Cubby-Blue

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.