Big Boogers and Take Me Out to the Ballgame: A Little Smile for Your Weekend

One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2015 was to post at least 300 columns on Cubs Insider this year. While some have scoffed, noting that that’s really only 6 posts each week, I think it’s a pretty admirable total. That said, I think I’m at seven thus far.

The topics have ranged from gimmes (Denorfia signing) to abstract (Method Man/Shakespeare mashup) to prognosticatory (10 Bold Predictions) to revelatory (my IWBAA ballot) to downright preachy (Bud Selig’s role in Steroid Era). One thing they were not, however, is click-bait.

But each, while predictably rife with sarcasm and pop culture call-backs, trending on the serious side of things. I’ve got to be honest, between climbing up and down from my soap box and seeing some downright disappointing results, I began to realize that I needed to take a different tack for a bit.

And you may need one too. After all, this weather has got everyone wound up a little tight. But it’s Friday, a time for most to let go the burdens of the week and relax a little bit. Bryan just wrote about the Cubs selling Spring Training tickets, and that got me thinking of happier times, warmer times.

A couple of you may remember the piece I wrote about passing things on to my daughter Addison, not all of them good. Well, I was looking through some old videos I had taken of her over the years (she’s 8 now) and discovered one that just cracked me up. In fact, I probably watched it a dozen times last night alone.

When she was little, my wife and I would sing songs to her at bed time. Among the steady rotation were standbys like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and other lullabies, but Go, Cubs, Go and Take Me out to the Ballgame were at the top of the list. Growing tired of our two-part harmony, she frequently demanded that my wife and I each sing different songs at the same time.

I can still picture her lying in her crib, pointing up at each of us alternately and demanding, “You sing ‘Tinkle,’ you sing ‘Take.'” She had a stuffed baseball toy that played the latter tune, and I can’t tell you how many times she’d squeeze that thing and run around singing along. A CD with Harry Caray and Steve Goodman signing their respective ditties was a must for car rides too.

The hilarity of the following video speaks for itself, though I’ll admit that you might need to have an ear for deciphering 2-year-old-ese. But something about her starting with one thing and then moving randomly to a different, and highly unrelated topic/action, reminded me of me. Maybe that’s me talking as a dad, I don’t know.

So no Cubs news here, nothing existential about being a fan or about our duty to the team or the sport. This video just gives me a big smile every time I watch it and I wanted to share a little of that warmth with our readers on this frigid Friday.