T-shirt #352 - Cub Fan - Bart Man

TODAY'S COUNT: 13 blog posts remaining in the T-shirt year!!

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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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This is the shirt I am actually
wearing today

OFFICIAL BOILERPLATE TEXT OF THE LAST TWENTY POSTS COUNTDOWN: Hi. Thanks for reading. I am posting this "boilerplate" text everyday for the last TWENTY posts in the T-SHIRT blog year, which started on March 22, 2013. I will close out daily transmission on March 21st, day 365 of my T-shirt blog-tastic extravaganza spectacular. I will give myself a short hiatus of total non-transmission or  publication for an as yet undetermined period of time, though I am estimating about two weeks. After my blog vacation hiatus, I will resume T-shirt posts on a regular basis, also as yet to be determined (weekly? Twice monthly?) to finish blogging about all the T-shirts that were not featured in the blog year. At some point, once I feel I am rolling along nicely, I will begin regular posting through my main blog: SENSE OF DOUBT. T-shirt posts will direct to the T-shirt blog from SENSE OF DOUBT. I will continue to post THE WEEKLY COMIC LIST, the features of occasional T-SHIRTS I AM WEARING THIS WEEK, book reviews, comic book reviews, and other popular culture nonsense as I have been for a year now but all will go up at SENSE OF DOUBT and some will direct back here to 365 T-SHIRTS. Ultimately, I will begin Internet publication of my fiction, primarily the comic book satire episodic story called POP! among other projects. So, in summary, 365 T-SHIRTS will continue though intermittently. SENSE OF DOUBT will host my main blog presence and fiction writing as well as links to any T-shirt posts shared here. I hope you will continue to follow me in my journey as a writer and a content provider. Thank you for your kind attention and time you have spent with me on this and/or any other day this year. I am humbled and blessed by your readership. - chris tower, blogger, originated 1403.02
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HIATUS TEXT: REVISED 1402.18:  I have been trying to maintain a hiatus from large or over involved blog posts beginning with the start date of my hiatus on January 20th (almost a month ago) during which time I logged 21 posts, which I consider "Hiatus Shirts." By this term, Hiatus Shirt, I mean the shirt is not one that would cause me to write a great deal on the subject it features. These are shirts about which I can write anything, either a lot or a very little. The hiatus will continue, though as it has for the last few weeks, not consecutively as I will continue to mix Hiatus and Non-Hiatus shirts. The blog's year (365 shirts) draws close to a close. (I like the double word use in that previous sentence.) I hope to finish strong with some good entries with high quality content and imagery on some beloved subjects. To earn this time, I will need to intersperse shirts of little consequence, what I have come to call Hiatus Shirts.

My original goal of working ahead remains. I need time to write the enormously lengthy text to complete the extensive love letter to certain beloved popular culture icons featured on my many special shirts. Even with "Hiatus Shirts," I will try to share some worthy content as I have either an idea, a new suggestion of something to read/look at/listen to, or another installment of my various features, such as the WHY T-SHIRTS item, the WEEKLY COMIC BOOK LISTS, and the SHIRT I AM ACTUALLY WEARING TODAY among others. BTW, this is the standard HIATUS TEXT that I will include in every "hiatus shirt" entry.

Thanks for reading. I am always honored that people have taken some of their valuable time to look at my ongoing web writing project. Keep checking this address. I promise to make it worthwhile.
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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

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!!


THE BLOG'S FUTURE

Lastly, I have made an executive decision about the blog about which I plan to expound in future entries. This decision has to do with focusing almost exclusively on shirts I already owned when I started the blog to finish out my remaining, as of today, 24 entries. I over-indulged in asking for gifts of T-shirts for Christmas and my Birthday, and I now have far more T-shirts than I need to complete my remaining 24 daily entries.

So what's next? For the next three weeks and three days, I will continue to post with T-shirts from my collection for the most part from the time I started the blog. I cannot promise that I will not be inspired to share a new shirt, but I want to take my time with many of these longer essays that I have been planning and do not seem to be able to complete, especially since I am having trouble even keeping up with short to moderate daily entries.

Once I reach March 22nd, daily entries will cease. I will begin to work on these longer entries on the newer shirts and the remaining shirts that do not get posted and share them with you on a weekly basis. At least that's the plan. I may get inspired  and post more often. I may also take a break before the next T-shirt post. I suspect I will be a bit worn out after posting one T-shirt a day for 365 days straight!!

I am also going to devote myself more regularly to fiction writing, which will become part of my new blog and Internet presence post the year of T-shirts. This will also mean more regular blog entries (short bits) from the source blog, SENSE OF DOUBT.

Stay Tuned!

HIATUS TEXT: REVISED 1402.18:  I have been trying to maintain a hiatus from large or over involved blog posts beginning with the start date of my hiatus on January 20th (almost a month ago) during which time I logged 21 posts, which I consider "Hiatus Shirts." By this term, Hiatus Shirt, I mean the shirt is not one that would cause me to write a great deal on the subject it features. These are shirts about which I can write anything, either a lot or a very little. The hiatus will continue, though as it has for the last few weeks, not consecutively as I will continue to mix Hiatus and Non-Hiatus shirts. The blog's year (365 shirts) draws close to a close. (I like the double word use in that previous sentence.) I hope to finish strong with some good entries with high quality content and imagery on some beloved subjects. To earn this time, I will need to intersperse shirts of little consequence, what I have come to call Hiatus Shirts.
My original goal of working ahead remains. I need time to write the enormously lengthy text to complete the extensive love letter to certain beloved popular culture icons featured on my many special shirts. Even with "Hiatus Shirts," I will try to share some worthy content as I have either an idea, a new suggestion of something to read/look at/listen to, or another installment of my various features, such as the WHY T-SHIRTS item, the WEEKLY COMIC BOOK LISTS, and the SHIRT I AM ACTUALLY WEARING TODAY among others. BTW, this is the standard HIATUS TEXT that I will include in every "hiatus shirt" entry.
Thanks for reading. I am always honored that people have taken some of their valuable time to look at my ongoing web writing project. Keep checking this address. I promise to make it worthwhile.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 24 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1402.25 - 19:49

T-shirt #317 - Cubs - Blue Stripes

T-shirt #317 - Cubs - Blue Stripes


I misnumbered yesterday. Once the URL is set, it cannot be changed.

I need to catch up, so I am leaving this one with very little text.

The next WHY T-SHIRTS is going to be about team sports, but since I have other team shirts, I will write the full explanation of this concept later.

Though I doubt the concept is too strange.

REPRESENT.



















Team love is close to the heart.

Wear the gear, infuse the team with positive energy to overcome adversity and win out against all opponents.

WHY T-SHIRTS EXPLANATORY BLURB
I am doing a series of snippets that will add up to a larger whole answering the "Why T-shirts?" or "What's with all the T-shirts?" question. I have also decided to include the previous items in an ever growing list, hence the "previous items" section next.

PREVIOUS ITEMS
#1: T-SHIRTS ARE COOL
#2: I BE BRANDED - CHOOSING TO ADVERTISE
#3: It's my tattoo
#4 PRIDE AND STATUS - "It's my thing."
#5 -  "LET ME GEEK FLAG FLY!!"
#6 - UNIFORM SHIRTS ARE COOL
#7. PROOF THAT I DID IT - SHIRTS FOR EVENTS

TODAY'S ITEM - WHY T-SHIRTS #8 - FANDOM - GO TEAM!

REPRESENT!!

More on this subject later.

HIATUS TEXT: I am taking a short hiatus. A "hiatus" for the 365 T-shirts Blog does not mean that there will not be shirts or that I will skip posting on any forthcoming day. There will be shirts. But the shirts will not be exciting or the featured shirts will not require me to write a small novel to properly generate the content I feel is sufficient. I created a category for my hiatus so as to group together those "easy" shirts that I consider to be "hiatus shirts." The goal of the hiatus is to fill in many blog days with easy shirts in order to complete longer love letters to beloved popular culture icons on more special shirts and to write more complex entries AHEAD OF TIME. The daily grind is becoming too much and causing me to fall behind and to be forced to post incomplete entries. I am hoping that a series of hiatus shirts will allow me to catch up, get ahead, and stay ahead. Ideally, I would like to be writing the bulk of each entry three days ahead while always working on at least one other. I have a lot of great shirts to share before the end of my blog year (after all I was just given SIXTEEN shirts for my birthday). Stay tuned. I promise to post the more interesting and longer T-shirt entries as I finish them. Thanks for reading. BTW, this is the standard HIATUS TEXT that I will include in every "hiatus shirt" entry.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 48 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first published - 1402.01 - 18:57
final publication - 1404.04 - 8:41

T-shirt #291 - Wrigley Field

T-shirt #291 - Wrigley Field

Greetings blog reader. Not that you will notice any change, but today's blog is brought to you by the Park Club in downtown Kalamazoo where I have stationed myself with my trusty Asus Ultra Book to write while my friend (the one who is visiting) is interviewed by prospective employers.

I am happy to report that my blog of "A Year in T-shirts" (T-shirt #290) from yesterday is already immensely popular. My page views for the day are currently at sixty-three views up from fifty-six views the day before and thirty-two the day before that one. I have often suspected that Blogger's charting of these days is not wholly accurate. The stats always seem to be running a day behind, so "today's" view numbers are for January fifth, Sunday, and not January sixth, which is today, Monday. Nevertheless, I am still very pleased with these numbers.

The entry for "A Year in T-shirts" (T-shirt #290) is currently clocking in at sixteen views "today" followed by the previous days 10,000 Maniacs post and a few others.

Today, I chose this shirt to be able to deliver a short blog entry, though I warn you, dear reader, expect more Cubs shirts between now and March. I featured all but one of the Detroit Tigers shirts I currently own last year, but I only featured two Chicago Cubs shirts, and I own more than two.


My second Cubs shirt post, T-shirt #259, was devoted to the first Cubs shirt I owned, one that is soon destined to be a dust rag. I posted it to have an entry I could keep short and write about current Baseball news, as I did for that entry dated December fifth, 2013. My first Cubs entry, T-shirt #115, was a longish love letter about Ron Santo. I added my "Dinner Party" category to this entry only because I would love to have Ron Santo at my fantasy Dinner Party (if you do not know about my Dinner Party, you can drill back in the category posts by clicking the link in the list on the right side of the main blog page for any given day); however, due to the rules I set for my own Dinner Party, I cannot invite Ron Santo as only people who are still alive can be on my "list" of people I would want at such a Dinner Party, if I were to be granted a "Make A Wish Foundation" wish, which I do not expect to be granted.


Also, not only am I keeping myself to limited content today, but I am not intending to deliver much in the way of Chicago Cubs content. I have other Cubs shirts. Look for more Baseball and Cubs content in future blog posts. I have more Cubs shirts to come as I shared already. Besides, this shirt was one of those freebies either at the Wrigley Field gate or when one signed up for a credit card, I forget which.

After all, as I previously reported, my friend Tom Meyers is visiting until Wednesday, and so I am trying to manage my time. However, after role-playing in the adaptation of Dungeons and Dragons known as Pathfinder all day yesterday, we recessed to watch the end of the SF-Green Bay football game before bed and had a substantive discussion about how sports seasons are too long, how too many teams make the playoffs, how revenue sharing is a disaster (and a failure) in Baseball, and various other sports related subjects, such as how many pass interference calls are missed in football games.

We want fewer games in each season, fewer teams in the playoffs, more revenue sharing in Baseball, and more pass interference and offensive interference calls in football.

As for my Chicago Cubs fandom, the team is my second favorite after the Detroit Tigers. Though there were glimmers of winning ways in the 2000s, we Cubs fans are back to suffering so far in the 2010s.

OH! Let me know what you think of the baseballs as eyeballs pictures. I thought it was an inspired idea. I have "Baseball Eyes." Some clever musician could probably get a song out of this: "Baseball Eyes."

Tune in to my blog again for more sports nonsense.

Back to D&D and friend time. Thanks for reading.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 74 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1401.06 - 13:45

T-shirt #259 - The First Chicago Cubs Shirt

T-shirt #259 - The First Chicago Cubs Shirt

Cubs fandom. This may seem blasphemous for a Detroit Tigers fan. But I feel I am allowed to love more than one team, especially with two teams that compete in separate leagues and rarely play each other.

This is my first Cubs shirt, and it must be about 30 years old. As you can see it has seen better days. It is close to being either pajamas or a "dead" t-shirt. Not quite yet, though I had to unearth from the back of a secondary closet.

Though I own several Chicago Cubs shirts, so far I have only featured one, T-shirt #115, in which I created a loving tribute to Ron Santo. Expect more Cubs and Baseball content to come, though I was hoping to forestall much of it until February and March.

I am still rolling a bit content light for the week as I try to work ahead.

And at the moment, I do not have any pressing news or content to share about the Chicago Cubs. So far, their off season activity has been very quiet.

Unlike the Detroit Tigers, who traded Price Fielder to Texas for Ian Kinsler, traded Doug Fister to Washington for two bullpen arms and a utility man, and are close to singing free agent closer Joe Nathan. But is it right for me to discuss Detroit Tigers content in a post dedicated to the Chicago Cubs?

FIELDER-KINSLER TRADE

TIGERS FANS PANICKING ABOUT FISTER TRADE

TIGERS SIGN JOE NATHAN

I like what the Tigers are doing. In other news, I am shocked that Jacoby Ellsbury is a Yankee.

In an instance of pure serendipity, there is Chicago Cubs content in the Sports Weekly, which arrived in my in box yesterday, after I had written the previous text (I am working a day ahead right now and hoping to expand the lead). Sports Weekly discussed major prospects on the horizon for the Cubs in top outfielder Albert Almora, shortstop Javier Baez, third baseman Kris Bryant, and another outfielder Jorge Soler. Bryant had the best overall season last year and was MVP of the Arizona Fall League. Baez who might move to outfield or third hit for power but needs work on plate discipline.

A nice article on the team makes the case that the Cubs will not seek a quick fix via free agency but will instead rely on the farm system and prospects to pay off starting in 2015 and thereafter. So, though the Cubs may improve marginally from a dreadful 2013 season, I would not bet money on too much improvement. New manager Rick Renteria hopes to turn around the trend as the Cubs have 90+ losses in the last three seasons, but is it realistic that the Cubs even break even let alone contend? Not yet.

So what else is there to say right now?

Besides, this is my content light week of semi-hiatus.

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 106 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1312.05 - 9:28

T-shirt #115: Chicago Cubs Est.1876

Listening to Baseball on the radio -
Damn, 720 WGN has a good signal!

T-shirt #115: Chicago Cubs Est.1876

I love listening to Baseball on the radio.

This is one of the central truths of my love for Baseball. It is presented in its most classic form on the radio. I grew up listening to the Detroit Tigers on the radio, the sonorous voice of Ernie Harwell crackling across my AM band, hand-sized transistor late into the night.

I have already blogged about my beloved Detroit Tigers seven times (see categories index) and I am not done yet with my Tigers shirts. More to come.

Wearing my "dressy" Cubs shirt and
my 1914 Vintage "Cubby" hat

And I have more to write about Ernie and that handheld transistor with the fake leather case next to my pillow at bed time.

As a kid who loved Baseball, it should be no surprise that I collected Baseball cards. In fact, I did not like bubble gum, and I was a bit annoyed at how the gum would discolor (if not melt and stick to) one card, often the card that I most wanted to collect.






As a lover and collector of Baseball cards, I bought many of my packs on the summer vacations of my youth in Traverse City at a little liquor store at the top of a hill between Traverse and Long Lake.

The store is still there.

I wrote about this and other nostalgic childhood activities in T-Shirt #85: Up North.

As a boy loving Baseball, it seemed a travesty to love only one team when there were so many to choose from. My fandom really started to kick in at the age of eight (1970) when Major League Baseball fielded twenty-four teams. I loved the Detroit Tigers, and I kept hoping they would win another World Series since I was not a huge Baseball fan and much younger (six years old) when they won in 1968, though I had read all about the games and the team was still intact in many ways in 1970.


But I wanted another favorite team. The next closest city to Kalamazoo (other than Detroit) is Chicago.

I could not like the Chicago White Sox as they were division rivals to the Tigers. So I decided to like the Chicago Cubs. After all, they had a cool name. They were the young team, the babies, the Cubs to the football Bears, which I thought was cute. I liked the team colors (red, white, and blue), and they had many cool players as I saw in many of my 1970 season Baseball cards, such as Ernie Banks, Randy Hundley, Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins, Milt Pappas, Joe Pepitone, and guys with neat names who I had many Baseball cards for but who did not play much, like Boots Day and Roe Skidmore.

I may not be the Number One Cubs fan ever, but I am going to write about one.

Most of all, I loved Ron Santo. He started his Baseball career before I was born (in 1960) and by the time I was an ardent fan, Ron Santo was in the twilight of his Baseball playing career. But I loved him. He played the way I liked people to play: with everything he had in him. He liked to jump and click his heels as he took the field. And the stats on the backs of his Baseball cards showed that not only could he field (five time consecutive Gold Glove winner), but he could HIT, leading the league in walks four times, in OBP twice, and even once in triples (my favorite hit in Baseball). He hit over 300 home runs in his career, a feat only one other third baseman ever managed (Eddie Mathews).

Santo was dynamite. For sure, he would be elected to the Hall of Fame when he first appeared on the ballot after his 1974 retirement. But then, nothing. By the time, Santo was eligible for the Hall of Fame ballot (1980), I was filled with teenaged hormones and had quite forgotten how much I loved Baseball. I had moved on to performing magic, doing theater, playing role playing games, and hanging out with friends, none of whom liked sports. And then came college and girls. Since things like Baseball were the province of the "popular" kids, I eschewed all things sports from about 1976-1984, when the winning seasons of both the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago Cubs promised a possible World Series between my two favorite clubs, a legacy that was narrowly missed when the San Diego Padres edged the Cubs in the five-game NLCS three games to two, taking the decisive Game Five 6-3 with Cubs ace Rick Sutcliffe taking the heart-breaking loss.

By 1984, when I re-discovered my love for the Chicago Cubs, I also discovered the joys of cable television and the strong signal of WGN Radio that I could pick up much better in Kalamazoo than in Richland. And soon, I discovered that I did not always have to tune into WGN from Chicago because a local radio station would broadcast the Cubs games, such as WQSN 1360 AM. Though some days, especially in Richland, the WGN signal was stronger than the local broadcast's signal.

After graduating from college, cable television was finally available in my "rural" area of Richland, and I began to watch many Chicago Cubs games that were televised on WGN television. I was excited about a new rookie who joined the team with Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson, and Rick Sutcliffe who debuted in 1988: Mark Grace. Others soon followed, such as Shawon Dunston, Greg Maddux, and Jerome Walton. Eventually, the team featured one of its most dynamic players: Sammy Sosa.

I was an avid listener/watcher. I liked Harry Caray (the TV announcer), but in 1990, third base Cubs legend Ron Santo joined Pat Hughes on WGN radio and I was hooked. Ron and Pat were hilarious. As much as I loved Ernie Harwell and Paul Carey, Pat and Ron were more engaging and more entertaining. I became a more fervent advocate for Ron's election in the Hall of Fame as both a player and a broadcaster. His candidacy seemed even more important when I learned that he had played his entire career with diabetes, which he kept secret. Though he revealed his diabetes in 1971 on "Ron Santo Day," I was not aware of it until it was openly discussed in the many Cubs radio broadcasts to which I listened.

I would listen in the car throughout the state of Michigan as WGN's signal is so strong that it covers most of Michigan. And while taking my own vacations in Traverse City as an adult, I would often go out to my car, which could pick up the WGN radio signal easily from its parking spot on the Old Mission Peninsula.

It became clear to me that Ron Santo was cheated out of his rightful place in the Hall of Fame. Much to Ron's chagrin, Pat Hughes would openly and vocally tout Ron's merits for the Hall of Fame based on his excellence as a player. (I also think Ron deserves election as a broadcaster.)

In the mid-1990s, I discovered Bill James and the greater world of statistical analysis in Baseball beyond looking at Batting Average and Earned Run Average. Bill James ranks Santo sixth on the the all-time greatest third basemen in history with only Home Run Baker, Wade Boggs, Eddie Mathews, George Brett, and Mike Schmidt ahead of him. Bill James writes an excellent entry in his Historical Baseball Abstract about Santo's merits for the Hall of Fame. It's quite a funny section as he leads it off with a letter from a disgruntled TV viewer who heard James advocate for Santo's candidacy and claim that there are fewer third baseman in the Hall than players at any other position. The viewer took this the wrong way thinking we should elect all these second-rate players to bring up the number of third sackers. Rather, James had meant that Santo should be elected because, among the small number of third basemen in the Hall, he was a better player than many of them. James specifically names George Kell (a Detroit Tiger) who he ranked 30th all time among third basemen and Fred Lindstrom, who he ranked 43rd, who are both in the Hall of Fame, and Santo is not.

I enjoyed listening to Ron Santo's brilliant comedy as a radio host, his vast knowledge of Baseball, and his absolute, unequivocal love of all things Chicago Cub for 20 years, until Diabetes finally caught up with him, and he died in 2010 at the age of 70. Ron Santo had lost both of his lower legs, which were amputated below the knee, one in 2001 and the other in 2002, due to his Diabetes. And by the end, he also struggled with Bladder Cancer.

Santo should have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his lifetime. Santo's Hall of Fame election came in 2011 for the Class of 2012. He received 15 of a possible 16 votes by the Golden Era Committee, which formed in 2011, and elected Santo as its first act. The Golden Era Committee features such players as Al Kaline, Hank Aaron, Brooks Robinson (7th on James' list right after Santo), and Billy Williams, who made an impassioned plea for Santo's induction.

Another accolade described here also should have happened in his lifetime, but he was taken too soon: "On Wednesday, August 10, 2011, Ron Santo was memorialized and "immortalized" at Wrigley Field with the presentation of a statue in his likeness. The statue is a portrayal of a young Ron Santo playing defense at third base, leaning to his right while throwing a ball" ("Ron Santo," Wikipedia, 2013).

I still listen to Pat Hughes and his new partner Keith Moreland, who are quite good, but nowhere near as wonderful as Pat and Ron with all their running jokes as well as Ron's elation when the Cubs did something exciting and his abject despondency or even anger when things did not go the Cubs' way.

SOME GOOD LINKS

RON SANTO BASEBALL ALMANAC

RON SANTO - BASEBALL REFERENCE

RON SANTO WIKI

RON SANTO DIES

PAT HUGHES' EULOGY FOR RON SANTO

This is what I am talking about in the videos that follow... great Pat and Ron stuff. There's several if you search on You Tube. Here's three. The first is a good assortment of clips (five minutes). The second is a single hilarious episode (short - 2:34), and the last is a good short memory (41 seconds).

Classic Ron Santo and Pat Hughes

Ron Santo - "They Oughta Shoot Him"

Favorite Ron Santo Moment

We all miss you, Ron. Thank you for all the great Baseball times.

- chris tower - 1307.14 - 18:59