Today’s column from the Kankakee Daily Journal and The (Ottawa, Ill.) Times …

Virgin considers Highland Park boycott an Olympic-sized mistake

The WISCH LIST

May 22, 2010

Craig Virgin has a 30-year itch.

And, right now, Highland Park High School is irritating it.

“I’m uncomfortable because this is way too close to the 1980 Olympic boycott,” the Illinois distance running legend said when asked about Highland Park High’s recent decision to cancel a girls’ basketball trip to Arizona because of the state’s crackdown on illegal immigrants – a controversy that has sparked a firestorm of debate throughout Chicagoland and beyond this month.

Sports, like most things in life, are political. And, for many, politics is sport. But it’s when the two become one in the same that big problems can be created.

Politics, of course, have a time and a place, but is it on an athletic field or a basketball court? This week, in an attempt to answer that question and gain a deeper understanding of the impact of politics on athletes, I sought out Virgin for his expert take on the Highland Park dispute.

“It smells like that [1980],” explained the 54-year-old Lebanon, Ill., native, a three-time Olympic qualifier – but only a two-time Olympic competitor – who knows perhaps better than anyone the scent that can be created when politics and sports are mixed.

Here’s a hint: It stinks.

“And I learned that the painful way,” Virgin said.

Earlier this month, Highland Park Superintendent George Fornero and his fellow administrators rejected the request of the school’s girls’ basketball team – coming off its best season in 26 years – to compete in a tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz., in late December. An assistant superintendent initially explained the reason for the cancellation was because the trip “would not be aligned with our beliefs and values.”

However, after several parents questioned if the school was using students to make a political statement opposing the Arizona law, Fornero & Co. attempted damage control and issued a letter to parents that instead emphasized concerns about safety. It stated: “We cannot commit at this time to playing at a venue where some of our students’ safety or liberty might be placed at risk because of a state immigration law.”

The North Shore spat then became national news when former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, speaking last week in Rosemont, accused the school district of using the students as political pawns and urged the team members to “go rogue, girls.”

From his home in downstate Lebanon, Virgin followed the drama and found it to be a disturbing reminder of the 1980 Olympics boycott that altered the course of his career, robbed him of potential glory and countless memories and still chafes him even today.

As a schoolboy star in Lebanon during the early 1970s, Virgin set the national outdoor high school two-mile record of 8:40.9 (breaking the legendary Steve Prefontaine’s record) before enrolling at the University of Illinois, for which won the 1975 NCAA Cross Country championship and then became an Olympic qualifier for the 1976 Montreal Games.

Four years later, in March 1980, the 24-year-old Virgin was at the peak of his career when he became the first (and still only) American man to win the IAAF World Cross Country Championships. Later that month, though, President Jimmy Carter announced that the U.S. would boycott the 1980 Moscow Games because of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

Just 10 days before the Olympics began, Virgin ran the second-fastest 10,000-meter race in history, but was unable to compete in the Summer Games.

“I still hope to some day have lunch with Carter and find out exactly what he was thinking,” Virgin said, still fiery. “We could have some sweet tea with lemon and talk about it.”

As for the Highland Park controversy, Virgin said: “This isn’t even a boycott of another country, it’s one of our sister states. I don’t agree with all of what (the legislators) did [in Arizona], but it came through a democratic process. And one hundred some years ago, a lot of our Illinois brothers battled to preserve the Union. Our greatest president from Illinois was Abraham Lincoln and he fought to preserve the Union. I think we need to remember that …

“I think boycotts send the wrong message. It’s not mature. It’s a rash decision, and [in Highland Park] the athletes are paying the price. That’s what makes me uncomfortable. I feel that there’s a time and a place for things and as a leader you have to make tough decisions, but the administration has overstepped their bounds. And, with all due respect, they need to reconsider their decision.

“I believe in taking a stand, and I believe in principles. But we also have a Constitution, and soldiers have died to protect that Constitution and our Union.”

In my book, that’s an opinion you can run with.

Today’s column from the Kankakee Daily Journal and The (Ottawa, Ill.) Times …

In Chicago, phenoms come — and they go

The WISCH LIST

May 15, 2010

Chicago is called the Windy City for good reason.

It’s no stranger to bluster.

From its architecture (The Spire) to its quarterbacks (Cade McNown, Rex Grossman … Jay Cutler?) to its political clout (The 2016 Olympics), Chicago likes its hype and loves its “Next Big Thing.”

No matter if it actually materializes.

And, today, even with the tantalizing specter of a free agent LeBron James looming over the city, there’s still nothing that can compare to Chicago’s hype of its Major League Baseball phenoms.

It’s our natural pastime.

This spring, as one side of Chicago stresses over its struggling youngster (the White Sox’s Gordon Beckham), while the other celebrates its latest great hope (the Cubs’ Starlin Castro) that ritual is again in full bloom.

Over the years, with disappointments such as Joe Borchard, Mike Caruso and Bourbonnais native Kris Honel, White Sox fans have certainly had their let-downs. But perhaps no organization has quite the history of busts as the Cubs, whose remarkable list of phenom failures can fill out an entire starting lineup card.

It remains to be seen if Castro lives up to the “Star” in his name or devolves into the Starlin “Can’t-Throw” of his Wrigley debut, but the fates of many of his once-celebrated Cubs contemporaries were long ago sealed.

First Base: Hee Sop Choi

The first Korean-born position player to play in the majors, Choi began 2003 as a celebrated starter for the Cubs. In 80 career games, however, he hit just .218 and left his only mark on Wrigley Field – quite literally – when he smacked his head along the first base line following a collision with teammate Kerry Wood and was carted off by ambulance.

Second Base: Ty Griffin

Perhaps the biggest Cubs bust of all-time, Griffin was an amateur superstar in the late 1980s for Georgia Tech and the USA National Team, a squad he headlined even with future MLB standouts Robin Ventura and Tino Martinez on the roster.

Selected by the Cubs with the ninth overall pick of the 1988 MLB Draft, Griffin was considered so good he was expected to eventually force Ryne Sandberg to third base. Instead, he never made it past Class AA, and by 1992 was out of Major League-affiliated baseball.

Shortstop: Luis Montanez

A multi-talented shortstop out of Miami’s Coral Park High School, Montanez was the third player picked in the 2000 MLB Draft and signed for a $2.75M bonus. But after seven lackluster seasons in the Cubs’ minor league system, he was released in 2007.

Montanez, though, did go on to win a Triple Crown in ’08 – for the Bowie Baysox of the Class AA Eastern League.

Third Base: Gary Scott (see also: Orie, Kevin)

The Cubs’ Opening Day starter at third in both 1991 and ’92, Scott was supposed to be the next Ron Santo. He wasn’t.

In ’91, Scott batted .165 through May 14, when the Cubs sent him to the minors. Then, on April 20, 1992, Scott was batting a sickly .103 when he managed to crack a grand slam at Wrigley Field. The success didn’t stick, though. Three games later, he was demoted again.

Catcher: Rick Wilkins

Not exactly a phenom, but in 1993 at the age of 25, the lightly considered Wilkins became the first Cubs catcher to hit 30 home runs in a season since Gabby Hartnett in 1930.

Wilkins then hit just 37 more homers over the final eight seasons of his career.

Left Field: Earl Cunningham

Selected No. 8 overall in the 1989 MLB Draft – one pick behind Frank Thomas – the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Cunningham hit .419 with 12 homers and 15 steals in just 86 at-bats as a high school senior in Lancaster, S.C.
Then, in seven seasons with the Cubs, he never made it out of Class A ball.

Center Field: Corey Patterson (see also: Pie, Felix)

With the third pick of the 1998 MLB Draft, the Cubs took Patterson, a supposed can’t-miss All-Everything out of Harrison High School in Kennesaw, Ga.

Turned out, he missed.

By 2002, Patterson was a full-time starter with the Cubs and then was back in the minors by 2005.

Right Field: Ryan Harvey

In 2003, the Cubs plucked the strapping 6-foot-5, 240-pound Harvey – a slugging revelation from Dunedin High School in Clearwater, Fla. – with the sixth pick of the MLB Draft. He signed for a $2.4M bonus and then promptly spent five seasons compiling a .246 career average in the Cubs’ farm system, never rising above Class AA before his release in 2008.

Pitchers: Kerry Wood and Mark Prior

Really, need I say more?

Today’s column from the Kankakee Daily Journal and The (Ottawa, Ill.) Times …

In 100 years, my grandma’s seen (almost) everything

The WISCH LIST

May 8, 2010

Mother’s Day won the race.

But just barely.

One hundred years ago today, on May 8, 1910, the state of West Virginia became the first to officially declare the second Sunday in May as an annual Mother’s Day holiday. Six days later – and more than a thousand miles to the west – my grandmother, Irma Lucille McCart, was born on a farm in Boone County, Neb.

So on Sunday, Mother’s Day will celebrate its 100th year of official existence (the first local service was held in Grafton, W.V., in 1908, and Congress declared it a national holiday in 1914). But my grandma, now Irma Bledsoe, will stand just a few steps behind in the marathon to the century mark.

And when she does cross the 100-year mark on May 14, I think we’ll christen it a “Grand” Mother’s Day.

Come next week, my extended family will gather in Longmont, Colo., to celebrate my grandma’s milestone. But during this month’s build-up to the big day, I’ve found myself thinking about everything that’s happened – both in Chicago and around the globe – during a life that’s spanned two centuries, 18 U.S. presidencies and more than 36,500 days.

Ponder this: When my grandmother was born, the Titanic had yet to sink (1912), the zipper hadn’t yet been patented (1914) and the pop-up toaster (1919) was still nothing but a pipe dream.

Crossword puzzles (1913) didn’t exist, Mother Teresa wasn’t yet born (Aug. 26, 1910) and Albert Einstein was still pondering his theory of relativity (1915).

As of May 14, 1910, Mark Twain had just recently passed away (April 21), while O. Henry (June 5) and Florence Nightingale (Aug. 13) were soon to follow. New Mexico and Arizona were still territories (each received statehood in 1912), whereas Alaska and Hawaii (1959 statehood for both) barely even registered on the U.S. radar.

In Sweden in 1910, they were still using guillotines to execute murderers.

Seriously.

Back here in the Land of Lincoln, Chicago’s 1910 population stood at 2,185,283, establishing the Second City as just that – only New York City had more U.S. residents with 4,766,883. Philadelphia (1,549,008), meanwhile, was the nation’s third most populous city, while St. Louis (687,029) and Boston (670,585) ranked Nos. 4 and 5.

Out on the West Coast, Los Angeles, with its 319,198 residents, checked in as only the country’s 17th largest city and found itself behind the less-flashy likes of No. 14 Newark (347,469), No. 12 Milwaukee (373,857) and No. 9 Buffalo (423,715).

In 1910, President William Howard Taft – our nation’s heaviest president, tipping the scales at 300 pounds, and also the last to have facial hair – made the unfortunate mistake of calling baseball “a clean, straight game.”

Nine years later, of course, the sport would be rocked by the Black Sox Scandal of 1919, while eight decades after that, steroids would shake baseball to its core.

During 1910, however, the Windy City was joyously caught up in the throes of baseball fever. On the South Side, White Sox fans celebrated the July 1 opening of Comiskey Park, which at the time was considered the finest baseball facility in the world with its then jaw-dropping capacity of 48,600.

The Sox would go on to finish a disappointing 68-85 during the 1910 season, but Comiskey – along with Washington’s Griffith Park and Cleveland’s League Park, which also opened that year – was credited with helping usher in the rise of modern, home-run baseball thanks in part to such enclosed, steel and concrete stadiums.

Elsewhere in the city, Chicago’s hottest baseball team during the Summer of ’10 might have been the Leland Giants of the Negro League. Owner-player-manager Rube Foster called the Giants the greatest team of all-time with a roster boasting Hall of Famers or All-Stars at almost every position. Considering Foster’s squad posted a staggering record of 101-4-1, it’s hard to argue with him.

The Giants, though, weren’t Chicago’s only 100-win ballclub in 1910, as the Cubs – then playing ball at West Side Park (Wrigley Field’s construction was four years away) – piled up a 104-50 record to capture their fourth National League pennant in five years.

In the World Series, though, the Cubs saw their pitching staff crumble and their bats go silent as the Philadelphia Athletics easily rolled to a 4-1 Series win.

You know, you’d think that when someone lives to be 100 that they would have seen everything. But even my grandma, bless her heart, hasn’t seen the Cubs win a World Series.

Perhaps, if I live until 2076 – when I would turn 100 – I’ll get to see it happen. Although, I’m not counting on that, not just the mother of all baseball dreams.

But the grandmother of them.

Today’s column from the Kankakee Daily Journal and The (Ottawa, Ill.) Times …

Cross-checking in with the Hawks, Bears and more

The WISCH LIST

May 1, 2010

It’s been a busy week up in Hawkeytown, USA, what with Chicago overflowing with chatter about cups good (Lord Stanley’s), goofy (the new BP Crosstown Cup to mark the Cubs-White Sox series) and half-empty (Vinny Del Negro’s).

In honor of it all, I thought today we’d take a quick skate through the sports week that was …

On a (Blackhawk) wing and a prayer

Last Monday afternoon, several hours before the Blackhawks vanquished Nashville in the first round of the NHL playoffs, a clever play on the Lord’s Prayer started making the rounds among Hawks fans on Facebook. It read:

“Our father, who art in Chicago, hockey be thy name. Thy will be done, the Cup will be won, on ice, as well as in the stands. Give us this day, our hockey sticks, and forgive us our penalties, as we forgive those who cross-check against us. Lead us not, into elimination, but deliver us to victory. In the name of the fans, Lord Stanley, and in the name of Da Hawks, Amen.”

What’s a Canuck?

With the Blackhawks set to meet Vancouver in Round 2 of the playoffs tonight, I found myself wondering this week, what exactly is a Canuck anyway?

Turns out, not even the franchise itself seems to know as it’s had a whopping 13 different logo and jersey changes since joining the NHL in 1970. Iterations have included a Flying Skate, an Orca and the current logo: a bearded guy with a stocking cap named Johnny Canuck.

As for the word “Canuck,” it’s a term used to describe Canadians in the same way Americans are called “Yankees.” According to Bart Bandy’s Lexicon of Canadian Etymology, “Canuck” likely evolved from the French word canule around the time of the American Revolution, although it’s unclear exactly how. One popular theory claims it was derived from a mispronunciation among Benedict Arnold’s forces during their siege of Quebec in the winter of 1776.

Bandy writes that the Americans picked up the common French phrase “Quelle canule” (translated: “What a bore”) but were usually shivering so hard when they said it that “canule” came out as “canuck.”

Get loose, Juice

With most Bears fans’ attention focused on the quarterback the team already has (Jay Cutler) and the one it just drafted (Downers Grove native Dan LeFevour of Central Michigan), many might have missed the news that former University of Illinois QB Juice Williams was among the players invited this week to Bears rookie minicamp on a tryout basis.

If Williams makes the Bears’ practice squad – I’d suggest a switch to fullback – he can expect to earn at least $88,400 for 17 weeks of work. That’s well below the NFL rookie minimum salary of $285,000, but still a wage most 2010 college grads would envy, don’t you think?

Speaking of football …

As announced last weekend, Illinois and Northwestern will play a football game at Wrigley Field on Nov. 20, which reminded me of one of my favorite bits of Chicago sports trivia: Wrigley Field – the Bears’ home from 1921 to 1970 – has still hosted more Bears games than Soldier Field.

In fact, Wrigley formerly held the record for the most NFL games played in a single stadium with 365 regular-season contests. In September 2003, Giants Stadium in New Jersey finally broke that record – although it needed the dual-occupancy of both the Giants and the Jets to do it.

… And speaking of the Illini

Last week, I filled you in on the latest twists in the decades-old Chief Illiniwek controversy at the University of Illinois. And now there’s another one.

Last Monday, during its final meeting of the semester, the Urbana-Champaign Senate – a legislative body comprised of 200 faculty and 50 students – voted in favor of a resolution that calls for the assembly of a campus mascot search committee.

The vote, done in response to the similar resolution passed in March by the Illinois Student Senate, called upon interim Chancellor Robert Easter to assemble a “diverse committee of campus community members responsible for proposing a campus mascot not affiliated with American Indian heritage or imagery.”

So diverse, apparently, that it won’t even consider the opinions of Chief supporters.

U of I sophomore Samantha Uher, president of Students for Chief Illiniwek – the school’s largest registered student organization – told the Daily Illini that she thought the resolution was unfair, adding that her organization would only support a committee that includes both pro-Chief and anti-Chief representation.

“It seems like they’re disregarding what the students want,” she said.

When it comes to this issue at U of I, it wouldn’t be the first time.

Although, that 2005 needs to be airbrushed out and replaced with, I dunno, 3005? That sounds about right.

Maybe.

Today’s column from the Kankakee Daily Journal and The (Ottawa, Ill.) Times …

At U of I, mascots are for the birds

The WISCH LIST

April 24, 2010

The Chicago Bulls can have their Benny. The Bears can trot Staley out onto Soldier Field as much as they like. And the Phillie Phanatic is Phantastic … for Philadelphia.

But when it comes to mascots and the University of Illinois – an idea proposed last month by the Illinois Student Senate – any such notion is for the birds.

Literally.

Go back with me to Jan. 14, 1982, when the Illini hosted Ohio State in a basketball game during which the curtain was raised – and mercifully dropped – on one of the most ill-fated moments in school history with the unveiling of the “Orange and Blue Bird.”

“It was a bird of ill repute the moment it appeared on the floor,” the Daily Illini reported after Illinois’ 51-50 loss in overtime. “When a new-fangled yellow, fine-feathered mascot was introduced to Illinois fans prior to the Illini’s contest against Ohio State Thursday night, verbal abuse was its immediate greeting.”

Decked out in a Fighting Illini T-shirt and blue high-top gym shoes, the “O-B Bird” – probably inspired by the popularity of the San Diego Chicken – was heckled off the court. And the next day, with rumors swirling that the bird was an attempt to ease out beloved university symbol Chief Illiniwek, who had just begun falling under attack from critics, campus officials quickly backtracked.

Illinois associate athletic director Vance Redfern claimed the “O-B Bird” was not a mascot, but was created to “get hype and get home-court advantage” at Assembly Hall. Redfern added that he was “a little disturbed” by the reception received by the bird.

I don’t know where Vance is today, but I’m judging from the tale of the “O-B Bird” that if he were still around, he’d urge the university’s student senators to enroll in a history class.

And learn from it.

In March, the Student Senate’s so-called “Unity” resolution – approved by an 18-9 vote – asked interim Chancellor Robert Easter to convene a task force to find a mascot that can unify the campus. Since 2007, when Chief Illiniwek was retired despite enormous campus and statewide popularity, the university has been without an official symbol.

“There’s a real divide among students of the university,” said student senator Carey Ash, who sponsored the “Unity” resolution. “It’s the responsibility of student leaders to not only acknowledge but also make progress toward resolving it. We haven’t fully resolved all the issues of the past, and we need to move forward.”

What Ash doesn’t seem to grasp, however, is that moving forward by picking a mascot – ideas proposed by one campus student organization include the “Fighting Abe Lincolns” and the “Fire Chiefs” (it’s unclear if they were serious) – is not forward movement at all. In fact, I can’t imagine anything less “unifying” for U of I than a university-mandated mascot.

Fact is, there’s nothing in this world – except perhaps death (but not taxes) – that everyone can agree on. But let’s try to agree on this: the University of Illinois has never had a mascot.

And I don’t think it ever should.

Chief Illiniwek was a symbol, not a mascot. He was not Bucky Badger. He was not Sparty the Spartan. Opposing cheerleaders didn’t ram the Chief into goalposts during football games. And he didn’t run along the sidelines at Assembly Hall, tossing buckets of confetti into the crowd.

“That was never our role,” said Steve Raquel, a Champaign native who portrayed Chief Illiniwek during the early 1990s. “Our role was to be very respectful. Yeah, it was definitely entertaining. But our role as the Chief was very specific, and we stayed within those lines.

“We were symbolic of the University of Illinois and the Illini Tribe that we tried to hold in high esteem.”

Following last month’s senate resolution, campus Chief supporters – who took part in a student rally this past Wednesday – organized a group, “Illini Against a Mascot,” that now has nearly 3,500 fans on Facebook.

“Myself and a bunch of others thought the idea was absolutely ridiculous,” explained Roberto Martell, a U of I senior who founded “Illini Against a Mascot.” “They want to replace the honorable Chief Illiniwek with an amorphous blob. It would have to be gray, because you wouldn’t want it to be too flashy. Someone would get offended.”

Raquel added, “Whatever you would pick today, it has every possibility in the next generation to be offensive. Everything has the potential to be offensive to someone. Even something like a Blue Jay, you could have some group that’s against mascots that are birds.”

Like Illinois fans, circa 1982.

My advice to U of I is to just leave things well enough alone. Either let the university’s symbol be some form of Chief Illiniwek.

Or just let it be.

Today’s column from the Kankakee Daily Journal and The (Ottawa, Ill.) Times …

New MSI exhibit takes Chicago by storm

The WISCH LIST

April 17, 2010

It’s Monday morning at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and half a dozen elementary schoolchildren on Spring Break are about to be asked about a touchy topic.

In front of their parents, no less.

“Who’s ever taken a bath before?” Lisa, a guide for the Tornado Vortex display at MSI’s dazzling new “Science Storms” exhibit, says with a grin to the pack of youngsters standing in front of her alongside their chuckling parents.

Each little boy and girl raises a hand in the air – reluctantly, it seems, in a couple of cases – and confess that, yes, they have indeed bathed before.

(But don’t ask about washing behind the ears.)

As a mesmerizing 40-foot tornado made of a foggy mist spins and swirls behind her, Lisa then peppers the kids with questions about what happens when bath water goes down the drain or when chocolate milk gets mixed in a glass.

“It twirls around,” one little girl piped up.

“So, then,” Lisa asked, while nodding approval, “what do a bathtub, chocolate milk and a tornado have in common? They’re all vortexes.”

Such are the kinds of simple explanations to complex natural phenomena that kids – and adults – can learn at “Science Storms,” the museum’s new permanent, 26,000-square-foot exhibit that opened last month and is worth a visit.

Spread across two floors of the museum and requiring at least a couple of hours to fully explore, “Science Storms” is a wonderland that allows visitors to not only investigate the basic principles of chemistry and physics responsible for nature’s biggest marvels, but also to get the opportunity to interact with and even control these marvels themselves.

With Tornado Vortex, you can manipulate that 40-foot mist tornado by controlling its air pressure and wind speed. At the Lightning Charge display, you can witness the awe-inspiring power of a high-voltage electrical storm produced by a giant Tesla coil suspended high above the museum floor and stretching 20 feet in diameter.

And with Avalanche Motion, you can trigger a 20-foot landslide of garnet sand and glass beads to experience the unexpected and hypnotizing beauty of granular dynamics.

You just have to wait patiently.

“Do you want to give another little boy a turn?” a mother asked her son as he toyed with the Avalanche Motion controls, before looking at me with a smile and adding, “Or a grown-up?”

At “Science Storms,” there’s also the opportunity to wage a battle of fire vs. water to see how a flame reacts to different conditions, make giant rainbows and even unleash your own tsunami across a 30-foot water tank to study the power and motion of waves.

In fact, so impressive is “Science Storms” that last month it left famously chatty WGN-Ch. 9 meteorologist Tom Skilling almost speechless in a newspaper story, as he was quoted as repeatedly uttering little more than “Wow” while touring the sprawling exhibit.

“Creating transformative experiences that get people excited about the world around them is what the Museum of Science and Industry does best,” said David Mosena, president and CEO of the Museum of Science and Industry. “And exhibits like ‘Science Storms’ are our most powerful teaching tools.”

And as much as I enjoyed the interactivity of the exhibits, I think learned even more from watching the Discover Channel-worthy video presentations displayed on large screens throughout “Science Storms.” Featuring leading researchers and scientists from places like NASA, the United States Geological Survey and the University of Chicago, the videos had me walking out of MSI with a whole lot more scientific understanding than I walked in with.

And as a history buff, the display cases at “Science Storms” provided me with a fill of fascinating historical artifacts, as well.

My favorites included the first light bulb to ever be lit in public (1879), a 345-year-old telescope and a frightening breathing helmet used by firefighters in 1880. I was also captivated by the first copy of Sir Isaac Newton’s “Opticks,” circa 1704, in which the legendary thinker recorded his experiments into the physics of light, including a description of his prism experiment, touted to be one of the most important experiments in history.

As I left “Science Storms,” I strolled past a young boy as he exclaimed to his mom and grandmother, “This is so much fun!”

Even worth taking a bath for, one might say.

“Science Storms” is included in general admission at the Museum of Science and Industry, 5700 South Lake Shore Drive, which is $15 for adults, $14 for seniors, and $10 for children ages 3 to 11. City of Chicago residents receive a discounted price.

Today’s column from the Kankakee Daily Journal and The (Ottawa, Ill.) Times …

Cubs lore? It’s only ‘Natural’ in Room 509

The WISCH LIST

April 10, 2010

Baseball, perhaps more than any other sport, is a game of numbers.

From 60 feet, 6 inches and .406, to 61 and 755 (I don’t recognize other home run records), the National Pastime just drips with digits. And the Chicago Cubs, perhaps more than any team not named the Yankees, have an identity that’s defined by them.

Numerals such as 1908, 1945 and 2003 are branded on the ballclub like “Rawlings” on horsehide. And, for better or worse (mostly worse), Cubs fans know each of them as well as their own birthdates.

As for myself, I’ve long been able to tick off any number of Cubs-related numbers at the drop of a cap. But it wasn’t until this past weekend that I became familiar with a new one (509) that’s, in fact, quite old.

And a “Natural” fit in both Cubs – and baseball – lore.

So, turn the key with me and enter Room 509 of the Sheffield House Hotel, the most famous place in Chicago that you barely knew existed.

And where I slept last Sunday night.

Located just 427 paces from Wrigley Field at 3834 N. Sheffield Ave., the Sheffield House – known until recent years as the Hotel Carlos – was constructed in the 1920s.

But Room 509 – the location where Chicago Cubs shortstop Billy Jurges was famously shot by showgirl Violet Valli in an incident credited for partially inspiring Bernard Malamud’s 1952 novel “The Natural” and the 1984 Robert Redford movie by the same name – remains stuck nearly eight decades in the past.

On July 6, 1932, the Cubs were one month from ripping off 25 wins in 30 games to propel themselves to a World Series during which Babe Ruth belted his (So-)Called Shot at Wrigley Field and the Yankees swept their way to the championship.

On the morning of July 6, however, the Cubs were merely struggling through a four-game losing streak. And 25-year-old Billy Jurges was sound asleep at the Hotel Carlos, where he lived during the season, when Valli rang him from the front desk, asking to see the man she wanted to marry and discuss their “love affair.”

Valli – reportedly drunk on gin and having left at home a suicide note addressed to her brother that read, “Life without Billy isn’t worth living, but why should I leave this world alone?” – was told by Jurges that she could come up to Room 509.

An argument soon broke out and Valli pulled out a small .25-caliber pistol, shooting Jurges in the side, rump and hand before suffering a wound to her own arm when he wrestled the weapon from her.

Charges were never filed, but Jurges spent 16 days on the disabled list, Valli earned a Vaudeville show from the ensuing notoriety and a famous book and movie were ultimately inspired.

And last week, with the calendar on the cusp of a new baseball season and me being me, I got the itch – naturally – to visit Room 509 myself.

So after spending Easter with my family in Bourbonnais, I reserved Room 509 by phone and left for Chicago with my mom telling me, “If you get scared, call us.”

Now, I didn’t really think there was much reason for concern – the Sheffield House sits less than three blocks from my own apartment, after all – although the aged hotel’s current patrons are, well, definitely not Major Leaguers.

As I drove north, I thought about what to bring to Room 509, where two years ago the Chicago Sun-Times had a psychic convene with Jurges’ supposed ghost. A Milton Bradley voodoo doll? The shrunken – and bleached – head of Sammy Sosa? Goat soup?

Eventually, I opted to go pretty much empty-handed (like the Cubs themselves) and entered the hotel’s 1920s-style, terra cotta lobby armed with only my backpack, laptop computer and a downloaded video of “The Natural.”

Upon check-in, I walked up five flights of stairs past eerie hallways filled not with people, but stacked mattresses and furniture. And in a corner of the top floor, I found Room 509 and turned the key.

Inside, was a tiny, white-walled space that couldn’t have looked much different when Billy Jurges called it home. Measuring about 14 feet by 9 feet, the spartan room featured a bed, a dresser and mirror, a small color TV, one table, a broken chair and an ancient refrigerator that didn’t work.

The room’s phone had no dial tone. I couldn’t get the hotel’s Wi-Fi signal in my room. And my iPhone wouldn’t even allow me to post a status update to Facebook.

I thought, either the spirit of Billy Jurges doesn’t like technology, or Rod Serling was about to appear and tell viewers that I’ve just entered the Twilight Zone.

Undeterred, I laid down on the bed and began watching “The Natural” on my computer as lightning and rain crashed down – both on the movie screen and beyond Sheffield Avenue outside my window.

Three hours later, having seen Roy Hobbs get shot and then redeem his career, I dozed off and awoke the next morning for Opening Day with sunshine – and no showgirls – outside the room.

Although I think the Cubs could have actually used Violet Valli later that afternoon.

She packed more pop than anyone in their lineup.

Today’s column from the Kankakee Daily Journal and The (Ottawa, Ill.) Times …

Wisconsin boy’s memory has Packers fans Bearing Down

The WISCH LIST

April 3, 2010

The city of Burlington, Wis., sits about 70 miles closer to Soldier Field than it does Lambeau Field. But make no mistake about it, the Racine County town is firmly planted in Packers Country.

Or, at least, until recently it was.

“We do know that a lot of people in Burlington now own Bears shirts because of my son,” said Marie Baker, who lives with her family in the close-knit town of about 10,000, located 35 miles southwest of Milwaukee. “They may have hated wearing them, as some did complain. But they loved Slade.

“And Slade loved the Bears.”

On Monday, Jan. 4, 7-year-old Slade Baker was sledding with his 8-year-old brother, Damian, and a friend about a half-block from home when Slade’s sled carried him onto the ice covering the Fox River.

As Slade was walking back to the shore, the ice gave way and he was swept away by the river’s current below. Immediate efforts to save Slade failed and the next morning rescue workers located his body beneath the ice about 250 yards downstream, near downtown Burlington.

On Jan. 6., Slade’s obituary ran in the Kenosha News saying how, “He enjoyed football, baseball and basketball. He was a die-hard Bears fan. He was a ‘hands on,’ outgoing boy. He was a hard worker, a joker and an instigator, who lived every moment to the fullest.”

And thanks to Chicago Bears linebacker Nick Roach, Slade’s memory is still very much alive this weekend during the Final Four.

Even if Roach’s national championship pick (Marquette) is not.

“Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do,” Roach, a Milwaukee native, said about picking his hometown Golden Warriors to win it all. “You have to remember where you came from.”

That’s just what Roach did on Feb. 12 when he delayed a trip home to Milwaukee so he could swing by Burlington to attend a Slade Baker Fundraiser event.

“I heard from a friend about how big a Bears fan he was,” Roach said about Slade, who was buried in a Bears jersey and became a fan of the Monsters of the Midway because his best friend was. “And after the fundraiser I wanted to do a little more.”

Last month, Roach helped organize an online NCAA Tournament Pick ’Em contest in which more than 100 people made donations for the chance to bump basketball heads with the fourth-year Bear. The champion of the competition – which has raised an extra $1,200 for the Slade Baker Scholarship Fund – will win a pair of tickets to a 2010 Bears home game, while everyone who finishes ahead of Roach gets an opportunity to win a signed football or Bears shirt.

And as of right now, a lot of people have that opportunity – Roach currently sits at 95th place in his own pool.

“I just wanted to give everyone a chance to win,” the fourth-year Bear said with a chuckle. “If we had been picking football games, though, it wouldn’t have been fair.”

Sports prognostications aside, Slade’s father, Matt, said, “Nick has really made an impact up here. Everything he’s done has meant a lot.”

Marie Baker added that the family even got Slade’s grandfather – a lifelong Packers fan – to wear a Bears pin beside his Packers tie in recent weeks.

“And we know Slade was loving it,” she said. “His brother Damian is a Packers fan, so in our house during football time, it was a lot of fun. The two boys would talk smack about each other’s team. But now all these Packers fans here in Burlington have a different view on Nick Roach and the Bears.

“What Nick did was life-changing in Burlington.”

Anyone interested in making a donation to the Slade Baker Scholarship Fund can send an envelope to North Shore Bank, 116 South Pine Street, Burlington, WI 53105 along with a note it’s for Slade’s Fund.

Final Forlorn

Detroit has 8-year-old Ford Field (and the 2009 Final Four). Indianapolis has 2-year-old Lucas Oil Stadium (and the 2010 Final Four). And Chicago?

Well, it has 7-year-old Soldier Field (and bupkiss).

While on the topic of the Bears and NCAA basketball, I was thinking how nice it would be if this weekend the Final Four was being held beneath a retractable roof at Soldier Field.

Alas, it’s not … and never will be.

If the city of Chicago had any foresight, it would have decided a decade ago to construct a multi-purpose facility along Lake Shore Drive, rather awkwardly cramming a modern stadium inside the skeleton of old Soldier Field.

With Detroit and Indy also able to host Super Bowls, Mayor Daley & Co. really dropped the ball on that one.

In more sports than one.

Today’s Wisch List column from the Kankakee Daily Journal and The (Ottawa, Ill.) Times …

Chicago’s other March Madness

The WISCH LIST

March 27, 2010

Way back in 1970, when my dad was a budding 24-year-old distance-running junkie, he started logging every mile he ran inside spiral notebooks that he then stored in a nightstand beside his bed.

Forty years, 17 marathons and thousands of less-maniacal jogs later, the number of miles my father has run – and, in more recent years, walked – stands at a whopping 45,319.

Unless, of course, he’s added more today.

For some perspective, that tally is equivalent to running around the equator (24,901.55 miles) darn near twice. Or, on a more local level, the same as trotting from the Kankakee County Courthouse to Wrigley Field – and back – 344 times.

(Still without ever once seeing a World Series.)

Thinking about what my father has accomplished in a pair of Nikes is something that makes me proud – and makes my own feet hurt. Although, last weekend, it wasn’t 45,000 miles that were on my mind, but rather 4.97 as I competed in the 31st Annual Shamrock Shuffle 8K in downtown Chicago.

With a record number of registered runners (36,000), the quirky and iconic road race – considered the official kickoff for the city’s outdoor running season – was billed as the largest 8K in the world. In terms of size, it’s second locally to only the Chicago Marathon and its 45,000 annual participants.

As it turned out, only 25,723 participants showed up last Sunday morning to start the Shuffle in the 35-degree temps and fog hovering above the Loop. And, 25,567 of them – 11,523 men and 14,044 women – managed to finish.

The one to finish quicker than anyone was John Kemboi, a 19-year-old Kenyan who was orphaned as a toddler in the early 1990s and spent nine years living in a neighbor’s backyard, minding their cattle for the payment of one meal a day.

On Sunday, Kemboi feasted on the field in Chicago, breaking the finish line in a blistering 23 minutes, 39 seconds. And following his first race on U.S. soil, he reflected by saying, “I feel pretty good after this race. It is very nice here, although very cold this morning.”

Yeah, well, he should have run the Shuffle last year.

On March 29, 2009, I took part in my first Shamrock Shuffle, and it was almost my last. That morning, I stood on the “L” platform near my apartment, awaiting a train down to Grant Park as a snow globe-worthy blizzard swirled around me. I thought, “I’m going to run five miles in this?”

But, I did. And as one of only 13,399 hardy souls – out of 32,500 registered participants – to show up, I finished the winding 8-kilometer course in a respectable 43:35, despite slogging through at least two inches of slush every single inch of the way.

I think my socks finally dried out just last week.

Last year, my time put me in 3,664th place overall, which wasn’t bad. But this year – in better conditions – I was hoping to improve.

And then last Saturday, it started snowing again.

Nike’s “Run Lucky” motto for the 2010 Shuffle seemed like an oxymoron until Sunday morning, when the precipitation stopped – and didn’t start again, prompting the race’s PA announcer to announced at the start line that “the weather is allegedly better than last year.”

And as I began running alongside competitors dressed as leprechauns and even Wilma and Fred Flintstone, the weather was. Although, shortly after we the race’s start, a big clump of snow still fell directly on some poor guy’s balding head as we passed beneath Millennium Park’s serpentine BP Bridge.

As I jogged the first couple of miles, I focused on a runner ahead of me wearing purple and yellow garb emblazoned with “The University of Northern Iowa.” My goal was to beat this guy in the race, but somewhere along Mile 3, he pulled away and I lost sight of him.

Like Bill Self and Kansas, I was upset.

Things were chugging along well when, along Mile 4, I found myself being passed by a bare-legged guy who was either wearing a kilt or a Catholic schoolgirl skirt. I tried to (skirt) chase him down, but couldn’t, as I finished the race in 38:46.

That was good enough for 2,913th place out of the 25,567 finishers overall and 2,382nd out of 11,514 men. And it was almost five minutes faster than my time last year, which is all great.

But I still got beat by a guy in a skirt.

I think I’ll leave that detail out of my spiral notebook.