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March 24, 2023

My 50th consecutive Chicago Cubs home opener March 30

Scorecards from the author’s basement.

 

The promise of Cubs opening day never gets old.

Time is a stiff wind, but when baseball’s opening day rolls in, I am young again. There is hope in the air. On April 1973 I attended my first Cubs season opener at Wrigley Field. I have not missed one since.

On March 30 I will attend my 50th consecutive home opener. I’ve made it through snow, rain, sun, lockouts, marriage, divorce, illness, a thousand woo-woos, and a pandemic. And I have a scorecard from every game. That’s the longest streak for anything I’ve done anything in life except for writing. And [...]

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September 22, 2022

Mary Frances Veeck 1920-2022

Mary Frances and  Bill Veeck in March 1959 when Bill purchased 54 % of the White Sox for $2.7 million. (Photo courtesy of the Veeck family.)

 

There were clouds, but Mary Frances Veeck never paid much attention to them.

After I heard of the Sept. 10 passing of Mrs. Veeck I began to realize that almost every time I saw her we were sitting outside. The first time was opening day April 1976 in the Comiskey Park bleachers after her husband Bill bought the White Sox. Mr. and Mrs. Veeck looked me in the eye as we spoke. I was just a kid among 40,300 happy fans.

In July 1991 I drove to Cooperstown, N.Y. to [...]

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September 13, 2022

Grassroots Baseball on Route 66: The game goes on forever

A Tesuque Pueblo player during a pickup game on July 4, 2021 at the Pueblo in Santa Fe, NM. The Tesuques play in the All Indian League, an adult baseball league that includes pueblos across New Mexico. (Courtesy of Jean Fruth)

 

Grassroots baseball players have always been highway gypsies.

They travel from diamond to diamond with jewels of their trade: bats that are needles of a mystic compass, gloves that try to catch all that goes by, and cleats that are as down and dirty as road tires. And when the journey is realized, the gypsy is safe at home.

The new Jean Fruth book “Grassroots Baseball: Route [...]

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September 12, 2022

Ted Butterman: Wrigley Field’s King of Swing

 

Ted Butterman, 1935-2022 (center)

 

The Chicago Cubs paid regal tribute to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II with a moment of silence before Friday’s game against the San Francisco Giants.

But they missed on Wrigley Field’s King of Swing.

Slugger Dave Kingman? Nope. Third baseman Patrick Wisdom? They’re still here.

Wrigley Field bandleader Ted Butterman died Aug. 31 in a care facility in Buffalo Grove, Il. The Dixieland jazz maestro was 87 years old. He was in hospice for one day. A lifelong musician, Mr. Butterman played to his biggest audiences between 1982 and 2017 at Wrigley [...]

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