Top 'Cats

Today, some of the winners at Northwestern University that you may not know about:

• The NU women's lacrosse team has 4 consecutive NCAA championships to their credit. They're the first team not from an eastern school to win one, much less 4 in a row.
• The Tewaaraton Award, given to the top college lacrosse player, has gone to an NU woman the past three years
• NU football coach Pat Fitzgerald, just 33 years old as he begins his third season as the top dog in Evanston, is also a member of college football's Hall of Fame. He was the captain of NU's '95 Rose Bowl team.
• The 'Cats had 3 Big 10 football championship in the 90's.
• Tailback Tyrell Sutton, now a senior, was the Big 10 Freshman player of the year in '05.
• Former 'Cat lineman Luis Castillo, one of 15 or so 'Cats currently in the NFL, just signed a big money, long term contract with San Diego.
• Northwestern has the highest graduation rate for football players in the Big 10
  
• NY Yankees manager Joe Girardi is a Wildcat alumnus. BTW, go to the NY Daily News website for the most entertaining fan comments on yesterday's Yankee trade to acquire Ivan Rodriguez. Those people are hilarious.
  

Thursday evening I was a guest at a cocktail reception at the University Club for Pat Fitzgerald and Jim Phillips. I've met Fitz before, and felt as if I already knew Jim Phillips from reading all the features about him susequent to his appointment. I must tell you, though, that spending some face time with each of them is enough to turn up the enthusiasm factor on any 'Cat backer.

The Fitz personna that is broadcast through the various media underplays his charisma. Here's a young man who, at age 33, is entering his third year in an incredibly demanding and challenging position. Fitz'self confidence is apparent, but you get none of the negative elements that emanate from the other two "local" head football coaches. Fitz is approachable and engaging. He knows his stuff, no surprise there, and he gives the impression that he approaches the business of this game with a "respect given, respect demanded" outlook.

For years I kept a coffee mug on my desk that bore the Arthur Andersen credo "THink Straight, Talk Straight" (let's not go there with the Arthur Andersen jokes, please!). Pat Fitzgerald seems to me to treat his business that way.

Jim Phillips, the new AD, is going to be a Chicago institution. What a great guy. While I spent just a few minutes with him, I'm greatly impressed that here we have a WYSIWYG winner here. Jim retold the story of tranisitioning to NU and bunking with his 93 year old father during the first days after winning the NU job. It's a story you've probably already seen or heard. Jim gave it a new wrinkle, summoned up the "reality check" moral of the story and had the assembled multitude on his side.

'Cat Nation should get ready, seats on the bandwagon are going to be tougher to find!

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PS: Look at what they're auctioning this week at Northwestern. Wonder where I could put this... http://nusports.cstvauctions.com/auctiondisplay.cfm?auctionnbr=5352

My Kind of Town

Last week, I had an evening that was absolutely, positively fannnnn-tastic! The night started with a cocktail reception at the University Club of Chicago featuring a meet & greet with Northwestern University football coach Pat Fitzgerald and new NU Athletic Director Jim Phillips. We spent two hours chatting with Fitz and Jim and a group of Northwestern football fans, sampling delicious hors d'oeuvres and pretty much reveling in the success of the Northwestern athletic programs. More on all that later, 'cause we had a second destination this evening.

When the NU party wound down, we headed over to Navy Pier and another dinner and cocktails party hosted by Learfield Sports. This event was held on an incredible Lake Michigan cruise boat, the Anita Dee II, moored on the south side of the pier. Cocktails, a grand buffet, great networking and "cigar cruise" to marvel at Chicago's magical night-time skyline. This boat is so cool, it has a HELICOPTER on the top--look closely at the back end of the top deck!

By the time my "date" and I found our way back home, we had sampled some of Chicago's very finest venues, albeit at opposite ends of the spectrum. The University Club, with its carved and paneled walls, thick carpeting and noble overtones is at the one end. Navy Pier, bright and bustling and laughing, is at the other end.

If you've never (or not recently) been out to Navy Pier or taken a ride on one of these lake cruisers, you simply gotta do it. We have a fabulous lakefront, a short season to enjoy it and it's an experience you'll want to tell everyone about.

Tomorrow, a peek at some of the overlooked stories of Northwestern's legacy of athletic success.

Look Ma, No Hands

The photo currently at the right is the south tower of the Wrigley Building. The clock, with no hands, is keeping time until the next championship at 1010 W. Addison.

The clock's face is nearly 20 feet in diameter. There's actually 4 faces, one on each side of the tower. The minute hands are a bit over nine feet long, the hour hands about six and a half feet long. They were originally redwood and have been redone in aluminum.

Wrigley's south tower is 30 stories tall; the north tower is 21 stories in height. The building has a quarter million glazed terra cotta tiles on its exterior. Each of the tiles is individually identified and tracked in a maintenance database.

When the Wrigley Building was begun, north Michigan Avenue was known as Pine Street. Wrigley was Chicago's first air conditioned office building.

Now you know.

It Was A Father's Day Gift

The photo you've puzzled over is the bell on the bridge of this tour boat. The shot was taken from one of the seats behind the wheelhouse.The boat departs from Ogden Slip in Streeterville.

Ogden and Streeter share naming rights here. They were very, very different kinds of guys in their respective days.William Ogden was the first mayor of Chicago,from 1837 to 1838. He designed the first swing bridge over the Chicago River and was a promoter of and investor in the I&M Canal. Later, he was president of the Union Pacific Railroad. Wonder what he did in his free time...

Streeterville is named for George Streeter, who beached his boat on a sandbar in the late 1880's during a storm and there it stayed; he and his wife made this their new home. The Streeters encouraged dumping in this area and, after several years, the debris built up and became solid land. George claimed this 'new land' as an independent territory in respect to an 1821 government survey that declared Chicago, and Illinois, property lines terminated at the shoreline. Under his homesteading rights as a Civil War Veteran, he declared the new land to be the District of Lake Michigan. Eventually, the Streeters were tossed, but the name remains. Some of the priciest real estate in Chicago was created 125 years ago by a scam artist!

If you're looking for an unusual bit of entertainment, try the Architectural Tour. You'll board across the channel from the construction site of the Chicago Spire. It will be the world's 3rd tallest building when completed in 2012. The penthouse is still available if you have an extra $40 million in your change drawer.The tour will take you out into the basin inside the locks, then putter along west on the main channel, head north to what else, Northerly Island. You'll reverse directions and head down the south branch to around Congress before returning to Ogden Slip. The guide we had was extremely glib and entertaining. The information and history she recounted was nothing short of captivating. The views will leave you gaping. There's all sorts of things to learn, some you may already know and many you surely won't. It's a great tourist trip, whether you're a local or an out of towner. The day we went, the mix was about 1/3 locals, 2/3 visitors.The tour was a Father's Day gift. Cool, no?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Petey and I scored yesterday, placing our pennies on #48 Jimmy Johnson. The payback was a heartwarming +750, as Petey took full advantage of an arbitrage opportunity to claim a great price!

The Gambler's Mentor

We were talking about Pete when the bell rang yesterday. Pete took a look at NASCAR when he tired of becoming routinely angst ridden by the incessant droning of the baseball season. Pete and I began to regularly chat about the upcoming race each Friday. I was impressed with his eagerness to learn about what clearly was his new passion, NASCAR racing. That assumption turned out to be correct, but it was the tip of the iceberg.

My bud Petey, you see, was digesting our Friday morning chats to facilitate his Sunday morning wagers on the races...and he was winning! When Pete invited me to throw a few bucks his way along with the race discussion, I briefly hesitated, then jumped in. Our first dual wager was for the staggering sum of five bucks, split between us. The "us" part is what became the most interesting part. At the end of our first year of wagering, I had to write a check to my partner for about twenty bucks, our net losses for the year. While none of us likes the idea of losing, I had enjoyed a lot of entertainment for twenty dollars.

The beginning of our second season is where things began to get interesting. We started to win a little, very little, and the third leg of what would become a three partner betting machine came to the party; a new partner with no racing knowledge in his past and who would reveal some eccentric and aggressive betting habits. My new partner was Pete's octagenarian father, Tony.


Take a look around your life, there may be someone near you with high mileage who can give you a unique and cherished ride. That was the gift I received from Tony. There's little happy slices of life that came from meeting him. He was, by his son's recount, a bit of a scoundrel bettor. Unable to work with the computer to place bets, he'd call his granddaughter in Florida and give her log-on instructions and have her place his wagers. Tony bet intuitively, a message for those of us who try to do everything by the numbers, and picked winners. He also seemed to become a true racing fan, teaching us the "goose 'em, goose 'em" phrase when he wanted his driver to lay a little paint on someone to make room to pass. He also used a couple of phrases that aren't PC enough for me to share with you. Though becoming frail, Tony came out to the track with us on a summer afternoon to watch qualifying. It was one of my best days, watching him light up as the cars thundered by.

We've been betting on NASCAR and college football for six years; our partnership was cut back to just Petey and I a year or so ago. The bets are always just a few dollars; this is recreation, not addiction. We have built up a nice cushion in our bankroll and we have shared a lot of excitement.

The biggest winner I had in six years was getting to know Tony. The Gambler's Mentor.

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Picks on the Bricks at Indy this weekend: #48 a former winner (whom I can't stand) and #12, an Indiana native who won the big one in February.

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Photo Day 4, last hint. The place is in Streeterville. The rest of the story is revealed on Monday.

The Gambler

If you have any money parked in traditional investment vehicles, you are probably accustomed to getting hammered. Real estate is in the tank, equities have been in a steady decline and low interest rates mean low returns for cash. Don't despair, there is an alternative.

The alternative is the Sportsbook.

I was never much of a gambler. I didn't play cards, I didn't set foot in a casino until I was into my, well, not a kid anymore, and I didn't get into betting on games. Playing cards was like work for me. I could explain the arithmetic behind all the casino games and I wanted to be the casino, not the gambler. Betting on the games required research that I didn't want to do.

Then along came Pete. Pete was an inveterate oddshound. He tracked the horses, worked the baseball lines (a weird subculture of wagering) and followed the football spreads. Pete and I would talk baseball generalities, as he is a devotee of the history of baseball and a veritable font of statistical minutiae, as well as an all around good guy.

One day, when Pete brought up the current outlook for whichever team he was following at a time when I wasn't any too interested, I pointed out the arithmetic that makes baseball a bad addiction. I explained to him that there are 162 games in a season. Every team is going to win 50 games and lose 50 games, so there's a hundred games, or about three months worth, that we can push to the side of the road, almost 2/3 of the season played to get back to where you started. So, if everyone skipped the first hundred and played just the remaining games, I continued, we'd have a six week baseball season and I wouldn't get so bored and we'd all have time for things that matter. Pete uttered "national pasttime" and I responded with "it's time has passed" as he considered my argument.While this was a pretty clear case of figures lie and liars figure, it appeared to assuage Pete's current state of angst.

Pressing on, I challenged Pete to consider a new source of entertainment that provided a compact and immediate gratification completely unlike baseball, plus time for a nap. I introduced Pete to NASCAR. What followed this introduction is a parade of rewards that I could never have expected.Tomorrow, I'll explain how we corrupted a casual conversation for our mutual gain, both personal and financial.

DAY 3 of the Amazing Photo Mystery: Here's another hint in the ID the Photo challenge. The photo was taken from the perspective of a place named in honor of a Chicago politician (imagine, honoring a Chicago politician!). By the way, the place doesn't have an actual street address, how 'bout that!

Blank Space

I've often thought that writing for a living is a pretty lush life. You wander through your day and observe, then tell people what you've seen, then receive praise and money. All this with skills that you learned before you were old enought to drive.

This space is my self challenge in that respect. The first problem that I've encountered is the psychological impact of all the blank space that comes up when you push the buttons. I think I have a lot to say. Then this white space comes before me, and my brain reacts by emulating the white space. Nothing there.

Writing when you've been prodded by some observation or interaction is the easy way. Someone has pushed one of your buttons, and stuff comes out, coherent and interesting stuff, if you're lucky. The role of initiating, that's the challenge. That's why I started with the "Guess the Photo" thing. That, and it was late and I was bushed and I needed to put something in all that white space.

Back to the photo, here's a hint, not too informative, but a hint nonetheless. It was taken by the spouse on a day trip. That's actually quite a bit of information, so take a shot. Ciao.

It's a Start

While I was cleaning up a post to another blog that I had made, I stumbled onto the tools to set up my own blog. The hardest part was finding a background picture.

So we'll start this trip with a contest. Guess the location pictured in the background photo to win. The prize is...I'll figure something out.

That's day one of Never A Dull Moment. Violated the title the first day!