The Opening Round Of The City Series, And The Excitement Is Palpable...

This past weekend was the opening round of Chicago's City Series, a highpoint in the city's baseball calendar, when my South Side heroes, the Chicago White Sox and the North Side Chicago Cubs face each other in a series which many local baseball fans consider just as important as the playoffs. All three games at Rate Field, home of the White Sox and seen in the photograph on the left, were sellouts (over 38,000 people per game), and the atmosphere was electric. Friday night the Cubs pounded the Sox by a score of 10 to 5. The next night the White Sox came from behind to beat the Cubs 8-3, to the delight of the thousands in attendance. Yesterday's game was a classic. I checked in on MLB.com and saw that the White Sox were already down 3-0 before having to leave to do errands (me, not the White Sox). When I got back home and tuned in the game, it was tied 4-4 in the 7th inning. Then, in the bottom of the 8th, the Sox scored three runs and led by a score of 7-4. Now all they had to do was get three quick outs and take the series. Except the Cubs scored three runs in the top of the 9th and tied the game, which went into extra innings. And, of course, the Cubs, who are in first place in the National League Central, scored a run in the 10th for an 8-7 lead. All hope lost, right?

No! Backup catcher Edgar Quero, coming into the game hitting .151, hit a home run with a man on base to win the game 9-8, to the joy of Sox fans everywhere. And this is not a small thing. The White Sox are 7 and 3 over their last 10 games, one game out of first place in the American League Central, and Chicago Tribune baseball writer Paul Sullivan says, and I quote: "the Sox not only look like they have turned a corner in the rebuild but also might be bona fide contenders in a watered-down American League Central." He even suggests this might be a repeat of the 1977 season, when both the Cubs and White Sox were in first place for weeks before both teams faded at the end. That was the year the White Sox were called "the South Side Hit Men," Harry Caray was in the television booth, and organist Nancy Faust began playing "Nah Nah Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" whenever an opposing pitcher was removed from the game. And, I might add, my hero Bill Veeck owned the team. A time I remember very well. The photograph on the right, by the way, shows the White Sox players greeting Edgar Quero after hitting that game-winning home run. And I have to say, I can't wait for the second round of the City Series in August, when the White Sox will meet the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Hopefully with both teams in first place.

Hearts Were Broken Yesterday: Celtic Once Again Wins The Scottish League Championship

Just like Gregg Phillips, the Trump Administration's pick to lead FEMA's (the Federal Emergency Management Agency's) office of response and recovery, who claims to have once been teleported to a Waffle House, my friend Mark and I teleported to Celtic Park in Glasgow, Scotland yesterday morning to watch Celtic Glasgow play Heart of Midlothian FC of Edinburgh for the Scottish Premiership soccer championship, proof of which is the photograph above of Mark at Celtic Park, which has NOT been manipulated through Photoshop. Hearts only needed a tie to win that title, but gave up the lead on a penalty kick, losing to Celtic by a score of 3-1. Celtic has now won this championship 14 out of the last 15 years and this victory marks their fifth-straight Scottish league title. The only comparable records in Major League Baseball for a feat like this are the New York Yankees winning four World Series in a row from 1936 to 1939, five in a row from 1949 to 1953, and four out of five World Series between 1996 and 2000, which made me a true hater of the New York Yankees to this day. Imagine if the Yankees or the Los Angeles Dodgers, baseball's current fat cats, had won the World Series 14 out of the last 15 years. The Commissioner of Baseball would currently be hiding out in an undisclosed location, no doubt planning his escape to a shack at the tip of Patagonia. In any case, the game was indeed very exciting, and everyone outside of Glasgow was rooting for Hearts. But it wasn't to be. It was heartbreak for Hearts, and as a Chicago White Sox fan, I can truly sympathize.

The Pedal Hopper - A Sure Sign Summer Is Coming

I was in Denver's RiNo (River North) neighborhood last weekend, and no less than three pedal hoppers passed by as I was walking down Larimer Street. Pedal hoppers are also known as "party bikes" or "bar cycles," vehicles that are pedal powered by the riders, and which are basically pub crawls on wheels. Here in Denver, they make a circuit through the Lower Downtown (LoDo), Ballpark, and River North (RiNo) neighborhoods, starting and ending at Bierstadt Lagerhaus and stopping at the Refinery, the ViewHouse, the Gin Mill, 1up, and the Matchbox. All for $360, split among the 6 to 16 people in your group. Which is reasonable enough if you can round up 16 people to fill the seats in that bike. Of course, that doesn't include the cost of drinks at those places, which evidently was not a problem for the young hipsters seen in the photograph above. And by the way, another cost might be for an Uber to get you home if you do indeed have a drink at each stop. What fun! Just another Saturday night in Hipsterville. Looks like it is going to be another long long summer for the people who live in those neighborhoods.

Discussing Baseball Over Lunch And Coffee With Stuart

I had a late lunch yesterday afternoon with my friend Stuart at the Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom in Lakewood, Colorado, a suburb just to the west of Denver that epitomizes everything that is wrong with suburbia today. But as I have said before, you can't actually see Lakewood from the bar at Old Chicago, and so no problem. And I am here to report that Stuart is actually very excited about his team, the Chicago Cubs, who are solidly in first place in the National League Central with the 3rd best record in baseball. Stuart was raised on the North Side of Chicago and has thus been indoctrinated into cheering for that team, sometimes referred to as "those loveable losers," who I am sure will once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at the very end of the season and once again break the hearts of Cubs fans everywhere. I myself am from the South Side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago and have no worries about my playoffs hopes for the White Sox being dashed. We Sox fans always expect disaster, but happily, as of today, the Chicago White Sox are one game above .500 and one game out of first place in the American League Central. After several years of futility, this is great news. It means they are actually once again a fully functioning baseball team, playoffs or no playoffs. You can watch a game and reasonably assume they have a 50-50 chance of winning, which during a rebuilding process is a great thing. As for our adopted hometown team, the Colorado Rockies, they are 10 games under .500 and 3 and 7 over their last 10 games. The Rockies are also in a rebuilding mode and are now under the management of actual baseball people, but are still a long way from the playoffs, or for that matter, playing .500 baseball. And by the way, I took the photograph above of Stuart smiling happily in front of the Barnes and Noble, where we stopped for coffee after Old Chicago, no doubt with of visions of World Series victories dancing in his head.

Wearing Your Antlers Proudly, And Why Not?

When I was at the Denver Botanic Gardens this past weekend, I could not help but notice that one of the visitors walking around enjoying the ambiance had antlers on her head, as seen in the photograph on the left. Talk about an interesting family lineage. Of course, if those antlers are not natural, I suppose she could be a Druid, proudly showing off her dedication to that pagan religion, although the summer solstice is still over 5 weeks away. That is when those Druids gather in Denver's Washington Park and at midnight perform their ancient rituals, including human sacrifice. Is that covered by the First Amendment? I'll have to check. Just goes to show that Denver is now indeed a cosmopolitan city, not just the hick cowtown it was when I first moved here back in 1981. Progress, right?

The Denver Botanic Garden's Spring Plant Sale

My sister Susan and I attended the Spring Plant Sale this past Saturday afternoon at the Denver Botanic Gardens, a section of which can be seen in the above photograph of a pond with huge spooky faces hovering over it. This is an annual sale, the best part of which is that admission that day is always free. I myself just liked walking around the gardens and enjoying the day, although Susan pointed out that nothing was in bloom yet, and insisted we go back later this summer when we will have to pay actual money to get in. As you can probably tell, I am not a big plant person. Years ago, I did used to attend this sale religiously when it was the Denver Botanic Garden's Plant and Book Sale. Back then, they had thousands of used books on sale in the main building, all at very reasonable prices. Then, a number of years back, they stopped selling books, citing the cost of storing them between annual sales. My late friend Valarie, whom I worked with at the University of Denver Bookstore, put together a similar annual book sale for the Jefferson County Action Center's Beautiful Junk Sale, famous for its final hour, when you could fill an entire shopping bag with books for $10. However, that ended too for the same reason: storing the books before and after the sale. In any case, the Denver Botanic Gardens is a very pretty place, with ponds and waterfalls and wonderful landscaping. Just be sure to go there when those damn flowers are in bloom.

Watching Tottenham Play Leeds With Both The Tottenham AND Leeds Supporter Groups!

My friend Mark - seen in the photograph above - and I went to Ester's Pub here in Denver yesterday afternoon to watch a Premier League soccer match between the Tottenham Hotspurs and Leeds United with both the Colorado Spurs and Leeds United Colorado supporter groups. Tottenham is desperately trying to avoid relegation down to the Champions League (the AAA of English soccer) and every win is important. And I must say, it was a very exciting and hard-fought contest, ending in a 1-1 tie. It was really fun to have fans of both teams in the same room, voicing their opinions: "That was definitely a penalty," "No way was that a penalty," etc. Three teams will be relegated down to the Champions League, and with the tie, Tottenham is 2 points above that relegation zone. I do understand how this system motivates teams to win and owners to continuously strive to improve their teams, but I am very glad that it is not used in Major League Baseball. If it was, the Chicago White Sox and Colorado Rockies would never get back to the big leagues again. Thank heaven for small favors.