The Chicago Cubs had a Post-Season Rally in downtown Chicago, right next to the Picasso sculpture in Daley Plaza on Tuesday, September 30, 2008. Master of Ceremonies Jim Belushi, a Chicago native, exclaimed “I love this city!” and introduced the famous ballplayers and dignitaries present, including Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was drowned out at one point by fans chanting and singing “Go! Cubs! Go!”

In all fairness, the Governor had droned on for a rather long time, noting that Teddy Roosevelt was President the last time the Cubs made the World Series, 100 years ago, etc., etc., etc.

There was a large plasma video screen to the left of the stage and a highlight reel of phenomenal Cubs plays during the year was shown at one point. We all sang along with Harry Caray (long deceased) who led the traditional 7^th inning stretch song of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Later, we sang to the new “Go! Cubs! Go!” song while blue and red paper bits drifted down on top of us from a confetti canon (visible in the picture of the Governor.) All onlookers chanted that Ron Santo belonged in the Hall of Fame.

Jim Belushi, brother of John and a Chicago native, praised WGN and Fox, which carried his television program. An elderly woman in a wheelchair struggled to her feet to sing along with the crowd and told me that she had “been a fan since I was 13.” Bill Hajdys and his daughter Coryan showed up in goofy sunglasses carrying a large sign that read, on one said, “Jesus Was A Cubs Fan” and, on the other, “We’re On A Mission from God,” a reference to a line in the Jim Belushi/Dan Ackroyd film “The Blues Brothers,” which was shot in Chicago.

Mounted policeman Sergeant Kevin Gyrian was there, sitting atop Baldy, his horse, ready to restore order if necessary as part of the Strategic Deployment Unit. Zira Singer’s grandson held a sign next to Kevin and Baldy wishing Grandma Zira a speedy recovery in Lutheran General, where she underwent spinal surgery and then contracted an infection in the hospital.

Nearby a silent man held a sign that read “Obama, Spare My Child.” When asked what the story was, he remained silent. One man in the crowd wore a shirt that read “Quad City Mallards.” At the nearby Corner Bakery a man who appeared to be Amish sat by himself following the rally, quietly eating peanuts from a bag of nuts he had brought and drinking some bottled water.

The weather was gorgeous, and all of the windows in the Civic Center were filled with onlookers, looking down at the Picasso statue, which was decked out in a Cubs hat for the day.

Speedo LZR Racer Swimsuit

I’m always interested to learn that the Midwest has done itself proud. That would appear to be the case in the very hot topic of the LZR (pronounced “laser” swimsuit designed by Speedo and currently showcased in the June 30, 2008, issue of Newsweek with Cindy McCain on the cover.

The controversy over the swimsuit, made of high-density microfiber and lined with polyurethane panels, which appears to be contributing to a rash of World Records being set by those wearing them, has Iowa roots.

It seems that a professor of physiology at Ames (Iowa State University) named Rick Sharp, a former collegiate swimmer himself, wrote two papers questioning Speedo’s performance claims for the LZR’s predecessor, the Speedo Fastskin suit. Speedo did not take offense at Professor Sharp’s comments, but, instead, called him up in 2004 and invited him to lead a team of outside experts that would design a better suit.

Sharp recalls, in the Newsweek article, “I laughed and said, ‘Have you read my papers?’”

Speedo had, indeed, read Sharp’s papers. They had taken his doubts into consideration and, says Jason Rance, Chief of Speedo’s Aqualab global R&D Center in England, “He was asking all the right questions.”

NASA fluid-mechanics engineer Stephen Wilkinson was also enlisted to use wind tunnels to detect surface friction on spacecraft re-entering Earth’s atmosphere technology to blow air across a variety of fabrics at 63 mph, the simulated speed of a swimmer as fast as Michael Phelps, this year’s American gold medal hopeful.

Samples were stitched together and tried out on Iowa State University swimmers. Says Sharp, “We had one suit that looked great on paper. But then, when we dove into the pool, it ballooned out like a parachute.”

The polyurethane panels that act like a girdle to streamline the swimmers bodies also had to be redesigned so that the girdle structure wasn’t too far up the rib cage, therefore inhibiting swimmers’ breathing.

Whatever the case, the LZR, which had been previously approved for use at the Beijing Olympics, has sparked a storm of protest from competitors, who claim that it constitutes an unfair advantage for other swimmers. The Speedo people, for their part, don’t expect to market many of the $290 a pair men’s jammers nor the $550 full bodysuit. They are meant for true athletes like Phelps and could be considered “the couture version” of Speedo, according to Warnaco Group President Helen McCluskey. The $40 to $78 knock-off versions with stars-and-stripes motifs that will be marketed to little kids: that’s where the market is, with 300,000 kids on swim teams.

Meanwhile, even endorsers of other swimsuits seem to be defecting in droves to the new LZR Suit to get the “rocket” effect that NASA was aiming for. One prominent endorser of a competitor, Olympic medallist Erik Vendt, who previously shilled for TYR, the second-largest U.S. swimwear maker, has switched to the Speedo LZR Racer. A Japanese swimmer under contract to Mizuno just set a world record wearing a LZR. Speedo spent tens of millions developing the LZR Racer over the last four years and, says U.S. swim coach Mark Schubert, “every world record is in jeopardy. The suit is definitely a factor.”