Dan McGrath

Leo Track Running Despite Hurdles

Mon, 02/27/2012
In sports, it’s about numbers. Leo High School won their latest track and field state title last May by one point. This marked the school’s sixth state championship. When Leo won its first state title in 1981, it became the first Catholic school to take the top trophy in track and field, and no other Catholic school in Illinois has done that...

McGrath: 20 Years of Sports Radio

Fri, 01/27/2012
Sports talk radio was a phenomenon fairly new to Chicago the first time I heard it here. I was visiting from California, taking my daughter to college on a trip that included a two-hour drive from Chicago. I came upon WSCR — “the Score” — while punching the buttons in a rental car and heard a boisterous guy later identified as Mike North...

McGrath: As Rose Goes, So Do the Bulls

Sun, 01/15/2012
It’s clear the Bulls have re-established themselves as a team worthy of Chicago’s attention, because the city’s ever-twitchy fans are worried about them. Derrick Rose is playing too many minutes and is certain to wear down with so many games compressed into a tight schedule, a consequence of time lost to the N.B.A. lockout. There is no reliable...

A Small Step at DePaul

Mon, 01/09/2012
No conference has experienced more upheaval from the continuing realignment in college sports than the Big East, despite its unquestioned stature as a basketball kingpin. The iconic league that Dave Gavitt invented (and ESPN nurtured) to feed the fervor for college hoops in the populous Northeast Corridor will be unrecognizable in a year or so,...

McGrath: What About Cubbie Occurrences?

Fri, 11/11/2011
Pete Mackanin is a smart guy. He has to be if he graduated from Brother Rice High School, a South Side citadel of learning where several scholars I know first embarked on the path to true knowledge. Mackanin, a self-described “young 60” after 43 years in pro baseball, looked the part during last week’s visit to Wrigley Field: trim physique, nicely...

McGrath: The New Look Bears

Tue, 11/08/2011
All that what’s-wrong-with-the-Bears grumbling that swept Chicago during the first month of the NFL season? Put it to rest. The Bears announced their presence as a playoff contender Monday night—loudly—with a quality win over a quality opponent in a hostile venue. A 30-24 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field was the...

McGrath: Curbing the Epstein Enthusiasm

Fri, 10/21/2011
Tom Ricketts has often walked a fine line between clueless and indecisive during his two years in charge of the Cubs, but the Theo Epstein hire is being hailed as a bold and imaginative move, a case of the chairman identifying the best man for a big job and doing whatever it took to land him. Start with the salary — $4 million a year for a general...

McGrath: Bears Rediscover Roots

Sun, 10/02/2011
So that’s what a running back looks like. The Bears were the home base for NFL immortals Red Grange, Gale Sayers and Walter Payton, and coach Lovie Smith has long summed up their offensive philosophy by insisting, “We get off the bus running.” But they had drifted away from that legacy in recent weeks, turning slick runner Matt Forte into a pass...

McGrath: Bartman Got Hosed

Wed, 09/28/2011
Hell had already broken loose by the time I reached the tunnel through which Steve Bartman was being led out of Wrigley Field late in the evening of Oct. 14, 2003. Security guards surrounded the 26-year-old software specialist, but they couldn’t prevent enraged Cub fans from screaming vile insults at him as they pelted him with beer cups, peanuts...

McGrath: So Ends the Ozzie Era

Tue, 09/27/2011
Paul Konerko, the White Sox’s captain and clubhouse statesman, offered an on-the-money take on the team’s future Monday following Ozzie Guillen’s departure after eight years and never a dull moment as Sox manager. “It’s going to be a lot quieter around here, that’s for sure,” Konerko said. A soap opera that had run for more than a year on the...