On Community and All Good Things...

[Tequila Cowboy]

Every now and then I get the urge to write, to really write and to share some thoughts that I feel are important. I didn't really want to post this on FB because not only is much of it going to be personal, but also because it's more appropriate here, in this community that all of us have had a hand in building over the last decade or so. I know that here people will understand the importance of community and have an idea of where I'm coming from.

As I get started here I have to admit something, I've been cheating on y'all, but more on that a little later. I think everyone here knows that outside Rock & Roll and a few other things that I love dearly, baseball is my passion. One of the best things about that is that the game occupies it's own space, with it's own language and its own joys and sorrows. Of course it's also universal as well. Most of us who are fans of the game became fans when we were too young to form cogent thoughts. We picked up a bat, or a mitt, or went with our dads to a ballpark or simply became enamored of the colorful characters on the TV. All of these apply to me. For all of my life I have lived as one of the most pitiful of God's creatures, I have been a Cubs fan. To add insult injury about two years after I became a Cubs fan, in 1969 of all years, I decided that the Red Sox were my second favorite team and then I spent three decades loving something that refused to love me back. Then along comes a man named Theo Epstein who cruelly started by remaking my second favorite team, but eventually moved on to the Cubs when the lights at Wrigley Field were surely at their darkest. We all know what happened next and this story isn't about the nuts and bolts of baseball, it's about community and you'll understand why shortly.

Theo Epstein brought his talents to Wrigleyville and the Cubs in October 2011. The team was really awful and the cupboard, the minor league farm system for those that don't follow the sport, was bare. Less than bare actually and the big club was saddled with bad contracts and bad players. Theo came in and promised a "Cubs Way" and a sustained tradition of winning that to some of us was like manna from heaven, and to others was complete bullshit. I believed, I had seen him work his magic in Boston after all, but the doubters were everywhere. Some of were here in our fair community but I'm never going to call them out because we're family and the time for busting chops on that has passed. The media in Chicago was not kind. They decried that a rebuild wasn't viable in a large market and one newspaper, the Chicago Sun-Times really declared war on Theo and his team. It was against this background that our story really starts.

One day mid way through the baseball season in 2012 I wandered into a place on the internet called Cubs Den, a blog written by a man named John Arguello. The piece that caught my eye was one about the Cubs recent 1st round draft pick Albert Almora. Now keep in mind that the Sun-Times and other outlets had decried the pick, appalled that the Cubs hadn't drafted the young pitcher Mark Appel who had available to them when they picked 6th that year. John ignored all that noise and wrote about Almora's strengths, his character and what he was going to need to work on as his long journey began. I'll say as an aside that Albert Almora is a Chicago Cubs player in 2017 while Mark Appel is a Philadelphia Phillies farmhand who will likely be out of baseball soon. Anyway, I loved this piece. It was positive, informative and inspiring for a Cubs fan who just knew everything was on the right track. So I returned to Cubs Den again and again and again, eventually becoming part of the community there and an unabashed fan of John Arguello's writing. So that's where I cheated on you. I was a contributing member of another tightly woven community while remaining a heAthen through and through. John kept bringing in other great writers on the blog contributing their own point of views in the process but John was the best of them. He was a corporate man who followed his passion and founded Cubs Den on a wing and a prayer and his work paid off. More and more people came to the site daily, it's part of the Chicago Now! blog system run by the Chicago Tribune, and a community was born. John had two rules; no politics and no swearing. As someone who you all know can swear like a sailor that last bit was tough for me at first. The no politics though was something I appreciated right away. This was our haven. We talked baseball, we talked minor leagues and we talked a lot about The Process. I think only Theo and his team understood the Process more than John did but he wasn't an employee, he was a writer and the head of a burgeoning community. He helped us all in those dark years. I'l share one example of all this with you. Sometime in 2013 John wrote about a young catcher by the name of Willson Contreras. Now Contreras wasn't really a prospect at that point, he was just a guy. John wrote something to the effect of "This kid Willson Contreras is a diamond in the rough. He's a converted infielder who is learning to catch so he's working on those skills as opposed to his hitting but when he does work on that side of the ball, watch out!". Nobody was writing about Contreras at that time, nobody heard of the kid for that matter and, this is the only time I'm going to share stats, in 2013 he hit .248/.320/.423 with a .341 wOBA and a 109 wRC+. Hardly the stuff of future legends. I'm never going to forget reading that piece from John and all the future pieces he wrote about him because Willson Contreras is a star for the Chicago Cubs of the National League. He helped them win a World Series as a rookie and I'll be damned if he isn't getting better and better. There is a sadness to this though, John Arguello won't see anymore games from Willson Contreras. John lost his life to cancer this past Saturday.

I never met John Arguello in person and yet I knew him. He took a lot of time to respond to the comments on the blog forming relationships as he went. He had said that he only banned three people in the history of Cubs Den and was reluctant to ban all three but he had created that rarest of all things, a place of civility and cordiality on the internet. He did it by being kind, being stern and focusing us all on what we were there for, baseball and community. I missed my best opportunity to meet John in 2012 just before I moved to Mississippi. A bunch of folks were meeting for a game at Wrigley and drinks beforehand. I got really sick that day and wasn't able to go. I figured there would be another time. A year or so later John himself moved, as the fates would have it, to Mesa Arizona home of the Cubs Spring Training and minor league complex. His wife had taken a job there and it's not like it wasn't a perfect place for him. Like any good scout he spent much of his time on the backfields with the young players, many of whom just starting their careers. These are 17 and 18 year olds primarily and he forged bonds with them and wrote about them so we all could understand who they were and what their trajectories were. Many of these young men are closer to the big leagues now and wrote glowing tributes to him upon his passing this weekend. Guys like Dylan Cease, Eloy Jimenez (both of which recently by the Cubs for Jose Quintana), Adbert Alzolay and others. I don't need you to know their names but rest assure John knew them and he knew theirs. He knew their families, their stories and they considered him one of them. Many of them celebrated with him when the big club won last year. All of them are saddened at his passing. I figured I would get to Spring Training one year at meet John and he would have a glass of his beloved Scotch while I sipped on fine tequila. He'd teach me more about the game and I'd spend time with someone I truly, truly admired. That's not going to happen now. I spent the weekend crying intermittently over the death of a man I never met but did know, and he knew me. John's wife just announced that his memorial service is to be at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon at the gate to the backfields at Sloan Park in Mesa where he spent so much time learning and then passing that onto his Cubs Den community. RIP John Arguello. You will be missed.

So yes, I cheated on this community with another one. I ain't sorry but I don't love any of you any less. This community has brought me the same kind of joy from another angle. We have a John too in jonicont who teaches us things as well. He shares his enthusiasm for Drive-By Truckers and Rock & Roll by sharing video and audio and, every February, helping getting this entire motley crew together for fellowship at Homecoming. Of course he's not the only leader we have but he's important and we're grateful to him. Our community is special too and I hope none of us ever forget that. We've shared plenty of Rock Shows but also weddings, births and funerals. It's what communities do and we're a strong one. We all have to seize every minute of every day and live our lives to the fullest potential that we are able. We have love with abandon and feel with empathy. Even for those of us who have never met in person we all have bonds. This weekend called all of that to mind as my other community grieved. I appreciate all of your time and this kind of unusual post from me if nothing else here are three takeaways germane to this community: Always Go to the Show, It's Great to Be Alive and Enjoy Every Sandwich. Remember always to live life because all good things...

[beantownbubba]

My condolences,TC.

I don't believe we ever agreed on exclusivity so you need not worry about the cheating part. OTOH, perhaps a 4th rule is worth adding: always wear a rubber and be careful who you screw.

Beautifully said, my friend.

[Zip City]

I've been a part of the northsidebaseball.com community since 2003, so if anything, I'm cheating on THEM when I post HERE

[Jonicont]

Luv ya Cowboy

[Rocky]

Thanks for the words TC. The Cubs are my favorite national league team and when they won the Series I refused to steal any of the glory from my friend Matt who grew up in Illinois and I have spent lots of quality time with in the Wrigley outfield or Abby who had to leave Chicago to care for an elderly relative or Jim who is in his late 70's and has been a lifelong Cubs fan.

A place on the internet with civility is indeed a rare and treasured thing and something that we have here. Thanks for all for lots of things y'all, including that.