Funviralpark He called home from an Idaho payphone and told people about his vision of working with the great Mike Royko for the Chicago Tribune in a baseball town with two teams.
A tough, short conversation included the father saying, “You may find that some people aren’t as kind as you’re used to.”
“I don’t know how long I’m going to stay there, but I left my coat on the bed.”
Fuck.
A few days later, in still sunny Chicago, Vega exited the highway just after the Wrigley Field sign, drove a few blocks down Addison for gas and a map, and ended up in the parking lot of Lincoln’s Diplomat Motel. Arrived at .
That kid was so rubbish that the next day he walked into the Tribune building looking for a job with his handwritten resume and found that almost every story he had written in the last year was literally ripped out of the newspaper and crammed into a file folder. It was
After all, Trib and its security didn’t work like Spokesman-Review.
“Would you like to meet the sports editor?”
“Do you have a promise?”
“No.”
“Reservations are required.”
“Oh.
After getting off the elevator, I called the payphone in the lobby on the second floor to make an appointment, only to find out that Jean Quinn was on vacation.
The obvious next stop was Wrigley Field, where I bought an extra ticket for $5 from someone trying to get rid of my box seat for a make-up game with Andre Dawson and the Expos. One day in 1984.
For a kid who thought Kingdom was an exemplar of big-league ballpark virtues, his first glimpse of the field was spectacular. Sights, sounds, smells, sensory overload. Dawson, a pile of men standing in circles on deck, a few rows, but appeared to be three feet apart.
By the end of the week, a series of small newspapers wanted to hire the kid as a sports stringer, and McDonald’s had a sign in the window asking for help. An officer was too expensive to buy, winter was approaching, the coat was still in Spokane, and Quinn was still on vacation.
Vega took just over a week to get back to the northwest.
Persistence, vision, and focus are clearly real, whether or not things like omens, harbingers, destiny, and destiny are real.
One college degree, three baseball beats, and 23 years later, Lube is back at Wrigley Field.
Since then, nearly every Cubs, Wrigley and Dewar 16 seasons have followed. During that time there was a reunion with the first manager (Lou Piniella) whom I covered on the beat. Bench he’s a coach (Joe Maddon), a manager (Mike Quade) who went fishing with him for a Sun-Times back cover article, and most recently, a manager who traded well-meaning double birds many times.
It also included arguably the most famous championships in the history of American team sports, the first two championships. 2 — with many great guys (and some Dutch) who have rebuilt the history of elite-earning MLB teams since the dawn of free agency, moved on their way to NBC Sports Chicago, and covered over the years Who has become a great friend and colleague to countless great people.
It turns out my father was wrong about those kind people.
(Or, if you’re talking about Musk’s ass Twitter, he was ahead of his time).
It was a wild ride.
And with this rube deal on track with NBC, the only certainty is that the ride isn’t over yet.
It’s difficult to know for sure where the road will turn next. If that road turns back from Chicago, it’s even harder to imagine another place that feels like home.
But no matter how tough the game is for those who play the longest, this side of the business, it’s game time on a summer’s day when some older kid’s heart skips a beat. It’s nothing compared to doing it at the ballpark.
Call it destiny or focus.
Call it destiny, but don’t call it a destination.
38 years later, the journey continues. And all the remaining miles before I put someone to sleep.
Vega disappeared long ago, but some of us are still burning oil.
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