Cubs Update...Adios, AMIGOS!

A Cubs update on a Cubs fansite? Go figure.
Farewell Stoney, you will be missed. And sorry for the reasons surrounding your departure, it's a shame the Cubs front office couldnt see past thier own inept blunderings, poor management and insanity circus they call public relations to realize what an asset you are/were to this club. I for one, and one of millions, will fondly remember your dead on color assesment of the games from the tv booth, be they critical or full of praise. You were, as far as I'm concerned, an honest fan of the team and the best critic they had when it really mattered. Too bad they saw that as a liability, but with the curse of the billygoat, comes the curse of the scapegoat.
Your departure simply adds a new layer of sadness to the tear-jerker chapter in a book known as perpetual next-year.
At least you are not alone in saying farewell to the friendly confines. No more will I be able to howl ALOUUUUU! with thousands of others as Moises takes the field. No longer will Mark Grudzalanek have his name butchered by Ronny Santo as "Grunz" alodic. And lastly, with you goes the smoke that was the fire that the Cubs had stoked the past couple years, only to let its fizzle and die like so many others before. Perhaps poking at the embers could rekindle it just a little, before Sosa whizzes all over it for good.
Here is Steve's letter of resignation.
Dear Cubs fans,

Since I put on a Cubs uniform in 1974, I've seen lots of Cub's history. There has been heartache and joy, agony and ecstasy, not to mention, 21 managers and 10 general managers.

Through all of these years and more than a few broadcast partners, I have always felt a strong connection to the greatest, most loyal fans in baseball, Cub fans. My love for the city of Chicago and the people who came to beautiful Wrigley Field has been a constant. Over 3 million of you Cub fans came to the ballpark in 2004 and the TV ratings showed you watched the Cub broadcasts in staggering numbers.

Unfortunately, the 2004 season did not end as we had hoped. It was devastating for all of us who invested our hearts, our time and in many cases our lives, in the hopes and dreams of the Cubs winning a world championship.

I am sure you have read many things about this past season and my involvement in one or two controversies. However, you have never heard my story or my perspective of the events that have brought us to this point in time. As has always been my personal policy, it is not my intention to divulge the content of private conversations I've had with others. Likewise, I do not want to be forced into sharing my side of the story. I came into Chicago on the high road with my credibility and integrity. Thirty years later, I choose to leave the same way.

The phrase I used that angered certain people was "I regret nothing." Well folks, I was wrong about that and want to set the record straight. I regret I won't be calling another Cubs game on WGN-TV for the greatest fans in baseball, the fans of the Chicago Cubs.

It's been a great ride. I will never forget you. Most importantly, I thank you all for every minute of happiness, you, the fans have given me.

Best regards,

Steve Stone

Class act, He will be missed.

Vote, you hillbilly!!

Ain't votin'? No time? Too busy fixin on yer truck in the front yard?
Take a tip from a guy that does...
Vote, and no matter who wins, you will feel better about doing it.
Don't, and you lose all credibility. I'm Kidcubfan and I approve this message.

"D" is for LIS-DEXIA!!!

MORE BACKWARD THINKING FROM OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEMS

There are some days I wake up and feel old. My feet hurt, my hands cramp up, I wobble around the bleak drizzly morning and think "Jebus, I'm 36, not the other way around!" and then it passes and after goofing around with Luke and Bridget I feel young, closer to the point of view they share about the world than people my own age. Why can't we eat Jell-o for breakfast? Why not jump in puddles? I'm all for it. Then comes a story like the one you can read by clicking on the title above, and you realize how far removed from "adulthood" an adult can really be. Long story short, kids in a small Washington town might not have Halloween celebrations in school, for fear of offending..."real witches." Yeah, right. Hey, that reminds me , Christmas is being re-thunk around these parts for fear of offending..."real elves." I'm sick of this "P.C." world we live in. I think it's time to buck the trend. I think I just might leave the turlit seat up this weekend. I think just to balance out things a bit, I may watch a REDSKINS game. I may even call my "butter-flavoured popcorn topping" BUTTER this next coming movie excursion.(Oh, one can only hope it will be Shall we danceA light hearted romantic romp filled with)...I meant Alien vs Predator. What did I say? Forget it. I might even go commando at church. Heh. Just a thought.
Or...maybe I'll just toss my 2 cents in where it might get picked up by firing off a nasty-gram to the large and in-charge, high and mighty Puyallup school district President, a one Mr.G Heath.
Heres what I had to say...
Dear Mr. Heath,
I just finished reading this article www.komonews.com/stories/33602.htm and had to voice my opinion. If what was said regarding the cancellation of all Halloween activities is true, then you and your staffers have succumbed one of the saddest trends in our history, over-sensitivity. How many times in the past have you actually stopped to think that the world, or even your little town, would be better off without some traditions? I would hope never. If so, it is only a matter of time before other traditions follow suit. If Halloween is "offensive" to "Witches" then Thanksgiving could be viewed as offensive to Native Americans, Christmas offensive to Jews and every other holiday offensive to one group or another. Where does it stop? Or is that the point, is this just the start of the ideal that one day, we will all act accordingly as to not offend anyone or anything by not involving ourselves in any way shape or form. If so, then you should know you are simply teaching these children nothing more than apathy and nihilism. The bottom line is this, you are taking away Halloween from children. Plain and simple. That is all they will see it as. Let the kids have fun, and for god's sake let them be kids while they are young, they will have the rest of thier lives to think , and over-think, like some adults.

Pehaps not the most moving of all texts but my point was made.
Maybe. We will see. Time to go jump in a puddle with a bowl full of Jell-O, FOR BREAKFAST OF COURSE!

Snow White

Smidge wanted to be Snow White for Halloween, and so she shall. Who are we to say no to a girl in the midst of her terrible two's? Besides, if she were any cuter we would just puke.

Pa'ar warshurs n stuff!

After 12 years living in our humble abode, I decided...ok, Jill decided...no, thats not right either. Let's try this angle...The health and human services of greater Illinois would probably have decided, (much better,)that they needed verification that the floor of my garage actually existed, or if the stacked, packed,jammed, crammed and otherwise squozed in pile of you-name-it was simply held in place over a bottomless chasm like some twisted junkyard version of don't break the ice.
Incidentally, for those of you not personally familiar with gene pool recession or trailer speak, the title of this diatribe is "Power washers and stuff." Please, refrain from correcting my grammar, doing so would violate the ZERO COMMENTARY currently gracing the bottom of all of my posts,thankyouverymuch, and where was I? Oh, right, the run on sentence regarding my garage.
A call was placed to Jay, who was borrowing Mike's Power washer. Having never used one before, Jay wanted a lesson in how to use this...this...big bad something-or-other horsepower briggs and stratton gas powered squirt gun on crack. It really is an amazing machine, with one pull of the trigger my testosterone level jumped up 30 points. Theres something very Zen about the ability to strip paint from a concrete floor with just a blast of water, almost as satisfying as cutting steel with fire...oh...oh...don't get me started on that.
After a full day yesterday of Mr. Mom-ing it I needed this. A few hours of emptying the garage by carefully tapping at the edge of the mountain with a big red plastic hammer...-obscure don't break the ice joke-...I lined up both sides of our driveway with neat piles of everything we own and for the most part completely forgot about. (A recent garage sale removed most of the crap, including all of the crap dropped off and left behind from the previous garage sale two years ago. Next time,I'm doing it right...two words...yard fire.)
I got mah boy and sat him down to watch his old man do man stuff. It probably didnt help that I sat him down on his sisters little wicker chair wearing his bike helmet, but who cares...no one could see him behind the mountain of garage junk we once called house junk. It was time to warsh, and i mean warsh with an r. I fired up the 2 stroke engine with one pull, pointed the nozzle of doom at the newly discovered greyish floor and nearly removed all of 11 toes with one shot. After dialing the nozzle down from " Filthy jackhammer" to "girly man" I tried again, this time taking off only the paint, grease, grime, sludge, and yuck that had once held our boxes in place, which I actually considered a benefit in the event of an earthquake.
Luke was proud, if not a little wet. He sat kinda close.
Once I was done, it was time for one more manly-man thing. I power warshed..the power washer itself...thereby adding 3 points to the score I made up in my head for scoring such things as power washing and football and cross stitching.
Maybe I gotta work on my list a little.
Tomorrow...REARRANGING THE KITCHEN CABINETS!

SWAG! YOU NEED THIS CRAP!!!

After having this little site less than a year and absolutely NO KNOWN REGULARS, I made the decision it was time to sell cheap crap at moderate prices! NOW YOU, the casual reader, relative or kind friend can own your very own I BLOG, THEREFORE YOU'RE WRONG T-shirt, coffee mug or magnet!!!Simply whip out the plastic and go crazy ...Remember, you can't fully understand buyers remorse until you have EXPERIENCED IT TO IT'S FULLEST, BUY MORE!!!
READY? CLICK THE "SWAG" HEADER ABOVE

Secret world, no camera...

Now that all but the yelling is over regarding the Cubs season, I will reluctantly switch the meaning of this "blog" or whatever it is to my own little journal of random crapola. If it should survive to next season, the random crapola will be once again changed back to Cubby crapola, rest assured.
Based on the events of the last few week, I am seriously considering carrying a 35mm camera with me everywhere now. It seems that everywhere I turn lately I blunder into another hidden world right in the middle of civilization. Last week it was a burned down farm house and great big rotting barn 150 feet from a major intersection. I was working on locating cable when a co-worker Don and I wandered unwittingly along an old decreped road into the woods. The barn came into view first, then a group of smaller sheds and buildings, all in various stages of disrepair. We walked around the property, peering into filthy windows and kicking curiosities hidden in the overgrowth. The whole time I tried to picture it as it was. Although we were within earshot of the traffic, it was eerily silent. I saw the farm house, or what was left of it, last. It had burned down some time before, the charred timbers strewn about and overgrown by grasses. I climbed up on the foundation wall and looked at the twisted wreckage of rusted plumbing resting in what was once the basement. The first Polaroid came out blank,(old, crappy film) but the second shot was a bit better, although Don and I might be the only ones to ever make out the image and how it fits in time and space.
I suppose this justifies the use of a cell phone camera in some ways, but on the other hand, I dont mind owning an experience sans digital proof.
The other little discovery happened today. Another stroll into the woods at work, this time in Hoffman Estates, revealed an old cemetary. http://www.graveyards.com/show.php?id=81 Again, in the middle of everything, hidden away by a thin layer of trees and indifference. The Greve cemetary is located at the top of a small hill and overlooks quad homes in every direction. My visit today was accompanied by the louder than life shrill din of what seemed like a thousand landscapers, determined to cut every blade and suck up every leaf for miles.
Lastly, while googling for information on Typhoid Mary (So I'm the curious type, so sue me) I stumbled upon this site http://www.urbanlens.com/index.html A great little site with some of exactly what I'm talking about...having a camera handy (especially if you are planning a trip to farr off places to take pictures.)
Duh.

SHEEP!!! LOOK OUT!!!!

Remember "BABY ON BOARD" in every window?Here in my neck of the suburbs lately that same "I HAVE GOT TO BE LIKE EVERONE ELSE" mentality has struck again. Some marketing genius game up with magnets shaped like ribbons, in all manner of colors and sayings, and is selling them to every person with a pulse to slap on the back end of the family ride. On my half hour trip home I counted 23. TWENTY THREE!!! I didnt see that many turn signals. Most say something to the effect of "support the troops" or "pray for the troops"The thing that gets me is that I dont need to be reminded by the ass end of a Subaru to "support the troops" or worse yet..."Pray for the troops"As opposed to what? "Forget the troops, they're doomed" or "Pray for more war!"The only thing I want to see more of regarding the car in front of me is more turn signals and less cell phones. How about this for a magnetic ribbon quote: "Im too busy concentrating on the road right now to talk, how about you do the same"

Well then...wasn't that special?

So let us recap, shall we?

Actually, what more can I say that hasn't already been said to death regarding the stunning collapse of the Cubs organization in the final weeks of play? Not much, but then again when has that stopped me from venting. After all, I started this blog so that I would have a place to read my own words prior to a Cubs world series in the year Twenty umpteen for-never. So, here are a few random thoughts regarding a most miserable year and the miserable after taste it has left in the collective mouths of 3 million plus screaming wild knucklehead never say die losers like myself who attended the coveted shrine to baseball glorification only to have our asses handed to us by a fate so horrible Steve Bartman himself could ne'er conjure up...APATHY, the dreaded cancer of the MLB, all rights reserved.
1) I began the 2004 year with three goals. The first was to secure as many choice tickets to see as many games as my schedule would allow. This was a mistake. Random tickets as presents are much more rewarding than trying to figure which games would mean anything.
The other two goals involved heavy drinking and something about a world series..OH, I remember, I wanted to drink heavily at the WORLD FRIGGIN SERIES. Sorry, back to typing.
2) I started this blog to rant, rave and glorify further the myth that would be the legend that would... be... MY world series WINNING CHICAGO CUBS!!! How ya likin' it so far? Yeah, exactly.
3) The only things missing from the start of the last baseball season was an epidemic of bubonic plague wiping out what was left of the injury ridden, shaken starting rotation. It was supposed to look like this, PRIOR-WOOD-ZAMBRANO-MADDUX-CLEMENT...Instead we got WOOD on again off again boo boo, PRIOR pulled his hambone favoring his armbone or something...CLEMENT Pulled chin fuzz, (even the Clementines abandoned him...)Zambrano who pitched great but could also pitch wild and suddenly go apeshit all over the field. Moises Alouooooo Who when he wasnt HITTING the ball was swinging at umpires who were conspiring against him...whatever...And of course, my personal favorite of all time...Sosa, who after throwing out his back SNEEZING(wait for laughter to die down, 2..1...), returned fresh as a daisy. Have you ever seen a daisy swing a bat? Me neither.
To round it all off we had a ZERO for a closing pitcher by the name of LaTroy Hawkins, who in an interview after losing a game made it perfectly clear that while he could easily pick up a microphone and do a reporters job, no simple reporter could do what he does for a living. I beg to differ. As I recall, in that game, Hawkins threw a ball that hit a batter. With bases loaded. Scoring a run. Cubs lost by one.
Call me arrogant, but I COULD DO THAT!!!! And on the cheap, too.
This was the team that Sports Illustrated predicted would win it all, even plastering Wood's dominating, menacing mug all over the front page. This was the team, skippered by a one Dusty "we trusty" Baker, that would scream through the Central division and skip rope to a World Seried win in October?
So thorough was the disease which ate this team away from the inside that not even the announcers were immune. That reminds me...Later Chip, good luck in Atlanta, it was nice having your enthusiasm and honesty. Same for you, Steve Stone, I hope you stay under better circumstances. But for the rest of you whining, sniveling, crybaby billionaire nerdlingers who spent an entire season crying about the media, game times, game locations, weather and/or anything else other that the game itself and/or your inability to get it together to score ONE FRIGGIN RUN WITH BASES LOADED 3 TIMES IN ONE GAME, I...YOU...meh, ah, crap... Heres your hat, what's your hurry..just go.
I will always stand by my team, MY Cubs. I will refer to losses as "our" problems, the same as I refer to wins as "our" streaks. But I will not accept a team of millionaire children who expect to be handed a win and wonder why those eight teams who EARNED it are still playing games come October. No way. Jim Hendry has his work cut out for him, I'll miss some names next year, and others I won't. But I'll be there anyhow, another screaming knucklehead in the bleachers waiting to drink heavily at the World Series. Hey...I'll even buy one or two.
As always, Go Cubs, and...
say it with me, kids...
Wait 'til next year!!!