July 19- Chicago Cubs

I have no idea who the guy on the right is.

It was the fall of 1993. My older brother Adam and I had just been sent to live with our father after a lengthy and costly custody battle left my mother with no choice but to have us live on the other side of town. We were one week into the school year when I had to go from my Mrs. Carver’s fifth grade classroom at Leo B. Hart Elementary School to Mrs. Miller’s classroom at Discovery Elementary School. It was an awkward time. I had to leave behind all of my friends and start over from scratch. As weird as the transition was I am thankful for this time period as it taught me how to be an extrovert. I could have easily kept to myself and shied away from meeting new people, but ultimately that would have affected me for the rest of my life. One of the first friends I made was a kid I met on the playground during recess named Mike McBride. He was in the same grade as me, but was in a different classroom. As it turned out he had an older brother named Paul who was my brother Adam’s age and the four of us routinely hung out at the McBride house after school. As fate would have it, the McBride’s lived only two blocks down the street from our house on Feather River Road in Bakersfield, California.

The importance of this friendship laid the foundation for this post. On the first day my brother and I got together with the McBrides we took to the garage where the pool table resided. Their garage was completely white, as in there were no posters on the walls and a white carpet had been placed on the floor as it housed both the pool table and their father’s dark green convertible Jaguar which we weren’t allowed to touch. Even to this day I can’t help but wonder why their father thought it was a good idea to place such an expensive car next to a pool table and expect nothing to happen. Luckily nothing did happen, but still. Since we were the “visiting team” my brother and I were on racking duties while Paul took to the stereo to put on some jams. This was the first time I heard 10 by Pearl Jam.

Even though “Once” is the first track on the album Paul skipped it and started off with “Even Flow.” Even at the age of 10 I knew I was listening to something special. I asked Paul what he was playing and he, Brian and my brother all looked at me like I was crazy. Adam told me it was Pearl Jam and then added “dumbass” on the end. Needless to say, after that I never bothered to ask who a band was when I heard it, I conducted my own research. But that’s all beside the point. The point is that had I not made new friends, gone to their house and played pool it may have been a bit longer before I heard the amazing vocals of Eddie Vedder, sick licks of Mike McCready and Stone Gossard, tight bass of Jeff Ament and bitchin’ beats of Dave Krusen.

My girlfriend Angie Kinderman has been a massive Pearl Jam fan since she was 12-years-old. In her life she has attended 15 Pearl Jam shows and seven Eddie Vedder solo performances. In my lifetime I had yet to attend a Pearl Jam show, a fact that Angie routinely joked about why we could never be together. But, like the loving girlfriend/future wife that she is she made sure to fix that a few days after New Year’s of 2013 (this year). As a member of the Pearl Jam Fan Club Angie has the ability to enter a lottery for a chance to buy tickets to their shows. The one show in particular that she wanted to go to was the one that the band was most looking forward to this year, the Wrigley Field show. As luck would have it, Angie hit paydirt.

On the morning of Friday, July 19, 2013 Angie boarded a plane, leaving from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida while I boarded one from Portland, Oregon, both of us headed to Midway Airport in Chicago, Illinois. The two of us hadn’t seen each other since I had left Florida back in early May, so our reunion in the airport was especially satisfying. I’ll spare you the details of the heated make-out session in the terminal, but we walked hand-in-hand through the terminals and down to the L-train, headed to our hotel in downtown Chicago. The show was that night so we didn’t have a lot of time to hang around. We showered quickly, put on a change of clothes and met up with Angie’s friends Matt and Melissa from Minnesota.

We all chuttled together down about 10 blocks to the closest L-train station which took us directly to Addison. From there we headed straight to Wrigley Field to pick up our tickets before enjoying a plethora of adult beverages in the many bars, speakeasies and public houses that Wrigleyville had to offer. 

Since the three of them weren’t rookies to the Pearl Jam concert game there were a slew of friends that had acquired over the years from other shows, all of whom I was introduced to, but don’t exactly remember any of their names due to the amount of Old Style and Pabst Blue Ribbon I had consumed. The only time it seems that I didn’t have a beer in my hand was when Angie and I went and grabbed a slice of pizza from down the street. One of the coolest parts of that sojourn was that I wan into a guy with a pretty awesome Pearl Jam shirt from one of their gigs in Montreal.

As I’ve come to find out in the time that I’ve known Angie, and even in time before that, the members of Pearl Jam are all huge sports fans. All of their posters, patches, sticks, shirts and other swag over the years has in some way been reflective of the sports teams in whichever city they play in. When you get a free chance I highly recommend looking through some of the photos that show this. Most of their old stuff is pretty badass much like the Montreal Expos-style shirt above. But after our brief pizza-based intermission, it was back to drinking.

Hours passed, and the sun seemed to get brighter and hotter. It had been a while since I partook in day drinking before a big event and I was definitely unconditioned. With about an hour to go before the show I threw in the towel. Angie, born and raised in Wisconsin, showed me a thing or two about powering through. About a half hour before the show was slated to start we headed over. This was also about the time when everyone else had done their fair share of boozing on the streets and decided to take indoors. Our seats were ground level, which meant that we had to go in through the front entrance, make our way to the left field bleachers and head out through the ivy over to the third base side bullpen. Now, I’ve been lucky enough to be able to walk across the field at two ballparks, the Oakland Coliseum and Tropicana Field, but this was something special. Never in my life could I have ever dreamed to be standing on the field at Wrigley, and I made sure to document it as much as I possibly could.

Bullpen

The roadies were still setting things up so Angie and I chatted with a few of the folks around us. Then finally, around 8:45 PM, the show kicked off. They kicked everything off with “Release,” the 11^th track off of Ten and then followed it up with “Nothingman,” “Present Tense,” “Hold On” and “Low Light.” It was around this time that we all started to notice clouds starting to creep in from behind the scoreboard in centerfield, but no one thought much of it at the time. 

It was also at this time that a girl in front of us who was too short to see over the person in front of her decided to stand up on her chair. It didn’t bother me as much as it did Angie and everyone else behind us, but we let it slide through the song “Come Back.” As Pearl Jam laid into their next song, “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” it was becoming apparent that the girl in front of us wasn’t going to budge. 

So rather than me being the “rude male” Angie took the lead and asked the girl to sit down because other people behind us couldn’t see. The girl then retorted, “No speak English,” you know, a total bitch move. What nobody expected was for Angie to say, “¿Puedes por favor siéntese? Todo el mundo detrás de usted no puede ver el espectáculo. Estás siendo muy grosero,” which translates to “Can you please sit down? Everyone behind you cannot see the show. You're being very rude.” At this point the girl just stood there, stunned that she had just been bested at her own game. Her boyfriend tried to come to the aid of his woman but was immediately halted by a “Now you’re just being rude” from the woman to my left and a “Shut the f--- up and sit down!” from behind me. For “not speaking English” the girl got down pretty fast after that. But more important out of all of this is the unanswered question of this show, or any show for that matter, which is: “Why the hell would you buy floor seats if you know you’re not going to be able to see over the person in front of you?” As “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” came to a close as did the show. Officials had informed the band that everything would need to be put on hold as the thunderstorm that had been brewing was about to take siege over Wrigley. Vedder took to the microphone and let everyone know what was going on and said that they would get back to things in “hopefully 45 minutes at most.” With little options and no desire to get struck by lightning, Angie and I retreated to the concourse areas.

45 minutes would have totally been fine; however, it ended up being a near three hour delay. Granted, this was of no fault of Wrigley Field or Pearl Jam, but it still sucked to be cooped up in borderline boiler room conditions, waiting for the show to commence. After two hours of waiting Angie and I said screw it to the floor seats and made our way to covered seats on the third base side so we could not only get a better view of the stage, but to be able to breathe clean air and sit in a chair, and not on the ever-disgusting walkways.

At about 10:45 PM security reopened the floor, and everyone who had general admission tickets for that section took off into a dead sprint to get their spots back. Angie and I were ever so grateful to not be mixed up in that crowd, except when the music started back up about 25 minutes after that. It’s a mystery as to whether it was Eddie Vedder’s intention to play this particular song next or if the weather had anything to do with it, but it was perfect for everything that we had all just been through.

In the history of songs that have been written about baseball there are few that can hold up to the test of time. Some are very dated like Natalie Cole’s “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit that Ball” or “Catfish” by Bob Dylan, while others are eternal like John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” and Dr. John’s version of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” In keeping with this tradition Eddie Vedder wrote and sang an anthem about Chicago Cubs fans and Wrigley Field for Hall of Famer Ernie Banks. Do yourself a favor and just watch this. It’s the song, the creation of the song and appearance by a special guest.

I never really hung on to my affection with Pearl Jam as I got older, but I have enjoyed several of their songs over the years, but I never felt as much of a kinship with any of their songs until the first time I heard “All the Way.” Everything about it is perfect. Being able to hear and sing along with that song in its home with my sweetie was all I needed that night. Everything else they played was an added bonus in my eyes.

Pearl Jam played 16 more songs before leaving the stage, only to come back out to play nine more as the clock was quickly approaching 2 o’clock in the morning. Not wanting to push their luck and never be allowed to play at Wrigley again, they complied and ended the show after their cover of Neil Young’s classic “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World.” As the crowds took to the stairs and concourses I noticed that they were allowing people to leave through the exits in right field. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to take more photos on the field, let alone be able to touch the ivy, I quickly grabbed Angie’s hand and guided her down the steps and to the entrance just to the right of the dugout. Since we had wristbands for the floor seats I figured it wouldn’t be an issue to get back onto the field. As it turned out, I was correct. The security guard could have been a jerk about everything especially with as late as it was, instead he smile and told us “have a good night” as he let us through.

There was a memorabilia stand set up right where home plate would be so Angie made her way through the crowd to see of there was anything worth buying. Most of the cool stuff had all ready been pilfered through, so nice dice. Angie and I took a leisurely stroll from third to first base side, snapping a few photos on out way to the exit. 

This was the only exposed clump of grass from the night, which I made sure not pull out or damage. 

We had to get a photo in the visiting dugout.

I had heard that if you do the stadium tour you’re not allowed to touch the ivy. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, we both made sure to take advantage.

As we left the stadium we noticed the large line of people waiting to get back onto the L-train to head wherever. Rather than just stand there like a couple of suckers we made a break to the McDonald’s across the street for a snack before waiting for our chance to make our way back to the hotel. Because after all, it’s not like we were getting The Matterhorn or Space Mountain at Disneyland. Weak. Angie, her friends Matt and Melissa and I did hit a Chicago White Sox game the day after the show, but I pretty much covered all the best parts a few days ago.

Overall I have to say it was an amazing trip. It was the third time I’ve had the luxury of catching a concert inside of a baseball stadium with the other two being Third Eye Blind in Nationals Park and Bruce Springsteen at Fenway Park, but I’ll get into that story in another post. One of the more enjoyable, personal moments from the trip was when I was able to hit the New Era Flagship Store before Angie and I headed to the airport to fly home. It was great because we were able to meet up with two of my friends who I met in Buffalo during the #CrewEra13 trip, Chris Cornolo (@ccornolo) and Alex Mendoza (@Type1SXC). Chris happened to be in town for a three-day music fest put on by Phish and Alex lived just outside of the city. It had been a little less than month since we had all seen each other, but we all had stories to tell and hats to pick up. Actually for me, it was the one time I had ever walked into a New Era store and not purchased anything. Crazy, I know.

Onto the hat. The Cubs first used this cap, or at least a variation of it, in 1934 for home games, but it disappeared after that until 1957 when the Cubs introduced this cap which I wrote about on April 26^th. The only difference between the one on my head and the 1957 cap is the white piping going down the sides. In 1958 the Cubs ditched the piping and left this beautiful cap which has served as the Cubs’ game cap every year until 1994 when they introduced the red-billed road cap. So, from 1994-2008 this cap only served as the home cap until the red-billed cap was discontinued following the 2008 which put reinstated the all-blue cap back to its original game style platform. An interesting little side note is that the Pearl Jam show was the first place I had ever worn this cap, even though I’ve owned it for well over a year. I suppose I just needed the perfect time, place and person to be with.

6/5/85: For this mark I direct you to the video. Seriously, it’s only like 100 seconds long and you’ll easily recognize it. If you didn’t watch it, this is the date in witch Alan Ruck, Mia Sara and Matthew Broderick attended the Cubs game versus the Atlanta Braves in the scene from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Now, what I didn’t know until February 6, 2011 is that no one, at least of note, had written about or discovered the particular date in which the cast and crew attended the game. Well, that’s not necessarily true. In fact, I had actually figured it out back in 2002 with little to work with other than box scores and the Harry Caray sound bites from the film. I was 19-years-old at the time when I solved it and did a brief write up in my old Gateway computer; however, that computer has since bit the dust along with anything that I write from my high school and junior college days. So, as a result of not backing up my files, Larry Granillo from Baseball Prospectus was given the distinction as the guy who figured it out… nine years after I did. Here’s his article if you want to give it a gander. 

As a kid "Ferris Bueller's..." was sort of my Catcher in the Rye. I still quote it like crazy and the philosophies are still dear to my heart, hence why you always find me running around, going on adventures. I've never lived life with regret, but I know that would if I never took the amount of chances as I have done. If there is any lesson I can teach to anyone it's that you should never limit yourself. Never tell yourself it's a bad time, or you can't afford it, etc. You always have the time. You can always afford it if you save and commit yourself to whatever you desire. There's nothing more depressing than keeping yourself from your wants and desires. I was fortunate enough to learn this at a very young age from my mother who would never let me settle for mediocrity. I challenge you to live by this creed as well.

July 12- Chicago White Sox

It’s been a while since I’ve kicked off a post with providing a soundtrack for the reader. And for with that, I can’t think of anything more fitting than this.

Now, for those of you who don’t really know music the first question floating around your head is probably something around the lines of, “Hey Ben, what does Detroit and rocking have to do with the Chicago White Sox?” Well, good question. I assure you that this question will be answered several times throughout this post. But first, here’s a little bit of a back-story about the hat. For some weird reason this is not only one of my favorite White Sox caps in their history, it’s also one of my favorite Major League Baseball caps of all time. I’ve never felt that getting flashy with a logo or color scheme has helped with an overall look of a cap, sometimes less is more. The White Sox introduced this cap at the start of the 1976 season in honor of the United States’ bicentennial. A number of teams throughout the league actually did this for only one season, and in most cases those caps have become extremely difficult to find. The most difficult of the bunch being the umpires cap in which I’ve only known of one person to have it in their possession.

This particular White Sox cap was used for all home games and a few road games in 1976 as there was a similar cap with white panels and a navy blue “SOX” used for most road games. This cap is yet another difficult one to track down. After the ’76 season the White Sox used this cap for every game from 1977 through the end of the 1981 season, and upgraded to another amazing cap in 1982. One thing to keep in mind is that it was the ’76 White Sox who were forced to wear this hideous uniform below for three games throughout the season.

There are very few writers who DON’T have this uniform listed as one of the 10 worst of all-time. I definitely have it listed in permanent ink at #2. Needless to say it was one of then-owner Bill Veeck’s ideas that went bust.

7/12/79- Speaking of Veeck, remember that time a full-scale riot almost broke out at a White Sox game back on July 12, 1979? If you don’t, you’re in for a treat.

For those of you who weren’t alive during the 1970s, myself included, it’s hard to argue that disco reined supreme on the airwaves in the latter part of the decade. The film Saturday Night Fever catapulted a "relatively-unknown" (sarcasm) pop group named the Bee Gees into superstardom after they recorded most of the songs that helped fuel the soundtrack and the story for the film. As it stands now, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack is still, not only the best-selling soundtrack of all-time, but the fifth best-selling album of all-time. Disco had been pumping over the airwaves and in disco halls for a few years leading up to the successful film; however, Saturday Night Fever and its soundtrack are what put the genre on the map. Nobody was more incensed by this fad as much as Chicago disc jockey Steve Dahl.

In 1978, New York's WKTU-FM, a low-rated rock station, switched to disco and became the most popular station in the country; other stations sought to emulate its success. In Chicago, Dahl was fired from local radio station WDAI on Christmas Eve 1978 when the station switched formats from rock to disco. The 24-year-old DJ was subsequently hired by rival album-rock station WLUP, "The Loop". Sensing an incipient anti-disco backlash and playing off the publicity surrounding his firing (Dahl frequently mocked WDAI's "Disco DAI" slogan on the air as "Disco DIE"), Dahl created a mock organization called "The Insane Coho Lips", an anti-disco army consisting of his listeners. According to Andy Behrens of ESPN, Dahl and his broadcast partner Garry Meier "organized the Cohos around a simple and surprisingly powerful idea: Disco Sucks".

According to Dahl in 1979, the Cohos were locked in a war "dedicated to the eradication of the dread musical disease known as DISCO". For months Dahl promoted a number of anti-disco public events, several of which became unruly. When a discotheque in Linwood, Indiana, switched from disco to rock in June, Dahl showed up, as did several thousand Cohos, and the police had to be called. Later that month, Dahl and several thousand Cohos occupied a teen disco in the Chicago suburbs. At the end of June, Dahl urged his listeners to throw marshmallows at a WDAI promotional van, which was at a shopping mall where a teen disco had been built. The Cohos chased the van and driver and cornered them in a nearby park, though the situation ended without violence. On July 1, a near-riot occurred in Hanover Park, Illinois, when hundreds of Cohos could not enter a sold-out promotional event, and fights broke out. Some 50 police officers were needed to control the situation. When disco star Van McCoy died suddenly on July 6, Dahl marked the occasion by destroying one of his records, "The Hustle", on the air.

Dahl and Meier regularly mocked disco records on the radio. Dahl also recorded his own parody: "Do You Think I'm Disco?” a satire of Rod Stewart's disco-oriented hit "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?". This parody song presented discotheques as populated by effeminate men and frigid women. The lead character, named Tony like Travolta's character in Saturday Night Fever, is unable to attract a woman until he abandons the disco scene, selling his three-piece white suit at a garage sale and melting down his gold chains for a Led Zeppelin belt buckle.

A number of anti-disco incidents took place elsewhere in the first half of 1979: "the Disco Demolition was not an isolated incident or an aberration". In Seattle, hundreds of rock fans attacked a mobile dance floor, while in Portland, Oregon, a disc jockey destroyed a stack of disco records with a chainsaw as thousands looked on and cheered. In New York, a rock deejay played Donna Summer’s sexualized disco hit, "Hot Stuff"; he was protested by his listeners. But all of these events paled in comparison to what Dahl cooked up in July of 1979.

In the weeks prior to Disco Demolition Night Dahl invited his listeners to bring records they wanted to see destroyed to Comiskey Park. For a while he feared that the promotion would fail to draw people to the ballpark, and that he would be humiliated. The previous night's attendance had been 15,520, and Comiskey Park had a capacity of 44,492. The White Sox were not having a good year, and were 40–46 going into the July 12 doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers. Detroit, see where this is going? The White Sox and WLUP hoped for a crowd of 20,000. Mike Veeck, the son of Bill, hired enough security for 35,000 just in case. The stipulation for the night’s events was that if you brought a disco record you could get into Comiskey Park for 98 cents.

Owner Bill Veeck was concerned the promotion might turn into a disaster and checked himself out of the hospital, where he had been undergoing tests. The elder Veeck's fears were substantiated when he saw the people walking towards the ballpark that afternoon; many carried signs that described disco in profane terms. The doubleheader sold out, leaving at least 20,000 people outside the ballpark. Some were not content to remain there, leaping turnstiles, climbing fences, and entering through open windows. It was like the first day of Woodstock, except if you can only imagine all of the peaceful hippies as bloodthirsty, disco-hating hooligans. The attendance was officially announced as 47,795; however, nearly all observers believed the crowd was far larger than that. Mike Veeck believed the actual attendance was closer to 60,000. Bill Veeck estimated that there were anywhere from 50,000 to 55,000 in the park, easily the largest of his second stint as White Sox owner. Others estimate the crowd was as large as 90,000. Whatever the case, the crowd was well over capacity, prompting the Chicago Police Department to close off-ramps from the Dan Ryan Expressway near the stadium. Attendees were supposed to deposit their records into a large box, but once it filled many of the patrons held onto their records which would later turn out to be equally as disastrous.

The first game was to begin at 6 pm, with the second game to follow. Lorelei, a model who did public appearances for WLUP and who was very popular in Chicago that summer for her sexually-provocative poses in the station's advertisements, threw out the first pitch. As the first game began, Mike Veeck got word that thousands of people were trying to get into the park without tickets. He sent his security personnel to the stadium gates to keep the would-be gate crashers at bay. This left the field unattended, and fans began throwing the uncollected disco LPs and singles from the stands. Tigers' outfielder Rusty Staub remembered that the records would slice through the air, and land sticking out of the ground. He urged teammates to wear batting helmets when playing their positions, "It wasn't just one, it was many. Oh, God almighty, I've never seen anything so dangerous in my life." Attendees also threw firecrackers, empty liquor bottles, and lighters onto the field. The game was stopped several times because of the rain of foreign objects. Dozens of hand-painted banners with such legends as "Disco sucks" were hung from the ballpark's seating decks.

White Sox broadcaster Harry Caray could see groups of people, who were clearly music rather than baseball fans, wandering through the stadium. Others sat intently in their seats, awaiting the explosion which was set to take place in between the games. Mike Veeck later remembered an odor of marijuana in the grandstand and said of the attendees, "This is the Woodstock they never had." The stench permeated the press box, which both Caray and his broadcast partner, Jimmy Piersall, commented on over the air. The crowds outside the stadium threw records as well, or gathered them together and burned them in bonfires. Detroit won the first game, 4–1. I’m pretty sure the feeling by both teams at this point was mutual, “We have to play another game!?”

The first game ended at 8:16 pm; at 8:40 Dahl, dressed in army fatigues and a helmet, emerged onto the playing surface together with Meier and Lorelei.

They proceeded to center field where the vinyl-filled box awaited, though they first did a lap of the field in a Jeep, showered by his troops with firecrackers and beer. The large box containing the collected records had been rigged with explosives. Dahl and Meier warmed up the crowd, leading attendees in a chant of "disco sucks". Lorelei recalled that the view from center field was surreal. On the mound, White Sox pitcher Ken Kravec, scheduled to start the second game, began to warm up. Other White Sox, in the dugout and wearing batting helmets, looked out upon the scene. Fans who felt events were getting out of control and who wished to leave the ballpark had difficulty in doing so; in an effort to deny the intruders entry, security had padlocked all but one gate. Oops!

Dahl told the crowd, “This is now officially the world's largest anti-disco rally! Now listen—we took all the disco records you brought tonight, we got 'em in a giant box, and we're gonna blow 'em up reeeeeeal goooood.”

Dahl set off the explosives, destroying the records and tearing a large hole in the outfield grass.

It was right about here.

No… actually it was right here.

With most of the security personnel still watching the gates per Mike Veeck's orders, there was almost no one guarding the playing surface. Immediately, the first of what would be thousands of attendees rushed onto the field, causing Kravec to flee the mound and join his teammates in a barricaded clubhouse. You can see that here. Between 5,000 and 7,000 people are estimated to have taken the field. Some climbed the foul poles; others set records on fire, or ripped up the grass. The batting cage was destroyed; the bases were pulled up and stolen. Among those taking the field was 21-year-old aspiring actor Michael Clarke Duncan: during the melee, Duncan slid into third base, had a silver belt buckle stolen, and went home with a bat from the dugout. What’s actually a really interesting tidbit about Duncan is that on the day he passed away, September 3, 2012, that was actually the first day I ever attended a game at US Cellular field. I’ll get to that post in a month of so.

Bill Veeck stood with a microphone near where home plate had been, begging people to return to the stands, a bonfire raged in center field.

Years later, Lorelei remembered that she had been waving to the crowd when she was grabbed by two of the bodyguards who had accompanied the Jeep and placed back in the vehicle. The party was unable to return to home plate because of the rowdy fans, so the Jeep was driven out of the stadium and through the surrounding streets, to the delight of the many Cohos outside the stadium who recognized the occupants. They were driven to the front of the stadium, ushered back inside, and taken up to the press room where they had spent most of the first game.

Caray unsuccessfully attempted to restore order via the public address system. The scoreboard, flashing "PLEASE RETURN TO YOUR SEATS", was ignored as was the playing of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". Some of the attendees were dancing in circles around the burning vinyl shards. Dahl offered his help in getting the rowdy fans to leave, but it was declined.

At 9:08 pm, Chicago police in full riot gear arrived to the applause of the baseball fans in the stands. Those on the field hastily dispersed upon seeing the police. Thirty-nine people were arrested for disorderly conduct; estimates of injuries to those at the event range from none to over thirty. Bill Veeck wanted the teams to play the second game once order was restored. However, the field was so badly torn up that umpiring crew chief Dave Phillips felt that the field was still unplayable even after White Sox groundskeepers spent an hour clearing away debris. Tigers' manager Sparky Anderson let it be known that he would not allow his players to take the field in any event due to safety concerns. Phillips called American League president Lee MacPhail, who postponed the second game to Sunday after hearing a report on conditions. Anderson, however, demanded that the game be forfeited to the Tigers. He argued that under baseball's rules, a game can only be postponed due to an act of God, and that, as the home team, the White Sox were responsible for field conditions. The next day, largely upholding Anderson's arguments, MacPhail forfeited the second game to the Tigers 9–0, holding that the White Sox had failed to provide acceptable playing conditions. All of the ridiculousness of that night from start-to-finish can be seen here.

The morning after, Dahl began his regular broadcast by reading the indignant headlines in the local papers. He mocked the coverage, "I think for the most part everything was wonderful. Some maniac Cohos got wild and went down on the field. Which you shouldn't have done. Bad little Cohos." Tigers manager Anderson stated of the events, "Beer and baseball go together, they have for years. But I think those kids were doing things other than beer." Columnist David Israel of the Chicago Tribune commented on the day after that he was not surprised by what had occurred, "It would have happened any place 50,000 teenagers got together on a sultry summer night with beer and reefer." White Sox pitcher Rich Wortham, a Texan, suggested, "This wouldn't have happened if they had country and western night."

Although Bill Veeck took much of the public criticism for the fiasco, his son Mike suffered repercussions as the actual front-office promoter behind it. Mike Veeck remained with the White Sox until late 1980, when he resigned; his father sold the team to Jerry Reinsdorf soon afterward. He was unable to find a job in baseball for several years, leading him to claim that he had been blackballed from the game. For several years, he worked for a while for a jai-alai fronton in Florida, battling alcoholism. As Mike Veeck related, "The second that first guy shimmied down the outfield wall, I knew my life was over!" Mike Veeck has since become a successful owner of minor league baseball teams. Steve Dahl remained a disc jockey and radio personality in Chicago until 2008; he has continued to reach his listeners through podcasting.

The unplayed second game remains the last American League game to be forfeited. The last National League game to be forfeited was on August 10, 1995, when a baseball giveaway promotion at Dodger Stadium went awry, forcing the Los Angeles Dodgers to concede the game to the St. Louis Cardinals. According to baseball analyst Jeremiah Graves, "To this day Disco Demolition Night stands in infamy as one of the most ill-advised promotions of all-time, but arguably one of the most successful as 30 years later we’re all still talking about it."

My last thoughts on the matter revolve around the song I linked above, “Detroit Rock City” by KISS. I’ve seen a lot of movies in my lifetime, as a major in film studies for a bit during my time at the University of Oregon I kind of had to. One of my guilty pleasure films just happens to be Detroit Rock City, the story of four kids who will do whatever it takes to see their favorite band, KISS,  live at Cobo Hall in Detroit.

1. Because the movie is pretty funny.

2. Because I'm actually a huge KISS fan.

The battle between rock and disco is a prevalent theme throughout the film, but in the end the message is pretty loud and clear, “rock will never die.” In the case of the Disco Demolition Night incident Dahl later admitted in an interview in 2004 that disco was on its way out, but Disco Demolition Night helped usher in its demise a little bit quicker. In the case of the song it’s hard to deny that all who took to the field were avid rock and roll fans, but at the end of the festivities, it was Detroit who gained the most by winning two games in one day, but for only having to play one. In the end, Detroit rocks!

June 1- Chicago White Sox

This is the first and hopefully only post where my finances prevent me from writing a particular story about a specific hat on the day that I intend. I really have no one else to blame but myself on this one. I had been meaning to pick this cap up some time last year, but kept putting it off over and over again until it finally swam up and bit me in the ass. In my head I sounded like Richard Dreyfus in “Jaws” when I said that last bit. I finally DID pick this cap up; I got it off of the Lids Web site some time around the end of April and got it in the mail on May 6^th. And yet, even getting it two days before the intended date, I somehow managed to completely forget about what I had intended, let alone what I had marked up on my cap. Needless to say, I was pounding my head against a wall in the days to follow.

Now that I have you attention, let me tell you a little bit about this cap. Don’t worry; the epic story is not too far away. The Chicago White Sox, as you’ll learn throughout the year, are one of the more notorious teams in Major League Baseball history to make changes to their hats and uniforms on a four-to-five year basis. On this occasion I present to you their home cap used from 1982-1986. In the spirit of the 80s this is the first time the White Sox introduced a rather unorthodox-looking logo, which happens to be my favorite of all-time; the robotic version on the MLB logo.

I wrote about a similar hat back on April 4^th; however, the biggest difference between that cap and this one is that this is an actual game used cap. The other awesome feature about this time frame is that this is when the White Sox starting printing the players’ numbers on the left hip of the pants. I think the most unusual part of all of this is that this all came right as soon as the Jerry Reinsdorf legacy was just getting started. I say this because Reinsdorf is a very business savvy guy and doesn’t come off as someone who makes a lot of changes to a successful product. Well, unless it benefits him that is. Here’s the story behind his ownership for starters.

Former owner Bill Veeck and his partners sold the White Sox to Reinsdorf, a real-estate developer who owns the Chicago Bulls, and Eddie Einhorn, a television sports producer who had once sold hot dogs at Comiskey Park. Stocking the team with solid veterans like Carlton Fisk and Greg Luzinski, the new owners brought a division title to Chicago in 1983. But the erosion of fan support and media coverage continued, leading to fears that Reinsdorf and Einhorn would move the White Sox to another city. Reinsdorf had threatened to move the White Sox to Itasca or Addison, Illinois in DuPage County. Reinsdorf, through his real estate business purchased 100 acres in Addison. Chicago Mayor Harold Washington lobbied the Illinois legislature, and subsequently then-Illinois Governor James R. Thompson promoted a package of incentives to retain the team in Chicago. The state floated bonds to build New Comiskey Park and let Reinsdorf keep all parking and concession revenues, as well as the $5 million per year from 89 skyboxes. This was a home run of a deal for Reinsdorf who wasn’t particularly fond of the original Comiskey Park. New Comiskey opened in 1991 across the street from the old stadium, which was demolished in favor of a parking lot.

The White Sox went through another uniform change in 1987, which happened to feature one of my favorite hats in the White Sox history, until they changed again one last time in 1991, which they’ve stuck with ever since.

5/8-9/84: Like I said above, I got this hat in the mail on May 6^th and for some reason I completely spaced it out even after I marked it up with these numbers the second I opened the package. My mistake was brought to my attention on May 20^th as I was sitting on my friends’ couch in South San Francisco, watching MLB Network as I really had nothing better to do with my time. It was early in the morning and I was about to take to my computer, as I’m doing now, to write my blog post for that day about the Stars and Stripes hat for the Atlanta Braves. “MLB Now” was at a commercial break when out of the blue Bob Costas’s voice came over the television for MLB Network’s “this day in baseball” segment. Well, rather than talk about the day that it was, they opted for a general month of May highlight… which talked about this particular game. Almost immediately the light bulb kicked on and a wave of “I can’t believe I just did that” punch me in the gut, knocked me to the ground and kicked me in the face for good measure. So now, I bring you this epic tale, and hope to God I don’t blow it on another important anniversary again.

On May 8, 1984 the White Sox hosted the Milwaukee Brewers at the original Comiskey Park in a contest that featured five future Hall of Famers and Tony Larussa managing the White Sox. Don Sutton started the game for the Brewers while Bob Fallon took to the hill for the White Sox. The game got off to a masterful pitchers duel. Both Sutton and Fallon got through five frames without allowing a single run and only allowing at least one hit and a few walks each.

In the bottom of the sixth inning Sutton struck out Carlton Fisk and then gave up a single to White Sox first baseman Greg Walker. Greg Luzinski struck out next. While Sutton stared down Harold Baines to hopefully get the third out, Walker stole second, making him the first base runner to end up in scoring position thus far on the night. Baines then popped the next pitch up into foul territory on the third base side… which was dropped by Brewers’ third baseman Randy Ready, who was clearly not ready for the ball. Terrible joke, I know. Baines ended up drawing a two out walk as a result of the error. Left fielder Tom Paciorek then came to the plate and fired a single into left field, scoring Walker easily before Vance Law flew out to right field.

In the top of the seventh inning Salome Barojas relived Fallon who was on the hook for the win. Barojas’s first batter was Ready. Ready redeemed his folly by drawing a walk. The next batter, Jim Sundberg, moved Ready over to third with a single to right field. Next up, Robin Yount. Yount drilled a single to centerfield which scored Ready and moved Sundberg to second. Larussa had had enough and replaced Barojas with Brit Burns who ended up getting out of the jam. The score now is 1-1.

The seventh and eighth inning featured a few walks, a Pete Ladd for Sutton pitching change, a Dave Stegman pinch run for Luzinski and not much of anything else. In the top of the ninth Larussa made a defensive change by replacing Walker with Mike Squires (no relation to Billy). Not a lot of good it did as Burns collapsed on the mound, giving up a double to Yount, who then stole third and scored on a throwing error on the play. Ted Simmons then roped a single in which he advanced to second on a wild pitch and then scored after a single by Ben Oglivie. Oglivie then got caught stealing by Fisk. The next batter, Bobby Clark, walked only to be caught stealing by Fisk as well. So now it’s 3-1 Brewers.

With a two-run pad Brewers manager Rene Lachemann went to his closer, Rollie Fingers, to wrap things up quick before Happy Hour ended. Fingers’ first test was Paciorek, who ended up getting on second due to fielding error on the right fielder’s behalf. Next up, Vance Law, who flew out to centerfield. One down. Jerry Hairston then pinch hit for Scott Fletcher… only to fall victim to the “Mike Tyson’s Punch Out.” Two out. White Sox second baseman Julio Cruz worked himself a nice count before crushing a double into centerfield, easily scoring Paciorek. 3-2 Brewers with two out now. With Cruz on second it was back to the top of the White Sox batting order, where centerfielder Rudy Law stepped in to be a potential hero. With a 2-2 count Law smoked a single into left field, scoring Cruz from second to tie the game at three apiece. Fingers got tagged with a blown save, but still needed to get out of the inning. Fisk then grounded out to the shortstop and the game moved into extra innings.

For the sake of speeding things along, no one scored all the way through the 17^th inning. That’s right, the game lasted eight more full innings before the umpires halted the game 12:59 AM due to a rule which prevented any game to continue beyond 1:00 AM, a rule that has since been kicked to the curb as shown by the Oakland Athletics versus Los Angeles Angels game with went 19 innings on April 29^th.

The game was continued the next day as an accidental doubleheader. The game would remain scoreless all the way through the end of the 20^th inning. At the top of the 21^st the White Sox made a pitching change. Ron Reed replaced Juan Agostoas backup catcher Bill Schoeder came to the plate and proceeded to strike out. One out. Yount came up next and quickly flew out to right field. Two out. Designated Hitter Cecil Cooper was next. Cooper had been 0-9 prior to this at-bat and finally proved his worth with a single to the second baseman. Next up, Simmons, who proceeded to draw a walk. With runner on first and second Oglivie blasted a three-run shot to give the Brewers a 6-3 lead. Reed was now on the hook for the loss.

In the bottom of the 21^st the White Sox made short work on Chuck Porter. Leadoff man Law got a single and Fisk knocked him in to bring the score to 6-4 in favor of the Brewers. The first three batters got on base while the fourth, Dave Stegman who had replace Luzinski in the eighth, struck out. Baines then drew a walk to load the bases. Paciorek, who had been lights out all game continued his rampage by singling to centerfield, bringing in two runs. Porter was able to make the final two outs but tagged himself for a blown save and a 6-6 tie ball game.

Both teams breezed through the 22^nd inning. In the top of the 23^rd, Floyd Bannister replaced Reed for the White Sox with two outs and runner on first and second. He was able to get Oglivie to fly out to left field to end the side. The White Sox then squandered a potential win in the bottom of the 23^rd inning after Stegman and Paciorek both singles; however, Stegman ended up getting called out at third due to interference. Law then singled, putting two runners on at which shortstop Jerry Dybzinksi grounded out to end the side. Baines had flown out too, three outs.

The 24^th inning came and went. Each time had a base runner on at one point, but nothing more than one.

At the top of the 25^th the White Sox had to make a call to the bullpen again, this time to Tom Seaver. What’s interesting about this move is that the White Sox were so depleted on pitchers that they had to use the guy who was supposed to start the game which followed this game in to pitch. But, desperate times call for desperate measures. With little time to warm-up, Seaver gave up a single to Schroeder. Next up, Yount, who grounded into a double play. Next, Cooper, who flew out to left field to end the side.

Porter was still in for the Brewers in the bottom of the 25^th innings when Cooper came up to bat for the White Sox. Cooper quickly got two strikes on him and for some reason decided to bunt which he fouled back for an automatic out. With one out u walked Baines. Baines had gone 1-9 so far in the game with a double and two walks under his belt. Baines, a left-handed batter, was perfectly matched up against right-handed Porter. Porter fired a fastball right down Broadway. Baines kicked his right leg up, a la Mel Ott, and swung with the fury of a thousand winds. As soon as Baines made contact Porter knew he had made a mistake. As soon as Baines made contact all of Comiskey knew that Porter had made a mistake. As soon as Baines made contact he knew he had won the game. At eight hours and six minutes the White Sox had beaten the Brewers 7-6 in the longest game (by time) in MLB history. Porter was tagged with the loss. Seaver got the win and Baines was the toast of South Chicago. The storybook ending was complete… well, not really actually. They still had another game to play. Even though Seaver had won the game that had just ended, he still pitched in the next game. Seeing how he had only done one inning of work, he was beyond warmed up, and ended up getting two victories in one day as the White Sox won again 5-4. Crazy.

May 18- Chicago Cubs

This is one of the more unusual posts that I’ve put together, but not for the sake of any kind of an oddity. The Chicago Cubs are one of the oldest organizations in not only Major League Baseball, but professional sports in general. I would have thought that to some degree that there would have been a lot more guys within the history of the organization to serve their country, but to my surprise I was wrong. Over the last week or so I’ve come to the realization that it has nothing to do with the players themselves, but more the notoriety that some players have gotten for their service. I suppose a lot of this falls on most Web site I’ve pilfered through only feature Hall of Famers, but then again combing through over 100 years of rosters and comparing them to a list of possible military service is royally time consuming. So, I had to take what I could find.

One of the interesting programs that the Cubs are involved with that I was able to come across is called Me & a Friend. Me & a Friend is a joint collaboration of the USO and the Cubs to provide free tickets to youths 18-years-old and younger who have parents serving their country overseas. The Cubs have also honored discounts for active and retired military personnel who arrive to their games in uniform.

The Cubs record for Memorial Days (since 1971) is 18-22 with three games off in 1984, 1992 and 1999. In 1976 the Cubs split a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies, but outside of that, nothing particularly special happened in any of their games. Sorry. I dug deep!

As I mentioned before it was a little difficult to pull names, and by that I mostly mean that I had difficulty finding a second name for someone who I haven’t written about.

GA: On the list of Hall of Fame players who served time in the military, Grover Cleveland Alexander is number one on the list. Despite starting and ending his career with the Phillies, Alexander’s eight years with the Cubs was the longest tenure of his career. Alexander (also known as Pete Alexander) was one of the greatest pitchers of all-time, and has the third-most wins in the history of Major League Baseball. Alexander was drafted during World War I and spent much of 1918 in France as a sergeant with the 342nd field artillery. Alexander certainly drank alcohol before the war, but after the war he became an extremely heavy drinker as he suffered from severe post traumatic stress and drinking was the only thing that would calm him down. While he was serving in France, he was exposed to German mustard gas and a shell exploded near him, causing partial hearing loss and triggering the onset of epilepsy. Following his return from the war, Alexander suffered from shell shock and was plagued with epileptic seizures, which only exacerbated the problems he already was experiencing with alcohol. Always a drinker, Alexander hit the bottle particularly hard as a result of the physical and emotional injuries he sustained in the war - injuries that plagued him for the rest of his life. People often misinterpreted his seizure-related problems as drunkenness. Combined with hearing loss and epileptic seizures, Alexander was not in great shape throughout the 1920s. And yet he still managed to have some dominant years for the Cubs (who had acquired him from the Philadelphia Phillies right before Alexander was drafted).

"Grover Cleveland Alexander wasn't drunk out there on the mound, the way people thought. He was an epileptic. Old Pete would fall down with a seizure between innings, then go back and pitch another shutout." -Ty Cobb ("Cobb", by Al Stump)

Alexander led the League in strikeouts six times in his career; five times with the Phillies and only once with the Cubs. His best season in Chicago came in 1920 when he won 27 games with a 1.91 ERA and 173 strikeouts, all of which were league-leading. Despite winning the pitching Triple Crown he wasn’t even remotely close to winning the National League MVP. Actually, if you ever get a chance to look at his stats you’ll see that his “mediocre” years were the only times he received votes for the MVP. Even though he made it into the Hall of Fame in 1939, he still got the shaft throughout his career.

The origin of the nickname "Old Pete" is something of a mystery. It is uncertain how frequently Alexander was publicly called by that nickname during his playing days. On his 1940 Playball baseball card he was referred to as "Ol' Pete." In The World Series and Highlights of Baseball, by Lamont Buchanan, published in 1951, the year after Alexander died, on pp. 106–107 the author refers to "Pete Alexander" and "Ol' Pete" in a matter-of-fact way, suggesting the nickname was well-known. When he won his 373rd game on August 10, 1929, one newspaper had called him "old Pete", indicating that the nickname was in public circulation. (The Scrapbook History of Baseball, by Deutsch, Cohen, Johnson and Neft, Bobbs-Merrill, 1975, p. 131).

#14- I have all ready written about Ernie Banks back on April 26th, but there were a few things I didn’t touch on for his career. Banks had started his professional baseball career with the Amarillo Colts in 1948 before signing with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League in 1950. Banks then enlisted in the Army and served his country for two years fighting in the Korean War before coming back with the Monarchs in 1953. Later that year he signed a deal with the Cubs and made his MLB debut on September 17, becoming the first black player to ever take the field for the Cubs.

April 26- Chicago Cubs

It had been a little over a year since I last saw Edwin Jackson; April 10, 2012 to be exact. We had met during his visit to the MLB Fan Cave along with Ross Detwiler and Gio Gonzalez as a member of the Washington Nationals. For a full recap on that day’s events I highly suggest reading my posts from April 17 and March 13. From first introduction I learned quickly that Edwin and I are a lot alike; big kids in grown-up bodies. I had the privilege of giving the three a grand tour of the Fan Cave as I was all decked out in Nationals gear. The first stop we made was the RC-car track which Gio and Edwin tore up for a solid five minutes. We then moved on to the skee-ball machine and pool table before ending the tour in front of the stage which had guitars and a drum set affixed. I could see in Edwin’s eyes that he wanted to jump up on stage and knock some beats out as the production guys tried to go over the script with him and Gio. After the two shot their introduction scenes Edwin broke loose and jumped up on stage with sticks in hand.

He crushed it. Honestly, I never wanted anything more in that moment than to know how to play the guitar so I could jam on stage with him; however, Ricardo Marquez did know how. I walked over to him and casually asked him if he was going to play. He told me he wanted to, but was too afraid to. At which I then told him, “If I could play, I would. Now get your fucking ass up on the stage.” This was a common occurrence between the two of us in that I had to motivate him to do certain things from time-to-time. What can I say? I know when people have potential and don’t like to see them piss it away due to fear. Fear gets you nowhere in life. Anyway, Ricardo finally got up on stage, picked up a guitar and rocked out with Edwin. There was another little thing that Ricardo had set up for fellow Cave Dweller, and Atlanta Braves fan, Shaun Kippins (@Skippins) in which anytime anyone said “Skips on the dance floor” he would have to do the robot dance like the random character did on “The Chappelle Show.” This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oXgjQnPfec

So, sure enough, Skips got involved as well and I just sat back and took photos. It was random, off the cuff stuff like this that I felt made the Fan Cave an enjoyable place, but not everyone shared my vision.

I knew Edwin had a Twitter account and have been following him since that day, but I hardly ever saw him on. I wouldn’t be until the end of December that we would talk to one another again, and I have Gio Gonzalez’s Instagram account to thank for that. Gio had started his Instagram account somewhere between October and November and so I figured why not follow him. What I wasn’t expecting was a follow immediately back. I posted a few photos that I took of him from my time on the road and one of him and Edwin playing with the RC-car track. Not too long after that Edwin’s user name popped up and he started following me as well. The only just thing to do after that was follow him back and post the photo I had of him on the drums. Our dialogue rekindled from that moment.

It was the offseason , and the last thing I wanted to talk about was baseball. We caught up as best we could, mostly through the photos we were taking and posting. When Edwin got signed to a multi-year contract with the Chicago Cubs over the winter I congratulated him, but nothing really more than that. Most compliments I prefer to give in person so they mean more, but sometimes you have to make due with what you have in front of you.

My girlfriend, Angie Kinderman (@sconnieangie) and I had been for me to get back see her in Florida since February, the time when she came to visit me in Eugene, Oregon. One of the things we wanted to do together was catch as many baseball games as possible. We all ready had our trip to Tampa set up to watch my Oakland Athletics play, but we didn’t have anything in Miami ready to go. I checked out the schedules and saw that the Nationals were playing the final game of their series with the Miami Marlins on the day that I was flying in. After looking a bit closer I then noticed that the Cubs were playing two games against the Marlins on the nights leading up to my original departure date back to Oregon. At the time I didn’t know who would be pitching, but I figured that if we got to any of the games early enough we could catch Edwin during batting practice. What I wasn’t expecting was that Edwin was slated to start on the night that Angie and I had tickets for the Florida Panthers final home game of the NHL season against my favorite team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. I had never been to a NHL game in my life so we opted for that. Edwin went on to have a decent outing in which the Cubs won 4-3. I felt a little bad for not being there, but at the same time I have seen Edwin pitch in the past. Angie and I, along with 10 of her friends, had tickets to last night’s game, so the two of us went to Marlins Park early to try and spot Edwin during BP as originally planned. It too a little while for him to come out, but I spotted him going out to left field during the last 15 minutes of their session. Angie suggested that we go over to the section of the park to try and see him, so we did. I made sure to wait until everything was done, but within five minutes I broke two cardinal sins in my own personal ballpark etiquette.

1. I never yell at players.

I’ve touched on this issue a few times in past posts, but I’m one of those few people that goes to games to watch the game. I’ll take a few pictures of the action and my friends, but I rarely ever engage with the players unless they initiate it. A few days prior I had hit Edwin up and let him know I was going to be there, but I still felt incredibly weird when I shouted his name as things were wrapping up. But sure enough, he spotted me and came jogging over for a handshake and a hug. Not to be a complete jerk I made sure to introduce him to Angie before we caught up. We mostly talked about beard growth and how the last year has treated us, but he was all smiles, as was I.

2. I never ask players for photos.

What’s most interesting about meeting in the Fan Cave is that we never took a group shot when the Nationals came to visit. I always thought this was weird and asked him if he wouldn’t mind a photo. As the words left my mouth I was cursing myself on the inside for breaking this rule; even more so when I popped “The Shark,” with the wrong hand and failed to turn my cap around so that you can clearly see that I’m wearing a Cubs hat. I suppose I’m being too hard on myself, and he would tell me to not worry about it. I think that is one of the biggest things I respect about the guy; he gets it. When we met in the Fan Cave, he had fun. When we saw each other on the field, he had fun. And anytime we’ve chatted he genuinely means what he says; something I truly respect, as do a lot of other fans and players throughout the league.

I bought this hat a few days before I left Oregon for Florida and had it delivered to Angie’s house so I would have it for the game. It’s one that I’ve been holding off on buying for the last year or so as it is one of the few Cubs hats I didn’t all ready won. In fact, very few people outside of the Cubs fan base know it exists. The Cubbies only wore it for one season in 1957. There isn’t much of a difference between it and the classic Cubs hat the team has worn for decades, except of course for the white piping going up-and-down the panel seams. The fact that the team only used it for the one season kept things a bit limited as far as what I could write about, but I’m pretty sure you’ll all agree with where I went with it.

#14-’57: Ernie “Mr. Cub” Banks signed with Chicago as a free agent back in 1953 and made his Major League debut that same season on September 10 for the last 10 games of the regular season. For 19 years Banks donned the Cubbie pinstripes and went down in history as one of the greatest-hitting shortstops in MLB history hitting .274.512/1636 for his career. What very few people remember is that he only played shortstop from 1953-1961 and played first base predominantly throughout the rest of his career which ended at the end of the 1971 season. 1954 was his first full season which saw the budding prospect finishing the season number two on the National League Rookie of the Year campaign after going .275/19/79 on the year. St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Wally Moon took home the award that season; a season which also found Hank Aaron finishing in fourth place on the list. In ’54 Banks also finished in 16^th place for the NL MVP award, the first four consecutive years in which he would be a nominee: third in 1955, 28^th in 1956 and sixth in 1957. It’s kind of funny when you look at Banks’ numbers in comparison to his finish for the NL MVP as he more-than-likely should have won in 1955 after hitting 44 home runs and 114 RBI on the year; however, Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Famers Roy Campanella and Duke Snyder felt the exact opposite as they finished one-two respectively.

1957 was an especially bad year for the Cubs as the team went 62-92 on the year under then skipper Bob Scheffing, a reign of losing seasons the team would see under the manager from 1956-1959. The only other notable player on the team that season was first baseman Dale Long, whose only claim to fame was during his years with the Pittsburgh Pirates when he became the first player in MLB history to hit a home run in eight consecutive games in 1956. For Banks, even though he had four solid full seasons under his belt, including ’57, this would be his final season finishing as a runner-up.

In 1958 and 1959 Banks became the first ever shortstop to win the NL MVP in back-to-back seasons, let alone the fifth person in MLB history (first in the NL), to pull of the feat. In ’58 he went .313/47/129 and in ’59 he went .304/45/143; he led the league in games played and RBI those two seasons. In 1960 Banks would win his one, and only Gold Glove award for his career and be named to 11 All-Star games throughout his career. Like any player who got played with the Cubs after 1908, he never won a World Series ring, as he stayed loyal to Chicago was never moved, nor did he sign with anyone else. He was elected to the National Baseball in 1977 and is one of six players to have their jersey retired by the Cubs.