Ricketts and the Cubs will soon launch an 18-and-under softball league for women in ChicagoGETTY IMAGES
Cubs co-Owner LAURA RICKETTS yesterday helped make a "large Cubs donation to remodel Winnemac Park’s baseball and softball fields, where Amundsen High School plays its home games." Ricketts, who was joined at the ceremony by Cubs wives and girlfriends, added the team in June is "launching an 18-and-under softball league so girls will have the opportunity to play summer ball throughout their high school years." The pilot softball league, which is "meant to be the girls’ answer" to MLB’s RBI program, will "feature between eight and 10 teams from Chicago Public Schools" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 5/2).
MAXIMIZING POTENTIAL: TOM BRADY recently "discussed a number of hot-button issues surrounding the Patriots" while speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, but he also "alluded to potentially becoming a motivational speaker in retirement." Brady: "How do athletes, how do people in every career maximize their potential? How can you, if you commit to the right things, be the best you can be? How can you feel your best? How can you be your best? That’s part of the second career of my life, but what I want to do in the meantime is inspire people through my actions" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/2).
NAMES: Former Nike exec DAVID REICHERT, who was fired in July ’14, “pleaded guilty to defrauding his former employer by using its software to grant two outside companies he operated much higher discounts than the sportswear giant allowed for even its best wholesale customers.” Reichert worked for Nike for “nearly 15 years as a sale account executive in its apparel division” (OREGONLIVE.com, 5/1)....PRESIDENT TRUMP yesterday presented the ’17 Army football team with the Commander in Chief’s Trophy for the “first time in 21 years” (RECORDONLINE.com, 5/1)....Former Augusta National Chair BILLY PAYNE, a former football player at the Univ. of Georgia, was “celebrated Monday night in Athens at the naming ceremony” for the school’s indoor athletic facility. The new facility is named the William Porter Payne and Porter Otis Payne Indoor Athletic Facility in “honor of Payne and his father” (AJC.com, 5/1)....NBCU President & CEO STEVE BURKE’s compensation for ’17 amounted to $46.5M, “just up from” $46M in ’16 (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 4/30)....Dick's Sporting Goods, which "stopped selling AR-15-style rifles earlier this year, has hired the Glover Park Group to lobby on gun control" (POLITICO.com, 5/1)....Bulls President & COO MICHAEL REINSDORF is "scheduled to represent" the team on the dais at the NBA Draft lottery May 15 at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 5/2)....IFC acquired U.S. rights to "THE CATCHER WAS A SPY," with PAUL RUDD starring as MOE BERG, a pro ball player "who was a spy against the Nazis." The World War II-set film will be released June 22 (DEADLINE.com, 5/2)....DALE EARNHARDT JR. and wife AMY's first child, ISLA ROSE, was born Monday night (AP, 5/1).
