1 Day. 4 Wins.

     April 18, 2009 started off like any other Saturday: warm, springlike, full of promise. The time of getting excited for what the summer had to offer, overall a great day to be alive. However, it was about to get a lot better. On that day, the Chicago Bulls were all set to tip off their playoff tilt against the Boston Celtics. Meanwhile, the Chicago Blackhawks were celebrating their return to relevancy by opening up their first postseason series since 2002.  Elsewhere, the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox were getting ready to play early-season games of their own. Here's how that day progressed:

      To start things off, the Cubs played the Cardinals at Wrigley Field. Before any baseball was played, the first pitch was thrown out by none other than newly-signed Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, who also sang the 7th-inning stretch. The game was won in a thrilling walk-off fashion by Aramis Ramirez, who belted a two-run homer in the 11th inning, wrapping up Ryan Dempster's first home win of the year. One person who did not partake of the win was Milton Bradley, who was serving a 2 game suspension(gee, what a surprise)

      Heading south down the Snowbird Trail, we find ourselves following the White Sox as they took on the defending AL Champion Tampa Bay Rays. Mark Buehrle gave up 8 hits, but he still managed to gut it out and start the season 2-0. Additionally, this kicked off once again the annual tradition of the Rays being stymied by qualified pitchers.

      Back in the Windy City, the Blackhawks were hot to trot in their comeback tour after languishing for years in Hockey Hell. After digging themselves a 2-0 hole against the Calgary Flames, the offense sputtered to life, scoring 3 goals in the second period, including Jonathan Toews' first playoff goal, to put away the Flames 3-2.

     And over in Boston, the 7th-seeded Bulls were starting off their series against the 2nd-seeded Boston Celtics.  All of the commentators and most of the fans were predicting a relatively easy victory in this series for the defending champion Celtics.  However, tonight's game cast doubt on those assumptions.  By the end of it, Derrick Rose had tied Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for best playoff debut, the series had seen the first of seven overtime periods, and all of a sudden we had the makings of an instant classic series on our hands.

     And there you have it folks.  1 Day.  4 Teams.  4 Wins. 1 incredible and true day in Chicago Sports History.