Over the weekend, Al at bleedcubbieblue.com really stepped up his game and wrote about 10,000 words on the different start times of Cubs games at Wrigley Field over the years.  Now, everyone knows that Al and I are regular chums and I only pretend to give him a hard time about his writing.  You know I’ll say he’s a blithering idiot, and a clueless redass, but it’s all in good fun.  Just like the kind of fun you had with your brothers growing up, and how you used to throw each other down the stairs, or toss a plugged in hairdryer into the bathtub while they were soaking in it.  That kind.

So, after that gem, I decided it was time for me to match that effort.  And the results are here.

An exhaustively researched and thoroughly presented oral history on a huge moment in Cubs history.  The day in 1972 when they switched from black to blue spikes.

YOSH KAWANO, Wrigley Field Clubhouse Attendant 1943-2008

I come in one day in 1972 and all the spikes blue, instead of black.

I ask why, somebody say, “Because it matches the stirrups.”

I say, OK.

So there you have it.  A complete oral history on the Cubs switch from black to blue baseball shoes.

Check in next week, when our oral history series delves into the installation of cup holders in the grandstand seats at Wrigley in the ’90s.