Illinois
Big Ten Network Televising All 3 Games in Purdue-Illinois Baseball Series
All three games of the Purdue-Illinois baseball series will be televised on Big Ten Network later this week. Both teams announced the news on Monday. This weekend marks the final one of the conference’s regular season schedule before entering tournament play.
Because of Big Ten Network’s coverage, there have some time changes to the three-game series, which runs from Thursday, May 16 through Saturday, May 18 and will be played at Alexander Field in West Lafayette, Ind. Here’s the updated schedule, per Purdue’s social media team:
Game 1: Thursday, May 16 at 8 p.m. ET
Game 2: Friday, May 17 at 8 p.m. ET
Game 3: Saturday, May 18 at 3 p.m. ET
Heading into the final series of the regular season, Illinois sits in first place in the Big Ten standings. The Fighting Illini own a conference record of 15-6 and are 30-17 overall. Purdue is in a three-way tie for third place with a 13-8 record in Big Ten play. The Boilermakers are 33-19 on the year.
Indiana and Michigan are also 13-8 in Big Ten play this season. Purdue dropped series to both the Hoosiers and Wolverines earlier this year. Indiana and Michigan play a three-game series in Bloomington, Ind. this weekend.
At 14-7, Nebraska sits in second place all alone. The Huskers close out the regular season with a three-game series against Michigan State.
There’s a lot of drama heading into the final regular season weekend of the Big Ten season. Would you want it any other way?
Illinois
Pritzker blasts Johnson’s push to keep Bears in Chicago: ‘The mayor has no plan’
CHICAGO (WLS) — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker had some harsh words for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday, exposing the deep divide between the two leaders over the future of the Chicago Bears.
It comes as the legislature heads into the final two weeks of the session with still no deal on a bill to enable the team to move to Arlington Heights.
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Pritzker favors helping the Bears move to Arlington Heights rather than losing them to Hammond, Indiana. But Johnson insists that the best thing for the Bears is to stay in Chicago. In his strongest words yet, the governor dismissed that notion.
“He has no plan. There’s no plan,” Pritzker said.
While speaking to reporters on Monday, Pritzker called Johnson out for continuing to push for the Bears to stay at Soldier Field despite the team repeatedly making it clear that if they are going to stay in Illinois, it will be in Arlington Heights at the former racetrack property the team owns. If it is not there, they will pursue the offer from Indiana to build a stadium in Hammond.
As lawmakers consider a so-called megaprojects bill that would give the Bears a property tax break on a new stadium in Arlington Heights, the governor was frustrated by Johnson’s Chicago push.
“I know that the mayor has no plan. He has come up with no plan at all about how the Bears would end up in the city of Chicago. So, that’s problematic. I’d love them to be in the city, but we’re three years in now, and he still has no plan,” Pritzker said.
The mayor’s office responded, saying, in part, “The City’s proposal remains the only plan centered on public ownership alongside a funding mechanism that does not burden property taxpayers while keeping the Bears in Chicago.”
And while Johnson says he will continue to work with stakeholders to keep the Bears where they are, the governor took another swipe related to budget requests, suggesting significant Chicago and Springfield communication problems.
“Again, we’ve seen almost nothing out of the mayoral administration here on that subject, or really any other. And so, to show up in May and have a bunch of demands seems like late in the game, and it’s unfortunate that’s happened most years,” Pritzker said.
Meanwhile, there are concerns about infrastructure needs around the Arlington Heights property. Particularly, roads and major interchanges would need upgrades. The concerns prompted mayors from neighboring Palatine, Rolling Meadows, and Schaumburg to send letters to the governor and leading lawmakers requesting a seat at the table over those plans.
“We’re very concerned about, how is all this traffic when you’re dealing with 60,000-70,000 people that are going to be either for a Bears game or a concert or some other event that’s there? How are they going to get around?” said Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly.
While the stadium politics continue to play out in Illinois, the Bears are planning to provide the NFL with an update on their future plans at the league’s meeting on Tuesday in Orlando.
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Illinois
Pritzker family tree: Illinois’ richest dynasty
Illinois
Fire sweeps through old Balmoral Park racetrack facilities in Crete, Illinois
A fire at the vacant old Balmoral Park racetrack in Crete, Illinois, sent smoke billowing over several south Chicago suburbs Sunday morning.
Around 6:30 a.m., flames raced through the structures on the old racetrack grounds. Fire departments from several suburbs, as well as Northwest Indiana, were called in to help.
Balmoral Park dates back to 1926, when it opened as Lincoln Fields. The racetrack hosted both thoroughbred and harness races over the years.
A fire also damaged the grandstand at the racetrack during renovations in 1952, forcing the races for the 1952-53 season to move to Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney. Balmoral in turn picked up some races in 1986 after a fire destroyed the grandstand at Arlington Park in Arlington Heights the summer before.
Balmoral Park was hosting only harness racing when it closed at the end of 2015. The property was purchased the following year by Horse Shows In The Sun as a hunter-jumper horse show venue, but this only lasted a few years and the property has stood vacant ever since, reports noted.
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