Penance at Wrigley Field

Slammin' Hank McCloskey could have been the greatest baseball player of all time, but he smoked and drank and gambled.  Het let down children and diehard Chicago Cubs fans.  His home runs were metaphysically whittled down to singles, and singles were whittled down to strikeouts and gloomy, dispirited walks back to the dugout.  Without the booze and fast women, he could have delivered a National League pennant to the Cubs.

He died of emphysema forty years later, but a groundskeeper at Wrigley Field sometimes sees the ghost of Hank McCloskey standing on first base late at night.  He's not standing on a field of dreams, however.  Instead, he haunts a field of penance.  As McCloskey explained it to the groundskeeper one lonely night, he has to stand on first base until the Cubs win the pennant.  Only then will he be allowed to round the bases, touch home plate, and be welcomed into a much bigger ballpark that no one on earth has ever seen.

The Cubs have fallen on hard times.  They haven't won a pennant or been to the Series since 1945, and it's all because of Slammin' Hank McCloskey.  When you don't honor children and baseball, bad things can happen.

~William Hammett 

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