The event included a doubleheader with a WAAC softball game at 6 p.m. between teams from Fort Sheridan and Camp Grant near Rockford, followed by an all-star baseball game at 8:30 with players from the four original All-American Girls Professional Baseball League teams (the Racine Belles, Kenosha Comets, South Bend Blue Sox and Rockford Peaches).

To help light the field for the later game, three banks of temporary lights were installed on poles situated behind home plate, first base and third base.

Yes, in the first night game held at the North Side ballpark, it was women who took the field. They would play a second night game there the following year.

More than 80 years later, two professional women’s teams made history again.

Neither rain nor wind nor rapidly dropping temperatures could keep fans away from Wrigley Field on Saturday evening to see the Chicago Red Stars play Bay FC in a National Women’s Soccer League game. The 35,038 fans in attendance broke the league record of 34,130 set last October at Seattle’s Lumen Field for Megan Rapinoe’s final regular-season match.

Gallagher Way, the enclosed grassy area outside of Wrigley, was a festive scene. Families moved about excitedly while a DJ played tunes.

As I looked around, every other person was wearing a shirt or hoodie that read, “Everyone watches women’s sports” — a mantra and a call to action. The momentum of women’s sports is growing across leagues as college and professional sports see tremendous growth in viewership, attendance and interest.

Cheryl and Clair Rollman-Tinajero, along with their kid Rowan, traveled from Austin, Texas, to be part of the moment.

Photos: Chicago Red Stars set NWSL attendance record at Wrigley Field

The Rollman-Tinajeros’ love of women’s sports has taken them to San Jose, Calif., for Bay FC’s home opener, to Kansas City, Mo., for the opening of the KC Current’s CPKC Stadium and to Dublin to watch the Irish women’s national team play Sweden.

“Anytime we can be part of making history for women’s sports, we’re excited,” Cheryl said. “We’re excited every day that we get to wake up and support women in any industry, but to be part of something historic, we are absolutely excited.

“I really am going to cry. When you empower women, you change the world. There is no world that we know of without women. And we have had a really tough time for the last, oh, a couple centuries, getting the boot off of our necks. Anytime that the world can see how much women matter, it’s an important event. Anytime that we can personally contribute to empowering women, we contribute to changing the world and that is a huge thing.”

Decked out in denim vests covered in NWSL and soccer patches from their shop, Odd Colored Sheep, the Rollman-Tinajeros were all smiles as they handed out stickers and patches to other supporters and waited in line for their turn at the photo booth to commemorate the historic occasion.

“Part of what drew us to soccer and women’s soccer is the community is such a great, supportive group,” Clair said. “We travel around rooting for the home team. We don’t have a home team but would like NWSL to come to (Austin). Everywhere we go, though, everyone is just so open and welcoming to us, and that’s the coolest part.”

Though parts of the baseball field were still obvious along the first-base line, Wrigley Field had been transformed. The famous scoreboard displayed NWSL scores, and the flags on the outfield poles were those of the league’s teams. Shops throughout the ballpark were selling Red Stars apparel made for the once-in-a-lifetime game. No detail was spared.

When players from both teams took the field, they were met with raucous applause. Fans were a little damp and cold, but their enthusiasm was unaffected. Behind the Cubs dugout, Red Stars supporters held flags, sang and beat drums while hardly ever sitting down.

“Oh, when the Stars go marching in! Oh, when the Stars go marching in! Oh, lord, I want to be in that number, when the Stars go marching in!” they sang.

Defender Kiki Pickett scored in the 25th minute for Bay FC, with her shot from outside the box finding the bottom right corner of the net, and Joelle Anderson scored what became the deciding goal in the 79th minute as Bay FC earned a 2-1 victory.

Twenty-five years after her father, Denny Hocking, hit a home run at Wrigley Field as a member of the Minnesota Twins, Red Stars forward Penelope Hocking scored in the third minute of extra time. Fireworks went off behind the ballpark. Though the game had been decided, the crowd erupted. The home team lost, but the game was a victory for the NWSL, women’s soccer and women’s sports in general.

Pretty cool when your daughter @penelopehocking reps your MLB jersey to an @NWSL game at #WrigleyField @chicagoredstars pic.twitter.com/MKAoA9VBAu

— Denny Hocking (@bigleagueswings) June 9, 2024

“We taught (our kids) to be the ripple,” Cheryl Rollman-Tinajero said of the importance of showing up to support women’s sports. “You never know the impact you’re going to make when you throw a stone. We are the stones. We don’t know what the ripple is going to do when it hits the shore.”

As the crowd took to the streets after the game, fans sang, danced and took photos. A few told me they hope the Red Stars return to Chicago from suburban Bridgeview for good soon so they could enjoy more moments like that. For many in attendance, it was more than a game.

“Seeing women take up space that they absolutely deserve to show off and show how incredibly talented they are, it’s fantastic,” Rowan Rollman-Tinajero said. “I’m a little bit biased. I love (Red Stars goalkeeper) Alyssa Naeher with my entire being. She’s just such a badass.

“I don’t want to play soccer but it makes me feel like I could do anything. Seeing women coming into the spotlight now makes me feel like I can take up space and be important.”

We’re less than a month into the season and the discourse is out of control. For many years, interest in the league was considered pretty niche. A dedicated community of fans held down the WNBA space by creating blogs to share news and stories, designing and selling apparel and other merchandise, and starting communities both online and in real life with the intention of “growing the game.”

Now that the growth, investment and interest that the league’s longtime supporters have wanted are here, it doesn’t look as pretty.

In fact, it’s downright messy. And it’s not about basketball.

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark and her logo 3-pointers have brought a great number of eyes to the WNBA. Through no fault of her own, the constant coverage of her college career and the beginning of her rookie season has put every aspect of every game she plays under a microscope — including the actions of her opponents.

Was the hip check by Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter on Saturday unnecessary and not a basketball play? Absolutely. Was it the end of the world and a reflection of how everyone feels about Clark? Absolutely not.

Referring to the foul as assault is dangerous and extreme rhetoric. Using language that implies criminal activity plays into stereotypes and racial undertones that are pervasive throughout these discussions. Basketball players, including Clark, push and shove all the time. Physical play is a characteristic of the game, and calls for Clark to be handled softly seemingly miss that.

If she draws a double team, Clark is being defended unfairly. If she is fouled, the other team has it out for her. If she is on the bench, the coach clearly doesn’t know what she’s doing. (There are multiple change.org petitions calling for Fever coach Christie Sides to be fired due to disapproval of how she has managed the team with Clark.)

Fans and media new to talking about the WNBA seem surprised by the league’s physicality, skill and diversity of personal stories that have gone untold. But instead of watching, listening and learning — in addition to contributing to the conversations at such an exciting time in WNBA history — some are quick to dismiss just about anyone with even a game-related criticism of Clark. People who would admit they’re new to the league or to women’s basketball suddenly are positioning themselves as experts on the W’s culture.

And they’re dominating the conversations.

Sweeping generalizations have been made by people such as Charles Barkley, LeBron James and Stephen A. Smith. Veteran players have been called jealous, “haters” and “thugs” by people who believe there is some concerted effort to dull Clark’s shine. These are professional athletes in competition, and I wonder if some of this is fueled by the idea that women are supposed to play nice and get along.

There also have been conversations that every good thing happening currently for the WNBA and its players is thanks to Clark — and that they should simply be grateful for her presence.

While there’s some validity to the idea that some players resent Clark for being put on a pedestal and anointed the G.O.A.T., signing record-breaking endorsement deals and having most of her games on national television, we should be careful not to paint all of the players with such a broad stroke. Takes like these thrive on us versus them and an either/or mindset that has overtaken the WNBA community.

Chicago Sky fans temper newfound attention with heightened expectations at home opener: ‘It’s transformative’

There are more than 100 players in the WNBA, so there is likely a mixture of feelings throughout. The thing about humans is we can feel more than one thing at a time and not necessarily act on any one emotion. It’s important we don’t assume to know what anyone is thinking. Projecting malice says more about us than the people we’re projecting our feelings on.

There always will be someone who doesn’t like the person getting the most attention and sympathy, but there’s an ugliness to these conversations that isn’t being put in proper context. The WNBA is predominantly Black and substantially queer, and most discussions surrounding the league lately try their hardest to avoid those facts. Any attempt to bring this up in conversation is met with “Why is it always about race?” or “It’s not that deep, it’s just sports.” But as WNBA veteran Imani McGee-Stafford wrote on social media, “It actually IS that deep.”

When we talk about why the WNBA was largely ignored for decades or even the language used in defense of Clark, you have to mention the Blackness and queerness. It would be naive to act as if these aren’t important layers to the nastiness we’re seeing. The truth of the matter is until we stop acting as if these aren’t issues — whether conscious or subconscious — we’ll never be able to move forward.

Since its inception, the WNBA has fought against perceptions of its queerness.

“The WNBA kind of fell into the trap that women’s sports throughout history have fallen into, which is the belief that in order to find an audience, the women have to appeal to men, particularly straight men and the male gaze,” Frankie de la Cretaz, a journalist who covers the intersection of sports and gender, told the Tribune.

“The players’ femininity was played up in a lot of the advertisements. They didn’t really talk about their personal life or family, or the players that they did allow to speak publicly were ones who were married to men or had children or families. And so those straight partnerships were really emphasized in the press.”

That issue is mentioned in 13-time All-Star and four-time WNBA champion Sue Bird’s documentary, “Sue Bird: In the Clutch”. Bird, the No. 1 pick in the 2002 draft, came out in 2017, more than a decade after entering the league.

“I think (Bird) is relevant here because there’s this pattern in the WNBA of kind of looking for the next ‘Great White Hope’ who will ‘save’ a predominantly Black sport and make it appeal to more mainstream — read: white — audiences,” de la Cretaz explained. “And the important thing is not just that person is white, but that person is straight. And so we see that with Caitlin Clark. You can look at Sue Bird and see the way that was done when they put her on a red carpet with Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys her rookie year.”

Bird discussed it earlier this year in an interview with Pablo Torre.

“It was basically told to me that the only way I was going to have success from a marketing standpoint is to really sell this straight, girl-next-door (image),” Bird told “Pablo Finds Out” in February. “At 21, I was afraid.”

.@S10Bird speaks for the first time about the fear she felt as a young player in the WNBA to not come out publicly.

"It was basically told to me that the only way I was going to have success from a marketing standpoint is to really sell this straight, girl-next-door [image]. …… pic.twitter.com/dLDGemmtVy

— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) February 15, 2024

In 2021, the Sports Business Journal found a disparity in media coverage of WNBA players.

“A’ja Wilson, the 2020 WNBA MVP who is Black, received half as much media coverage last season as Sabrina Ionescu, the first pick in the 2020 WNBA draft who played in just three games before a season-ending injury and who is white,” the report said.

Longtime fans are on high alert, aware of the WNBA’s history of promoting white players and pushing back against new narratives, as those fans have been the unofficial keepers of the game for more than two decades. They’ve pointed to this as the reason Clark fans refer to her as “more marketable” than Wilson and others, but in their zeal to protect the players they love, the arguments on social media have descended into chaos. Their points, rooted in both truth and history, are dismissed as “hating on Caitlin Clark”.

While Clark is not to be blamed for that, her presence has highlighted or perhaps even exacerbated the issue. The expectations placed on her by her own fans have put Clark in a position where her basketball game is hardly discussed. There’s no talk of shot selection, efficiency or a single show-stopping highlight. There’s also no talk of her demeanor on the court when things aren’t going her way. Instead, we are subjected to multiday discourse over a flagrant foul.

In their rush to defend Clark, newcomers fail to see the historical, systemic issues at play and instead assume everyone is picking on their favorite player. And until the disparity is addressed, the fighting and debates will continue.

Maybe one day we’ll get back to the basketball of it all.

These days it seems like everyone is a motivational speaker. There are Instagram accounts with millions of followers whose sole purpose is to post inspirational quotes on filtered backgrounds from writers, historical figures, wealthy businessmen and celebrities. Each quote tells us to rise above, reminds us to believe in ourselves and our mindset controls everything. The intent is to offer some nugget of wisdom, some alliterative inspiration, to propel us to action and success.

If you’re anything like me, you probably scrunch your nose up a little at some of them. They’re often generic and could apply to just about anything if you thought long enough about it.

But in sports, motivational speeches have contributed to lore. A player giving a speech at a critical moment in the season can become part of the team’s stories for years to come. Athletes are famously known for their ability to go to another level to compete at the highest.

Typically these speeches come before a critical game, during a Game 7 rain delay or in the midst of a losing streak. But after a wild walk-off 1-0 win at Wrigley Field on Saturday, Cubs pitcher Héctor Neris delivered a postgame speech that gave outfielder Cody Bellinger “goosebumps.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s unusual, but it was just something really fun and got the boys going a little bit,” Bellinger said.

Photos: Pittsburgh Pirates 3, Chicago Cubs 2 at Wrigley Field

Pitcher Shota Imanaga, who doesn’t seem to need the extra motivation considering the way he’s been pitching to start the season, thought Neris’ speech was “reassuring” as it came after a win.

“I think everything has an impact. Everything we do has an impact; some good and there’s some times we have a bad impact on stuff. But everything has an impact, for sure. I think it’s all part of the journey a team takes together. So it all matters. And what we share with each other, the interactions we have with each other. A team’s culture is their interactions. That’s part of us talking to each other. That’s part of talking to the team. That’s part of the players talking to the team. That’s what the team’s culture is,” Craig Counsell said of motivational speeches before Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Pirates.

Neris opted not to disclose the details of his speech but said he felt it necessary to motivate his team. And while it’s too early to press the panic button, Neris’ speech gives an idea as to the thought process in the clubhouse.

Two months into the season, the Cubs have seen the highs of winning two of a three-game early season series against the world-beater Dodgers and the lows of being on the wrong side of history against Pittsburgh’s rookie pitcher Paul Skenes, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft, who had 11 strikeouts (including the first seven batters he faced) over six hitless innings in just his second career start on Friday. The Cubs are also trying to overcome their bullpen woes, injuries to critical players and streaky hitting.

There have been many great motivational speeches throughout sports history. Coaches and athletes across locker rooms real and fictional have put their passion into words to rally their teams and lead them to victory. Maybe Neris’ speech will become one of them.

In “Any Given Sunday,” a 1999 sports drama film about a fictional football team struggling to make the playoffs, aging head coach Tony D’Amato, played by Al Pacino, gives a rousing speech before the team’s final game.

“You know when you get old in life things get taken from you. That’s part of life. But you only learn that when you start losing stuff. You find out that life is just a game of inches. So is football. Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half-step too late or too early and you don’t quite make it. One half second too slow or too fast and you don’t quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They are in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone else apart for that inch.”

With a tough stretch ahead against Atlanta, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Cincinnati, the Cubs will be fighting for every inch.

At his lowest point, no one else knew how dark things had gotten for Hughes, a star wide receiver at Indiana from 2010-13 who was good enough to be featured on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”

Hughes finished his college career with 132 receptions for 1,956 yards and 13 touchdowns in 45 games (31 starts). The Indianapolis native was the 19th Hoosier to reach 100 catches and 1,000 yards and was a team captain as a senior.

Inside, though, he was going through what he calls an identity crisis that started when he was younger.

“I’m biracial. My dad’s Black, my mom’s white,” Hughes told the Tribune. “And for me, sports was where it didn’t matter that I wasn’t Black or wasn’t white. Because being biracial is kind of interesting. Your white friends love to let you know that you’re not white, that you’re Black. And your Black friends, as much as they love you, love to just let you know your mom’s white. You’re one of us, but you’re kind of not.

“I was always conflicted about that because I felt like I didn’t have a real home. I felt like I didn’t have a sense of belonging in either race. Sports was the place where it didn’t matter. You ball, you ball, you know?”

Hughes doesn’t play football anymore. He had offseason and training camp stints with the Washington Redskins, Houston Texans and Chicago Bears in 2014, but they didn’t work out. He also doesn’t do drugs anymore. At all.

And he’s not the same person he once was. Hughes trains young men with college and pro football aspirations, sharing his experiences in hopes of making them better men.

“I won’t go to an IU alumni event anymore,” Hughes said. “It’s been like seven years and it’s because I’m like a guy that does not exist anymore. I’m just so far past it. It’s a kind of death.

“It is a little uncomfortable because I’m talking about someone that doesn’t exist, but it’s also a part of who I was. I’m talking about a kid that football meant everything to.”

***

Hughes, 32, met me in the Fulton Market District building where he’s a licensed performance coach. Dressed in all-black sweats and wearing tortoise-shell glasses, he paused for a second and sighed deeply. It was one of those sighs where someone is releasing something heavy and all you can do is watch and wait to see what they’re going to say next.

“My football career was plagued by substance abuse issues,” he said. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know that was what I go to when I have negative emotions and I don’t know what to do with them — I smoke weed. I didn’t know that was always my response to having negative emotions.”

When Indiana hired Kevin Wilson as its new football coach in December 2010, he was expected to turn around a program that had languished at the bottom of the Big Ten. One of Wilson’s first acts, according to Hughes, was to drug test the entire team.

Hughes failed twice.

“First one in college football is a slap on the wrist, but your image is ruined,” he said of failed drug tests. “So there may not be repercussions in terms of a punishment, in terms of suspensions. But image-wise, oh, you’re a pothead.”

But Hughes didn’t stop. The “negative emotions” had gotten harder to run from, and he got high to cope. He got smarter about his drug use, switching to prescription drugs because it was easier to flush them out of his system in order to pass the team’s mandated drug tests. Hughes knew which days tests were administered and figured out a way to beat the system.

Football had become the place where Hughes was able to bury himself; where he attempted to hide from the uncomfortable feelings he experienced. He didn’t just run well on the field, he was running in real life.

During his junior and senior years of high school, football had propelled Hughes to new popularity and sated his hunger for a sense of belonging.

“I was just basking in that, just riding that but not ever using my platform,” he said. “Not ever understanding that I could do something with the attention. I could do something with the glory. I was just consuming it as if it was money. I’m spending it every day, buying as much as I can just to fill this void.”

The attention and winning still didn’t satisfy Hughes’ desire for an identity. As a teen, he spent so much time forming his identity around popularity and acceptance due to sports.

“I was a kid seeking validation, so I just flocked to whoever would take me,” he said.

***

Hughes wakes up every day at 5 a.m. and begins a routine that includes praying, reading and working out. He’s no longer seeking who he is.

“That person doesn’t exist anymore,” he said confidently.

When he was looking for himself, Hughes found his faith and his purpose.

For his “day job,” Hughes trains people in and around corporate America. Through healthy habits and a workout plan, he helps them achieve not only their health goals, but also their professional ones.

But in his free time, Hughes works at his passion, a project he calls “Athletes They Fear” (ATF).

“The main goal of Athletes They Fear is to create good men,” said Hughes’ wife, Christina. “Kofi’s main focus most of the time is making sure that these young men, these boys, can tap into a side of them that’s beyond the athlete. A lot of times, especially in lower-income neighborhoods, these kids are made to believe that the only thing they have to offer is their athletic abilities and that’s what’s going to get them out and make them special and make them important.

“Kofi takes a whole different approach and says: ‘Hey, you are a person, you’re important, you’re loved, you’re valuable no matter what. And someday, no matter how good of an asset you are, you will be an ex-athlete and what do we do then? And how do we love ourselves through that?’”

ATF is a nonprofit “committed to the growth and development of the next generation of Chicago athletes.” Hughes, whose life on this side of football heavily involves his faith, said the name comes from Deuteronomy 11:25.

“In the verse it (says), ‘And I will lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land, and every place that the soil your foot treads upon, I will give unto you,’” he explained. “Basically the fear was not that people are going to be afraid of Kofi Hughes or Malik Elzy or Jayden Reed but the reverence that people will have because of the God that they serve and the integrity and the character that they see in those men.

“It’s more about reflecting the love of God in every aspect of your life — but we’re also the dudes that you don’t want to play.”

Reed, a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers, has been training with Hughes since 2016. The Naperville Central graduate met Hughes at a gym called FitSpeed in Aurora where Hughes trained high school athletes.

A second-round draft pick in 2023, Reed made his NFL debut last September against the Bears and finished his rookie season with 64 catches for 793 yards and eight touchdowns. He continues to train with Hughes and has become a mentor to some of the younger players who work out with ATF.

“He works with a lot of kids throughout the Chicagoland area, and all those guys motivate each other,” Reed said. “The guys that he’s worked with, you can obviously see they’ve had positive things going on in their lives; me being a prime example.

“He’s really become a brother to me and mentored me. He’s touched my heart heavy. My dad passed away (and) he’s been that guy to come in and make sure I’m staying on the right things, going on the right path. I just appreciate him for making sure that everybody keeps going and accomplishes their dreams.”

Illinois wide receiver Elzy also met Hughes when he was in high school at Simeon. The two felt such a strong bond, Hughes joined the Simeon coaching staff.

Staying in state and going to Illinois kept Elzy close to not only his parents, but also Hughes. The two still work out together, and Elzy said he stayed in touch with Hughes as he adjusted to life on campus and has learned from Hughes’ experiences.

“What I got from his story is you’ve got to take it day by day,” said Elzy, who played in nine games as a freshman last fall and had five catches for 52 yards and a touchdown. “There’s already a plan for you. You’ve just got to walk through faith. You’re going to have ups and downs but you’ve got to know you’re going to overcome them.

“Kofi inspires me. I didn’t go through as much as he went through, but I still faced adversity.”

***

As the group of athletes surrounding Hughes grows — along with their success — he connects them with professionals such as Eddie Sanders, an attorney and ATF board member who assists players with name, image and likeness representation, legal counsel and brand protection.

Sanders believes Hughes’ past aids his mission and makes him more relatable than many other coaches they encounter.

“There’s the human element behind him,” Sanders said. “It allows him to connect with these kids on a different level so they can see that struggle and see his determination. And they can relate to that because a lot of these kids are coming from tough situations.

“Sometimes these coaches can’t relate because their life path wasn’t similar to the students. They can get through to them on a physical level. They can get through to them on weight training and things of that nature. That’s more scientific. But when it comes to actually getting to know the person, sometimes you have to have gone through those situations.”

Through ATF, Hughes stays connected to football by using his experiences to make a positive impact on the next generation of athletes. ATF offers life-skills development, high-intensity training, career-path exposure and one-on-one mentorship. For players who may have a dream that involves something other than football, Hughes connects them with people in their chosen field.

Since 2015, Hughes said, 100 players he has trained and mentored have gone on to receive athletic or academic scholarships to Division I schools and 160 more to Division II and III programs.

“Always a phone call away,” as he says, Hughes travels to games to support players in person. Through helping these young men, he examines his own relationship with football and life after the sport.

“During this past football season, my wife looked at me and she was like, ‘Hey, you really love football, don’t you?’ And I started crying,” Hughes said. “This is one of my greatest loves because it’s such a great sport. And I’m so passionate about helping other football players and athletes understand football is not your life, and if you treat this thing right and you become successful in it, the principles are the same principles that apply to anything else you will do the rest of your life.

“A lot of us leave football not knowing that. You think that your life is over because football is over. No one tells you the whole time that you were excelling in this thing, those things can help you excel in life after it’s over.”

The much-anticipated 2024 season is mere days away, yet from an organizational standpoint, the league still looks as if it’s playing from behind.

To address player safety concerns, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced Tuesday that the league will launch a charter flight program “as soon as we can get planes in places.” The program is projected to cost about $25 million per year for the next two seasons and would provide full-time charter flight service for each team.

But the announcement was the first time teams had heard the news.

“We don’t have a ton of details, but everybody’s happy for obvious reasons,” Chicago Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca said Wednesday at the team’s media day. “The players and teams have been fighting for this for some time, so to finally hear what we heard yesterday, players are thrilled, they’re relieved.

“But there’s not a ton of details that have come our way yet. It happened pretty quickly. We’ll be happy to share more details as soon as we have them.”

According to Sophie Cunningham, the players association rep for the Phoenix Mercury, the union also was uninvolved in the decision to fly charter this season.

Commercial flights have long been a concern for the WNBA. Last season Mercury star Brittney Griner — who was freed from a Russian prison in December 2022 after being wrongfully detained, according to the U.S. State Department — was harassed in a Dallas airport and video was posted on social media.

“Player safety while traveling should be at the forefront,” Griner’s then-teammate Brianna Turner, now with the Sky, posted on social media after the incident. “People following with cameras saying wild remarks is never acceptable. Excessive harassment. Our team nervously huddled in a corner unsure how to move about. We demand better.”

Preseason photos: Chicago Sky 101, New York Liberty 53

Flying commercial is part of the WNBA’s current collective bargaining agreement with players, which was signed in 2020. The league has said it didn’t allow charter flights previously because it would create a competitive advantage for teams that wanted to pay for them over those that did not.

The announcement of full-time charters is significant and comes at a pivotal time.

But with such a huge, season-impacting announcement, why weren’t teams made aware? Why wasn’t the announcement made on a bigger stage instead of in a meeting with sports editors? Why was it made so close to the start of the season and not weeks — or even months — in advance?

Plane travel wasn’t the only off-court issue to arise on the brink of the new season. On Monday the Sky confirmed to the Tribune they would stream Tuesday night’s preseason matchup against Courtney Vandersloot and the New York Liberty after a Minnesota Lynx fan, Alli Schneider, had streamed the Sky-Lynx preseason opener Friday on her iPhone.

Viewership of the livestream reached 250,000 as word spread after a glitch in the WNBA League Pass app incorrectly listed the game as available when it wasn’t. Schneider, a four-year Lynx season ticket holder, said coach Cheryl Reeve sent her a note thanking her for supporting the team. South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley said she watched the stream and even sent the fan $100 via Cash App.

What? I cashapped her $100….I paid to watch to the game.

— dawnstaley (@dawnstaley) May 4, 2024

Because of the demand to see rookies Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso, the Sky — whose game Tuesday at Wintrust Arena originally wasn’t going to be available — were left with a few options:

• They could pay a production crew and stream the game themselves, with the stream then picked up by WNBA League Pass.
• A regional sports network could broadcast and/or stream the game.
• Or the WNBA could send a crew to produce and stream the game.

The Sky wound up going with the first option and hiring a crew themselves, and Tuesday’s game was available via League Pass.

While providing livestreams or broadcasts of preseason games is a relatively new venture for both the WNBA and the Sky, the entire debacle begs the question: Why weren’t they prepared?

The entire NBA preseason is broadcast through local affiliates and the NBA League Pass app. The WNBA selected two preseason games to offer in 2023: its annual exhibition in Canada and the first preseason game for No. 1 draft pick Aliyah Boston of the Indiana Fever. No preseason games were streamed in 2022.

This year the league expanded its broadcast offerings to four games, adding a second game featuring No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark of the Fever (Thursday vs. the Atlanta Dream) and a game featuring No. 2 pick Cameron Brink of the Los Angeles Sparks (Friday vs. the Mercury).

Shouldn’t the league have known the influx of attention brought in by players such as Clark, Brink, Cardoso and Reese would stoke desire for broadcast accessibility? Why weren’t the league and individual teams prepared, especially considering the viewership numbers during the women’s college basketball season?

Also at the forefront of WNBA discussions are team practice facilities.

The Las Vegas Aces opened theirs last year. In April, the Seattle Storm — who won over free agents Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith in the offseason over the Sky — opened the second stand-alone practice facility dedicated to a WNBA team. In October, the Mercury unveiled plans for a new business headquarters shared with the Phoenix Suns and a state-of-the-art practice facility dedicated to the Mercury.

But in Chicago, there has been no news.

Reese, Cardoso and others are coming to the WNBA from college programs that have professional-level practice facilities with state-of-the-art amenities. A new facility is as important to the franchise’s future as this year’s draft was. While we’ve heard the team is exploring locations and other logistics related to such a move, the lack of updates with a new season so close leaves more questions and continues to draw criticism.

When will the WNBA and its teams catch up to the growth that is happening? When will they invest big in their product and its offerings to meet the demand that a new generation of players — and their name, image and likeness deals — are bringing with them?

With new eyes come bigger expectations. The interest and growth the league has been asking for is standing outside the window in the rain with a boombox, begging for more.

Will the WNBA answer the call?

Last weekend at Sharon J. Drysdale Field in Evanston, Victoria Monét’s “On My Mama” played while fans behind home plate screamed Robinson’s name as she stepped to the plate. One of the best hitters in the Big Ten, the sophomore leads the Wildcats in batting average (.409), hits (54), RBIs (34), home runs (11), slugging percentage (.773) and on-base percentage (.515).

Robinson and the Wildcats (33-10, 19-3) clinched their third consecutive regular-season Big Ten title Sunday with a 4-2 victory over Indiana, winning two of three in the series. Before Saturday’s 8-3 loss, they hadn’t lost at home since April 3, 2022 — a 38-game streak.

The top-seeded Wildcats will open Big Ten Tournament play Thursday in Iowa City (11 a.m., BTN) with a quarterfinal against the winner of Wednesday’s Indiana-Purdue matchup.

Last season Northwestern won its first Big Ten Tournament championship since 2008 but fell just short of a return to the Women’s College World Series, losing to Alabama in a three-game super regional. With five key veteran leaders graduating and the team welcoming nine newcomers to the roster, expectations for this year’s team were tempered.

“Culture-wise, this team has always been the same,” Robinson told the Tribune. “We bring the same energy, same beliefs. It’s just a few different people each year.

“The transition hasn’t been that hard. I had a good group of girls last year that made my transition coming in freshman year in general a lot easier. And so that let me have a lot of confidence going into this year.”

In her first year in Evanston, Robinson started 42 games and was named to the Big Ten’s all-freshman team. Her 1.001 OPS ranked second on the team and was the highest by an NU freshman since Rachel Lewis in 2018, and Robinson also tied for second on the team with nine home runs.

“She’s one of the most hard-working hitters I’ve ever seen,” said Kelsey Nader, a sophomore outfielder and Robinson’s roommate. “She’s putting time in. And even when her swing isn’t feeling the best, she’s putting even more time in to keep that consistency. That’s something that not a lot of people take the time to do — especially when you’re as good and (have) as good of an eye as Kansas does.”

Robinson credits the team atmosphere created by coach Kate Drohan and her associate head coach and twin sister, Caryl, for why she chose Northwestern and what makes her and the team successful.

“Kate and Caryl are amazing people,” Robinson explained. “I knew as soon as I talked to them that this is the place I wanted to go. They treat me like their own. They treat everyone like their own.

“You can ask former players from 10 years ago, you can ask players from last year and the ones coming in. They’re very consistent. You know what you’re getting when you’re coming in.”

Nader agrees.

“The coaches … they’re one of a kind,” she said. “No matter what school you’re at, they care about you just as much as human beings as softball players, and that goes a really long way. They believe in you even sometimes when you don’t believe in yourself. And that is a really big key that not a lot of people and not a lot of cultures possess.

“I think that’s really the separation of why they’re such amazing coaches, and they really know how to truly treat the game right. They’ve taught us how to treat the game right. And that goes a really long way.”

After this week’s Big Ten Tournament, the Wildcats will begin NCAA regional play May 17 as they seek the program’s seventh WCWS berth.

“We really want to lean on our youth,” Nader said. “And just go show everyone what we’re all about and continue to write our Northwestern softball story.”

Women’s lacrosse repeats as Big Ten Tournament champ

Reigning Tewaaraton Award winner Izzy Scane tied Charlotte North’s NCAA record for career goals (358) and led the top-ranked Wildcats to a 14-12 victory over Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament final Saturday in Evanston. It’s the second straight year and third time in three seasons that Northwestern swept the conference’s regular-season and tournament titles.

Scane ranks fifth in the country this season with 70 goals, and she had five goals and one assist in the title game en route to earning tournament MVP honors.

With the win, Northwestern (15-2, 5-1) secured the Big Ten’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats will open play at 1 p.m. Sunday at Martin Stadium in Evanston against the winner of Friday’s Denver-Stanford match.

Tuesday’s game against the New York Liberty at Wintrust Arena will be streamed on the WNBA League Pass, the team confirmed to the Tribune. Announcers Jason Ross Jr. and Shimmy Gray-Miller will call the game.

“The group of young ladies that we have, it’s a deserving thing for them to be seen,” head coach Teresa Weatherspoon said. “It’s good to know that it changed and for us to be seen and for us to play the game of basketball the way that we love and to have fun doing it with the world being able to watch.”

Rookie Angel Reese, the No. 7 pick in April’s WNBA draft, is expected to play Tuesday. But fellow Sky rookie Kamilla Cardoso, drafted No. 3, has been sidelined for four to six weeks with a shoulder injury sustained in the May 3 preseason game against Minnesota, the team announced Monday night.

Preseason broadcast access quickly became a contentious topic for the WNBA on the heels of one of the most highly anticipated draft classes in league history.

After the app incorrectly stated the entire opening slate of preseason games would be available via WNBA League Pass, fans began to take the issue into their own hands. Minnesota Lynx fan Alli Schneider livestreamed the entirety of Friday’s game against the Sky on X, earning more than 250,000 active viewers, including former WNBA star Sue Bird.

Although the livestream offered a shaky view of the game, the lack of access sparked frustration across the league.

“I’m still not over this,” forward Isabelle Harrison wrote on X. “The 2023 & 2024 national champions had their first W game streamed on a cell phone. Some way, some how. My rooks deserved that game to be televised.”

I’m still not over this.

The 2023 & 2024 National Champions had their first W game streamed on a cell phone.

Some way, some how. My rooks deserved that game to be televised.

— Isabelle Harrison (@OMG_itsizzyb) May 5, 2024

Providing livestreams or broadcasts of preseason games is a relatively new venture both for the WNBA and the Sky. While the entire NBA preseason is broadcast through local affiliates and League Pass, the WNBA selected two preseason games to offer in 2023: its annual exhibition game in Canada and the first preseason game of the No. 1 draft pick. There were no preseason games streamed in 2022.

This year the league expanded that broadcast offering to four games, adding another game featuring No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark (Atlanta vs. Indiana on May 9) and a game featuring No. 2 pick Cameron Brink (Los Angeles vs. Phoenix on May 10). But the influx of attention brought in by players like Clark, Brink, Cardoso and Reese stoked a new desire for broadcast accessibility that the league was not prepared to meet — at least in the preseason.

The WNBA will produce the Canada and Fever-Dream games, while the home teams (Wings and Mercury) will produce the two others.

“There are opportunities that exist all over the league and sometimes you can’t capitalize on them all,” wing Diamond DeShields said. “For those who were upset, I mean, I get it. But the league is doing their best to try and showcase as much as they can with all the resources that we have and fortunately we have one that will be broadcast for all our fans tomorrow. So for all those fans who were upset — make sure y’all tune in.”

The Sky will kick off the regular season on the road against the Dallas Wings on May 15.

In a 5-0 shutout of the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday, the Cubs didn’t register their first hit until the third inning when left fielder Ian Happ singled on a line drive to center. Starting Cubs pitcher Javier Assad threw 94 pitches over six innings with four hits, four walks, four strikeouts and no runs.

Leading up to Sunday’s game against the division rival, the Cubs were slashing .236/.315/.390 as a team, where they rank 19th, 13th, and 14th, respectively, in the majors.

With Cody Bellinger and Seiya Suzuki out of the lineup, the offense has been a lingering question for a couple of weeks and their absences show in the slim margins — except for that 17-run shutout by the Red Sox on April 27 — by which the team has won and lost. Suzuki and Bellinger have been ramping up for their returns and were running and hitting over the weekend. They’re expected to be back in the lineup within the coming days to help stabilize the offense.

Through the last five games, shortstop Dansby Swanson has an average of .067 and didn’t register a hit Friday or Saturday.

“I think with Dansby he has such a track record that we can kind of go back to. And we’re always trying to just kind of maintain a lot of his movements and some of the things that he’s working on approach-wise,” hitting coach Dustin Kelly said Sunday. “With some of the guys that have that track record, we try not to get too far away from what they’re really good at and what they’ve done really good in the past. There’s always little tweaks, little mechanical things that we are always kind of monitoring, but it’s usually not that far away. And I think that’s kind of where we feel with him right now.”

Photos: Chicago Cubs 5, Milwaukee Brewers 0

Kelly shared that despite Swanson’s recent numbers, he has encouraged the All-Star to remain confident and know that “each day is a new day and he has some way to impact the team.” Swanson, who has recorded a career high in ground balls and whiffs, broke through Sunday hitting a home run to center field in the sixth inning, bringing his season total to four and likely lifting his confidence a little.

“We’re all still human, right? And nobody wants to perform better than us. And at times, you just get so lost in results and numbers and you forget that the main job is to just show up as yourself and be yourself and be committed to who God made you to be,” Swanson said postgame.

“The biggest thing is just being connected. When you’re connected good things happen and this year has been a lot of disconnected moments in my swing and we’ve been working hard day and night almost to figure it out. I think today was a good step in the right direction,” Swanson said.

With late-game pitching an issue over the current 16-game stretch, the Cubs are desperately in need of some clutch hitting. So what exactly are they doing to try to get out of their collective hitting slump entering the third month of the season?

In their assessments of players’ hitting mechanics, some key markers Kelly and his staff look at are stride length, stride height and hand placement.

“There’s a ton of technology, there’s a ton of information for all these guys on their own to go look at and then we have a time in-house as well. (What) we talk about as hitting coaches a lot is we’re going to take the complex as coaches and try to make it really simple for the players,” Kelly said. “And a lot of times it’s just ‘hey you gotta be on the fastball in the middle of the zone and make sure you’re on time for that and use the big part of the field.’ Easier said than done but a lot of times that’s the approach you have to take to make it really simple for guys.”

Thanks to some promising starting pitching, the Cubs’ offensive slump hasn’t impacted their place in the standings, where they’re tied with the Brewers for the National League Central lead. But with upcoming games against the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves and the remaining division opponents, the Cubs need to improve their hitting — whether it be mechanics, how they see the ball or confidence — or their win total could look as questionable as their swings.

I’ve long admired the commitment of anyone who can get outside and run without a reason or destination, people for whom the running itself is the point.

Ohio native Kayla Jeter is one of them.

“My background is volleyball,” she told the Tribune. “I played in college at the University of Tennessee, then professionally overseas for a season. And I coached for two years at University of Cincinnati. I share that because the court’s 30 feet and even my teammates are like, ‘Wait, you run?’

“And, yeah, I’m choosing to run. I’m not punished to run. That’s typically how most of us have a relationship with running.”

For the last seven years, Jeter has run through the streets of Chicago, exploring the city and learning all of the “nooks and crannies” she says she wouldn’t have found on a bus or in a car. A wellness consultant, digital creator and athlete mental health specialist, she runs four days a week and strength trains twice a week.

As a global ambassador athlete for athleisure brand Lululemon, Jeter participates in races, panels and research and testing to help make running a more inclusive space. In March she participated in Further, the brand’s first-of-its-kind women’s six-day ultramarathon.

“It’s an exploration of human potential, specifically women, to see how far we can go when we’re fully supported with resources that are typically reserved for men,” Jeter explained. “When you think about exercise physiology and all the research happening around training interventions, injury prevention, nutrition and recovery, the majority of that research is based on male bodies — specifically white male bodies. Women are only represented in 6% of all the research in focus studies, and that shows up in our everyday life.”

Over the course of the ultramarathon — which is any run more than 26.2 miles — she ran 234.32 miles. Laughing when I asked, Jeter acknowledged just how wild the number is to hear.

To complete the unique race, Jeter ran a 2.5-mile loop over and over for six days on the certified course at Lake Cahuilla in La Quinta, Calif. She would start at 5 a.m. and run four to five laps around the course, taking a break every time she hit 10 miles.

As we chatted in a Lake View coffee shop that doubles as a bike shop, she explained the impact those miles had on her.

But she doesn’t run only to shine a light on issues affecting women. Jeter also runs for life — literally.

“My goal is to see the years my parents never saw,” she said. “My dad died at 62, my mom at 58 and I’m 34. So based on those numbers — not to be grim — but 60 is my average lifespan. So my goal through racing and being part of these experiences and research opportunities is to give people the tools they need to live a healthier lifestyle and actually live a longer life they can enjoy.

“Not just struggle through it or suffer through it, but really understand, you’re only going to be as healthy as you are in this moment. You can make changes along the way, but we’re only as young as we are in this moment. So how can you just get back in the driver’s seat and take care of yourself going forward?”

After the deaths of both of her parents, Jeter decided to do all she could to extend her own life, and along the way she found her passion while rewriting her relationship with what she calls “a primal movement.” In addition to women, she works to share her experiences in running and its impact on her health with Black communities.

“Over the years, it’s just become an exploration of, yes, myself and my surroundings, but really uncovering a community of people who are looking to find confidence in themselves and their bodies,” Jeter said. “Rewrite the relationship with something that they don’t feel like they have a connection to. And then also show that we, especially as Black women and people of color and diverse people from body, pace and experience, can also participate as well.”

On Wednesday she’ll set out on her seventh annual running challenge, 100 Miles of Summer. Since its creation, the health and wellness challenge Jeter created for summer-month accountability has more than 270,000 participants worldwide. The kickoff meetup for this year’s 100 Miles will be at Lululemon’s Lincoln Park store from 6-8 p.m. — and it’s already sold out.

“I created the challenge in 2018 where participants walk, run, jog or roll 100 miles,” Jeter said. “What we’re doing is leveraging movement as catalysts for better health and why that is so important, especially during the summertime and especially to Black communities because it’s a time of the year where people aren’t really invested in their health and well-being.”

Throughout our conversation she stressed that her focus is just on health and movement — whatever that may look like for someone. To Jeter, even the smallest lifestyle change can have an impact. In addition to her own challenge, she participates in local running communities such as Peace Runners 773, GRC and 7 on Sundays.

“We’re out doing all the things, but when we look at things like chronic disease and chronic illness and who that more disproportionately affects, it is the Black community,” Jeter said.

“I (want to) help people instill healthy habits, even if it’s just waking up and going for a walk or staying hydrated. It’s about using this movement that we all have access to, to a certain degree, to establish healthier life habits to live a healthier life.”

It’s something we hear tossed around in sports discussions constantly. We each define it differently, some metrics carry more weight than others. It’s completely subjective, but we ask anyway. It’s one of the greatest and forever arguments in sports.

Is it championships? Is it individual player awards? Is it impact on the game?

Candace Parker attended her first basketball game at two weeks old. After a basketball career that spans nearly her entire life, the former Naperville Central hoops star announced her retirement Sunday on social media. Parker leaves the game a three-time WNBA champion, WNBA Rookie of the Year, two-time WNBA Most Valuable Player, seven-time WNBA All-Star, two-time Olympic gold medalist, three-time Ms. Basketball of Illinois and with a host of other awards and accolades.

When Parker announced she was choosing to forgo her final season of eligibility at Tennessee to declare for the 2008 WNBA draft, a Tribune article titled “Candace Parker Goes Pro” asked, “Could Candace Parker do for women’s basketball in Chicago what Michael Jordan did for the Bulls?”

In that year’s draft, then-team President Margaret Stender and the Sky held the No. 2 pick. But with the hometown phenom Parker available, they wanted to trade up with the Los Angeles Sparks for the first overall pick.

“We’ve been talking to (L.A.) and they know we’re open to a deal. But Candace is hard to walk away from,” Stender said in February 2008 after news spread of Parker entering the draft.

The Sparks said their team would “keep its options open to the best thing” for the team.

“Candace Parker is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and Magic Johnson all rolled into one — that’s how good she is,” Sparks coach Michael Cooper said at the time.

The Sparks kept their pick and used it on Parker, while the Sky drafted LSU star and future WNBA MVP Sylvia Fowles.

In 2021, after 13 seasons with L.A., Parker returned to Chicago as a veteran superstar. With teammates Allie Quigley, Courtney Vandersloot and Kahleah Copper, she helped win the franchise’s first WNBA championship and the only championship by a Chicago professional sports team since 2016.

And the city showed up to watch her do it. For Games 3 and 4 of the 2021 WNBA Finals at Wintrust Arena, a sellout crowd of 10,387 was in attendance to watch the Sky defeat Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury.

Last summer, I wrote about how Chicagoans view the city as a basketball mecca. Parker represents that proud love and legacy.

“She’s the original Caitlin Clark. CP is Jordan and Caitlin is LeBron in terms of visibility,” Marquee Sports Sky reporter Karli Bell told me. “Candace Parker is the epitome of what a women’s Chicago basketball player is. She had a ferocity, intensity, and grit that represented the city of Chicago on such a level that everyone who was playing basketball at that time really wanted to emulate it.”

Bell, a former basketball player, was first introduced to Parker when she read a March 2002 Tribune feature on Parker as the 2002 Ms. Basketball of Illinois when she was 8 years old.

“I remember when she was Gatorade Player of the Year and in the McDonald’s High School All-American Game. She represented the city on such a level — even though she was from Naperville, she still repped Chicago by the way she carried herself on the court. She has a swagger and grace with a basketball that is Chicago,” Bell said.

Like many young girls in basketball, Bell tried to perfect her floater to look like Parker’s and spent hours in her Chicago alley practicing Parker’s step and lay-in technique. There’s a generation of young women hoopers with this same story. Not only did Parker show them what it was like to win on every level — two-time Class AA state champion, two-time NCAA champion — she played with such versatility and confidence she changed the way the post positions are played.

Looking back at Candace Parker’s 2 seasons with the Chicago Sky, including the team’s 1st WNBA title and all those records

While many who looked up to Parker didn’t make it to the WNBA, they can be seen in and around the game. And some of Parker’s fans, like the Sky’s Isabelle Harrison, did achieve WNBA dreams — a testament to Parker’s lasting influence in the game. Her two NCAA championships were the last two for legendary women’s basketball coach Pat Summit. And with Parker’s retirement, Harrison becomes the last active WNBA player to be coached by Summit.

But it wasn’t just women who admired Parker.

“‘The real CP3’ has an Illinois girls basketball high school resume that’s going to be extremely hard to top: four-time first-team all-state, back-to-back state titles, back-to-back-to back unanimous Illinois high school player of the year, back-to-back back unanimous USA Today, Naismith and Gatorade high school player of the year,” said Eugene McIntosh, co-founder of The Bigs and former Mt. Carmel basketball player. “Even though she’s not officially ‘from the crib,’ she was so raw that we adopted her. And you know how we feel about suburbanites claiming Chicago. Her Illustrious NCAA and W careers, specifically coming back and winning one with the Sky, have etched her name into legendary status.”

As a high school sophomore, Parker dunked for the first time in a game. It was the first dunk by a female athlete in Illinois. But she didn’t stop there. Parker made slam dunk history again when she became the first woman to enter and win the dunk contest in the McDonald’s All-American game.

Over her 16-year WNBA career, Parker averaged 16 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4 assists. She closes this chapter ranked ninth in WNBA history in career points, third in career rebounds, second in career defensive rebounds, seventh in career assists, fifth in career blocks, seventh in career made field goals, ninth in career field goal attempts, fourth in career double-doubles, eighth in career rebounds per game and third in defensive rebounds per game. Parker is one of five players in WNBA history with multiple triple-doubles.

In addition to her on-court contributions, Parker advocated for women and girls in sports and became an example of motherhood among female athletes.

As she moves into whatever the future holds, Parker has said she is interested in WNBA team ownership. I can think of a local team who could use her at the helm.

“Dear Summer,” Parker wrote on Sunday. “I know you gon’ miss me.” A reference to the Jay-Z song from rapper Memphis Bleek’s fourth album. The song, Hov’s metaphor-filled love letter to his rap career, was the perfect ending note for her career. She often used the legendary rapper’s lyrics to make points and motivate herself, so I’ll use some to remember her in kind. In “Young Forever” Jay-Z says:

“Reminisce, talk some s—, forever young is in your mind / Leave a mark they can’t erase, neither space nor time / So when the director yells cut, I’ll be fine / I’m forever young.”

Throughout her basketball career, Parker grew up before our eyes. She won, she lost, she fell down and got back up again. In the face of disrespect, she’d hit a new milestone. Parker showed us what it meant to never cheat the game, but most importantly to never cheat ourselves. When the time was right and she was at peace, she made her exit.

So to answer the question: Did Parker do for women’s basketball in Chicago what Jordan did for the Bulls?

When the history is written, she’s in there. She’s up there. She’s at the top, near the top. You have to speak about her.

That’s her impact.