Sad Times

File this one under 'things change'.  Rough.  I will miss your blue awnings.  You are, in my heart, a permanent fixture of wrigleyville, Tropico.

I'm Clearly Not Afraid of Getting Stalked.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, 'Little Fockers' was filmed right in my neighborhood.

Well, if you check out 14-18, it was clearly RIGHT IN MY BACKYARD. I am still looking for myself in the background. I am so proud of my neighborhood for making it to the big screen - it was well-deserved.

Sidenote: In order to find this clip, I had to watch like 18 different coming attractions for 'Little Fockers'. They must feel that the scene with the turkey is some of their best stuff...which scares me for the movie....

Neighborhood Buzz

So apparently, Universal Studios is filming a movie in my neighborhood. On my street, in fact. I can't remember the exact name - three letters. ZJF? Something like that. I'll do research.

I know this because, tonight, after a long day, I had to park my car three and a half blocks away because there is no parking on my street for the next week. INSANE. However, I don't mind. I think I might have to come back to my apartment on my lunch break every day this week to walk up and down the street casually while this all happens. This could work nicely for the production folks as well, seeing that my appearance fee is minimal.

I clearly picked the right apartment. That, or these movie folks know where the action is. Or maybe both.

The End of the Season....

Sigh.   It was a hard loss this past weekend for my family's hometown favorite.

Now, take this with a grain of salt, because I am the ULTIMATE fair-weather fan.  However, I have always unconditionally wanted the cubs to win.  Just maybe not all that passionately.  

However, I saw an editorial today in the Sun-Times that, I think, summed things up well.  To paraphrase:   

Many people are giving the Cubs a hard time and many people are upset about the cubs losing solely because of the long-time (100+ year) draught.  However, from a statistical standpoint, the cubs are not overdue. 

Look at it this way - if one were to take a coin and flip it 9 times and it came up heads 9 times in a row - would tails be 'due'?  The tenth time a person were to flip a coin, the odds would STILL be 50/50 heads or tails.  It would have no greater or less of a chance either way.  It doesn't matter about the previous 9 flips; it doesn't matter about how many previous years of not winning the series.

So - how many teams are there in the MLB?  Thirty-six, I want to say?  So, the Cubs, along with every other team, has a 1/36 chance of winning the world series ever year - not great odds for anyone.  So, are all other 35 teams a failure every year?  (Again, NOT a sports person writing this....)  I realize at the end of the season, unless your team is the ultimate victor, your season ends on a sour note, however....

The cubs (and the sox) had a great season!  They won over half their games, clinched their divisions, had some great moments, etc.   So although we are all sad about the bitter end of things and not being able to make the BIG win and break the streak, the Cubs had no greater or less of a chance of winning this time around than they have ANY OTHER YEAR, and they did better than normal.  

So let's take a moment to look back and thank and congratulate the cubs (and, sigh, I suppose, the sox) for a great season!!  They may not have won the big one and their last couple games weren't the best, but they certainly did well.  

Go Cubs Go!

I will wholeheartedly admit it, I am your ultimate fairweather fan!  Actually, that's probably not completely true.  I have always been loyal to the cubs being my team, whether they won or lost.  I just didn't care all that much.  

However, I am sincerely, truly happy they are winning.  I come from a long line of northsider cub fans.  Go cubs go!  As long as my neighborhood doesn't riot and Henry doesn't get flipped over, I'll be happy.