Wisch List

Friday’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) In June 2010, I was walking to my gym in Chicago when I spotted a vanity plate on a BMW parked in the lot outside. It read: “CHI TWN” – on a Nebraska plate.

A moment later, the car’s owner – a Chicagoan now living in Omaha – walked up to the car and said to me about the plate, “When I applied for it, they asked me at the DMV, ‘What’s Shy Twin?’

“I was like, oh, jeez.”

Three years later, having since joined the Big Ten headquartered in Shy Twin, er … Chicago, Nebraskans have likely gotten much more familiar with their Midwestern neighbors to the east, from the Windy City to Madison to Columbus.

But not Champaign, a place the Cornhuskers football team still won’t visit as a Big Ten member until 2014. On the flip side Illinoisans have also been missing out on a chance to visit the other Memorial Stadium in Lincoln for a football game – until this weekend, that is.

Yes, two years after Nebraska officially entered the Big Ten, Illinois is finally officially entering Nebraska. And I’m looking forward to being in attendance on Saturday morning when the Illini (3-1) open the conference season against the Huskers (3-1).

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

Today’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) Last season was a pleasant surprise. Next season looks to be promising. But what exactly would you call this season for the University of Illinois basketball team?

A mystery, I suppose.

Although, by March, I still suspect that the Illini’s 2013-14 campaign could turn out to be a solid whodunit, again filled with some unexpected twists. That’s even though Illinois’ immediate fortunes took a turn for the worse on Tuesday when the NCAA announced that it had ruled Oregon State transfer Ahmad Starks ineligible for this season.

The 5-foot-9 Whitney Young product, who spent three years as a starter at guard for the Beavers, transferred to Illinois to be closer to his ailing grandmother in Chicago and had applied for a hardship waiver to be eligible immediately.

“I thought his case was very, very valid,” Illini coach John Groce said on Wednesday. “We were really disappointed.”

Fans should be too, considering how Starks, who averaged 10.4 points per game and shot 40 percent on three-pointers as a junior last season, was expected to be an immediate key backcourt contributor for Illinois. To be sure, his loss is a blow for the team, but I don’t think it sinks the Illini’s season.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

Tuesday’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) On Monday when explaining the reasons behind his dismissal of Dale Sveum as manager of the Chicago Cubs, team president Theo Epstein spoke of youth. And then he spoke of love.

But he didn’t mention romance, which is of course AWOL at Wrigley Field after 197 soul-crushing losses over the past two utterly joyless seasons.

“We’re at a critical point in our building process,” Epstein said amidst the rubble of the 2013 campaign. “There has to be tough love, but there has to be love before there’s tough love. You have to be patient with them. There has to be a clear, unified message. You can’t be getting different signals from different directions. And collectively – myself included – we failed to provide that.”

OK, so does that mean you’re actually going to provide it now, Theo?

This morning, Chicago Tribune beat writer Mark Gonzales explained that while Epstein did not cite specific examples of his now former manager’s shortcomings, “it was apparent Cubs brass took issue with Sveum’s handling of shortstop Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo in the wake of their struggles.”

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

From the Saturday, Sept. 29, editions of The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.) and The Times (Ottawa, Ill.) …

The WISCH LIST

By Dave Wischnowsky

I love the Central Time Zone.

Prime time starts at 7. The nightly news comes on at 10. NFL games kick off at noon.

Perfect.

To me, the timing of our zone just feels right, unlike, say, the Pacific (where college football games begin airing before breakfast) or, even worse, the awful Eastern (where World Series games can last until after midnight).

Heck, it gets late so early out east that I don’t know how everyone living there isn’t the Walking Dead. After all, even through Leno and Letterman air an hour later there than here, it’s not as if New Yorkers and Bostonians get to start work an hour later in the morning too. Sleep-deprivation in the east has to be like cabs in Manhattan. Everywhere.

So, yes, I love the Central Time Zone.

And so too does a unique seven-month-old dining spot in Chicago’s River North neighborhood that devotes its entire existence to honoring all things Central Time Zone.

Fittingly named Central Standard, the idea for the bar and restaurant is about time. And it’s about more than that too.

Everything inside the sprawling 10,000-square-foot space at 169 W. Kinzie St. is an homage to the CST (or, you know, CDT depending on the time of year). From the décor to the drink list to the menu to its ingredients, it all hails from the Central Time Zone, a region that includes all or part of 20 U.S. states, as well as swaths of Canada and Mexico.

Continue reading “Chicago’s Central Standard offers a great time to dine”

Thursday’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) In some cities, they talk about magic numbers this time of the year.

But in Chicago, circa 2013, the only ones we know are tragic ones.

And we’re rapidly closing in on a particularly ignominious numeral.

Back in June, I first wrote about how the Cubs and White Sox looked like they might achieve a record season in 2013 – for combined losses. At that time, back on June 21, both ball clubs were mired in last place (just like they still are today) and were on pace to drop 95 games apiece.

Their projected total of 190 losses at that point put the teams within very close striking distance of matching – or topping – the record 191 defeats that the Cubs and Sox combined for way back in 1948.

Flash forward to Aug. 22, when I last revisited the state of baseball in our fair (or foul) city. On that date, the Cubs were on pace for 93 losses, while the Sox were on pace to drop 96. That total added up to 189 combined defeats, which put Chicago baseball in better overall shape than it was in late June – although by just one paltry game.

Well, as it turns out, the Cubs and Sox have picked things up since then. On Tuesday, the Cubs notched their 93rd loss, while the White Sox hit No. 96 on Wednesday with their 7-2 defeat at the hands of Cleveland. That means, with seven games left to play (four for the Sox, three for the Cubs), the teams already have totaled 189 losses.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

Today’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) Does Chicago owe Derrick Rose an apology?

On Monday, in his column at bulls.com, Sam Smith posed that question. But I think I have an even more relevant one to ask about Rose:

Have you forgiven him yet?

On Friday, the Chicago Bulls will open their 2013-14 training camp. The team will be hoping to build upon last season’s surprising-but-controversial campaign during which the Bulls went further in the playoffs than most expected – but also went far longer without their franchise point guard than most expected, as well.

Derrick Rose hasn’t donned a Bulls uniform for a game since tearing his ACL on April 28, 2012. After the injury, the point guard was given a recovery timetable of 8-12 months, and on Jan. 31 started taking full contact in practice. On March 9, Rose was cleared by doctors to return to game action, but as everyone in Chicago knows, he did not, and ultimately the Bulls fell to eventual NBA champion Miami in the second round.

At the time, Rose explained about his decision to sit out that he just didn’t “feel” right yet and admitted that his reluctance to play was mental, not physical.

That distinction set much of the Bulls’ fan base against Rose, many of whom seemed willing to cut off their nose to spite the face of the franchise. Among those was one of my Twitter followers, who said that if Rose didn’t play against the Heat and that New Orleans offered guard Eric Gordon and two first-round picks for the Bulls superstar, he’d consider it.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

From the Saturday, Sept. 21, editions of The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.) and The Times (Ottawa, Ill.) …

The WISCH LIST

By Dave Wischnowsky

The University of Illinois has an enrollment problem.

And I have a problem with the university’s enrollment.

But I also have an enrollment solution.

Or, at the very least, I have something that the administration at my alma mater should seriously be considering in regards to the declining number of in-state freshmen entering in our state’s flagship university.

Last week, the Chicago Tribune reported that the percentage of in-state students making up this year’s freshman class at U. of I. has dropped to a new low, with only about 73 percent coming from Illinois, and only 76 percent of all undergrads hailing from the Land of Lincoln. Less than a decade ago, 90 percent of freshmen were from Illinois.

For years, the university has justified the shifts by arguing that the funding provided by higher-tuition out-of-state and international students is crucial and that their presence also adds valuable diversity to the campus.

However, last week, even admissions director Stacey Kostell told the Tribune that 73 percent of freshmen is less than the school wanted and is due to more international students accepting offers of admission than expected along with the smallest-ever percentage of Illinois applicants accepting offers. Kostell said that’s “something we are concerned about.”

I am too. Because, while 90 percent is high, I believe that the state-funded university should have at least 80 percent of its undergrads from Illinois.

Now, mind you, I’m not at all against U. of I. enrolling considerably more international and out-of-state students than when I was there from 1994-98. With our state’s budget woes, the school by all means should recruit such students, take advantage of their higher tuition payments and then have them spread the word about Illinois far and wide.

But since this trend began, I’ve argued that out-of-state and international students should not be enrolled in place of qualified in-state students. Rather, they should be in addition to them.

Continue reading “My solution to U. of I.’s in-state enrollment problem”

Today’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) With 190 losses (and counting) in two seasons, the Cubs are a hot mess. And now, their manager is apparently on the hot seat.

Although, my burning question about Chicago’s Less-and-Less Lovable Losers has little to do with their manager and more about when they plan to start fielding a roster that’s actually respectable instead of simply wretched.

Earlier this week, Cubs team president Theo Epstein started tongues wagging – and tweets tweeting – when he refused to confirm whether he planned to bring back Dale Sveum as the team’s skipper for 2014, speaking instead about an “evaluation process” that apparently isn’t done.

Even though the Cubs clearly are.

The speculation prompted Sun-Times beat writer Gordon Wittenmyer to write today, “Could the Cubs be making a play for the Yankees’ Joe Girardi to be their new manager – or Minnesota’s Ron Gardenhire? And what about Texas pitching coach Mike Maddux, who declined because of family issues when Theo Epstein tried to hire him two years ago?”

As the losses have piled up (again) this season, some critics have jumped on Sveum about his game decisions, whether they involve his bullpen, his bench, or both. Others have blamed him for the lack of progress – I’d call it regress – from so-called cornerstones Starlin Castro (.242 average) and Anthony Rizzo (.226 average).

All those gripes very well might be valid, and it’s entirely possible that that Dale Sveum isn’t the right manager for the Cubs. Maybe he doesn’t deserve to be back in 2014. It’s really hard to fully judge the guy because, unless the Cubs change up their game plan and start giving their manager more to work with – whoever he is – it simply won’t matter who’s in charge.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

Tuesday’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) Losing isn’t fun.

However, with that said, the way that Illinoislost to Washington at Soldier Field on Saturday was more enjoyable than pretty much the entirety of the 2012 football season.

Against the Huskies, the Illini competed. They rallied. And they didn’t embarrass themselves in a 34-24 decision that, not insignificantly, was 22 points closer than the 38-6 thumping that nationally ranked Washington put on perennial powerhouse Boise State two weeks prior.

In Illini Nation – or at least in Tim Beckman County – that’s progress.

But perhaps the most progressive aspect of the Illini’s “Chicago Homecoming” on Saturday was how, after long last, Illinois footballfinally made an effort to truly connect with the Windy City. That hasn’t happened since my freshman year at Illinois – way back in 1994 – when the Illini opened the season with a 10-9 loss to Washington State at Soldier Field.

And it had better not be 19 years before Illinois comes back again.

“Overall, this was a pleasant experience, a great idea to play at Soldier Field,” Beckman said on Saturday night after a crowd of 47,312 showed up for the game. “The fans got really loud in the fourth quarter.”

It was also pleasant that the scrappy Illini actually gave them a reason to stick around, making things interesting late. And now Illinois needs to give the fans a chance to return to Chicago. The game’s turnout at Soldier Field might have been thin at kickoff (hey, tailgating is fun) and far from a capacity crowd at the 61,500-seat stadium, but it was still better than anticipated for a team coming off a 2-10 season.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

From the Saturday, Sept. 14, editions of The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.) and The Times (Ottawa, Ill.) …

The WISCH LIST

By Dave Wischnowsky

You already know that it ends in the Emerald City, but what you might not know about the Yellow Brick Road is that it actually began in the Windy one.

And later this month, “The Wizard of Oz” will again blow through Chicagoland (no tornadoes required) as the beloved film kicks off its 75th anniversary celebration with a limited run in 3D IMAX from Sept. 20-26.

Starring Judy Garland and a cast of wildly colorful characters, “The Wizard of Oz” actually premiered just under 76 years ago on Aug. 25, 1939. But apparently Warner Bros. simply can’t wait to get the anniversary party started with this month’s IMAX rollout and a collector’s Blu-ray 3D home edition of “The Wizard of Oz” that’s set to hit stores in October.

For information about where and when you can see the Wizard on a nearby big screen, simply visit IMAX.com. But for details about Oz’s Chicago roots and those of its creator, L. Frank Baum, simply read on.

Continue reading “For ‘Oz,’ there’s no place like Sweet Home Chicago”