Goodbye Goose

I still remember so many things that happened twelve years ago tonight. I’ve relived some of them here so many times. But try as I might, I haven’t just let them go. I’ve been like Maverick in the movie Top Gun, wishing things had turned out differently than they did. And the only way to

September Redux

2015 is the year we’ve been waiting for, Cubs fans. So let’s dance!

Link to a post on ThroughTheFenceBaseball

Yesterday brought a strange bit of baseball convergence, as the Atlanta Braves retired Chipper Jones’ number 10, while the Cincinnati Reds released Mark Prior. Ten years ago, in the first round of the National League playoffs, Prior got the better of Jones in game three, retiring him three times.But in the end, Chipper Jones is

The tie that abides

Ten years ago this fall I was out in New Mexico, visiting my in-laws as the Cubs were in the midst of their ill-fated playoff run. The one that took us all to the brink of the World Series, before vanishing into thin air. All these years later, and I’m still not over it, either.

Looking beneath the fold

Last weekend, I found myself in the position of having to explain the Cubs and their 2003 collapse in the playoffs to a young fan who didn’t know anything about it. I’ve written about this before, from many different angles, but writing is so much more preferable to me than speaking. It’s always been that

Link to a Kerry Wood piece on ChicagoSideSports

Kerry Wood got a Wrigley Field send-off yesterday, and as a long-time Cub he deserved something nice. But for all of the celebratory things that were said about him, I thought of what might have been, if only his potential had been a bit more fully realized. The piece itself appears here. It’s not really

Triple shot

My teenager had a skating lesson today, and I went out in search of some Starbucks as it was going on. It was more of a day for iced coffee, instead, but old habits are hard to break. I was on my way back to the skating rink when I saw a garage sale sign.

From the Red Sox to the Red Ivy

The Theo Epstein signing is official, and the press conference to announce it will be held at Wrigley Field tomorrow. The Red Sox have indeed let the only winners they’ve ever had go, just as I dared them to do. So now we have our guy, and he’s getting his guys into place, and the

The difference between Cubs fans and Red Sox fans

In the Spring of 2004, I was in Seattle on business. One bright, beautiful day, I went out to lunch with some of my associates. We went to a seafood place on the waterfront, and as we sat down to lunch, the conversation turned to baseball. Two of the people at the table were Red

Why does Gonzo get a pass?

If I’m Alex Gonzalez, the one shown on the card above, I would consider myself an extremely lucky man. Without the widely known–and tragically unfortunate–interference event that happened during the top half of the eighth inning of Game six of the 2003 NLCS, Gonzalez would be as renown as Bill Buckner for the error he

Dusty left him in too long, twice

I’ll never forget the 2003 playoffs. The way it ended is something that I might never recover from. I’ve posted about that before in this space. But there are some good memories from it, too. I was scheduled to go to Atlanta on a business trip, and lo and behold, the Cubs were going to