5 Things To Know Saturday At The Kentucky Derby

Josh Barfield had a decision to make. He could remain with the Arizona Diamondbacks, a team he helped build into a playoff contender. Or he could accept a new challenge with the Chicago White Sox. A sign came in the form of the car in front of him while sitting at a light with his wife and daughter.

It all comes down to the final week for the Chicago Cubs, a team that has toyed with its fans emotions from opening day. Six road games against two playoff-bound teams, the Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers, to decide whether the Cubs are October-worthy. For anxiety-ridden Cubs fans who’ve followed their team from Day 1, the obstacles to the postseason party couldn’t be more pronounced.

No Oriole was more beloved or more integral to the story of the franchise than Brooks Robinson, who died Tuesday at age 86. Robinson played his first game for the Orioles in 1955, the year after the franchise arrived in Baltimore, was a key member of the club’s first four World Series teams and lasted long enough to suit up with a new generation of stars, led by Eddie Murray. Here are 10 moments that capture what Robinson meant to baseball and to Baltimore. 1970 World Series After watching Robinson dismantle the Cincinnati Reds with his glove and his bat, Pete Rose put it simply: “Brooks Robinson belongs in a higher league.” What else was there to say about Robinson’s magnum opus?

Parker Gabriel, Broncos beat reporter The Dolphins just scored again, I think. OK, well, not actually, but the Fun in the Sun offense partied in the end zone 10 times while the Broncos and coach Sean Payton roasted on the visiting sideline. Denver’s still winless but facing winless Chicago this weekend.

Patrick Williams knows last season wasn’t enough. He knew it from the final buzzer of the Chicago Bulls season, a haphazard run that ended in crushing fashion as the team let a lead — and a shot at the playoffs — slip away in Miami. In the aftermath of the play-in tournament loss, Williams cradled his head in his hands in the cramped visiting locker room, struggling to find words to articulate his own disappointment. Did he live up to his potential? “Hell no,” Williams said. Williams’ third year repeated the patterns that have defined his career — too timid on the boards, too hesitant with the ball in his hands, showing flashes of promise that never evolved into consistent production.

There’s a suspicion among DMV baseball fans that every Washington Nationals fan of a certain age secretly has an Orioles jersey or maybe a hat buried in their closet. It’s a sign of their original rooting interest. With the Nationals plummeting to the bottom of the National League East this year and the Orioles closing in on their first 100-win season in 40-plus years, some have begun digging for that orange evidence. “Before the Nats came, this region was all O’s fans,” said Mike Hicks, a St.