Happy Birthday Patrick and I hope you have a great day. I only wish that Mom and I could be with you to celebrate. During the past few days as I recover from my gall bladder surgery, I found myself reliving some of the really great moments I’ve had with you as your Dad but there is one day in particular that I keep coming back to. It was a beautiful sunny day on Sunday, August 26, 2001. You were 10 years old at that time and I was the Head of Equity Research at Credit Suisse First Boston who was heavy into his training for the upcoming NYC Marathon later that November. Ernie MacVicar, a good colleague of mine who I had worked with in our Chicago office going back to my first days on Wall Street as an analyst at Kidder Peabody, connected me with a ticket broker so I could purchase 4 box seats for a Chicago Cubs-St. Louis Cardinals baseball game at legendary Wrigley Field. I had never attended a game at Wrigley before but had always heard it was one of those great experiences that every father and son must do at some point in their lives. My secretary Joanne Lennon had already helped me secure the airline tickets to O’Hare Airport for the trip and I thought it would be just great to include Uncle Matt and Andrew. You see the 4 of us had a long history of going to sporting events together when you and Andrew were growing up, including several Mets games at the old Shea Stadium and seeing the mighty Mike Piazza, a couple of Yankee games where all of us were united in always rooting for their opponent, Big Five basketball at the Palestra where we would root for either Penn or St. Joe’s (Dennis’s alma mater), and of course those great Notre Dame football games we had attended in South Bend.
You and I got up at the crack of dawn on that eventful day and drove to JFK airport for the 2 hour flight to Chicago. We met Uncle Matt and Andrew there and arrived at O’Hare around 10:30 am CST, grabbed a taxi and then headed over to Wrigley Field. You and Andrew were starving so we grabbed breakfast at Chicago Diner, one of the most famous eateries near Wrigley Field. What I remember most about that part of the day was that Andrew threw up some of the meal he had ordered and then surprised us by turning to Uncle Matt and then asking him to order some pancakes which he quickly devoured without further incident. We arrived at this most beautiful of all ballparks about an hour before the game as Sammy Sosa Jr., your favorite major leaguer, settled into the batting cage launching countless baseballs over Wrigley’s iconic ivy-draped fence.
Sammy was one of the most popular players in the game back then and a legendary home run hitter. He had established himself as a superstar during the 1998 season when he found himself in an incredible home run chase with Mark McGuire of the St. Louis Cardinals that had captivated the American public. Every morning that summer began with ESPN Sports Center highlights of Sammy and McGuire hitting their home runs at a record pace. Some days Sammy pulled ahead, other days it was McGuire taking the home run lead. The country was totally into it. The home run race had reminded older folks like me of the great home run chase that occurred during the 1961 season between Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees. Maris would go on to break Babe Ruth’s record of 60 home runs in a season when he hit his 61st on the last day of the season while Mickey finished with 54 home runs, sidelined by an injury during the last 2 weeks of the season. By the season’s end, McGuire would end up hitting 70 home runs, establishing a new single season MLB record with Sammy close behind at 66 home runs. Baseball seemed to be back in a big way after a long and ugly strike that had marred the game.
I had hoped that McGuire would be able to play that day but he had suffered a serious hamstring injury earlier in the week and was not able to play but our excitement built as the 1:35pm game time approached and Sammy and the Cubbies soon took the field on what was a picture perfect Sunday afternoon on the south side of Chicago. And boy oh boy, were we rewarded on that memorable day. A capacity crowd of 39,045 fans watched as Sammy hit 2 homers that day — his 50th and his 51st of the season — and the crowd just went crazy every time Sammy came to bat or ran onto the field. You, Katie, and I used to love the way Sammy would run out on the field because as he ran, he would blow kisses with his hand to the fans. The Cubbies won the game that day 6-1 and the entire day was just a magical experience for me, everything from buying the scorecard and getting that little pencil to keep score, to the hotdogs, the peanuts, the sodas, and the ice cream just has this way of filling you with happiness. And, Wrigley Field, just like at Fenway, the old style organist keeps playing these old tunes throughout the game, making you feel as if you have turned back the hands of time to the era of the 1920s.
After the game ended, we grabbed a taxi back to O’Hare and took the scenic route by driving past beautiful Lake Michigan. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed for about two hours so we just chowed down some more food to pass the time. After landing back at JFK, we bid goodbye to Uncle Matt and Andrew for the long ride back to Pennington. You fell asleep but that was just fine with me because I knew that I just had a day with my son unlike any other, a moment with you that would last forever. The next day as I got ready for our morning meeting with the analysts, sales people and traders, a number of my colleagues came up to me and asked me how my weekend was and so I told them about your Dad’s excellent adventure with my son Patrick where we got to see Sammy Sosa and the Cubbies at Wrigley Field. They all just smiled and said how they too were going to take a trip like that some day with their own kids. Little did any of us know how our lives would change so dramatically in just a few short weeks with the September 11th terror attacks.
