Back in 1998, I was in a magazine writing class at North Central College and our assignment for the trimester was to write a story and pitch it to a magazine. My idea, since it was Ron Santo's last year eligible on the regular Hall of Fame ballot and he had just received word that he had had not been voted in, was to write a story about that. My teacher was understandably skeptical, but she allowed it. She told me that if I didn't have the contacts I needed in a couple of weeks, I would have to change my focus. I contacted the Cubs and PR director Chuck Wasserstrom and told him my story, and …

November 28, 1991 was not one of those mild, calm Thanksgiving Days that happen on rare occasions in the Chicago area. No, that was one of the wicked, freezing, snowing, when-did-January-get-here kind of Thanksgiving Days. And as a 15-year-old growing up in the north suburbs of Chicago, Mundelein to be exact, all I could care about was the fact that the Bears were playing Detroit on national television that day. As the final preparations for the Thanksgiving feast are being handled that morning, let's face it; I'm not much help. The Bears and Lions are in a rare playoff battle. In fact, the …