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Phil Arvia
A lifelong resident of Thornton (look for the world’s largest limestone quarry and drop in), Phil Arvia has been writing for money since 1979, when …
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Arvia: Tourney changes, but Jemseks soldier on
The timing of the report may have caught Katherine Jemsek by surprise. But the content surely didn’t. After two decades as the Western Open’s gracious hosts, the Jemsek family long has sensed the party was over at their Cog Hill as of the 2011 BMW …Read More
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Arvia: St. Xavier football finds it’s good to be king
On signing day, St. Xavier football coach Mike Feminis received letters of intent from five players. The next day, he got four more. “That is a little unusual,” the coach of the reigning NAIA national champs said. To set the record straight, signing day is …Read More
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Arvia: Ventura will judge who sits on the bench
If every managerial hire is an answer to the perceived failings of his predecessor, what, I asked Paul Konerko, is new White Sox manager Robin Ventura here to address? Four seconds later, Konerko said, “Um, that’s a good question.” Another pause. “Uh, I would say …Read More
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Arvia: SSC makes right move on MLK day
The wording was unfortunate, unintentional and, after a fashion, unavoidable. In the email that crossed my desk Thursday, I missed it. There is evidence to suggest I’ve missed it in similar emails for the last several years. But once a colleague brought it to my …
Arvia: Merry Christmas to road-weary ballplayers
So, moms and dads, perhaps you’re reading this while Junior and Missy are out in the driveway, seeing how far a $50 Fijit can fly off the barrel of a $300 BBCOR bat. Maybe, if you’re really blessed this holiday season, one of the little …
Arvia: Yes, voters, there is a Santo clause
Friday afternoon, colleagues managed to discuss my Hall of Fame ballot for nearly three minutes before questioning my sanity. “You can’t vote for Edgar Martinez,” one said, “and not vote for Tim Raines.” Actually, I can — and, last year, did. But last year was …
Arvia: Granderson a model on a roll
There was a moment — more than one, actually — when Curtis Granderson genuinely seemed taken aback. The man who stands now in the footprints of Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, who was fourth in the American League Most Valuable Player voting announced last month, …
Arvia: One of Marian’s own a state champ — at Montini
When as many people come to your games for the halftime show as the football, a team might easily develop an inferiority complex. At Marian Catholic, the football team has a decided glamour deficit beside the Spartans’ marching band, which under the direction of Greg …
Arvia: Grandstand’s last stand?
One of the lesser-known tales of glory from the White Sox’s run to the 2005 World Series title sprang from Grandstand, the jam-packed sports clothing and memorabilia store a few blocks west of U.S. Cellular Field on 35th Street. That August, the Sox had lost …
Arvia: If Joe says it ain’t so, he’s lying
Pause, please, you shallow thinkers, you contrarians, you willfully ignorant who would leap to the defense of a rich and powerful man who would not leap to the defense of a 10-year-old rape victim. Pause to consider Joe Paterno’s world on March 2, 2002, the …
Ventura hire means class in session
It is widely believed, not without reason, that part of every managerial hire is a direct response to the perceived failings of the preceding managerial fire. Laid-back Jerry Manuel begets wild man Ozzie Guillen. Dusty “Dude” Baker begets Loony Lou Piniella. It’s a pendulum from …
Mark it down: Mulder still looks like a star
Mark Mulder had an arm made for the big leagues, until elbow and shoulder issues forced him out of the game in 2008, at the ripe old age of 31. He has a face, few would argue, for TV. Or to put it in the …
Arvia: St. Rita’s Ryan Donahue gets hang time with Lions
Politely, Ryan Donahue said, “Do you mind if I call you back in an hour? I’m in the middle of something.” Assuming “something” could have meant anything from practice to conditioning to a special-teams meeting to rookie hazing, I agreed. Almost exactly 60 minutes later, …
Arvia: Catch Frank Lenti as winningest coach? Area coaches think not
The record was Matt Senffner’s first, then Gary Korhonen’s, and now it belongs to Frank Lenti. Before that Providence to Richards to Mount Carmel transfer, Bron Bacevich became the first Illinois high school football coach ever to notch 300 wins, reaching that threshold in his …
Magnuson ‘experiment’ leads to cruel summer
ARVIA: Tinley Park’s own world champion swimmer, Christine Magnuson, tried a new training program and took a step backward, finishing 12th at recent World Championships in Shanghai.
Arvia: In Joanne McCarthy’s league — Lingerie Basketball League — it’s skins vs. skins
Joanne McCarthy gives good quote. So good, it is easy to forget the decorum of the standard fluff interview and suggest things a gentleman might not otherwise suggest when chatting up a representative of the Lingerie Basketball League. But again, this is Joanne McCarthy, of …
Arvia: Christian Vande Velde has Tour de France team title, but how long will he keep pedaling?
Christian Vande Velde reached into his sock drawer — well, what would be most people’s sock drawer, but in his case a catch-all of freebie sunglasses and other pocket-size accoutrements lavished often upon the best road cyclists in the world — and produced an etched …
Arvia: Petty Driving Experience over too fast
Jim Gardner looked ready to answer the question he’d just been asked with another. Something along the lines of “Does the line cook at McDonald’s remember his first Quarter Pounder of the day?” Only if it slid off the grill into the wall. And it …
Arvia: Vande Velde knocked down, not out of Tour de France
Bob Roll may be the Charles Barkley of Versus’ Tour de France coverage crew — easy to tease, given often to comic insights, yet with the bona fides of having ridden as Greg LeMond’s teammate and Lance Armstrong’s training partner. So when, in the pre-race …
Arvia: Dwyane Wade goes camping at Lincoln-Way Central
Given this was among the rest of the world that is not Dallas, perhaps it came as no surprise Friday that Dwyane Wade owned the gym. He owned it by banging in a jumper from two steps inside halfcourt, while the Bears’ Devin Hester knelt …
