Happy Mom's Day

An official Happy Mothers Day greeting to all the Mom's out there including my own Mom, step-mom and wife.

In honor of Mom's Day I thought I would write a post about children (more specifically two daughters) because without these two girls today would be very different.

To begin with, I present my own daughter, who for those of you who read my blog may remember that my Jennifer, graduated high school in May of 2008 and was accepted into the long-term Rotary Youth Exchange of Florida program that has sent her to Finland for this past year. If you want to read about her adventures please go here: Jenny's Journal from Finland Thankfully she gets her writing skills from her Mother.

"an american in Paris"

petting a real reindeer in Lapland Finland, in the arctic circle, during Christmas time

Jennifer will be returning to the USA on May 24th, it has been a looooong year without her and I do miss her terribly. She will be attending Flagler college (St Augustine Florida) in the fall to begin her "new" life as a college student. As Jenny has reminded me in many emails and IM's "Daddy, I am so much more grown up and independent now and so ready for college . . . but I will always be your little girl".

Jennifer was born in 1991 and as some of you may know (even have helped out) I am still putting together a binder of cards from 1991 as a surprise for her. She is still my little girl who hopefully will always be my little baseball partner. Thanks to my wife who is Jennifer's Mommy . . . today is for both of you.

While my daughter went off to Finland last summer, my wife and I "adopted" an exchange student as a replacement (that is one of the unwritten rules of the program) . We were blessed to be able to call Vivian our daughter this past fall. Vivian is from Taiwan and we now have two new countries we "must" visit. Today, I thank her Mom for allowing us to be "parents" to Vivian this past year. Of course I had to take her to a Rays game !

Today is a day to thank some very special Moms; especially Jennifers and Vivians.

Happy Mothers Day to all !

The 30-40-50-100 Man

For those of you who are new to baseball (under 21 years of age) or dont bleed Cubbie Blue there once was a 2nd baseman who was pretty darn good.

He was elected to ten (10) all-star games, won nine (9) gold glove and seven (7) silver slugger awards. He has one NL MVP (1984) award in his pocket and his uniform number (#23) is hanging on a foul pole at Wrigley Field. His two game-tying clutch homeruns in a June 23rd, 1984 game has been "officially" named after him . . .

Ok . . . no big secret here . . .the "pretty darn good" 2nd baseman is Ryne Sandberg, Duh !

While 1984 is his MVP year, I will take note of his 1990 year (coming in fourth in MVP ballots): What is so special about 1990 ?

Sandberg hit .306, had a .559 slugging average and . . . . hit 30 doubles, 40 HR's, had 50 walks and drove in 100 RBI's (exactly); a 30-40-50-100 Man ! As an aside, he is one of only threee players ever to hit 40 HR's (1990) and steal 50 bases (1985) in ones career (joining Brady Anderson and Barry Bonds).

Score appropriately named Sandberg "Man of the Year" for 1990 ! I still call him the 30-40-50-100 Man !

Happy Birthday Ernie Banks

Ernie Banks, born on January 31, 1931, is celebrating his 78th birthday today and I wanted to be one of the first to wish him a “beautiful day”. “Mr. Cub” deserves everyday to be a “beautiful day” !

So much has been written about Ernie Banks; two time MVP (1958, 59), 512 career HR’s, 1636 RBI’s, 11 time All-Star, 2583 career hits, HOF first time ballot inductee, uniform #14 retired by the Cubs, nineteen years with one team – Chicago Cubs I could not possible due justice. Ernie Banks is also known to have coined to rather famous sayings: “It’s a beautiful day for baseball . . .lets play two” and “The Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field”.

So on his birthday I present his 1960 card which highlights his stats from his MVP year of 1959; 45 HR’s, 143 RBI’s and .304 batting average. Oh what a year he had in 1959 as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of his MVP year.

And on a personal note, as a teenager I worked at the Glencoe Golf Course in Glencoe Illinois (a northern suburb of Chicago). My “job” was to remove players golf clubs from their cart, after they played, wash their clubs and return their clubs to their car or the racks in our club storage shed (usually receiving a tip of $ .25 for “doing a good job”). Ernie Banks played at this course many times and I recall a warm April day in 1975 that “Mr. Cub” actually followed me into the club storage shed and he signed the small wooden desk my brothers and I shared (he also was a generous tipper). This desk had much of our teenage graffiti etched in it along with some signatures of the celebrities of the day. This desk is long gone from the shed, no teenagers are washing golf clubs anymore and celebrity encounters are less random. Those were the days . . .

One numerical coincidence to leave you with: Ernie Banks hit his last homerun (#512) on May 12th, 1970 (512 on 5-12).
Happy Birthday “Mr. Cub” !

Ken Holtzman - 1969 was a "fun" year

A mainstay in the Cubs pitching rotation in the late sixties, Ken Holtzman was the first of the "stars" from the 1969 Cubs team to walk away. Traded to the Oakland Athletics in 1971 (for Rick Monday) Holtzman became part of the "characters of green and gold" who won three consecutive World Series' in '72, '73 and '74. Holtzman joined the staff with Vida Blue, Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Blue Moon Odom and Rollie Fingers.

Holtzman's career started (rookie year was 1965) and ended with the Cubs (1979) but has later admitted that 1969 was "the most fun and exciting" single season ever. Holtzman has five championship rings (including the three mentioned, he also pitched for the division winning A's in 1975 and the 1977 World Series Champion Yankees). Holtzman is the winningest Jewish pitcher of all time with 174, surpassing Sandy Koufax.
Holtzman pitched two no hitters in his career both in a Cubs uniform. Pitching his first on August 19, 1969 at Wrigley field against the Atlanta Braves; some consider the last "good" thing that happened that summer for the Cubs. The Cubs went on to lose 7 of 9 after that August day and their fate had begun. That September of 1969 will always be remembered and never forgotten as the Cubs went 8 - 17. Holtzman himself went 1 - 5 in September yet finished the year with a 17-13 record.

His second no hitter was in 1971 and was the first recorded no hitter in Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium history. Ken Holtzman was "perfect" in 1967, going 9 and 0, in a season that he pitched weekends only as he served his role in active military service. It is interesting to note that many players of that day had military service commitments and many baseball cards reflect that involvement.

Ken Holtzman always remembers 1969 as the year he had "fun" in losing, the fans of Chicago always remember the "fun" Holtzman too.

Hockey at Wrigley ?

Before I get started . . . happy New Year to everyone. May all your cardboard dreams come true.

My first post of the new year is not about baseball cards, my collection or even something I got in the mail. It is about something of a higher power . . . something is happening in Chicago that makes me wonder . . . could this year be the year !

There is an old joke about H E double hockey sticks freezing over before the Cubs win a world series and as a Cub fan we don’t like that joke. However, something is freezing over right now and it is Wrigley Field !

Yes folks, the second annual NHL winter classic is being played at Wrigley Field. The Chicago Blackhawks vs. the Detroit Red Wings. The first time ever an outdoor hockey game will be played in a baseball field. I could not think of a better place, more picturesque or historic. Thank you to the N H L for choosing Wrigley Field.

So now that Wrigley is frozen over . . . could this be the year for the Cubbies ! Go Cubs Go !