I just looked back to see what I did for the first post, and it looks like I scanned a bunch of things and posted them on the same day, January 16th, 2007.
Here's a couple:
Hendry had just signed Ted Lilly, Alfonso Soriano, Mark DeRosa, Neil Cotts, and new manager Lou Piniella. Things were really looking up!
Some kid named O'Malley had come up for a minute. No idea what happened to him.
I already disliked Roger Clemens.
And we were all totally stoked over Lou.
So, so far, this blog has been active for the entire Lou Piniella tenure. (Of course, it starts in 2003 in the photo column on the right, but I hadn't started the blog yet - those are all scans of my "Cub Journals".)
And I was just telling this story the other day so I thought I'd put it in, sticking to my own rules that I can put anything in here as long as it ends up having something to do with the Cubs.
I left Flagstaff and was beginning my internship at a commercial art studio in Phoenix, and I'd just moved into a deluxe 4 bedroom apartment with 4 other guys who I went to highschool and/or college with. 5 guys you ask? That meant my "bedroom" was a cot we hid behind the couch in the living room by hanging a big bamboo window thingy we got at Pier One. It looked like the bamboo thingy was the wall behind the couch, in other words.
Anyway, about the 3rd day there, I decided to make this salad. I was feeling grown-up or something. Went to the store and bought a whole bunch of salad stuff. And I spent a whole afternoon chopping carrots and onions and tomatoes and grating cheese and all that stuff. The guys came home when they got off work or out of class or whatever, and with not a small amount of pride I announced that I'd made a salad. Went in the kitchen and pulled the bowl out of the fridge and set it on the coffee table.
And former NAU defensive back and guy who quarterbacked our Paradise Valley High School Trojans, Greg Clark says, "You know what this salad needs?"
(I did this illustration from an old photo - he really looked like that with the giant hair and collar, and of course the powder blue Ocean Pacific shorts).
So he says you know what this salad needs and runs into the kitchen to get a box of croutons.
I still don't argue with the qb, so this was fine with me.
But we were all pretty much just slob guys, and the kitchen wasn't necessarily a place you'd actually want food to be.
Anyway, he upends the box and some croutons pour on the salad along with about 200 cockroaches, and they all immediately scurried into the depths of my freshly made salad.
And it was pretty funny actually, seeing Greg's shocked face and how he quickly tried to dig out the roaches...
So we ordered pizza, as usual.
But I was thinking about that first post and Jim Hendry's freshly-made Cubs team, and all the roaches that have been poured into it since.
We've been pulling them out for years now, trying to save the salad.
And now we finally ordered the pizza.
Lets see what gets delivered to us in the coming months...
And that's my 1000th post.
Kinda abstract, but there you go.
And also, thank you all for visiting, commenting, and keeping this blog alive. As Leo Durocher probably never said, "I'm nothing without you."
ps ps: Cubs finally win a series against the Pirates. Woo hoo.
