The Hound has returned from an extended stay in Denmark after the International Olympic Commitee dashed the hopes of Chicago Mayor Daley, talk show maven Oprah Winfrey, President Obama and the twin villages of Old Mill Creek and Wadsworth. If you have never been to Denmark, The Hound recommends it. It's sort of like Wisconsin, but without Packers fans.
Old Mill Creek would have been the site of the equestrian events during the 2016 Summer Games, although Wadsworth would have been the beneficiary of some of the spillover and certainly Gurnee and Waukegan, with their hotel spaces. Instead, they'll be doing dressage and jumping fences in Rio.
The Hound has never been to Rio de Janeiro, but knows someone who once traveled there for Carnivale. On the Ipanema Beach, he was accosted and was the victim of a female pickpocket. Or at least that was his story and he's stuck to it ever since.
The Hound was a full-blown Olympics supporter, and will be boycotting next year's Winter Games in Vancouver. The Hound also is considering boycotting NBC, but why bother? Most viewer already are.
As for the reason Chicago and the United States lost the 2016 bid it is simple: Rio is in South America, a continent which has never hosted an Olympics, and the rest of the world hates us. Despite the rock star status of President Obama, he couldn't close the deal because, outside of our culture and money, the U.S. is disliked by nearly everyone around the world --- except the Saudis. And they did so before George Bush made it worse with the invasion of Iraq.
Will there be a 2020 U.S. Olympic bid? Not from Chicago, The Hound predicts.
Waukegan Mayor Robert Sabonjian has the pedal to the metal working on getting some sort of motorsports road race to his city next year or more likely in 2011. The Hound hears all those Waukeganites backing the mayor: "Go, speed racer, go!"
Sabonjian and city minions appear farther along the trail than most originally thought. They have a map of the 1.9-mile course which uses the Amstutz Expressway (or is that the Bobby Thompson Expressway which state Rep. Eddie Washington, D-Waukegan, unilaterally christened two years ago?) and downtown streets. Anybody check with the County of Lake, which has a pretty large presence in Waukegan's downtown for their input? They've also had preliminary talks with race organizers and they have a steering committee, Waukegan Grand Prix LLC.
What they don't have is money. Estimates run between $12 to $15 million for the initial rally; about a $9 million ante every year after. The bet is the seed money will generate millions more. Other cities have done it and been successful. It is within the realm of possibility for Waukegan.
So far, the city's populace has been eerily silent on the topic. Perhaps they're stunned or they haven't caught up to speed on what the impact could be on the city both in quality of life issues and financial gain or loss. Or they are a silent majority, riding in the back seat with the new mayor on this issue.
The Hound like's Sabonjian's attitude about landing any sort of road race: "We can be world class, but we have to do it right." So for right now, it's full speed ahead!
Like a Roman emperor, Waukegan Mayor Robert Sabonjian is offering the city's citizens bread and circuses to perhaps keep their minds busy with extracurricular activities. This at a time when the city's finances appear to be on shaky ground, to say the least. Not that a deficit budget and high-interest loans are any of his doing. He's cleaning up those messes.
Sabonjian suggested this week some sort of motorsports event --- a road race or circuit --- on city streets next year. Folks in his administration are meeting with folks who apparently can make this happen. Except for a few things, Mayor Bob has a sound plan.
Those few things happen to be what this economy has done to auto racing in the U.S., whether it be NASCAR, IndyCar or Grand Prix events. They're hurting, to say the least. Sponsor money has dried up, along with the evaporation of racing venues.
The Milwaukee Mile, aka the Rex Mays Classic, usually held at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds in West Allis the weekend after the Indy 500, has been off the map for several years. The Detroit Grand Prix is DOA. The Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet hosted a NASCAR event earlier this summer and will do an IndyCar event later this month. To fill the stands for this race, promoters made sure race fans bought a package ticket to go with the NASCAR race.
It's a tough market out there for racing events and it also should be noted the schedules for race dates for major events certainly already have been set for 2010. Which Waukegan residents should be grateful.
Putting together a race which could draw thousands for a weekend, the logistics involved and closing city streets needs a bit more planning than a year, The Hound believes. This isn't Scoopin' Genesee, after all.
The Hound understands Mayor Bob's need for speed, but there's more important races to run at the present.
Tuesday was Olympic Day in the U.S. so The Hound drove to Wadsworth to see if the village, home of the planned equestrian events if Chicago is awarded the 2016 Summer Games, was holding a special celebration. There was a lot of water standing around, but no folks standing around marking Olympic Day in the "Village of Country Living."
Chicago celebrated the Olympic movement, as did another 158 cities in 43 states. But not Wadsworth, which will host actual Olympic events, if Chicago gets the games. Maybe Wadsworth Mayor Glenn Ryback didn't get the memo from fellow Democrat, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.
In Chicago, 30,000 kids took part in fun runs across the city. Another 20,000 people attended the Olympic Day celebration at Chicago's North Avenue Beach. Past Olympians were on hand to mark the event. Not even a Wadsworth toast to the Olympics was heard at the Duck Inn.
Thinking that rural folk are a little slow or maybe the party line from Chicago wasn't operational, The Hound traveled up to Wadsworth the next two days in a row. Still nothing. Guess they don't have the Olympic spirit yet in Wadsworth.
But Waukegan did celebrate Olympic Day --- on Friday, with two past Olympians taking part at happenings sponsored by the Waukegan Park District. Better late than never, but that can also be said for a casino and a minor league ball team.
If former Chicago Cub and White Sox Sammy Sosa tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug, is anybody really shocked? From all the cries of, "Sammy, say it ain't so!" you'd think people weren't paying attention back in 1998 when Sosa and St. Louis Cardinal Mark McGwire chased Roger Maris' record of 61 home runs in a season.
To The Hound, both those guys looked pretty bulked up back then. McGwire eclipsed the Maris mark, while Sosa finished with 66 round-trippers that season. The next year Sammy blasted 63, then 50 in 2000, 64 in 2001 and 49 in 2002. Remember the "Cork Bat Affair" in playoff year of 2003? He hit 40 that year.
Sosa testified before the House Government Reform Committee investigating steroid use in Major League Baseball in 2005 stating, "I have been tested as recently as 2004, and I am clean. To be clear, I have never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs." The New York Times report of Sosa testing positive for the drugs said it happened in 2003. Heck, if he was taking them then, he should have hit 60 homers and led the Cubs to a World Series berth, right?
Instead he did a salsa dance before the congressional committee, choosing his words and dates carefully. If he took 'roids back then, it's history. The idea is to stop current players from using them.
And, if a handful of names have leaked from this anonymous survey some government bureaucrat has, let's see all of the names. The Hound wants to know who are all the 104 players who allegedly used performance-enhancing drugs. Let's get beyond this latest taint on Major League Baseball and give us the names.
So-called dog lovers certainly have their leashes all wrapped up in a knot over plans to have a real bulldog be the mascot for Waukegan High School in the very near future.
Waukegan Unit School District 60 has been bombarded with e-mails from "outraged citizens", as has The News-Sun, The Hound has been told. Most of them don't live here and are concerned about the dog's mental state.
The Hound says: Chew on a Milk Bone for awhile, will you.
Waukegan High students voted for a flesh-and-blood mascot, an American, not an English bulldog, and picked a brindle-colored puppy. School officials have high hopes for the so-far-unnamed mascot. Besides being paraded around at various sporting events, it will be used as a partner dog in special ed classes. During the day it will have a dog house at the school being built by woodshop classes and at night go home with a faculty member.
The anti-mascot patrol believes this is a bad thing because? How many of these so-called dog lovers leave their dogs home all day when they're at work or put them in a kennel when they vacation?
He without sin shouldn't cast the first kibbles at this mascot plan, which The Hound, who should know about such things, heartily endorses. Arff!
If you watched on the TV what some have called one of the best prep football games, last weekend's Antioch versus Glenbard South thrilling overtime game, you heard one of the announcers time after time mispronounce Sequoits as Sequats --- even after he was corrected by his fellow broadcaster.
Perhaps the pronouncer was confused between Sequats and Sasquatch, those mysterious manimals that supposedly reside in the wilds of Oregon, Washington State and northern California. We know better and know that such creatures do not exist along Sequoit Creek.
It matters little if the Antioch squad are called Sequats or Sequoits. The Hound predicts they will be victorious against a tough and nimble Lemont team known by the not-so-politically correct moniker of Indians. It will be a tough-fought battle and close, but the Sequats, er, Sequoits will make the championship game against Springfield Griffin, which The Hound is also picking to beat Providence.
Antioch defeated Glenbard South 28-27 in that overtime game and has a 12-0 record going into today's game at Lemont. How about a good baker's dozen of victories to take into the 6A championship game?
It can be done and most Sequoit fans will be there to see it as they travel well, even though it is a trek to Lemont. Isn't Kankakee the next stop down that way?
The Hound expects to see a rabid Sequoit defense attack the Lemont Native Americans and stop them in their moccasined tracks. Be prepared for that victory convoy, folks, because The Hound says: Antioch 20, Lemont 14.
From the looks of the story The Hound read in the paper, any hope for supporters of Orchard Hills returning as a golf course next year are slim and none. As Dan Rather said in 2000 during election night as Al Gore's hopes vanished: "Slim just left town."
The Waukegan Park District is seeking bids for the first phase of the planned sports complex and they're due early next month. R.I.P., Orchard Hills. The first phase will be preparing the land for the multi-use fields at the site off Green Bay Road. Work begins in earnest come spring with an opening expected in about a year.
If duffers still bemoaning the fact of the golf course's demise need any reminder of why Orchard Hills is being turned into a soccer/baseball/football field destination they got one recently. Bloomberg News Service reported last week that the U.S. golf industry is facing a sense of "urgency" and has embarked on a five-year plan to entice beginners to the game in the midst of an economic downturn.
Part of the lure, Bloomberg says the World Golf Foundation is undertaking, is to have 5,000 golf course across the nation offer $99 introductory packages that include golf lessons, coaching, etiquette of the game, etc. They hope to find 700,000 new golfers to play 5.7 million rounds of golf.
Bloomberg also notes golf participation in the U.S. fell to 26 million in 2005, a four million count drop from 2000. This according to the National Golf Foundation, which also determined about three million golfers quit playing each year and several hundred of the 3,000 new golf courses building between 1990 and 2003 have closed.
Is there any wonder, then, that Orchard Hills was given a death sentence? Oh, and if you want a good fish fry, try The Shanty in Wadsworth. The Hound chews on the bluegill.
In the middle of prep football playoffs and girls' volleyball playoffs, The Hound learns there is a prep bass fishing tournament for high school anglers. Huh? What's next, hunting tournaments?
Perhaps The Hound is old school, but what gives with this Illinois High School Association sanctioning bass fishing. Must have been a big lobbying push by the downstate schools near those big impoundments of Rend Lake or Carlyle Lake. What else could be behind this?
OK, The Hound knows California high schools have surf teams and schools in Wyoming, Montana, Texas and other Western states have rodeo teams which compete in tournaments. Some Western colleges even offer rodeo scholarships.
But bass fishing? This sounds fishy, yet Antioch, Grant, Grayslake North, Warren, Lakes, Libertyville, Wauconda, Waukegan and Zion-Benton are fielding bass fishing teams. Betcha that letterman's sweater is tough to come by.
And what happened to Mundelein High? Diamond Lake has plenty of fish for practice sessions. Or it used to.
The IHSA says 214 school across Illinois have signed up for next spring's bass tourney. Start practicing now, folks, and sharpen those hooks. The Hound knows some preps who might like to see fish finders under the Christmas tree. Even so, it's still fishy.
The Hound surely likes prep football as well as any other mutt, but this football playoff system is causing a case of the fantods. This system is dragging out longer than the NBA playoffs. Or worse, the NHL playoffs. At this rate, Antioch's fine Sequoit squad might be playing in December for the 6A state title.
It's taken the Sequoits several weeks to get to the final four pairings and if they win again on Saturday against defending 6A state champ Lemont, they'll have to play another game for the title. Here's the problem: The IHSA.
The IHSA allows teams who win five games to be playoff eligible. Five games? Who can't win five games? OK, the once-mighty Mundelein Mustangs didn't and haven't for a few years. But what gives with the five games? Less teams in the pool means less games and a quicker route to the championship.
Unless the IHSA is hoping to boost attendance and gate receipts for area high schools. If so, say so from the start and don't dance around the end zone about why these playoffs drag out until the gales of November, along with snow showers, are blowing.
