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Thursday, August 4, 2016

Fever Pitch - A Great Baseball Movie -- And Two Unrelated Questions

I saw a few minutes of Fever Pitch today.  That's the movie with Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore where he's quite a fanatic fan of the Red Sox.

The part where he takes her to Opening Day brought back good memories.  He's got great season tickets and everyone around him is a long-term friend/acquaintance from the ballpark.  I'd seen the movie before, but this was the first time it brought back great memories from Wrigley Field.

From 1987 until the players' strike in 1994 I went to over 30 games a year at Wrigley Field.  Back when bleacher seats were unreserved, I would go every Sunday before 8:00 am to get in line.  We'd talk baseball and read the paper while sitting on the cement.

At 11:20 am they'd let us in, two hours before game time.  We'd run up the stairs and block off a bunch of seats with our stuff.  Normally there would be 30-50 people around me by game time.  Most of them were people I knew only from the ball park.

Those were some great days at Wrigley Field.  Thanks to all of you who sat with me and talked baseball incessantly.  I miss those days.  I'd even see these same people at Cub games in St. Louis.  It has been almost 22 years since that players' strike.  I haven't seen any of those people since August of 1994.

I was so mad that baseball ruining my upcoming vacation (Denver, Anaheim, Oakland) that I didn't watch baseball at all again until 2005 when my wife and son followed the White Sox World Series season.  I've gone to Wrigley Field only two or three times since 1994 and I've not been in the bleachers at all.  Watching the movie makes me wonder what would happen if I showed up on a Sunday.  Would I know anyone?

12 players who appeared on a Kellogg's card from 1970 - 1983 were still active after the strike.  Can you name some of them?  One played for Boston for a while (8 years) and one played one year with them.

Five players ended their careers either at the strike or just before it.  Here are three of them - Kirk Gibson, Kent Hrbek and Lonnie Smith.  The other two were the only two players in baseball history to endure all eight work stoppages.  Can you name them?



Garvey has nothing to do with this.  I'm just too lazy to edit the photo.







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