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Cubs Convention Remembrances - Part Two

Thursday, January 20, 2005

The Cubs Convention starts this Friday, and I will be attending for the first time in several years. As best I can remember, I think this will be my fifth convention.

What follows is the second in a four part series of my personal Cubs Convention recollections.

I attended my second Cubs convention in 1996. For me, this convention marked a high point in Cubs optimism. I was fourteen, the great strike of 1994 had finally finished, and the Cubs had played most of a season in 1995. Then, on October 31, 1995 Ryno made an announcement that he would be coming back to play in 1996. The announcement came days before my birthday, and days before tickets went on sale.

So, with my childhood idol coming back to play I was excited about the convention. I don't remember too much about the other things we did that year (I know we ate lunch at a hot-dog stand about three blocks from the Hilton, and it was bitterly cold outside.) However, what I remember crystal clear was the question and answer session with Ryno.

Since I'm no wallflower, I was about third in the line to ask Ryno questions, and I'd cooked up a good one. I had read his 'autobiography' and he had made some rather nasty remarks about how Sammy Sosa had received preferential treatment. And so when I got up to the mic, I said...

Mister Sandberg, I read your book, "The Second Coming..."

At this point in time the room erupted in laughter and I had no idea why, so I finished the question. "If you had problems with Sammy before you retired, are those problems going to continue being an issue? What has changed to make you decide to come back?"

I told you I had cooked up a good one, since most of the other kids were asking dumb questions like whats your favorite... ? Still, I might have lost a bit of credibility referring to Sandberg's 'second coming' rather than the real title of his book "Second to Home."

This evening: Cubs Convention Remembrances - Part Three: The Cubs windbreaker.

Posted by Byron at January 20, 2005 7:37 AM | | |

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