With 2017 drawing to a close and 2018 about to begin, I decided to take a look back at 2016 and spotlight the best (or most significant) blog post of each month. John Hurt, a Reminisence – Sir John Hurt died, aged 77, of pancreatic cancer. I can’t say that what I wrote was profound, … Continue reading On the Year That Was, 2017
Tag: Chicago Cubs
The night the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, I knew, then and there, that there was only one book on the Chicago Cubs and the 2016 season that I wanted to read — David Ross’s. One hadn’t been been announced yet, but it was inevitable, just as it was inevitable that there would be … Continue reading Scott Simon’s My Cubs
Diamond Comic Distributor‘s 2017 Retailer Summit was held last week in Chicago, in conjunction with the C2E2 convention. I had long been asking to go on some sort of work trip like this — I wanted to see a different side of the industry and meet the retailers — and this year the production schedules … Continue reading The Sights and Sounds of Wrigley Field
Last night, I reached my limit with Joe Buck. I’ve never really minded Buck. As broadcasters go, he’s wallpaper to me. I think I even felt a little sympathy toward him because he so often had to share a booth with Tim McCarver and then Harold Reynolds, either of whom was prone to incoherent babble. … Continue reading Joe Buck, a Jeremiad
If you were to ask a Chicago Cubs fan who the Cubs’ rival is, most Cubs fans would say it’s the St. Louis Cardinals. There’s some truth to that, especially in the last fifteen years or so with the division realignments and the unbalanced schedule, but that wasn’t always true. If you go back into … Continue reading An Ancient Rivalry Resumed
Yesterday morning, I attended the Cubs/Nationals game at Nationals Park. It was a lovely day for baseball — not too hot, not especially humid, sunny and bright, a stiff breeze blowing in from the direction of centerfield toward the Anacostia. The Cubs won, 7-2. Being July 4th, the game had a particular patriotic flavor, with … Continue reading Why I Didn’t Stand for “God Bless America”
Baseball. For the Chicago Cubs, opening day is today. In the hallowed halls of Wrigley Field, the Cubs of Chicago and the Nationals of Washington will meet, Ryan Dempster on the mound for the Cubs, the flamethrower Stephen Strasburg on the mound for the Nationals. I have been a Cubs fan for much of my … Continue reading On Opening Day 2012
July 4th. Two epochal, world-changing events have fallen on July 4th. The first comes on July 4, 1776. In Kent that day, Horatio Hornblower was born, and he would become one of the Royal Navy’s greatest heroes, distinguishing himself at an early age and playing a significant role in the defeat of Napoleon. The second … Continue reading On My Independence Day Plans
Exactly one hundred years ago today — July 12, 1910 — one of the most famous poems about the Chicago Cubs :cubs: was published in the New York Evening Mail — Franklin P. Adams’ “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon”: These are the saddest of possible words: “Tinker to Evers to Chance.” Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter … Continue reading On Baseball’s Sad Lexicon
As I write this, the Chicago Cubs :cubs: have a record of 35 wins, 46 losses. The Washington Nationals have a similar record — 36 wins, 46 losses. The Nats are 12 1/2 games back in the National League East, the Cubs :cubs: are 10 1/2 back in the National League Central. And yet. And … Continue reading On a Tale of Two Baseball Teams
Watching last night’s Cubs :cubs: game, this is how I felt: I’ve always said Charlie Brown was a Chicago Cubs fan, after all… It wasn’t just that Theodore Roosevelt Lilly (or as I saw him called on Bleed Cubbie Blue today, Maximus Tedimus Meridius) was back on the mound and threw shutout ball against the … Continue reading On Baseball Excitement
I look out from my office window at the glacier that still lays across Maryland, and a thought brightens my seasonally-affected spirits. The knowledge that pitchers and catchers have reported in Florida and Arizona. Soon, on fields of green, the boys of summer will be back. The crack of the bat, the smell of the … Continue reading On Baseball, the Harbinger of Spring