Cubby-Blue

Mark DeRosa's Bumper Sticker

I heart.
Way better than not, right?

I guess Mark DeRosa's heart went wonky every once in awhile - an irregular heartbeat.
The other day when I heard he got carried off the field on a stretcher, I had a pretty irregular heartbeat too.
But the doctors did a procedure called a "radiofrequency catheter ablation".
That sounds like a science fiction VD prevention film from the 50's, but I guess he's supposed to be back to normal by next weekend.
Just to be on the safe side however, lets all keep any Brian Roberts rumors to ourselves, okay?

So, pretty great to read about actual baseball.
Yesterday Fontenot got a couple big hits, Pie got a homer, Theriot and Dempster did well.
Red Sox fan Patrick Reynolds told me Peter Gammons is all ga ga over Kerry Wood - that he's throwing better than he's ever seen.
Today the Cubs lost, but Carlos Zambano looked and felt good.
It's nice, baseball.
Of course, I spent a half hour digging a pathway in the ice to my garage this evening, so we're still a ways off...
But it's nice.

Hey Mark DeRosa!
I wouldn't have done anything remotely jokey about you had I not read you were doing okay.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what you can do when you're not dragged from one position to another all season long.
So heal up, get back out there and take your position.

Spring Training

This is in the March issue of VINE LINE.
At the time, there was just nothing going on so I had to make something up.
But the other day I was filling my car up at one of those stations with a food-mart attached?
And they had a little sign on the pump that said, "Come in for food and gas."
Sometimes, you don't have to make up a thing.

Hey, thanks to all of you who sent the notes about Paul Tilley.
That was really nice.

Mark Prior Crash on the Basepath in 2003

(This is from 2003)
I was at this game.
Mark Prior runs to second base, but in the middle of the basepath is Marcus Giles.
Everybody stands, including me.
There is no grace at all in the resulting crash.
A really stupid play by both.
I almost hurled.
I really did have to leave.
Went across the street to Bernie's and read the paper.

Sammy Sosa in 2005

(This was from 2005, when I told my daughter that the Cubs had traded Sammy. I fell on the floor laughing.)

This is from 2003: Kerry Wood

(This is a post from 2003)
Kerry Wood is my son Wyatt's favorite player, and I got an autograph from him one time when I won this Comm Ed contest Kim (my wife) entered me in.
The prize?
A tour of Wrigley and tickets to a Cub/Sox game, so I brought buddy Flynn and brother Grog.
We sat in the dugout.
Come ON, how impossibly cool is that?
We went under the bleachers in right where there's a batting cage, and by chance Billy Williams was pitching to his grandson.
You don't see that every day.
We stood in Sammy's right field spot, and got to meet a couple players, one of whom was Jeff Huson.
Totally weird coincidence as Jeff and Grog went to high school together at Mingus Union High School near Sedona, so it was weird listening to them catch up standing in left field at Wrigley.
Then, we got to sit right behind the Cub dugout when everyone was warming up.
I yelled, "Hey Wood! Can you sign this ball for my son?"
I'd never done anything like that.
He came right over and signed, and then of course EVERYBODY asked him.
I felt like such a dork.

Tragedy

I lost a buddy and co-worker over the weekend, Paul Tilley.
So, it's a bad time.
I did a painting of Paul in early May, 2006.
We were at a convention, and he was being his usual dry self letting me know how bad the Cubs were doing...
Anyway, this weekend we lost a dad, a husband, a leader (the top creative guy at DDB Chicago), and truly one of the most talented and funny people I'll ever meet.

So probably I'm just gonna put some of my older favorite paintings on here for a little bit while I take a couple days, okay?
Thanks.

The Virtual Waiting Game for Cub Tix

What the hell, right?
Might as well try to get some single game tickets on-line.
I'd already actually gone into the bathroom to look in the mirror and say out loud to myself, "I have season tickets. I will NOT let the computer run my life today."
Then I opened two browsers and got into two virtual waiting rooms.
About 10:30, the first sold out games showed up - the Cards of course.
Then, a meeting.
Must...leave..comp u turrr.
I came back an hour later and nothing had changed.
So, I figured that would be it - there were a number of good games already gone, oh well.
I was writing an email about 2:30 when one of the windows changed into a schedule.
I clicked.
I gave all my personal info.
Click.
I clicked on the Friday 2:20 September Cardinal game.
Couldn't get more than 1 seat in a row, no bleachers.
I did this to every good looking game left.
Everything came up not good.
So I lowered my expectations and went bleachers for a Monday night Astro game in a hot month.
The next message was different (it's the one in the painting).
Unable to process request, try again.
So I did.
Like, 50 times.
Started to think about that line, "Wait til next year".
Could not believe that you can get that far and still get a busy signal for that long.
But finally, I got 'em.
I haven't been to the bleachers in years, so that'll be good.
This process, though, somebody's gotta figure something else out.

2008: Leap Year for the Cubs

2008 is a leap year, so I googled it.
Leap year has this crazy history with Romans, Popes, Julius Caesar, St. Patrick, St. Bridget, Sadie Hawkins, and the "Lil' Abner" comic strip. But the theory behind the whole thing is this: the calendar was a little off as the months started to drift from the actual seasons, so they added this extra day every 4 years to keep on track.
Kinda like your watch being a minute off which will add up to 2,3,4 and pretty soon 20 minutes off and now you're maybe late for work or early for the dentist or something.
So you have to reset it.
That's what a leap year does - it resets the calendar.
According to time and date.com, here's the equation for figuring out what years are leap years:
- Every year divisible by 4 is a leap year.
- But every year divisible by 100 is NOT a leap year
- Unless the year is also divisible by 400, then it is still a leap year.
Or, you can just go to online conversions.com if you don't like division, which I don't so...
I went there and found out that 1908 was a leap year too.
The last year the Cubs won the World Series, one hundred years ago, was also a leap year.
Okay, not so rare - there have been 25 leap years since then.
But still, I think it's another good sign.
Plus there's this ancient poem you might remember about Leap Years:

So, that concludes today's lesson.
I would also like to wish everyone spending their morning in the virtual waiting room hoping for single game tickets good luck.
And by the way, that's Felix Pie making a leaping catch in center in the painting up there.
May his energy and spark somehow translate into an impressive on base percentage.

Toast to Harry Caray Thursday Night at 7

This painting comes from a Bud commercial that ran in the '80's, if you're old enough to remember.
I'm in advertising and plenty old enough, so I remember it well.
I was in NY shooting food insert shots for a chocolate cake commercial.
At the end of the day I asked the production company to find me a bar that had the Cubs on, because it was the first ever night game at Wrigley, the famous 8.8.88 game.
Surely you know the story - 3 1/2 innings, the rainout, all that.
(The next night they'd actually play the Mets and win 6-4, but this night the game was against the Phillies on WGN, and people in New York didn't watch WGN.)
So this wacky commercial featuring Harry dancing around in Blues Brothers attire singing I'm a Cub Fan I'm a Bud Man was a local commercial for Cub Fans in the Chicago area - I wouldn't doubt if it only ran on WGN.
The game comes on, the rain comes, everybody in the bar is bummed, and then...Harry's commercial comes on.
I was sitting in a real, live, honest to God focus group of people who had never seen this thing.
The whole bar got quiet as they watched, then a couple people laughed and then the whole bar went absolutely coo coo knee slapping out of their minds drool-laughing.
It was truly one of those lucky things where I got to witness first hand the power of Harry on Harry virgins, and it was an awesome thing to behold.
Sure some of them knew who Harry was, but they had no idea, really.

Anyway, thank you for letting me spout out that story, and I hope tonight that you raise a can to the coolest man ever behind a mic at Wrigley Field.

Look To The Father Of Our Country To Tell The Truth

I know this is true 'cause it was in the paper.
Lou Piniella said that the ball JUMPS off Kosuke Fududome's bat.
At the very least, it's true that Lou said it.
Anyway, thought it would be nice to not read about somebody telling a lie on President's Day.
So, Happy President's Day.
From Cubby Blue.

And of course...I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE KOSUKE STEP UP TO THE PLATE!!!

PS: Apologies to American Regionalist painter Grant Wood for trashing his painting, and if you want to see the original and learn more about George Washington, go here.