Home Run Derby

Here’s a Chicago Tribune picture of proud parents Brian and Lauren Clark, showing off their bundle of joy …
Addison N. Clark

Awwww, how cute. 
Wait a minute … what was that name?  Addison N. Clark?   As in Addison and Clark – the streets around Wrigley Field?  

I’ve never understood Cub fans who name their children after Wrigley Field.  Yet they continue to do so.  Naming your dog Wrigley, I can see that.  But your child? 

ADDISON N. CLARK – Born 12/19/2008 to Brian and Lauren Clark of Plainfield, Ilinois.  Full name – Addison Nicole Clark.

 Somehow father Brian got this name approved by his Lauren and her family of White Sox Fans from the South Side of Chicago.  In unrelated news, the Chicago White Sox have officially asked that family to turn in their White Sox caps.

Here’s some more kids named after the Friendly Confines …

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Every once in a while, umpires’ uniforms just don’t seem to make it to the ballpark with the umpires. 

UniWatch covered the subject pretty well nearly 4 years ago (that Paul Lukas is always ahead of the game).

One such occurence happened on April 17, 1987 … during a game between the Montreal Expos and Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, the umpires’ gear somehow got lost at the airport.  Naturally the host Cubs were generous enough to outfit the boys in blue.  It just happened to be Cubbie Blue. 

Now this was a classic game.

• Not because you got to see the late Eric Gregg get his 300 pound frame dressed up in spare Cubs’ catching gear
• Not because the Expos were wearing Powder Blue (we love the Powder Blue uniforms)
• Not because Rick Sutcliffe (one of the best beards in baseball) was on the mound …
• Not because the Cubs beat the Expos 7-0

But because comedian Bill Murray was guest-announcing the game while Harry Caray was recovering from a stroke.  

You can imagine the fun Murray had with the umpires’ uniform shenanigans.  Especially the behemoth that was Eric Gregg.  

Roll the video …

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I’ve seen lots of Cub games from the Wrigley Field Bleachers. 

All told, I’ve probably NOT SEEN just as many Cub games from the Wrigley Field Bleachers – thanks to that wonderful 16-ounce cup to the left.

One of the things you see bleacherites doing is cup-stacking their beer cups.  

It’s a great way to show everyone how many $6 beers you consumed and (not coincidentally) how much of a drunken tool you’re going to be during the last few innings of the game, if not at Bernie’s after the game.

Mind you, I’ve never seen Wrigley Cup-Stacking like this before …

Looks to be a group effort.  I don’t think even the most weathered functional alcoholics that you find at Wrigley could put that many away. 

I take it back.  Harry Caray could do it and ask for more.

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The Seattle Mariners have some artwork to correct …

Here’s a photo of a wall at Safeco Field, taken a couple days ago (2/5/09). 
What’s wrong with this picture?

Yep.  That’s Aaron Heilman, who the Mariners acquired in a trade with the New York Mets back in December, 2008. 

But Heilman was traded to the Chicago Cubs two weeks ago.

Great Googly Moogly.  That is the biggest error card I have ever seen.

St Louis has fired the first salvo of 2009 in the annual Cubs – Cardinals rivalry. 

Written in the snow outside Busch Stadium in St. Louis …

Photo Credit:  STL TODAY

I’m a Cub fan,  but I will admit – that’s simply beautiful. 
Well played St. Louis.  Your move, Wrigley.

Here’s a collection of ballparks in the snow.

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The Chicago Tribune has announced that the Ricketts family has won the bidding for the Chicago Cubs. 

And go figure, Jay Mariotti doesn’t like it.  In his most recent post at FanHouse, Mariotti describes how he apparently wanted (and still wants) Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to be the owner of the Cubs. 

But since that didn’t happen, Mariotti had to first do a little name calling about Ricketts and Cub-Fandom in general …

I don’t care that the new owner of the Cubs, Tom Ricketts, met his wife somewhere in the Wrigley Field bleachers. Nor do I care that he lived every guy’s Wrigleyville dream, slumming in an apartment above a bar by the ballpark. This is just more of the same gooey romanticism that Cubdom eats from the first victory in April to the last inevitable loss of autumn — and never amounts to anything but the same “OHHHHH, NOOOOO!!!” from Ron Santo in the radio booth, echoing 101 years of agony.

We’re going to come back to this later.    Mariotti then goes on to assault Ricketts’ ownership qualifications …

What I want to know is simple and to the point: Can Ricketts and his family — best known for the TD Ameritrade discount brokerage founded by his father, J. Joe Ricketts — produce what the Tribune Co. couldn’t produce, the Wrigley family couldn’t produce and every Cubs owner since 1908 couldn’t produce? Can these people win the friggin’ World Series already? With no experience in pro sports ownership, what do they know about running a baseball franchise?  In particular, what do they know about running a franchise supported by a fanatical cult of loons, who ignore tidal waves of hopeless futility and, somehow, come back for more punishment after every October choke job?

So you need experience in “pro sports ownership” to run a successful baseball franchise?  Carl Pohlad (Minnesota Twins), Jim DeWitt (St. Louis Cardinals), Stuart Sternberg (Tampa Bay Rays), George Steinbrenner (New York Yankees), and Arte Moreno (Anaheim Angels) would like to differ.  Except Pohlad.  And only because he’s dead.

And besides, I would think “running a franchise supported by a fanatical cult of loons” would be easier than running one without said loons.  The key word is “support” – the loons pack the park nearly every game – without question.

Mariotti continues …

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Well with the temperature at Home Run Derby headquarters currently at -7 degrees (wind chill of -29) and not expected to rise above zero for the next 27 hours … I was trying to stay warm by thinking about baseball.

Crack of the Bat, lush green grass, hot August sun, an ice cold beer, and a Kosher dog with grilled onions doused with the Stadium Mustard my brother in law sent me (hey Mike, I need more) and another ice cold beer.  That warmed me up for a while …

And then I accidentally clicked on Wrigley Field’s Webcam and saw this disturbing sight …

Singing at the Winter Classic may be all done, but it’s still winter at Wrigley.  And I got to wondering what the other MLB playgrounds look like in the snow and cold.   Let’s find out.

Staying at Wrigley, it looks like Harry Caray and Ernie Banks are keeping a quiet and chilly sentry along Addison Street.

Anyone else afraid of how cold it will be when if the Cubs do ever win the World Series? I hope I’m retired and living in Green Valley, Arizona by then.

Heading South, as in the South Side of Chicago … when last we saw US Cellular Field, it was in the midst of a “Blackout.” Now it’s in the middle of a “White-Out.”
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It’s been no secret that Ron Santo desperately wants to get into the Hall of Fame.  But that nasty Veterans’ Committee just won’t let him in.  Even after the selection rules were changed after the 2007 elections (coincidentally or not) which gave him a better shot in 2008, he still wasn’t selected.  Then again, neither was anyone else.

A number of sportswriters have been stumped for years why Santo’s not in the Hall. 

Well, thanks to a Dentist’s advert on YouTube … we think we’ve figured it out.  And it was right under Santo’s nose.  Literally.

Ron Santo had bad teeth.  And I mean bad. 
Austin Powers Bad.
“Big Book of British Smiles” Bad.

And we all know that you need a great smile to get people to vote for you.

Don’t believe me? 
Check out these before and after closeups of Santo’s choppers …

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So the NHL staged its now-annual Winter Classic outdoor hockey game at Wrigley Field yesterday.

I watched most of the game yesterday (MLB Network hadn’t gone on the air yet) wondering if they’d sing “Take me out to the ballgame” at some point during the proceedings …

They did.  Whereas it was pretty cool to see a ton of Chicago Hall of Famers all in the booth … but their performance made me cringe …

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