Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #474 - CUBS WIN!! CUBS in World Series 2016!

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #474 - CUBS WIN!! CUBS in World Series 2016!

Hi Mom,

It was touch and go at first, but the Cubs made it into the WORLD SERIES for the first time since 1945.

They have not been to the series in my life time.

They almost made it in 1984 when I could have seen my beloved Tigers play my beloved Cubs and would have been a little conflicted (but rooted for the Tigers anyway). And then 2003, BARTMAN. Poor guy. Living in infamy. Who doesn't get exicted to try to catch a foul ball, especially at Wrigley Field?

And now the Cubs square off against another team with a long drought, the Cleveland Indians, who lost the series to the Marlins in 1997, fitting because the Cubs lost the NLCS to the Marlins in 2003. The Marlins won both of those years.

I am not predicting anything. I don't want to jinx them. I am trying not to hope too much, but I do hope.

GO CUBS!!

Here's a collection of links (below) for my Cubs blog posts from both this blog and the T-shirts blog. I have reprinted some of the text from T-shrits.

HEY MOM

My Well Worn Cubs Hat - Hey Mom #453

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #272 - Baseball is back! (I miss you, Ron Santo)

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #346 - Ron and Pat Show part two

T-SHIRTS

T-shirt #115: Chicago Cubs Est.1876

T-shirt #259 - The First Chicago Cubs Shirt

T-shirt #291 - Wrigley Field

T-shirt #317 - Cubs - Blue Stripes

T-shirt #341 - Chicago Cubs Blue Long Sleeved

T-shirt #352 - Cub Fan - Bart Man

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T-shirt #352 - Cub Fan - Bart Man

Baseball season is upon us, and I am making my nefarious plans for my Fantasy Baseball Empire with my first draft tonight.

Actually, I am going to wing it. I don't have time to prepare my own stats log and analysis, so I am going with the work of Baseball Forecaster and my own reasonable intuition for this league, in which I placed eighth of twelve last year. I think I can beat that record.

I did not win any of my leagues last year. The best I finished was second out of eight. I finished fourth in the league I run (TIGER TOWNE), third of eight in a league run by my friend Craig, and sixth of twelve in a New England league. I was kicked out of a rotisserie league run by a crazy madman, so I decided to reboot his league with the other players who may well be disgruntled.

Today, I am renewing the "hiatus shirt" mandate in order to possibly catch up by Monday on the seven incomplete blog entries found elsewhere via my main address. They are now sufficiently buried so as not be so persistent to my psyche's wellness, and yet, I know they are there.

Several gravitational anomalies aligned in the galaxy to produce this blog, which originally had been schedule as not one other but two other shirts.

And then I saw this: 365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 66: The Finkatronic Ray, which reminded me of my Cub Fan Bart Man T-shirt as a herald (get it? If you're a comic geek given my picture of Homer-Galactus below, you will get it.) of SPRING and BASEBALL SEASON.

I have given shouts to both the BULLY SAYS COMICS OUGHTA BE FUN and the wonderful Pencil Ink blog, and this morning I decided to let those bloggers know of my appreciation for their efforts with comments on their sites.

Bully is doing a 365 Days of Kirby Tech series, which, yesterday, manifested as tech from the Simpsons comic. Wonderful stuff. Here's one of the pics he shared from Panels from "Captain Cupcake and Pieboy!" in Simpsons Super Spectacular #5 (July 2007), script by Mike W. Barr, pencils by James Lloyd, inks by Andrew Pepoy, colors by Rick Reese, letters by Karen Bates.

Meanwhile, I decided to post -- pretty much -- just pictures today. So here, we go (with a little text in between, D'oh!!) Okay, Don't have a cow, man.

There are 21 entries (including today's) in my Baseball category, which is a sport name that -- as you may or may not know -- I like to deify with a capital letter.

I featured the shirt that goes with this hat in T-shirt #182.

Here's some text from that blog:

T-shirt #80: Detroit Tigers est. 1901 may be my best  Baseball post so far, though T-shirt #115: Chicago Cubs est. 1876 also shares a great deal of good Baseball stuff. I love the sense of history. I love the stats. I love my teams.

But it's all best summed up by this quote from the great Ernie Harwell:

"Baseball is a ballet without music. Drama without words. A carnival without kewpie dolls. Baseball is continuity. Pitch to pitch. Inning to inning. Season to season."

When I saw this T-shirt, I had to have one. I like the Simpsons, but I would not characterize myself as a massive Simpsons fan like some folks.

"Don't Have a Cow, Harry!" refers to Harry Caray, former announcer for the Chicago Cubs, who always used to say "Holy Cow!" and since Bart Simpson often says "Don't Have a Cow, Man" then this is a great joke connection.

Harry Caray died in 1998. Here's a little weird irony: in the 2003 playoffs, one of the Cubs few post-season appearances in the last 20 years. In October of 2003, the Cubs were playing in the National League Championship series against the Florida Marlins (who won the World Series that year), there's one incident that is defined as the losing moment for that Cubs team, preventing them from advancing to the World Series. It has come to be known as the STEVE BARTMAN INCIDENT.

Lifelong Cubs fan Steve Bartman interfered with a catch by Cubs outfielder Moisés Alou. Had Alou caught that ball for the out, the Cubs would have been four outs from the National League title and the World Series. As it turned out, the Cubs lost the game and eventually the series.

Get it? The shirt is "Bart Man" and is from Cubs merchandise no later than 1998 and possibly earlier, and yet it foreshadows the infamous "villain" of the Cubs' 2003 loss. Really, it's a sad thing. Steve Bartman is a well meaning Cubs fan who got caught up in the excitement of a ball coming his way and made a mistake, like we all do (make mistakes that is). It just so happened to be a mistake that is believed to have cost the Cubs a National League title and a shot at winning the World Series.

Remember how in yesterday's blog I mentioned saving time for date night with my lovely wife? Well, here's our sashimi/sushi dinner from Friday the 7th of March using a gift certificate given to use for Christmas.

We love delicious sashimi/sushi at KUMO.

YUM.

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COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 13 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1403.08 - 13:11




T-shirt #341 - Chicago Cubs Blue Long Sleeved

As I count down to March 22nd, when it all began last year for this blog, there's going to be quite a few Baseball shirts (which if you recall I deify with a capital letter). Since I already shared all but one of my Detroit Tigers shirts, and I am saving that last Tigers shirt for the final week, you will probably see several CUBS T-shirts, as I have quite a few remaining.

Also, given that I am still behind, I am trying to avoid falling farther behind by not posting any more incomplete entries. To accomplish this goal, I have to keep it short and simple.

Baseball's spring training has begun. Players have reported and games begin soon.

I am starting to get excited again for Baseball season.

I am a bit of a stats nut, as I have mentioned before, so getting ready for Baseball season again means pouring over stats and planning my FANTASY BASEBALL TEAMS.

USA Today did a smart thing by hiring Ron Shandler and launching its own exclusive chats service with

BASEBALL HQ.

I am a subscriber both to this service, which means I receive the stats-tastic excellence of the BASEBALL FORECASTER book, AND a subscriber to SPORTS WEEKLY, which used to be Baseball Weekly, which I can now read on my tablet as well as in paper form.

I have spent many long hours considering complex measures of hitting and pitching to optimize playing Fantasy Baseball games which I do for free and for which I earn no money. Seems a bit crazy. I love it.

A friend of my wife's and mine is trying to engage in political debate on Facebook, and I care for very little for that debate or politics compared to Baseball.

Time for Baseball.

Let's PLAY BALL!!

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 24 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1402.25 - 19:49


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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 476 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1610.23 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.