MJ at Wrigley

It happened on this day, 15 years ago. Michael Jordan played for the White Sox in an exhibition game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

He hit a double.

I was there, freezing my tush off in the upper deck with John Landecker.

The Onion

Always funny. Always sarcastic. The Onion nails the Cubs.

The Curse of The Lutheran Seminary

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Cremate the Curse event at the funeral home in Schaumburg Sunday, and thanks to everyone who provided eulogies for the various Cubs curses, especially the MC of the event, Tom Dreesen. He was great, as always.

Here's my contribution...The Curse of the Lutheran Seminary

In 1914, Charlie Weeghman found a great location on the North Side of Chicago to build his new ballpark...a chunk of land at Sheffield, Addison, Waveland and Clark. It was absolutely perfect.

There was only one problem. Something already stood on that ground. A Lutheran Seminary.

Charlie purchased the land, and built his ballpark on the exact same spot that Seminary once stood. A place that had been a center for thoughtful contemplation, a home for heavenly guidance, a divine dwelling, was replaced by a ballpark filled with alcohol swilling, profanity hurling miscreants, probably playing hooky from an honest day’s work. (People like me).

Now I’ve got no evidence that this brought on a curse, other than the 33,580 days without a championship since the Cubs started playing there, and a few other signs that maybe, just maybe, somebody (points up) didn’t like that too much.

Sign #1: The league this ballpark was supposed to feature, the Federal League, was broke in two years.

Sign #2: The man who built the ballpark, good ol’ Charlie, was bankrupt just five years later.

Sign #3: The team that took over that ballpark, the Cubs, have played the World Series in this ballpark 5 times, and each time they brought a dark cloud of bad karma along for the ride.

1929, moments before the first Wrigley Field World Series game was even played, two Wrigley employees were arrested for beating up a hot dog vendor outside the ballpark.

1932, Cubs players stiffed their own teammate Mark Koenig a full playoff share, angering his good friend Babe Ruth, who you may remember, made a point (point) of getting back at them.

1935, Cubs players screamed so many profanities from the dugout that the umpire actually threw the entire bench out of the game. In the ninth inning of the final game, with a runner on third base and the score tied, the Cubs had to let the pitcher bat.

1938, a ninth inning home run was hit in Wrigley Field by a Yankee the Cubs had turned down just a few years earlier because they didn’t think he would be good enough...Joe DiMaggio.

I’ll let the next speaker tell you what happened in 1945. Let’s just say that the groundwork may have been laid for a humble curse request from a man who wasn’t allowed to bring in a goat.

That’s why I’m contributing this photograph of the construction of Wrigley Field to this curse cremation.

This is our way of letting HIM know, we are formally asking for forgiveness (Maybe for the first time ever.)

Please, consider One Bad Century sufficient penance.

Cremating the Curse!

If you're out and about on Sunday and looking for something to do, how about coming out to a funeral home for a fun event? That's right. You read that correctly.

It's being staged by George Rawlinson, the publisher of "Cubbie Blues: 100 years of waiting til next year." George is staging this event at Michael's Funeral Home in Schaumburg, and he's calling it "CREMATING THE CURSE!"

Comedian Tom Dreesen will MC the event, and an array of notable local Cubs celebrities will be on hand to deliver eulogies for the 100 years of losing (including me), as we actually cremate artifacts from the various different Cubs curses I've written about on this site, including Merkle, the Revenge of Martin Luther, the Goat, the Black Cat, and every other curse we can think of. (I found two new ones for my eulogy...we're taking no chances).

Please come on out and enjoy the festivities. It's a worthwhile fundraising event for Chicago Baseball Cancer Charities. All of the details about this event are here at the Can't Miss Press website.

Of course she's a Cubs fan

Presented without comment...


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Blago's only good side

Again, I'll admit that I'm stretching it here. But on the morning after our former governor was indicted, it's only right to take some time out to look at his good points too.

OK, sorry. Make that singular. Good point. One good point.

Herman Franks

Sad news yesterday; former Cubs manager Herman Franks passed away at the age of 95. The Tribune did a nice obit for him.

My favorite Herman Franks story is one I have told a few times at Just One Bad Century. Herman was old school, in the Leo Durocher mold (read the obit to see where Leo mentored him), and he couldn't deal with the crybaby players on the 1979 Cubs. At the end of the season he resigned because they were "selfish, coddled and uninspired."

"Some of these players are actually crazy. They don't want to talk to the newspaper people, and they want separate buses for themselves and reporters. It's silly things like this that get you fed up."

He singled out Bill Buckner, Ted Sizemore, Barry Foote and Mike Vail as the worst of the "whiners."

Wish we had a dozen more managers like Herman Franks. May he rest in peace.