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Join us and Cubs fans everywhere at 1:20 p.m. Central Time today, and tweet #Dawson4TheHall until our hands collectively ache.

This is going to be a fun day.

(Photo Credit: kvanb50)

All event details can be found by clicking here. We are set to begin the push at 1:20 p.m. Chicago time on Tuesday 12/8. It’s only a few days away!

We need everyone involved to pull this off. If you click on the Share button to the left of this post, there’s an easy way to e-mail your contacts or share the #Dawson4TheHall details via social media sites like Facebook.

Be creative! This push is for all Cubs fans and Andre Dawson supporters. If you don’t have a Twitter account, create one now.

To change your background, login to Twitter and go to Settings > Design > Change background image. Browse your computer for the new background file and then click “Save changes.” Not too tough.

Twitter Background 1 (White)

Twitter Background 2 (Light Blue)

Twitter Background 3 (Brown)

These were created by Tim Souers over at Cubby-Blue, please do yourself a favor and check out his excellent artwork (and sense of humor).

Andre Logo – 504px wide by 497px tall

Andre Logo – 300px wide by 296px tall

Text Banner – 728px wide by 90px tall

Text Banner – 468px wide by 60px tall

Text Banner – 360px wide by 42px tall

To add a twibbon to your Twitter profile photo, click here and press the blue “Show my support now” button. Thanks to Julie over at League of Her Own for the suggestion!

Thanks to all the great Cubs fans and Andre Dawson fans that responded to this idea on Twitter and in the post below earlier this week. This project is a go!

We’re calling on all Cubs fans to post comments that include the special hashtag #Dawson4TheHall to Twitter starting on Tuesday December 8th at 1:20 PM Central Time. Tweets must include the #Dawson4TheHall hashtag in order to be counted, and we also recommend that the #cubs and #mlb tags are included.

The goal, you ask? We want to draw as much attention as possible to Dawson’s bid (his 9th) to become elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame. If enough people send tweets using the #Dawson4TheHall hashtag, it will become a trending topic on Twitter. The timing could work out very well as many beat writers and journalists (some of whom have an actual ballot to cast) will be keeping an eye on Twitter to monitor the winter meetings from Indy that day.

Please tell all the Cubs fans you know! If everyone tells 5 people and so on, this has a good chance of working. Show your support for one of the best Cubs outfielders ever!

Big thanks to Tim Souers from Cubby-Blue for creating these awesome graphics.

Media Note:
If you are looking to cover this event and need a quick interview, please send an e-mail to hosts@cubscast.com or find us on Twitter, we’re @cubscasthosts.

NOTE: We’re organizing #Dawson4TheHall Day on Twitter, which will be Tuesday, December 8th. Please tell all the Cubs fans that you know, we’ll need everybody involved. The Hall of Fame needs to see our support. Help make #Dawson4TheHall a trending topic that day. More details to come.

As mentioned in today’s episode (download – mp3), the voting body of sportswriters will commence voting over the next month and an official results announcement from the Hall of Fame will be made on Wednesday January 6, 2010. Last year my favorite all-time Cub, Andre Dawson, received 67% of the vote, and it’s ludicrous that he wasn’t elected in any of his first 8 years on the ballot. Cubs fans including myself obviously want to see The Hawk elected, and there’s a couple things we can do.

There’s an online petition going that was just started recently. It’s a little pathetic right now (only about 100 signatures), so please show your support!

Also we love it when Cubs fans are so passionate about something that they create a website. Enter Charley, the guy behind Hawk4TheHall. Be sure to check out this great site for some awesome posts regarding Dawson’s career and Hall of Fame credentials. We just found it this morning and it’s been bookmarked.

Check back soon for more details on the Twitter blitz on December 8th.

Several listeners have sent us Cubs songs that they’ve heard (or sang) over the last few months and it took us awhile to edit everything together, but today we’re proud to release a special music episode (download – mp3) today on Thanksgiving. If you enjoy lame parody and auto-tuning, this is a gold mine for you. If not, you still might enjoy it so please take a listen. Sheps screams “Word to your mother!” and that’s definitely worth the price of admission. Yeah, it’s free.

The songs included are:

1. World Series Champions – Kevin Henrickson
2. Milton Bradley and Jim Hendry at Dinner – Lou
3. I Guess That’s Why I Bleed Cubbie Blue – Danny Rockett
4. Ricketts Man – Lou
5. Get On the Big Blue Train – Ted Norstrom

In case it was hard to understand, here are the lyrics for Ricketts Man:

I blocked the view last night – that’s right
1060. Addison.
But Horseshoe rollin high as a kite by then
I hate that roof so much it causes strife
It’s phony, Cubs ad space
In such a timeless fight

And I think it’s gonna be a long long time
Till Cub fans know it ain’t about the sign
I’m not the man they rent the roof off home
Oh no no no I’m a Ricketts man
Ricketts man says Binionaires will never own

Boxcars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids
Those books, are old as Zell
And there’s no pun there to save them if you did
Child homelessness I don’t understand
It’s just my job five days a week
To be a Ricketts man—, Ricketts man

And I think it’s gonna be a long long time…

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Lou

The “Sell or Buy” segment will never be the same.

As mentioned towards the end of today’s episode (download – mp3), we want to send a shout out to our friend and longtime listener KC in Denver. He heard us joking about using coin purses a few episodes back and sent a package to our mailbox. Needless to say, upon opening it I had a healthy laugh. Well done KC, thank you for these coin purses (pictured – right).

It goes without saying that these will be utilized mostly by Sheps. However, I did fill one with all the non-U.S. coins that I have collected over the last year.

If you have a chance to check out KC’s company, please do. He does first class work on the web, and also brews his own beer.

Lastly unless big news breaks we’ll return with a new episode on Monday, but keep an eye out for a decidedly musical special Thanksgiving episode on Wednesday night or Thursday morning. I know, the terms musical and Thanksgiving shouldn’t go together for reasons we won’t discuss, but this is something you’ll want to hear.

Safe travels and have a Happy Thanksgiving,

Lou

As discussed in today’s episode (download – mp3) the Cubs are closing in on signing John Grabow for two years and upwards of $7.5 million, which is getting plenty of Cubs fans talking (always a good thing). I’m of the opinion that it’s a fair price for a guy that could solidify the left-hand side of the bullpen in 2010.

The Cubs made another move today, sending RHP Aaron Heilman to the D-Backs for two prospects, which most Cubs fans are probably very excited to see.

The fly in my ice cube is when Cub fans are fed the following information, as excerpted from an article on the moves by Bruce Levine:

With a projected $140 million payroll, general manager Jim Hendry was in a position where he had to move peripheral arbitration-eligible players in order to find money for veterans such as reliever John Grabow, who is expected to sign a two-year, $7.5 million contract by the end of the weekend.

It would not be incorrect to say that some of the money saved in the Heilman trade will go toward Grabow’s contract, which will increase about $1 million a year.

This agitates me a bit not because trading Heilman is a bad move (though I would have kept him and settled his arbitration case), but because it infers that Jim Hendry has an airtight budget this offseason. I’d thought that the DeRosa salary dump after 2008 and the fact that Hendry never tried to negotiate a multi-year deal with Kerry Wood that same offseason were anomalies. Until proven otherwise, this is the new status quo for the Cubs. The $300 million offseason happened because an ownership group was ramping up towards a sale.

How an airtight budget fits into a “win this year at all costs” philosophy is anyone’s guess, because to me it’s oil and water.

Anyway, something to keep an eye on. Levine also made mention of Fontenot possibly not being a Cub in 2010 for salary reasons.