Can't Miss Press

Stuart and his wife, Cecilia Garibay, on a recent pub crawlMy brush with the Cubs:

I worked as a baseball columnist for nearly a decade and thus conducted many interviews in the locker rooms at Wrigley. It smelled worse than you can imagine.

Who were you:

That’s funny…I don’t ever remember assuming a player’s identity. Maybe I wanted to be Glenn Beckert, because I was small and scrappy and sometimes got into fights and couldn’t hit for power. What I really wanted to do was turn the double play. My playing career ended at about age 13.

Working on:

Just finished writing Pink Floyd FAQ, a book about one of the world’s weirdest and most avant-garde superstar bands. It’s coming out in May 2009. Currently I am editing Fantasy Baseball Index magazine, working on Who’s Who in Baseball 2009, and writing up some proposals for a couple more rock and roll books. I’m also a freelance editor and proofreader and I play in a rock band: The Captain Blood Orchestra.

Day jobs:

See above.

Literary figure I'd hire to manage the Cubs:

Sisyphus or Holden Caulfield.

The Cub I'd most want to live indefinitely in my basement:

Fergie Jenkins, no question.

Most cherished Cubs memories:

Maybe coming home from school at St. Jerome’s in 1970 and 1971, just a tyke, and going down to the Sheffields’ apartment (the elderly couple that owned the building we lived in), sitting on their sofa, and watching the last two or three innings of the game on WGN-TV. Also, my first game in 1971, and the 1984 division title.

Best piece of Cubs memorabilia:

During my childhood I wore out two copies of the Jack Brickhouse-narrated Great Moments in Cubs Baseball record album. The 1969 Cub Power LP is pretty special. My friend David Altman gave me a “Cub Power” button from ’69 that’s really neat.

The Cubs will win it all in 2009 because:

We all need to look foolish predicting it again.

The Cubs won't win it all in 2009 because:

They just won’t.

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Want more Stuart?

• Read "Deadball Poets Society," Randy Richardson's profile of him
• Visit his blog, "Baseball, Music, and Real Life" or Bardball.com