ICYMI: Last Saturday night the Chicago Cubs won the National League Pennant. They are currently playing the American League champs, the Cleveland Indians, in the World Series.
Game 2 Update: The Cubs just tied up the series one one.
There are two terrific people who did miss it, however.
My father and…
Legendary Chicago sports announcer, Jack Brickhouse.
Last Sunday would have been my dad’s 97th birthday so he missed the news that the Cubbies had won the pennant the night before. He also missed the news of the Cubs’s winning the ’45 pennant because it was World War II and he was on board the aircraft carrier the USS Shangri-Là at the time.
Jack missed calling that game because he, too, was in the Marines.
My dad was a Northsider with strong ties to the Cubs. He finally gave up in disgust (“They stunk.”) and switched allegiance to the White Sox.
But at the end of his life, he returned to his first love and avidly followed the Cubs’ progress.
Jack started out in Chicago in 1940 when WGN hired him to broadcast Cubs and White Sox games.
He called both Cubs and White Sox games until 1967. (He was able to do that because they almost never played at home at the same time.)
He retired in 1981.
And he died in 1998.
My father and Jack crossed base paths only once.
I was in eighth grade attending some Friday night dancing classes called “On To New Trier.”
They were overseen by an old dowager called Mrs. Woolson. (You can read all about them here if you’re so inclined.)
Our parents took turns chaperoning this Clearasil and Tussy lip gloss minuet, and one Friday night, it was my mother and father’s turn to attend and make sure no one misbehaved.
I paid them the requisite no attention. But at the end of the evening, my dad came up to me. His eyes were aglow and he was VERY excited.
“Why didn’t you tell me Jack Brickhouse would be here? He’s the greatest!”
I indifferently shrugged my thirteen year year old shoulders. I didn’t know that Jean Brickhouse, his daughter, also attended these dancing classes. (We had gone to different junior high schools. I wouldn’t formally meet her until New Trier.)
“He’s my idol,” my dad gushed. (Very uncharacteristically, I might add. My father was emphatically not a gusher.)
“And you know,” he continued. “If I ever envied another guy his job, it would have to be Jack Brickhouse. What a way to make a living.”
He sighed. Just the mere thought of getting paid to call baseball games sent him into an ardent daydream.
I never forgot that.
So Ben and Jack, INCYMI, this one’s for you.
Go Cubs Go!
Ellen, the Cubs are in the World Series?! I had no idea … not.
Click here for a relevant crossword puzzle I wrote just a year ago. Do you think it will come true this year?
And thanks for the old Brickhouse memories.
Thanks, George. It’s no surprise that your twin passions for baseball and puzzles just might crisscross(word.) I’ll get to it right after I finish the Sunday diagramless.
Though I am a Sox fan I am pulling for the Cubbies. Ellen, I want you and all my Cub fan friends to experience that feeling we had back in ’05. So GO CUBS GO!!
Thanks, Dale. That’s mighy White (Sox) of you. 👍😊⚾️
I, along with my parents (White Sox fans but cheering for the Cubs) went to all 4 home World Series games in 1945. I was 16. Even though my first 8 years were on the South Side, I was always a Cub fan. I have my scorecard, filled out by me, from the sad seventh game. It cost $0.25! It’s been a long 71 year wait for another Cubs World Series. I did cheer for the White Sox when they won in 2005. I saw the Sox World Series game in the ’80’s (?) when Sherm Lollar fell while rounding 3rd base (he either went back to third of was out at the plate – I don’t recall). I gave my ticket for the next game to my younger sister – like my parents, she was a Sox fan.
GO CUBS!!!!!
Thanks, Herbie, for this fascinating birds eye view of the 45 series. This adds historical as well as personal significance to today’s blog and I love how your comment dresses it up. Thank you and keep cheering them on! Go Cubs! ⚾️
Herbie,
It was the second game of the ’59 World Series. With the Dodgers leading 4-2 in the seventh, Kluszewski and Lollar singled with no one out off Larry Sherry (Jewish, by the way). With “Klu” on second base, Lopez (the manager) sent Earl Torgeson to run for Klu.
Al Smith then doubled to deep left-center field scoring Torgeson. Lollar HESITATED going to second base fearing the ball would be caught. Wally Moon relayed to Maury Wills who threw home to get Lollar easily at the plate.
The Dodgers got out of the inning and won game number two. The series then went to L.A. where the Dodgers took two of three.
The series then came back to Chicago for game 6 where the SOX lost.
That play with Lollar probably turned the series around…..Too bad.
Larry Sherry was voted MVP of the ’59 series.
P.S. I was at the opening game of the ’59 series. Sat in the right field upper deck with my brothers!!
Wow! Thanks for the play by play, Bernie Brickhouse. Nice callin’! I’ll tell Herbie.
My family’s history with the Cubs goes back to 1908 when my grandfather was a soda vendor at old Weeghman Park on the West side of Chicago where the Cubs played before Wrigley Field was built. He knew Tinkers, Evers and Chance, My other grandfather saw his first Cubs game when his big band(Lew Diamond Orchestra) played at Wrigley. They sat in the grandstands behind home plate. Go Cubs Go.
Another comment home run! This is terrific, Mitch. I love these very personal reflections. Thanks for hitting it out of the park. And love to your dad. ⚾️
I celebrated High Holiday services at Temple BethEl in Hammond , Indiana in 1959. Barry Latman, a White Sox pitcher , spent the holidays at my synagogue instead of being on the mound!!! It was a grand year for the White Sox. My scrapbook exploded with articles about Nellie and Louis…..I saw two fabulous Cubs games when I returned to Chicago for a visit last summer. I love all of our great teams and celebrate all their victories!!!
Nice to know that Latman pulled a Koufax. Nice bit of Jewish Baseball Trivia. I loved Nellie and Little Louie, too. Thanks, Jackie.