I cast votes for a whole slew of judges, but don’t ask me who any of them are!

I went to an early voting center on Wednesday and spent about 15 minutes going through the process of casting a ballot for the 2016 general election cycle.
 

Yes, I did!

The highlight may well have been getting my sticker that informs the public in so many languages that “I Voted!” Gee, aren’t I special?!?

FOR ANYONE WHO has read my commentary, it shouldn’t be any surprise that I couldn’t cast my vote against Donald Trump’s presidential aspirations quickly enough.

Aside from Miss Hillary, I also cast my votes for Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate (Tammy Duckworth), Cook County state’s attorney (Kim Foxx) and Illinois comptroller (Susana Mendoza). I also said "no" on road funds and on merging the recorder of deeds with the clerk's office, but "yes" for the earned sick time measure.

In the case of comptroller, I have noticed that many official endorsements are backing her opponent, Leslie Munger, on the grounds that Mendoza is tied in too tightly to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago; without noting that her opponent is nothing but a lackey for Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Independence is a dirty word, it would seem, when it comes to lower-level political posts.

BUT I HAVE to confess that when going through the process of filling out a ballot this time around, I was caught noticing the level of cluelessness I felt going through all those judges.

 

Would this "judge" have been better?

Some of whom I was asked to make a mark beside their name for retention, while others I was asked to vote “yes” or “no.” There were a couple of cases where I was asked to pick a name.

Yet as I write this, some five hours after I actually cast my ballot, I’m not sure I could name any of the people I voted for to serve as judges within Cook County. That truly is sad. It really is clueless on my part, and borders on political irresponsibility.

Yet I doubt I’m alone in this regard. I suspect that most of us don’t have a clue about judges, and have probably trained ourselves to not think twice about this. After all, how can you be bothered about screwing something up if you don’t give it any thought at all?

 

MENDOZA: She got my vote!

BEING A REPORTER-type person, I did recognize a few names of judges – either because I may have once covered some type of story that occurred in their courtroom, or perhaps because some of these names have popped up on enough ballots throughout the years that they’re somehow stuck in my brain.

Similar to how I can remember ballplayers of the early 1970s when I was a kid – Johnny Jeter is just one of many names that takes up valuable brain space that probably could be better devoted to something more useful in life.

But for the most part, I don’t know the legal qualifications of the people whom I voted for – which is exactly what (I suspect) the legal types like about it. Why get ourselves all worked up worrying about qualifications.

So long as they look authoritative while wearing a black robe, that’s all that matters to some people. Even if we wind up with incidents such as the one in at the sixth district circuit courthouse in suburban Markham where a judge let someone else don her robe and get a feel for the job -- even though the person wasn't a judge at all!

OF COURSE, I suppose I could have followed some of those ridiculous rules that political people concoct; in particular that one about liking the sound of Irish ethnicity names.

 

I know more about .244 hitter than judges

If anything, that so-called rule makes me inclined to vote against Irish names when I cast my ballot, figuring they don’t need my vote to win. Heck, there have been some times when I was sarcastically inclined to automatically vote for every Spanish ethnic name on the ballot as a way of mocking the so-called rule.

Not that such acts are any more responsible. Because in the end, the rule of thumb that ought to apply is, “You get what you vote for.”

And if you’re the type who didn’t put any thought into the ballot aside from wanting to back Donald Trump (or dump all over him), then you deserve whatever form of political abuse your mind concocts from the actions of government in coming years.

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Early voting a perk or scam? Or just a reason for malcontents to complain?

The early voting centers for Cook County opened this week, which means some people have already managed to cast their vote for Hillary vs. The Donald, and all the other political posts that are up for grabs this election cycle.

Cook County Clerk David Orr was among those who used Early Voting on Monday. Photo provided by county clerk's office

I didn’t get a chance to do so Monday, but likely will find time to do so in the next few days. The reporter-type person in me finds it easier to deal with working on Election Day if I don’t have to take time to wait at a polling place for my turn to cast a ballot.

I’M SURE MANY other people find a similar convenience, which justifies in their minds use of an early voting center. Of course, I’d argue anything that encourages more people to vote is a good thing. As it is, more than 25,000 people used early voting centers in Cook County on the first day they were available – a new record that nearly doubles the old mark set Oct. 22, 2012!

The only people who want to limit the vote are those people who fear that the electorate will toss them out of political office on their fannies, Which is our right as the public to do. It’s certainly more our right than those people who want to make a crusade out of packing a pistol in public – and probably wish they could carry one into the polling place on the off-chance someone makes them feel threatened.

Perhaps being near people who find it within themselves to back Hillary Clinton will terrify all those Trump-types to the point where they feel compelled to let loose.

But the bottom-line is that early voting has become a convenience factor. And while I like the idea in theory of a single day in which the masses of our nation come together to express our political will, it just might not be practical.

I’VE BEEN THINKING quite a bit about this in recent days, ever since I happened to stumble onto an Indianapolis radio station that had a knuckleheaded host complain about the early-voting concept.

He views it as being borderline subversive. He wants it totally done away with.

He thinks anybody who actually votes early is being irresponsible and ought to have their ballot taken away from them.

For he argued with a straight voice (I’d say straight face, but being radio, I couldn’t see it) that people who cast their ballots prior to Election Day are depriving themselves the information they’d get about all the candidates if they waited.

AS IN HE thinks there is something special about the inevitable tidbit of sleaze that gets spewed right before Election Day; in hopes that one candidate can use to scare off voters from casting ballots for their opposition.

Considering that Trump’s daughter-in-law recently went on a television talk show and told of the last-minute surprise that Donald has in store for Hillary (what, she wouldn’t say. We’ll just have to wait and see), I would expect that Trump will come up with some borderline-libelous tidbit about Clinton.

Then again, his whole campaign has been nothing but classless drips and drabs that were meant to take down others – but have only served to show the electorate just how classless and tacky Trump himself is.

Actually, I believe anybody who seriously lets themselves get influenced by the last-minute nonsense is the one who is potentially reckless enough that we ought to think of taking away their ballot!

BESIDES, I CAN’T help but think that most people have privately made up their minds. Anybody who is so indecisive that they don’t know yet between Clinton and Trump is just being wishy-washy.

If anything, I have been ready for the final vote for weeks now. Besides, if we’re really supposed to wait for all the trivial tidbits that can be offered up, perhaps we should postpone Election Day. Give even more time for us to supposedly learn more dirt about the people who managed to get their political parties’ presidential nominations.

But that’s not going to happen. I suspect most people want this whole nonsensical process to end – and will be prepared to stone me for even jokingly hinting that it should last any longer than necessarily.

In short, when I cast my ballot, it will be to ensure I express my say in this electoral process – one that Trump has tried to delegitimize as much as he can perhaps because he knows it’s not rigged; and he fears the outcome of an honest election.

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The goat, vs. Rocky Colavito

Is this destined to be the All-Loser World Series. The one between cursed ball clubs – in which the image of Rocky Colavito gets to beat up on a goat!
 

Whose 'curse'...

The World Series for 2016 has turned out to be a matchup between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs. Both teams are charter members of their respective leagues, meaning they’re both over a century old.

BOTH HAVE ONLY two World Series victories in their histories (1920 and 1948 for Cleveland, as opposed to 1907 and 1908 for the Cubs). Both have old fans who have never seen their team win the whole thing, and have endured decades of horrendous baseball in the process.

 

... will prevail?

Meaning anybody who’s going into this week thinking that the Cubs just have to come out ahead is seriously misguided. It would be just as much of a moral victory for baseball if this were the year of the Indians.

Heck, one could argue that with the way the Cubs created an allegedly lovable image that makes some people think ivy-covered walls is what baseball is all about and that winning is secondary, the team hasn't suffered at all.

They never played home games in the “Mistake on the Lake,” as in the Lake Erie-based stadium of some 76,000 seats that could look absolutely desolate when only 6,000 or so were showing up to see the Indians contend for last place in their division throughout the years. The less said about “Dime Beer Night,” the better.

Which team will these two spirits...

ONE ALSO HAS to admit that the Curse of the Goat that Cubs fans also cite as the source of their losing teams has a contender in the Curse of Rocky Colavito – Rocky being the slugging ballplayer of the 1950s whom the Indians traded away to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn.

It was supposed to be a home run hitter for a potential batting average champion. Rocky went to Detroit and played respectably, while Kuenn never played as well for Cleveland.

By the time the Indians reacquired Colavito in a trade in the mid-1960s, they had to give up a ton of young talent to do so. And by then, Rocky just wasn’t the same ballplayer himself.

...be rooting for this week?

I suppose Cubs fans could claim they have their own bad trade history, what with letting Lou Brock get away to the St. Louis Cardinals. But the point is that this World Series is going to be one in which a team gets to kill off its demons and finally give its fans the championship they’ve been waiting for; no matter who wins.

IT MAKES ME wonder how many cemeteries across northern Ohio are going to wind up with Indians pennants on the gravesites of now-deceased fans who never got to see their team win the whole thing?

Or is that sight destined to occur across the north side of Chicago. Because among those who are tied spiritually to the South Side, there will be those rooting for an Indians victory. I’m not kidding – I’ve talked to enough of them to know Cubdom doesn’t unite the city, no matter how much Cubs fans want to think the whole world is rooting for their ultimate victory.

Is having to play ballgames here enough reason ...

What does amuse me is that the 1948 Indians team that was the last to win a World Series for Cleveland has its Chicago ties. Its player-manager was Lou Boudreau – the prep sports star of Thornton High School in Harvey who later in life paired up with Jack Brickhouse in broadcasting Cubs games on WGN-TV.

And let’s not forget Bill Veeck, who owned that Indians team. It was his first major league team he ran outright, after having worked while a kid for the Cubs when his father was team president who helped put together the teams that won National League championships every three years throughout the 1930s.

YET EVEN THOSE teams always fell short come October. The Yankees of Babe Ruth, then Joe DiMaggio, and the Detroit Tigers were the teams that came out on top. While Cleveland has to live down the shame of being the team that let a second-rate wildcard like the ’97 Florida Marlins beat it in the World Series.

... to be entitled to break a 'curse?'

Thereby leading to our current predicament of seeing whether this is the year of the Cubs, or the Indians. Cleveland’s team this year isn’t a pushover – it whomped all over Boston and Toronto in the playoffs, and isn’t going to be intimidated by Cubbie lore.

So before North Siders get too cocky, keep in mind that it could easily be you come a week from now who will be agonizing aloud, “Why God? When will it FINALLY be our turn to win!”

  -30-

EXTRA: More ridiculous film premise – Major League or Rookie of the Year?

What with a Cleveland vs. Cubs World Series taking place this week and early next, it has me wondering about a pair of baseball-themed films from recent years and trying to figure out which was more absurd.

As in the “Major League” series, or “Rookie of the Year.”

YOU LIKELY KNOW of the Major League films as the source of many one-liners that oft get repeated as gags during baseball games. There even are moments when all those high-tech video boards inside modern-day stadiums are used to show snippets of them for laughs.

And it was the Major League series that gave us that eternal philosophical question – can Jesus Christ hit a curve ball?

Then, there was Rookie of the Year – a film largely intended to be something that parents can take their children to see. It tells the tale of a 12-year-old boy who suffers a freak injury to his throwing arm that makes it possible for him to throw 100-mile-an-hour fastballs.

Because the kid supposedly lives on Chicago’s North Side, he signs a contract to pitch for the Cubs. And supposedly leads them all the way to a playoff game, when his arm supposedly snaps back into place and he begins throwing again like a not-particularly-athletic 12-year-old kid.

ALL IN ALL, a ridiculous premise. But no more silly than a film that answered a ballplayer’s request to snap out of a hitting slump and sacrifice a chicken by providing him with a bucket of Kentucky Fried.

Although I always thought the Major League series, which uses the Cleveland Indians as its heroes in humor, to be more absurd. The sequel film Major League II was the low point – because it was the one that treated the Chicago White Sox as the all-powerful team that needed to be vanquished by an underdog Indians squad.

Not even the most drunken of Sox fans would ever think that their team was all-powerful – except at offering up the best-tasting Polish sausage at the ballpark concession stands.

Perhaps we’ll just have to answer back with a showing of “The Monty Stratton Story” or "Eight Men Out." Or “The Kid From Left Field,” which in 1979 starred Gary Coleman at the peak of his “Whatchu talkin’ ‘bout Willis!” fame as the youthful pseudo-manager (it's really his father, Robert Guillaume of "Benson" fame) who leads the San Diego Padres to a World Series appearance against none-other-than the White Sox. Which truly is absurd!

  -30-

A 'President' Clinton needs political allies if she’s to get anything done

I have lost track of the number of e-mail messages I have received in recent weeks from political operatives – all bearing the same message.
 

BOOKER: Will try to bolster Dem support in Ind.

Cough up some campaign cash to bolster the chances of Democrats taking control of the Senate and House of Representatives, or it won’t matter by how much Hillary Clinton beats up on Donald Trump come Nov. 8.

THEY’RE ALL WRITTEN in the same depressing tone of how we people who don’t want the conservative ideologue viewpoint rammed down our throats on every issue have already lost because Republicans will likely continue their obstructionist ways when it comes to governing.

Some of these e-mails go so far as to try to “guilt trip” me, by letting me know their records show I haven’t given a dime to any candidate or political cause. Mostly because I have never made a political contribution in an effort to maintain some sort of impartiality. The ones attributed to political operative James Carville are amongst the most over-the-top in their rhetoric.

Perhaps it’s good that the allegedly-liberal interests don’t think of me as some sort of lackey. Although I suspect the ideologues read what is written here, and have already written me off as incorrigible.

But someone is going to have to come up with the kind of cash to help support the kind of people who would be inclined to ally themselves with a second Clinton presidency.

WHICH IS WHY it was intriguing to read the Washington Post’s report how the Clinton campaign itself is coming up with $1 million to support Senate and gubernatorial candidates running in the neighboring states of Indiana and Missouri.

Both are states that often lean Republican, but in the case of Missouri has shown some support for Democrats. Particularly if St. Louis and Kansas City can band together to out-vote the rural parts of the state that lie in between.

 

CLINTON: Pitching in her own campaign cash

While in Indiana, Democrats there have expressed hope that the fact that Gov. Mike Pence gave up his post to try to bolster the Trump presidential dreams means that a non-incumbent Republican can actually be beaten by Democrat John Gregg.

While the potential comeback of Evan Bayh could shift the U.S. Senate seat up for grabs in the Hoosier state come next month.

CLINTON HERSELF IS seeing a need to do something to try to build up allies in places that might otherwise turn out to be hostile to her political desires. Which is good. Because if they’re counting entirely on $3 contributions from people solicited via the Internet, they’re going nowhere.

The Indiana elections are of particular interest because it will be that part of the Hoosier state that lies just across the state line from Chicago that will decide if Democrats can actually have any influence there.

Because I don’t doubt that in places like Fort Wayne or Terre Haute, there will be voters convinced of the dreadfulness of Hillary Clinton and/or the superiority of Donald Trump in the White House.

It will be people in places like Hammond (just across the state line) and Gary (a couple towns to the east) that will decide what happens.

WHICH IS WHY local Democrats have a rally planned for Tuesday in downtown Gary where Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., will try to inspire local residents to turn out to vote.

 

PENCE: Will absence from Indiana help Dems?

Booker, the former mayor of Newark, will try to inspire locals of the similarity of their depressed communities, and how a Clinton presidency could be the factor that makes a difference.

Because there have been countless tales in recent months of just how badly Trump flopped when he tried operating a riverboat casino in Gary. Stories that may have a more negative effect in Indiana than any tale of Trump thinking he can grope any babe who happens to catch his eye.

Although it does come off as a bit depressing that we in Illinois, who will wind up providing our Electoral College votes to Clinton in a landslide, will have to rely so heavily on our neighbor states to influence the future direction of our government. Pro-Hillary, or continued obstruction!

  -30-

What a difference, a year makes

I couldn’t help but get my Sunday chuckle from the New York Post, which gave a subdued, if straightforward, attempt at portraying the Chicago Cubs’ National League championship (a first in 71 years) on its front page.

Particularly since I remember how over-the-top the paper was a year ago in making it clear the Cubs were meant to be walloped in the playoffs. Of course, then, the opposition was the hometown New York Mets.

SO MY QUESTION from a year ago remains – does this make Mr. Met the equivalent of a giant, smelly gorilla? With the Cubs being the equivalent of the fair Fay Wray (Jessica Lange or Naomi Watts, if you’re of younger generations)?

Or does this year’s play of the story mean that the Cubs’ win is acceptable because it came against the lowly Los Angeles Dodgers – for whom some aging Noo Yawkers have never forgiven for leaving their real home in Brooklyn?

The World Series begins Tuesday in Cleveland, and comes to Wrigley Field Friday through Sunday.

No weekend sporting conflict there, as the Chicago Bears don’t play again until Halloween (against the Minnesota Vikings), which will be a travel day with the teams returning to Cleveland for games six and seven – unless somebody actually manages to wrap this series up in under five games.

  -30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: What should we make of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which on Sunday published a story telling how Hollywood would turn the Indians' 2016 season into a film with a truly-Hollywood ending -- the Indians beat the Cubs in the World Series, four games to two. Somebody somewhere is going to be seriously disappointed with the outcome a week or so from now.

EXTRA: It’s about time!!!

1945 is now an obsolete year for Chicago sports fans to care about.
 

The Cubs' big star of '45

The Chicago Cubs Saturday night managed to pull off a 5-0 victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers, giving them the win in this round of National League playoffs and also ensuring that 2016 will go into the record books as the first league championship won by a Cubs team since, in the words of singer Steve Goodman, “the year we dropped the bomb on Japan.”

OF COURSE, THE big year that gets the attention is 1908 – as in it has been 108 years since a Cubs team managed to actually win a World Series. The Cubs have actually played in seven World Series since then.

Yet 1910, 1918, 1929, 1932, 1935, 1938 and the aforementioned 1945 were all losses – with ’32 particularly memorable when Babe Ruth did-or-did-not “call” that home run he hit for the New York Yankees in Game Three at Wrigley Field.

That latter season of 1945 is actually regarded as somewhat of a fluke, what with the way baseball was weakened with many of the real ballplayers getting drafted into military service during World War II.

As it turned out, the Cubs’ big name that year was first baseman Phil Cavaretta – who managed to avoid serving in the military due to a hearing problem. With shortstop Lennie Merullo (whose grandson, Matt, later was a catcher for the Chicago White Sox) being the last-surviving member of that team when he passed on a year ago.

BUT CONSIDERING HOW lacking the Cubs’ history has been in terms of ultimate victory, every little bit of praise gets overblown – particularly when one considers just how dreadful the franchise became during the 1950s, ‘60s and 70’s.

 

The Cubs' big star since then

Cubs fans like to forget that, thinking that the presence of shortstop-turned-first baseman Ernie Banks somehow made the team an elite franchise instead of just junk unworthy of his presence.

But all of that sinks into the past, as Chicago will have its second World Series in this century. The Cubs can now hint at some similar level of success with the White Sox. Who, after all, brought the Second City its first World Series win of the 21^st Century 11 years ago.

And also gave Chicago the ultimate comeback that we’ll throw in the faces of Houstonites in a decade-or-so when their city likely surpasses ours in population.

BUT BACK TO the Cubs of ’16 – who had their segment of Chicago all worked up. I was in downtown and the Near North part of Chicago and saw my share of “W” flags hanging from various windows.

A heroic World Series moment against the Cubs

I also couldn’t help but notice Miller’s Pub, that antiquated restaurant on Wabash Street, which had its marquee sign set to read, “Hey Chicago, what do you say?”

Anticipating that the hard-core of Cubbiedom would fill in the next lyric of Goodman’s “Go Cubs Go” team anthem on their own. While White Soxdom would feel a gnarling punch to the gut at the very thought.

Yes, I made a point of digging up a White Sox cap to wear Saturday while wandering around the Cubs-leaning portions of Chicago. I actually got a couple of cheers, while most Cub-types merely gave blank looks.

ALMOST AS THOUGH they were afraid they would somehow jinx a potential victory if they got too cocky with their retorts.

No longer the last Cub to play in a Series

Because, after all, there’s still the World Series to get through. Let’s not forget that the American League champion Cleveland Indians have their own lengthy streak of years without success – nearly seven full decades.

As an American League baseball fan, I actually paid more attention to those rounds of playoffs than any of the NL nonsense of the past couple of weeks. This is a Cleveland team that beat up on Boston, then handily defeated Toronto. It isn’t a ball club that’s going to be intimidated by any Cubbie trash talk, by any means!

Which means that a week or so from now, we could very well have Cubs fans feeling crushed (and a few spiteful Sox fans feeling delirious) and the “Wait ‘til next year” slogan taking on new meaning.

  -30-