Momentous day in Wrigley history

On this day in 1917, three future NFL Hall of Famers played at Cubs Park (now known as Wrigley Field).

Paddy Driscoll played 2B for the Cubs. That was his only year in baseball, but he went on to a great football career with the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cardinals.

Jim Thorpe & Greasy Neal both played in the outfield for the Reds.

Thorpe's biggest baseball claim to fame was knocking in the winning run in the double no-hitter between Hippo Vaughn & Fred Toney, but he was one of the greatest players in the NFL during the 1920s, and was named to the all-decade team.

Neal was a member of the 1919 World Champion Reds (that beat the cheating White Sox), but he went on to become an NFL head coach, leading the Philadelphia Eagles to two championships (1948 & 1949).

On this day in 1917, Thorpe & Neal came out victorious as the Reds beat the Cubs 8-5.

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

"JM" writes regarding the Mark Sanford controversy...

"I think he has coined a new term "taking a hike in the Appalachan's" now means having an affair.

Don't you think the Democrats and Republicans should line up on opposite stands at a high school football field and do this new CHEER ?:

We've got cheaters yes we do, we got cheaters how 'bout you?"

Rick responds: Either that cheer or this one..."D-Fense. (attorney) D-Fense (attorney.)"

Lou Piniella

He was voted the manager that players would least like to play for (Ozzie was #2), according to a poll conducted by Sports Illustrated. The details are here.

Maybe so, but I must admit that I've been hoping for a really good public Lou explosion to wake up the team this year. Call 'em out. Rip 'em good. Screw the pansies that don't want to play for him.

$everance

It's two years old, but it got another good review this week. This one is from the blog "Something that needs nothing."

Buster & the Princess

Two notable birthdays today, although both of them are sadly no longer with us.

Former Cub Buster Freeman was born on this day in 1928, and Princess Diana was born on this day in 1961.

(What does she have to do with the Cubs? Click here.)

Cell phones interrupt press briefing

I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing Gibbs did...

Japanese Pizza Box

You gotta love the way this guy catches the foul ball. Thanks to "BP" for sending it to me.


Foul Ball Slams Into Fan's Pizza Box - Watch more Funny Videos

Jack Silver

I interviewed Jack Silver a few months ago when he was let go from his previous job.

He just got a new job in LA.

Separated at Birth?

'AA" writes...

"This is one of the guys on The Bachelorette (that my wife is watching and I happen to be in the same room, I SWEAR). Every time he’s on I think it’s Rick."

Father Knows Nothing

Next week I'll tell you the story of my Big Easy vacation. This week I tell you about a pecker. You can read the column here.

Sammy's hollow record

Remember how exciting it was when Sammy Sosa set the record for most home runs in a month? He did it on this day in 1998. Feels hollow now, doesn't it?


By the way, the JOBC blog has continually updated this past few days. You may have missed...

A Youngster Ensnared

Forbes Field

Happy birthday to two mustaches

Or

The Babe

I'm back

Had a GREAT time in New Orleans, and I will be writing about several of the episodes that occurred there. Hang in there, it's coming. Next week's Father Knows Nothing column will be a journey to the Big Easy.

But in the meantime, I'm happy to be back in the (basement) saddle.

Have a nice weekend

I won't be posting on the blog for the rest of the weekend because I'm heading out of town and going to New Orleans with the family.

Just One Bad Century will still be going strong in my absence (brand new material every day), but this blog and my Father Knows Nothing blog won't return until Tuesday...when my actual body returns to Chicago.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

This week in...

1929

The Cubs are in the midst of a pennant winning season.

*On the day that the big 3 hitters in the Cubs lineup all homer (Rogers Hornsby, Hack Wilson & KiKi Cuyler) to beat the Pirates 4-3 in Wrigley Field, President Herbert Hoover authorizes the building of the Boulder Dam. It's later renamed "The Hoover Dam."

********************
1969

The Cubs are in the midst of one of their most memorable seasons.

*Ron Santo knocks in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth (with a sacrifice fly) to beat the Pirates 5-4 in Wrigley Field on the same day that Warren Burger is sworn in as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.


********************
1984

The Cubs are hoping to make the playoffs for the first time since World War 2.

*Jody Davis walks with the bases loaded and the Cubs beat the Pirates in the bottom of the eleventh inning at Wrigley Field. Meanwhile, Susan Lucci is trying to decide which dress to wear for the Daytime Emmy Awards, certain that she couldn't possibly lose the Emmy for the fifth year in a row.


********************
1989

The Boys of Zimmer are taking Chicago by storm.

*The Cubs get crushed in San Francisco by the Giants (12-2) at the same time Susan Lucci gets crushed at the Daytime Emmy Awards...losing for the tenth year in a row.

Ryno says Sammy doesn't belong in the hall

And he was Sammy's teammate for many years. Don't forget that Ryno also issued veiled slams at Sammy during his Hall of Fame speech.

More about Ryno's comments here.

Rollie Hemsley

Nobody remembers good ol' Rollie Hemsley, but Charlie Grimm used to tell a great story about the Cubs backup catcher.

Rollie almost got Charlie fired on his first day managing the Cubs.

The story is here.

Rollie was born on this day in 1907.

Kevin Gregg

SUCKS.

Olympic Day in Chicago

If you like a little local snark, check out this piece in the Beachwood Reporter.

I contributed to this tribute to today's "Olympic Day" in Chicago.

More Ryno Talk

Thanks to Chicagoist and Cubhub for also posting my YouTube video of my recollections about that game 25 years ago today.

Status of Cubs sale

Don't know if Sam Zell is doing this to put pressure on the Ricketts family, but there's a new bidder (actually one of the previous bidders, re-entering the negotiations.)

All of the details are here in Crain's.

E-mails, we get e-mails

From "MB"



"Great post on the Samdberg game. I had no idea McGee hit for the cycle that day! Those were unbelievable Cardinals teams. I was there too-SRO on 1st base side most of the game with my sister & dad. We jockeyed for empty seats with a bunch of sailors from Great Lakes, who looked as if they just arrived at the ballpark from the set of a 1950's Jerry Lewis Navy movie. It's almost hard to believe how effortless it was to go to a Cubs game then. Saturday afternoon; national TV game; Leon Durham's Sports Illustrated cover had just been published; "hey, let's drive in to the city without tix and go to the Cubs game!" Do people still do that? I think Cubs season attendance peaked at just over 2.1M in 1984. It was less than 1.5M the prior year. Now 3M+"

25 years ago today...

...Ryne Sandberg became a national celebrity. I was there. It was my favorite day ever at Wrigley Field.

A funny observation...

Fewer dads staying home

According to this article, I'm becoming an endangered species.

Here's an excerpt...

"Thirty-one percent of working dads would leave their jobs if their spouses or significant others earned enough money to comfortably support the entire family. Although that's a sizable percentage, it's a slight drop from last year's 37 percent and a significant drop from 2005's 49 percent."

69% would rather work? And they say that Germans have a ridiculous work ethic.

Super Barack

John Dillinger

John Herbert Dillinger was born on this day in 1902.

Sure, he was a notorious bank robber, but he was also something else: A fan of the Chicago Cubs.

He attended his last Cubs game just a few weeks before he was gunned down outside the Biograph Theater; exactly one month after his 32nd birthday.

(The movie about his life, starring Johnny Depp, opens on July 1)

Father Knows Nothing

I just posted my latest Father Knows Nothing column at NWI Parent. It's about my latest Father-Son outing to Wrigley Field. I call it "A day at the ballgame"

And by the way, dads, Happy Father's Day to one and all.

Hottest day in Chicago history

It was on this date in 1953. The official temperature was 104 degrees, and the Cubs actually played a day game at Wrigley Field. Incredibly, 17,000+ fans came out to smolder in the steamy hot ballpark and watch the Cubs lose 5-3 to the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Hank Sauer hit a homer, but two errors by shortstop Roy Smalley cost the Cubs the ballgame.

Joe Garagiola started at catcher for the Cubs and caught all nine innings.

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

"DE" writes...



"There’s an uncanny resemblance between you and Mr. Ricketts – sure you not holding out on us, and you’re really the heir to the TD Ameritrade Holding Corp Fortune?










Love your site, I check it out every day. Keep up the great work."

If I am related, they are holding out on me. I'll have to send them a letter.

No-No!

The Cubs were in Brooklyn on this day 57 years ago. They faced a pitcher named Carl Erksine...and he no-hit them. The game took 1 hour and 48 minutes, and only 7700 fans were on hand to witness it.

The Vendor-Client relationship in real life situations

Will Ricketts ever buy the Cubs?

It's looking like it might not happen now.

Read this CNBC article about the sale. It doesn't take too much reading between the lines to sense potential trouble here.

Ozzie mows Wrigley

Click on this link to see a picture of the T-shirt Ozzie Guillen thought was so funny before yesterday's game. It's a borderline racist shirt that says "Ozzie Mows Wrigley."


Look, Cub fans, should we really be taunting at this point? (This isn't the 1930s)

Our team stinks. We're a game below .500. And guess what? Ozzie's team really did mow Wrigley yesterday. They beat us 4-1.

Harvey Walken

The man who trademarked the phrase "Any team can have a bad century" passed away yesterday. His name was Harvey Walken, and I traded e-mails with his office several times last year while I was developing my site Just One Bad Century. Read his obituary at the link. He lived a very interesting life. (Among other things, he was once one of the owners of the Pittsburgh Pirates).

My correspondence with him began when we posted that famous quote "Any team can have a bad century" on our website, but we attributed it to Jack Brickhouse. Mr. Walken's office notified us to let us know that Harvey actually owned the copyright to that, and that we needed to attribute it to him. If you click on the asterisk next to the quote on our home page now, you'll read the whole story.

Mr. Walken was kind enough to send me an autographed copy of his book "Here's Lookin' At Me Kid," which includes lots of great quotes from a very colorful man (the introduction was written by Phil Rosenthal). His autograph reads: "Rick, thanks for your work on MY behalf! Any team have can have a bad century. Let's hope it's only one. Go Cubs! Harvey"

Happy Birthday Bridget

My lovely wife Bridget is celebrating a birthday today. I don't know how she does it, but she remains four years younger than me.

A few years ago she wrote a column for this blog.

Last year on our 17th anniversary, I wrote 17 things about her.

This year the boys and I are taking her to her favorite restaurant for dinner. Check that. We're taking her to her favorite restaurant that has menu items the boys will actually eat.

This week in...

1929

The Cubs are in the midst of a pennant winning season.

*On the same day that Phillies pitcher Ray Benge (who led the league in home runs allowed and had an ERA of 6.29) strikes out 13 Cubs to win at Wrigley Field, Otto E. Funk finishes a marathon walk that took him from New York to San Francisco (4165 miles).

********************
1969

The Cubs are in the midst of one of their most memorable seasons.

*While the Cubs are splitting a double header at Crosley Field to the Reds (they lose the opener 7-6 on a Bobby Tolan single in the bottom of the ninth, and win the second game 5-4 on a Paul Popovich home run), Hee Haw is debuting on CBS-TV.


********************
1984

The Cubs are hoping to make the playoffs for the first time since World War 2.

*They lose a game 5-2 to the Phillies in the afternoon thanks to a big day from former Cub Ivan DeJesus, but manage to get out of the ballpark in time to watch the big Thomas Hearns-Roberto Duran fight that night. Hearns knocks him out.


********************
1989

The Boys of Zimmer are taking Chicago by storm.

*Doc Gooden shuts out the Cubs 2-0 at Shea Stadium (in a rain-shortened game), but the big story in the news that night is Zsa Zsa Gabor's arrest for slapping a policeman in Beverly Hills.

Sammy finally outed

On the eve of the Cubs/Sox series, some fodder for Sox fans.

According to this article, Sammy Sosa's name was indeed on the list of players that failed steroid tests in 2003. That's the same list A-Rod's name appeared.

Can't say I'm surprised, but somehow, believe it or not, I'm still disappointed.

By the way, can somebody please go check on my friend Dave Stern (if you know him)? This news has been out for almost an hour and a half and I haven't gotten a gloating phone call yet.

Thanks Elliott Harris!

Elliott Harris put another picture of our Just One Bad Century girl (holding his book) on the Chicago Sun Times website today.

I know he's promoting his book signing, but it's still a nice gesture. By the way, Ernie Banks will also be on hand at Elliott's book signing today, along with co-authors Grant DePorter & Mark Vancil from 5-7 at Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse, 33 W. Kinzie.

Rules for flying the "W" flag

The Tribune has the rules of etiquette regarding the "W" flag. Cross your fingers that we'll get a chance to fly it at least twice over the next three days. The Cubs play the White Sox.

Why you need to keep the kids busy

If you don't, they'll come up with stupid things to do, like this...


Invisible Rope Prank II - Watch more Funny Videos

Casey & Harry

Exactly 100 years ago today this dramatic reading of "Casey at the Bat" was recorded. (June 16, 1909). The actor reciting the poem is Dewolf Hopper (photo), who was hugely popular for doing this on the Vaudeville circuit.

I'd call it ridiculous overacting...I actually laughed out loud a few times.



84 years later (June 16, 1993) another famous orator had a melt down when the good folks at Cracker Jacks wanted to celebrate their 100th anniversary. His name was Harry Caray.

Television Faces

The latest issue of Shore Magazine is now out.

It features an article I wrote called "Television Faces." There are interviews/profiles of local television newscasters like Chicago's Mark Suppelsa, Mark Giangreco, Dane Placko, Kristyn Hartman, & Bob Sirott, along with Grand Rapids anchor Juliet Dragos, South Bend anchors Maureen & Terry McFadden, and Merrillville's Lindsay Grome.

The article also features great pictures taken by Shore Magazine photographer Natalie Battaglia.

Read the whole thing here.

100 Best Movie Lines in 200 Seconds

Love this...

Today in Cubs history

A few memorable events happened on this day (JUNE 15) in Cubs history.




In 1916, the pitcher who starred for the 1910 World Series Cubs died. His name was King Cole.

In 1942 Cubs pitcher Hi Bithorn finally couldn't take another second of Leo Durocher's taunting from the opposing dugout. So he threw a pitch into the dugout, trying to hit Leo.

In 1951 the Cubs made one of their worst trades ever. They traded stud pitcher Johnny Schmitz and star outfielder/infielder Andy Pafko (probably the most popular Cub) to the Brooklyn Dodgers for for Bruce Edwards, Joe Hatten, Gene Hermanski and Eddie Miksis.

In 1964 they made another trade, acquiring a pitcher named Ernie Broglio. I'm still not emotionally prepared to talk about it.

In 1997, the Cubs played their first inter-league game against the Chicago White Sox. They won the game 8-3.

Billy & Champ

He is 71 years old today. One of the all-time great Cubs players, and one of my all-time favorites. I can't tell you how many times I tried to do the spit and swing in my backyard. For me, that probably started in 1969.





Champ Summers is also 63 years old today. They called him Champ, although he never was one. Happy birthday, Champ.

Let there be lights!

On this day in 1948, the Detroit Tigers erected lights at their stadium, leaving only one major league team without lights. It would only be 40 more years before that team, the Cubs, followed suit. (Photo)

How did that work out for the Cubs?

Father Knows Nothing

I just posted my latest "Father Knows Nothing" column at NWI Parent. It's my review of the film, "Up".