Illinois
How baseball got its start in Illinois
Courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
Rockford’s well-known Forest Metropolis Base Ball Membership, whose upset of the touring Washington Nationals in 1867 was the discuss of the baseball world. In 1869, the workforce, led by Albert Goodwill Spalding, toured Illinois, crushing native golf equipment and demonstrating that professionalism was important for groups wishing to compete on the highest ranges. Already basically skilled in 1869, the membership brazenly paid gamers in 1870 and competed within the first main league, the Nationwide Affiliation of Skilled Base Ball Gamers.
Lengthy earlier than the designated hitter, November World Sequence night time video games and $30 million salaries there was a sport of baseball that many followers would most likely acknowledge in its rudimentary kind. Right here in Springfield, we’d not acknowledge the Capital, Lone Star, or Dexter Base Ball Golf equipment however they have been all groups from our neighborhood that performed within the post-Civil Warfare period in central Illinois. Robert Sampson, a former central Illinois newsman and now editor of the Journal of the Illinois State Historic Society, has supplied baseball followers and native historical past lovers with a short however extraordinary examine of the sport in its toddler years. This was when native communities discovered their very own fields of goals, when civic satisfaction led to paid professionals, and when guidelines disputes typically resulted in baseball video games ending in brawls.
Ballists, Useless Beats, and Muffins: Inside Early Baseball in Illinois is a pleasant assortment of historical past and baseball anecdotes for each informal and critical baseball followers. The muffins of the title have been gamers of restricted fielding capacity. They may hit however weren’t excellent within the subject. Centuries later they’d discover their place in modern-day baseball lineups as designated hitters. Printed by College of Illinois Press, Inside Early Baseball was formally launched Could 2.
Baseball is greater than a sport for a lot of followers. It’s a lifetime expertise. Robert Sampson’s vivid account reminds us how the sport started and why we anxiously wait each season for an additional Opening Day.
The guide is just not prolonged, the textual content is simply 164 pages. However there’s nice element within the journey throughout the Illinois communities that hosted groups and manipulated the nonetheless nascent guidelines of baseball in an effort to achieve some benefit over the workforce from a neighboring neighborhood. Along with the textual content, Sampson contains practically 70 pages of appendices and notes. That materials provides substantial info to the baseball saga. Readers study, for instance, that the assorted baseball groups throughout Illinois included attorneys, state staff, bankers, postal staff, insurance coverage brokers and engineers. Within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties members of those self same professions have been nonetheless enjoying on softball groups in leagues organized at Riverside Park and the Brown Bomber Ballpark, a baseball facility situated close to Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport.
The saga of baseball in central Illinois additionally begins with a reminder that in each baseball and the world issues might change, however they principally stay the identical. On Oct. 18, 1869, Quincy, Illinois, welcomed to its fairgrounds the skilled baseball workforce, the Cincinnati Crimson Stockings. The workforce had barnstormed throughout America, touring as far west as San Francisco. All through their journey the Crimson Stockings had been undefeated and would now face the hometown Occidental Senior Base Ball Membership.
The Crimson Stockings have been the primary skilled baseball workforce within the land. Newspapers reported that just one participant on the squad was from Cincinnati, the remaining had been lured to the workforce by cash. The Decatur Magnet, reporting on the sport, noticed that “Base ball (it was then two phrases) is being killed by the rising customized of using professionals to do the arduous work and play the matches.” However then, simply as now, followers flocked to see the sport. The Crimson Stockings demanded a assure of $250 plus bills for the sport. They have been paid, a big crowd attended and Cincinnati prevailed over the Quincy workforce by a rating of 51 to 7. It turned out to be the ultimate sport for the Quincy workforce. Skilled baseball had arrived in Illinois.
Courtesy Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
Springfield connections. Left: Jesse Ok. Dubois, highly effective political and enterprise chief in Springfield, performed a key position in offering a baseball subject for the Springfield Capital Base Ball Membership, whose title partially matched that of the Capital Horse Railway Firm, owned by the previous state auditor. Center: The Capital Horse Railway’s superintendent, Alexander Starne. The Democrat was a former state officeholder who, like his Republican accomplice, Dubois, left politics for enterprise ventures. Each Starne and Dubois had sons enjoying for Springfield groups. Proper: At his dying the one man to characterize the identical state within the U.S. Senate below each Democratic and Republican affiliations, Fred T. Dubois was born into political prominence in wealth, the son of Jesse Ok. Dubois, and performed baseball in Springfield and at Alton’s Shurtleff Faculty.
In Springfield the creation of a baseball workforce adopted a convention acquainted to most denizens of the capital metropolis. Two businessmen, Jesse Dubois, a Republican and Jesse Starne, a Democrat, each former state officeholders, organized the Capital Baseball Membership in 1866. At their organizational assembly they chose property owned by DuBois, Railway Park, as the placement for his or her baseball subject. It was close to Springfield’s horse railway, the handy technique of transportation within the post-Civil Warfare period. Springfield’s second baseball membership, the Pioneer First Firm, fashioned by members of a volunteer fireplace firm, would additionally play on the sphere. A visiting newspaper editor from the Pike County Democrat noticed in 1867 that Springfield appeared to be bothered with “base ball on the mind.” The non-public park that hosted baseball additionally turned a venue for political rallies, capturing contests and ice-skating within the winter.
As the recognition of baseball unfold by means of Illinois and the nation, the enjoying fields weren’t obtainable to everybody within the sport. Sampson devotes a chapter to the efforts of Blacks and girls to take part on the sphere. Each made efforts to be included within the development of the sport, however each have been equally unsuccessful of their efforts. As the sport gained recognition, the dominant male tradition deemed baseball unsuited for each kids and females. African-American gamers, whereas sometimes forming groups, met opposition from the Nationwide Affiliation of Base Ball Gamers, who in 1867 denied the applying of Black groups for membership.
Stuart Shiffman covers baseball and books for Illinois Instances.
Alexandra Szustakiewicz, 64, of Darien, Illinois, was charged with two counts of hate crime and one count of disorderly conduct, officials said.
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An Illinois woman was charged with hate crimes after she attacked a man for wearing a sweatshirt with the word “Palestine” written on it at a suburban Chicago Panera Bread, prosecutors and officials said.
Alexandra Szustakiewicz, 64, of Darien, Illinois, was charged with two counts of hate crime and one count of disorderly conduct, DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin and Downers Grove Chief of Police Michael DeVries announced in a statement Monday. The charges stem from an incident Saturday at a Panera Bread in Downers Grove, a village about 23 miles southwest of downtown Chicago.
Downers Grove police said Szustakiewicz was at Panera Bread shortly before noon, local time, on Saturday when she “confronted and yelled expletives at a man” who was wearing a sweatshirt with the word “Palestine” written on it. Szustakiewicz then allegedly attempted to hit a cell phone out of the hands of a woman who was with the man when the woman began recording the encounter.
According to the statement, officers responded to a report of a disturbance at the Panera Bread, and Szustakiewicz was taken into custody the following day without incident. A complaint filed against Szustakiewicz alleged that she “committed a hate crime by reason of perceived national origin” of the two victims.
During her first court appearance Monday morning, a judge granted prosecutors’ request that Szustakiewicz have no contact with the victims and that she may not enter the Panera Bread where the incident occurred, the statement said. Szustakiewicz is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 16 for arraignment.
“Every member of society, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or any other individual characteristic, deserves to be treated with respect and civility,” Berlin said in a statement. “This type of behavior and the accompanying prejudice have no place in a civilized society and my office stands ready to file the appropriate charges in such cases.”
Civil rights organization: Victim shielded his wife from punches
The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, condemned the incident on Monday. The organization called Szustakiewicz’s behavior “shameful and abusive.”
CAIR-Chicago said Szustakiewicz had verbally and physically attacked a couple, identified as Waseem and his pregnant wife, for wearing a Palestine hoodie. The organization added that Waseem “shielded his wife from several punching attempts” during the encounter.
The incident was captured on video, according to CAIR-Chicago, and shared on social media — including on X, where it garnered about 1.2 million views by Monday night.
In the video, a woman lunged at a person who recorded the incident with a cell phone. A man then attempted to stop the woman, pushing her back with his arm, asking: “What are you doing?”
The video then showed the woman trying to hit the man, with a beverage she held spilling onto the ground. The woman continued attempting to swipe at the victims while threatening to call the police.
Later, the man is heard telling the woman to stop. Footage then showed the woman approaching the cash register, asking an employee to call the police.
Moments later, the woman is captured on video trying to hit the person recording the incident, with the man stepping in between them. The man is heard telling the woman: “Get away from my wife.”
The man and the person recording the video are then seen walking away from the woman, while she appears to follow them. The video then shows the man pushing the woman back, prompting both to threaten to punch each other.
“I’m a born and raised American who took his wife out for lunch. I was not able to do that simply because I was Palestinian,” Waseem told CAIR-Chicago.
Latest incident amid surge in Islamophobia, hate crimes
CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab said Saturday’s incident along with other recent hate incidents across the U.S. “reflect a broader pattern of hostility and intolerance towards Palestinian Americans and the Muslim community at large.”
Between January and June 2024, CAIR documented nearly 5,000 incoming bias complaints nationwide — a 69% increase of recorded complaints from the same period in 2023. The organization also released a report earlier this year, which found that CAIR received the “highest number of complaints it has ever received in its 30-year history” last year.
The report documented more than 8,000 complaints regarding anti-Muslim hate and nearly half of those complaints were reported in the final three months of 2023. The report noted that the wave of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim incidents is primarily due to the escalation of violence in Gaza following Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Numerous incidents have sparked fear among Muslim-American and Arab-American communities. About a week after the Oct. 7 attack, an Illinois man was charged with a hate crime after he fatally stabbed a 6-year-old and seriously injured the child’s mother in what authorities said was a violent response to the Israel-Hamas war.
In April, prosecutors said a New Jersey man was convicted of hate crimes after he attacked a Muslim man near a New York City food cart. A Texas woman was charged in June after authorities said she tried to drown a Muslim child at an apartment complex pool.
Last month, a New York City woman was indicted for an anti-Muslim attack after she pepper sprayed an Uber driver earlier this year, according to prosecutors.
A number of schools from Chicago and the suburbs were recognized as among the top elementary schools in Illinois, according to a new list.
The “2025 Best Elementary and Middle Schools” list from U.S. News and World Report examined more than 79,000 public schools in all 50 states, a press release revealed. Editors used publicly available data from the U.S. Department of Education to analyze mathematics and reading performance at the state and district levels — while accounting for student background and achievement in core subjects.
For a school corporation to receive a district-level ranking, at least two of the top performing schools must rank in the top 75% of the overall elementary or middle school rankings, according to the website. In all, 47,573 elementary schools and 23,861 middle schools were assessed.
In Illinois, a total of 3,421 schools were ranked. Seven of the top 25 schools in the state were Chicago Public Schools, including the top school, Edison Elementary Regional Gifted Center.
Almost all of the top 25 schools were in either the city or suburbs — except for No. 10 – Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in Rockford and No. 22 – Congerville Elementary School in downstate Woodford County.
Following behind Edison Elementary Regional Gifted Center was Hinsdale’s Oak Elementary School and Naperville’s Meadows Glen Elementary School at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. Lenart Elementary Regional Gifted Center, a Chicago Public School, and Brook Forest Elementary School rounded out the top five.
Here’s a look into the top 25 elementary schools in Illinois, according to the report.
- Edison Elementary Regional Gifted Center – Chicago
- Oak Elementary School – Hinsdale
- Meadows Glen Elementary School – Naperville
- Lenart Elementary Regional Gifted Center – Chicago
- Brook Forest Elementary School – Oak Brook
- Elm Elementary School – Burr Ridge
- Forest Hills Elementary School – Western Springs
- The Lane Elementary School – Hinsdale
- Eisenhower Academy – Joliet
- Thurgood Marshall Elementary School – Rockford
- Skinner North Elementary School – Chicago
- Greenbriar Elementary School – Northbrook
- Westmoor Elementary School – Northbrook
- Ellsworth Elementary School – Naperville
- Prospect Elementary School – Clarendon Hills
- Walker School – Clarendon Hills
- Lincoln Elementary School – River Forest
- Highlands Elementary School – Naperville
- Bronzeville Classical Elementary School – Chicago
- George B Carpenter Elementary School – Park Ridge
- Madison Elementary School – Hinsdale
- Congerville Elementary School – Congerville
- Decatur Classical Elementary School – Chicago
- Lincoln Elementary School – Chicago
- Hawthorne Elementary Scholastic Academy – Chicago
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