Pass the oregano.

4 Wrigleyville was never a “bad part of town” – it was always a fairly quiet, residential, mostly white neighborhood that happened to have a ballpark as its defining feature. When the popularity of the team took off in 1984, aided by Harry Caray and WGN, the number of bars surrounding the stadium multiplied exponentially, and the frat-party atmosphere entrenched itself.

As for the stands being packed on a daily basis, that didn’t really become the case until 2003. The Cubs have drawn very well ever since ’84 but, until the 2003 season, they’d only get crowds of 15 to 20k for early and late season day games. Unless they were playing the Cardinals or the White Sox, mid-week games would never sell out. Now, it’s a different story.

Two months later, the Franchise was shipped out to Cincinnati. I’ll always wonder whether, if Ontiveros had not gotten that hit, the Mets would have traded Tom Terrific right after pitching what would have been his first no-no.

8 : I was told on a couple occasions that my offensive hoop skills echoed those of basketball Bobby Jones. Unfortunately, he was known not for his offense but for his defense (and for having epilepsy). No one ever compared my defense to his.

I’ve wondered that myself. As far Bobby Jones, he was also a great golfer, as well as a Philadelphia 76er. When I was young, I got Tommie Aaron and Tommy Aaron mixed up.

That string of dada search engine entries in the Rowland Office thread cracked me up.

At two different points in their history the Mets pitching staff simultaneously boasted two Bob Millers and then two Bobby Joneses.

Matters of race, role, different middle initials, and the fact that in each instance one was a lefty and one was a righty, never seemed to help anyone figure out what the hell was going on all that much.

And in football, didn’t Gene Washington once mistakenly appear on the card of Gene Washington?

4 : Hopefully a Cubs fan can chime in on that history question. I’ve only been living in Chicago in the boozy, Mardi Gras-esque “Wrigley Field Hottie” era.

“Maybe this Steve Ontiveros slipped into the 9th dimension and never returned.”

I don’t know his ultimate destination, but I believe after getting the heave ho by the Cubs he went to Japan and played for a while there. I’ve had him on the roster of a couple of my 1970s Strat-O-Matic teams. He was a pretty decent hitter. Not much power but a good OBP guy.