The Naked Prince

Naked photos of Prince Harry (in Las Vegas) were published by TMZ, but most British newspapers declined to publish them.

Rupert's paper put the picture on the front page. The headline was: "Heir it is"

Gotta admit, that's a good one.

Navy SEAL identified

One of the members of Navy SEAL Team 6, the group that carried out the Bin Laden raid, was supposed to go on a book tour. All kinds of efforts had been made to ensure that his identity wasn't revealed. But Fox News found out who he was, and identified him yesterday.

I wonder if there was an ethical debate at Fox over whether or not to reveal his name.

I'm joking, of course.

Who do you side with?

This is an interesting website. It's called I Side with. It asks a series of questions about policy issues, and then tells you which candidate most closely resembles your beliefs.

I was afraid I would end up with Romney. That didn't happen, thankfully. Instead, I think I've been exposed as a left wing radical. I wasn't even sure who Jill Stein was--I had to look her up.

Here are my results...
92% Jill Stein (Green Party)
82% Barack Obama
64% Gary Johnson (Libertarian)
39% Ron Paul
27% Mitt Romney

I also agree with Illinois voters 64%, and American voters 62%. Does that mean most of us are also left wing radicals?

Hmmmm.

Cubs 365, August 24

On this day in 1894, future Cubs shortstop Jimmy "Scoops" Cooney was born.

Cooney was already 32 years old when he joined the Cubs in 1926, but he had only played parts of four major league seasons (two with the Cardinals, one each with the Red Sox and Giants).

But the Cubs had no one else to play shortstop when they acquired him, so he was given the full-time job. During that 1926 season, he hit only .251, his on-base percentage was a woeful .288, and he had a whopping 24 extra base hits in more than 500 at bats.

Still, his glove kept him in the lineup. The following season (1927) he was still the starting shortstop when that glove made major league history. On May 30, 1927, in the fourth inning of a game against the Pirates, Cooney caught Paul Waner's liner, stepped on second to double Lloyd Waner, and tagged Clyde Barnhart coming down from first, to record an unassisted triple play.

No other National Leaguer would do it for the next 65 years. In 1992, future Cub Mickey Morandini finally broke the streak by recording an unassisted triple play for the Philadelphia Phillies.

How did the Cubs reward Cooney for his miraculous play? They traded him to the Pirates eight days later.

Beatles history

During my hiatus this summer I haven't had time to check out Bob Dearborn's The Olde Disc Jockey's almanac. I read it this morning, and remembered how much I love it. Today there were a handful of Beatles stories from this day in history, and many of them featured details I had never heard before. That's not easy to do.

It turns out that August 23rd is a big day in Beatles history.

50 years ago today...

August 23, 1962…Paul McCartney and George Harrison were witnesses as John Lennon married Cynthia Powell at the Mount Pleasant Registry Office in Liverpool, England. At the time, Cynthia was two months pregnant with their son Julian. Manager Brian Epstein, who served as John's best man, bought lunch for the wedding party at a local cafeteria and gave the newlyweds use of his apartment. That night, John and the Beatles performed at Liverpool's Riverpark Ballroom. The Lennons divorced in November 1968.

48 years ago today...

August 23, 1964…In Los Angeles, the Beatles played the Hollywood Bowl in a concert recorded for a planned upcoming live album. The sound quality, however, was so bad due to screaming teenagers that the tape sat mostly unused until 1977, when "The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl" album was released, combining songs from this show and a similar Hollywood Bowl concert that took place a year later. In 1967, some applause from the original tapes was used at the start of "With A Little Help From My Friends" on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album and also added to the end of the title track's reprise to simulate the end of the "concert."

46 years ago today...

August 23, 1966…On their final tour of America, the Beatles played Shea Stadium in New York City, but unlike the previous year's performance which had sold out, there were 11,000 empty seats in the 55,600 seat stadium. The promoters blamed the turnout on competition from the many other concerts in the area around that time.

44 years ago today...

August 23, 1968…Thoroughly disgusted by the difficult, acrimonious sessions for the "White Album," Ringo Starr became the first band member to (temporarily) depart the Beatles, telling John "I'm leaving the group because I'm not playing well and I feel unloved and out of it and you three are really close."

Believing that his time with the band was over, Ringo and his family went on vacation to Sardinia, and while there he got the idea for "Octopus's Garden" from a boat captain who told him how those creatures use shiny objects to create "gardens" for themselves.

While Ringo was gone, Paul recorded the drum tracks for "Dear Prudence" and "Back In The USSR." Ringo returned a few days later to find flowers surrounding his drum kit as an apology from his bandmates. He decided to stay.

38 years ago today...

August 23, 1974…Local newspapers reported that John Lennon spotted a UFO while staying in his mistress May Pang's apartment in New York during his infamous "lost weekend." "Walls and Bridges," Lennon's next album, contained a notation in the inner booklet that reads: "On 23 August 1974, I saw a UFO J.L."

Cubs 365, August 23

On this day in 1971, Cubs manager Leo Durocher completely lost his composure in the clubhouse, and in so doing, may have lost his team forever.

It was before a game against the Cincinnati Reds. The Cubs were 11 games over .500 and only 4 1/2 games behind the first place Pittsburgh Pirates. But Leo was still upset with pitcher Milt Pappas. The previous game he had allowed the winning run in a 4-3 loss when Doug Radar hit an 0-2 pitch for a double.

Leo called a club meeting and ripped Pappas for his stupidity. After his little speech he opened the floor for comments.

Joe Pepitone was the first one to defend Milt. He said: "He didn't want to do it. Why are you always blaming people?" Ken Holtzman and Pappas also spoke out, ripping Durocher.

That's when Leo lost it. He tore into every player on the team in a legendary expletive filled tirade. Among those he ripped was team captain Ron Santo. He said that Santo was a malingerer who played politics with the front office. Among his charges was that Santo was pouting and demanding a Ron Santo day.

That's when Santo lost it. He called Durocher a liar and had to be physically restrained by his teammates.

The Cubs somehow went out and won the game, but afterwards they spiraled into a deep losing streak. They lost 16 of their next 21 games.

Cubs owner Phillip Wrigley didn't speak up about the dispute until a few weeks later, but when he did, he left no doubt where his loyalties lied. He took out a full page newspaper ad praising Durocher.

He wrote: "Leo's is the manager and the 'Dump Durocher Clique' might as well give up. He is running the team, and if some of the players do not like it and lie down on the job, during the off-season we will see what we can do to find them happier homes." He added a P.S. "If we could only find more team players like Ernie Banks."

Ernie retired a few weeks later. Leo was gone by the middle of the next year. And the Cubs didn't register back-to-back winning seasons again for more than 30 years.

Mancow on TV

Looks like Chicago will get to listen to/and even watch Mancow again. From Robert Feder's column this morning...

"Mancow Muller’s morning radio show is coming to WPWR-Channel 50, starting this fall. As first reported by the Tribune’s Robert Channick, a simulcast of Muller’s Mancow Experience radio show, syndicated by Talk Radio Network, will air from 6 to 8am weekdays on the Fox-owned station. No start date has been announced. The show, currently originating from Cumulus Media studios at 190 North State Street, will move to Channel 50’s studios at 205 North Michigan Avenue."

I'm Free

All three of my boys are officially in school all day beginning right now.

Tom Taylor

Over the summer while I was on my blogging hiatus, one of my favorite radio columnists hung up his keyboard. Tom Taylor of Radio-Info.com stepped down when that company was purchased by Talkers Magazine.

Taylor's column was a must read for anyone in the business, and I never missed it (even when I wasn't blogging). He always had some information that no-one else had, and he presented it in an entertaining way.

Talkers is trying to keep the column afloat with new guys, but it will never be the same. Plus, if I can just be candid for a moment, Talkers Magazine has always been a mouthpiece for right wing talk radio...my least favorite kind of radio ever created. I've already unsubscribed.

I sent Tom an e-mail wishing him well, but I thought I'd do it publicly too.

First Day of School

Everyone around the word, c'mon. Yahoo! It's a celebration. The boys are off to school.

Summer Hiatus

Hello, all.

Just got back from vacation, and I have a truckload of tasks that need to be done this summer. With three kids all home as well, something has to give.

The Just One Bad Century blog will continue to update with daily Cubs 365 stories. The Just One Bad Century website will have new features every day. The Eckhartz Press blog will have all the news about our Eckhartz Press books and authors. There will still be new Father Knows Nothing columns every weekend (beginning next weekend).

But this blog is resting until late August.

Have a great summer!

Father Knows Nothing

My latest Father Knows Nothing has just been posted. This week's is called "Everyday is Father's Day."

You can read it here.

I'm going out of town for a week, so this will be my last post on the blog until I return. Just One Bad Century will continue--with new features every day, including Cubs 365 at the JOBC blog.

Have a great week!

A Fine Mess

My latest "A Fine Mess" column is in the current issue of Shore Magazine. It's my ode to the all-american tradition of garage poker.

You can read it here.

Cubs 365, June 15

On this day in 1964, the Cubs made the worst trade in the team's history. They traded Lou Brock.

At the time, it wasn't considered a horrible trade. In fact, St. Louis fans thought they were getting ripped off. Why? The guy the Cubs received for Brock, Ernie Broglio, had won 18 games in 1963. And Lou wasn't exactly the fully developed he player he later became.

Coming up during the ill-fated College of Coaches experiment, in an organization that provided very little guidance at all for their players, Lou Brock was hopelessly lost at the plate, and was a liability in the outfield. He had been yanked this way and that, and wasn't given the opportunity to find himself.

Lou Brock hit .263 in '62, .258 in '63, and was only hitting .251 in 1964 when the trade was completed. Still, Cubs players knew immediately that they had been ripped off. Every player on the bench to a man couldn't believe that the Cubs had traded Brock. He had obvious star qualities, had hit long home runs, had shown incredible speed and skill on the bases, and was only 24 years old. All he really needed was guidance and coaching.

He got that in St. Louis. The Cardinal coaches told him he wasn't a power hitter--and he should stop trying to hit home runs. They also told him he had the green light to steal bases, and highly encouraged him to run. This shocked Lou. The Cubs had discouraged that part of his game.

As a Cardinal, Lou Brock would lead the league in stolen bases 8 of the next 10 years, and would retire as the record holder for most stolen bases in a career. He wouldn't hit that many home runs, but with his new found stroke that concentrated on utilizing his speed, he became a .300 hitter, and a clutch hitter at that. In his three World Series with the Cardinals, he would hit .391, winning the Babe Ruth Award as the MVP of the 1967 World Series.

In his first year of eligibility, he was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame.

As a footnote, he guys the Cubs received in return didn't do a thing. Ernie Broglio went 7-19, Bobby Shantz won zero games, and Doug Clemens played a grand total of 182 games as a backup outfielder.

Anyway you slice it, this trade lives up to it's status as the worst trade in Cubs history.

Shopping Savants

Cubs 365, June 14

On this day in 1949, Eddie Waitkus became a household name in America, but he certainly didn't want it to happen the way it did.

While he was with the Cubs, the young first baseman was known for his great defense, his smoking line-drives, and his left-handed bat. The pinnacle of his Cubs career came in 1948, when he made the all-star team. But after the 1948 season the Cubs decided they needed to boost their pitching staff, so they traded the popular Waitkus to the Phillies for two aging starting pitchers (Dutch Leonard and Monk Dubiel). Many people in Chicago were very upset by that trade, but nobody was more upset than young Ruth Ann Steinhagen.

She kept an encyclopedic scrapbook of pictures and clippings of Waitkus. How big of a fan was she? She heard that Eddie was Lithuanian, so she studied and learned the language. Needless to say, 18-year-old Ruth Ann's world was shattered when Waitkus was traded, and according to her mother, she "cried night and day".

Eddie had no idea who Ruth Ann was, but he found out on this day in 1949. He was hitting over .300 for Philadelphia, and was leading all NL first basemen in all-star game balloting when the Phillies came to Chicago to play the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

He must have felt vindicated when his Phillies trounced the team that traded him, 9-2. He had a celebratory dinner that night with his teammate Russ Meyer and Meyer's parents and fiance. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary when they returned to the Edgewater Beach hotel around 11:00 that night.

There was a note waiting for Eddie there, from a "Ruth Ann Burns," a girl Eddie had been dating. The note simply said that Ruth Ann was staying in room 1297. Excited to see her, Eddie quickly went to room 1297 and knocked on the door. Instead of Ruth Ann Burns, however, another girl was waiting for him there. She claimed to be Ruth Ann's friend.

"Ruth Ann will be back in a few minutes," the girl said, "why don't you have a seat."

Thinking it was perfectly conceivable that the statuesque 6-foot brunette was a friend, Eddie took her up on the offer. He was sitting in a chair in room 1297 when Ruth Ann Steinhagen emerged from the closet holding a 22 caliber rifle, and said...

"If I can't have you, nobody can."

Then she shot him in the chest.

As Eddie slumped to the ground in agony, Ruth Ann Steinhagen calmly picked up the phone and told the front desk that she had just shot Eddie Waitkus. That phone call probably saved his life. The bullet narrowly missed his heart, and miraculously missed all of his other major organs, but he surely would have bled to death. As it was, it took several hours in the operating room to successfully remove the bullet.

When it came time to punish Ruth Ann Steinhagen, Eddie refused to push for a harsh sentence. He did not attend the trial, and never saw her again. When asked about her, he simply replied: "She had the coldest looking face I've ever seen."

At her trial she couldn't explain why she had done what she had done. She simply explained that "I'm sorry that Eddie had to suffer so, (but) I had to relieve the tension that I have been under the past two weeks." Ruth Ann was found legally insane, and was sent to a mental institution. After a few years of electric shock therapy, she was declared "sane" and released in 1952.

Eddie Waitkus missed the rest of the 1949 season, but eventually returned to the Phillies the next year, and played six more seasons in the big leagues. His baseball abilities didn't seem altered by the event, but as you might imagine, Eddie changed. The once affable and friendly Waitkus became withdrawn. After his career, he became an alcoholic and a recluse. He died in 1972 at the very young age of 53.

His story is said to be the inspiration for Bernard Malamud's novel about a crazy female fan "with cold eyes" who shoots a baseball star. That novel is called "The Natural."

45 Years Ago Today...

...people all over the world were listening to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band, which had just been released.

It was the first album I ever bought.

At the time, of course, I had no idea who all of these people were on the cover. Over the years I figured most of them out, one by one.

But to be honest, I still needed the following list spelled out to me to get them all. Thank you Wikipedia...

Top row:
Sri Yukteswar Giri (Hindu guru)
Aleister Crowley (occultist)
Mae West (actress)
Lenny Bruce (comedian)
Karlheinz Stockhausen (composer)
W. C. Fields (comedian/actor)
Carl Gustav Jung (psychiatrist)
Edgar Allan Poe (writer)
Fred Astaire (actor/dancer)
Richard Merkin (artist)
The Vargas Girl (by artist Alberto Vargas)
Huntz Hall (actor)
Simon Rodia (designer and builder of the Watts Towers)
Bob Dylan (singer/songwriter)

Second row:
Aubrey Beardsley (illustrator)
Sir Robert Peel (19th century British Prime Minister)
Aldous Huxley (writer)
Dylan Thomas (poet)
Terry Southern (writer)
Dion (singer)
Tony Curtis (actor)
Wallace Berman (artist)
Tommy Handley (comedian)
Marilyn Monroe (actress)
William S. Burroughs (writer)
Sri Mahavatar Babaji (Hindu guru)
Stan Laurel (actor/comedian)
Richard Lindner (artist)
Oliver Hardy (actor/comedian)
Karl Marx (political philosopher)
H. G. Wells (writer)
Sri Paramahansa Yogananda (Hindu guru)
Sigmund Freud (psychiatrist) - barely visible below Bob Dylan
Anonymous (hairdresser's wax dummy)

Third row:
Stuart Sutcliffe (artist/former Beatle)
Anonymous (hairdresser's wax dummy)
Max Miller (comedian)
A "Petty Girl" (by artist George Petty)
Marlon Brando (actor)
Tom Mix (actor)
Oscar Wilde (writer)
Tyrone Power (actor)
Larry Bell (artist)
Dr. David Livingstone (missionary/explorer)
Johnny Weissmuller (Olympic swimmer/Tarzan actor)
Stephen Crane (writer) - barely visible between Issy Bonn's head and raised arm
Issy Bonn (comedian)
George Bernard Shaw (playwright)
H. C. Westermann (sculptor)
Albert Stubbins (football player)
Sri Lahiri Mahasaya (guru)
Lewis Carroll (writer)
T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia")

Front row:
Wax model of Sonny Liston (boxer)
A "Petty Girl" (by George Petty)
Wax model of George Harrison
Wax model of John Lennon
Shirley Temple (child actress) - barely visible, first of three appearances on the cover
Wax model of Ringo Starr
Wax model of Paul McCartney
Albert Einstein (physicist) - largely obscured
John Lennon holding a French horn
Ringo Starr holding a trumpet
Paul McCartney holding a Cor Anglais
George Harrison holding a piccolo
Bobby Breen (singer)
Marlene Dietrich (actress/singer)
An American legionnaire[1]
Diana Dors (actress)
Shirley Temple (child actress) - second appearance on the cover

Other objects within the group include:
Cloth grandmother-figure by Jann Haworth
Cloth doll by Haworth of Shirley Temple wearing a sweater that reads "Welcome The Rolling Stones Good Guys"
A ceramic Mexican craft known as a Tree of Life from Metepec
A 9-inch Sony television set, apparently owned by Paul McCartney - the receipt, bearing McCartney's signature, is owned by a curator of a museum dedicated to The Beatles in Japan.[2]
A stone figure of a girl
Another stone figure
A statue brought over from John Lennon's house
A trophy
A doll of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi
A drum skin, designed by fairground artist Joe Ephgrave
A hookah (water pipe)
A velvet snake
A Fukusuke, Japanese china figure
A stone figure of Snow White
A garden gnome
A euphonium/baritone horn

Cubs 365, June 13

On this day in 1984, the Cubs traded away their top prospect, Joe Carter, and another stud outfielder named Mel Hall to the Cleveland Indians for pitcher Rick Sutcliffe.

In some ways, Cubs management can never be begrudged for making this trade. Sutcliffe was nearly unhittable the rest of the year. He won the Cy Young Award, posted a record of 16-1, and led the Cubs to their first playoff appearance in 39 years. He also had two more All-Star caliber seasons for the team.

On the other hand, Joe Carter turned into a superstar. He hit 396 big league homers, and not a single one of those was with the Cubs. He is probably best remembered for hitting one of the most memorable round trippers in World Series history; a walk off homer against another former Cub (Mitch Williams) to win the 1993 World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays.

The BAC Book Club with Kim Strickland

If you're on the South Side of Chicago you won't want to miss a special event tomorrow night (Thursday) at the Beverly Arts Center. Eckhartz Press author Kim Strickland will be the featured author at the BAC Book Club.

Moderator Penny Golden will be talking to Kim about "Down at the Golden Coin" and Kim will take questions from the audience and sign books.

The BAC is promoting it as a "no pressure" book club, where the attendees don't have to have read the book. It will be an informal setting, with a cash bar and snacks; a fun "girls' night out" kind of evening. (Guys are welcome too, of course!).

The fun begins at 7:30. See you there!

Cubs 365, June 12

On this day in 1938, Cubs pitcher Larry French made news when he bought a live bear cub from a fan for $10.

Larry learned a valuable lesson that summer...keeping a live bear cub isn't as easy as it sounds. After the cub tore up his apartment, French somehow managed to convince his teammate Ripper Collins to take the bear off his hands. Collins learned the same valuable lesson. After a similar unpleasant experience, he donated the cub to a conservation camp in New York.

Larry French also made news on the field that year. He became (and remains) the only pitcher in major league history to lose as many as 19 games (and have a losing record) for a pennant winner. He went 10-19 for the 1938 National League Champion Cubs, personally accounting for nearly 1/3 of the team's losses.