Follow @sneedlingsScoopsville . . .
The season is over.
The parade is past.
The boys of summer weren’t bummers.
Sneed has learned a team of writers and producers has been working on a musical about the Cubs since last April.
But they were minus an ending; working on two titles: “Miracles Do Happen” or “Waiting for a Miracle.”
• The upshot: On Wednesday night, the ending of the play and its title were in place when the Cubbies won the World Series.
• The producers: Former state Sen. Bill Marovitz, who owns the popular Carnivale eatery, and event impresario Arny Granat, along with Chicagoan/comedian extraordinaire Tom Dreesen, are hoping for an April opening to coincide with the opening of the 2017 baseball season.
A big hand for the boys.
OPINION
Follow @sneedlingsThe numbers game . . .
What?
An estimated 5 million people attended the parade and Grant Park rally honoring our Cubs World Series champs?
No way.
No how.
Here’s why: Back in Oct. 1979, Sneed ran afoul of the numbers game.
As a former Chicago Tribune reporter, I had just become former mayor Jane Byrne’s press secretary and the press [my pals] needed to know how big the crowd was at Pope John Paul II’s outdoor mass at Grant Park.
I based my 1.5 million answer on crowd statistics emanating from the Chicago Police Department and the city’s Office of Special Events.
Wrong.
My old Tribune reporter bud Bill Currie screamed foul.
Like a shark after blood in water, Currie disputed the stat.
“I measured Butler Field; calculated that every person in a crowd of 200 or more needed four square feet to stand or somebody gets hurt; and because the military has a system of counting people from above, I called the Pentagon and asked every branch of the military service to study the photos taken at the event,” said Currie, a Vietnam Veteran.
“It was just a matter of math,” he spumed.
“When the military got back to me weeks later, their largest estimate for the papal mass was 100,000!”
[I still don’t believe it.]
“Do you think five million people hit the Cubs rally and parade?” Sneed asked Currie, who is shockingly still my friend.
“No way,” chirped Currie.
“But I’m not doing the math this time.”
The river blue . . .
Mayor Rahm Emanuel gave the thumbs-up to dye the Chicago River blue in honor of the Cubbie champs, but Sneed has learned it was the idea of Michele Coyne, wife of Plumbers Union Local 130 chief James Coyne, whose union has been dyeing the river green for the last 50 years in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.
“Michele thought a royal blue would be quite nice,” said Coyne, who suggested it to the mayor.
“So we did an environmentally friendly test run after Game Five Sunday — in hopes of winning six and seven — at 19th and Canal Streets before we dumped 85 to 90 pounds of dye in the river near Columbus Drive and Dearborn Street Friday morning,” he said.
“People were going so crazy, two people jumped into the river during the parade,” Coyne said.
Cubbie chitchat . . .
• No mojo: Gov. Bruce Rauner caught flak for not fixing the state budget by screaming onlookers as their Cubs bus rounded Jackson Boulevard and Columbus Avenue heading to Grant Park on Friday.
• Sip trip: Slugger Kyle Schwarber was getting high fives for throwing back muy mucho cans of beer en route to Grant Park.
• Sing thing: Sneed is told Eddie Vedder, Bill Murray, John Cusack and former Cubs pitcher Rick Sutcliffe met on the rooftop of Murphy’s Bleachers at the corner of Sheffield and Waveland before and after every Cubs postseason game — and a week ago Saturday night, Vedder pulled out his guitar.
• Forks up! To all the fans of Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, his father, John, claims he plans to take his son “Anth” to the biggest steak dinner he has ever had at Chicago Cut eatery before he heads out of town.
Sneedlings . . .
I spy: New Zealand’s All-Blacks national rugby team in town for the Saturday game at Soldier Field versus Ireland dined at Gibsons on Tuesday in a private dining room. . . . Both teams dining at Chicago Cut on Friday. . . . Blackhawks players Patrick Kane, Ryan Hartman and Niklas Hjalmarsson at Chicago Cut last Tuesday. . . . Congrats to Ashley DeAngeles, daughter of Dr. Steve DeAngeles and wife Sallie on her recent wedding to Corey Hickman. . . . Ditto to Hi-Vibe’s Nick and Victoria Boskovich on their wedding this past Saturday. . . . Saturday’s birthdays: Odell Beckham Jr., 24; Kris Jenner, 61, and Kevin Jonas, 29. . . . Sunday’s birthdays: Emma Stone, 28; Sally Field, 70, and Lamar Odom, 37.
