Éirinn go brách!

Most of what I wrote below was from last year. But as we celebrate St. Patrick's Day, please remember to celebrate responsibly.

With that public service announcement out of the way, let's get on to business. Today is St. Patrick's Day. It is the day that honors St. Patrick, who is the patron saint of Ireland. It also commemorates the arrival of Christianity to the Emerald Isle. In fact, it is said (thanks Wikipedia) that he used shamrocks to explain the Holy Trinity.

The Chicago River was dyed a nice green this year. And it is said that they do a fantastic job of it as it pretty much stays that color for the rest of the year. Our Chicago sports teams (at least the Bulls and that supposed other baseball team) wore green jersey's in honor of Chicago's Irish community. And although this post is almost a day late, it is always better late then never (and there are still a couple of hours to go if you're on the West Coast).

Now for the baseball portion of the program. If you're wondering, while there are many players of Irish descent in both the Major Leagues and the Minor Leagues, the last native born Irish player was Joe Cleary. Born in County Cork, Cleary only appeared in one game (08/04/1945) in 0.1 inning of work for the Washington Senators. But in that eventful inning, he struck out one batter (the good news), but allowed five hits, three walks, and seven earned runs to score. Saving time for the math, but seven runs in 1/3 innings equals an ERA of 189.



If anybody says, "Top of the morning to you," to you today, make sure to respond in kind, "And the rest of the day to yourself."

So now, a quick toast...



May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be at your back.
May your cards collections grow to unmeasurable heights in both volume and value.
May the quest for new cards be swift.
May the journey of life treat you well today and always.
And may a certain North Side baseball team win it all this year.
If you catch my drift.

Sláinte!

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama