Getting to the Art of Baseball

The Art Institute of Chicago is a remarkable place.  Not only is the collection superb, but it's laid out and presented impressively and involvingly.

A couple of months back, they got their first-ever Norman Rockwell painting.  (Why it took this long, I don't know, but that's been rectified.)  And all the better, it's not only highly appropriate for Chicago, but on near and dear to my heart.  It's Rockwell's work, "The Dugout," one of the most famous baseball painting.

Rockwell painted it in 1948, after the Chicago Cubs lost a double-header on the road against the Boston Braves.  Games that Rockwell was at.  I even have a small copy up in my home.

Well...I spent the day at the Art Institute yesterday and, of course, went to see it, right away.  (The elves taking care of my place are jealous.  Understandably.)  I rarely take pictures of myself, but it will not shock you to learn that I couldn't let this pass by. This was the Real Thing, after all.

​I asked one of the guards if he'd help out.

I believe the correct response is...Huzzah!!

​Either that, or Let's Play Two!

By the way, that's a fun story related to one of the Cubs in the dugout, the fellow second from the left in the painting.  That's the manager Charlie Grimm, who has his arms crossed.  (All four men in the dugout were real Cubs, who Rockwell got to pose after the game.  The young batboy was not part of the Cubs, but was actually the batboy for the Braves, and he agreed to wear a Cubs uniform for the posing.  And yes, he did get paid a bit for it.  I assume they all did.)

Charlie Grimm (whose nickname was "Jolly Cholly") managed the Cubs on and off, and then retired.  But he was brought out of retirement to manage the team in 1960.  But the Cubs got off to a terrible start – and so the team owner P.K. Wrigley did something I’m not aware of ever being done in baseball – or any major sport franchise.  Before or since.  At the time (and this is important to the story), the Cubs radio announcers were a guy named Jack Quinlan -- and Lou Boudreau who was the analyst.  Boudreau had been a truly great shortstop during his career – in fact, so great that he’s in the National Baseball Hall-of-Fame.  He played for the Cleveland Indians when another Chicago legend, Bill Veeck, owned them – before Veeck bought the White Sox – and he made Boudreau the Indians' player-manager.  Anyway, back to 1960, what P.K Wrigley did was bizarre, and something only the Cubs of that era would do:  he swapped manager Charlie Grimm with the team’s radio announcer, Lou Boudreau!!!  For the rest of the season, Charlie Grimm did the analysis on WGN-AM radio, and Lou Boudreau was the manager!!

Yes, really.  I was a little kid at the time, and the one thing I remember of the switch (the only thing I remember…) is that Charlie Grimm had a catch-phrase in the booth.  When the count on a batter was 3-and-2, he’d said, “Something has got to happen…”  My dad thought that was a hoot.  Anyway, at the end of the year, Grimm again retired, and Lou Boudreau went back to announcing, where he continued for another 20 years or so.  Occasionally helping out on the TV broadcasts.
 
And now you know.