Illini Go To Paris, Finally Connect With Chicago

Today’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) Jerrance Howard and Wayne McClain didn’t hail from Chicago. Rob Judson, Tim Jankovich and Billy Gillispie weren’t from the city, either. And neither was Jay Price, Chris Lowery or even Tracy Webster, who was raised in south suburban Harvey.

Nope, during the University of Illinois coaching tenures of Bruce Weber and Bill Self – which combined to span 12 seasons – not a single one of their assistant coaches had ever called Chicago home. And the same thing applied to the staff of Lon Kruger, who spent four seasons seated along the Assembly Hall sideline prior to the Self and Weber eras.

Fact is, in order to find an Illini basketball assistant with true, deep ties to the Windy City, one has to blow all the way back in time to 1996, the final year that ace Chicago recruiter Jimmy Collins served as Lou Henson’s right-hand man. Yes, it’s been that long.

Until now, at least.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

Every MLB Team Should Still Have An All-Star

Today’s sports column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) There aren’t any brackets, you won’t find anyone being sent to Dayton for a play-in game, and nobody – not even Bryan LaHair – gets a No. 16 seed.

But Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game and the NCAA Tournament do have at least one thing in common: Every year when selections are announced, we seem to spend as much time arguing about who didn’t get picked as we spend analyzing those who did.

This summer, no exception.

Since the All-Star rosters were unveiled on Sunday, many have been shouting that Jake Peavy and A.J. Pierzynski should have made the American League squad. Others bellow that rookie phenom Bryce Harper deserves to be on the National League team. And Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker even made sure that everyone knows he’s ticked that Brandon Phillips and Johnny Cueto didn’t make the NL roster – even though three other Reds did.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

You’ll find a lot of ‘Little Italy’ in Chicago

This weekend’s newspaper column from The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.) and The TImes (Ottawa, Ill.) …

By Dave Wischnowsky

The WISCH LIST

June 30, 2012

Across the country, you can find “Little Italys” everywhere. On the East Coast, New York has a legendary one. Out west, San Diego has another. Baltimore also has its own neighborhood by that name, and Omaha does, too.

In fact, even tiny Clinton, Ind. – pop. 4,893 – has an annual event called “Little Italy Festival Town” that it’s held over Labor Day weekend every year since 1966.

But, perhaps, no place in America has quite as many “Little Italys” as Chicago does.

Continue reading “You’ll find a lot of ‘Little Italy’ in Chicago”

3,000 Reasons Why The Cubs Shouldn’t Trade Castro

Today’s sports column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) Last week, before Chicago was swallowed whole by the arrival of Rizzanity, Theo Epstein spent a little time chatting with the media about another Cubs youngster.

Some guy named Starlin Castro.

“He hasn’t completely found his groove overall offensively this year,” the Cubs’ president of baseball operations said about Castro, the team’s precocious shortstop whose average has still been hovering around .300 most of the season despite not being groovy.

Epstein’s main topic of discussion about Castro was his patience at the plate – or rather his lack thereof – which led the Cubs’ boss to then add: “With any 22-year-old you start to get riled up, and I think it’s time to step back and look at the age and understand.

“Close your eyes and say ‘What’s this guy going to be like at 27?”

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

Welcome to the new WischList.com

Later this summer, I’ll be celebrating the Wisch List’s 10th birthday, which I suppose means that the little fella should be headed into the 5th grade this fall.

Perhaps I can dig out my old Trapper Keeper.

Back on Aug. 22, 2002, I launched the Wisch List as a general-interest column for the Daily Times in Ottawa, Ill. Since then, it’s produced a book (“Northern IlliNOISE” in 2004), taken me to the big city (I transformed the column into a blog for chicagotribune.com from 2005 to 2007) and back to my roots (the Wisch List now runs as a weekly column in my hometown area newspaper, the Kankakee Daily Journal, and back in Ottawa in the Times).

And this week, the Wisch List’s online incarnation has received its own makeover.

Continue reading “Welcome to the new WischList.com”