increasing popularity, but still retains a certain scurrilous ethos. The cost of entry into racing is low - a modified mountain or commuter bike will suffice for racing in the lower categories. Cyclocross is spectator friendly - and it encourages spectator participation. Races everywhere have that corner, where spectators mingle with racers, usually imbibed if their own race for the day is done, and where all scream encouragements at and high-five passing teammates, friends and complete strangers.
Sure, a few of you are dreading the thought of spending the Thanksgiving holiday with relatives, what with the sibling rivalry and the parental guilt-trips and that childhood angst rearing its ugly head again. Not even a decent football game on the tube can whitewash over that one. But just be thankful. It could be worse. You could be spending Thanksgiving with "Da Coach". The members of the (underrated) Sports Action Team did just that with some pretty funny results. Mike Ditka enjoying his holiday meal his the bathroom is priceless.
When it comes to the gaming community, it's been mostly a man's (fantasy) world.
From the early days of the breakout cult phenomenon "Dungeons and Dragons" of the '70s to the testosterone-drippingly-titled video game "SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 2" of today, gaming for the most part has been a old boys network, from the participants to most of the main characters in the games themselves. While male characters got to do the whole slash-and-burn thing as wizards, warriors, mercenaries, etc., female characters were relegated to damsel-in-distress mode.
But despite the overabundance of XY chromosomes huddled around the 12-sided dice, women managed to find their way into this exclusive world, although it was not without difficulty. One female enthusiast recalls attending the first meeting of a role-playing club in high school, greeted by a sea of puzzled male adolescent eyes as she entered the room and being informed that "The honor society meets down the hall." She was the only female member for the entire first year.
Flash forward to today when, according to one survey, more than 26 percent of all gamers are female. And not all of them are trying to get in a quick round of "Final Fantasy" between classes either. With "World of Warcraft", for instance, the average age of female players is 32.
The good news: Carlos Quinten's cast has been removed. The bad news: They're not rushing him back.
Ok, so Kosuke Fukudome didn't exactly set the Chicago baseball world on fire. There could be another Japanese baseball star trying to make his mark at Wrigley Field next season.
They haven't had their first match yet, but the Chicago Red Stars already look like the team to beat, thanks to three new additions to their roster.
A survey says nearly every kid plays video games. Will the Jumbotrons of today be the playing fields of tomorrow?
Apparently he wasn't punched enough the first time. A local boxing promoter is returning to action IN the ring.
In case you missed it, the Chicago Open crowned a squash champion recently.
The Chicago Storm joined the four-team Xtreme Soccer League. You know it's wild because they spell it "Xtreme".
No, we didn't expect the Bears to beat the Colts last Sunday night either. But if they're going to build on that, there are three things they must do to beat the Carolina Panthers this Sunday.
Even if they don't win the game, the Bears are still scoring touchdowns at the bank.
Arguing over who gets the last drumstick is one thing. But a Cubs-White Sox World Series could drive one family nuts.
REALLY old school White Sox fans will mourn the death of former manager Don Gutteridge.
Current White Sox star Carlos Quentin hopes to be healthy by the playoffs. Question is: will he be playing or watching?
Patrick Kane and Jonathan Towes, the Blackhawks' Teen Titans (OK, they're not really teens but it's not far off) get some more (inter)national publicity.
From Kansas City to Chicago on a bike: Are gas prices THAT high?
The marathon gold-medalist from this year's Olympics, Constantina Tomescu-Dita of Romania has joined the field (pdf) of runners for the 2008 Chicago marathon. Hopefully, we'll have better weather this year.
The Sky take on the New York Liberty in their next-to-last game of their WNBA regular season.
Chicago teams finished third, fourth and fifth in the 2008 North American Gay Amateur Athletic Association Gay Softball World Series.
You're in Lisle. You're riding your bike. You have a hankering to see a play. What are you going to do?
It's not a stretch to say that Nike probably owes their corporate life to Michael Jordan. True, the Oregon-based company was around long before Jordan was JORDAN. But they didn't become the No. 1 selling brand of athletic shoe in the world thanks to the silhouette of Steve Prefontaine or Bo Jackson on the side of their footwear.
And while there have been other athletic shoes named after famous ballplayers, did anyone really buy Converse All-Stars because Chuck Taylor endorsed them? Heck, wearing a pair of Joe Lapchick's was considered a good excuse for a beat down in my neighborhood. He might have been a great player in his day, but as a shoe pitchman he lacked the cachet of the kid from North Carolina.
Even though MJ left the court for good in 2003, his departure hasn't affected the popularity of the shoes, which continue to be produced and sold in as many variations as possible. How enduring in the Cult of Air Jordan? Consider that a movie is currently being filmed, not about Jordan the Man, but Jordan the Shoe.
It’s Earth Day! But you knew that, right? I mean you’ve already loaded your old newspapers in your electric car and driven them to the recycling plant while sipping on an organic smoothie in a reusable beverage container, correct?
Me, I’m not so “green” (despite my last name). True, I ride the bus rather than drive (mostly because gas is through the freaking roof). And I download music rather than buy wasteful CDs (too lazy to go to the store). And I keep the lights in my apartment off as much as possible (again, ‘cause I’m cheap). But when it comes to conscious acts of conservation, I’m kinda lax. Fire up the charcoal grill and throw a couple of steaks on that baby!
But that doesn’t stop me from suggesting to others how they can help our environment. Do as I say, not as I do: that’s how I roll. So with that in mind, and seeing how this is supposed to be a sports-related column, I offer the following Earth Day suggestions to some of our local sports entities who, many times, can be accused of being less than friendly to the environment because they’re always stinking up the joint (ba-DUM-bum…Thank you, I’ll be here all the week…).
You want it to mean something more. You want it to be some sort of signal that things are changing, that there is hope, that we have reached a turning point and people will see that things can be different.
You know it probably won’t change things, cynic that you are. That it will take something other than a basketball game, even an NCAA title game, to stem the tide of violence and murder. Still, you kinda hope.
When former Crane star Sherron Collins met former Simeon star Derrick Rose on the court in the NCAA finals Monday night, it was possibly the only bright spot for the Chicago Public Schools in quite some time, a bright spot that they sorely needed. Suffice to say, it’s been a rough year.
The bastard cycling discipline of cyclocross is a strange subculture of sport. A hybrid of road and mountain biking, with cross-country running tossed in and stirred well, cyclocross is a mutant and is equally fun, humiliating and painful. Short races of a mile or so, usually held in a municipal park, cyclocross racers must ride at full-tilt through mud, grass and short pavement sections, occasionally dismounting to hop over barriers or run up a steep pitch. 
