Formatting necessary for an accurate reading of this text may be shown by tags (e.g., <DELETED> or <BOLD>) or may be missing from this TXT display. For complete and accurate display of this text, see the PDF.
[Pages S7194-S7195]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECOGNIZING WGN-TV
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, we find ourselves in the usual December
doldrums. We are somewhere between the end of the baseball season and
the beginning of spring training. It is a time to reflect and a time to
dream.
A familiar offseason refrain from many die-hard Chicago Cubs fans is,
``Wait `til next year'' or ``next season will be different.'' Well,
next season will indeed be different as Cubs fans will not, in the
immortal words of Steve Goodman, be able to ``catch it all on WGN.''
Chicago Cubs baseball is moving to the new Marquee Sports Network. I
want to take a moment to honor WGN's long-standing commitment to
unsurpassed sports coverage and their historic partnership with the
Cubs.
I think it is safe to say that, for the most part, Cubs fans are an
optimistic bunch. We have endured some very tough seasons and the
longest championship drought in Major League Baseball. Of course, in
2016, the Cubs rewarded their fans with a World Series championship,
the first in more than a century. Throughout much of that century, fans
could count on watching their favorite team on ``Chicago's Very Own,''
WGN-TV. In fact, for 72 years, WGN helped spread the thrills of Cubs
baseball through player milestones, including Mr. Cub Ernie Banks'
500th homerun, pennant races, October baseball, and more than a few
lean years.
The Cubs game on April 23, 1948, wasn't a particularly memorable one.
They lost 1-0 to the rival St. Louis Cardinals. History was made not on
the field but in the broadcast booth as WGN-TV aired its first Cubs
game and set in motion the longest baseball-TV relationship in baseball
history. Since then, WGN-TV has aired 7,115 Cubs games, reaching fans
across the country and around the globe.
It was a great risk for the Cubs to start airing all their games on
television. What if people stopped going to games and only watched from
home? After all, WGN-TV made it feel like you were at the game. The
Zoomar lens brought long shots and close-ups into focus as a television
cameraman swung quickly from views of the whole diamond to close-ups of
batting, pitching, and action in the bullpen. But the gamble was worth
it. The Cubs drew 1.2 million fans to Wrigley Field in 1948, despite
losing 90 games that season.
It became a tradition for kids to come home after school to watch the
Cubs on WGN. Hall of famers Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo,
[[Page S7195]]
Fergie Jenkins, Andre Dawson, Ryne Sandberg, and a host of Cubs stars
became household names to fans across the country. Many a big leaguer
today will tell stories about watching the Cubs on WGN-TV and dreaming
of playing at Wrigley Field.
Generations of fans grew up knowing the sights and sounds of WGN-TV's
Jack Brickhouse yelling, ``Hey-hey!'' or Harry Caray's ``Holy cow!''
and his famous rendition of ``Take Me Out to the Ball Game.'' Both of
these hall of famers informed, entertained, and thrilled us for decades
with their play-by-play. They dazzled in the booth even when the action
on the field fell a bit short. WGN legendary producer/director Arne
Harris was behind the scenes from the 1960s through 2001, bringing us
baseball history from Wrigley Field. A distinguished list of announcers
also graced the WGN-TV broadcast booth including Milo Hamilton, Lou
Boudreau, Vince Lloyd, and Lloyd Pettit. Today, Len Kasper and Jim
Deshaies faithfully continue that tradition and are our trusted guides
to Cubs baseball. They will continue, along with WGN-TV director of
production and author Bob Vorwald, on the new network in 2020.
I want to take this opportunity to thank WGN-TV president general
manager Paul Rennie and all the good people at WGN who brought us the
sights and sounds of the Cubs and the Friendly Confines for 72 years.
In addition to those already mentioned, we acknowledge longtime
sports editor Jack Rosenberg, who routinely pulled off the impossible
in support of the telecast; directors Chris Erskine, Jack Jacobson,
Bill Lotzer, Skip Ellison, and Marc Brady; and videographer Joe
Pausback. My friend, Shaun Sheehan, was WGN's ambassador to Washington
and to the Congress for nearly three decades. And countless assistant
directors, technical directors, camera operators, audio engineers,
video shaders, and sales, business, and station executives, including
Jim Tianis, Frank Leone, Mike Aiello, Scott Jones, Steve Casey, Mike
Clay, Mark Stencel, Marty Wilke, Errol Gerber, Marissa Rudman, Jake
Fendley, Mark Boe, Jeff Shaw, Ward Quaal, Joe Loughlin, Dennis
FitzSimons, Peter Walker, John Vitanovec, Tom Ehlmann, Greg Easterly,
Jim Dowdle, Sheldon Cooper, Jim Zerwekh, Bob Ramsey, Tom Boyd, and
Terry ``Whitey'' Pearson truly made Cubs baseball on WGN-TV special.
As Bob Vorwald said just before the final games on WGN, ``We want to
tip our hat to Jack Brickhouse and Harry Caray and all the people that
have announced and the thousands of men and women that have worked on
the games. But, the best way to do that is by having a great telecast.
That's always been our mission, and it's important that we uphold that
to the very end.''
As WGN-TV and all the people who made Chicago Cubs baseball telecasts
possible sign off, let me join the countless fans in thanking them for
creating an American standard of broadcasting excellence.
____________________
