When I moved back to Chicago from Atlanta about 2 1/2 years ago, it was primarily to be closer to family. I also wanted to live in a city with more of a “big city” feel, rather than a 4 million person suburb. What I didn’t even realize at the time, was what an incredible city Chicago is during the summer. There is a reason that Chicago has no equivalent of the Hamptons to which everybody escapes for the weekend.
Yesterday was one of those amazing — yet plentiful — days in Chicago during the summer. I began the day meeting my grandfather for breakfast before we walked through the Old Town Art Fair, one of the highest quality art fairs in the country. There wasn’t time to see the Wells St. Art Fair, also in Old Town. While now quite as impressive, it’s still a nice art fair — maybe I’ll hit that today.
After a short mid-afternoon nap, I headed down to Grant Park for Blues Fest, Chicago’s free annual outdoor blues festival.
The music ended at 9:30, perfect timing for those of us at Blues Fest to join a friend at the nearby Chicago Yacht Club, where he was winding down after a day on a friend’s sailboat. What could be nicer that sitting on the deck of a boat with some friends and a few beers? How about watching the Navy Pier Saturday night fireworks from the deck of the boat!
While in some ways yesterday was a unique, amazing day, it’s not that difficult to experience similarly amazing days in this town, with the extensive schedule of city-sponsored events, the hundreds of neighborhood festivals and the city’s parks, marinas and beaches. There truly is no better city in which to spend the summer.
The other day, I pointed out that Chicagoist had launched. I am honored to have joined the crew at Chicagoist, primarily covering sports. While I’ll make damn sure readers of Chicagoist remember there’s a baseball team playing on the South Side, I’ll try my best to give that other team some press, too.
Chicagoist, sibling of Gothamist, offically launched this week. Chicagoist is already off to a great start covering my favorite city.
First the GOOD: Major League baseball players were polled about their favorite road cities, and Chicago was the clear favorite! Of 95 players asked, 35 responded that Chicago was their top city. While at first, one may think Chicago benefited from having teams in each lague, New York was second with 15 votes, while the Bay Area and L.A. were even farther down the list.
Now the BAD: While the Bulls players are enjoying their off-seasons and the Bulls execs are looking forward to Wednesday’s Draft Lottery, a number of former Bulls have made significant contributions to their teams’ playoff runs, including Trenton Hassell. Cut by the Bulls before the season, he has been a starter for the Minnesota Timberwolves for most of the season because of his tough defense. Minnesota is currently playing the L.A. Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.
Hassell isn’t the only defensive specialist the Bulls have sent packing in recent years, however. They traded away Bruce Bowen before he even played a game for them. He was second in the voting for Defensive Player of the Year. And the Bulls also traded away Ron Artest, this year’s winner of the Defensive Player of the Year. And one of the Bulls’ biggest problems in recent seasons has been defense, and we wonder why they continue to flounder 6 years after the post-dynasty rebuilding process began…
There is a major league pitcher who is currently 7-0. His ERA is 1.99. His 52 strikeouts place him second in the National League. Oh, and this pitcher was supposed to be retired!
Clemens claimed in November that there was “no scenario” in which he’d return as a player. He wanted to spend time with his family in Houston.
But then best friend Andy Pettitte signs with Roger’s hometown Houston Astros. Clemens get talked out of retirement. And now he’s running away with the NL Cy Young Award (it’d be his 7th). Amazing!
