Commuter trains wonderful; that is, until they don’t work on schedule

I’m a native of what’s  thought of these days as the greater Sout’ Side part of Chicago (having lived both city and suburb), and I’m actually someone who often uses the commuter trains in order to get around.

Commutes through the Hegewisch neighborhood were among those tampered with Tuesday by Mother Nature. Photos by Gregory Tejeda

It’s largely because I don’t have an automobile these days; enjoy the notion of not having a monthly car payment to make and also detest the idea of paying for parking – particularly on those occasions when I have to travel downtown.

THE ONE TIME in my life I shelled out some $35 to park a car for about two hours in a downtown garage is a horrid memory – and an experience I never want to repeat again during my lifetime.

So let’s just say that the hardest part of the crummy winter weather we’ve experienced in recent weeks is what it has done to my commute.

I’m actually one of those individuals who was impacted by the commuter trains being totally thrown off schedule – if not shut down outright. Of course, the wintry weather also significantly reduced my desire to make any sort of trip unless absolutely necessary.

Which is why Tuesday was particularly depressing during the morning hours.

Weather tampered w/ overhead cables

THAT WAS THE time when the Metra commuter railroad’s “Electric” line was out of commission, as was the South Shore line that takes people from downtown Chicago into Indiana all the way out to South Bend.

I’ve almost never made the trip all the way to the home town of Notre Dame. But there are times when I do have to venture into Hoosierland and rely on a combination of the two trains (usually making the transition in the Hyde Park neighborhood) to get there.

Learning that such a trip was impossible put quite a damper on my morning mood.

Fortunately for me, the travel I had to do on Tuesday didn’t come until later in the day by which time the trains were up and running again (with the icy conditions having been overcome, for the time being). And also, I was able to borrow use of a car for the day.

WHICH MADE ME a commuter braving the icy roads and hoping that I neither lost control of someone else’s automobile – or no one else driving around me lost control of their car and came crashing into me!

Many fewer commuters passing through Millennium station these days

Being able to rely on the commuter trains (and the CTA ‘el’ within the city limits proper) is such a convenience. One of the advantages of urban life.

That is, until the weather manages to take the system down in whatever way possible so that the ability to transport oneself from place to place becomes a near impossibility.

Then, one can feel so incredibly isolated even within a massive urban area. Almost as though Mother Nature is feeing the need to remind us all that none of us are above the impact of her quirks and how she, not we, are the ones ultimately in control of our environs.

Anxiously awaiting summer days

I’LL ADMIT IT was worse a couple of weeks ago at the peak of the polar vortex – remember those days of 50-below wind chill temperatures and railroad people literally were igniting the train tracks aflame so as to keep them from freezing over and it was all the commuter train lines throughout the Chicago area that were impacted?

This is a lesser scale inconvenience, but it has me hoping for springtime weather. With the fact that springtime-like weather conditions in Arizona made it possible for both the White Sox and Cubs to begin spring training camps was little concession.

I will admit I was pleased to learn that Metra is considering this weekend free train rides (as to the usual $10 fare for a weekend pass) come Saturday and Sunday. It has me pondering a trip downtown so as to take advantage of the discount perk.

It would, however, be just my luck that the free fare comes at a time when the train (which has a commuter stop just a couple of blocks from my current humble abode) isn’t any guarantee to be operating, or running anywhere near to on schedule.

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Beisbol a reminder this week’s weather isn’t permanent, but Sox/Cubs fan distaste for each other not fade away

On this wintry Wednesday when the arctic chill is taking a Midwestern vacation and giving us the potential of wind chills making it feel like it’s 50 degrees below zero, I’m taking my relief from thoughts of how it isn’t that far off before we have the return of springtime and baseball.

Upcoming reminders of baseball … 

Seriously.

I TOOK PLEASURE in the fact that officials were able to reschedule the Caribbean Series, with only a minimal delay. Real live championship-level baseball will be played beginning Monday.

… and the return of springtime

For those of you to whom the thought of championship ballclubs from Latin America is just a little too alien to contemplate, consider that both of our city’s professional ballclubs have held their winter fan conventions – and both managed to spew rhetoric instigating their fan bases into distaste for each other.

From Chicago Cubs infielder Kris Bryant calling St. Louis “boring” (as in the most boring city he visits during the season), to Chicago White Sox outfielder Nicky Delmonico responding to a question about the “most annoying fans” in baseball by saying, “Cubs fans.”

Nicky (left) already knows truth of Cub fandom

These are moments not quite as intense as that 2006 slugfest on the field between catchers A.J. Pierzynski and Mike Barrett. But in terms of getting the fans all worked up, they rank up there somewhere near all the cheap shots one-time White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen took at Wrigley Field (“rat infested museum” may be the nicest thing he ever said).

BRYANT: Thinks St. Louis is boring?

AND THE FACT that Bryant and Delmonico felt compelled to keep the rhetoric flowing is merely evidence that the hostile feelings the teams have toward each other are not only ongoing, but they’re on their way back.

By early April, the two ball clubs will be again playing games that count – with spring training set to begin in just a matter of a couple of weeks down in the deserts of Arizona.

I'd argue Cincinnati choice make it lamer

Literally, right after the Caribbean Series – which is the annual championship played by the top teams of the professional leagues in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, along with Cuba and Panama. Venezuela was supposed to be host, but officials wound up moving it.

TO PANAMA CITY, where games will be played at the Estadio Rod Carew. When combined with long-time New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera (a Panama native) getting inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this year, it would seem 2019 will be a memorable year for fanaticos de beisbol in Panama.

Yes, I’ll actually be making a point to try to watch the games. The sight of real, live baseball being played during winter is something I get a kick out of. These games beginning Monday and running through the week will be a sporting kick to help tide me over until the resumption of play.

Stadium will host baseball next week

Although for some people, it’s going to be the ongoing verbal sparring between the Chicago fans as they accept the fact that the Bears are through for the year, and both the Bulls and Blackhawks are too pitiful to waste much time on.

So is St. Louis really “boring,” as Bryant puts it? Or are the Cardinals fans (the ones who openly boast they're the 'best fans in baseball,') correct when they say Bryant and other ballplayers who engage in cheap shots are “losers.”

PERSONALLY, I’D THINK Cincinnati would be a more depressing place to have to visit – largely on account of the local fan base wishing to forevermore think Pete Rose is heroic in nature. And not just a guy with a gambling problem who can’t quite acknowledge that reality.

Panama's other reason to celebrate

As for Delmonico’s thoughts, I’m not surprised that Cubs fans would be bothered – largely because they go through life thinking that everybody the world over comprehends their absurd support for a team that for so many years was pathetic on the field.

Which isn’t different than them trying to diminish St. Louis as being “boring,” almost as though they think the world of baseball is all about themselves and no one else.

When it’s really so much bigger than the activity of Clark and Addison. Such as the games running from Monday through Feb. 10 that will produce a Latin American champion – with the first spring training exhibitions scheduled for just two weeks later!

  -30-

How far some fall -- from the ballpark to the court. Or silly costumes for some

Baseball pitchers and catchers for many ball clubs, including the Chicago White Sox, arrive for spring training camp Wednesday to begin preparations for another season of play, and I’m sure many former ballplayers have fond reminisces about those days in Arizona or Florida.

LOAIZA: Scheduled for court on Wed.

Although reading the news reports of late have me wondering what’s running through the mind of Esteban Loaiza – remember him?

HE’S THE BASEBALL pitcher who had a peak during his 2003-04 stint with the White Sox, when he and Mark Buehrle were the ball club’s most reliable starting pitchers.

He was the starting pitcher for the American League all star team in 2003, when the game was played at the then-named U.S. Cellular Field – the last time the All Star Game was played in Chicago.

Loiaza also wound up finishing that season with a record of 21 wins and 9 losses. The win tally matched the number of victories that Fernando Valenzuela had for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1986, and gives the two of them the most victories ever in a single season for a Mexican-born ballplayer.

The Tijuana native was on top of the world back in those days when he was with the Sout’ Side ball club – just as Sammy Sosa was once a beloved celeb back in the late 1990s when he was hitting all those home runs for the Chicago Cubs.

SOSA: Silly, but not serious

YET JUST AS Sosa is now a comical figure whose latest antics include that photograph of himself and wife Sonia in their cowboy-like outfits, Loaiza has taken a plunge for the worse.

In fact, Loaiza is now far lower than anything Sosa is ever alleged to have done.

For Loiaza is the former ballplayer who got himself arrested last week and now faces criminal charges related to narcotics. Police in Imperial Beach, Calif., (near San Diego) found large-enough quantities of controlled substances in his rented home that he’s being regarded as some sort of low-level drug dealer.

That’s a label he may never be able to shake – even if he eventually is acquitted of the criminal charges or has them dismissed.

HOYT: Fallen even further

LOAIZA SUPPOSEDLY HAD drugs valued at $500,000 in his possession – although one needs to keep in mind that those dollar figures police toss out with regards to drug busts usually have their own sense of exaggeration.

They’re nowhere near as precise as the baseball stats we have that tell us of Loiaza’s 2.90 earned run average or his American League-leading 207 strikeouts back in that season of 2003 – which is tainted largely because the White Sox wound up collapsing that year in September and finished as a mere second place ball club.

Which means that Loaiza, who currently is being detained in lieu of $200,000 bond, is one whom I’m sure would rather be at a ballpark, rather than in a courtroom and jail cell combo.

It will be interesting to see how White Sox fans will acknowledge Loaiza’s existence as a ballplayer, and if it will turn out to be similar to that of LaMarr Hoyt – the 1983 Cy Young Award winner (best pitcher) whose own life became mucked up with several drug-related arrests. Hoyt is almost an un-person to the fans old enough to remember him.

WILL LOAIZA BECOME something similar?

BARRIOS: The ultimate fate

Although I have to admit that learning of Loaiza’s situation reminded me of another former White Sox pitcher. As in Francisco Barrios, who pitched for some crummy Sox teams of the late 1970s and was released at the end of 1981. Within a year, the one-time Mexican League ballplayer and native of Hermosillo was dead from cocaine use.

I still remember being at Comiskey Park for a ballgame when a “moment of silence” was held for Barrios. A sad end to another former ballplayer.

And will mean that at least a little attention will be paid to a Southern California courtroom where Loiaza has an appearance scheduled for Wednesday, while his former fans will be trying to see what’s happening at the Camelback Ranch training camp the White Sox have in suburban Phoenix to determine if there’s any hope for 2018 and the near future.

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EXTRA: Beisbol over for season, but returns to all of us next week

Another baseball season has come to an end, with the Caguas Creoles (champions of the Roberto Clemente League in Puerto Rico) bringing some joy to the hurricane-devastated Caribbean island by beating the Dominican League champ Cibao Eagles (of Santiago, D.R.) 8-4 Thursday night in the championship game of this year’s Caribbean Series.

Not that it will be too long before the crack of the bat entertains those fans who yearn for the smell of a leather glove or have been fulfilling their baseball fix with viewings of Ken Burns’ nearly quarter-century-old “Baseball” documentary – spring training camps open next week. Both the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs begin their preparations for the 2018 season Wednesday in Arizona.

SO I GET a weekend to get over the fact that the Culiacan Tomato Growers, the Pacific League of Mexico champs, got their behinds handed to them during the past week and weren’t even close to qualifying for the game determining the unofficial champions of Latin American beisbol.

Before shifting to a mindset of wondering whether the White Sox will continue with their talk of a ball club rebuild that could put dreams of a 2019 or 2020 World Series appearance in our dreams. (A Sox/Cubs World Series for '20, anyone?)

For those who can’t get through this weekend without some baseball-related talk, consider this video snippet of long-time Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster (and Miller Lite pitchman) Bob Uecker on the Tonight Show – telling us of the “wonders” of spring training.

And you’ll definitely have to admire his sports jacket – the notion that anyone could think of wearing such tacky garb on national television astounds the mind.

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Romance (and baseball) are in the air. Yet city’s homicide rate looms heavy

It’s Valentine’s Day, a chance to celebrate our affections for that special someone in your life. Or, if by chance you’re unattached, it’s also the return of baseball (as in spring training camps opening in Arizona and Florida).

Life would truly be wonderful if a Ferris Wheel ride ...

Maybe you’re even capable of combining the two; as in contemplating the chances of an all-Chicago World Series occurring any time in the near future while enjoying with your loved one the free Ferris Wheel rides being given away Tuesday at Navy Pier.

ALTHOUGH I CAN’T help but feel an ominous feel in the air as we consider the level of violence that is falling upon us. We seem to be in a mood of anger that is pushing the number of outbursts to alarming levels.

Which is appalling because the record-high levels we reached in the late 1980s had declined to such significantly low levels that many of us probably were deluded into thinking we had “solved” this particular problem.

What caught my attention was a Chicago Tribune story published Monday morning that pointed out the 27 shootings that occurred this past weekend – including a pair of incidents involving girls ages 12 and 11.

That’s a lot of people lingering in hospital bed who may well have lapsed into death by the time you actually read this Tuesday morning.

NOW I NOTICED these incidents were confined to neighborhoods of a certain socio-economic status that makes the bulk of Chicagoans want to ignore them. For all I know, there are people out there reading this who think I’m engaging in extremely poor taste by bringing up dead people – instead of the chance the Chicago White Sox will actually be able to get some talent in exchange for their current ace pitcher Jose Quintaña.

... or a 2nd all-Chicago World Series could be top concern

Yet it’s because of the fact that many of us would be inclined to ignore the bloodshed that I feel compelled to bring it up. I always was, and likely will be, a malcontent cuss like that – which may be the reason I’m currently not seeing anyone steadily on this Valentine’s Day.

Because we have to take one fact into account.

There have been 69 homicides in Chicago the first month-and-a-half of 2017 – compared to 78 for the same amount of time last year, according to the Chicago Tribune. Technically, we’re down.

Will urban youth live long enough to attend Chgo St.?

BUT DOES ANYBODY feel that as a literal truth?

Now I don’t want to hear from the ideological crackpots who are going to start raging that Donald Trump is telling the truth whenever he goes on his near daily rants about how Chicago is all fouled up.

For I know the truth is that Trump is very much a part of the problem, and could care less about finding a solution. If anything, I suspect he needs for Chicago to have a high homicide rate because it gives him something to complain about. I doubt he's willing to do a thing that would actually help resolve the problem of urban violence rates in Chicago. The talk that passed between White House and D.C.-based officials and Mayor Rahm Emanuel likely is just idle chatter.

Besides, it seems that the people who are suffering are the ones who didn’t vote for him. Maybe he thinks a re-election strategy is to let his detractors kill each other off?!?

SO WILL SERIOUS help come from Trump? No! Although I doubt that image of National Guard troops in Chicago would come either, because then people could blame Trump for anything wrong those part-time soldiers would do – and accepting blame for wrong-doing is as far removed from the Trump experience as anything!

Chance got his recognition -- a Grammy

The year 2017 is one in which we have our share of troubles. Bloodshed we consider to be ignorable, similar to another “story” I encountered Monday – the New York Times reported on the financial struggles of the athletic program at Chicago State University, which are the extreme end of the financial troubles many state colleges are facing these days because of the Illinois government budget fiasco.

Which also is ignorable because of the many of us who dismiss Chicago State as just some sort of school for the few people in select South and West side neighborhoods who manage to live long-enough to even consider attending college.

Although the Chicago kid known as “Chance, the Rapper” did manage to win a Grammy Award this weekend. All in all, a heck of a way for 2017 to say, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

  -30-

Cubs do Vegas, Sox see San Diego

Let’s be honest. If it were up to the minds of the individual Chicago Cubs ballplayers, they wouldn’t even bother to show up for the beginning of the season.

Once a Padres prospect who played ball in Las Vegas

For they were in Las Vegas on Thursday and Friday – playing a pair of exhibition games against the New York Mets that bring to an end this year’s spring training session.

BOTH THE CUBS and Chicago White Sox begin playing games that matter in the standings come Monday. I suspect this is the high point of 2016 for the Cubs – everybody goes about talking about how wonderful a ball club they are without them having to do anything to prove it.

And they got what many people would consider to be a fantasy vacation – a two-day trip to Vegas. They had to play ballgames Thursday night and Friday afternoon.

But surely they were able to spend some of their time in the casinos during the rest of their stay. Let’s only hope they didn’t bust themselves financially.

Or then again, maybe it’s better if they do. Because that could make them eager to receive the next paycheck that they will get for playing baseball for the first of 162 games,

WE’RE ON THE verge of the regular season, the games don’t count yet. But spring training proper is ovah (as The Hawk would say)!

The Cubs broke camp in Mesa, Ariz,, while the White Sox said so long to Glendale Heights (as in suburban Phoenix). They’re in that part of the schedule where historically ball clubs headed back to their home cities would play a few exhibitions in places that usually don’t get to see major league teams in action.

Hence, the Cubs are in Las Vegas for a couple of days and also will play one game Sunday in Anaheim, Calif., before beginning the regular season schedule – oddly enough, in Anaheim against the Los Angeles Angels.

While the White Sox will get to play their just-before-the-season-starts exhibitions in San Diego against the Padres. Once, that would have been a novelty, playing a National League ball club.

YET NOW, THAT is just another team they get to play every few years through Interleague play. I have to wonder how many San Diegans think this a boring way to kick off their season.

It certainly isn’t the type of pre-season jolt the White Sox would like to have prior to their Monday first game in Oakland against the Athletics.

Of course, the key to comprehending 2016 is the home Openers – this Friday for the White Sox against the Cleveland Indians and April 11 for the Cubs against the Cincinnati Reds. Our first dose of baseball in months that hasn’t been seen on television will come from the Ohio ball clubs.

This has the potential to be an intriguing year for Chicago baseball – particularly if the Cubs actually live up to all the pre-season hype (which is never a safe bet for the Cubs).

ALTHOUGH SOME POINT out that even the White Sox managed to have a winning record during their spring training exhibitions. Though people with sense realize that winning and losing in the Arizona sunshine doesn’t mean a thing about how the ball club will do during the regular season.

It certainly isn’t something that ought to make us think Chicago will get its first all-city series as a World Series in 110 years.

Which probably would be the ultimate nightmare for Cubs fans-types – going through all the hassle of winning a National League championship (the first since 1945) only to know it could be undermined by a loss to the Sox in the World Series!

110 years (and counting) since last all-Chicago World Series

But that’s probably a long-shot scenario anyways. It’s enough to make the Cubs wish things could remain as they are now – all the potential in the world, and a trip to Las Vegas.

  -30-

When beisbol becomes baseball, all our snow melts away and joy returns to Chicago (We certainly hope and pray!)

Saturday is special in my mind for one reason – it means it is merely one month until the beginning of spring training for the Chicago White Sox, and roughly one month for other professional baseball teams.

Just 30 more days and we’ll be at the unofficial point where we can start thinking springtime, and not about the dreariness of winter cold and slush laced with filth from passing pedestrians and motorists.

I’LL ADMIT THAT I’m among the people getting a baseball fix these days from the activity in the various professional leagues of Latin America – which will culminate in a couple of weeks with the Caribbean Series.

I’m anxious to see whether the Jalisco Charros (my maternal grandfather was from the Mexican state of Jalisco) can beat the Culican Tomateros this weekend to win the Mexico Pacific League championship, then go on to challenge the champions of the leagues in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela for the Latin American bragging rights by winning the Caribbean Series!

But as interesting as the sport is in those leagues, it pales to the coming of springtime when the American and National leagues resume their activity with late-February and March training camps, coupled with the beginning of seasons in early April.

I really don’t doubt that there will be many Chicagoans who will be more interested on April 7 (the possible date for a run-off election) in their favorite baseball teams, rather than which clown becomes mayor for the next four years.

ACTUALLY, THE BEGINNING of spring training on Feb. 24 may cause more joy for Chicagoans than the municipal elections scheduled for three days later. Rahm Emanuel himself may be the only one who doesn’t feel that joy!

So what should we really expect for 2015?

I know the one-time “Bible of Baseball” (the Sporting News) has predicted a Chicago Cubs victory in the World Series. Which reminds me of the year that Sports Illustrated made that same prediction a decade ago, only to see the Cubs fail again as usual.

I was more intrigued by the prediction that the White Sox will also qualify for the playoffs – and survive into the second round before getting knocked out of the running!

SO THE SPORTING News is buying into the notion that both Chicago ball clubs are significantly improved and capable of being in the running for a league championship and World Series title.

If it were to happen, it would be only the third time that both teams had successful seasons in the same year. We all remember 2008 when both made it to the playoffs, then got knocked out in the first round.

While White Sox fans are forever bringing up 1906 – the one year of an all-Chicago World Series where the allegedly greatest team ever (they won 116 games that season) lost to the Sox four games to two.

It would be nice if there could be a city series out of Chicago some time in our lifetimes – although I suspect that for Cubs fans such a World Series would be the ultimate nightmare. It would mean their team FINALLY wins a championship (for their league), yet STILL falls short to the one team where defeat would be personal.

HONESTLY, I DON’T think 2015 is that year. I’m not sure any year in the next few seasons is going to be that year.

Because while I think both ball clubs have improved, I think they are merely in the running. Neither Chicago ball club ought to have fans thinking that they are dominant.

The Cubs may have picked up a “big name” pitcher in Jon Lester to go with the minor league prospects who may turn into solid ball players in coming seasons.

But none of those has produced at the major league level as much as someone like Jose Abreu, who is now the undisputed big bat of the White Sox and is on a ball club that picked up its own share of veterans to improve starting and relief pitching.

I THINK IT would be hilarious if Jeff Samardzija, the pitcher from Valparaiso, Ind., and Notre Dame University who was supposed to be the key to future Cubs championships wound up being the piece the ultimately led the White Sox to a title!

Although what I think is most likely to happen in 2015 in Chicago is a pair of third-place ball clubs; which is certainly better than two years ago when both teams flirted with losing 100 games that season.

I don’t care what the gamblers (with their 12-1 odds for the Cubs, compared to 20-1 for the White Sox) think – they’ve probably spent too much time watching the “Back to the Future” sequel (with the Cubs beating Miami in the World Series) while also waiting for the release of the film “Jaws 19.”

  -30-

From beisbol to baseball: looking forward to another dreadful season

I don’t seriously expect the World Series to be played in Chicago this year. Yet that doesn’t mean I’m not getting all giddy about the fact that baseball is back for 2013.

The Chicago White Sox begin their training camp for the season come Tuesday, while pitchers and catchers for the Chicago Cubs actually reported to their Arizona-based camp on Sunday.

NOT THAT I was waiting for those events to achieve a baseball fix.

Personally, I spent the bulk of the past week watching the Caribbean Series – the week-long tourney between the champions of professional leagues in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Puerto Rico that gives us the campeone de Latin American beisbol.

No, I didn’t stay up ‘til 3:30 a.m. on Friday to see the Obregon City Yaquis of Mexico’s Pacific League win the tournament (beating the Escogido Lions of the Dominican Republic 4-3 in 18 innings).

But it was intriguing to see competitive baseball played at a quality level, while seeing some of the Latin American peloteros who in coming years will be playing for ball clubs in the U.S. major leagues.

IT WAS EVEN a chance to see former major league ballplayers such as Karim Garcia and Fernando Tatis continuing their careers as professional ballplayers – while also seeing one-time star shortstop Miguel Tejada play at a star level rather than the level of an aging ballplayer hoping to latch on this season with the Kansas City Royals.

And as someone who was rooting for the Mexican champion to win the tourney, it was intriguing to see the Yaquis’ right-fielder – Marlon Byrd, whom Cubs fans will remember for his outfield play at Wrigley Field in recent seasons.

Perhaps it was good that he was the only ex-Cub on the ball club – or else we’d be learning if the ex-Cub Factor has the ability to take down Latin American ball clubs in the Caribbean Series.

Byrd isn’t a Cub anymore (he’s hoping to latch on this spring with the New York Mets), but is hoping that his .318 batting average, 16 home runs and 46 runs batted in in 57 games playing this winter in Mexico will help improve his chances of playing this season in Queens, rather than with the AAA affiliate Las Vegas 51s.

IN SHORT, IT was the perfect set up week to the idea of spring training. We won’t get any of those exhibition games from Florida or Arizona for a few more weeks. But at least we have the promise of another 162-game season; which can be intriguing even if there isn’t a serious hope of a pennant race either in Bridgeport or Lake View.

I’m honest enough to realize that the White Sox will probably have a “winning” season (at least 82 victories), which is what they accomplished last season. Whether that is good enough to win a division title and qualify for playoffs come October is really going to be a question about how mediocre the rest of the American League Central division is.

Having to rely on someone else’s less-than-stellar play is NOT the key to a successful season. When the big off-season move is retaining the “star” pitcher and not acquiring anyone new, it’s not evidence of a re-crafted ball club.

Although it probably will be better than the Cubs; who are on the continuing process of Theo Epstein to turn them from trash to champions in coming seasons. But the shift of the Houston Astros from the Cubs' division to the American League could result in the Cubs being a last-place ball club this season.

IT’S GOING TO be a long and arduous rebuilding process, and one that may wind up in failure. Although I’m sure the Cubbie faithful will continue to show up at Wrigley Field in hopes of catching a glimpse (with apologies to Steve Goodman) of the “ivy-covered burial ground.”

But even when played poorly, there is still an appeal to baseball – the perpetual challenge of the “head game” one-on-one challenge between pitcher and hitter, the hot defensive plays in the field, the base hit that comes at a key moment, and the sight of a knuckleheaded fan who loses track of the on-field activity and snatches a ground ball that was still in play.

It was such that I even felt the need to dig out a copy on DVD this weekend of The Stratton Story – the fictionalized take starring James Stewart as one-time White Sox pitcher Monty Stratton whose potential star career got washed away due to a hunting accident. Seeing the film footage of the old Comiskey Park had its own appeal.

So even if former Cub Byrd’s inclusion in a championship ball club is the on-field highlight of 2013, the return of baseball to our burgh will still be one of the year’s highlights for Chicago. All the more appropriate that this year's season begins on April Fool's Day!

  -30-

Beginning to look like winter

When I got into my car and began driving Friday morning, I had an "experience" I hadn't felt in quite a while.

I tried making a left turn, only to find that I was out of control of my vehicle. I was slipping and sliding on the snow.

I'D LIKE TO think my driver education teacher of some three decades ago would have been pleased to see my reaction -- I took my foot off the gas pedal and kept my hands firmly on the steering wheel.

All the while trying to turn against the direction the car was sliding in, until I was finally able to straighten myself out. The whole thing took a few seconds, I didn't hit anything (or anyone) and I felt like I was in control of my car even though -- technically speaking -- I wasn't.

My point in reciting this moment from my life isn't that I'm one of these people who thinks the whole world ought to be obsessed with my life's every minute happening.

It's just that I can't remember the last time I slid on snow. Which means it was actually snowing.

ALL OF THOSE snowplows were out, public works crews of every sort were busy. Those stockpiles of salt were put to work.

Because early Friday, for the first time in 335 days, we got a measurable amount of snow -- 1.1 inches, according to the National Weather Service types based at O'Hare International Airport.

Heck, even the lovely ladies of The Weather Channel were astounded Friday morning to see actual snow in Chicago. We haven't had a measureable amount of the white, fluffy stuff since last February.

We definitely didn't have a "white" Christmas. All we've had are light traces that barely lasted a few hours, let alone the entire cycle of a day.

A PART OF me has been feeling paranoid because of the lack of snow this winter. This is the Great Midwest. It's supposed to snow.

WGN-TV's renowned meteorologist Tom Skilling told the Chicago Tribune that we'd have 18 inches of the fluffy (or sometimes slushy) stuff by this point in winter.

It all makes me wonder if we're going to get whalloped with a monster storm later this winter season that will do massive devastation to Chicago.

Maybe something along the lines of that Feb. 2, 2011 storm that dumped a foot of snow on us in a 24-hour period. Or perhaps worse, something that would make the story seem like gentle kisses on a cool, spring day.

I'D LIKE TO think the fact that we got hit with a noticeable snowstorm somehow lessens the chance we're going to suffer come February or early March.

I can handle my car sliding about a bit now. It's the way things are supposed to be this time of year. What we have experienced in recent weeks has been downright unnatural.

Heck, I haven't even minded the sub-freezing temperatures of recent days just because I realize if I had to have a mild winter, I'd give serious thought to relocating myself to Florida.

Where at least I could be on hand for the March ritual of baseball spring training -- which will be combined this year with the playing of the World Baseball Classic tournament.

COME EARLY MARCH, I likely will be intrigued by the performances of potential powerhouse teams from Cuba and the Dominican Republic, wondering how Mexico's national team will fare, seeing if the United States can finally prevail in the game invented here -- and wondering above all if anyone can defeat Japan (winners of the tournament the two times it has been played).

The last thing I'm going to want is to wish I were in Puerto Rico or Arizona -- all on account of being snowed in here in Chicago.

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Who has more Ariz. pull, Quinn or Cubs?

When it comes to all the elements that make our beloved Chicago so unique, who or what has more potential to actually influence all those people in Arizona who actually believe their state Legislature did the right thing in passing a nativist-inspired immigration measure into law?

Pat Quinn, or the Chicago Cubs?

THE SAD THING is that the latter probably would have more influence, although it is The Mighty Quinn who is most likely to open his mouth on the issue.

He did so on Friday, giving us a predictable statement saying he thinks Arizona goofed big time in passing the measure that now requires local cops to take actions in enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Quinn says he agrees with the critics who say that people whom some cop might think “look” Latino or have a Spanish-sounding surname are most likely to suffer harassment, which Quinn calls, “un-American.”

He also said that anybody in Illinois who thinks the Land of Lincoln should enact a similar measure can forget it. He would veto it, and he is among those who wants federal government officials to pass some sort of reform measure that makes it clear many of the people who will be singled out by Arizona’s laws DO belong here in this country.

NOW I PERSONALLY do not have a problem with anything that Quinn said. I like it that I’m not the only person using the phrase “un-American” to describe this measure. In fact, I’d go farther in saying that most of the rhetoric and actions that come from the opposition to immigration reform is “un-American.”

Could it be that these people see all these Latin American newcomers to our country and feel threatened because their work ethic makes it likely they will become more worthwhile assets to the United States than these people could ever hope to be?

That’s laying it on a little thick. I don’t expect anyone to seriously be swayed into a sensible position by it. Which is about how I expect Quinn’s rhetoric will come across. It will be ignored by Arizona nitwits who don’t want to hear anything coming from anyone outside of their home state.

As for people in Illinois, the ones most likely to sympathize with Quinn’s view are the people who already are most solidly in his camp come the Nov. 2 elections. The question I have is how far will Republican gubernatorial nominee William Brady go to avoid saying anything about this issue?

KEEP QUIET AND draw no attention to immigration, and perhaps he can pass unnoticed. Express any kind of view, and he goes further toward driving more nails in the campaign “coffin” that says he’s too much a product of the rural part of Illinois to govern a state where two-thirds of the population lives in the metropolitan Chicago area.

Keep quiet, and maybe he’ll be able to keep part of that 7-point lead that recent polls show he has. Open up, and he fizzles into a loser. I expect Brady to say nothing, so this will likely not amount to much of an issue in our local elections.

But like I said, the Chicago Cubs could be the ones who have a bigger effect on the matter – because they can hit Arizona in its wallet.

Remember that deal Arizona officials negotiated by which a special tax on all baseball spring training game tickets would be charged to raise money to help pay to build the Cubs the upgraded training complex they so desired?

THE CHICAGO WHITE Sox might be able to relax that their fans are going to have to help pay for it, because the same Arizona Legislature that approved the nativist law never did get around to passing the bill that would approve the tax.

So it’s not official yet, and there were clauses in the agreement that the Cubs signed with Arizona officials that allowed them to negotiate with other cities that might want to host Cubs spring training if the Legislature failed to keep its end of the bargain.

Well, the Legislature failed. Could we now get the officials of Naples, Fla., who previously wanted the Cubs to relocate to renew their offer? Could the combination of political ineptitude combined with political idiocy cause the Cubs to think that now might be a good time to leave Arizona?

No matter how many activists picket outside of Arizona Diamondbacks games in Chicago and other National League cities nor threats to pull the All-Star Game from Phoenix in 2011 are likely to sway people. Not even getting baseball officials to join the Major League Baseball Players Association (the ballplayers’ union) in issuing statements condemning Arizona for its actions will do much.

BASEBALL’S BIGGEST HAMMER is all those spring training camps that liven up the economy and bring national attention to the suburbs of Phoenix every March.

Let’s not forget that the Cubs are considered the jewel of the whole Cactus League scene, with their games in Mesa usually selling out and all those Chicago-area tourists deprived of bad baseball being willing to cram their way into other teams’ ballparks to gain a glimpse of their cutesy Cubbies.

I don’t know what, if anything, the Cubs are inclined to do about this situation. But I can’t help but think that our city’s biggest hammer on this issue might very well be the baby bears clad in blue. And if it meant that the team could take a meaningful action, then for once, I might just have to chant, “Go Cubs!”

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Baseball is more than a game, even when it doesn’t want to be on certain issues

It was just over a week ago in the moments right after Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer put her state at the eye of the storm that is the immigration reform battle that I read a baseball-oriented website that suggested the Arizona Diamondbacks be kicked out of the National League.

The idea was that Arizona had shown itself to be too close-minded to be worthy of a major league baseball franchise, and that someone should move the Phoenix-based team to one of the other cities across this country that would like to have professional baseball at its highest level. Wrigley Field back in simpler times, before protesters ever thought it worth their time to gather at the ballpark to point out the fact that the visiting team comes from the "Show Me Your Papers" state.

NOT THAT ANYBODY within baseball (which has the ability to be 50 years behind the times at all the wrong moments) is taking seriously the concept of a franchise shift. Las Vegas, Portland, Montreal, Mexico City, Monterrey and northern New Jersey are not going to get a team anytime soon.

But there are fans who seem determined to ostracize the Diamondbacks (even though to the best of my knowledge, the only player on their roster who was born in Arizona was relief pitcher Bob Howry – who also has played for both the White Sox and the Cubs, along with the Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians and San Francisco Giants) this season.

Hence, we got the sight on Thursday of a few dozen people with picket signs outside of Wrigley Field, along with a nitwit counter-demonstrator who claimed that protesting against Arizona meant protesting against America.

It never fails to amaze me that the people of 50 to 100 years ago who truly believed that the “American Way” of life included segregation of the races have their equivalent in the 21st Century in thinking that this country’s ideals include exclusion.

STILL, MY GUT reaction is to wonder if the pickets outside of Wrigley Field will pick up during the remaining three games of the four-game series that runs through Sunday. Because I am sure there are some individuals who will hear that only about 40 people showed up at the humble abode of one Elwood J. Blues, compared to the thousands who were there to torture themselves with bad baseball being played, and figure that is evidence that they are somehow "morally correct" on this issue.

The USA Today newspaper managed to get one of these fans to say that people using a sporting event to protest a political issue is “silly.”

Then again, I’m sure he had his equivalents 70 years ago when some activists tried protesting the exclusion of black people from the ranks of professional ballplayers. There probably were those people who resented having that issue brought up when they were trying to escape reality for a few hours by watching a ballgame.

Now I will be the first to admit to understanding that latter sentiment. It is the reason I follow professional baseball.

BUT I ALSO have enough sense to realize that professional baseball operates within our society. It is not a world all to itself. It ought to reflect the realities of the world around it. So I’m not bothered at the thought that the Diamondbacks players are going to have to see this sight every day they are in Chicago, and probably every day they travel on the road.

I would expect that all of their road games for the rest of this year will result in local activists showing up outside the stadiums to remind people that their home teams are about to beat up on the boys from Phoenix. For all I know, that recent study about the least popular baseball teams (according to a new computer algorhythm that seems to make little sense) may wind up showing the Diamondbacks as the most despised team when it is recalculated – rather than the Cleveland Indians with their ridiculous “Chief Wahoo” logo on their caps.

Insofar as what Arizona fans will think of this attention being dumped on their team? I’m sure the ballclub itself will be only a small part of the derision that Arizona and its people are going to find themselves receiving.

Already, some business interests are getting concerned about the political situation – although that is mostly because businesses prefer for there to be no controversy whatsoever. Anything that draws attention is considered to be a negative.

SO HERE’S HOPING that the activist types this weekend can get a few hundred of their ranks to show up at the ballpark, even though the Saturday game will coincide with the Chicago protest march that will take a few tens of thousands of people on a walk from the Teamsters offices at Jackson Boulevard and Ashland Avenue to the shadows of the Picasso statue outside Daley Plaza.

Because activity like this will help draw some attention to the Arizona situation, although if Major League Baseball really wanted to get the attention of the Arizona political and business establishments, they’d threaten to pull all of their training camps out of the state and relocate entirely to Florida.

Somehow, I think we’d have an easier time convincing baseball officials to move the Diamondbacks to another city.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Probably the only way to sway Major League Baseball that Arizona’s situation impacts them is for some of their ballplayers to have to endure law enforcement harassment while visiting Phoenix.

I can’t help but wonder about Rodrigo Lòpez Muñoz, one of the Diamondbacks pitchers this season who comes from Tlalnepantla in central Mexico. Because he is desired by a professional sports team, his route to a visa is much simpler than most people (although his can, and will, be revoked the instant he is released by the Diamondbacks). What happens the day Lòpez is late for a “big game” because some cop didn’t want to believe that this particular “Mexican” could have legitimate papers?

Arizona politicians have just as little backbone as Major League pols

Spring training camp for professional baseball clubs is no longer about dispatches from distant desert towns or swampland cities in the South providing a manager a chance to spout platitudes about how this year is THE YEAR the team will win the pennant.

It is a business opportunity in and of itself, with these Arizona and Florida towns that host training camps doing what they can to get baseball-fan tourists to come see their teams even before the regular season begins.

SERIOUSLY, CHECK OUT the websites of the major league ball clubs. Looking at the schedule for the Chicago White Sox, I see a month’s worth of games that don’t mean anything (beginning with Thursday’s matchup against a Los Angeles Angels team consisting of ballplayers who likely will spend this season with the Arkansas Travelers).

But I also see how the website is set up so that people can click on a link to buy tickets, and click on another link if they want to reserve a hotel room while they’re in town.

Kind of like a weekend in Las Vegas, only for people who think that gambling and the actual games of chance are borderline stupid.
Facilities for baseball spring training have come a long way since the days of the 1910s when Olympian Jim Thorpe was trying to make the New York Giants' ballclub at their training camp in Marlin Springs, Texas. Photograph provided by Library of Congress collection.

With this being the reality of spring training in the 21st Century and towns like Glendale, Goodyear and Surprise being dependent on the economic jolt they will receive during the upcoming month, it doesn’t surprise me to learn that government officials are taking this seriously, and showing a willingness to cater to the demands of major league teams similar to every city that ever got conned into paying for a new stadium it really couldn’t afford – in order to keep its hometown team from talking of moving to Vegas, Charlotte, N.C., or Portland, Ore. (the usual suspects whenever new baseball cities are pondered).

SO FROM A political context, I can understand what was going through the minds of officials in Mesa, Ariz., and the Arizona Legislature when they concocted a deal that is meant to bolster spring training camps in their state.

The problem is that the deal is getting the perception that it went waaaaaaay too far to pander to one ball club – our city’s very own Chicago Cubs. That has other teams upset, including most vocally this week, our city’s real ball club, the Chicago White Sox.

The White Sox, along with the Angels, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Cincinnati Reds boycotted an annual breakfast event held this week that is meant to kick off spring training camp – even though ballplayers started showing up in camps two weeks ago.

The boycott was meant to be a protest against the new 8 percent surcharge being attached to all tickets sold to spring training games in Arizona. When combined with a $1 surcharge on car rentals in Maricopa County, Ariz., it is expected to raise money for the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority to sell bonds that will be used to pay for construction of a new stadium and training camp that Mesa proposed to build for the Cubs in order to keep them from seriously considering offers to relocate to Florida.

SO IF YOU were planning on attending Thursday’s exhibition between the future Birmingham Barons (a.k.a., White Sox) and the future Arkansas Travelers (a.k.a., Angels) in Tempe, Ariz., you will be helping to pay for Mesa to keep the Cubs every March (it’s too bad they couldn’t keep them year-round and spare Chicagoans the sight of stupid baseball played each season, but that is another topic).

That goes for every one of the 15 major league teams who hold their training camps in the Cactus League (as opposed to Florida’s Grapefruit League).

I can understand why teams would get upset about having their ticket revenues impacted by a surcharge to help another team. Much of the training camp economics is about trying to gain a financial advantage for oneself. Now, teams are going to be helping the hapless Cubs.

But a part of me wants to credit the Cubs for having the chutzpah to think they could have someone tap into other teams to get themselves a new facility. I’m not naïve enough to think that if the White Sox and Dodgers could have received a similar tax to help build their new Camelback Ranch training camp in Glendale (also home of the one-time Chicago Cardinals of the NFL), they would have taken advantage of it.

INSTEAD, THIS NOW becomes another arguing point in the baseball tensions that exist in our city between South Side and North.

When combined with the fact that I remember it was Illinois state government (rather than Chicago city government) that paid for construction of the now-named U.S. Cellular Field in the late 1980s), I can kind of comprehend why Mesa would claim they alone are not capable of paying to construct the training camp facility desired by the Cubs – who have been at Mesa since 1979. It used to be Scottsdale, now the spring home of the San Francisco Giants.

I suppose Mesa thinks they’re being generous in offering up $26 million of their own (about 30 percent of the total anticipated cost) for the training camp project.

Yes, a part of me thinks it would have been ideal if it were just the spring training exhibition game tickets sold at Ho Ho Kam Park in Mesa that had the surcharge. Let the Cubs fans who like to think they attend spring training games in greater numbers than fans of other teams (who most likely can’t spare the time because they have jobs, remember Lee Elia’s diatribe?) pay the surcharge to give their team a one-month luxury training camp before they spend a season playing in the cramped quarters of Wrigley Field.

BUT THEN, I look at the reality that accepts the fact that all ballclubs have managed to play municipal government for suckers in terms of getting not only new stadium facilities built, but usually manage to work out lease agreements that call for minimal rent while also giving the ballclubs control of much of the revenue (concessions, parking, etc.) that comes from ball games.

It is the old American showman P.T. Barnum who is generally credited with the saying, “there’s a sucker born every minute.” The Cubs found their “suckers” in the form of Mesa and Arizona politicos, who will then pass along the cost to the baseball fan – who is made to feel like the ultimate sucker.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Jerry Reinsdorf expressed his disgust, along with other team owners, at having his spring training revenues being affected (http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2010/03/02/20100302teams-skip-cactus-league-breakfast.html#comments) by plans to build a new training camp for his White Sox’ season-long rivals.

Spring training is now as much about generating income as it is preparing (http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/schedule/index.jsp?c_id=cws&m=3&y=2010) for the upcoming season.

Arizona is growing more and more important to baseball (http://www.cactusleague.com/) when it comes to training camps. Yet a part of me wonders what baseball would be like if the Cubs had never given up on Catalina Island (http://www.springtrainingonline.com/teams/chicago-cubs.htm), off the coast of California.