As Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, prepares for tomorrow's Wildcats-Illini game, and the Internet explodes over the controversial one-end-zone decision, a few other stories relating to the popular Chicago neighborhood have come up.
First, we have an update of the fate of Harry Caray's restaurant. It's been a rough week or so for Harry. First his statue was cracked by a maintenance truck helping set up for the NU-Illinois game then the owner of his namesake eatery announced that it would close down in just a few days because of a conflict with the building's owner.
Turns out, that owner is Benchwarmers, Inc., and it will be putting its own eating place in the space formerly occupied by Harry Caray's. Our idea: If they call it "Benchwarmers," they should have Cubs bench players come in and serve as celebrity bartenders. Something tells us Darwin Barney or Jeff Baker could mix a mean martini.
In other local news, Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster has announced that his Ryan and Jenny Dempster Family Foundation will hold another pizza party and fund-raising event on Friday, Dec. 10, at D’Agostino’s on West Addison. The price of admission is $100 for adults and $50 for children 12 and under. Proceeds will go toward the fight against 22q11.2 deletion (DiGeorge Syndrome/VCFS). For more info, click here.
And, finally, a brief mention of some breaking news about a familiar face around Wrigleyville for a number of years recently. We speak of none other than Lou Piniella. Sweet Lou has been invited by the New York Yankees to attend their Old Timer's Day next year at Yankee Stadium.
Co-owner Hank Steinbrenner seems confident Piniella will attend and still hopes Lou will return to the Bronx (figuratively or otherwise) to serve as a baseball consultant. (Something that probably will happen eventually.) There's been little to no news of Lou since he abruptly retired from his position as Cubs manager -- and baseball -- on Sunday, Aug. 22, to care for his ailing mother.