Carlos Pena

This is a real nice piece in the St. Petersburg Times about Carlos Pena and his wife, and the difficulties of moving to a new city.

It's obvious from the tone of the piece that they loved him in Tampa, and that the Penas miss the city. Sometimes we forget that these guys go through the same things we do, and think about how difficult it would be to uproot your family and move to a new city to start all over again.

The story of the man that was traded for himself

His name was Dickie Noles, and the Cubs once traded him to the Tigers for...Dickie Noles.

That's today's Tale from a Bad Century.

Cubs lose 2 starters in one day

This is so Cubs.

#4 starter Randy Wells and #5 starter Andrew Cashner are both out for at least two weeks after suffering injuries the past two days.

Details are here.

When Harry met Sally, the Sequel

Some funny stuff here...

When Harry Met Sally 2 with Billy Crystal & Helen Mirren from Billy Crystal

The value of education

Thanks to "DTS" for sending me this. I definitely plan on sharing it with my kids later today...

"It’s no surprise that an increasingly sophisticated and competitive U.S. economy seeks those with higher levels of educational attainment. Since January (2011), employment has grown by 521,000 jobs for Americans with a bachelor’s degree or higher…and declined by 318,000 for those with only a high school diploma (USA TODAY)…

…what a powerful statistic

Unemployment for those ages 25 and over with less than a high school diploma was 13.7% in March. For those with a high school diploma and no college, the jobless rate was 9.5%. For those with some college or an Associate’s degree, the rate was 7.4% in March. For those with a Bachelor’s degree or higher the rate was 4.4%…

Use this data wisely when your kids or grandkids say that education is just not that important. Earnings differentials are also enormous."

Let me just also say that anyone claiming that education needs to be cut in this country has got their priorities completely out of whack.

The Trick on Rick

My friend Kim Strickland's A City Mom blog today is about me.

It appears I'm freaking her out.

Heh heh. (Rubbing my hands together while cackling with evil glee)

Smallest Cubs crowd since 2002

Yes it was a Monday afternoon. Yes it was cold. Yes it was only the Arizona Diamondbacks. Yes the Cubs got off to a shaky start in the opening series against the Pirates. But still.

There sure were there a lot of empty seats at Wrigley yesterday.

The smallest crowd since 2002. Maybe reader "BP" was right. After all, the Cubs did raise the price of beer by 25 cents this year.

Maybe Lou really was phoning it in last year

This article on ESPN Chicago certainly makes it sound like Lou was just going through the motions last year.

The comments from Kevin Millar (who was with the Cubs in spring training) and Alfonso Soriano are not exactly complimentary.

E-mails, we get e-mails...

"BP" writes...

"Rick, I just finished a book called Scorecasting. It’s Freakonomics for sports. They debunk a lot of sports myths like the hot shooting hand in basketball, why there is a home field advantage and why going for it on 4th down is always a good strategy. The last chapter concerns the Cubs and whether they are cursed. They go off on a tangent on ticket prices and find that while most MLB teams can track ticket sales closely to winning, the Cubs ticket sales are not related to winning. In fact, ticket sales have gone up when the Cubs were losing the most. The one factor that they found that tracks ticket sales is BEER PRICES at Wrigley. Beer goes up, people stay away. Which is why Wrigley has some of the cheapest beer in MLB."

Interesting indeed. I really never considered $7 beer cheap, but now that you mention it, I think it was $9.50 in Colorado when I went to a game there a couple of summers ago. By the way, I went to Wrigley this weekend and had a non-alcoholic beer (yes, they have them). It was only $3.50.

Jerry Garcia

From this morning's The Olde Disc Jockey Almanac...

"April 4, 1996…Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia's ashes were scattered in the Ganges River in India by Dead guitarist Bob Weir and Garcia's widow, Deborah."

I've been listening to the Grateful Dead again lately, and this is one of the songs that I'm just starting to appreciate...

Starlin Castro

Sure, it was a rough weekend for the Cubs (losing 2 out of 3 to the Pirates?), but there was one bright spot.

Starlin Castro certainly looks like a keeper, doesn't he?

Father Knows Nothing

My latest Father Knows Nothing column has been posted at NWI Parent. This week's edition updates my progress (or lack of progress) during my self-inflicted Extreme Lent.

You can read it here.

Chicago Radio Spotlight: Megan Reed

This week's Chicago Radio Spotlight is posted. I interviewed WILV's (Rewind 100) Megan Reed.

You can read it here.

The Onion and the Cubs

The Onion has some fun with the Cubbies. Pretty funny stuff.

Coming this weekend

Saturday morning I'll be posting a brand new Chicago Radio Spotlight interview. This week I interviewed WILV Rewind 100's Megan Reed.

I'm also going to the Cubs game on Saturday with my son Johnny. Looks like I'll be drinking coffee instead of beer this year. We're still in the middle of Extreme Lent.

I'll provide an update on how that's been going (Hint: Not so good) in my regular Father Knows Nothing column on Sunday.

Have a great weekend, and don't call me today.

Mr. Kaempfer can't come to the phone right now because it's opening day at Wrigley Field. Please leave a message and he'll get back to you when the Cubs are out of it...probably sometime in late May.

Two Perfect Days At Wrigley Field

I posted this week's "A Suburban Dad" guest column at Kim Strickland's "A City Mom" blog on ChicagoNow. This week's is about...you guessed it...opening day.

I highlighted my two most perfect days ever at my favorite place in the world.

You can read it here.

Wild Thing

This is one of those great rock and roll stories, and it happened exactly 45 years ago today. From Bob Dearborn's The Olde Disc Jockey's Almanac...

"April 1, 1966…In London, the Troggs used 45 minutes of spare studio time to record "Wild Thing."

Obviously it became their biggest hit. It's an absolute classic...

Opening Day 1973

One of the most dramatic opening days in Cubs history had an unlikely hero.

The Cubs were down a run in the bottom of the ninth.

Joe Pepitone led off the inning with a single and was replaced by pinch runner Cleo James. Ron Santo got on base thanks to an error by Expos 2B Ron Hunt, and was also replaced by a pinch runner. Glenn Beckert walked to load the bases.

The Expos brought in their closer Mike Marshall, the best closer in baseball. He promptly walked Randy Hundley to tie the game, but he buckled down and got Don Kessinger to pop out down the line, and struck out Jim Hickman.

That brought up Cubs lead off man Rick Monday. The bases were loaded. The score was tied 2-2. It was the bottom of the ninth. Marshall vs. Monday. Marshall knew he couldn't give Monday anything to hit, but he tried to be a little too fine around the plate, and eventually walked him...to bring in the winning run.

Ron Santo's pinch runner scored that winning run. He was sent to the minors after that and never again appeared in another major league game as a player.

His name was Tony LaRussa.

Donating Goats?

It's not often that the Cubs and Cubs fans make it on TMZ, but today they did. There's a story about Cub fans donating goats to needy families...to try and reverse the curse.

I suppose it can't hurt, but can't we all just agree that this goat curse is a bunch of a hooey?

OPENING DAY!

Yesterday was opening day for a lot of teams in the league, but today is opening day at Wrigley Field.

A few years ago we highlighted previous memorable opening days for the Cubs.


Here are some from the first 50 years of our bad century.

Here are some from the second 50 years.

In April, hope always springs eternal. GO CUBS!