By Carrie Muskat / MLB.com
Katie Cobb, 24, and her father, Mike, have been going to Cubs home openers since she was 9 years old, and they have a routine.They'll park near a Red Line "L" stop and get coffee, more for warmth than an eye opener. Then, they take the train to the Addison Street-Wrigley Field stop. They arrive early, walk around the ballpark, stop to listen to WGN Radio's live broadcast from Clark and Addison streets.
This year will be a little different. Cobb will still be missing school, sort of. She's working on her Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, and, as luck would have it, is scheduled to speak at a conference in Chicago on Saturday. The Cubs' home opener is Friday against the Pirates.
The other difference this year for Cobb and other Cubs fans is that they will begin the season without their voice.
April 1: Pirates at Cubs, 2:20 p.m. CT
RHP Kevin Correia vs. RHP Ryan DempsterBack to the Cobbs. Mike has allowed his daughter to play hooky from school, and one year, she skipped two days in a row when the Cubs' opener was snowed out.
"It's a ritual now," Katie said. "My older sister has been bugging me. She says, 'Maybe you can't make it home.' I tell her no. There are some things you don't share."
She started going to games when her mother decided she didn't like the big contracts some players got.
"My dad brought me to the game, and I fell in love," Cobb said. "My mother understood. It's like a religious holiday in terms of observance."
She keeps score with her father and they've saved all the scorecards.
"We do have our occasional 'NW' for 'Not watching,'" she said.
Carol Haddon switched to scorebooks rather than buying a scorecard each game because of the cost. She's been a Cubs season-ticket holder since 1971, and remembers when her front-row seat cost $3.25. On Friday, her seat in the first row behind the Cubs dugout is priced at $126.
She has missed one opener at Wrigley Field, and that was in 1983, when her brother died.
"With that exception, no one will do anything in my life of any importance on that day, because it's the Cubs' opener," Haddon said. "I missed my grandson's birthday and my daughter-in-law's birthday to make it to the home opener."
Before the season begins, she will line up either a baby-sitter, an animal-sitter or a husband-sitter so she's free for the day. She'll be at Wrigley with her glove and her scorebook.
"I leave the house at a certain time, I wear a certain pin given to me by other friends," she said. "Some of my friends call me, because they know it's the start. My husband's a softball player, a 16-inch softball player. He's always welcoming my season, because he knows his isn't that far behind."
Her mother started taking her to Cubs games when she was 4 years old. Haddon didn't want to give her age now.
"I don't see it as a religious experience," she said. "I truly enjoy professional sports, baseball being the most fun. Sitting in the front row, I'm spoiled, I know that. It gives me such an appreciation of the game. Every day, I feel refreshed."
Friday's Cubs crowd also will include Patrick Russell, 35, who will be attending his fourth straight. He and his stepbrother Steve Adams, 35, decided to make it an annual event. Russell takes the train from his home in Springfield, Ill., and meets up with Adams, who catches the train in Alton, Ill. It's a 3 1/2-hour journey each way, and they return home that night. Last year, they met Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts.
"Every year has been great," Patrick said.
They've got a long way to go to catch up with Linda Eisenberg. She's been to more than 40 Cubs home openers, and she will, naturally, be in the right-field bleachers, sitting in the top row with Lambikins. Lambikins is a small stuffed lamb that was a Serta mattress giveaway at a game, and has now become a bleacher regular, like Eisenberg. It even has a toy-sized Cubs outfit, batting helmet, and its own Facebook page. How regular is Eisenberg? She has velcro attachments for her cell phone and seat cushions for her spot in the bleachers.
Her uncle started sitting in the right-field bleachers in 1945, and continued going to Cubs games until he died in 1989. He was always first in line for tickets, back when the team sold tickets on the day of the game.
How special is the home opener?
"It's like New Year's," Eisenberg said. "Everyone walks around saying, 'Happy New Year' to everybody."
She keeps score religiously, although if the Cubs lose that day, she'll throw out the pencil she used. Not many people around her these days do keep track of the plays. The bleachers have changed.
"It used to be people who were there to watch the game and kept score and everyone knew baseball," she said. "Now it's a drunken frat party. It's sad."
She would know. Her first game without her parents was May 15, 1960, when Don Cardwell threw a no-hitter in his Cubs debut. That's one of the joys of the game. You never know what you'll see.
As soon as Major League Baseball releases the schedule, Eisenberg and the bleacher regulars start preparations.
"We start countdowns," she said. "Everybody prays for sun, and not necessarily warmth."
She'll be 62 this year and has one wish.
"Every year I say, 'All I want is to celebrate in the bleachers on my birthday,' because it's Oct. 20 and the Cubs would be in the World Series then," she said. "It hasn't happened yet."
It's Opening Day. She and thousands others hope this is the year.
Carrie Muskat is a reporter for MLB.com. She writes a blog, Muskat Ramblings, and you can follow her on Twitter@CarrieMuskat. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wrigley opener will have familiar faces in stands | cubs.com: News
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Donald Trump's lawyer on birth certificate controversy: No one doubts where Trump was born - Political Hotsheet - CBS News
Donald Trump, speaks at the Conservative Political Action conference (CPAC), on February 10, 2011 in Washington, DC.
(Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)Updated 1:40 p.m. Eastern Time
Donald Trump, who says he is "seriously" considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination, yesterday released what he said was his birth certificate. Trump has been questioning whether President Obama was born in the United States, and he released the document to prove a point.
"It took me one hour to get my birth certificate. It's inconceivable that after four years of questioning, the president still hasn't produced his birth certificate," he said.
As it turns out, however, the document released by Trump was not actually an official New York birth certificate, but rather a document generated by the hospital where Trump's mother gave birth. The situation prompted commentators to sarcastically offer birther-style questions about whether Trump was born in the United States.
"Trump's mother, it should be noted, was born in Scotland, which is not part of the United States," wrote Politico's Ben Smith. "His plane is registered in the Bahamas, also a foreign country. This fact pattern -- along with the wave of new questions surrounding what he claims is a birth certificate -- raises serious doubts about his eligibility to serve as President of the United States."
Hotsheet reached Trump lawyer and advisor Michael Cohen, who is on vacation in Italy, for a response. Cohen said it was obvious that Trump has released "something that his parents had given him years and years ago and he obviously just had it put away."
"I don't think anyone's going to question whether Donald Trump is or was not born in New York," Cohen said. He went on to say that there are hospitals named after the Trump family in New York, yet the only hospitals named after Mr. Obama are in Ghana.
"It's a little bit odd," he said.
Asked whether Trump needed to release his official birth certificate, Cohen pointed out that Trump is "not yet" the president. He said Trump could produce an official birth certificate if necessary.
"If he is asked to produce a raised seal New York City Department of Health birth certificate, I'm pretty sure he can have one in as quick a period of time as you can go down and get it," said Cohen.
UPDATE: A Trump staffer today released what he says is Trump's actual birth certificate to ABC News.
Cohen insisted that Trump is "not part of this birther movement, he's just an individual that is questioning."
"What he is is a person who demands transparency, which is what the president's platform was all about when he decided to run," Cohen said, adding: "If you want to kill the comments, and you want to stop the chitter chatter about it, just show your birth certificate."
Birthers' claims have been widely disproved. The Obama campaign released a copy of Mr. Obama's certificate of live birth during the presidential campaign, and it has been verified by independent journalists. There are also a pair of birth announcements in Hawaiian newspapers from when the president was born. (Trump's camp maintains that a certificate of live birth is not tantamount to a birth certificate, even though the state of Hawaii considers them the same thing.)
Trump says he will formally announce whether he is running for president by June.
"There are many more issues of consequence that Mr. Trump will be talking about if he elects to run in June, issues that are more important to this country's future," said Cohen.
So Trump is a birther and wants to be President. I guess in a country where Rebecca Black can be a recording artist, Trump might become President. But if he gets the nomination I will work damn hard to make sure he does not get to live at 1600 pennsylvania ave.
Which one is the better cover: If You don't me by now. Who Ya Got?
Patti Labelle (with Pamela Williams)
Simply Red
Monday, March 28, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
We have lost a great one!
By Andy GreeneMarch 22, 2011 11:30 AM ETPinetop Perkins, a delta blues pianist who played with Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Nighthawk, died of a heart attack at his Austin, Texas home on March 21st. He was 97. "He was one of the last great Mississippi Bluesmen," B.B. King said in a statement. "He had such a distinctive voice, and he sure could play the piano. He will be missed not only by me, but by lovers of music all over the world."
Perkins was raised on a plantation in Honey Island, Mississippi. He spent his childhood picking cotton and plowing fields with a mule, very rarely going to school. He began his musical career as a guitarist, but after severely damaging his left arm in a barroom knife fight in 1943 he switched to the piano. Around that same time he moved to Arkansas and began performing with blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson and slide guitarists Earl Hooker and Robert Nighthawk. By the Fifties he was backing musicians on early rock labels Sun and Chess.
In 1969 he joined Muddy Waters' backing band, where he stayed for over a decade - appearing on all of his LP's of the era and backing him at The Last Waltz concert in 1976. He released his solo debut After Hours in 1988 at the age of 75, and recorded and toured consistently until shortly before his death. His 2008 disc Pinetop Perkins & Friends featured contributions from Eric Clapton and B.B. King.
--> Friday, March 18, 2011
'The Bachelor,' 'The Bachelorette' creator defends all-white casting in title role
'The Bachelor,' 'The Bachelorette' creator defends all-white cast of title role
A top TV producer says racism is behind the lack of minorities in the title role of 'The Bachelor' and 'The Bachelorette,' but the creator of the dating series says people of color aren't interested in being on.
Brad Womack and Emily Maynard on the season finale of "The Bachelor." (Mark Wessels, ABC / March 18, 2011)
Related Stories
By Greg Braxton, Los Angeles TimesMarch 18, 2011
For fans of "The Bachelor" and its spinoff, "The Bachelorette," who have wondered why the veteran ABC dating franchise has never spotlighted a nonwhite contestant in the title role in any of their combined 21 seasons, the shows' creator has come up with at least a partial answer: People of color apparently don't want to be on the show."We always want to cast for ethnic diversity," Mike Fleiss said in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, adding, "It's just that for whatever reason, they don't come forward. I wish they would."
But one of television's top producers had another word for the absence of minorities on "The Bachelor": racism.
"[T]hey blame minorites [sic] for 'not coming forward'. What a joke," Shawn Ryan, creator of "The Shield" and Fox's "The Chicago Code," wrote on Twitter, discussing Fleiss' comments. Ryan, whose dramas have included leading and prominent minority characters, maintained the absence was indicative of "[s]traight up racism. They just don't think America will watch black bachelor [sic] or root for mixed-race marriage."
Fleiss, who is about to start production on the seventh edition of "The Bachelorette," which is scheduled to premiere May 23, did not make himself available for comment. Ryan also declined to elaborate.
Still, Ryan's blasts represent some of the harshest public criticisms yet of what is one of ABC's most high-profile franchises — "The Bachelor" just completed its 15th edition on Monday. While the reality television genre and its top shows such as "American Idol," "Dancing With the Stars," "The Biggest Loser" and "The Amazing Race" have always put a premium on showcasing a broad range of people reflective of a diverse America, "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" have proven to be the exception since the series launched in 2002.
And even though ABC executives maintained two years ago that the show was "exploring" the possibilities of casting a person of color in the pivotal role, insiders said producers had little interest in pursuing a more diverse cast, and were unwilling to vary the chemistry of a hugely popular series and wary of a potential controversy stemming from an interracial romance.
Said Fleiss in the interview, "We tell better stories, we cast more relatable people and we've survived while others have fallen by the wayside."
A further obstacle to more diversity is the show's structure, in which the single "star" selects from a pool of romantic interests. A familiar pattern of "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" is that the few minority singles in the initial group of participants rarely survive beyond the first elimination. One of the finalists is later chosen as the next "Bachelor" or "Bachelorette."
In the Entertainment Weekly interview, Fleiss said he believed the new "Bachelorette," Ashley Hebert, was "one-sixteenth Cherokee Indian, but I cannot confirm. But that is my suspicion."
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
Related stories
From the L.A. Times
From KTLA
Around the Web
- Ashley Chosen as Next ’Bachelorette’: Roger Catlin | TV Eye |blogs.courant.com
Comments (14)
Add / View comments | Discussion FAQJohnWheaties at 2:20 PM March 18, 2011I can't understand why ANYBODY - belonging to ANY ethnic group - would want to be on this freak show to begin with. It's not something to aspire to, and if it's true that "people of color apparently don't want to be on the show" that would be a testament to their self-respect. Unfortunately, my suspicion is that Fleiss is lying, because IME there are narcissistic morons in every ethnic group, so I don't believe there haven't been any ethnic candidates. I can't see getting upset about this - it's like complaining that the chicken-eating geeks at the carnivals are all white, and EVERY group should have the chance to debase themselves!
Amalgamate at 1:38 PM March 18, 2011no one would watch the Blackcherette...
artdude102 at 1:10 PM March 18, 2011Why isn't NOM, the mormon church, and fat ol' Maggie Gahlleger screaming their shrill little heads off about turning "marriage" into a game show? Oh yeah- they only care about marriage if it is same sex.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Shia LaBeouf attached to Mandalay's 'Horns' - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety
Shia LaBeouf attached to Mandalay's 'Horns'
Thesp to play a man who sprouts horns -- and a dilemma
LaBeouf
Shia LaBeouf is attached to star in Mandalay Pictures' bigscreen adaptation of Joe Hill's bestselling novel "Horns," and will be closely involved in the project's development.Keith Bunin ("In Treatment") is adapting the book, which is described as a love story driven by horror and vengeance.
LaBeouf will play Ig Perrish, a 26-year-old who awakens from a black-out hangover to find horns sprouting from his head. As his horns grow bigger, Ig sets out to investigate the unsolved murder of his girlfriend and the case's connection to his cursed fate.
Peter Guber and Cathy Schulman will produce for Mandalay, while the company's VP Adam Stone will oversee the project and serve as a producer in some capacity.
Hill, the son of Stephen King, will exec produce "Horns," having optioned the rights to Mandalay in October 2009 before the book was published by William Morrow.
"Shia is an extremely gifted actor who responded to this novel with total enthusiasm from the beginning," Schulman said. "We share a passion to bring the iconic character of Ig Perrish to life."
LaBeouf next stars in "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," which Paramount opens July 1. Thesp is filming John Hillcoat's bootlegging drama "The Wettest County in the World."
Bunin is an acclaimed playwright who is writing "The Return of the Ice Kids" for director Michel Gondry.
Warner Bros. previously purchased Hill's debut novel, the New York Times bestseller "Heart-Shaped Box."
Mandalay continues to secure high-profile literary properties to develop and package before seeking out distribution partners. The company recently acquired Max Barry's "Machine Man" for Darren Aronofsky and his longtime writing partner, Mark Heyman, to develop.
CAA reps Bunin and LaBeouf, who is also repped by John Crosby Management and attorney Matthew Saver.
Contact Jeff Sneider at jeff.sneider@variety.com
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
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