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{"id":162,"date":"2010-04-09T11:25:26","date_gmt":"2010-04-09T16:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/?p=162"},"modified":"2010-04-09T11:26:16","modified_gmt":"2010-04-09T16:26:16","slug":"a-beautiful-mind-and-a-brilliant-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/2010\/04\/a-beautiful-mind-and-a-brilliant-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"A Beautiful Mind and a Brilliant Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>I have an idea!<strong><em> A Brilliant Idea.<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">Truly great ideas build slowly in the mind. Separate idea fragments are gathered over time and sit in isolation. They lay, seemingly dormant, for years. Imperceptibly reaching out, building neuron pathways to construct a web of connections until that last fragment floats into the web and the distant fragments coalesce into one gorgeous concept, and a brilliant idea is born!<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">A Brilliant idea in three fragments:<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">\n<div id=\"attachment_164\" style=\"width: 286px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/alomar.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-164\" class=\"size-full wp-image-164 \" title=\"Roberto Alomar\" src=\"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/alomar.jpg\" alt=\"Roberto Alomar\" width=\"276\" height=\"209\" srcset=\"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/alomar.jpg 460w, http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/alomar-300x226.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 276px) 100vw, 276px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-164\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Not Roberto&#39;s most lasting impression on our author<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">1. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 Remember Roberto Alomar? Sure you do, everyone remembers the umpire spitting incident, and some might also remember the slick fielding, his deft handling of the bat or his A-rod-esque persona. But what I remember is being a baseball obsessed teenager hearing that when Alomar was trade to Toronto \u00c2\u00a0in the early 90\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s he never bothered to rent an apartment, opting to stay in a hotel for the 2-3 months until the end of the season. Unremarkable, except this hotel was situated inside the Blue Jay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stadium (The Sky dome at the time, now renamed the Rogers Center or something) and he had a room that looked out on the field. I was awestruck. <strong>You mean you can live in a baseball stadium?!<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">2. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 A few years later the Cub\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s were deeply entrenched in the Steve Buechele era and wins were hard to come by. The \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcW\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 flag was something of a rumor. I was couch potato-ing and came across the movie \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcRookie of the Year.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 The mere promise of a few Hollywood Cubs victories was enough for me to put down the remote and perk up a bit.<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">You know the movie, an eleven year old little leaguer tears a ligament in his arm, the doctor sews him up a little tight and he comes out of it with a 103mph fastball. A scout for the Cub\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happens to witness him throw a bullet from right field during a little league game and signs him on the spot, he joins the team and after a few pitfalls they come together as a team and win the pennant. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s basically the Mark Prior saga in rewind.<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">But that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the idea fragment, after he is signed by the Cub\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s he shows up at Wrigley for his first day on the job. When he arrives at the player\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entrance there is a big metal door that is locked up tight and they have a little <em>Wizard of Oz<\/em> moment when he knocks on the door. A Munchkin-like geezer appears out of this small window asking him what he wants. There were plenty of oddities in this movie but I was struck, <strong>did that Munchkin geezer live at Wrigley?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">3. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 About a week ago on an overwhelmingly pleasant Friday, the sun was shining and everyone had a smile on their face. \u00c2\u00a0It was the type of day that demanded a Cub\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game but the Lords of baseball are unyielding in their adherence to the schedule. Barring a decree from chairman Selig it dawned on me that this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to happen. Upon reconsideration I concluded that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even need a game and 40,000 sun drenched friends to hang out with, I just wanted to sit at Wrigley, sip a beer and talk baseball.<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\"><strong><em>But how?<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">And the apple drops. Whiz! Bang! Flash! Eureka! <strong><em>If only I lived at Wrigley, then all my problems would be solved!<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">Now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only a matter of convincing Mr. Ricketts to let me slap a few 2&#215;4\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s together to build a little tree house into the grandstand somewhere. Perhaps if I told him I was his bastard son, drunkenly conceived after one of those College days in the bleachers, the ones before he met his future wife. Would that be enough to extort a tiny corner of Wrigley for myself? Would that work?<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">After some peer review this scheme revealed itself to be ill-considered, but what about a contest?<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">If you haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t puzzled it together by now, this is the brilliant idea:<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">The Cubs need to find a couple hundred square feet of Wrigley and build a semi-livable space out of it. Then hold a contest to decide who gets the right to live there for a season. The winners (there will be two) will live together as roommates, do odd jobs around the Ball Park and blog about it several times a week. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a promotional bonanza, Bill Veeckian in its genius, sure to stir the blue blood in us all.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_167\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/031810wrigley1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-167\" class=\"size-full wp-image-167\" title=\"031810wrigley\" src=\"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/031810wrigley1.png\" alt=\"Wrigley Tree House\" width=\"400\" height=\"283\" srcset=\"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/031810wrigley1.png 400w, http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/031810wrigley1-300x212.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-167\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Artist&#39;s Rendering<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">The contest would be open to all Cubs fans; the selection process is as follows:<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">1. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 A 600 word essay on what to Cubs mean to you. This is the weed out portion where the best one-hundred continue.<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">2. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 A Cubs trivia challenge, only the top thirty continue.<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">3. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 Rain delay team challenge! Everyone gets split into 2 teams, and then the teams compete to see who can cover the infield with a tarp in the least amount of time.<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">4. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 Peanut Bag toss! The remaining fifteen contestants have to long toss peanut bags into targets all around Wrigley, winners are judged on accuracy and style points. Top five continue.<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">5. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 Final challenge- The finalists get flown down to spring training and have to write a blog about the same game. America (excluding White Sox Fans) votes- the top two get to live in Wrigley field as roommates for a season and live the dream. Unless Ronny Woo-woo ends up being the other winner.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have an idea! A Brilliant Idea. Truly great ideas build slowly in the mind. Separate idea fragments are gathered over time and sit in isolation. They lay, seemingly dormant, for years. Imperceptibly reaching out, building neuron pathways to construct a web of connections until that last fragment floats into the web and the distant [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174,"href":"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/torturedfanbase.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}