Good morning, Chicago.
The 2023 MLB season begins with new rules, old narratives and the same opening-day dreams.
The season figures to be an important one for MLB, which instituted several rule changes in an effort to build a better relationship with younger fans.
The Cubs open the season today at home versus the Milwaukee Brewers to kick off a three-game series before going on a three-game trip to Cincinnati. Here’s the full schedule — and our guide to watch or stream all the games.
The Sox enter the season today with their opener against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.
Can’t make it to the games? Follow along with Cubs reporter Meghan Montemurro at Wrigley and Sox reporter LaMond Pope in Houston.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.
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West Side incumbents fending off challengers in 24th and 29th ward runoffs
Two West Side incumbent aldermen — one seeking his third term and the other looking to get elected to her first — are fending off a pair of challengers who are short on public experience but have long ties to the neighborhoods they want to represent.
Both opponents looking to defeat Ald. Monique Scott, 24th, and Ald. Chris Taliaferro, 29th, respectively, have steep hills to climb to oust them in the April 4 runoff.
Chicago’s runoff election: Everything you need to know about races for mayor and aldermen
The prosecution’s star witness in the “ComEd Four” trial testified Wednesday that then-House Speaker Michael Madigan called upon the utility to raise $450,000 at its annual fundraiser for the Illinois Democratic Party during the middle of negotiations over a massive utility bill that would pass later that year.
Fidel Marquez, a former senior vice president at ComEd, told the jury he was “surprised” by the size of the demand, which represented an increase of as much as $200,000 from previous fundraisers coordinated for Madigan each year by ComEd and its parent company, Exelon.
‘ComEd Four’ bribery trial: What you need to know
Twenty years ago, Mayor Richard M. Daley shut down Chicago’s third airport — Merrill C. Meigs Field
A wrecking crew used bulldozers to carve giant X’s into the airstrip late on March 30, 2003. The next day — with the runway rendered useless to aircraft — Daley told reporters he was trying to reduce any airborne threat against downtown buildings “in these very uncertain times” only a year and a half after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
For 55 years the small airport hosted private and regional charter flights, becoming the busiest single-runway airport in the United States in 1955. Dignitaries loved it because it provided easy access to downtown Chicago without the need to travel on the city’s expressways.
Take a deep dive into the Tribune’s archives with the the Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter
Column: Unsolicited advice for Chicago managers David Ross and Pedro Grifol? Just win.
Everyone looks good managing a Chicago team in the Cactus League, writes columnist Paul Sullivan. Now comes the hard part for Pedro Grifol and David Ross.
Enjoy the city, gentlemen. And just win.
Broadway star Norm Lewis says you have to find a sense of hope in ‘A Soldier’s Play’
“A Soldier’s Play” opens with the murder of Sergeant Vernon C. Waters, a Black noncommissioned officer on an army base in Louisiana. Lewis plays Captain Richard Davenport, a lawyer who graduated from Howard University and now serves in the military police. When he is assigned to investigate the homicide, Davenport represents the first Black officer that most of the men on base, Black or white, have ever seen.
“The story itself is told through Black eyes,” said Norm Lewis. “I think that that’s one reason why it’s so important to get this message out around the country, because it is telling our story.”
