Mary Frances and Bill Veeck in March 1959 when Bill purchased 54 % of the White Sox for $2.7 million. (Photo courtesy of the Veeck family.)
There were clouds, but Mary Frances Veeck never paid much attention to them.
After I heard of the Sept. 10 passing of Mrs. Veeck I began to realize that almost every time I saw her we were sitting outside. The first time was opening day April 1976 in the Comiskey Park bleachers after her husband Bill bought the White Sox. Mr. and Mrs. Veeck looked me in the eye as we spoke. I was just a kid among 40,300 happy fans.
In July 1991 I drove to Cooperstown, N.Y. to [...]
A Tesuque Pueblo player during a pickup game on July 4, 2021 at the Pueblo in Santa Fe, NM. The Tesuques play in the All Indian League, an adult baseball league that includes pueblos across New Mexico. (Courtesy of Jean Fruth)
Grassroots baseball players have always been highway gypsies.
They travel from diamond to diamond with jewels of their trade: bats that are needles of a mystic compass, gloves that try to catch all that goes by, and cleats that are as down and dirty as road tires. And when the journey is realized, the gypsy is safe at home.
The new Jean Fruth book “Grassroots Baseball: Route [...]
Ted Butterman, 1935-2022 (center)
The Chicago Cubs paid regal tribute to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II with a moment of silence before Friday’s game against the San Francisco Giants.
But they missed on Wrigley Field’s King of Swing.
Slugger Dave Kingman? Nope. Third baseman Patrick Wisdom? They’re still here.
Wrigley Field bandleader Ted Butterman died Aug. 31 in a care facility in Buffalo Grove, Il. The Dixieland jazz maestro was 87 years old. He was in hospice for one day. A lifelong musician, Mr. Butterman played to his biggest audiences between 1982 and 2017 at Wrigley [...]
High school-era Pete Crow-Armstrong
SOUTH BEND, Ind.—Maybe this isn’t all about baseball.
I’ve devoted some of the summer following the South Bend Cubs, the Midwest League High-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. The future lives in South Bend, the birthplace of Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. I’ve followed the team to Midwest League outposts in Beloit, Wi. and Davenport, Ia. Last Friday I saw the Cubs lose 3-1 to the Quad Cities River Bandits before 6,700 fans on a steamy South Bend evening.
I keep a notebook on the passenger side of my car. I jot down thoughts and observations. [...]
SPRINGFIELD, Mo.–Out on the west side of Springfield, Mo., there is a new campground called Revive 66. It is along a forsaken stretch of Route 66. Some dreams died here. Others moved on. The campground is across the Chestnut Expressway from the Orchard Hills pharmacy and flower shop. The campground is adjacent to the Redwood Motel, a separately owned transient lodge where a sign suggests “Try Jesus.”
Revive 66 is a landing place for the homeless.
It is one of the most innovative projects to serve the homeless in America.
People sleep in one of 43 new solar-powered teardrop campers. It is the first solar-powered RV park in the United [...]
The one and only Otis Clay.
Otis Clay was a singer that was filled with goodwill.
No gig was too small, every note he sang created a choir of inspiration.
The world-renowned Chicago-based gospel and soul vocalist died of a heart attack in January 2016. He was 73. He is greatly missed. In a 1988 interview, he asked me, “What is it that makes a man rich?” Without hesitation, he answered, “You’ve contributed something.” Otis was always looking at forward progress.
The City of Chicago will honor this community treasure Otis with an Otis Clay street sign in a dedication ceremony [...]
In search of the pure food beer (Courtesy of June Sawyers.)
Scottish by birth and a Chicagoan by heart, June Sawyers has written more than 25 books.
Her prolific catalog includes “Praying With Celtic Saints, Prophets, Martyrs, and Poets,” “Dreams of Elsewhere: Selected Travel Writings of Robert Louis Stevenson” and a couple of my favorites, “Bob Dylan: New York” and “Racing in the Street: The Bruce Springsteen Reader.” She teaches at the Newberry Library in Chicago.
I’ve known Sawyers for many years.
I did not peg her as a beer person.
But she has just released “Chicago Beer (A History of [...]
Roland Hemond, 1929-2021
Roland Hemond is one of the most remarkable front office figures in Chicago baseball history.
He worked for White Sox owners John Allyn, Bill Veeck, and Jerry Reinsdorf. As White Sox general manager in December 1971, he traded pitcher Tommy John to the Los Angeles Dodgers for slugger Dick Allen, which saved the Chicago franchise. After a lousy 1971 White Sox season Allen enchanted the south side in 1972 while hitting 37 home runs and winning the American League MVP.
Hemond spent 70 years of his life in baseball.
He died last December at the age of 92.
I’ve weathered the [...]
National Audio Company projects (D. Hoekstra photo)
SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—Rewind.
The National Audio Company near downtown Springfield does more than backtrack the past as the largest manufacturer of cassette tapes in the world. Vintage maple desktops in the company’s first-floor office have classic pink “While You Were Out” notepads. Employees still come to offices and answer phones at National Audio, just a country heartbeat from the birthplace of Route 66.
Company president Steve Stepp is a model train buff and sings the praises of songwriter Neil Young, a long-time Lionel train collector, [...]
Yoshi Sekiguchi on stage in Japan, 1958 (Courtesy of Sekiguchi family.)
Like the best version of life, Yoshinobu “Yoshi” Sekiguchi understood that good art is made without boundaries. The power of imagination can lead to freedom. Open your mind and you hear songs everywhere.
In Japan during the 1960s, Mr. Sekiguchi was known as “The Japanese Hank Williams.” He had a bit country singing role in the film “A Majority of One” (1962) with Rosalind Russell playing a Jewish woman who falls for a Japanese diplomat portrayed by Alec Guinness. In the 1970s, he became a Chicago designer and art director, working [...]
The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame & Museum in Milwaukee (Provided photo.)
Just when you think there’s nothing but bad news in this world along comes word that the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum is releasing a talking Les Grobstein bobblehead.
The Grobber Bobble will be available starting today (March 11), which would have been the beloved Chicago sportscaster’s 70th birthday. The bobblehead is being produced by the Milwaukee-based museum in conjunction with Grobstein’s family and Autograph1. Grobstein died on January 16 in his Elk Grove Village home.
The bobblehead audio is a [...]
The Des Plaines Theatre, circa 1936. Postcard image via Revitalized Des Plaines.
The newly remodeled Des Plaines Theatre is a heavenly addition to the Chicago area’s entertainment landscape. The theater opened in August 1925 as a vaudeville and movie house. The Des Plaines reopened late last year after an ambitious restoration that rolled through the pandemic. The historic theater had been empty since 2014.
The city of Des Plaines purchased the art deco theater for $1.3 million in May 2018. The city partnered with nearby Rivers Casino, which chipped in up to $ 2 million for renovations. The city [...]
All postcards are from the author’s collection and not from the web.
I once knew of simple passages where I could find adventure.
The Antique Trove in Scottsdale, Az. and Antiques on Pierce in Milwaukee each contained booths filled with bright postcards busting at the seams in rows of white memory boxes. The backsides told of new horizons, unadorned pleasures, and a longing for the reader on the other end. The postcards were neatly organized by states, countries, and themes (Baseball, birds, Christmas, diners, etc.) I visited each antique store in the last couple of months.
The collection in [...]
Ron Norkus at the Acapulco Mother Hubbard’s (Courtesy of the Norkus family.)
The wheels of life are driven by beautiful mysteries.
On the surface, Ron Norkus had a colorful and wild run on this earth. On the inside, he was driven by a generous heart and a wonderful sense of humor. Mr. Norkus was labeled as an esteemed “1970s Rush Street Hall of Famer” by his pals Jimmy Rittenberg and Johnny Blandino, one of the original general managers of the Palm Restaurant in Chicago.
Mr. Norkus died on Oct. 19 from complications of Parkinson’s Disease at his home in Dallas, Tx. He was 81 years old. He [...]
From left (Quigley, Parker, DeShields, Vandersloot.) Image via Sky in the Chi.
I’ve followed the Chicago Sky since they were founded in 2005.
I remember congenial NBA Hall of Famer Dave Cowens as the WNBA team’s first coach and I entered the franchise “Name the Team” contest. I suggested Skyliners. One of the Sky’s original minority investors was Matthew Knowles, father of then-Destiny Child lead vocalist Beyonce Knowles.
My respect for women’s basketball dates back to my first newspaper job at the Aurora Beacon-News, outside of Chicago. In 1972 I wrote a feature on Title IX, which created an equal [...]
Frank & Mary’s Tavern, 2905 N. Elston. (D. Hoekstra photo)
There used to be a lot of blue-collar bars like Frank and Mary’s in Chicago.
You might walk through the front door under a 44-pound replica muskie in a glass case. A brown “Richard J. Daley Mayor Vote Democratic” shopping bag might sit in a dusty frame near the flickering television near the old tin ceiling. A silver toothpick dispenser might sit in the middle of the bar.
But there’s no right in might.
Brother and sister Frank and Mary Stark opened Frank and Mary’s, 2905 N. Elston in 1972. The muskie, the Daley bag, and [...]
Bo Diddley house, 4746 S. Langley on 9/20/21. Image courtesy of Chicago Fire Department.
There is a gritty beat to the music of Chicago.
It is deeply appointed, carries no pretense, and is something to hold on to. Forever.
In 2004 the late Bo Diddley told me he developed his famous beat when he heard Gene Autry’s “(I Got Spurs That ) Jingle Jangle Jingle” on the radio on the south side of Chicago.
Diddley was born Ellas Bates McDaniel in Mc Comb, Miss. just north of the Louisiana border.
His family moved to 4746 S. Langley in Chicago when he was seven. They wanted him to escape the sharecropper’s [...]
It is tough to be alone.
Music, books, and foodways can form a meaningful bridge to a welcoming place. A point of memory. And inspiration. I thought about these elements while contributing suggestions to the Music Lives Here multi-media project created by the City of Chicago.
The 50 Music Lives Here sites define the raw individualism of the Chicago ethic: Willie Dixon’s Yambo Records, 7771 S. Racine, the pioneering punk club O’Banion’s, 661 N. Clark, the Earl of Old Town, 1615 N. Wells, and many others, obvious and not so obvious.
The Music Lives Here markers are on sidewalks and feature a QR code for time travelers to gather more information. Starting [...]
Riverview Stadium, Clinton, Iowa–built 1937.
CLINTON, IA..—The Clinton LumberKings hosted the Burlington Bees on Aug. 3 in their final home game of the 2021 Prospect League season. Both Iowa teams landed in the Prospect League, a collegiate wood bat league after Major League Baseball kicked them out of the affiliated minor leagues. Both teams have storied histories.
The Bees were members of the now-defunct Midwest League from 1962 until 2020. Their home field was built in 1947. The LumberKings were also members of the Midwest League from 1956 until 2020. They play in the historic Riverview [...]
Chuck E. Weiss (Image via ANTI- records)
Singer-raconteur Chuck E. Weiss lived in a world of flickering neon where every ashtray was filled and sunset hearts wandered on the edges of empty. Weiss was popularized in the 1979 Rickie Lee Jones hit “Chuck E’s in Love” but I came to know him in 1987 when he was headlining Chuck E. Weiss and the Godddam Liars, an industrial-strength rock n’ soul revue at The Central in West Hollywood, Ca.
Chuck Edward Weiss died on July 20 after a battle with cancer. He was 76 years old.
Exit numbers: 7/20/21. Sounds lucky.
Once in a while, the Chicago Sun-Times [...]
