{"id":1276,"date":"2023-01-07T16:29:43","date_gmt":"2023-01-07T21:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/doghairlife.com\/?p=1276"},"modified":"2023-01-07T21:55:29","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T02:55:29","slug":"best-wishes-larry-biittner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doghairlife.com\/?p=1276","title":{"rendered":"Best Wishes, Larry Biittner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last night as I tried to fall asleep, thoughts of my childhood sports idol, Cubs\u2019 Larry Biittner, came to mind. Sleep was not to be until I Googled ol\u2019 #26. Browsing Wikipedia, I quickly learned that he had passed just a year ago. As my 10-year-old heart sank, I physically felt a sadness flow through me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larry Biittner mostly played left field and first base for the Cubs. He wasn\u2019t a superstar and didn\u2019t always start but was a solid utility player who would make a clutch hit or provide a most exciting play. He once dove for a ball in right field and the ball came out of his glove and rolled into his cap. He was looking around in circles for the ball as the fans yelled out to him that it was under his hat. He finally found it and threw the batter out at third! Once, he pitched when the Cubs bullpen was thin. The TV screen flashed \u201cLARRY BIITTNER IS PIITCHING!!!\u201d\u00a0 Biittner was an exciting player to watch and gave Cub fans some excitement at a time there was little exciting about the Cubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember sitting with my friend and fellow Cubs fan, Terry Bradford, writing fan letters to our heroes \u2013 he to Bobby Murcer and me to Larry Biittner.\u00a0My letter was filled with hope for a World Series win someday (as all true Cubs fans believed, even though during the late 70s, the Cubs were often vying for last place in the NL East). I declared to him that when I grew up, I wanted to be the first girl in the Major Leagues and wanted to play shortstop for the Cubs. I was certain it was to be, just like the World Series win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple weeks later, having waited daily for the mailman to arrive, I saw an envelope addressed to me with a Cubs return address! I carefully tore open the envelope to find a large photo of my hero with the words in Cubby blue ink, \u201cTo Momi, Best Wishes, Larry Biittner\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now, I have no idea what kind of man Larry Biittner was and frankly, I don\u2019t really want to know (as my Dad stated after refusing to watch \u201cThe Right Stuff\u201d, \u201cI don\u2019t want to see my heroes humanized.\u201d). What I do know is that a little girl\u2019s dreams were supported by her larger-than-life hero and that picture was framed and hung next to her bed and gazed upon countless times in her childhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
1976-77 fifth grade class photo in my favorite Cubbies t-shirt and Cubby blue suede shoes with red laces (I snuck out of the house with a sweater over my shirt so my mom wouldn’t know I was wearing it for my class photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, I\u2019m a year late, but his death is fresh to me today. To honor him, today I don my wool #26 Cubs jersey — yes, Cubs fans, I know it was Billy Williams\u2019 number which is now retired, but to me it will always belong to Larry Biittner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you, Larry. Wherever you are off into the ether, I send you my best wishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

50 mile<\/a>\ncamping<\/a>\nCubs<\/a>\nCubs2016<\/a>\nDad<\/a>\nDeath<\/a>\nDogs<\/a>\nend of life<\/a>\nFamily<\/a>\nFather<\/a>\nFriends<\/a>\nHeroes<\/a>\nLarry Biittner<\/a>\nLeadership<\/a>\nLife<\/a>\nLoss<\/a>\nMagic<\/a>\nMom<\/a>\nMother<\/a>\nMusings<\/a>\nNorbert<\/a>\noutdoors<\/a>\nPhilosophy<\/a>\nroad trip<\/a>\nroadtrip<\/a>\nruffwear<\/a>\nScott Breeden<\/a>\nSignatureWorkout<\/a>\nsleeping platform<\/a>\nSpeleofest<\/a>\nSpirits<\/a>\nSpirituality<\/a>\nSubaru<\/a>\nsuppup<\/a>\nTAXA<\/a>\nTAXA Cricket<\/a>\nTennessee<\/a>\nTexas<\/a>\nThe Doghouse<\/a>\nThoughts<\/a>\nTrail Running<\/a>\ntravel<\/a>\nUS History<\/a>\nVelveteen rabbit<\/a>\nWorldSeries2016<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night as I tried to fall asleep, thoughts of my childhood sports idol, Cubs\u2019 Larry Biittner, came to mind. Sleep was not to be until I Googled ol\u2019 #26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,13,151,16],"tags":[150,43,149,148,82],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baseball","category-happiness","category-heroes","category-life","tag-childhood","tag-cubs","tag-heroes","tag-larry-biittner","tag-musings"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/doghairlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/49123308542_8070b02018_o.jpeg?fit=1447%2C1997&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/doghairlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/doghairlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/doghairlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doghairlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doghairlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1276"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/doghairlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1298,"href":"https:\/\/doghairlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions\/1298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doghairlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/doghairlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doghairlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doghairlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}