Michael Landon

Michael Landon passed away twenty years ago today. I found this little gem on YouTube: the Michael Landon roast from 1975...

Jose Cardenal

Today's Tale from a Bad Century at JOBC is about the wacky hijinks of one of my favorite players when I was a boy: Jose Cardenal.

Read all about him here.

A Suburban Dad

I just posted my weekly Suburban Dad contribution to Kim Strickland's City Mom blog at Chicago Now. This one is called "How do you know when beer is too much a part of your life?"

You can read it here.

The Cubs have an All-Star!

There's been a lot of speculation this year about which Cub would go to the All-Star game. Let's face it, we don't have a lot of players having all-star worthy seasons. Maybe one or two. Maybe.

But we do know one Cub that is definitely going to the all-star game.

Mike Quade.

Amos & Andy

Sixty years ago today America got their first look at Amos & Andy when the long time radio hit debuted on television.

Amos & Andy was a Chicago institution. (I've previously written about the show for Just One Bad Century, if you're interested)

Check out this video. It's the original (white) radio Amos & Andy introducing the new (black) television cast. It might make you a little uncomfortable. Let's just say it certainly isn't 1951 anymore.

The JOBC Contest

Time for this week's JOBC Contest.

The first person that e-mails me the correct answer at rick@justonebadcentury.com will win a commemorative Greg Maddux 3000th strikeout scorecard and a t-shirt from the Just One Bad Century catalog.

Here's the question, and I'll warn you it's a little obscure today: On this day in 1992, the Cubs acquired a gimpy-kneed slugger (a leftfielder) from the Los Angeles Dodgers. He only hit 4 homers for the Cubs the rest of that year and was released when the season was over. Name him.

UPDATE: We have a winner! Lydia Rypcinski knew that Kal Daniels was the slugger the Cubs acquired on this day in 1992. He was only 28 years old, and he had already hit 100 big league homers when the Cubs got him, but Kal was pretty much finished. After his stint with the Cubs he never played in the big leagues again.

Marlon Byrd's new helmet

He's finally coming back to the Cubs after that terrifying pitch to the face in Boston, but he'll be wearing a specially designed helmet instead of the usual Cubs helmet shown here.

ESPN has the details.

Father Knows Nothing

I just posted my latest Father Knows Nothing column at NWI Parent. This one is about the tornado that hit our town this week.

You can read it here.