About effin’ time.
Bravo, Golden Era committee. Shame on the Baseball Writers of America for sitting on their votes all these years.

That’s right— Hall of Famer Ron Santo. Long overdue.
Cubs Fan Returns Miguel Tejada’s Home Run Ball
Hendry, sign this kid. Have to wonder if Soriano’s more than literally looking over his shoulder. (via MLB.com)

A fellow die hard fan recently remarked that the lowly Cubs are a mere 7.5 games out of first in their division.
“Not insurmountable,” he claimed.
Endlessly snake-bitten with injuries… all-around inconsistent (trending toward poor) play… Perhaps it’s time to consider putting the entire team on the DL until next year.
Not insurmountable… just embarrassing.

“The Dugout” - Norman Rockwell (The Saturday Evening Post cover: September 4, 1948)
Here I was, just joking about giving it a go (well, maybe a little bit serious), and this kid makes it all the way to the prize. How awesome is that, huh?
I just pinched myself, and I’m not dreaming. I am, however, now in training…
“Now batting for the Chicago Cubs… the First Baseman, Number 8, Joe Pepitone.”
It figures that a solid, positive profile on Des Plaines native Mike Quade would come from outside the Chicago sportswriting cynicism zone.

So it begins (again)…
Optimism.
Hohokam.
Pitchers and Catchers.
Meaningless Spring Training Games.
Hot Stove Dividends (or not).Pessimism. Optimism.

A four-bagger bummer. As a kid, the Cubs for me were all about Santo, Banks, Williams and Jenkins. And I’d be remiss to not include Pepitone. The past 20 years of Cubs’ radio broadcasts were the best with Santo at the mic, bleeding Cubbie Blue with every pitch, hit, K, dinger and error.
I wonder if the Baseball Hall of Fame Lame will vote him in now. Fuckers.
Todd Ricketts, a member of the Chicago Cubs new ownership family, stepped up to the plate on CBS’ Undercover Boss reality show in the U.S..
What’s disconcerting is that he batted lead-off on the team for the last few games of the season, and nobody noticed.