Constable: Hooray! So much sports to distract us from real world
It's depressing to be immersed in Illinois budget woes, program cuts, tax hikes, political stalemates or today's news about Dennis Hastert.
Always promising to distract us from real-life burdens, sports actually are doing that these days. June is busting out all over with sports news that even the most tepid fan can relish.
Our Chicago Blackhawks dominate today's front page with the quest for their third Stanley Cup in six years. Even the concerns about players who come up short don't seem to take away from the joy of watching the Blackhawks play. Thanks, sports.
But wait, there's more.
Still buzzing about the U.S. men's soccer team's last-minute, come-from-behind 4-3 victory over mighty Netherlands, soccer fans loved the Champions League final between La Liga winner Barcelona and Serie A victor Juventus, if only for the haircuts. If Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez or Neymar aren't any more familiar to you than Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa, that's OK. Weekend sports offered more than pucks and soccer balls.
The Chicago Bulls were eliminated from the playoffs eons ago and Tom Thibodeau still doesn't have a new job, but many suburban fans hang on every shot of the NBA Finals. Can Bulls' arch enemy LeBron James propel his depleted Cleveland Caveliers to a championship over MVP Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors, coached by former Bulls favorite Steve Kerr?
Don't care about basketball? That's OK. Television found plenty of time to air the highflying sports of the X Games.
For those craving less action and more drama, there's the compelling rise and fall of Tiger Woods. Once the world's greatest golfer, Woods shot a career-worst 85 on Saturday, a score beaten by good amateur golfers throughout the suburbs.
"We had one lady over the weekend, she went 41 and 34 with five birdies," says Dennis Johnson, general manager and head golf professional at Pine Meadow Golf Club in Mundelein, adding that the same golfer shot an 88 on Monday. "Golfers do enjoy seeing and knowing that it can happen to the best players in the world."
Can't stomach the antics of Woods or any professional athletes? Sports gives us the chance to turn to the animal world.
While an affront to the correct spelling of pharaoh, American Pharoah might have given us the greatest sports story of the weekend by winning the Belmont Stakes and becoming the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to capture the Triple Crown of horse racing. If you don't care about the athletic aspect of that accomplishment, there is still the distraction of animated men in colorful silk outfits.
If bright colors draw you into sports, NASCAR's Martin Truex Jr. earned the checkered flag at the Axalta "We Paint Winners" 400 at the Pocono Raceway. Danica Patrick, however, hit a wall.
But fans of women's sports had plenty to cheer about. Thirty-three-year-old Serena Williams won the French Open, a tennis tournament that the dominant Williams first won half a lifetime ago at age 17. While many have abandoned talk about Woods still having a shot to break Jack Nicklaus' record of winning 18 majors in golf, Williams needs only two more major victories to tie Steffi Graf's record of 22 Grand Slam tennis titles.
Another compelling story in women's sports is the U.S. soccer team that opened World Cup play last night in Canada against Australia. While one of the favorites to win it all, the U.S. women do have the distraction of star goalie Hope Solo's long-lingering court case on domestic violence charges, which is scheduled to crank up again later this summer.
Soccer's more important criminal case, the bribery scandal that predominates any news made by FIFA, has fans feeling better about the future of their sport.
In weekend soccer news that was more entertainingly quirky than bad, Chicago Fire defender Adailton become the first player in MLS history to score two own goals in a single game, a 3-2 loss to Orlando City.
For some, all of those sports took a back seat to the Chicago Cubs, who won three out of four on the road from the Washington Nationals. Every Cubs starting pitcher has an ERA lower than the 4.93 mark of former ace Jeff Samardzija, who now displays his maddening inconsistency as a hurler for the White Sox.
But the best sports news of the weekend didn't come from professionals. The 2015 Daily Herald Prep Sports Excellence awards banquet drew more than 600 student-athletes to the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates.
If you can't find something to interest you these days in sports, you can officially declare that you are not a sports fan. The good news for those people is that the season for Illinois budget debates should keep them occupied well beyond June.