NEWS » ts you get to watch Ledecky and William

CHICAGO -- Out went Chris Sale and the shredded 1976 throwback jerseys. In came 1983 uniforms and a four-game winning streak.James Shields allowed four singles in 7 2/3 innings, Adam Eaton homered and the White Sox stayed unbeaten since their aces suspension by beating the Cubs 3-0 on Tuesday night in Chicagos crosstown rivalry.When Sale tore up the 1976-style jerseys before his scheduled start Saturday, the White Sox had to put on their 1983-era uniforms as Sale was sent home. Theyve won four straight in those white jerseys as Sale serves a five-day suspension.Cant wear them tomorrow, manager Robin Ventura said, noting theyll have to wear visiting dark jerseys as the series shifts to Wrigley Field. If we could, I think we would.The Cubs lost their second straight and never got to use new closer Aroldis Chapman hours after he joined the team and struggled answering questions related to an altercation last year with his girlfriend.The Cubs had no extra-base hits. Kris Bryant was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts and has fanned seven times in 10 at-bats against Shields.The starting pitching the last four games has forced us out of our game plan, Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.Shields (5-12) struck out five and continued an impressive turnaround from a terrible first three starts after being acquired from San Diego last month.This is the guy we were thinking of when we got him, Ventura said.Nate Jones finished the eighth and David Robertson worked a perfect ninth for his 24th save as the White Sox (50-50) returned to .500.Jose Abreu had two hits, including an RBI single in the first off Kyle Hendricks (9-7) that ended his streak of 22 2/3 innings without allowing an earned run.Eaton added a solo homer in the fifth on a day where both teams faced off-field issues.Chapman arrived after being acquired from the New York Yankees and immediately faced scrutiny from reporters over his offseason domestic violence incident and ensuing 29-game suspension. Chapman said he couldnt recall a conversation with Cubs personnel about off-field conduct that Chicago described in a team release when it announced the trade.President of baseball operations Theo Epstein said the Spanish-speaking Chapman did not understand the reporters questions, adding that Chapman was pretty nervous and insisting the closer understands what the Cubs expect.Minutes later, Ventura asserted he can work with Sale despite the aces critical comments of the manager for not sticking up for him when he was suspended for the collared jerseys he objected to.Shields, who allowed 22 runs in his first three starts with the White Sox, walked four. He got Dexter Fowler to pop out with the bases loaded to end the second and worked out of another jam in the sixth.Whats been the difference?Maybe luck? I dont know, Shields said. Honestly theres not much of a difference when Im pitching now compared to what I was doing before. The only thing I can give is staying ahead of hitters and having better fastball command.Hendricks, who struck out seven, exited after Todd Fraziers two-out bloop single in the sixth. Travis Wood entered and walked three straight batters to force in a run.TRAINERS ROOMCubs: Maddon said OF Jorge Soler (left hamstring) needs nine or 10 more at-bats at Triple-A Iowa before hell return. ... Bryant was the DH, but not because of any injuries during a head-first slide into second base a night earlier. Itll be nice to get off my feet a little bit, he said. After (the slide), I felt fine.White Sox: Ventura said 2B Brett Lawrie (left hamstring) was headed to the disabled list after missing his fifth straight game. ... LHP Carlos Rodon (left wrist) expects to start Aug. 3 at Detroit after throwing 58 pitches in a rehab start Monday for Triple-A Charlotte. Everything felt good, he said.UP NEXTThe Cubs host the final two games of the series, with RHP Jason Hammel (9-5, 3.35 ERA) to start Wednesday night. RHP Anthony Ranaudo (1-0, 17.18), acquired from Texas in a May trade, will make his White Sox debut.Swell Schweiz . Soukalova missed only one target and completed the 15-kilometre course in 40 minutes, 32.6 seconds for both victories in this seasons individual discipline. Darya Domracheva of Belarus was second, 34. Swell Flasche Rosa . -- Most satisfying to Russ Smith about No. http://www.swellflascheschweiz.ch/ ., and Rudi Swiegers of Kipling, Sask., took sixth spot on Saturday in pairs at the NHK Trophy ISU Grand Prix figure skating competition. Swell Bottle Schweiz . DAmigo scored twice in regulation and added the shootout winner as the Toronto Marlies edged the San Antonio Rampage 5-4 in American Hockey League action. Hydro Flask Schweiz . Anthony Calvillo, through 20 CFL seasons, was frequently invincible and largely stoic in the heat of competition. But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human.Katie Ledeckys Olympic Games are off to a flying start: The 19-year-old swimmer took gold in her first individual event Sunday night. And she didnt just win -- she blew her competition out of the water, finishing with a nearly 5-second lead and breaking her own world record in the 400-meter freestyle.By holding world records in the 400, 800 and 1500 freestyle, Ledeckys dominance continues to be astounding. During Sunday nights broadcast, as Ledecky quickly pulled ahead of the pack, NBCs Rowdy Gaines proclaimed: A lot of people say she swims like a man. She doesnt swim like a man -- she swims like Katie Ledecky.Indeed, the tendency to compare women athletes to men seems to arise no matter what, in an attempt to contextualize female athletic achievement in the male terms we understand as default.This girl is doing respectable times for guys, 11-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte told USA Today. Olympic silver medalist Connor Jaeger took the comparison beyond her impressive times. Her stroke is like a mans stroke, he told the Washington Post. I mean that in a positive way. She swims like a man.Lochte, Jaeger and most people comparing Ledecky to male swimmers are trying to be nothing but praiseworthy. And the idea that she has a mans stroke isnt entirely hyperbolic. As espnWs?Philip Hersh explains, her coach tweaked her mechanics to employ techniques rarely used by female swimmers:And yet, its easy to see why many on social media reacted strongly to the idea of comparing Ledecky to a man in the first place. Ledecky uses a stroke traditionally ascribed to men, but theres nothing about the skills required to employ that stroke that are uniquely male. Strength and timing can be acquired, and history has shown us that both improved training and increased access to sports helps close the gap between men and women athletes.This is demonstrably true in swimming. In 2012, the Atlantics Robinson Meyer found that womens world-record times in the 100 free have improved at a greater pace than the mens times since 1905. Interestingly, he also compared mens and womens world records across events and found that women come closest to men in longer races, particularly the 1500.Thats noteworthy with regard to Ledecky because, while she holds the world record in the 1500 free, she wont have the chance to swim the event in Rio. The womens mile is glaringly absent from the Olympic program, which has featured the mens 1500 since 1908.The reasons are vague and unconvincing -- everything from a lack of global reach to a dearth of public interest. But while the 1500 requires more patience from viewers than shorter races with more immediate excitement, theres no explanation for why that same reasoning isnt applied to the men -- nor why it also doesnt hold true for the 10K open-water swim, which was introduced to the Olympics for both men and women in 2008. As for the global naature of the womens mile, since the 1500 was added to the FINA world championship program in 2001, the event has hailed medalists from 11 different countries.ddddddddddddThe International Olympic Committee has thus far rejected FINAs attempts to push for the womens 1500 in the Olympics, citing too many events on the schedule. Thats a very real concern, and has led the IOC to foolishly eliminate other essential events in the past. (Welcome back, baseball and softball.)Having men swim a 1500 while the women swim an 800 harkens back to a time of immense resistance to all womens events, particularly those endurance sports thought to be too physically strenuous for delicate female bodies. And while that might not be the intention, its not happening in a vacuum. Its happening in a sports climate that tells women tennis players they cant play five sets, that belittles womens basketball and soccer players for hypothetically not being able to compete with the men, that delegitimizes womens sports entirely when athletes like Serena Williams or the UConn basketball team are deemed too dominant -- dominance for which Ledecky receives praise when its framed in mens terms.Its a vestige of still seeing sports as inherently male space, and of mostly male fans and commentators unable or unwilling to consider female athletes by their merits alone. Forgetting that half of sports fans are women, the narrative takes shape around terms to which the prototypical mens fan can relate. But when women are derided when theyre not as strong or fast as the men, yet simultaneously scorned when they dominate other women, we miss the point of womens sports entirely. We miss the fact that playing like a girl means something entirely different today than it meant 50 years ago.Its important to remember that Ledecky, who is going for a medal Tuesday night in the 200 freestyle, doesnt swim like a man -- she swims like Katie Ledecky. Mone Davis indeed does throw my curveball like Clayton Kershaw and my fastball like Mone Davis. There isnt a ceiling on womens athletic achievement, and strong female athletes will continue to innovate and evolve their events in terms of womens sports, not mens, even if and when that means competing on the same level.Regardless of comparison, womens sports need to be celebrated and enjoyed on their own merits -- by men and women alike. Whether you watched Michael Jordan as a Knicks fan, Mariano Rivera as a Red Sox fan or Nadia Comaneci as an American, you were still watching greatness, even if you were on the other team.So savor the moments you get to watch Ledecky and Williams and Simone Biles. Theyre not redirecting female athletes into a supposedly superior, male space. Theyre reframing womens sports in terms of potentialts you get to watch Ledecky and William[/url] ' ' '