Bob Anderson

Bob Anderson was the prototype pitching prospect – big, blond, and with a blazing fastball. He was called a “sure thing” and a “can’t miss” candidate for the majors. Injuries shortened a promising career that produced a 36-46 record over seven seasons (1957-63). Yet Anderson still fulfilled his dream of pitching in the major leagues and for his boyhood favorites, the Chicago Cubs.

Robert Carl Anderson was born on September 29, 1935, at St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago, Indiana, the oldest of four children born to Carl Bernhard Anderson and Christine (née Chizmar) Anderson.1 Carl Anderson worked in area steel mills as a shear operator, then became a foreman.2

The Andersons lived in Hammond, Indiana. As a kid, Bob Anderson dreamed of playing major league baseball. Mike Kingston, neighbor and Inland Steel employee, remembered “watching Bob pitch to his Dad.”3 In high school, “The Hammond Hummer” won 17 in his two seasons pitching for the Hammond High Wildcats, including a one-hitter in his final victory.4  He also starred at center on the basketball team that won two Indiana state sectional titles.5  

After graduation, Anderson pitched for the Schereville (Indiana) Merchants in the Calumet Industrial League and won five games.6 The Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Braves, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Browns all offered contracts to Anderson.7 That fall, Anderson enrolled at the University of Michigan. Wolverines Coach Ray Fisher later called Anderson the “best pitching prospect” to enroll at Ann Arbor in Fisher’s 30 years as coach.8  But Anderson withdrew from Michigan after one semester to pursue a professional baseball career and was invited to the  Brooklyn Dodgers’ spring training camp at Vero Beach, Florida in 1954.9 

That summer, Anderson pitched for the East Chicago (Indiana) Taps in the Calumet League. The “fireball specialist” posted an 8-1-1 record. On July 28, Anderson signed an amateur free agent contract with the Chicago Cubs for $4,000.10

Anderson debuted with the Class B Cedar Rapids Indians of the Three-I (Illinois-Indiana-Iowa) League. Sportswriter Gus Schrader speculated that Anderson and Dick Drott would provide a one-two punch on the Indians’ starting staff.11 After the season, Anderson was promoted to the Los Angeles Angels of the top-tier minor Pacific Coast League.

In March 1955, the Angels sent Anderson and Drott to the Des Moines Bruins of the Class A Western League, a Chicago Cubs farm team.12 Anderson won his first three starts and shut out Sioux City (Iowa), 1-0, before the Bruins’ largest crowd of the season to that point.13 He struck out 14 in one game and had a 21-inning scoreless streak.14 Anderson landed in the bullpen when his record fell to 6-4, but finished 11-5. The Bruins lost to Wichita in the Western League finals.15 

In 1956, Anderson returned to the Los Angeles Angels. He became the league’s best reliever and Rookie of the Year, setting a PCL record of 70 appearances, with 12 wins and an estimated 28 saves for the league champions. Sportswriter Frank Finch wrote that “the giant from the steel mills of Hammond, Indiana” was a “can’t misser” for the majors.16

Both Anderson and Dick Drott made the Cubs’ 1957 spring training roster because of two real estate transactions that affected the future of major league baseball. On February 23, the National League approved the sale of the Los Angeles Angels and its Wrigley Field to the Brooklyn Dodgers, paving the way for the Dodgers’ anticipated move west. The Cubs bought the Fort Worth Cats of the Texas League, which became the organization’s top minor-league affiliate. In the meantime, Anderson and Drott joined the Cubs for spring training in Arizona.17

Drott made the big club, but the 6-foot-4½, 207-pound Anderson was optioned to the Class AAA Portland Beavers on 24-hour recall. “If he starts pitching for us the way he did for Los Angeles last season,” said Portland general manager Joe Ziegler, “then the Cubs are almost certain to bring him back.”18

When the Cubs sent bonus baby Don Kaiser to Portland, they brought up Anderson on July 26. He debuted on July 31 against the Dodgers. “With his pitching staff down to the bottom of the barrel,” wrote the Chicago Tribune’s Irving Vaughan, “manager Bob Scheffing called on Bob Anderson, recently recalled from Portland, and the kid went through the remainder of the round without injury.”19 Anderson finished the ninth inning but the Cubs lost, 2-1.

In January 1958 Anderson was on the National Defense Service List (NDSL), which included major league players who could be called to military duty as the U.S. sought to beef up its military, economic, and scientific defense against what President Eisenhower called the Soviet Union’s “Total Cold War” of Communist Imperialism.20 On January 20, Anderson signed his contract and expected to return from the Army in time for spring training. Scheffing said Anderson could throw harder than Drott or Moe Drabowsky, the mainstays of the 1957 staff.21 When Anderson and Drabowsky returned in mid-April, the Cubs optioned Jerry Kindall and Jim Woods to make room for them on the roster.22

The Cubs were determined to make Anderson a starting pitcher, so he started the season with the   Fort Worth (Texas) Cats. After early struggles, Anderson’s season reached its peak on July 23 when he earned his sixth consecutive win, five of them complete games. Everything “was going just right,” Anderson said. “I’m getting my curve even better now and in the last few games, I’ve developed staying power.” He admitted that “I’ve been used so much in relief the last two years that I had my doubts early this season if I could ever go nine innings,”23After the game, Anderson was a Chicago Cub.

In his first starting assignment at Philadelphia, Anderson allowed five earned runs in four innings, but the Cubs won, 12-10. Against the Phillies at Wrigley Field on August 27, Anderson pitched a complete game – with his parents and three siblings in attendance.24 Anderson credited his success to a “renewed use of an overhand motion,” after struggling with a sidearm delivery. “This was the best-pitched game we’ve had in a long time,” Scheffing said.25

Anderson got three impressive wins during the 1959 exhibition season and earned the Opening Day starting assignment. He beat the Dodgers’ Don Drysdale, 6-1, throwing 122 pitches and relying mostly on his fastball. “They weren’t getting anything, anyhow, so I didn’t try any change-ups,” Anderson said. Pitching coach Fred Fitzsimmons said it was because “You’ve had too much rest!” Home plate umpire Dusty Boggess told Fitzsimmons that Anderson “was as strong in the ninth as he was in the first.”26

After the Opening Day gem, Scheffing said, “Looks like he’s made it now.”27 Well, not quite. By May 30, Anderson had failed in nine consecutive starts to go the route; he did not win again until June 25 and did not pitch a complete game in 15 consecutive starts from April 25 to June 30.

On June 30, Anderson was the Cubs’ pitcher during one of the most bizarre sequences in major league history, in which two (or three) baseballs were in play at the same time. For more details of this memorable game, see:

• “June 30, 1959: Two balls in play lead to Cardinals’ protest at Wrigley Field” from the SABR Games Project.
• “Anything Can Happen at Wrigley Field” from the 1986 SABR convention guide.28

Anderson celebrated the Fourth of July with his first complete game since Opening Day, beating the Dodgers, 2-1. He beat them again at Los Angeles on July 22. Anderson’s teammates marveled “at his strange mastery of the pennant-minded Dodgers,” the Chicago Tribune’s Richard Dozer wrote.29 On August 12, Anderson started and the Cubs sent Drysdale to the showers in the first inning in Anderson’s 11-8 victory. Three more wins followed, including a 3-0 shutout of the Milwaukee Braves.

In September, Anderson went 1-4. In his lone victory, he lost a no-hitter in the eighth, but the Cubs won, 2-1. Anderson dropped his final three decisions – two by one run — to finish 12-13. The day after the season ended, Cubs owner P. K. Wrigley fired Bob Scheffing, saying, “I’ve always thought we should have relief managers, just like relief pitchers,” adding that managers are expendable.30 Charlie Grimm – who accompanied Wrigley and Scheffing to the World Series – took his third turn as Cubs skipper. After a 6-11 start, Grimm was sent to the radio broadcast booth, replacing the Cubs’ new manager, Lou Boudreau.

“Grimm was very popular, but he was getting up in years when I was with the club,” Anderson said in 1996, adding that the pitching staff was used without concern for longevity. “When I played, you didn’t have control over your destiny,” Anderson said in 2003. “Nowadays, a guy can say he’s tired and he won’t pitch. In my day, if you were tired, you pitched.” Without today’s medical technology, Anderson said later, shoulder and arm injuries ended his major league career at age 28.31

Anderson signed his 1960 contract on January 11. He had a poor spring training, allowing 22 runs in 32 innings. Pitching coach Charlie Root said, “I can’t understand how he has lost his stuff so quickly the last two times out.”32Anderson blamed arm and shoulder stiffness, which seemed to disappear when he became the first Cub pitcher to work into the ninth inning.33

He still got the Opening Day start, facing Don Drysdale again. Anderson struck out nine in eight innings and collected two hits before a record crowd of 67,550 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The Cubs lost on Chuck Essegian’s walk-off, pinch-hit home run off reliever Don Elston.34

With a 2-5 record through June, Anderson developed a forkball, at the urging of former teammate Dale Long. “Anderson has terrific spread between the first two fingers of his right hand,” Long observed. The pitch debuted on July 4 at Wrigley Field. Anderson pitched nine of 14 innings against the Giants.35 From July 21 to August 22, Anderson won five decisions in a row.

His August 22 victory at Wrigley Field was more significant for what happened in the Cincinnati dugout before the game. Cincinnati second baseman Billy Martin was served a circuit court summons regarding a $1.040 million lawsuit that Cubs pitcher Jim Brewer had filed against Martin for injuries suffered when Martin allegedly punched him – causing a fractured jaw, an eye injury, and nerve damage – after Martin charged the mound, claiming Brewer threw at his head on August 4 at Wrigley Field. Martin was “booed lustily” and a fan threw a tomato toward home plate when Martin came to bat in the ninth inning of Anderson’s 6-3 victory. 36

Before the following season, manager Boudreau wanted a two-year contract, but owner Wrigley refused. Instead, he created a bizarre system called the College of Coaches. Nine coaches rotated through the major and minor league systems to develop players. Some served as rotating skippers at the major league level. The new system did little more than produce a barrage of differing ideas and opinions that had a negative effect for the Cubs and Anderson. “It was unique all right, but it was confusing,” he said later.

In 1961 spring training, Anderson struggled. “Batters have known that if I can’t get my fast ball over, all they have to do is look for my curve.”37 When Cleveland’s Tito Francona clouted a home run during a three-inning stretch in which Anderson allowed five runs, Chicago Tribune sportswriter Edward Prell remarked, “Anderson thus retained his position as the Cubs’ most ineffective starter of the spring.”38 

Anderson started the Cubs’ home opener, losing a 1-0 lead on homers by Frank Bolling and Henry Aaron. The Cubs won on Sammy Taylor’s walk-off homer. In a 6-0 loss to the Phillies, Anderson suffered a bruised right leg that was struck by a line drive. Anderson won only three games as a starter and was primarily a reliever during the second half of the season. He saved three games during the first week of July, then blew five of his next six opportunities, finishing 7-10 with eight saves.

What the numbers don’t show is that Anderson had felt a twinge in his shoulder while pitching toRoberto Clemente Roberto Clemente on August 28. “I was never the same after that,” Anderson said in 1996. “I lost the steam on my fastball.  … The fastball is a God-given talent.  You either have it or you don’t.”39

In 1962, Anderson made 25 appearances but did not start a game until Charlie Metro replaced Lou Klein as head coach. On June 8, Anderson pitched nine innings and struck out 11 as the Cubs beat the Mets, 5-4, in 10 innings. When Anderson started and beat the Mets again, Chicago Tribune sportswriter Edgar Munzel called for Metro to be named manager and for Anderson to remain a starting pitcher. 40 Anderson spent more time in the bullpen, His final start on June 27 was an 8-0 loss to the Cardinals.

In February 1963, the Cubs traded Anderson to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for infielder Steve Boros. Prior to the deal, Anderson posted a 5-1 record in the Arizona Instructional League. “I (had been) throwing the ball stiff-armed, don’t ask me why, and was taking my eye off the target,” he said of his final season in Chicago.41

Anderson was the first player to arrive at spring training. Detroit Free Press columnist Joe Falls described Anderson as an “obscure pitcher” who was “as normal as blueberry pie.”42 Falls called the trade “it seemed like the biggest giveaway since Manhattan Isle went for $24,” and described Anderson in detail. “He likes to watch Perry Mason on TV, but hates quiz shows. He likes all fattening foods, but abhors soggy spaghetti. He likes to play golf and billiards, and knocks off an occasional novel. But most of all, he likes to play baseball and likes the trade which gives him another chance to pitch for Bob Scheffing.43 Scheffing expected Anderson to be a starter, but a poor spring landed his former ace in the bullpen. His final major league victory came in a rare start at Boston’s Fenway Park. He allowed two runs and five hits in eight innings and beat the Red Sox, 5-2.

Anderson was traded again at the winter meetings in November 1963. He, Rocky Colavito, and $50,000 cash went to the Kansas City Athletics for second baseman Jerry Lumpe and pitchers Ed Rakow and Dave Wickersham. Athletics general manager Pat Friday asked Anderson if he could become a starter again. “I told him I thought I could,” recalled Anderson. “He said he would give me every chance in spring training.”44 In the offseason, Anderson worked on his degree in business economics at Western Michigan University and threw twice a day at the university’s fieldhouse.

A’s manager Eddie Lopat believed his starting rotation would be set if Anderson and Dan Pfister made the team.45 After Anderson allowed 16 runs in 17 innings of spring training, he was sent down to the Dallas Rangers of the Class AAA Texas League.46 “Anderson has gotten into the habit of letting his hand slip down under the ball, causing it to break incorrectly and miss the strike zone,” Lopat said. “He’s been told what he should do and now, it’s up to him to work on it. If he catches on, he will be back up before the season is over.”47

Ten days after his demotion, Anderson and his wife, Lucy, were injured in a two-car automobile accident in Montgomery, Alabama. State police told his wife’s father that they probably would have been killed if they had not been wearing seat belts. Bob suffered minor injuries. Lucy was hospitalized for a possible concussion.  

After Anderson failed to win a game, the Athletics demoted him to Class A Lewiston. Even his mother was baffled. “We don’t know what has happened,” she said. “He got a late start this year but is in good physical shape, doesn’t smoke and takes nothing more than a sociable drink. “He won’t be able to get back to the major leagues this season and I know that is a blow to him.”48 Anderson said, “I got into some bad habits, changed the grip on my curve and started slinging the ball. I just couldn’t find my rhythm.”49

The Athletics released Anderson on April 14, 1965. He tried out with the Washington Senators. “All we know is that Andy used to throw the devil out of the ball so we’re giving him a look,” manager Gil Hodges said. “We’ll keep him if he can make the major league club. We won’t use him in our farm system.”50 Anderson studied films and trained between seasons in Denver, where he sold insurance for former Hammond High coach Harold Patterson. That spring, he pitched in Class AAA competition at Vancouver, British Columbia.51

On May 11, the Senators released Anderson, who joined the Lansing Old-Timers, who won the Illinois State Semi-Pro Tournament and qualified for the 32-team National Baseball Congress (NBC) Tournament. Anderson did not get the first-game starting assignment, so he joined the local pro-am golf circuit. The Hammond Times reported that Anderson “shows great promise because of his booming tee shot” at the newspaper’s annual golf tournament.

In 1966, Anderson began a three-year stint coaching for the Montgomery Wards Baseball School, tutoring youths from Eades Grade School in Munster, Indiana.52 By 1967, he was a sales representative for Inland Steel in Chicago, Kansas City, and Tulsa.53 After the company was sold, Anderson became owner of a health food store called Future Mart. He remained a longtime Tulsa resident before his death in 2015 from a bout with liver cancer. His remains were cremated.

Doctors discovered the cancer in December 2014, and it soon spread to his hip and ribs. Anderson refused extensive treatment. The shoulder problems that eventually ended Anderson’s career recurred when, at another visit, a doctor pushed down on the right shoulder that had a torn rotator cuff. “It drove him to the floor,” said his second wife, Sherry Lanie Anderson, whom he married in 1984. 54

Anderson was active in the Tulsa community and at The Church of the Holy Spirit Anglican at 12121 East 41st Street, where his funeral service was held March 21, 2015.55  He had three children from his first marriage to Lucy Baker Anderson – sons David and Matthew Anderson and daughter Mary Anderson Bartlett – and seven grandchildren. Lucy died in hospice care at Overland, Kansas on April 6, 2013. Anderson had three stepchildren from his second marriage. “I’ll always remember his honesty and his humbleness,” said Sherry of the man who valued all kinds of people. “They didn’t have to be successful in the traditional ways for Bob to hold them in the highest regard.”56

The same could be said for Anderson, who fulfilled his dream of pitching in the majors, held no grudges, and applied his work ethic and community spirit to serve others after his baseball career ended.

Acknowledgments

This story was reviewed by Rory Costello and Bill Lamb and fact-checked by Don Zminda.

Photo credit: Bob Anderson, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources shown in the notes, the author used Baseball Reference.com, BR Bullpen, The Sporting News, Weiss Baseball Questionnaires, and Ancestry.com (Census records of 1930-1950).

Notes

1 Robert Carl Anderson, Birth Certificate Registration No. 36904, State of Indiana, Division of Public Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. Ancestry.com.

2 Carl Bernhard Anderson, 1940 U. S. Federal Census, Ancestry.com.

3 Reply, Mike Kingston, Inland Steel Facebook page, September 2023.

4 Elmer Bernard, “Record 197 Report for BB Trials,” Hammond (Indiana) Times, April 3, 1953: 22; “Anderson Gives Up Lone Hit,” Hammond Times, May 19, 1953: 16.

5 Jim Skufakiss, “King Says Cats Will Pay ‘Debt,’” Hammond Times, March 17, 1952: 11; “Make Up 12-Point Deficit,” Hammond Times, March 1, 1953: 45; “Scoring Leaders (Four Games),” Hammond Times, March 2, 1953: 13; “It’s Second Regional Win for Hornets,” Hammond Times, March 10, 1953: 51. 

6 “Merchants Win, 5 to 0, Over Giants,” Hammond Times, August 5, 1953: 18.

7 John Whitaker, “Speculating in Sports,” Hammond Times, September 16, 1953: 21.

8 John Whitaker, “Speculating in Sports,” Hammond Times, March 10, 1954: 21. 

9 John Whitaker, “Speculating in Sports,” Hammond Times, February 7, 1954: 33.

10 “Anderson Inks Cub Contract,” Hammond Times, August 1, 1954: D-2.

11 “Minor League Class B Highlights,” The Sporting News, September 1, 1954: 34; Gus Schrader, “Indians Win But Flag ‘Hope’ Is Gone,” Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, August 25, 1954: 17. 

12 “Young Hurler Joins Bruins’ Spring Drills,” Des Moines (Iowa) Register, March 26, 1955: 9; Sec Taylor, “Set 21-Man Roster for Bruins,” Des Moines Register, April 15, 1955: 17. 

13 Bill Bryson, “Fashion Run on Two Walks, Soos’ Error,” Des Moines Register, May 18, 1955: 17; Leighton Housh, “2nd Straight Shutout by Young Bruin,” Des Moines Register, May 22, 1955: 25. 

14 Bill Bryson, “Pitch Injures Pueblo Player as Bruins Bow,” Des Moines Register, May 26, 1955: 17.

15 “Harrison Fans 14 with Only Two Days’ Rest,” Des Moines Register, September 15, 1955: 13, 15; Source: Bill Bryson, “Wichita Tops Bruins in 10 to Win Title,” Des Moines Register, September 18, 1955: 29. 

16 Frank Finch, “Here’s the Pitch,” Los Angeles Times, May 16, 1956: 86.

17 Rube Samuelson, “L. A. Officials Seek Light on Dodger Plans,” The Sporting News, March 6, 1957: 14, 16; Blackie Sherrod, “Cat Fans Hail Shift to Cubs’ Ownership, The Sporting News, March 6, 1957: 16. “Texas Directors Okay Cubs as New Fort Worth Owners,” The Sporting News, March 6, 1957: 16.

18 Associated Press, “Anderson Optioned to Portland Nine,” Salem (Oregon) Statesman Journal, April 17, 1957: 11; John C. Hoffman, “Newcomers Crowd Cubs – 17 at Start,” The Sporting News, April 24, 1957: 14.

19 Irving Vaughan, “Dodgers Beat Rush, 3-2, and Elston, 2-1,” Chicago Tribune, August 1, 1957: 66.

20 “Roll Call on National Leaguers,” The Sporting News, January 1, 1958: 10; “Dangers Real, Congress Told by President,” Chicago Tribune, January 10, 1958: 10. 

21 “Fox and Pierce Throw Identical Pay Curves in Rejecting White Sox Contracts,” Chicago Tribune, January 21, 1958:31.

22 Edgar Munzel, “Cubs Getting Good and Bad Hill Surprises,” The Sporting News, April 9, 1958: 26.

23 “Anderson’s Confidence Returns with 2-Hitter,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 24, 1958: 51.

24 “Anderson Wins One for the Family,” Chicago Tribune, August 28, 1958: 68.

25 “Anderson Wins One for the Family.”

26 David Condon, “In the Wake of the News,” Chicago Tribune, April 12, 1959: 54.

27 Condon, “In the Wake of the News.”

28 https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/june-30-1959-two-balls-in-play-confuse-cubs-and-cardinals-at-wrigley-field/.

29 Richard Dozer, “Averill Hits Grand Slam in 7 Run 2D,” Chicago Tribune, July 23, 1959: 63.

30 Edward Prell, “Wrigley Names Veteran, 61, to Third Term as Manager,” Chicago Tribune, September 28, 1959: 55.

31 Al Hamnik, “Former Hard Luck Pitcher Anderson Avoided Blame Game,” NW Indiana Times.com. March 16, 2015 (with material from 1996 and 2003 interview with Anderson).

32 Richard Dozer, “Cubs Win, 8-6, on Home Run by T. Taylor,” Chicago Tribune, March 25, 1960: 51, 53.

33 “Anderson Almost Goes 9 Innings as Cubs Win, 7-6,” Chicago Tribune, March 30, 1960: 37, 40.

34 Richard Dozer, “Dodgers’ Essegian Ends Game Before Record 67,550,” Chicago Tribune, April 13, 1960: 59, 60.

35 Richard Dozer, “In the Wake of the News,” Chicago Tribune, July 11, 1960: 57. 

36 Edward Prell, “Court Action Follows Red Player’s Attack on Rookie,” Chicago Tribune, August 23, 1960: 1; “Cubs See Red (Martin) and Score 4 Runs in First Inning,” Chicago Tribune, August 23, 1960: 33; “Martin Hurls Bat at Jim Brewer, Then Hits Him,” Chicago Tribune, August 5, 1960: 1.  

37 “Thomas Holds Key to Career of Three Cubs,” Chicago Tribune, March 12, 1961: 40.

38 Homers by Cub Rookies in 8th Beat Indians,” Chicago Tribune, March 22, 1961: 49, 51. 

39 Tim Stanley, “Former Cubs Pitcher relished playing for his favorite team,” (Bob Anderson 1935-2015), Tulsa World, March 20, 2015.

40 Edgar Munzel, “Fans Doff Hats to Tutor Metro for Cubs’ Surge,” The Sporting News, June 30, 1962: 9.

41 Joe Falls, “Bob Anderson Is for Real,” Detroit Free Press, February 8, 1963: 37, 40.

42 Falls, “Bob Anderson Is for Real.”

43 Falls, “Bob Anderson Is for Real.”

44 Elmer Bernard, “Splinters,” Hammond Times, February 2, 1964: 2.

45 Joe McGruff, “When a Club Trades, Manager Must Fret,” Kansas City Star, December 3, 1963: 21.

46 McGruff, “When a Club Trades, Manager Must Fret.”

47 McGruff, “When a Club Trades, Manager Must Fret.”

48 Loren Tate, “Hawking the Ball,” Hammond (Indiana) Times, May 27, 1964: 53.

49 Loren Tate, “Andy Tries Comeback with Nats.” Hammond Times, April 18, 1965: 67.

50 Tate, “Andy Tries Comeback with Nats.”

51 Tate, “Andy Tries Comeback with Nats.”

52 “Win With Wards Baseball School,” (advertisement), Hammond Times, June 1, 1966: 49.

53 Stanley, “Former Cubs pitcher relished pitching for his favorite team.”

54 Al Hamnik, “Former hard-luck Cubs’ pitcher Bob Anderson avoided blame game,” NW Indiana Times.com., March 16, 2015.

55 Bob Anderson (September 29, 1935-March 12, 2015), Gary Kelley’s Add’Vantage Funeral Service, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

56 Stanley, “Former Cubs pitcher relished pitching for his favorite team.”