Blog Archives

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.

As announced in Monday’s episode (download – mp3), the Cubscast Photo Caption Contest is back! To submit an entry, simply click on the photo below and enter your caption as a comment. Everyone is welcome to participate (even if you’re on a limited offseason spending plan). First prize this week is a Cubscast Prize Pack which includes a Cubs-related book. Official Photo Caption Contest Rules.

(Photo Credit: Charles Andersen)

Congrats to Roger, the winner of this contest! Roger’s winning caption: Learning of the possible deal to the Cubs, Granderson’s first order of business is to practice his NLDS sweep look.

Contest ended on Sunday November 22nd at 10 p.m. CT..

Thanks to everyone that participated!

As mentioned in Friday’s episode, Cubs Convention is an offseason milestone that Sheps and I look forward to each year. It’s an oasis of sorts, set smack dab between the end of a failed season and hope-filled Spring Training. We’ve attended each year since starting Cubscast over 5 years ago, and this coming January will be no different. The 25th Annual Cubs Convention, held at the Hilton Towers in Chicago, will be held January 15-17, 2010. Tickets went on sale last week and quickly sold out, but it looks like rooms at the Hilton still are available (you can buy up to 4 discounted passes per room).

Anyway, as the holidays near we know the next couple months are going to fly by. That being the case, please let us know if there is an aspect of the Convention weekend that you’d like for us to cover on Cubscast.

We’ve met up with listeners each year and look forward to doing so again, and at the same time we know a lot of people aren’t able to travel to Chicago for this, so we welcome any and all suggestions.

In the past we’ve done a few different things at the convention. Here’s how it breaks down in my estimation:

2006/2007
* Occupied a booth in an Exhibit Hall
* Held giveaway drawings/prize raffles
* Had a sweet banner printed at Kinko’s
* Had our banner stolen from a shady Wrigleyville three flat
* Had an even sweeter banner printed at Kinko’s
* Interviewed Fergie Jenkins, Eric Patterson, and Ronnie Woo-Woo Wickers
* Attended various sessions, including the Kathy & Judy “Not For Women Only” panel on Sneetch’s advice
* Valet parked the car

2008
* Attended a variety of sessions in which Mike Bielecki did not discuss his…stats
* Enjoyed meeting with listeners
* Thousands of Cubscast postcards, tattoos, and bottle openers handed out
* A generous Cubscast listener gave us permission to use his audio interviews of Jim Hendry, Lou Piniella and others in our show
* Self-parked across the street

2009
* Attended the Cubs luncheon for the first time
* Interviewed Jim Hendry, Neal Cotts, Kevin Gregg, and the guy that co-created the Shawon-O-Meter
* Enjoyed meeting with listeners and buying rounds (most common request: orange juice — everybody was wiped out)
* Head tilt of acknowledgement to Len Kasper sent and received
* Thousands more Cubscast cards distributed
* Went back to valet, foolishly

We don’t know what’s in store for the 2010 edition of the Convention weekend, but there’s no doubt it’ll be a lot of fun. Please share your suggestions or convention stories in the comments. Hope to see you there in January!

Just a few hours ago the St. Louis Cardinals announced that not only was Tony LaRussa returning to manage their team in 2010, but joining him as hitting coach is former slugger and congressional hearing futurist Mark McGwire. Who knew that hitting coaches would be the talk of the NL Central so far this offseason? Anyway, this post is not an OMG reaction to the news. Sorry. This otherwise small move (despite the size of the man) has much larger implications down the road, probably for Cubs fans, too.

For 8 years McGwire kept out of the spotlight as best he could after retiring, with of course the big blip on the radar screen coming in 2005 in front of a panel of U.S. Senators. Though his exit from the game and subsequent laying-low time was self-imposed, it was self-imposed for a purpose. I only have speculation while McGwire himself holds the keys on that one, but if I had been in his shoes I would have wanted to give my words from those hearings some time to sink in. Here is one quote in particular from the hearing in March ‘05:

McGwire: Asking me or any other player to answer questions about who took steroids in front of television cameras will not solve the problem. If a player answers no, he simply will not be believed. If he answers yes, he risks public scorn and endless government investigations.

Not the most famous quote by Big Mac from the hearings, but an answer that rings true years later, and will continue to.

Whether or not McGwire decides to wax eloquent now about the past, which by itself is an exciting debate topic, I wonder what his signing as a coach does for every other player in that hearing room. Rafael Palmeiro was a great hitter, Sammy Sosa was one of the best power hitters of all time. Jose Canseco was there, too. A reminder — Sosa and Palmeiro denied using, and McGwire didn’t say either way.

Sosa is on exile right now, serving his time and giving a few quotes to the papers every year while he waits out the anger over the final day of his Cubs career along with the other accusations of cheating that he faced. Guys like Sosa and McGwire aren’t getting into the Hall anytime in the next 15 years, but the Cardinals have made it clear to the rest of the league (and sportswriters) that they belong in the game. Maybe you disagree with them, maybe you don’t.

The title of that fateful Senate committee hearing was “Restoring Faith in America’s Pastime.” However you feel about them having a place in the game, I wonder if their return will actually do a better job of restoring that faith than anything else. After all, tearful apologies were so 2009.