Chicago Tribune - 07.03.2020

Taylor Daniel, 17, from left, Courtney Schumacher, 15, Madison Fermia, 17, and Avery Weinstein, 14, warm up during a scouting event

for girls put on by Major League Baseball on Feb. 15 at University of Illinois Chicago in Chicago. Nearly three dozen girls participated.

STACEY WESCOTT/CHICAGO TRIBUNE PHOTOS

Giselle Martinez has played baseball since she

was 4, always the lone girl on a team of boys. She

loves the sport, but with her freshman year

approaching at Lindblom Math and Science

Academy in Chicago, the 13-year-old was weighing

whether to keep going.

The reason? She thought it might be smarter to

go out for softball, a sport she has never played.

“If I play baseball, there aren’t a lot of

scholarships for college, and I’m trying to get a full

ride,” said Martinez, who pitches, catches and

plays third base. “With softball, I can do that.”

A couple of weeks later, Martinez’s mother said

her daughter had made her decision: She would

stick with baseball.

It’s a tough choice for a growing number of girls.

Even if they’ve grown up with baseball, softball

offers thousands of college scholarships, the

chance make an Olympic squad or even play

professionally, to say nothing of the comradeship

they can enjoy with other female athletes.

Little by little, though, baseball is tugging back.

Some players have made teams in high school and

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As the contentious race for

Cook County state’s attorney en-

ters its closing days, candidates

are flooding the zone with cam-

paign commercials and literature.

If it seems like there’s a lot of

advertising out there, it’s in part

because the four Democratic can-

didates — Bill Conway, Kim Foxx,

Bob Fioretti and Donna More —

combined have raised nearly

$16.3 million to spend on the

election. That’s an increase of

180% from the 2016 primary,

according to Illinois State Board of

Elections data.

Four years ago, Foxx, Anita

Alvarez and Donna More raised

approximately $5.8 million com-

bined for the Democratic primary,

according to the state elections

board.

“I suspect this is the largest

amount that has ever been spent

in a county state’s attorney’s race,”

said Dick Simpson, a University of

Illinois at Chicago political scien-

ce professor and a former Chicago

alderman. “Bill Conway, through

his father, has enough money. And

Kim Foxx has been raising a lot of

money. So the normal caps and

limits on spending have been

blown.”

As the incumbent Foxx pushes

to retain her position, she is facing

her most fierce competition from

Conway, a former assistant prose-

cutor and the son of a billionaire.

Conway has raised nearly four

times as much money to fill his

political war chest as Foxx, while

Fioretti and More lag far behind in

fundraising.

Exactly how much of their

fortunes the candidates have

spent so far is unclear, in part

because of state reporting require-

ments. Candidates are required to

report campaign contributions of

ELECTION 2020

STATE’S ATTORNEY

Hopefuls’

funds all

together

top $16M

Democratic candidates

in Cook County more

than double 2016’s haul

By Lolly Bowean

Turn toAttorney, Page 4

By John Keilman

Giselle “Gigi” Martinez, 13, bats during the workout on Feb. 15. Turn toBaseball, Page 4

‘I JUST WANT TO

KEEP ON GOING’

Raised on America’s pastime, more female athletes resist pressure to

switch to traditional softball and go to bat for their first love: baseball

“My dream as a kid was to play in Major League Baseball.

But as I grew up, I knew that’s not really going to happen.

So I’m doing what I can to hold on to it. This is probably

my last summer season of baseball, which is kind of sad.”

Micah Goodrich, a senior who plays softball for Huntley High School

A Chicago Public Schools spe-

cial education classroom assistant

has tested positive for coronavirus,

bringing the total number of cases

in Illinois to six and ratcheting up

local anxiety over a disease that’s

spreading fast around the globe.

The patient was a Chicago

woman in her 50s who works at

Vaughn Occupational High School

in Portage Park, officials an-

nounced at a City Hall news

conference hosted by Mayor Lori

Lightfoot and Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Classes at the school are can-

celed next week, officials said.

“I want to reassure all of our

CPS students and families that our

city’s been working relentlessly to

protect the safety and security of

our students, faculty and staff,

along with their friends and loved

ones,” Lightfoot said.

The patient is hospitalized and

had been on the Grand Princess

cruise ship, which has been associ-

ated with 20 cases, before disem-

barking on Feb. 21, officials said.

She returned to Chicago the week

CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK

State’s 6th case tied to school

CPS classroom assistant tests positive for

virus; Vaughn classes canceled for week

By Gregory Pratt,

Angie Leventis Lourgos

Javonte Anderson

and Hannah Leone

Turn toSchool, Page 2

PARIS — Crossing more bor-
ders, the new coronavirus hit a
milestone Friday, infecting more
than 100,000 people worldwide as
it wove itself deeper into the daily
lives of millions, infecting the
powerful, the unprotected poor
and vast masses in between.
The virus, which has killed
more than 3,400 people and
emerged in over 90 countries,
edged into more U.S. states and
even breached the halls of the

Global toll from virus

tops 100,000 cases

By Angela Charlton
and Matt Sedensky
Associated Press

Judy Kurtz, a Neighborhood Emergency Response Team member,

explains outbreak precautions to tourists Friday in San Francisco.

JIM WILSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Turn toVirus, Page 2

Daylight saving

time begins at

2 a.m. Sunday. Set

your clocks ahead

one hour.

Spring forward

Mulvaney out

President Donald Trump fires

Mick Mulvaney, his chief of staff.

Nation & World, Page 5