Happy Birthday Pat

Pat is the benchmark for ultimate coolness

Oh, NOOOOO!!!

The other night I wrote a whole post about how much I hope Ron Santo (shown right) gets into the baseball Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, the website ate what I made and I was too lazy to write it again. However, now I'm writing a reaction to the voting. Santo missed out on it yet again, this time by a mere 5 votes.

Quite frankly I think that sucks. Ron Santo was an amazing ball-player and is an amazing person. In his years with the Cubs he was a 9-time All-Star 3rd baseman, and won 5 Gold Gloves. He put up some great numbers, and he did it all while fighting (and hiding) a life-threatening disease. Santo had juvenile diabetes during his entire baseball career. Despite this he was able to accomplish so much, but since then has lost both of his legs to the disease. He is a Cubs icon, beloved by everyone in baseball.

Keep your fingers crossed he get's the needed votes next time.

This Is Mein Teil

Highlights from this past weekend include, but are not limited to the following:

• Billy Joel. Even though I knew very few of the songs, it was still cool because the man is a legend.
• Virginia Basketball. Excellent game from excellent seats.
• Sons of Bill. Good ol' boys having a good ol' time.
• Gusburger. My tummy said "thank you," my arteries said "oh for christ's sake."
• Charlie. Great to finally see his town, his apartment, his workplace, and meet his ladyfriend. He's got a good thing going for him in that town.
• Pat. How can you not miss that laugh?
• Drunks Calls. Jon Redman agreed to have a "201" tatoo put on his grundle. He will be held to his promise.
  

Overall, it was a fan-fucking-tastic weekend. What more can you ask for when you've got good music, good sports, good food, and even gooder friends?

Rise And Shine Campers

This time of year is definitely my least favorite for many reasons. First of all, its cold...damn cold. Also, the Chicago music scene is pretty weak compared to the rest of year. The best time is September and October, especially October of 2005 when I saw a LOT of great shows and thus decided to rename that month to Rocktober. Also, football is now over and baseball is not quite here, except for the fact that pitchers and catchers reported to spring training a couple of days ago. I'm not big into basketball and certainly not interested in hockey so I don't have the sports thing going for me either. So overall, I'm just trying to let time pass until April 9th. Cubs home opener. The Irish have St. Patricks day, New Orleans has Mardis Gras, Groundhogs have Groundhog Day, and I have Cubs home opener. It's my day.

Back Back, to Cali Cali

Yes, that's me and James Worthy. You know, Hall of Fame basketball player James Worthy. I also got a signed photo and hat from him in addition to the picture shown that dwarfs me. He was a speaker at the General Manager Conference I went to at Huntington Beach, CA. The trip was pretty awesome if you ask me. It was 4 days in Southern California staying, eating, and drinking, at great places. Best part of it all was I didn't pay 1 stinking dollar. Even the cab to the airport was paid for. My restaurant even took home an award.

Two more things. Its cold as shit in Chicago, and there's another Featured Flava up. It's called When We Say Goodnight by Jonah Smith. Just click it, and jam it.