EXTRA: Will Disco Demolition really sell Buona Beef more sandwiches?

Thursday is the day (the night, specifically) that the Chicago White Sox will be using 40-year-old memories of exploding records and running amok on the Comiskey Park turn to try to attract fans to the old ball game.

The game against the New York Yankees is having a t-shirt giveaway -- 10,000 shirts remembering the events of July 12, 1979 when the White Sox bolstered their attendance for a double-header with the Detroit Tigers by letting people into the ballpark for 98 cents IF they brought a disco record to be blown to smithereens.

THE PROMOTION WOUND up being too successful. The anticipated crowd of some 20,000 turned out to be in excess of stadium capacity, with another 20,000 or so people stuck outside trying to figure out a way to sneak in.

And as we all remember, all the burn-outs who wanted to rock 'n' roll all night and rage against the evils of disco music (mostly because they couldn't dance) wound up losing control, storming the field, causing significant damage to the playing field, and have many people to this day ranting and raging about how "stoned" all those kids must have been.

The event is considered something significant in White Sox history -- which is why the team says it went ahead with using the 40-year-old event as a reason to celebrate.

The giveaway

Although I wonder just how many sandwiches Buona Beef (the sponsor of Thursday's event who paid for all the t-shirts being given away) will actually wind up selling as a result of the event?

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Included is a YouTube recording of that ballgame, The 2-hour, 34-minute mark is the key point where the records blow up, while 2-hours, 39 minutes is where the "fans" take over, and where broadcaster Jimmy Piersall starts denouncing the crowd as a batch of followers.

Women to become like knights in chess; leaping from square to square in search of safe space for abortions

There are those people with dreams that the Supreme Court of the United States is on the verge of striking down their 1973 ruling that made abortion of a pregnancy a legitimate medical procedure.

Queen the 'most powerful' chess piece, but women could become more like knight, hoping around the states looking for safe space when it comes to abortions

They fantasize that the overturning of the “Roe vs. Wade” court ruling will allow states to go back to the old days, so to speak, when a woman losing a child would be reason for a police investigation – to see if anyone did anything deliberate to cause the loss of a child.

WHICH ALSO MAKES these people the ones whose blood pressure shot sky-high Wednesday, when Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Reproductive Health Act into law.

That’s the measure approved this spring by the General Assembly (the one that got Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and state Senate President John Cullerton excommunicated from the Catholic Church by the bishop for Springfield).

It is the one that says any attempt to take down a woman’s right to end a pregnancy by her own choice at the national level won’t change things in Illinois. Because our state will remain one where the issue is perceived as a gynecological one – rather than something involving morals.

Of course, that enhances the concept that our nation is destined to become a chessboard, of sorts.

OUR NATIONAL MAPS will start to have versions where abortion is regarded as a health issue – as opposed to one where the police are called for whenever a pregnancy ends unsuccessfully.

Abortion restrictions continue to evolve into national chessboard effect

Think I’m kidding?

Take our own Midwest. We could wind up one of the most split regions of our nation when it comes to abortion policy.

For Illinois is establishing itself as a state where a woman can go, if she needs/desires the procedure. While our bordering states are becoming places eager to establish themselves as one where we call the cops on any woman who doesn’t view the creation of a new life as her most significant function on this planet.

OVER IN INDIANA, the state has a law requiring a fetus to receive a proper funeral (either through burial or cremation), which would create more of a hassle for women viewing an abortion as a way of getting out of an inconvenient pregnancy. The Supreme Court recently upheld that.

Whereas over in Missouri, one of the controversies of late is the fact that officials are refusing to renew the permits allowing Planned Parenthood to operate a clinic in St. Louis that includes abortion amongst the services it performs.

That clinic happens to be the only one anywhere in Missouri where a woman can get an abortion. Meaning the clinic in nearby Granite City, Ill., is now likely to become jammed up with women crossing the state lines so they can no longer be pregnant.

Whose choice should it be … 

The Mississippi River could become a boundary women will have to cross. So too could State Line Road – the street that literally separates Chicago from Hammond, Ind. AND Illinois from Indiana. Since our Hoosier neighbors have made it clear they also view abortion as something that ought to be a police matter.

WITH THAT STATE’S attitudes receiving national prominence because many of its efforts to restrict abortion access came about back when Vice President Mike Pence was Indiana governor – and he makes it clear he’s not only not repentant, he’s one of those who’s hoping all the Southern states (Alabama, Mississippi, etc.) pushing their own anti-abortion measures ultimately result in giving the Supreme Court an excuse to take down “Roe vs. Wade.”

… with regards to that potential for a baby inside?

It’s going to be the chessboard effect – with some 30 of the 50 states enacting laws intended to make abortion, if not a criminal act, one that is next-to-impossible to obtain. Women in places like Illinois, New York or California (or other states dominated by a sizable urban area) will have it, while those in more rural places will be like the knight in a game of chess – leaping over state lines to wind up somewhere where political people are more tolerant.

Even though there is evidence that many women everywhere are supportive of the notion that abortion is a medical issue – a recent poll for NPR and PBS found 63 percent think a woman who is raped or suffers from incest (which are criminal acts) ought to be able to end a pregnancy, while 86 percent think saving a woman’s life or health is sufficient reason.

While only 24 percent think that a doctor performing such an act is a criminal – with 71 percent opposed. Just one more bit of evidence on how out-of-touch the ideologues are when they spew their rhetoric about the, “cruel dehumanization of unborn Illinoisans on a mass scale.”

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Obama Museum/Library advances, or merely the beginning of legal brawls?

A federal judge at the Dirksen Federal Building issued a quick ruling with regards to the fate of the proposed Obama Presidential Center – one intended to let officials begin actual construction in Jackson Park as quickly as they can get themselves readied.

Will the plans for Obama memorial move forward now?

Although I already can envision the many people who will take offense at the idea that a judge didn’t reject the Obama facility as something despicable and shameful, and are bound to bog down the process with many more legal appeals.

WHO’S TO SAY when actual construction will begin on the South Side to build what supporters argue will be an attraction bringing global tourism to a part of Chicago many wouldn’t bother paying attention to.

That is, unless they want to check out the Museum of Science and Industry nearby, while refusing to venture much further away out of fear what they would perceive as a hostile neighborhood.

Yes, I think there are many distortions of fact related to the project, also tied into the nitwit thoughts of ideologues who want to think they can diminish the historic significance and reputation of the Barack Obama presidency.

For all I know, they dream of the day when the Donald Trump presidency makes plans for its own memorial museum and library. Maybe they’ll dream of building it nearby in Chicago, with their structure towering high over the Obama building.

MY POINT IS it’s hard to take seriously much of the criticism that is being spewed about this project, and it is encouraging that U.S. District Judge John Blakey felt compelled to dismiss the lawsuit challenging the Obama facility after hearing only about one hour of legal arguments.

He easily could have taken the case under advisement, and spent several weeks pondering what he wanted to do. Before then issuing an obtuse legal opinion that likely would wind up confusing many of those who attempted to peruse it.

Instead, he instantly said he was dismissing the lawsuit against the Obama facility, and would issue an explanatory legal opinion at a later time.

OBAMA: Paying tribute to his memory?

Which means the critics already are saying they’re going to appeal. But they have to wait until they see the legal reasoning for the ruling before they can say on what grounds they think Judge Blakey is being a nincompoop.

OR WHATEVER LEGALISTIC term they choose to use to imply that Blakey is wrong!

Now I know there are people who object to the use of Jackson Park – which theoretically is one of the prime pieces of parkland on the Lake Michigan lakefront in Chicago. They think that letting a private entity like the Obama Foundation use public land borders on criminal – if not immoral.

Then again, there are others who object to anything celebrating the Obama memory because they want to believe that HE bordered on criminal AND immoral.

I know one self-proclaimed Sout’ Sider who argues against Jackson Park, and says that Washington Park to the north of it (the site where former Mayor Richard M. Daley once talked of erecting an Olympic Stadium – IF he had been able to attract the 2016 Olympic Games to Chicago) would make more sense.

ALTHOUGH I WONDER if many people who don’t specifically live in the South Shore or Hyde Park neighborhoods could tell the difference between the two parks. They may well view the two as one continuous piece of parkland on the lakefront – located in neighborhoods they’ve never actually ventured into.

I almost feel like Judge Blakey chose to dismiss on the grounds that the people most critical didn’t have a true stake in the project. Or else they’re the ones who live around the park and want to think of it purely as their neighborhood playlot.

Keep all those outsiders away from their homes, instead of them realizing they live in a place that has great potential to be a showcase for Chicago. One from which they could financially benefit – if they played their cards right, so to speak!

So now we move on to the appeal process. With people perhaps looking for a judge who’d be inclined to overturn Blakey’s ruling just because it favors the Obama reputation. Meaning the Obama reputation will continue to divide us into those of us with a tad bit of sense, and those ideologically-inclined to want to shriek “no” every chance they get!

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A crucial public service, or a place to lounge? The purpose of a dog park

Reviewing the various aspects of the budget that officials prepared for Illinois state government’s upcoming (beginning July 1) fiscal year, there’s one aspect that has managed to catch my eye – dog parks!

Rocco, Carmelo encounter a friend (left) at the local dog park. Photos by Gregory Tejeda

It seems that Illinois officials thought to include some $400,000 that will be given to officials in Chicago and Aurora to be used to either develop new, or improve existing, facilities where pet owners can legally let loose their animals.

AS IN THOSE areas completely fenced in so that a dog owner can legally bring their precious pet, unhook their leash and let them run about. Working off the frustration of being chained up the rest of the day.

The idea is that it’s pet exercise. They can run. They can play. They can interact with other dogs – although one aspect of every dog park I’ve ever seen is the separate portion maintained for dogs who act up.

Almost like a ‘doggie jail’ for those pets who just can’t “play nice” with each other.

My own experience with dog parks involves the two canines my father and step-mother have. I help out with their walking, and periodically am the one who puts the dogs in the car so we can make a 5-minute drive to their neighborhood dog park.

WHICH I HAVE to admit, it’s like the two dogs (Rocco and Carmelo, a black standard poodle and tan goldendoodle respectively) eagerly anticipate the trip. Getting them to climb in the car is never a hassle. Although sometimes, Carmelo tries to then move to the front driver seat – and oftentimes will have his paws up on the steering wheel as though he’s going to take the automobile out for a spin.

Carmelo (right) encounters a pack at the park

Then, we arrive at the dog park (which is a fenced-in area about the size of two football fields where it is legal to unleash the animals and they’re encouraged to run around to their heart’s delight). It’s like the excitement level boosts the moment the dogs realize exactly where they’re going.

In fact, the real trick is to wrestle with the dogs long enough until we actually get past the locked gates that demark the point at which the municipal “leash” laws no longer apply.

Plus, I always find it intriguing the notion that any dogs who happen to already be in the park come running over to the gate to “check out” the newcomers.

WHICH INVARIABLY CREATES a noisy racket – everybody in sight is barking at each other, and it doesn’t end until the dogs are safely inside and off the leash.

Then, there’s the sight of dogs galore running all about. And sometimes my father’s pooches managing to find another doggie or two whom they feel some special bit of attention for. They make a new “friend,” so to speak. Other times, they “wrestle” with each other.

Carmelo gets playful at the dog park

Personally, I find it enjoyable to know I can let the dog off the leash and they can have some freedom (of sorts) to run about as they please. Which is why I find it odd that some people seem to think the dog park is a place to find a bench to sit in the sun and watch while their own dog is perched nearby. It’s like those people won’t let their pets have any fun.

Then again, I’ve heard of some dog owners insist they’ll never take their pets to one of these public parks. They insist their precious pooches will get contaminated by the germs carried about by everybody else’s mutts!

OF COURSE, I have to admit that Rocco once developed a pretty serious cough – one severe enough that he was taken to the “vet.” Who ultimately diagnosed it as “kennel cough,” and said it most likely was something he caught off another pet at the dog park. Some medication and a two-week time period away from the park turned out to be the cure.

My father playing w/ pooches at park

Now I know some communities have had these facilities for some time, while others are trying to turn any sizable plot of land they have into a dog park. I know in Gary, Ind., officials are contemplating using a one-time Little League baseball field as a dog park – on the grounds that the outfield fences already are in place. A one-time center field can become a new doggie playland.

Over here in Illinois, the General Assembly signed off on providing $50,000 to the Chicago Public Schools to develop a dog park in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood, and $200,000 to the Chicago Park District for a place in the Hyde Park neighborhood and another such facility elsewhere. While the Fox Valley Park District will get $150,000 for a new dog park in Aurora and upgrades to an existing park in Montgomery.

It might be the smartest money spent, if it encourages people to not let their pets roam free and unleashed. Now if only we can get all pet owners to pick up their animals’ poop, we’d have a better world.

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Where, oh where, will casinos go?

It seems we’re destined to get several more gambling casinos erected in both Chicago and the nearby suburbs.

Will this become political battleground in war of casinos?

We’ll be able to take our pick of just where we want to go on the occasion we feel the need to throw some money away on the off-chance we can hit a big jackpot and become instantly wealthy.

BUT THERE’S ONE factor that has been popping up in my brain – the way in which the siting of a city-based casino will also impact the way the so-called south suburban casino will be located.

There are several municipalities scattered throughout southern Cook County, all of which are insistent that they’re the only local place to erect one of those tacky, flashy, gaudy structures that promise instant wealth (and downplay the chances you’ll walk out of there flat-broke, instead).

It seems there is one line of thought that a south suburban casino ought to be placed in a community fairly close to the Illinois/Indiana border. Almost as though its existence would stand in the way of people who otherwise would try to fulfill their gambling “jones” by venturing to those casinos in Indiana (Hammond, East Chicago and Gary, to be specific).

Why cross over State Line Road to the land of Hoosiers if you can gamble closer to home?

SO IF THE notion of a casino being located near the Lincoln Highway right by Interstate 394 (just barely in suburban Ford Heights) becomes reality, does that impact the idea of a city-based casino by making it more likely that such a facility would be located in the heart of downtown – to take advantage of the nearby presence of out-of-town tourists?

Or does the concept of putting a city-based gambling complex down around the 10^th Ward (as far southeast as one can go and still be in Chicago proper) become the big boost to the people who think a suburban casino ought to be at a site on Interstate 80 at Halsted Street?

I should make one confession. I have a step-mother who enjoys the environs of a casino (playing the slot machines is her big kick), and that latter location would put a casino about a five-minute drive away from her home.

It intrigues me the way these varying proposals for more gambling are going to impact each other – even though the political people tend to act as though the city-based and suburban-based casinos will exist in differing worlds.

ALMOST AS THOUGH they’re Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Rather than the idea of an East Side neighborhood in Chicago casino being only about a 15-minute drive down the Bishop Ford Freeway to the would-be Ford Heights site.

Which may also suffer from the general reputation that suburb suffers in the public eye. I already can envision the notion that many people will have in thinking a Ford Heights site is too decrepit to want to go to.

Or it could also turn out to be like when Ford Motor Co. decided to build an auto plant in that area, and actually picked a site right on the municipality’s border. What was then East Chicago Heights, Ill., went so far as to rename their town to try to make Ford Motor think they were special.

ONLY TO HAVE the company choose to annex into Chicago Heights proper. Would a casino feel the need to claim they’re in another town (Sauk Village or Lynwood?) to escape the perceived stigma?

For all those people who already are calculating how much of a cut their municipality will receive in tax revenues from a proposed casino, we ought to consider that just because the Illinois General Assembly has given authority to allowing a few more casinos does not mean anybody’s ready to open for business anytime soon.

If anything, the real political infighting will now begin – with village vs. village being pitted against each other to argue the merits of who’s most worthy of having a casino with over-priced buffet where one can gorge themselves in between black jack hands operating within their boundaries.

Because let’s not forget – the operating premises of many casinos is that they want to keep customers inside at all times. They certainly don’t want them spending money at any surrounding businesses in the community – spending that would generate true economic development.

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Trump-types at Wrigley; so apropos

The Republicans, particularly that faction of the Grand Old Party that actually believes in the ideals of Donald Trump and is willing to spend their own money to try to get him re-elected in 2020, will be convening in Chicago this weekend. 

Will Trump-ites invade Wrigley? Or will it feel like usual touristy crowd?

They’ll be at the Four Seasons Hotel, where they’ll be partaking in sessions where they’re supposed to plot just how they go about trying to get a majority of the electorate to cast ballots for Trump.

AND LIKE ANY other batch of tourists, they’re planning on taking a trip to Wrigley Field. They’re taking a chartered bus on Saturday, where they’ll attend a reception at the ball club’s offices across the street from the ball park.

Then, they’ll catch the game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Not that it should be a surprise. The excessively-wealthy Ricketts family owns the ball club, and also has been prominent Republican backers who have made it clear they don’t have any objections to Donald Trump during his term as president – and certainly wouldn’t object if he manages to get re-elected next year.

Although news reports indicate it’s not exactly like it will be a takeover of Trump-ites at Wrigley Field.

Trump used to claim Yankees-fandom, … 

THEY’LL BE SEATED together in a separate section, which the team is refusing to identify. Perhaps they think it’s possible for the Trump-ites to blend in with the Cubbie crowd.

Although I won’t be surprised to learn that the bulk of the fan base attending Saturday’s game won’t actually be able to identify which of the people there are attending because of Trump – and which actually care about the ball game!

Then again, the stereotype of the Wrigley denizens is of a batch of people who are there to be seen, and probably care less about the activity on the playing field.

So maybe the only way we’ll be able to tell them apart is if the Trump crowd takes it upon themselves to wear those ridiculous red “Making America Great Again” caps – while everybody else will be anxious to wear Cubbie blue.

… just like Hillary Clinton used to do

EXCEPT FOR THOSE fans of the Cardinals who make the trip up to St. Louis. They’ll be in Cardinal red, identified most clearly by the “birds on the bat” logo that St. Louis has worn for decades.

Seriously, what always has struck me about the character of the crowds that attend Chicago Cubs ballgames is how touristy they are.

It’s like people who come in from out-of-town make a point of checking out the Willis Tower, Navy Pier and shopping on Michigan Avenue – and if they really feel like doing something “nitty-gritty,” they take in a ballgame.

In that sense, all the political out-of-towners coming to Chicago this weekend will be able to blend in with the Wrigley Field faithful. No real Chicagoan will be seen anywhere near 1060 W Addison St. (which cinematic fans automatically know is the alleged humble abode of one Elwood J. Blues).

SO I FIND it humorous to know that some people are getting all outraged about the ballpark presence of Trump-type people at Wrigley this weekend. Personally, I find it quite fitting. The Wrigley scene is exactly where I’d expect them to show up on those rare occasions they’re in Chicago.

As for the rest of us who’d rather not think of anything political when we venture out to the ballpark, perhaps we’ll find a reason to check out the Chicago White Sox. They’re in Kansas City on Saturday, playing a weekend series against the Royals.

Odd how many different outlets mis-IDed this 'Disco Demolition' photo as 1974's 'Dime Beer Night' in Cleveland

But the Washington Nationals will make an appearance this week, followed up by a four-game series against the New York Yankees. Personally, I’m considering making a trip to Thursday’s game – when the White Sox are holding a promotion remembering the 40-years-ago “Disco Demolition Night.”

Free t-shirts to those fans who want to remember the night when Steve Dahl developed a national reputation, and the White Sox game that night is still remembered – not bad for a promotion of a game between the American League’s two fifth-place ballclubs that season and will be remembered long after Saturday’s Cubbie affair is forgotten.

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How much has politics changed? Madigan used to be anti-abortion ally

Michael Madigan, the head Democrat for Illinois (although not Chicago) and long-time Illinois House speaker, has formally been informed he can no longer accept Communion when he goes to church.

MADIGAN: Can no longer take communion

Strictly speaking, officials in charge of the Roman Catholic church in Springfield, Ill., have excommunicated him. Which must be tragic, of sorts to the one-time graduate of St. Adrian’s Elementary and St. Ignatius College prep schools in Chicago, along with the holiest of holy Catholic universities – Notre Dame.

THE ANNOUNCEMENT CAME down as a result of Bishop Thomas Paprocki, who is in charge of the Springfield, Ill., diocese. Paprocki is so peeved that the General Assembly debated (and approved) the Reproductive Health Act.

That’s the measure that ensures even if the anti-abortion ideologues manage to get the Supreme Court of the United States to act in ways meant to eliminate on a national scale the right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy, it will not impact Illinois.

The “Land of Lincoln” will remain a place where abortion will be regarded as a legitimate medical procedure.

Madigan said Thursday he had been contacted by Paprocki prior to the Legislature acting last month on the bill in question, and knew that Paprocki would be likely to act with grave disapproval. Yet he went ahead and used his political influence to allow the issue to come up – where it passed overwhelmingly.

PAPROCKI: Taking a stand on abortion

AS MADIGAN PUT it, “After much deliberation and reflection, I made the decision to allow debate and a vote on the legislation.”

Then, he made the statement that I’m sure the religious ideologues will claim confirms his place in Hell for all eternity.

“I believe it is more important to protect a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, including women who become pregnant as a result of rape or incest,” said Mr. Speaker,

Yes, I write that knowing full well there are those who will screech and scream about “God’s law” being supreme above all else, and who are more than willing to overlook any suffering in this lifetime because, theoretically, the life eternal is special enough to overcome the miseries of this existence here.

CULLERTON: Also dragged into battle

SO MADIGAN, STATE Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, and for all I know, maybe all Catholic members of the General Assembly, are now excommunicated. To suffer eternal punishment for thinking a woman’s health and physical well-being is her own business.

Which is ironic because I remember back a couple of decades when anti-abortion activists considered Mike Madigan himself to be about as sympathetic to their cause as any politico could be.

His Catholic upbringing meant he wasn’t particularly sympathetic to that portion of Democrats who wanted the political party to be allied with women on this issue. I remember anti-abortion types saying Madigan was good for them because he’d allow their bills meant to restrict abortion in various ways to come up with debate. Some of them would even pass.

As opposed to playing political “boss” and cutting off any discussion on the issue.

OF COURSE, THE reason their larger stance never passed was because the majority was sympathetic on abortion, which ultimately drove Madigan into the abortion rights camp on the issue.

CUPICH: Shaking his head at donnybrook that has arisen?

And which now has him condemned by Paprocki. He won’t be able to take Communion – at least not as far as at any Catholic church in Springfield. Although Paprocki later told the Chicago Tribune he’ll restore Madigan if he makes an apologetic statement, then introduce a bill repealing what the Legislature just did.

As to whether Cardinal Blasé Cupich of the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago would feel compelled to get involved, that remains to be seen. Considering that Paprocki is the bishop who, a few years ago, stirred up a national stink when he held an exorcism at his church in response to the Illinois General Assembly making it legal for same-gender couples to legitimately marry, he may be reinforcing a reputation amongst Catholic as to everything that is wrong with their religious faith.

Cupich himself may want to steer clear of this affair. While Madigan himself joins the ranks of many Catholics who step aside during Mass to let others take Communion, while wondering if this is further evidence their church has lost touch with the daily realities of life.

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