I’ve had a nice two week holiday with my family. We spent some time driving around the country, roughly 3200 miles, and we also were out of the country for a short time. While it’s always interesting to visit different places and meet people of different cultures, there is nothing like being in the USA.

People all around this country may have differing views on every subject under, and even including, the Sun. But we are still one country and I’m glad that we can still all enjoy baseball, hotdogs and apple pie together.

And so while I don’t drive a Chevy and I’m certainly not one of those that think all things were better back in the day. I thought that before I get back into baseball I would put up a short video that I couldn’t help but think of as I was driving around this great country of ours.

I’ll be back to the game I love with my next post. I’ve missed a lot over the past two weeks and I am really looking forward to the final two months of the season and the playoffs.

~Russel

I’m writing this post Friday afternoon but won’t be able to post it until late Friday night, right now Derek Jeter is at 2998 hits.

The only reason to talk about that is because he is just two hits short of 3000, a milestone hit total known to all baseball fans. When he gets that hit he will be just the 28^th player in baseball history to do so, of course he is also just the 28^th player to get 2998 hits, but that doesn’t have quit the same ring to it as 3000 does.

Looking at the list of the top 28 hit collectors, I will say that 12 of them accumulated all their hits during my baseball lifetime, 1973-2011. I was born prior to ’73, but my baseball memories begin around that time.  There are an additional 6 players that I remember seeing play, but most of their careers are outside of my memory.  That’s 18 of the 28 players. It’s a nice total that will hopefully be added to over time.

(Side Note: In fact its personal memories like this that make me want to write this blog. I have three daughters at home, and although they enjoy going to several games a year with me, baseball is not really a priority in their life like it was when I was 9 and 10 years old. So I write this now so that some day when I have grandkids or if my daughters themselves take a greater interest in the game I will have something to look back on to both remember what baseball in general was like and in particular what my thoughts were at the time.)

The funny thing is, despite having seen all of these players, I don’t really remember anyone in particular getting their 3000^th hit. I’m fairly certain that I saw several of them as they happened, and all of them via highlight, but they just don’t stick out. The only one that I think I remember was Wade Boggs, I think he hit a HR for number 3000, but I’m not 100% sure.

I won’t be able to see Jeter live tonight, if he gets it tonight, but hopefully I’ll be able to remember better later if I write about it now.

The “I Didn’t Know That” stat -  Derek Jeter will be 37y12d tonight. If he gets hit number 3000 he will be 11 hits ahead of Pete Rose (2989) when Rose was the same age back in the spring of 1978.

Zambrano:

So Big Z comes out of a game with a back issue which requires a trip to the disabled list but goes out that night and throws the first pitch at a women’s professional softball game. The news media in Chicago goes crazy like it’s the scoop of the century that they got video of Zambrano making the pitch.

What a waste of time.

Zambrano was simply fulfilling a commitment that he had previously made and all he did was toss a 12 inch softball 30 feet. The way people were talking you would have thought he went out and threw 7 innings against the USA Olympic team.

The Owner:

During my lifetime the Cubs have had three owners. The first was the Wrigley family. William Wrigley Jr. acquired the Cubs in 1921 and, along with other family members, ran the team for the next 60 years.  Initially the team had some moderate success with 5 World Series appearances (no wins) over the next 24 seasons.  But from 1946 through the late 1970’s the team seemed to be an afterthought for the Wrigley’s and winning baseball was a rare sight on the north side of town.

Then in 1981 the Wrigley’s sold the team to the Tribune Corporation. Here is a picture I took of the owner a couple years ago.

It’s the Tribune Building.

I took this picture from a boat on the Chicago River. The Tribune Building is on the right with a red arrow pointing towards it. The Wrigley Building is on the left with a green arrow.

The building itself is beautiful, but it doesn’t make for a very personable owner. It’s big, lumbering and not very responsive to fans. I remember one occasion when I walked right up to the cornerstone of the building and started complaining about the team and ticket prices and etc, etc. Other than getting a few strange looks from people passing by, talking to the owner of the Cubs was like talking to a stone wall.

Over the years the Tribune Corporation did put a few winning teams on the field and the fans filled Wrigley Field every day, but overall it was a less than successful run for the Cubs. Then in the mid 2000’s the Tribune Corp ran into some financial problems. When the Tribune was sold, the new owner put the Cubs up for sale.

That’s where Tom Ricketts comes in. In October of 2009 the Family Trust of Joe Ricketts took control of the Chicago Cubs after buying the team for a reported sum of just under 900 million dollars. On October 31^st, 2009 Tom Ricketts became Chairman of the board and managing partner.

Like all new owners, general managers, managers, and players; Tom Ricketts and family declared the number one goal was to win a World Series. Unfortunately the first season under Ricketts control was not great. They were handed a marginal team with bad contracts on the books, the manager seemed disinterested at times, and the players had a couple of blowups between themselves that even spilled out into the dugout. When it was all said and done, the Cubs finished fifth in the NL Central, 16 games out of first.

So while the team on the field was no different, Tom Ricketts was doing his best to make the Wrigley experience better. Several improvements were made to the physical structure of the park, although minor, it has made the park better and they continue to make changes.

But the biggest change has been having an actual flesh and blood owner. Mr. Ricketts can be seen all around Wrigley Field during most Cubs games. He is out pressing the flesh and listening to fans.  He tries to watch the game as we watch the game.

It doesn’t make the team better, and of course I don’t really want the owner of the team taking baseball advice from some guy in the stands. But it is nice to know that there is someone to point my ire at when they lose, or hopefully, praise when they win it all.

And to that end, I had my opportunity to meet Mr. Rickets on Thursday. I see him walking around all the time, but this time I had a chance to stop him and talk for 30 seconds and then get a picture.

Here is the first attempt at a photo, but just as the picture was gonna be taken, our friendly Budweiser vender stepped in front of the boss.

But Tom was nice enough to pose for a better picture.

Hey, the Cubs might not be winning, but shaking hands with the boss is better than yelling at a stone wall.

Streak is Over:

It might have taken 13 innings, but my personal eight game Cubs losing streak is over. I was at Thursday’s 5-2 Chicago victory over San Francisco. I went to the game with a couple of guys from work. We had a great time and I got a couple of good shots at the game including pictures during Geo Soto’s game winning walk-off 3 run homer.

Myself with a couple of friends from work.

Brian Wilson enters the game in the 9th with 1 run lead.

Giants fans were happy to see Wilson, even getting up to sing YMCA

But Giant fans were soon sad after A Ramirez hit a game tying home run.

The game goes into the 13th tied at 1.

With the game tied at 2, Geo Soto pinch hits with two out and two on.

Here is the situation just before the final pitch of the game.

Soto trots toward second after hitting a walk-off 3-run homer

The team waits at home plate for Soto after the walk-off win.

Sox take 2 of 3 from Cubs:

Not much to say really. The Chicago pitchers from both sides of town pitched fairly well, yielding just 5 combined runs in the last two games.

The White Sox win the season series 4-2 and get the BP Cup.