Sam Zell said yesterday that he'd be down with selling the naming rights to Wrigley. Which isn't news exactly. He's been saying that for a while. But he said it again and louder. more ›

Cubs third baseman Aramis Remirez finally arrived at Spring Training on Tuesday, but when asked by reporters what he did on his winter vacation, he refused to answer. In fact, he wouldn't even allow for the reporter to finish asking the question. more ›

Last week the English Premier League announced its intention to play some regular season matches abroad. In previous years, international club teams have found financial success by coming to the United States to play some pre- and post-season friendlies with other international powerhouse clubs or local Major League Soccer clubs. more ›

It wasn't all about roasting pigs out in the 'burbs this week: more ›

Since 1940, two Major League Baseball teams have been honored each year with an invitation to play in the Hall of Fame Game -- an in-season exhibition game held in Cooperstown, New York. But because of the increasing complexity of fitting the "off day" game into teams' schedules, the 2008 game will be the final one. more ›

When Chicagoist was in high school, we knew that "Drug Free and Proud" banner hanging above the main entrance was a joke when we could smell the weed classmates had smoked at lunch. more ›

Major League Baseball's annual election results will be announced today, and a couple of former Chicago players hope to cross the magic threshold from paying customers to inductees in Cooperstown. Voted on by the Baseball Writers of America, players become eligible five years after retiring and must receive votes on 75 percent of ballots. more ›

When Carlos Zambrano, Derrek Lee and Kosuke Fokodume receive their first paychecks of the 2008 seasons, there will be a signature on them. Whose it'll be, nobody knows. That's because current Cubs owner Sam Zell vows to close a deal on the sale of the Cubs by Opening Day. more ›

The Chicago Fire have confirmed that Head Coach Juan Carlos Osorio has resigned and is headed to the New York Red Bulls for the 2008 season. Osorio, who joined the Fire mid-season last year, was just the third head coach in the franchise history. Osorio cited "personal, family reasons" that led to his decision to depart the Fire before his contract ended. It had been rumored that his wife was unhappy in Chicago and prefers... more ›

Okay, we had so much fun with yesterday's things that were awesome, we figured we'd bust out another list for today. Plus there's a boatload of terrific stuff. Today in awesome: more ›

The Chicago Fire's Chris Armas officially announced his retirement today, concluding a 12-year career in Major League Soccer. Armas, who had said at the beginning of the season that he intended to retire, played his final match in the play-off loss to the New England Revolution last Thursday. Armas played with the Los Angeles Galaxy in the league's inaugural season and in 1997 before coming to the Chicago Fire when the league expanded in 1998.... more ›

Two of Major League Soccer's Most Valuable Player finalists will meet on the pitch tonight in a winner-plays-on playoff game. The Chicago Fire hold a single goal advantage in the two-game series that is based on aggregate scoring. The two league MVP candidates are sure to play important roles in the game. The Fire will look to the leadership of team MVP Cuauhtémoc Blanco to help them knock off DC United, who finished the 2007... more ›

The Chicago Fire clinched a playoff spot in their final regular season match of the year, defeating the Los Angeles Galaxy 1-0 in front a record-breaking 21,374 fans at Toyota Park. Right from the start, the Fire was clearly the hungrier squad. They nearly scored in the opening minute and continued to dominate play through the first half with successive shots on Los Angeles Galaxy goalkeeper Joe Cannon. A combination of some great saves... more ›

Neither the Los Angeles Galaxy nor the Chicago Fire have lost in their last seven games. Their recent successes have helped make up for poor starts and given them both a chance to earn the final playoff spot this afternoon in the Major League Soccer regular-season finale. The Fire advance to the post-season with a win or a tie, but the Galaxy need a victory to advance. The game will feature two of Major League... more ›

Now that baseball fans on both sides of town are officially "waiting until next year," we take great interest in Major League Baseball's tentative 2008 schedule. more ›

Anyone know how to get in contact with the bureau of made-up statistics? 'Cause we want to know how much the Chicago economy is going to be harmed by lost productivity due to the Cubs' first two playoff games. more ›

Only four of the thirteen Major League Soccer teams took advantage of Major League Soccer's new Designated Player Rule, made most famous by the signing of David Beckham by the Los Angeles Galaxy, signing a total of five players. This weekend, arguably the two most impactful designated players, Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Juan Pablo Angel, will match up at Toyota Park. Blanco has played just seven games but has helped the Fire to earn 13 points... more ›

Chicago Fire Forward Cuauhtémoc Blanco proved that David Beckham is not the only recent Major League Soccer acquisition that can be deadly accurate on free kicks. Kansas City came into Toyota Park after their midweek 3-2 victory over the Fire and dominated the first half of play, heavily out shooting the Fire. Just before the halftime break Fire midfielder Ivan Guerrero was tripped up just outside the Kansas City penalty area resulting in a... more ›

The Chicago Fire used their recent acquisitions to propel themselves to a 2-0 victory over Real Salt Lake. The Fire knew going into Saturday's game that it was important for them to earn 3 points for a victory against the league worst Real Salt Lake (2-10-6 12 pts.). After a less than impressive first 40, minutes Cuauhtémoc Blanco was in the right place at the right time to hit a cracker of a volley that... more ›

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,... more ›

The Chicago Fire may have found a spark in Cuauhtemoc Blanco that Chicagoist hopes helps the club ignite a run to the playoffs. The Mexican star made his debut with the Fire on Sunday when the team played an international friendly with Celtic FC of the Scottish Premier League. Blanco marked his debut with a beautiful goal in the 30th minute and continued to entertain the crowd with cheeky back heel passes and deft touches... more ›

Between Jeanne Zelasko, Kevin Kennedy, Tim McCarver, the miked bases and all the other bells and whistles, we try to forget Fox broadcasts Major League Basebell. But when we're tipped to a clip like this, we need to share it. Via Best Week Ever, here is Cubs pitcher Rich Hill announcing the starting lineup for Saturday's game against the Astros. Not content to just run through the lineup, Hill gets his natural clown on... more ›

The Chicago Fire have named Juan Carlos Osorio as the third head coach in their history. Osorio leaves Colombian club Millonarios to join the Fire mid-season. Prior to Millonarios, Osorio was an assistant manager for Manchester City in the English Premier League. He also was an assistant coach and conditioning coach for the New York Metrostars of Major League Soccer for several seasons at the same time Fire President/CEO John Guppy was serving as V.P.... more ›

Major League Baseball announced the rosters for the July 10 All-Star Game being held in San Francisco. Chicago baseball fans will see at least three of our local guys in the game. Given the White Sox sub par season, it's not surprising that they have only one All-Star this year -- the minimum representation any team gets. Closer Bobby Jenks will be the lone Sox player on the Americal League roster this year. Quite a... more ›

It was a great atmosphere in Chicago this weekend for soccer fans. The Chicago Fire won an international friendly over MKS Cracovia on Friday night at Toyota Park. Saturday night, Chicagoist visited the Globe Pub where we found United States National Team supporters who had traveled from both coasts for the Gold Cup final. They joined together singing soccer songs while taking in Major League Soccer action via satellite feed. The U.S. fans found themselves... more ›

We really didn't think the White Sox would be out of the playoff hunt so early -- certainly not before the All Star Break. But Chicagoist has finally realized that this team's not going anywhere this year and GM Kenny Williams is likely laundering that white flag just about now so it's ready when needed. Which could be any day now. more ›

With the Cubs' season rapidly spiraling out of control, all hell broke lose at the formerly "friendly confines," beginning with Friday's matinee. Unable to beat their opponents of late -- and perhaps too used to beating themselves on the field -- the Cubs began beating on each other instead. Television cameras captured for all to see, a fight between pitcher Carlos Zambrano and catcher Michael Barrett in the Cubs dugout following a rough inning that... more ›

Lacrosse Fans should head out to Toyota Park this Saturday to catch some Illinois High School Lacrosse action in addition to checking out the professionals of the Chicago Machine. The first game on the docket Saturday is a match-up of Grayslake and Fenwick at 2pm in the Lacrosse Cup Final, featuring finalists from the Illinois Class B tournament. Directly after that match at 4pm will be the Class A Illinois State Championship game. Since 2002... more ›

The Fire will be looking for a win tonight when they return home after dropping the last two of a three game road run. The Fire helped make history in their last match, but not the good kind, when they became the first franchise to be scored upon by expansion franchise Toronto FC and then went on to be the first team to lose to the Canadian club. The Fire host FC Dallas in tonight's... more ›

In light of the death of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock, who was driving drunk at the time of his fatal accident, many baseball teams have re-addressed their alcohol policies for players. The Cards were the first team to ban alcohol from their clubhouse in the wake of this tragedy, with the Nationals following suit. The Yankees, who already banned alcohol in the home locker room, have now banned it in the visitors' locker... more ›