....HATE THE PHRASE "WALK-OFF"!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HATE IT! HATE IT! HATE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is all.

"Cubsession" n.-An obsession with the Chicago National League Ballclub, Inc. Said to afflict several rooters of the *sneer* other team in town, if one does truly exist. *sneer*

I have been thinking about "Cubsession," that fine, badly overused word coined here on WSI, lately. I have several rambling, disjointed thoughts about it. I just thought I would share a few in the privacy of my own blog, where you are free to come and read it if you like. It isn't on the...

As I got a little older and my imagination started to flourish, I got hooked on the 1949 Washington Senators. I decided to create a whole fictional team, the one that came thisclose to the pennant and lost. I had a whole lineup and background for the players. I decided that I would no longer be the home run hero, that fell to Joe DiMaggio.

Anyway, I remember two players that I created for that team-slugging 1st baeman Buddy Lewis and pitcher Albert Kramer, who would go on to the Hall...

I played baseball with a bat, helmet, glove, invisible ball and invisible teammates of the Cubs, Sox and Yankees. Oh, sure I did try to play baseball with some kids from the neighborhood when I was about 9 years old or so. I discovered my first time playing that, if there was one thing the neighborhood kids enjoyed more than playing baseball, it was shouting every single four-letter, foul-mouthed epithet in their parents' worldly vocabularies. At one point, I made a mistake and a kid my age called...

Posting my baseball fan fiction (the stuff I managed to write) has got me to thinking about my childhood. Like many, I fantasized when I was a kid about being a major league baseball player. I wanted to be so many guys at once that I clearly recall coming up with a few different versions of myself.

One was an outfielder for the Cubs from 1947-67 and the White Sox from 1968-75. Yes, nearly 30 years. I was very young then, and had no idea of course about how long a major league career...