Rubbing elbows with the rich and famous

For those of you out there in cyberspace that are Chicago Cub fans....I present you with my (kinda) brush with fame.

This past Saturday night my family went to a Peoria Chiefs game. Kerry Wood had been there earlier in the week on his rehab assignment and Henry Blanco has been there for quite some time on his. We weren't fortunate enough to see Kerry but Henry did catch the entire game. His hitting wasn't that great, but, given the circumstances, I think he did pretty good. (Circumstances being catching for an 18 year old pitcher and being, BY FAR, one of the oldest players in the dug-out)

So, we're sitting in our seats, looking around and doing some people watching, when my husband says, "THERE'S JIM HENDRY! THERE'S JIM HENDRY!"

We'll I'll be damned. There he was. Seven seats, one aisle and a walk way away from us watching the game.

He seems to be a super nice guy. Later on in the game he was in the concession area watching the Cubs game they had on the television and a friend of ours and his family, who were also at the game, had to leave. As they were walking past him they asked if he would mind taking a picture with them. He graciously obliged and made sure the picture came out good of everyone before getting back to watching his game.

We had a great time. The weather was incredible, our seats were good, the game was good - although the Chiefs didn't win. There was a fireworks display after the game and we stuck around for a little of it and then decided to try to beat the crowd out of the stadium and parking lot. Worked like a charm.

My daughter wanted nothing more than a bag of Cracker Jacks, which she's seen eating in this picture of her and I.

It was fun. We're working on getting her to a "real" Cubs game before school starts, but we're starting to run out of time. This was her second ball game - we went to Cubs Spring Training in Arizona in March of 2006. Again, great seats. She got some autographs (Angel Pagan, Ron Cedeno the most notable of those she got) and we got some really good pictures of Nefi Perez and Alfanso Sorriano.

So, that's my brush with fame - Jim Hendry. Oh, Jim, by the way, Happy Belated Birthday.

Go ahead, try and tell me I'm not a true Cub fan NOW!