Chicago Cubs Online and The Mendoza Line

The Best of the First 200 Posts on Chicago Cubs Online....and What's Next for the CCO

As baseball fans we all know what The Mendoza Line is, those that stay above it usually have a decent, but short career in the Major Leagues and end up in the commons bin in your local baseball card shop....those that drop below it we hardly get to know their name. But in this case 200 is something different....

Not only am I a Cubs fan and a sports fan in general, I have always been a huge aficionado of Pop Culture. I was raised during the 70's, my childhood was influenced by the Fonz, the Six Million Dollar Man and Evel Knevel. As I grew older the TV shows and events all changed, but one constant remained....they all celebrated their 200th episode. Usually it was a best of, but sometimes it was something new. Pop culture has changed and few TV shows stand the test of time to make 200 episodes anymore. So to borrow the idea from those idealists of my childhood, I would like to do a best of the first 200 posts on Chicago Cubs Online.

Some of you have been with me since the Bleeding Northside Blue (BNB) days and some of you might be brand new. Believe it or not, there were days here at the CCO before the off-season rumors, before the CCO Fantasy Baseball Insider and before Brian McCabe's great recaps of the 2006 Cubs Convention.

Chicago Cubs Online has a lot planned for the upcoming season. The CCO will be at Spring Training and Opening Day in Cincinnati and will continue to be your online source for Chicago Cubs baseball. Jason will continue to talk Fantasy Baseball and I am very pleased to announce that Brian McCabe will be a regular contributor to the CCO.

I would like to thank Jason, "Uncle Gerry" and Brian for their posts on Chicago Cubs Online, Chad Cannon for his Kerry Wood pictures and to all of you for your comments that fuel the fire of the Hot Stove.

- Chicago's Other #23
- From One Cubs Fan To Another
- Congratulations....White Sox
- Cubs Release 2006 Spring Training Schedule
- The Last #5 - Nomar Garciaparra
- Another View From A Lifelong Cubs Fan
- A Kerry Wood Sighting
- A Kerry Wood Sighting - Part 2
- 2006....Could This Be The Year?
- This Old Cub - Ron Santo
- Fantasy Baseball - Jody Davis
- 2006 Cubs Convention - Memories of Conventions Past
- 2006 Cubs Convention - Day One

I wonder what the next 200 will say....

More History on The Mendoza Line
Even More History on The Mendoza Line

"Uncle Gerry"

Joe, I agree with you, I sometimes wonder whatever happened to those names of my youth. In my case, my first Wrigley Field visits were in the mid-1950's. Among the players I followed back then were: 3B Eddie Miksis or "Handsom Randsom" Jackson, Ernie Banks and Gene Baker at SS/2B, Dee Fondy 1B, Harry Chiti or Elvin Tappe catching. The pitching rotation included Bob Rush, Paul Minner, Warren Hacker and "Sad Sam" Jones. Roaming the outfield were Pete Whisenant, Solly Drake, Lee Walls and Jim Bolger.

Overall, quite a group of mediocrity, although I didn't realize it then. They were my heros, playing on MY team. I would guess that every Cub fan's early teams set the hook that keeps us true blue and diehard to this day.

Neil

To Joe - I agree with you, as I am a history buff as well. One of the new features of the CCO will be T.W.I.C.H. (This Week In Cubs History). You go back a little further than I do, but I do remember Dick Tidrow, Barry Foote, and Pat Tabler. In fact, I saw Pat play for the Nashville Sounds and still have his minor league baseball card. The CCO is not all about the current Chicago Cubs, it's about the past as well. Thanks for making a great point - and thanks for visiting the site.

Joe

I love reading the posts on this site and appreciate the great updates provided by the folks on here. In reading this note it made me nostalgic. I have been a Cubs fan since I went to my first game in Wrigley back in 1963, it's been a long time. When I think back on my days as a Cub fan I can relate to the pop culture as you are saying and many other things, however, when I read posts like this or many of the Cubs Convention posts and I start thinking about the Cubs I many times start wondering whatever happened to many of the names I associate with the Cubs over the years I've followed them and wonder what has happened to these players over time. We all remember Santo, Beckert, Sandberg, Banks, Williams, Dawson, Jenkins and many of the other stars, but what about many of the others that have shared our Cubs world with us?

Can you remember the likes of the following?

Paul Popovitch

Cleo James

Gene Hiser

Jack Aker

John Boccabella

Billy Cowan

Vic Roznovsky

Byron Browne

Ted Savage

Rich Nye

Don Nottebart

Billy Grabarkewitz

George Mitterwald

Steve Renko

Steve Ontiveros

Mick Kelleher

Lynn McGlothen

Bill Caudill

Barry Foote

Dick Tidrow

Tim Blackwell

Steve Dillard

Ty Waller

Doug Bird

Rawly Eastwick

Pat Tabler

I often wonder about these type of guys that played for the Cubs and it would be great if many of them would be remembered by the team when invites were made for the Cubs convention. They were not hall of famers, but they were a big part of the Cubs history.