DES MOINES -- Cubs, Cubs, Cubs everywhere.
Well, I-Cubs, actually.
Cast a glance in any direction, the brand was right between your eyes or in your hand holding the baseball waiting patiently for Ian Happ's autograph.
Parphenalia of all types, from the biggest teddy bear to smallest bracelet charm was in abundance.
But, it wasn't Wrigley Field, but Principal Park here in the Capital City hard by the confluence of the Des Moines and Iowa Rivers.
Yep, Happ's now the local star and the next big thing to wind up in Wrigley and his signature is the current dream and passion or I-Cubs fans, who, in the past, had the pleasure of having Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo and Addison Russell sign on in the same premises.
Principal Park isn't Wrigley, nothing is, but in the bowels of Chicago's Triple-A venue, red, white, blue and the happy face of Cubbie Bear beamed dazzling in the dark substands as well as the bright sun that washed the greensward a few steps up above.
People are also reading…
The Saturday occasion was the 2017 open to the public fanfare for the I-Cubs, of the Pacific Coast League.
The ballplayers weren't around, they were in Louisiana opening their season-opening series against the New Orleans Baby Cakes, who were trimming down their roster to send a few dudes back to Double-A to toil for the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.
Delectable, right?
The I-Cubs, sequestered in Des Moines since 1981, threw Principal open to the public for four hours Saturday, showing off the park for one and all.
The tour was free as were the hot dogs and soda pop.
Neat idea. Maybe the Explorers management might consider the idea.
The X's didn't win the World Series as the Cubs did last year, but Our Town's Boys of Summer are champs in the American Association.
And they deserve far greater attention than they seem to be getting.
Yes, I remember 3,000 of you showing up at Lewis and Clark Park -- and on a pretty regular basis.
| Long ago, when a newspaper gig first beckoned, a vow was made -- with an editor's gentle urging -- to avoid lists, a journalistic taboo.
The vow is hereby broken.
Mike Dull, Neil Fegebank, Kyle Galloway, Dave Gunther, Peer Hegg, Chris Kingsbury, Frank Nelson, Dennis Pauling, Dennis Runge, Kirk Speraw, Stan Straatsma, Forrest Twogood, Mike Gesell, Adam Woodbury, Zach McCabe.
Continuing. Robert Nuestrom, Tyler Cropley, Mike Inman, Al Greene, Dan LaFleur, Jon LaFleur, Tom Brands, Terry Brands, Carter Lilly, Doug Davis, Ben Stedman, Brett Stedman, LeVar Woods, Parker Wildeman, Cliff Wilder, Chuck Uknes, Dave Triplett. Lonnie Rogers, James Spaan, Bob Rees, Bob Prescott, Leo Miller, Skip Miller, Gene Mollet, Aaron Kooiker, Roger Meyer, Carlos James, Matt Hughes, John Harty, Steve Brown, Mark Callaghan, Dick Crayne, Dave Croston, Jeff Croston, Cole Croston, Jed Dull, Gregg Fedders, Scott Fisher, Zeron Flemister, Ed Gochenour.
Those mentioned above, either current or former residents of Sioux City and its immediate environs, all have connections to University of Iowa athletics, many of them letterwinners in various sports.
The incomplete list (apologies to the missing) indicates to me that the University of Iowa might consider paying homage to the legacy of those athletes and to the numerous fans and former Phi Beta Kappa, graduates who shell out enormous amounts money to lay their hands on over-priced black and gold.
| Condolences if you had Gonzaga winning it all in basketball.
Just can't let this Zags saga go without mentioning the school's football tradition.
Yes, there is one.
Green Bay Packers fans, even the late-to-the-game bandwagon boosters, should be well acquainted with Gonzaga football.
In their hallowed Lambeau Field there's a ring of honor or whatever and the No. 3 up there belonged to one Tony Canadeo, the "Gray Ghost of Gonzaga'' who in 1949 became only the third running back in NFL history to rush for 1,000 yards.
When his career ended in 1952 he was the all-time Packer rushing leader.
He was named to the NFL Hall of Fame in 1974.
Canadeo might not be as famous as another Gonzaga student, crooner Bing Crosby, but he ranks right up there with another famous Bulldog player and coach, Ray Flaherty, who invented the screen pass.
Flaherty's NFL assignments included the Boston Redskins (later the Washington Redskins), the New York Yankees and the New York Giants.
He, too, is in the NFL Hall of Fame.
Bing, who spent many a White Christmases in the Northwest, didn't get an undergraduate degree from the Spokane, Wash., school but was later bestowed an honorary doctorate.
Gonzaga disbanded its football program after the 1941 season.
| There's more room on your favorite golf course.
According to the National Golf Foundation the number of people playing golf in the United States dropped from a peak of 30 million in 2005 to 24.1 million in 2015.
| ESPN, whether it gets a thumbs up or down, is always a pesky player.
Last week, ESPN unveiled its first 2017 "Football lPower Index'' and it wasn't real kind to Iowa and Nebraska.
Of 130 Division I (FBS) teams, Nebraska is projected 58th and Iowa 39th.
The Huskers are projected to lose six of their final seven games and finish 3-6 in the Big Ten.
Ohio State is No. 1, Penn State eighth, Wisconsin 10th and Michigan 17th.
Purdue got the 99 hole.
Iowa State, meanwhile, is projected to beat Northern Iowa, Akron and Kansas
| It is a favorable omen Drake University naming Niko Medved as its new men's basketball coach.
The last Drake NCAA tournament team coached by a fellow whose first name ended in the letter "o'' was the 2008-09 bunch guided by Keno Davis.
Those Bulldogs, though, seeded fifth, were upset by 12th-seeded Western Kentucky in the first round.