For those of you who also write an MLBlog, you know how powerful the baseball blogger community can be and how active they are with regards to all headlines related to the great game of baseball. For those of you who tweet during games and have started a Twitter account to discuss your favorite baseball team, you can appreciate the network of baseball fans that exists across the country and how much fun it can be when they unite to discuss the latest news regarding your #1 team. For those of us lucky enough to have the opportunity to work together as baseball bloggers, looking to raise the bar when it comes to baseball blogging, the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) has been an amazing experience and a fantastic outlet for baseball bloggers across the globe. With members that are fans of all AL and NL teams as well as authors of general baseball sites, the group is overflowing with knowledgable, passionate baseball fans thrilled to type away and share their thoughts with you regarding the daily happenings surrounding the MLB.
I am excited to say that I have been named the President of the Cubs Chapter for the BBA and look forward to incorporating news from the Chapter in postings and updates here on the site. One of the fun things the group has done in raising it’s level of participation and recognition mirroring the impact the BBWAA has on the game, is name award winners at the end of every season. As a chapter, myself and the other Cubs blogs will decide who we feel deserves to win the award and we will vote accordingly. While the exact nature by which we decide who our Chapter will vote for has not been locked in as of yet, I’m guessing it will be completely by committee and by a majority vote.
Here is a copy of the press release going out from the BBA regarding this year’s awards. Feel free to leave your thoughts regarding the awards in the comment section! Go Cubs Go!
Baseball Bloggers Alliance Announces New Award Names
Changes reflect appreciation for history of the game
The Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) recently announced the renaming of their annual postseason awards to comply with the wishes of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), thereby avoiding confusion between the two organizations. This allowed the BBA an opportunity to recognize some of the legendary greats of the game, naming their highest honors after them.
Earlier in the year, the BBA reached an agreement with former Yankee reliever Goose Gossage to name our newest award, recognizing the best relief pitcher in each league, after him, said Daniel Shoptaw, founder and president of the Alliance. It only seemed fitting, then, that we rename the rest of our awards after other legends of the game.
The five awards are given to a player in each league: The Connie Mack Award, given to the top manager; the Willie Mays Award, for the top rookie; the Goose Gossage award, mentioned above; the Walter Johnson Award, which would be analogous to the BBWAA's Cy Young Award; and the Stan Musial Award, awarded to the most valuable player in each league.
According to Shoptaw, These names are synonymous with quality, achievement, and dedication. These names have not only stood the test of time, but have been strengthened by it.
The schedule for the announcement of these awards is as follows:
Connie Mack Award: October 14 Willie Mays Award: October 18 Goose Gossage Award: October 21 Walter Johnson Award: October 25 Stan Musial Award: October 28
The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was founded in 2009 and numbers 222 blogs covering all major league teams and various other aspects of baseball, as well as blogs and sites that are affiliated as Friends of the BBA. The official website of the BBA is located at http://www.baseballbloggersalliance.com.
The BBA can be found on Twitter by the handle @baseballblogs and by the hashmark #bbba. Members of the BBA may be heard at Blog Talk Radio every Tuesday night with their call-in show, BBA Baseball Talk http://www.blogtalkradio.com/baseball-bloggers-alliance, which may also be downloaded as a podcast from iTunes.
With the recent success of the Cubs interim manager, Mike Quade, many Cubs fans are torn as to who should get the gig next year. Lots of fans, while Lou was still here, thought it was a no brainer: get Sandberg up here and let’s roll! Lots of other fans also thought trying to get Torre, LaRussa, Girardi, Bobby Valentine and the long list of others were no-brainers too.
However, now that the Cubs have posted a 9-5 record under Quade (an over .600 winning percentage) fans are wondering if perhaps Mike Quade shouldn’t be passed over and maybe he is the guy that should land the job for 2011. Those that believe Quade should be given a shot if he finishes the season as strong as he’s started his shot as Cubs skipper are quite adamant about it and hope he does so and carries this success over to next year. (Then again Cubs fans are always passionate in their beliefs of their Cubs no matter what those feelings are now aren’t they?)
The idea of Hendry’s buffoonery and Ricketts’ newness to the post and the fans’ new feeling of giving Quade a shot inspired this post. Please enjoy this new development in the world that is known as The Chicago Cubs through the eyes of Disney’s “Pete’s Dragon”.
In this video and the parody script listed below it which you can use to read along in Cubs translation…Tom Ricketts will be played by Dr. Terminus and Jim Hendry is played by his shorter, older con-artist minion. Ladies and gentleman, I give you “(Don’t) Passonmikequade!” (I suggest clicking the video window to open it in a second window and scrolling this page for parody lyrics)
Ricketts: Quick, who will they want to manage the team in 2011?
Hendry: Just pass on Mike Quade.
Ricketts: Just pass on my whatty?
Hendry: Pass on Mike Quade!
Ricketts: Got it. How wonderful to see your smiling faces again I…I’ve never known such warmth, such welcome, such loving hospitality
Man: Get out ya hack!
Man: And don’t bring those Milton Bradleys here again!
Woman: Go on back where you belong…Ameritrade!
Ricketts:
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
I sense enthusiasm I sense loving response
And that’s why I feel Wrigley is my home away from home
I’ve been making millions in my time at ‘Meritrade
Went to U of C and that’s right down the road
You’re gonna like us, No use in fightin’ us
Caray, Ernie, Billy Williams, let’s have statues surround the stadium!
Little Jeff Samardzija was so nice to visit
He comes and goes from Triple A when recalled
Man: Why doesn’t he stay there?
Ricketts: But through all the tips
You know who could manage this place
Make the call now, one name on my list
Why…..it’s…Get Joe Girardi, uh, Call up Joe Torre, no, no… Bring back ‘ol Dusty, uh, Try Alan Trammy, p…p…Persuade Bob Brenly Uh, Quick sign Jim Tracy, uh, Pass me a hottie? Oh, I know! I’ll Hire my daddy!
Cubs fans: No, don’t Pass on Mike Quade!
Ricketts: Of course, that’s what I meant to say
Woman: I thought we’d win, 2008 And then we got robbed!
Ricketts: Remember we’re losers who do thrive on your love!
I know Silva looks like he only drinks Buttermilk
Leads aren’t under firm control given to Marmol
Santo’s emotions, “Unreal” he does notion
New statues for Cub alliance
Forget we make losing a science
With L.A. we trade away
We couldn’t keep Ted here
Don’t know what to do with Sean Marshall
Cubs fans: You’ll probably ship him out
Ricketts: Ha, ha, yes we probably will…
Man: The issue is, no thanks to Jim our Cubs always stink!
Ricketts: But WE’RE here – the wins are coming!
Cubs fans: We’re gonna flush your BS down the troffs near the sinks!
Ricketts: Wait, listen, my specialties are Hand-shaking, public speaking, statue unveiling, beer guzzling Bleacher-bumming, sibling-having, spin-doctoring! And every other ‘whatever-ing’ you can think of! My friends, you are not giving me a chance! We brought all of these free agents in from Tokyo! Japan.
Cubs fans: oooh…
Old Cub fan: Oh Ricketts, oh Ricketts, Ricketts, Ricketts, help me.
Ricketts: I hear someone. I hear someone calling me. A Cubs fan in need. A Cubs fans calling out to another great cubs fan. A service only I can provide. Madam, Tommy Ricketts is here to appease you.
Old Cubs fan: Ayye?
Ricketts: What’s your problem lady?
Old Cubs fan: Ayye?
Ricketts: How can I turn my back on such a dear woman? It’s the bleacher bum in me.
Old Cubs fan: I hear…Santo…yelling.
I hear…opponents…giggling.
I hear…fans…singing.
Ricketts: That’ll be exactly $150 madam. $75 a seat!
Old Cubs Fan: Oh, bless you Ricketts! Wait ’til next year! Wait ’til next year!
Ricketts: My decision can cure her! Did you hear her bless me while I blessed her too? How wonder I feel right here in my heart! And that’s what the baseball business is all about folks! People helping people. You should all get help!
(Hendry jumps up on Convention stage in disguise)
Ricketts: Gadzooks! What have we here?
Hendry: Oh, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. All I’m asking for is a miracle.
Ricketts: All he wants is a miracle! How can I deny him folks….IF he’s willing to pay for it, he’s gonna get it!
Hendry: 8 years for $136 million!
Ricketts: 8 years for $136 million!
(Ricketts pours Old Style into Hendry’s mouth out of a flask, Hendry begins to dance to Go Cubs Go!)
Woman: I trust him!
Woman: I believe he’ll hire the right guy!
Man: I’ll put my hard earned money for season tickets with no guarantees in his hands!
Ricketts: My friends you’ve seen a miracle!
And you’ll see many more, People will come pouring in to, see Wrigley!
Sosa failed testing?
Surely you’re jesting!
Keep those dimes and dollars mounting
Hendry: I’ll collect!
Ricketts: I’ll do the counting! Everyone who roots for us will strong and happy We’ll be getting more wins by the day!
Cubs fans: Yay!
Ricketts: Get them off waivers!
Need the right man to lead us
All of Cubs Nation’s gonna say…
To…
Buhh..Bring us Bobby V, no,
Raise up Frank Selee,
no, no, Dig up McCarthy,
Uh, Call Atlanta ’bout Bobby?,
p…p…Player/Coach Rami,
q…q…q…Call up Bill Dancy
… Hire Barbaro Garbey,
Go with Bud Bailey,
Sandberg’s the must be,
Help me Girardi,
Just get Joe Torre, I want my mommy…ha ha ha ha!
Hendry (whispers): Pass on Mike Quade
Cubs fans: Don’t Pass on Mike Quade!
Ricketts: I know.
Guess we’ll see how it plays out! For now, yes…if Mike Quade finishes this season the way he’s started, I agree. The guy should be given a shot and someone should suggest the Cubs (Don’t) Passonmikequade. Go Cubs Go!
The Cubs will honor one of the greatest Cubs of all-time tonight when they unveil a statue of Hall of Famer, Billy Williams.
The statue will be revealed in a ceremony at Wrigley before their game against the Astros at the corner of Addison Street and Sheffield Avenue. Lots of folks had a problem with the way they handled the Harry Caray statue situation in replacing his long-held location at that intersection with the new Williams statue. While I don’t really understand the decision to move Caray for Williams (why not just leave Caray and Banks, the only other player to be honored with a statue at Wrigley, where they are and put Williams else where?), it doesn’t bother me outside of not understanding the logic in doing so.
Williams already has his number retired by the club and it’s a great honor to be immortalized outside the game’s greatest stadium. I’m currently reading about Billy Williams and it’s a fascinating story. I’m happy for him and can’t wait to see the statue next time I visit Wrigley. (Banks too for that matter as I’ve only seen the Caray statue in person).
A team that is short on championships and long on failures, I’m glad the Ricketts have decided to find a way to keep moving forward while updating but not changing the old stadium and honoring greats of the past, highlighting the positives that Cubs fans can be proud of while many obsess over the losing seasons and loveable loser reputation (a little too much in my opinion). I feel it’s hard to break out of the lovable loser/losing mentality when you are constantly embracing it and while it may be necessary in a laugh-instead of crying kind of way, it won’t ever help us win a title. The more ways we can emphasize the positives and look to move this team forward in a way that makes a positive difference, the better.
In a way, it would be easy for the Ricketts to push the old Veeck mentality of come out and have fun at the ballpark, don’t worry so much about the winning. This would be even easier for them than other potential owners considering they grew up with it all around them finding love in life and for their team in the bleachers of Wrigley and as die-hard fans, it would be easy to take that loveable loser mentality into the owner’s box. Think about how horrible that would be if they took the ‘let’s have a sense of humor’ approach and commemorated some horrible moments/characters in Cubs history with statues outside of Wrigley. My Cubs statues of limitations if you will.
A statue of Lou Piniella for instance. Giant belly, raving lunatic face, maybe even yelling in the face of an umpire (this statue would take a while considering there’d be an ump as well). Holding two giant stone tablets, one reading 2007, one reading 2008 and beneath him on the ground, two broken tablets: 2009 and 2010. His left arm in the air in anger and his right arm reaching out, just short of a carved out stone version of the word “potential”.
A statue of Dusty Baker for instance. This one would have to be practically a characature. Big smile on his face commemorating his arrival in the Windy City. A toothpick so large it’s nearly the size of the rest of the statue. Carved out fans crying all around him at his feet and a little Sammy Sosa in the back of the statue doing whatever he feels like.
A statue of the Cubs batting glove Bill Buckner wore in game six of the World Series in 1986 for instance. Simply to commemorate the once a Cub, always a Cub feeling. You may be able to take the player out of Chicago, but you can never take Chicago out of the player.
A statue of Sammy Sosa for instance. Biggest torso on a player’s statue ever created with a tiny head and two gigantic arms sitting upon two gigantic, powerful legs. In his back pocket a syringe. His right arm pointing up to the sky in celebration of a home run and his left hand behind his back with his fingers crossed to denote the honesty that each home run was bashed in while chasing down unattainable records. Of course there would be no number on his back because next to him would be a very little Tyler Colvin wearing the number 21 just laughing and having a great time doing a respectable job representing Sosa’s old steroid infested number. At Sosa’s feet, a Spanish to English dictionary ripped in two and set on fire in hopes that no one knew it ever existed in Sammy’s possession, ever. And the bonus feature, for some reason after years and years of looking this way, the statue’s face will begin to fade until the face is so white it longer resembles anything that it used to be and fans will have to do a double take to make sure it’s who they think it is.
A statue of Todd Hundley if you will for instance. Todd Hundley’s statue would be made of the most expensive metal and yet, would deliver the least amount of entertainment value. If fans had their way, it would probably also receive the largest amount of bird excrement. Hundley would simply be standing there with hands in his pocket offering absolutely nothing with a giant smile on his face. No glove as he was horrible behind the plate. No bat as he delivered nothing compared to what was expected of him. Next to him on the ground? A giant bag of cash with a cartoonish $ symbol. Hundley’s would be the only statue with a sound effect…that being, the sound of a truck backing up which would commemorate the giant contract he was given. When the truck doesn’t arrive, fans will realize that it is commemorating how long Cubs fans waited for results out of Hundley even though all of his money was on the way.
And last but not least, a statute of Will Ohman for instance. Quite possibly the worst Cubs relief pitcher to ever demonstrate hilarious ineffectiveness right before my eyes. Ohman’s statue would be of him on the mound looking in for the sign. Behind him, a brick wall covered in ivy and the famous scoreboard. Out of the scoreboard would be a kid just waiting to flip over the visitors’ run total on the scoreboard. When Ohman pitches, the other team scores a ton of runs and it will show. Ohman’s statue, the only one with a cool interactive feature, will allow fans to step up to the plate, literally. You can step on a home plate and right on cue a ball with be shot out of a small cannon, flying over the outfield wall. The run the boy running the scoreboard was counting on, delivered.
Needless to say, this would be a horrible sight to see and I’m glad the Ricketts are knowledgable enough of the past and looking to celebrate it. We need more focusing on the positives these days as our team is falling apart beyond what I expected. 2007, 2008 were a blast. 2009 was a let down. However this year, has simply been sad. No playoffs. No title. Not even having Lou for the whole season. The bright spots need to continue getting us through and they need to continue to be celebrated. Williams is a bright spot from the past and we need to keep those bright spots in mind while enjoying the current bright spots of today (Quade, Castro, Colvin….and that’s been about it).
You guys have any other ideas for Cub Statues of Limitations? Congratulations Billy, you deserve it! Go Cubs Go!
I have found more Cubs fans to interact with on Twitter than in ‘real life’. Why? Because I live in New York City. Many of my “Prosecards from Cubs Nation” features have featured Cub fans I found on Twitter and a few of them I’ve even had a chance to meet at Citi Field attending Cubs v. Mets games.
They were all great interviews and I appreciated everyone stepping up to the plate and participating. I have one I’m looking to put together with Brian from popular Cubs blog “Bullpen Brian”. We should be able to arrange in the next week or so. Until then, I’d like your help in getting another Prosecard set up. Follow this kid @KeenanCahill and send him a tweet telling him to do our next Prosecard from Cubs Nation. He’s a Cubs fan and he cracks me up with his videos. If you haven’t seen them, here are a couple. Great to cure the 2010 Cubs blues. (Although Quade is also helping I must say…..and come on Castro! Get that AVG up and win the batting title man…big September is all you need!)
Check out his videos and let’s make this happen! Silva back on the mound tonight. These videos go out to Big Carlos Silva! Get that W Silva!
Prose and Ivy 