Freddy Garcia and Matt Thornton Have Options Picked Up by the White Sox

The Chicago White Sox on Tuesday picked up the 2010 contract options for right-handed starter Freddy Garcia and left- handed reliever Matt Thornton.

Garcia's option is for $1 million with an added $2 million in performance bonuses, while Thornton's option is for $2.25 million.

After re-joining the club with a minor league deal in early June, Garcia went 3-4 with a 4.34 earned-run average in nine starts. The 33-year-old Venezuelan also pitched for the ChiSox from 2004-07, winning a World Series in 2005.

Thornton was 6-3 with a 2.74 ERA over 70 games for Chicago in 2009.

Crime Commission and Police Athletic League Names Brian Urlacher Chairmen of "Clothes for Kids" Drive

Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher will be honorary chairman of a "Clothes for Kids" drive that aims to collect 5,400 coats and distribute them to disadvantaged children.

The Illinois State Crime Commission and Police Athletic League of Illinois sponsor the drive and announced Urlacher as chairman on Monday. The coats will be given out in Cook, DuPage, Kane and Will counties during the holiday season. The group is accepting donations of children's clothing and coats as well as cash that will be used to buy the items.

Urlacher will miss the rest of the season with Bears after dislocating his right wrist in the team's season opener.

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Resurrection: The Miracle Season That Saved Notre Dame

Jim Dent, author of theNew York Times bestselling The Junction Boys: How Ten Days in Hell with Bear Bryant Forged a Championship Teamreturns with the remarkable and inspiring story of one of the biggest comebacks in college football history.

Back in the 1960s, Notre Dame’s football program was in shambles. For five straight years, from 1958 through 1963, the home of Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy could not produce one winning season. Plagued by a series of bad coaching choices, inept management, and a loss of institutional support, no one could be sure if the Fighting Irish would ever return to glory. When “Touchdown Jesus” was erected in 1964, it presided over a team so hopeless that the entire football program was on the brink of collapse.

Little did anyone know, help was on its way in the form of Ara Parseghian, a controversial choice for head coach---the first one outside of the Notre Dame “family”---who had only set foot on Notre Dame soil when his football teams played (and won) there. It was now his responsibility to rebuild the once-proud program and teach the Fighting Irish how to win again. This was no small task.

The men of Notre Dame football were a bunch of unlikelies and oddballs, but Parseghian transformed them into a team: a senior quarterback who would win the Heisman Trophy two weeks before he picked up his first letter jacket; a five-foot-eight walk-on who would go on to make first team All-American; and an exceptionally rare black player, who would overcome much more than his quiet demeanor to rise to All-American, All-Pro, NFL Hall of Famer, and to justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Parseghian would change everything, from the uniforms and pads to the offensive strategy. He switched players from position to position like pieces on a chessboard, and just before the season opener, he hung a motto over the locker-room door:

What tho the odds

Be great or small

Notre Dame men

Will win over all


It would be a huge gamble against great obstacles, but Ara Parseghian had that look in his eye. . . .

New York Times bestselling author Jim Dent chronicles one of the greatest comeback seasons in the history of college football---the first season in what is known as the “Era of Ara.” Once again confirming his position as one of the top sportswriters in the country, Dent writes with passion, humor, and incredible insight, bringing the legends of Notre Dame football to life in an unforgettable story of second chances, determination, and unwavering spirit.

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