My baseball family suffered the loss today of our most senior and most loved member, Mike Lagattuta.
Mike loved singing. He loved Italian food. He loved teaching. He loved his friends as he loved family. And he loved the Cubs.
He grew up in the Wrigley neighborhood and he would tell us stories of getting out of school and going to Wrigley on game days to get jobs taking down folding seats in the stadium in exchange for being allowed to catch the last few innings of the game from the bleachers. I remember some pretty damn obscure players, but he baffled me with some of his references from the 50s and 60s.
By the time I met him 16 years ago, he had retired from teaching and was a proud season ticket holder in Aisle 424. We bonded over Sammy Sosa mashing homeruns, Kerry Wood emerging from a far-too-long barren farm system, the disappointment of seeing Randy Johnson go to the Astros for a package not much more than what Lynch gave up for Karchner and Heredia, and the glorious tie-breaker game against the Giants.
He used to tell me all the time about how he had bumped into Ed Lynch at a restaurant that year and told him that he should go and sign Gary Gaetti. After all the years teaching and mentoring kids in the Chicago public schools, I think that probably still ranked in his top ten most proud moments of his life.
Mike was with us screaming at Dusty to for-the-love-of-Christ get Farnsworth up in the bullpen before the 8th inning of Game 6 started in 2003. He sat staring at the field in disbelief with me afterwards for as long as Wrigley security would allow us.
He wanted to see the Cubs win a World Series so badly and now he never will.
I would talk to Mike periodically on the phone the last few off-seasons and he just couldn’t get excited over signings of Paul Maholm or Jason Hammel. I’d talk about how they were excellent buy low signings and they could be traded for better talent during the season, and he’d always counter with some version of “That’s great, but I’m running out of time for this shit.”
And now he has. And we, as his friends, will miss out on sharing the joy of a Cubs World Championship with him.
Mike was a celebrator of life and love and friendship and would never want us to be saddened by our loss, but rather celebrate that we knew him and loved him. But it is hard knowing I’ll never get to share that moment (if it ever comes) with someone who wanted it so badly.
Mike gave up his season ticket account about the same time I did because it was getting harder for him to get to the stadium so often and because, frankly, the Cubs weren’t worth the effort. Luckily, I got a chance to bring him to the last game of the year at Wrigley this past season where we watched Jake Arrieta pretty much single-handedly beat the Cardinals with 10 Ks in 7 innings and driving in 2 of the Cubs’ 3 runs. We talked about how things were looking up with Arrieta and Soler looking good plus the resurgence of Rizzo and Starlin.
But even as we talked about the Cubs’ bright future that night, he was still adamant that the Cubs sign an ace in the off-season before he got too excited.
It sucks that I won’t be able to call him if Jon Lester signs with the Cubs to tell him “I TOLD YOU SO!”
It sucks I won’t be able to high-five him after bombs by Soler, Bryant, Baez, etc. in the future.
It sucks that he won’t be there with us to dance and sing into the night if the Cubs ever reach the top of the mountain.
But I’m glad his last game was a Cubs victory. He deserved that much, at least.
I hope heaven has an awesome sports bar where he can still watch them.
UPDATE: Mike’s family has asked for donations to the Ron & Vicki Santo Diabetic Alert Dog Foundation in lieu of flowers. I’ll be making a donation and it really is a wonderful cause so I’m going to just leave the link here: http://ronsantofoundation.com/donate.html