I'm sure that to many of you the news of Chicago Cubs legend Ron Santo passing away means very little, but I had to post something on the death of good old #10. 

Santo was something of a polarizing figure in an already-polarized baseball town like Chicago.  Even among Cubs fans, there were contingencies who did not care for his over-the-top, unapologetic passion for the team that dominated nearly his entire adult life.

I was not one of them.  I loved Ron, regardless of how silly, cheesy, or loopy he could get on the air.  For the last 15 years or so, the voices of Pat Hughes and Ron Santo were the narrators for my summers.  When I think of warm weather I think of flip flops, lemonade, and Ron-and-Pat calling the Cubs game on WGN 720AM.  I would turn down the volume on the TV and turn up the volume on the radio just to hear what ridiculous things those two would say to one another.

Ron was a partisan fan, but so am I.  Ron could get irrationally emotional about the Cubs, but so did I.  Ron had a youthful exuberance until the day he died, and I hope and pray, so will I.

There is no doubt in my mind that I will miss Ron Santo come April 2011.  He was a kind and decent man in a sport (and world) that has grown increasingly cynical, cut-throat, and pretentious.

For more pics of the best 3rd baseman the Cubs ever had, click here.

For a wonderful radio highlights compilation of Santo's career, click here.

For more on some of the physical challenges Ron had to overcome in his life, watch this:

George W. Bush, often remembered for his role in leading the nation during the 2000's, and flanked by his former-president father George H. W. Bush, threw out the first pitch of the World Series game last night.  For all the hatred thrown his way while in office, seeing W. and his pops out on the field together made me (temporarily) forget the nation's current problems.  It was a nice breath of fresh air.

Although under completely different circumstances, it reminded me of another famous pitch from the Bush legacy:

America. Baseball. Mom's Apple Pie. Sometimes things really are that simple.

In lieu of ESPN's 30th year of broadcasting sports, 30 different directors have been commissioned to produce 30 different sports-related stories from the last three decades.  Last night the latest film, a deeper look into Michael Jordan's attempt to play major league baseball, went to air and I have to say that I was enthralled by every single solitary second of it.  It will be re-playing on the ESPN family of networks over the next few weeks, and so I highly recommend you check it out.  Here's a trailer to wet your appetite for more MJ.

I'm a sucker for the Home Run Derby competition each year at Major League Baseball's All-Star Game festivities.  This year's winner was David "Big Pappi" Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox.  Check out the highlights here:

Besides witty conservative blogs, chicks dig the long ball.

The Washington Nationals (a baseball team for those wondering) drafted a 20 year old pitcher from San Diego named Stephen Strasburg exactly one year ago today.  The hype surrounding this kid has been Lebron-like for nearly 12 full months.  Before ever throwing one professional pitch, Strasburg received the highest contract of any draft pick in Major League Baseball history ($15.1 million).  He has also garnered almost nightly national attention on ESPN's Sportscenter and Baseball Tonight.

With so much pressure mounting on such young shoulders, I kind of assumed he would crash-and-burn in his debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates last night.

I was wrong.

Sports columnist Dave Sheinin of the The Washington Post put it this way:

If it was possible to live up to that hype, the tall, sturdy kid with lightning in his right arm and the hopes of a beleaguered fan base in his hands did it, pitching magnificently for seven innings in a 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates in his major league debut. The strikeouts piled up -- 14 of them in all, a Nationals team record, each raising the electricity level in the stadium -- and the innings rolled by. Only one slip-up, a two-run homer in the fourth inning, marred the scorecard.

"Everybody is impressed with what this kid did today," said Iván Rodríguez, the Nationals' veteran catcher and a presumed future Hall-of-Famer. "He completely dominated."

When the team announced in the middle of the seventh inning that Strasburg had set a Nationals team record for strikeouts, the sell-out crowd of 40,315 demanded a curtain call, and Strasburg obliged, climbing the dugout steps and doffing his cap to all sides, his buzzcut hair glistening with sweat.

"It was a great atmosphere," Strasburg said later. "I definitely felt everyone pulling for me."

Never had the nation's capital, or perhaps the nation itself, seen a professional athlete debut with so much hype and media saturation. The team handed out more than 200 media credentials -- equivalent to a late-October playoff game -- as an otherwise pedestrian early-June game was transformed into the most singular sort of Washington event.

I know this is site dedicated primarily to cultural and political issues, but in my world, baseball is still America's past-time and this young pitcher is the biggest story in baseball today.  If you haven't seen any highlights of the kid, do yourself a favor and watch this video of Stasburg's 14 strike-outs.

Cubs win! Today's victorious finish against the Cardinals was too dramatic not to put something on the old blog about it. In case you didn't hear...actually, you know what, just watch the footage I have linked right here.