Press Box: Ditka's 89 will be last Bears' number retired
Mike Ditka's No. 89 will be the last one the Chicago Bears retire.
The Bears, who plan to honor Ditka during their game against the Dallas Cowboys on Dec. 9 at Soldier Field, have retired more numbers than any other NFL team at 14.
"If there is going to be a last one, there is no more appropriate one than 89," Bears owner George McCaskey said in a statement.
That means other Bears greats including Richard Dent, Dan Hampton, Mike Singletary and Brian Urlacher will not have their numbers retired.
The Bears have previous honored Nos. 3 (Bronko Nagurski), 5 (George McAfee), 7 (George Halas), 28 (Willie Galimore), 34 (Walter Payton), 40 (Gale Sayers), 41 (Brian Piccolo), 42 (Sid Luckman), 51 (Dick Butkus), 56 (Bill Hewitt), 61 (Bill George), 66 (Clyde "Bulldog" Turner) and 77 (Harold "Red" Grange).
AUTO RACING
Danica Patrick will join Stewart-Haas Racing team owner Tony Stewart in the back for Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Patrick's No. 10 Chevrolet had its engine changed after an oil leak was discovered 12 laps into Saturday's practice. She will start 24th while Stewart qualified 25th.
Denny Hamlin won the pole for Sunday's race after Thursday's qualifying session.
---NASCAR chairman Brian France does not want to move the October Chase race from Charlotte Motor Speedway to Las Vegas.
He made the comments to reporters in response to Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman Bruton Smith saying earlier this week that there is a 70 percent chance that he would look to move the race from Charlotte to his 1.5-mile track in Las Vegas.
That would leave Charlotte with just one points race per year, the Coca-Cola 600.
RUNNING
More than 2,000 runners finished the Boston Marathon, more than a month after the race was cut short because of the April 15 bombings.
The runners completed the final mile of the race in honor of the three people killed and the 260 injured in the terrorist attack.
The event started with the playing of the national anthem sung by the St. Ann Parish choir, the church where 8-year-old victim Martin Richard's family belonged.
