Today was a great day in Chicago Cubs history — the Cubs honored two of its greatest retired players but only had to retire one number!

Jersey Number 31 has been retired, and flags are now flying from both the left and right fair poles (what most of you call “foul” poles, but they’re part of fair territory) to honor two former pitchers — Ferguson Jenkins and Greg Maddux.

Fergie, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, was one of those pitchers who didn’t need relieving. He would pitch and pitch — and did it very, very well. We won a Cy Young Award, completed 154 games, and threw over 2000 strikeouts!

Greg Maddux just retired last year and will be a first-round Hall of Famer. I know, some of you Braves fans (if there are any left…) will claim him as yours, and of course he did have a great career there as well. But he came up with the Cubs, won his first game with the Cubs, won his first Cy Young Award with the Cubs, and won his 300th game with the Cubs. As far as I’m concerned, he will always be a Cub, and he seemed quite happy to be in Chicago for the ceremony today.

Fergie and Greg join Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, and current Tennessee Smokies Manager Ryne Sandberg as Cubs whose numbers have been retired and fly over Wrigley Field.

Now let’s win today, Cubs! (Thanks for the Home Run, Mike Fontenot, as I was writing this!)

And thanks to technical difficulties, I can add “Thanks for the GRAND SLAM, D-Lee!”

Cubs Win!

I could have blogged the above sentence a lot this year (93 times so far!), but we’re trying to show some of that restraint associated with champions.  OK, I know your’re saying, “you’re excited about the Cubs?  You know they’re going to blow it — they always do.”

OK, it’s been a bad century.  But those things have been said about all those teams who have had long bad stretches and finally overcame them.  You never win until you win.

But the Cubs have won the National League Central Division Championship — with over a week to spare.  This year, they can position themselves perfectly for the playoffs.

This is the year — the Cubs will win the World Series.

And if you don’t believe me, take Eddie Vedder’s word for it — Someday We’ll Go All the Way.

This blog’s author is in Chicago, attending the INTIX Conference & Exposition.  And he’s getting some help back home…

INTIX is short for the International Ticketing Association, which bills itself as “Advancing the Success of the Admission Services Industry”.  In other words, we sell tickets.

As some of you know, I love Chicago, due mainly to my yearly pilgrimages to Wrigley Field.  Unfortunately, the Cubs aren’t playing right now, so I’m not used to being here during the Winter. I’ve heard it gets cold…

But no, the weather forecasters promised “spring-like” weather today.  I love a good sense of humor!  True, the temperature did get into the low 40s, but with winds of 20-30 mph, with gusts up to 40 mph!  There was snow on the ground, and the Chicago River had huge chunks of ice.  And now, there’s an inch or two of new snow expected, with temperatures plunging perhaps 40 degrees.  I’m glad I brought the heavy coat.  Here’s a lovely view of Chicago from my hotel room:

The glass covered tower under construction center left is the new Trump Tower; the neo-gothic Tribune Tower is to the right.  in the foreground left is the icy Chicago River.  You might notice a tour boat at right shore at the bottom of the photo — it actually headed for Lake Michigan with a few hearty (foolhearty?) souls on board this afternoon.

At any rate, the conference starts in earnest tomorrow and I have many meetings scheduled as we try to figure out how to do our ticketing better.  It’s fun being in Chicago (I’ve already made one visit to the Billy Goat Tavern (the inspiration for “Cheezborger, Cheesborger”!)), but it’s going to be an exhausting week.

And just when you have everything planned out, life throws a curve — CBT Box Office Assistant Manager Sarah Burton had to undergo emergency surgery Sunday, so our student box office workers and other CBT’ers have stepped up big time to keep the box office running while we’re both gone.  There are a few bumps along the way that we’re smoothing as we go, but it is great to see our people rising to the occasion.  Things are in good hands back home.  A good “disaster planning” exercise…

Meanwhile, Sarah, continue your recovery, and we’ll be glad to see you as soon as you’re able!