Today, we celebrate the 21st trip the Earth has taken around the sun since Micheal joined us back in 2005. Given his health situation, I don’t see much celebrating in his future, but we do mark the occasion with a phot of him outside Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, TX, where we saw the stage production of Clue last spring.
Historic Games Part Two
Last summer, the White Sox fell victim to Clayton Kershaw’s 3000th career strikeout and I decided to take a look back at the historic games I’ve attended over the years. Here is part two, featuring another six games where an individual hit a career plateau or a team clinched a division title or playoff series.
July 20, 2008 – Royals 8, White Sox 7
Entering the Sunday afternoon skirmish with the Royals, Jim Thome sat two hits away from the 2000-hit plateau. A first inning RBI single brought him one step closer and, in the seventh inning, he reached the milestone, hitting a double down the left field line.
September 14, 2008 – White Sox 4, Tigers 2
In the first game of a double header, Javier Vazquez took the mound for the White Sox, needing just five strikeouts to reach 2000 for his career. In the fifth inning, he retired Edgar Renteria swinging to reach the milestone. He finished the day with eight strikeouts, giving him 2003 for his career total.
October 6, 2008 – Rays 6, White Sox 2
On a seasonably warm Monday afternoon, the White Sox looked to stay alive in the ALDS, trailing the Rays two games to one. Unfortunately, Gavin Floyd gave up four runs in his three innings of work, giving the Rays more than enough to close out the series, the first postseason series win in franchise history.
May 17, 2009 – Astros 6, Cubs 5
With the score tied at two in the top of the fourth inning at Wrigley Field, Astros catcher Ivan Rodriguez hit a shot off of Rich Harden, barely reaching the basket in left-center field for his 300th career home run. The blast gave the Astros a two-run lead, which they would not relinquish for the remainder of the afternoon.
August 2, 2009 – Yankees 8, White Sox 5
On a gorgeous Sunday afternoon at US Cellular Field set up to be a pitcher’s duel between aces CC Sabathia and Mark Buehrle, Yankees outfielder Melky Cabrera stole the show, going 4-5 while hitting for the cycle. In the second inning, Cabrera went deep against Buehrle for a three-run shot, giving the Yankees an early lead. Leading off the fourth, he doubled to right field. The following inning, he hit single, driving in two more and ending Buehrle’s afternoon. Following a groundout in the sixth, Cabrera came up for the final time in the ninth against Scott Linebrink, hitting a triple into the right field corner and cementing his achievement.
July 11, 2010 – White Sox 15, Royals 5
In the final game before the All-Star Break, with the White Sox leading 4-1, Andruw Jones came to the plate with two out to face Anthony Lerew while sitting on 399 home runs. With a 1-2 count, he deposited the next pitch into the White Sox bullpen for a three-run homer, the 400th of his career. He was just the 46th player in MLB history to reach this milestone.
Tired Discourse – Is Die Hard A Christmas Movie
In January of 2025, the good folks at Defector.com published a list of 35 topics that have been discussed to within an inch of their life here on the internet. Lucky for me, I haven’t publicly commented on most, if not all, of these topics, so I figured why not dip my toes into the fray on occasion. We will start today with the first question on their list:
Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie?
Die Hard, the now-classic action movie released in July of 1988, stars Bruce Willis as a New York city police officer who travels to Los Angeles to see his estranged wife and kids and ends up interrupting a terrorist attack, saving his wife and (most of) her co-workers from a certain death. At first glance, nothing about this screams Christmas movie. But, the movie’s setup only works because the action takes place on Christmas Eve.
Why is Willis’s Det. John McClane in Los Angeles? To see his family for Christmas. Why is he meeting his wife at her office? It’s their Christmas party. Why are the terrorists attacking now? It is Christmas Eve and, aside from the people at the party, who are needed to give the terrorists the access they need, the building is deserted.
Now, detractors will say that you can strip out the Christmas trappings and have basically the same movie. Which, for the most part, is probably true. That said, those trappings are not stripped out and very much exist in the film, tying it directly to the holiday season.
So, bottom line, is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Of course it is. Is it a traditional Christmas movie. No, I will concede that point. But Christmas drives the plot, in the movie as it actually exists versus some make-believe alternate version. And what embodies the spirit of Christmas more than overcoming obstacles of circumstance to reunite with your loved ones for the holiday?
Fitbit 12 – Week 11
Another great week as I kept my 30,000-step week streak alive for the eighth straight week while also running my streak of 4000+ days to 36. An impromptu trip to American Family Field in Milwaukee on Sunday got the week off to a good start, finishing with 6100 steps. A return trip to Wrigley Field on Monday was the high point of the week, finishing well above my daily goal with 9200 steps. Resuming normal activities put me back down to 4700 steps on Tuesday. A mere 28 steps were all that stood between me and 5000 on Wednesday. Rain, which postponed the home opener on the South Side on Thursday, limited me to 4700. My re-scheduled first trip to Rate Field of the season on Friday ended with 6800 steps. A nice Saturday ended the week with 4400 steps.
Total steps: 41,056
Daily average: 5865.1
Book 19 (of 52) – The Widow
The Widow – John Grisham
A small-town lawyer in Virgina thinks he has hit the jackpot: a rich client with no family looking to prepare a will. When she then dies suddenly, an autopsy shows she was poisoned and that will, which looked like a godsend to the financially struggling lawyer, now acts as a motive for murder. When he is convicted of the crime despite a distinct lack of non-circumstantial evidence, he goes on the offensive, looking for the real killer before he reports to prison.
The Widow, the latest from John Grisham, was a 2025 nominee for Favorite Mystery & Thriller in the Goodreads Choice awards. This was a small change of pace from Grisham, adding a who-done-it mystery to his usual legal thriller genre. I’ve been reading Grisham’s work for well over 30 years now, albeit with a few fallow years along the way, so a little variety in approach is not a bad thing.
iTunes Top 200 Artists: #70-80
Music. It is a powerful thing that brings people together, creates memories, and evokes emotions. It is the universal language that speaks to the soul. It forms the soundtrack of our lives.
It has now been five years since we last counted down the Top 200 artists in my iTunes library, featuring the songs I have listened to the most since 2007. It is time to do so again, seeing which performers still resonate and if any newer ones have joined the fray. So, without further ado, here are my most listened to artists, based on number of plays as of January 1, 2026.
We continue today with our next batch of ten artists, covering three acts I’ve seen perform live.
#80: The Beastie Boys
iTunes stats: 140 plays
Previous ranking: #76
The hip-hop pioneers, who disbanded in 2012 after Adam Yauch died of cancer, picked up 25 new listens in the last five years, leading to a four-spot drop in the rankings.
#79: Bush
iTunes stats: 141 plays
Previous ranking: #79
The winners of the American Music Award for Favorite Alternative Group in 1998, who I saw in concert back in 1996, picked up 32 additional listens while dropping staying even on the list.
#78: Britney Spears
iTunes stats: 143 plays
Previous ranking: #79
The troubled pop princess and one-time Grammy Award winner (surprised you there, didn’t I) sees a 31% increase in plays over the past five years, going up one spot.
#77: Fiona Apple
iTunes stats: 147 plays
Previous ranking: #77
The Manhattan-born singer/songwriter, who I’ve seen in concert twice, picked up 33 new listens, raising her total 29%.
#76: Black Eyed Peas
Continue reading →
150 Years Of Cubs Baseball – Managers
Originally founded in 1869, the Chicago Cubs became a charter member of the National League in 1876. Over the next 150 seasons, the Cubs have played more than 22,000 games, scored over 103,000 runs and recorded more than 200,000 hits, more than any other team in baseball history. Nearly 2,300 players have worn a Cubs uniform, earning eight division titles, 17 NL pennants, and three World Series championships.
Fans have witnessed generations of unforgettable players, from historical heroes like Joe Tinker, Gabby Hartnett, Ernie Banks, and Billy Williams to more recent stars like Ryne Sandberg, Derrek Lee, Kerry Wood, and Anthony Rizzo. The team has called Wrigley Field home for 110 of those 150 seasons.
To celebrate this milestone, the Cubs are holding a fan vote to select the franchise’s anniversary team. Each week, we will go through the provided options for each position and declare who should, and, if different, who will, win the fan vote. We start today with the eight selections for manager.
Cap Anson was one of the first superstars of professional baseball. He joined the Cubs franchise, then known as the White Stockings, in 1876, the first year of the new National League. In 1879, he became the player-manager, leading the team to five pennants between 1880 and 1886. He introduced new tactics that are commonplace today, including having a third base coach, having fielders back up one another, using signs to the batter, and having a set pitching rotation. He was fired as manager following the 1897 season, his last as a player. Off the field, Anson was an outspoken proponent of segregation in baseball and was known to gamble on games.
Frank Chance debuted with the Cubs in 1898, becoming their full-time first baseman in 1903, where he became immortalized as part of the “Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance” trio thanks to the poem Baseball’s Sad Lexicon. He became the player-manager in 1905, becoming the first of only eight managers to lead their team to four 100-win seasons. The Cubs would win four NL pennants and two World Series championships under Chance. He was let go by the team as both a player and a manager following the 1912 season. He remains the winningest manager in Cubs history, by winning percentage.
Leo Durocher returned to major league baseball after an eleven-year break to become the manager of the Cubs in 1966. He inherited a team that had finished in eighth place the year before and, within two years, he led them to only their second winning season since 1946. 1969 appeared to be their year, as the Cubs led the new NL East for 105 days, but a late season fade left them eight games behind the so-called Miracle Mets. During his tenure, Durocher faced trouble in the locker room, nearly coming to blows with Ron Santo and dealing with the decline phase of franchise legend Ernie Banks. With a 46-44 record midway through the 1972 season, Durocher was fired. He would later state that his biggest regret in baseball was not winning a pennant for Cubs owner Phillip Wrigley.
Book 18 (of 52) – Evil Bones
Evil Bones – Kathy Reichs
Mutilated animals, displayed in an odd manner, have been appearing throughout Charlotte’s parks, but Dr. Temperence Brennan fears that the person responsible is escalating and will soon work his way to humans. Working with semi-retired homicide detective Erskine “Skinny” Slidell, Brennan works to find the offender before that happens, but they are too late. When the case starts becoming more personal for Brennan, she needs to start putting together all the clues before someone close to her, her daughter or her niece, become the next victims.
Evil Bones is the 24th and latest entry in Kathy Reichs’ Temperence Brennan series and is now the eighth book in the series that I’ve read. This one seemed a little rushed, coming in under 300 pages, with an underage niece that continually goes missing that everyone is concerned, but not too concerned, about and a conclusion that certainly could have used more show and less tell. This was easily my least enjoyable outing with the series, at lease since I rediscovered it following the conclusion of the television show, Bones, that it inspired.
Fitbit 12 – Week 10
The start of the 2026 baseball season helped keep my 30,000-step week streak alive for the seventh straight week while also running my streak of 4000+ days to 27. The week got off to a good start on Sunday, finishing with 5400 steps. Monday turned out to be the low point of the week, needing 14 more steps to reach 4400. Nicer temperatures pushed me back over 5100 steps on Tuesday. A lunchtime trip to the local mall pushed me up to 6700 steps on Wednesday. Thursday was Opening Day and I travelled north to Wrigley Field to see the Cubs lose badly to the Nationals, needing 24 more steps to reach 6400. Friday kept things going, ending with 5200 steps. A trip to the grocery store, amongst other chores on Saturday, finished the week strong, falling just 5 steps shy of 6300.
Total steps: 39,619
Daily average: 5659.9
Four Left Standing
With Purdue’s loss to Arizona in the Elite Eight, my brackets, and my remaining interest in this tournament, are officially toast.