For the Cubs, nothing’s been accomplished yet

On this day off between the end of the regular season–where the Cardinals played all 162 games–and the postseason–where the Cardinals will watch it on TV like the rest of us–a few thoughts are in order. That dig at the Cardinals sounds a bit petty, but the truth is I’m glad the teams will not

Inside the Ricketts Square

My daughter, who’s in 8th grade in a Chicago public school, took biology a year ago. She was exposed to genetics and the Punnett Square, which brought back lots of old memories, and not necessarily fond ones, as I tried once again to understand alleles and dominant and recessive traits. However, I apparently remember enough of genetics

Right Now

I must be one of the few people who prefers the Sammy Hagar era of Van Halen over the David Lee Roth incarnation of the band. I’ve written about Sammy before, and his solo work and the songs he wrote and sang for Montrose are great examples of what rock and roll sounds like. Dave,

Baseball’s hold on me

Over the past 24 hours, three baseball-themed pieces that I wrote have appeared online. The deal between Pearl Jam and Fox Sports for the upcoming World Series was discussed in a piece on ThroughTheFenceBaseball, a memory from the 2003 Cubs season appeared on FiveWideSports, and a vision of how 2003 might have ended differently appeared

Can’t do it

I took this picture of a copy of the Chicago Tribune–from the day after the White Sox won the World Series in 2005– to send it in to a memorabilia appraisal TV show I read about online. I have no illusions that it has any monetary value. And yet, as a hardcore Cubs fan, a

Ballpark in winter

The World Series could end today, and then baseball will officially shut down and head into its long offseason. But the season’s been over for many months already for the Chicago Cubs. All that stuff about player development and building for the future is empty happytalk that might sell some season tickets for next year,

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

So it’s come to this

I wrote an earlier post about how I had no NCAA brackets to consult this year. The Final Four has now been set, and there are no VCU-type cinderella stories this year. Louisville, Kansas and Kentucky are among the entrenched elite of college basketball, and even the team that wears scarlet and gray has had

and I believe in the Promised Land

Over the nine months I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve written more posts about the Chicago Cubs than any other topic. But I have other favorites, too, and Bruce Springsteen’s music is definitely on that list. This is the first time I’ve been able to fuse the two subjects together, and I’m excited to be

A contrarian’s view on Kerry Wood

The annual Cubs Convention started today in Chicago, and the team made a big splash by signing (re-upping, really) Kerry Wood for a one year, $3 million deal for 2012. There’s a club option for another year, not a player option like the kind Ryan Dempster was given, so at least that’s progress. And it

Quarterly Report #2

As with the previous three months of this year, I am putting down some thoughts at the end of the fourth quarter. The drama of the fourth quarter typically makes it the most exciting part of a football game and, even though baseball is my primary milieu for this blog, the same can be said

He’s officially gone

A number of years ago, I was participating in a fantasy baseball draft and I picked an unknown (at least to the people taking part in the draft) third baseman named Aramis Ramirez. I pronounced it AIR-uh-miss, and nobody said anything to the contrary. A few months later, in the middle of the season, the

It will be worth the wait

Christmas is certainly a unique time of year. The holidays bring out a side of people that remains hidden for most of the year. Maybe its the snow, or the gift giving, or the reflection that accompanies the end of another year here on earth. Whatever it is, we all need at least a couple

Mascot musings

Today was a much nicer day here than it could have been for mid-November, and my eight-year old was at Toyota Park in the suburbs for the annual Girls on the Run event. It’s a nice field, and I’m sure the soccer team (or is it a club?) likes that it doesn’t have to share

Number 12, and rising

When I started this blog last summer, it was in its own little isolated world. But the internet is like a vast ocean, and I wanted to find a way of gaining exposure to all of the other users out there, bloggers and otherwise. So one day in August I wrote a piece explaining why

W is for World Series

It’s sometimes difficult to remember What life was like before the internet. We’re so accustomed to it now, that it almost doesn’t seem possible that We ever got along without it. But somehow We did it. And this is is a story from back in those days. In the early 1990s, from 1991 to 1994,

Adding another digit

I’m watching the World Series now, and I want to squeeze this one in before the game’s over so I can do my post-game review, so here goes… In 1996, Sammy Sosa was having a very good year. Not the herculean, gargantuan, 66 homers and 160 RBI seasons that he would put up a few

Get ready for a huge number

At the start of this season, when it became clear that Albert Pujols and the Cardinals were not going to agree on a contract before the season, the thought of number 5 in a contract year was absolutely horrifying. The best player of his generation–and maybe of any generation–trying to put up numbers to show what

And the Theo watch continues

As the World Series gets going, the big story in the rest of baseball is what’s going to happen with Theo Epstein and the Cubs. The Red Sox apparently want some things, and the Cubs are going to have to cough some prospects up. Maybe they’re close to getting it done, any maybe they’re not.

UPDATE: An open letter (with thanks) to Theo Epstein

Hello Theo, I hope it’s OK if I call you by your first name. I actually don’t even know if it’s short for Theodore or something else. For all I know, you may not even like to be called that. If there’s something else you’d rather go by, please accept my apologies. I must tell

Theo Epstein and Maximum Yang

Last weekend, I picked up a book  called The Tao of Baseball at, ironically enough, a church rummage sale. I had read the Tao of Pooh many years ago, and that was the extent of my exposure to Taoist thought. But I’m always up for learning something about baseball, so I gave this one a

Here’s why I want Theo Epstein on the North Side

I remember the 2004 trade involving Nomar Garciaparra very well. “No-mah” was revered in Boston, and I was stunned that the Red Sox gave him up. And yet, just a couple months after trading him away, the Red Sox finally broke through and won the World Series. And there’s not a Red Sox fan alive

I thought of him as my Grandpa

Jack Brickhouse was my surrogate grandfather from 1975 to 1981. He’s the reason why I turned away from the Cardinals, which was no small thing for a young boy living in the Cardinals’ town of Springfield, Illinois. And as I got older, and the Cubs replaced the mild-mannered Jack with the more bombastic Harry Caray

Whatever it takes

I read an article online today about an interesting possibility that I had not considered. The article is here, but basically the idea is that if the Cubs hired Walt Jocketty, the former General Manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, he would in turn hire Tony LaRussa, who would convince Albert Pujols to sign as

Hats off to the champions

I am not an NBA fan. I remember the Bird and Magic era in the 1980s, and the Jordan era in Chicago is looking better and better as time goes by. But the sport itself doesn’t interest me that much. Certainly not like baseball does, and probably not as much as football, either. And there