Ron Santo - My memories

Cubs legendary third baseman Ron Santo died on Friday at the age of 70. Over the past few years many people have written about his quest to make baseball's hall of fame.is His death due to complications of cancer has increased that talk many fold.

This will not be one of those posts. I will just concentrate on some thoughts about growing up a Ron Santo fan. In the early 1970's I was a Chicago Cubs fan. These were the days of Billy Williams, Rick Monday, Glen Beckert, Randy Hundley and Jose Cardenal. My favorite players of that era were Ron Santo and Don Kessinger.

Some where between 1972 and 1973 I changed baseball allegiances from the Cubs to the White Sox. Within the next 3 years both my two favorite Cubbies followed suit. More about Kessinger at a different time. I will confine my thoughts to Ronny today.

Shortly before the 1974 season Santo was traded to the White Sox. As a big fan of his I was ecstatic. I did not realize that Santo himself was less than thrilled about the change in venue. He was basically forced away from the Cubs. They had wanted to trade him a few years before and were unable to do so because he had earned the right to approve all trades.

Santo with a lifetime batting average of .279 with the Cubs only hit 83 of375 (.221)for the White Sox splitting time between Second Base and Designated Hitter. (Bill Melton was firmly entrenched at Third, Santo's position with the Cubd hiss). Only 9 at the timeI did not realize how bad a season he was having. I learned later that he was contentious in the club house often complaining the star treatment my other south side hero Dick Allen was receiving.

After a miserable 1974 Santo decided to stop playing baseball. He returned to Chicago as a radio announcer on WGN in 1990. I remember helping my dad work in his garage when Santo announced his first game. If Santo ever makes it to Cooperstown it should be as a player. As an announcer he was brutal! The day he died, WGN did a special day of tribute for Him. Even then, some of the WGN announcers commented on what a bad (technically) announcer he was and how the Cubs were the only team he could have ever worked for.

This was of course, because he wore his love for the Cubs on his sleeve. He may not have been much of an announcer, but he was an excellent cheerleader. No one ever expected unbiased reporting from Ron, and I don't think anyone ever got it.

There is a lot more that I can and should say about Mr. Santo. But for now, I will just say I will miss you.

Brewers Should Think About Giving Ryne Sandberg Shot At Manager | Brew Crew Central

This is the very idea I had when the Cubs didn't give HOF Infielder and Cubs AAA Manager Ryne Sandberg the Big Club Skipper nod earlier this week. As muh as I'd like Joey Cora to get the Brewers gig, I think putting Ryno in the managerial mix is a win-win for the Brew Crew and Sandberg.

Brewers Should Think About Giving Ryne Sandberg Shot At Manager | Brew Crew Central

White Sox in first place at all star break

What a difference a month and 3 days make. On June 8th, the White Sox had lost 6 0f their last 10, were 5 games under .500 at home 4 games under on the road and 9 1/2 games behind the division leading Minnesota Twins. Pundits were calling for the dismantling of the team, and advocating trading Mark Buehrle, AJ Pierzynski, and Paul Konerko for whatever you could get for them. Since then, The Sox have won 25 of their last 30 games. 14-1 at home and 11-4 on the road. Sure, 13 of those wins came during interleague play which is where hurting A.L. teams can traditionally feast on their senior circuit counterparts. But during the same run the Sox have been 6-2 against the AL central where they had been struggling all year and went 6-1 against the Angels and Rangers the big guns of the A.L. West.

Baseball is a game of runs. It took the Sox 57 games to win 24. They've won 25 more in 27 fewer games. The Sox now find themselves 1/2 game in first place for the first time since opening day. Can it last? Who knows. But hopefully this will be the run that leads the White Sox to the World Series title I predicted at the beginning of the season. A prediction that looked none too promising a month ago.

Now it's the Cubs Turn

There are 5 major professional sports teams in the city of Chicago. In 1985 the year I turned 21 none of these teams had won the championship in their league in my lifetime. The 1985 Bears took care of that very quickly and defeated the New England Patriots in early 1986 in the Super Bowl. 5 and 1/2 years later the Chicago Bulls led by Michael Jordan won the NBA championship and did so again 5 more times in the next 7 seasons. In 2005 my beloved Chicago White Sox won their first World Series since 1917.

Tonight the Chicago Black Hawks defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 in overtime to win their first Stanley Cup since 1961.

As I type this, people are shooting off fireworks in celebration in my small suburban neighbor hood. Congratulations Hawks! Now there is just one Chicago team left to win the championship in their sport, the Chicago Cubs. Now that the Hawks have broken through maybe the Cubs will be next.

Tweets Fortnightly?

Things Fortnightly here for another episode in our biweekly bloggy bash. Since I posted how busy I was yesterday, I thought I'd introduce a new segment for the blog. It is called The Tweets I would tweet if I were a twit who used Twitter. I know it's a little Seussian, let's just call it Tweets Tweet Twit Twitter for short. Yep all my things will be 140 characters or less.

Tweet 1: Olivia from Suchakingdom.blogspot.com has won the contest for my Washington D.C. memoirs and trip trinkets. Congratulations!

Tweet 2: Chuck has been renewed! Here is the tweetnouncement from show creator Josh Schwartz. I am all set for Monday’s season finale.

Tweet 3: Our church had a father daughter cake decorating night a few weeks back.

Started with this . . .

Added aprons,

A hat,

And voila!

Tweet 4: Charlie and I saw a Cubs game last Monday. It was his third in his lifetime and He is still looking for win #1. Poor kid!

Well, that's all the things/tweets I have thought/tweeted.

If you want to participate your things can be more than 140 characters. Just link your post with Mr. Linky.

I'll be back in no less than 2 weeks with another fine installment of Things Fortnightly.

World Champs anniversary edition

When I started this blog did I mention who my favorite sports team of all time is?



Here's a clue . . .

Yes, I love the Chicago White Sox. I am not the typical White Sox fan, but if you read my blog long enough, you will discover I am not the typical anything.

I will delve into what separates me from the normal White Sox fan in later posts. At this time, I'd like to start (with apologies to Kool and The Gang) a celebration that will last throughout the year. The celebration the 5 year anniversary of the 2005 World Series Championship Season.

I know that it is actually only 2009 and might seem premature for the 5 year anniversary. However, I plan from now until October to commemorate important events in the chronology of that histroric achievement.

Today, December 13th, for example, commemorates a move made 5 years ago that went a long way to making the White Sox champions. On this date in 2004 White Sox General Manager Kenny Williams traded Carlos Lee to the Milwaukee Brewers for Scott Podsednik.

In 2004 the white Sox were a team that "lived and died by the home run and the big inning." 1

No one hit more home runs than the White Sox in the regular season of 2004 but that was not enough to get them to the post season. So changes needed to be made to play the style of baseball first year manager Ozzie Guillen was most accustomed to.

The big change was to essentially outfielders with the Brewers. Carlos "El Caballo" Lee hit .305 for the White Sox in '04 and hit 31 dingers, second only to Paul Konerko. Podesdnik cracked 12 homers for the brew crew that year but batted only .244. Podsednik's real contribution came on the base paths where he stole 70 bases, whereas The White Sox as a unit only stole 77!!!

The trade worked out well for both parties. Lee increased his homer output as a Brewer and made the first of 3 consecutive all star appearances in 2005. But the Sox were the real winner of the trade. The acquisition of Podsednik transformed the team. They now had a base runner who was a threat to steal every time he got on base. He stole 59 in 2005 in only 129 games. It's hard to imagine what his total might have been if injuries in the second half of the season didn't keep him out of so many games.

Let me quickly tell you how some of the cogs in the 2005 championship wheel were attained.

• June 27th 2004. White Sox move Miguel Olivo, Jeremy Reed and Michael Morse to Seattle for Freddy Garcia and Ben Davis. Garcia became a key starter in the White Sox rotation.
  
  
• July 18, 2004. Sox trade pitchers Jon Rauch and Gary Majewski to Montreal for Carl Everett. Everett became the DH in 2005 when Frank Thomas went down to injury.
  
  
• July 31, 2004. White Sox move fan favorite Esteban Loaiza to the Yankees for Jose Contreras. Contreras went 9-2 in the second half of 2005. His best effort came on September 23rd against the Twins. The Sox had dropped to only 1 and a half games ahead of the Indians. Contreras pitched a 9 strike out complete game gem and the White Sox never looked back. Man, I couldn't think of a way to work in that I was at the game and that it was my birthday. Oh well, maybe you will figure that out on your own.

Trades weren't the only way this team formed. Earlier in December of 2004, Wiilliams made two key free agent signings:

• December 8th Pitcher Dustin Hermanson
• December 9th Outfielder Jermaine Dye

Hermanson stepped into the closer role in 2005 when we learned that Shingo Takatsu is Japanese for 1 year wonder.

Dye had an excellent year in '05 with the Sox, culminating with his World Series MVP award.

So there it is my first of several looks back at the 2005 World Champions. In the weeks to come I will intersperse some more memories but will also be focusing on other teams and other sports.

Until next time, this is Crazy Uncle Dave signing off.

This post is featured in Athletic Alley Blog Carnival – December 17, 2009

Footnotes

1. Total White Sox by Richard C Lindberg. Triumph Books, 2006. P. 121

Pennies

I generally do not lament my name. My Dad's name was David and he named me such, sure I would have rather him named me David. But Such Roller has a good ring to it. But today I lament that they did not name me Kevin for if they did I could name this post Pennies from Kevin.

Okay, that was a long way to go for a bad joke, so let's move on.

As you may know this year is 2009. If you did not know that, you may be beyond my ability to help you further, so hopefully you did. Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809, 200 years ago . 100 years ago to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth. His image was placed on the penny.

Prior to 1909 the penny had an Indian Head.

To put things in perspective the last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series Lincoln was not yet on the penny. Wow!

In 1959 to celebrate Lincolns Sesquicentenial (150 years) The Lincoln Memorial replaced the wheat.

This year to celebrate Lincoln's bicentennial the face of the penny got a new look ...

And 4 different images on the back . . .

The 4 images represent his early years in Kentucky, his boyhood years in Indiana, His professional years in Illinois, and his presidency in D.C.

Many wheats are still in circulation. I opened 2 rolls (100 pennies) today and found one 1958 wheat and no 2009 pennies. I usually average about 2 wheats and 1 Canadian penny per roll.

Being a good Illinois boy from the original LOL: Land of Lincoln (Not the original Land of Lincoln which is Kentucky, but the original LOL) I would like to celebrate Abe's 200th with not 1 but two give-a-ways! Yes I will be giving out 2 sets of 100 pennies (with at least 1 wheat each). Yes you heard it right the buck ships here.

To win the first set do the regular old comment thing. When you comment tell me significant years in your life (yours, spouses, kids birthdays anniversaries, year favorite team won World Series (after 1908 of course) and I will try to mix a few of those years in).

For the second set I will be picking from my followers, so if you don't follow, this would be a fine time to start. While it's mathematically possible to win both sets, let's share the wealth and say that we will have 2 different winners.

I am going to run this contest until September 23rd, because 2 dollars is a lot of money and in these tough times I may have to raid my birthday money to make good. If you blog about my crazy give-a-way I will give you 2 more chances at the first contest, simply link the blog to your comment. See the official rules on the sidebar. .

All this bang for a buck? That's why they call me Crazy Dave!

Next Time: Zoos

Hockey Lessons

My Three things this Thursday are: hockey lessons, lost update, and a give-away.

1. Hockey Lessons.

I recently completed reading a book about the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team entitled The boys of winter by Wayne Coffey. It's a perfect companion piece to the film "Miracle." Although, I have never played hockey, there are many valuable lessons to be learned from these boys. I will be posting some of them here in the near future.

Speaking of hockey, on January 1, 2009 there was a Hockey game between the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Black Hawks. This is not unusual in itself, as these teams being part of the original 6 teams in the N.H.L. have skated against each other hundreds of times. What made the game a spectacle, is the venue, It was played outdoors at Wrigley Field the friendly confines of the Chicago Cubs. Which brings us to ...

2. Lost Update.

I was at Wrigley last night to watch the Cubs take on the Cincinnati Reds. The Cubs lost 0-3.

I went with my son, Charlie and my brother in law, Mike. Throughout the ballpark there are signs advising to be alert for foul balls. Charlie and I had brought our gloves but nothing came our way. At the gift shop I saw a 8.5 by 5.5 replica post card of the sign for just a buck. I told Charlie that I'd buy it for him and we'd hang it on his wall. His reaction: "When I get my Blog, I am going to post it there!" You guys know how 7 year olds get excited about blogs and stuff.

It was nice to spend some time with Mike. He has spent much of the past year being the primary care giver for my father-in-law and helping him recuperate from various illnesses and injuries. It was good for him to get a respite from all that and catch a game with us.

Speaking of respites, that brings us to . . .

3. Give-a-way.

In my most recent post, I talked about the importance of taking a break or helping someone else take a break so you or they can be re energized. I also announced a give-a-way of a c.d and a book. The book is Unsung Heroes by Michael Kelly Blanchard. Blanchard is a singer/songwriter best known for writing "Be Ye Glad." The c.d. by Point of Grace is called How You Live. Point of Grace is the Christian Pop quartet that has recently become a Country Trio.

To register for the give-a-way which ends on April 30th leave a comment at my original post.

Those are my three things for Thursday April 23rd. Go to Psalm 104:24 to see what other trios of things are out there for your perusal.

Next Time: Where's the Carnival?