The Announcement

Okay folks, to get in the proper mood for this entry, read it while listening to this song:

     Summertime in Chicago.  Some people say that it's an oasis in the otherwise wacky Midwestern weather schedule.  Some people say that it transforms the city into a whole other place than it is in the Winter.  Some say simply that it is awesome.  Well, guess what?  They're right.  All of them.  Summertime in Chicago is chock full of long hot days schlepping around various street festivals, and warm nights spent listening to jazz, watching fireworks/movies, and communing with friends.  It is something to be experienced.  And here at Chicago 365, that's exactly what I'm setting out to do.  Starting on Monday and going through Labor Day, I will be profiling different things to do all throughout the city.  One day I might be going to a street fest, the next day I may be taking in jazz and fireworks on a beautiful evening, and I might even catch the vibe at some parades(I haven't lost faith yet and you shouldn't either).  Point is, if you want to see what a summer in Chicago can be, follow this blog this summer and live vicariously through my entries.  And if you have any suggestions, please don't hesitate to leave them in the comment section.  Thanks for your time and here's to a GREAT summer.

Divvying it up

     Chicago.  We're the city that works.  But we're also rapidly becoming the city that bikes to work.  The recent explosion of dedicated bike lanes downtown(as well as of bikes downtown in general) are certainly indicators of a trend on the rise.  And now with Mayor Emanuel's well-publicized support of the expansion of biking, it seems like all Chicagoans are on board with the ascent of the city biker(Well, with the exception of a certain well-known Tribune columnist).  Just last summer biking in Chicago got a major shot in the arm with the introduction of the Divvy program in June of 2013.  The program was inspired by a visit Richard M. Daley took to Paris in 2007.  Being inspired by the bike-sharing system that the Parisians enjoyed, Daley decided that Chicago should have something similar.  After a few delays, the program was up and running by the middle of last summer.

     One little Easter Egg that came with the bikes was the inclusion of a single red bike amongst the fleet.  Riders who find this bike and take a picture with it can potentially win an annual Divvy membership.  The bikes were even planned to be made available over the winter, though given the severity of the weather, I'm not sure how many souls braved the elements.  As the weather heats up again, the city is poised for an even more successful season of Divvying, especially with the city's compliment of stations rising to 400.

     This is just the first in several biking related articles that will be popping up on this blog throughout the summer, make sure to periodically check back with us for more posts about biking in Chicago.

The Most Terrible Thrill

     Remember that post I put up about the Harvard School for Boys?  Remember how I said that all would be revealed today?  Well, I am a man of my word, so sit back and prepare to have the veil lifted from your eyes.

     At the dawn of the 20th Century, the Kenwood neighborhood was a hamlet of the wealthy and affluent(which it still is to this day, being the Chicago residence of President Obama), attracting lawyers, executives, and rich immigrant families.  At some point, two recent college graduates who lived in the area with their families made the acquaintance of each other.  Their names were Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb.  Leopold had an IQ of 210, had completed an undergrad degree at the University of Chicago, allegedly spoke 27 languages fluently, was a skilled ornithologist, and was currently attending the University of Chicago Law School.  In short, he was a genius.  Loeb was no slouch either.  Despite expressing a desire to be more focused on non-academic pursuits, he nonetheless skipped several grades in school and became the youngest graduate of the University of Michigan, a distinction that still stands to this day.

     When the two men met, they both realized that they had a strong interest in crime, so they began to exercise that hunger by engaging in a streak of petty crimes, eventually working their way all the way up to arson.  However, they still were largely ignored, and so they decided to up the ante.  To do this, they turned to Leopold's interest in Nietzsche, specifically his idea of the Ubermenschen, or the Superman(this was the same idea that would inform Hitler's obsession with the Aryan race a decade later).  Leopold believed the two of them to be Supermen, which meant that they could pull off the perfect crime.  After several months of research, the duo concocted a plan to kidnap and murder a young boy all for the thrill of it.

     The ball started rolling on Wednesday, May 21, 1924 when the duo pulled up in a rented vehicle to the HARVARD SCHOOL FOR BOYS.  Their intent was to lure one of the students to their car.  Loeb ended up selecting Bobby Franks, his second cousin and son of a Chicago millionaire.  As they drove off with Franks, one of the boys sat in the back seat and struck him in the head with a chisel.  After the deed was done, the duo drove to a lake in Hammond, Indiana to dispose of the body.  After that, the boys went back to Chicago and whiled away the rest of the night playing cards.  The next day, Chicagoans were transfixed to the news of Franks' disappearance.  An investigation was soon launched, which soon hit pay dirt.  Police found a pair of glasses at the body dump.  Additionally, only three people in the whole city had that specific type of glasses, one of them being Leopold.  Suspicion was immediately cast upon the two boys, and they were hauled in for questioning just 8 days after killing Franks(Police 1, Ubermenschen 0).  While they were being questioned, Leopold's chauffeur came in with a change of clothes for the boys.  As he was leaving, the man casually mentioned that the boys had to innocent, as the family's car was in the shop the day of the murder.  Unbeknownst to him, Leopold's alibi centered around the fact that the two of them had driven that same car on the day of the murder.  The perfect crime had been defeated by the casual small talk of a lowly chauffeur.

     The two of them were put on trial soon afterwards.  Fearing the imposition of the death penalty, Loeb's family hired Clarence Darrow to represent him.  Even with Darrow's status as a rock star in the legal world firmly entrenched, little hope was held out for the two of them.  But Darrow gave it all he had, starting off with a 12-hour argument on the first day of the trial, which contained what many regard as his finest speech, which included this line: "This terrible crime was inherent in his organism, and it came from some ancestor... Is any blame attached because somebody took Nietzsche's philosophy seriously and fashioned his life upon it?... It is hardly fair to hang a 19-year-old boy for the philosophy that was taught him at the university"  As a result of his masterful words that left the courtroom in silenced awe, Darrow succeeded in delivering the boys from an apparently certain death sentence.  The court instead sentenced each of them to life plus 99 years in prison.  They immediately were sent to Joliet to serve their time.

     In 1936, Loeb was stabbed to death with a straight razor by a fellow inmate.  In 1958, Leopold was released on parole after spending 33 years in prison.  He soon moved to Puerto Rico to avoid media attention.  On August 29, 1971, Nathan Leopold died of a heart attack, providing the Chicago media with one final time to reflect on the murders.  Leopold's corneas were later donated to a deserving recipient.

The Scene of The Crime

     In 1865 the Civil War was winding down, Chicago's meatpacking business was heating up, and there were a bevy of young and impressionable minds just waiting to be shaped, and their parents demanded only the best in education for their little darlings.  Into this picture steps Edward S. Waters, a graduate of Harvard.  To assure the fine education of Chicago's future, he established a school that would mold the boys of Chicago into products ready-made for enrollment in the finest universities that the East Coast had to offer.  Fittingly, Waters' venture was named the Harvard School for Boys.

     Originally located on the corner of Congress and Wabash, the school ultimately moved to the 4700 block of Ellis Avenue, where it absorbed the Princeton-Yale School and the men from the South Side Academy.  Much like its neighbor the University of Chicago, Harvard quickly became distinguished as the best possible place to get an education, and the enrollment records read like a who's who of powerful Chicago surnames: Armour, Field, Walgreen, Drake, and Burnham, to name just a few.

     As it was such a bastion of the young and affluent, it makes sense that the school also had a heavy sports legacy.  Some highlights include sending a track and field athlete to the 1904 Olympic Games, and establishing golf as an interscholastic sport in the early 20th Century.  However, the school fell victim to changing times and declining enrollments, and its doors were permanently shuttered in 1962 after 97 years of helping to educate some of Chicago's best and brightest.


     Post-script:  I know my choices for blog entries can be extremely eclectic, but this time there is a method to my madness.  Aren't you guys even the tiniest bit curious why I just did an entry about a Boys School that hasn't seen a single student pass through its doors in 54 years?  And just what in the world is going on with that title?  Rest easy dear readers, for all will be revealed...on Wednesday.  That's right, I'm making you wait 5 WHOLE DAYS to find out the rest of the story.  So go ahead, enjoy your weekend, and then come back here on Wednesday to get the full reveal.

 

The Top Of Their Game: Cubs/Sox Week Day 3

     In 1906, the Cubs and the White Sox faced each other in the World Series.  The matchup led to such a commotion and an upset victory by the White Sox that it quickly became the stuff of legend.  Over the intervening decades, the two teams never again approached playing each other when it counted.  Then, the 1977 season saw both the Cubs and the Sox leading their respective divisions in the summertime and thoughts began to turn to another all-Chicago World Series.  Alas, both teams bottomed out by the Fall, and it was not to be.  31 years later, the flames of destiny would be fanned once more.

     The year was 2008, and it was the 100th Anniversary of the Cubs' last World Series victory.  Not just that, but both teams were doing surprisingly well.  When the time came for the annual face-off, the two teams were at the top of their divisions, and the gauntlet had been thrown down.

     The Series touched off on June 20, at Wrigley Field.  Heading into the final stretch of the game, the Cubs were down when Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez homered to tie up the game.  Then Ramirez smacked a walk-off homer to seal up the game 4-3.  For Game 2 of the series, the Cubs were down 4-1 in the 4th inning, when the team lit up the Sox for 9 runs in the 4th, ultimately prevailing by a score of 11-7.  The next night, the Cubs dazzled before a national audience with a 7-1 victory, prompting A.J. Pierzynski(2 years removed from his infamous bout with Michael Barrett) to parrot Lee Elia's infamous rant from 25 years previously.

     The following weekend, the series reconvened at U.S. Cellular Field.  The first pitch of Game 4 was thrown out by newly acquired Bulls guard Derrick Rose, after which it was the South Siders turn to produce a laugher, beating the Cubs 10-3.  The following day saw the White Sox stifle a Cubs rally to win the game 6-5.  Finally, the Series Finale saw the White Sox emerge victorious by a score of 5-1.  Final Results of the 2008 Crosstown Classic: 3 wins for the Cubs, 3 wins for the Sox.

     At the end of things, the all time series was tied 33-33, and the two teams still led their divisions.  There were still murmurs about another all-Chicago World Series, and while both teams made the playoffs in the same year for the first time since 1906, they both lost in the Division Series.

Fight! Fight! Fight!: Cubs/Sox Week Day 2

     The date is Saturday, May 20, 2006.  The White Sox are still ecstatic over their World Series win over the Cardinals the previous October.  The Cubs are in the midst of a moribund season that will see them lose 96 games and lead to the firing of Dusty Baker.  But as is customary for Cubs/Sox each year, you can throw the records out the window, because the unexpected can and does happen.

     On this specific occasion, our attention turns to the second inning of the ball game.  At that time, Brian Anderson of the White Sox had just hit a sacrifice fly, trying to drive in A.J. Pierzynski.  As he was sliding into home, he ran headlong into Cubs catcher Michael Barrett, who wound up dropping the ball from the shock of the impact.  The home plate umpire called A.J. safe, who slapped home plate in an emphatic celebration before turning back towards the dugout.  Perturbed over something, Barrett got in Pierzynski's face and decked him in the jaw.  As is customary, both benches immediately cleared and a brawl broke out right at home plate.  After the fracas finally cleared, the umpires were debating for more than 15 minutes over who would be ejected from the game.  After the umps restarted the game, Scott Podsednik loaded up the bases for the Sox, who received a Grand Slam when Tadahito Iguchi brought everybody home.

     The game was eventually won by the White Sox 7-0.  The White Sox ended up taking the season series that year 4 games to 2.  As for the fallout, Michael Barrett was suspended for 10 games, Brian Anderson missed 5, and Pierzynski received a fine.  And the flames of the rivalry were fanned for another year.

The Rivalry: Cubs/Sox Week Day 1

     This week, the Cubs and the White Sox reconvene for their 18th Annual tilt of games.  Here at Chicago 365, I've decided to take a look back at some of the memorable moments from those games.

     Ever since the American League was founded in 1901, there had been a rivalry between the two leagues, with the AL openly poaching both players and fans from the more established National League.  This rivalry extened to the teams themselves, including the Chicago Cubs and the new AL affiliate in town, the Chicago White Stockings.  The tension started even before the White Stockings played their first game, as the owner of the Cubs had filed suit to prevent Charles Comiskey from even moving another team into the city.  The courts let Comiskey move in the team, and the animosity had been stoked.

     In 1906, both teams made the World Series(which was actually the first time that two teams from the same city played each other in the Fall Classic).  The Cubs had won 116 games that year and were the odds on favorites.  The White Stockings had won 93 games and were known as the Hitless Wonders.  Regardless, the Cubs wound up losing the Series to the South Siders.  For several years after the '06 Series, the two teams played a post-season series that served to provide bragging rights.  By the '40s, that series was no longer played.

     Then, in the late '80s, the idea was resurrected for the annual Crosstown Classic charity game.  This wasn't too momentous, other than the fact that it led to Michael Jordan starting a game at Wrigley Field(this was when Jordan played in the White Sox farm system).  Finally, in 1997 MLB organized regular season interleague play, and the two teams faced each other when it counted for the first time in 91 years.  Since then, the White Sox have won the series 9 times, with the other 8 being either Cubs wins or ties.  The series commences once again tonight, and who knows what kind of a show we're in store for.