Theo Epstein, who transformed the long-suffering Chicago Cubs and helped bring home a drought-busting championship in 2016, is stepping down after nine seasons as the club’s president of baseball operations.

The first baseman from Cuba got 21 of the 30 first-place ballots in voting by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa blew out a tire on the grey Lexus he was driving in a collision with a curb that left the vehicle smoking when he was arrested on misdemeanor DUI charges in February, according to an affidavit filed by the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

Tony La Russa, the Hall of Famer who won a World Series with the Oakland Athletics and two more with the St. Louis Cardinals, is returning to manage the Chicago White Sox 34 years after they fired him.

The White Sox announced Monday Renteria won't return after he led them to a 35-25 record in his pandemic-shortened fourth year. They ended a string of seven consecutive losing seasons with their first playoff appearance since 2008.

All season long, a fan in the south suburbs has scored all 63 games – and then illustrated the scorecards with original artwork.

As MLB sprints through two months, the businesses in the neighborhoods surrounding the stadiums that rely so heavily on thousands making their way through the turnstiles 81 times a year are struggling, their futures murky at best.

Amid uncertainty in Chicago and across the nation, a ray of hope: Chicago’s baseball teams are in first place, and the city’s beloved Bears pulled off a miracle comeback. Can professional sports actually be a tonic for tough times?

The entire three-game series between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis at Busch Stadium was postponed Friday night after two more Cardinals players and a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Cardinals have been off since last Friday, when two players returned positive coronavirus tests. Eight players in total have tested positive, including star catcher Yadier Molina. 

The game at a newly constructed ballpark on the cornfield adjacent to the site of the 1989 movie had been scheduled for Aug. 13 in Dyersville, Iowa.

While Major League Baseball is beginning this season without fans in its stadiums, the famed ballhawks of Wrigley Field remain at their post amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In any other year, a parking spot near Wrigley Field on a game day would be a mirage or a miracle. But on the third day of the 2020 baseball season, parking spots were easy to find, and the cheek-to-jowl lines were nonexistent.

Little about this pandemic-delayed season is routine — but for fans looking to see major league baseball live, there are few options besides the rooftops along Waveland and Sheffield avenues.

The Cubs were about to open their season at long last against the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday, and it sure sounded like a packed house at Wrigley Field. Of course, no fans were allowed inside the famed ballpark. The noise was piped in.

A baseball season that was on the brink before it ever began because of the virus outbreak is set to start Thursday night.