As Wrigley Field celebrates its 100th birthday today, I figured I should write something about why you share your name with this awesome national treasure.

To say that you got the name "Wrigley" because I am a big Cubs fan doesn't really tell the whole story. Your Momma and I didn't just come up with it because it sounded great and we thought it was cool (although that is all profoundly true).

When I was just a couple of years older than you are now, I lived in Fort Worth, Texas. It was around this time that your Nanny and Papaw started taking me to Texas Rangers games just a short trip away in Arlington. This was back when the Rangers still played in the old Arlington Stadium. Compared to the stadium the Rangers play in today it was rickety and old. Not even close to the cathedral in which the Rangers play today. It was actually an old Minor League stadium and was expanded and remodeled several times before and after the Rangers moved in. Still, it was my first real experience with big league baseball.

I have vague memories of a lot of the players that were with the Rangers in the late 1970s. Guys like Pat Putnam, Bump Wills, Toby Harrah, Al Oliver, Mickey Rivers, Bert Blyleven, and Richie Zisk. My favorite player from back then was the reliable catcher, Jim Sundburg. "Sunny", which is his nickname, won 6 straight American League Gold Gloves for catcher from 1976 to 1981. He was an all-around great ballplayer and stand-up guy.

The last year Sunny won the gold glove was the year my family moved to Maumelle, Arkansas. I ended up not following the Rangers as much in the years that followed our move there. They didn't have the cool TV packages and online streaming options that are so prevalent now. My baseball exposure was pretty much limited to Little League and the Double-A Arkansas Travelers close by in Little Rock.

However... we did get basic cable in the mid 1980s and part of our cable package included both WTBS and WGN. WTBS carried all the Atlanta Braves games and WGN carried all the Chicago Cubs games. At the time I thought it was really cool that I was able to watch all the baseball I wanted every day from teams that were so far away from where I was. Remember, the Internet wasn't around back then. We even had WOR in New York for a little while and they showed some Mets games, but I never really cared for them.

In my opinion, the Braves were pretty much the worst team of the decade. They had the worst record in the National League during the 80s and were only slightly better than the Indians and Mariners. The Cubs weren't much better in terms of record but they had much more than that. For one thing they had Wrigley Field.

Wrigley Field always seemed like a magical place to me when I was growing up. In many ways it still is. It has never been the most modern of stadiums, but to me it has always been the most beautiful. The ivy. The hand-operated scoreboard. They also had the greatest baseball announcer of all time: the legendary Harry Caray.

Harry was the absolute best. He wasn't just a fan of the game, he was a fan of the Cubs. He was fiercely loyal and extremely knowledgeable about the game, the team and the history of it all. He was also a big fan of beer and he sometimes showed up to call a game a little toasted and botched a lot of players' names. But that was part of what made Harry who he was. (He also was an announcer for Cardinals and White Sox games for many years before he was the Cubs announcer. I can see how that would drive a person to drink heavily). His partner in the booth was a guy named Steve Stone. As the Cubs color commentator, Steve was prone to the occasional bad pun or joke, which I referred to as "Stonerisms".

Harry passed away in 1998 and Steve now does commentary for White Sox games, but for more than a decade I tuned in to WGN during the summer and listened in to every afternoon home game and stayed up late to watch during West Coast road trips. During the school year I would rush home from the bus stop to hopefully catch the end of an afternoon home game. Every broadcast would typically start with Harry saying, "Hullo again everybody. Harry Caray from beautiful Wrigley Field!" Or, "It's a beautiful day for baseball at Wrigley Field in Chicago..."

One such game occurred on July 8th, 1987. The Cubs were playing the San Diego Padres and were down by 4 runs late in an 8 to 4 ballgame. My new favorite player (and still all-time favorite) was a guy who had a name similar to Jim Sundberg: Ryne Sandberg. Ryno also shared the same birthday as me so I thought that was pretty cool, too. Sandberg wasn't playing that day. I can't remember if he was just getting a day off to rest or maybe was on the disabled list. Anyway, the Cubs were down by 4 runs and it was the bottom of the 8th inning. Time and outs were running out.

Keith Moreland started the inning off with a sharp single to left field and Jody Davis drew a walk right after. The Padres put in a new pitcher and he proceeded to walk the next batter, Manny Trillo, loading the bases for the Cubs with no outs. The Cubs were primed to strike and do some serious damage. Then, the Cubs manager put in a pinch hitter since the pitcher's spot was due to bat next. Who walked up to the plate to bat? None other than my old hero Jim Sundberg, the Cubs backup catcher.

Now, this isn't your typical Cubs story. Most of the time when you hear a story about the Cubs it's about how they lost a game, how much they stink or otherwise break your heart. But not this time. I remember hoping and praying that Sunny could drive in a run or two with a solid hit in the gap.

He did me one better and drove them all in with a grand slam, tying the game.

I can still hear Harry Caray screaming, "HOLY COW!!" I can still picture Sunny rounding the bases at the most magical place I knew of.

The Cubs went on to score four more runs to take a 12 to 8 lead and would finish off the Padres in the top of the 9th inning. That was the day I became a true Cubs fan. That was the day I fell in love with everything Cubs.

I wasn't able to actually go to a game at Wrigley Field until a little over 20 years later, in September of 2007. But it was worth the wait. The Cubs were in first place in the middle of a pennant race. In the game we watched, they played the Cincinnati Reds, went to the bottom of the 9th inning down 6 to 4 and scored 3 for a comeback win. The place was a madhouse and it was one of the happiest days of my life. A few years later after you were born we were able to go back for another game against the evil St. Louis Cardinals. Here's a video of you at your first Cubs game, enjoying the day as Darwin Barney hits a timely home run:

"Wrigley" is so much more than just a name to me. It carries with it a huge part of my childhood. It's a place that brought me a lot of joy when I needed it the most. And now you bear that name and Wrigley continues to bring me much joy in my life.

It's smart to always have a backup plan.

When your Momma and I lived in Utah we lived in a house right next door to our church's building for a while. This was both a blessing and a curse, but I'll get into that at a later time.

Rather than share the load, the church we went to likes to rope all the men into doing the work and keep the women on the bench during the church service. From time to time I was even assigned various tasks to perform. One time I was assigned the task of doing all the talking when the bread and grape juice was passed out. Basically, it was me and four other guys standing up front looking anxious and constipated.

My job on this occassion was to say a few words about Jesus dying on the cross and read some bible verses. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that I had to do this until just before the church service started. Rather than flip through the bible hurriedly to find a few verses to read, I relied on my backup plan.

When the time came I stepped up to the microphone and rattled off two verses and a chorus of Petra's Enter In. Of course I wasn't able to rock it out like Petra, and I definitely don't have a voice like the legendary John Schlitt, but it still rings true even in spoken word form. And the best part is that no one had a clue

So there you have it. When you find yourself in a pinch, just look to 90's Christian Rock to help bail you out.

Latest and Greatest:

Steve's Tweets:

I do good stuff

Just Keep Dancing

Your First Baseball Game

How You Got Your Name

Always have a backup plan

Party Time at the Magic Kingdom

ZZZZzzzz....

Dear Wrigley...