I spent my childhood in two places: up until I was five years old, we lived in Lyons Colorado; then from five years old on up and, I lived in Longmont Colorado. Both sets of grandparents lived in Brush, Colorado when I was a child. Periodically, just like every other family, we would make the pilgrimage 90 miles northeast to Brush to see Grandma and Grandpa. My grandpa Biggin grew up in Cassville, Wisconsin and my grandpa Sears grew up in Springfield, Illinois, so they were both huge Cubs fans, to say the least.

My grandpa Sears was compulsive about mowing his lawn. Every time we were there, I remember him mowing his lawn at one or two o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday. The particular memory that I have of himhappened in early in the spring of 1985; I was six years old. He said, instead of mowing the lawn that day, we were going to watch the Cubs game. At first, I thought we were going to watch some sort of bear show on TV. I guess I had expected to watch some sort of Steve Erwin type of show about nature. Then, my grandpa told me that we were going to watch a baseball game. I had never heard of the Chicago Cubs. You see, grandpa had something at his house that we didn't have at home -- cable television. So, on that day in early April, I was introduced to the day in-day out drama that was, and still is, the Cubs.

At that time, the Cubs had players like: Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, Lloyd McClendon, Domingo Ramos, Jerome Walton, Mike Bielecki, Rick Sutcliffe, Greg Maddux, and Mitch Williams. The manager was Don Zimmer. They did the same things back then that they're still doing now, and that they've done for an entire century; they were just good enough to break your heart!

It may not seem like much, but it was my first introduction a baseball and I've been watching and listening on the radio and for 23 years. Grandpa has been gone for 15 years. He moved to Brush from Denver in 1958, and was the owner of Brush Carpet Center.

RIP Grandpa