In the late 1990s, my family would take Sunday drives. We’d head north on the Edens Expressway, passing through the northern Chicago suburbs. We’d reach Highland Park and at the corner of routes 94 and 41, you’d see this restaurant where bikers would gather. There might be fifty to a hundred of them, eating breakfast or having coffee, before leaving on their own Sunday drive.

My young daughters were intrigued by this. So many questions:
“Dad, why are there here every Sunday?”
“Dad, why are there so many of them?”
“Dad, where are they going?”

I don’t know…I don’t know…and I don’t know!

I never understood the biker in hoards thing, and since that restaurant is long gone, and since I have no idea where they gather now for their Sunday rides, I guess I’ll never know the answers.

But, one thing I do know…the gathering in hoards of bikers continues to this day…and starting today, they’ll make their annual pilgrimage to Sturgis, South Dakota. This will be the eightieth edition of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. They’ve met every year since 1938. They did take three years off due to gas rationing, pre-World War 2, but returned in 1942 and haven’t missed a year since then.

The rally goes on for ten days, but you’ll see attendees and their motorcycles in the area for days before and after the event. Last year I was vacationing in the area about a week before the Sturgis rally. Everywhere we went, we were surrounded by bikers.
Mt. Rushmore-bikers
Wall Drugs-bikers
Wyoming-bikers
Yellowstone-bikers
Montana highways-bikers

You couldn’t getaway. I know it sounds like I’m whining, but I’m really not. Almost every interaction was friendly and they did add an interesting twist to the trip. Except for the last night, when they were a little too loud, very late (I know…I’m old and get off my lawn), it was fun to see this.

The numbers attending the rally are enormous. Normal attendance is 500,000 with a high of 750,000. That’s a lot of motorcycles! But, this is 2020. Everything has changed. Most things that we took for granted are on hold. The words canceled or postponed are the new normal. But, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally goes on. If they are holding a rally during the main years of a world war, you know they aren’t going to let a little viral pandemic stop them.

Sturgis is small town America. The population is about 6,500. This town is as rural as rural gets. South Dakota has been doing well during the pandemic. A sudden influx of a half million people from all parts of the country was scary. A survey was taken to see what the residents wanted to do about this year’s motorcycle rally. More than sixty percent wanted it canceled. Maybe next year. Better safe than sorry.

But, then, as usual, money got involved.

Business owners from surrounding cities and states saw major losses coming if the event was canceled. For a lot of them, this is their major source of income each year. A restaurateur told one of the local newspapers:
“We lose money 355 days each year. These tens days are our only chance to make a living.”

It’s another example of one of the main stories of the pandemic. Health vs financial ruin. It’s been occurring everywhere in the United States…why not Sturgis?

This year’s motorcycle rally has been slimmed down. It’s limited to only 250,000….only! The business owners counting on bikers to save can’t be happy their potential customers have been cut in half. The people of Sturgis, South Dakota will still be overwhelmed by bikers. They won’t be happy, either.

Welcome to America in 2020.

Related Post: The search for all fifty states

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If you are like me, baseball cards were a big part of your fan experience as a kid. Collecting baseball, football, hockey and basketball cards was a fun hobby. Being able to collect cards of your favorite players and feel, in some way, a connection to your heroes through a piece of cardboard has been a staple of the fan experience for decades.

On Saturday, Aug. 8, fans will be able to celebrate this year’s edition of National Baseball Card Day.

Over the past few years, National Baseball Card Day has been a holiday for collectors – an extra excuse to go to your local card shop and enjoy collecting like you did as a kid. Or, in my case and for many others, enjoying your kids now getting into the hobby and enjoying it the way you did years ago.

This year has been different for collectors, though. Like every other aspect of our daily lives, the collecting industry has been dramatically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. I recently spoke with Emily Kless, Communications Manager at Topps, about what fans can expect as we get ready to experience a National Baseball Card Day unlike any other.

Topps staple products have evolved over the years. The brand offers their staple Series I and II base cards, inserts, autographs, limited print cards and others. Earlier this week Topps Chrome hit shelves at retailers and local card shops, creating even more buzz in the industry. Buying baseball cards has been hot.

Something unexpected has happened while the world has been shut down and working from home over the past few months, though. Kless noted the sports card and memorabilia industry has exploded, enjoying a renaissance beyond even the craziest of expectatations.

Topps, the exclusive licensed baseball card product, has been an innovator in the baseball card space for years.

Their innovative Topps Now product is a quick-print offering that showcases highlights from games daily; if a player makes his major league debut or hits a big home run or sets a record, Topps produces a card of that moment that’s available for only 24 hours. Topps Now made national news when Dr. Fauci threw out the first pitch before the defending World Series Champion Washington Nationals home opener. The card set a record, selling more than 51,000 copies.

Chicago fans have kept an eye on Topps Now this year because of the debut and emergence of Luis Robert as one of the most exciting players in baseball. Javier Baez has also been featured on a number of occasions.

As baseball returned to the field, Topps Now has been able to capture the incredible moments on the field and also embraced the pre-season “summer camps” with some of the top prospects in the game getting on the field in uniform with the big leaguers.

Another incredible offering from Topps this year has been a new item that took the industry by storm.

Project 2020 celebrates a partnership between Topps and 20 artists as they reimagine iconic rookie cards. Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Nolan Ryan, Derek Jeter and Mike Trout are among the legends whose first Topps card have been redesigned by these incredinbly talented and unique artists; each card is completely different and puts a remarkable spin on the player, the card and history.

Some of the artists involved in Project 2020, including Ben Baller (who designed the Trout card above), will be working on some exciting projects in the future with Topps, according to Kless.

The buzz for Topps before National Baseball Card Day has been as rich as it’s ever been. With young stars like Trout, Baez, Yoan Moncada, Francisco Lindor and others headlining the personal collections for so many, new names and faces like Robert, Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna Jr, Bo Bichette, Yordan Alvarez, Pete Alonso, Vladimir Guerrero Jr and, most recently, Jo Adell have made chasing rookie cards an exciting pasttime.

However, there will have to be some changes to National Baseball Card Day because of the realities we’re all dealing with because of the pandemic.

This year there will not be exclusive Topps packs handed out at games across MLB because there are no fans attending games. According to Kless, Topps has been more intentional with their branding to make sure folks are aware of where they can go to take advantage of some unique offerings that will only be available this weekend – and the following weekend. 

Any collectors who visit a local card shop on Saturday will receive a special National Baseball Card Day pack. And, if collectors spend $10 at a card shop, they’ll receive an exclusive Alonso card.

In addition to this weekend, collectors who return to their local card shops can pick up an exclusive Alvarez card on Saturday, Aug. 15th as well.

Accoring to Kless, players including Braves outfielder Acuna and Yankess star Aaron Judge will be posting their National Baseball Card Day cards on their own social media channels this weekend.

There will also be card packs exclusively available at Target and Walmart beginning this weekend where fans can get limited-run cards of their favorite players.

Kless also said Topps will be sharing fan photos. Fans are encouraged to share pictures of their favorite cards using the hashtag #ToppsNBCD this weekend.

For information about National Baseball Card Day and a complete list of local card shops taking part, fans can visit topps.com/nationalbaseballcardday.

Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan. Will Democrats show him the door, or cower in fear? (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)

No profiles in courage among the Democrats who waited until House Speaker Michael Madigan looks like he’s been mortally wounded by the federal prosecutor before they called for Iron Mike to resign.

Never mind that they could remove him themselves. The speaker is elected and they could join Republicans in a no-confidence vote.

But you don’t mess with a wounded grizzly bear. For years they put up with his self-serving dictates for years, decades, nay, generations. Getting their share of Madigan’s $20 million campaign fund and getting elected was more important to them than doing what’s right. Others, so fed up that they couldn’t in good conscience continue to support Madigan instead got out of the game, and I applaud them.

But now we’ve got liberal/Democratic voices boldly saying that it’s time for Madigan to resign. Voices like my old pal and dueling partner at the Tribune, Eric Zorn, writing, “Democrats, it’s time for Michael Madigan’s ‘Richard Nixon Moment’“, recalling the Republican leaders who dropped in on the embattled president to educate him about the reality: He was done.

Where have you guys been all this time? It’s been clear for years and years that Madigan’s control wasn’t serving the state well. He has been emitting a certain stench for years. Cancelling Madigan now looks, well, like you wait until someone is bloodied and bruised before you move in for the kill.

Well, some won’t even go that far, hanging back in their bunkers until the patient is pronounced DOA. Prime example is Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Illinois Rising Action catalogues Pritzker’s bend-with-the-wind stand:

Each time Governor Pritzker is asked if  he thinks Madigan should resign, he provides a different answer. He cites “questions”, “allegations that are being made are somewhat vague”, “when there’s a raid” and “we need to know much, much more”. Clear as mud. It’s time for Governor Pritzker to give us a straight answer on Mike Madigan’s corruption.

Check it out below:

To no one’s surprise, the governor is soft.

A classroom ready for the 2019-2020 school year at Daniel Webster Elementary School in Chicago on Aug. 26, 2019. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Teaching in the world’s most important profession.

Bar none. Teachers are more important than doctors, who tend to our physical health. Teachers tend to our whole person–things academic, ethical, emotional and more. Most important, how well they do doesn’t just impact the individual student. It affects everyone around the students–parents, relatives, friends, acquaintances, even strangers. Not for just now, but for the entire lives of the students. And their children.

So it is a puzzle to me why some teachers think so little of themselves that they don’t understand the need for them to be with their students. In classrooms. Face to face. Where communication is best. Where encouragement and hugs are dispensed in person. Where discipline and respect for others is emphasized. Show me the science that says students are better off  learning remotely.

Instead, some teachers consider themselves to be nonessential. That’s a terrible lie, one that some teachers have come to believe. Or at least they act like it, meekly acquiescing to teacher union leaders who are demanding that teachers stay out of the classroom. Going so far as to ask a court to force teachers stay out of their classrooms.

It’s time for teachers to tell their union leaders to take a walk. It’s time to tell the out-of-control leaders that teachers are better than that. Everyone from health care workers to grocery store cashiers have bravely and willingly done their part during the coronavirus pandemic, showing up to do their essential work and risking their health and lives. As I said, teachers are most important.

Some union leaders are making fools of themselves, and you teachers by your silence. “New York’s teachers’ unions said a single COVID-19 case in a school should trigger its immediate closure for 14 days.” United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), representing some  30,000 Los Angeles K–12 teachers demand that schools stay closed until police are defunded and the state establish single-payer, government-provided health care; full funding for housing California’s homeless; a shutdown to publicly funded, privately operated charter schools, a large wealth tax, items far beyond reasonable or, in some case, legal issues for negotiations. 

The Chicago Teachers Union, which thinks that it and not parents or teachers should run the schools, threatened a strike if Chicago public schools allowed even a a partial return to classrooms. The threat worked as the Chicago School System subsequently announced that all classes will be held remotely. 

Teachers, science is on your side. The Centers for Disease Control is emphatic that schools should reopen. The American Academy of Pediatrics “recommends that students be ‘physically present in school’ as much as possible, and emphasize that there are major health, social and educational risks to keeping children at home.” NBC News reports that “Evidence suggests that children are not as susceptible as adults to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Even among those who have been infected, it’s relatively rare for children to develop serious complications or require hospitalization.”

On top of that, look to the evidence before your very eyes. The pain that children are suffering. Higher rates of depression and suicide. Learning time forever lost. Minority and disadvantaged children suffering even worse damage. Parents having to give up their jobs to stay at home. Even the divorce rate is up, something not so wonderful for the children.

It is sorry to see so many teachers giving in to the scare tactics of the union leadership when the science shows that children’s health and lives are significantly less endangered than adults and that children rarely transmit the coronavirus to adults. Some studies disagree, but the bulk of the science lands on the side of opening the schools.

The opening of schools has turned into a nasty political joust. Because President Donald Trump said that he’s for reopening the schools, the automatic response from the other side is to oppose anything that he says. Then there is New York Democratic  Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s decision to allow New York schools to open. No echo chamber for Trump, that man.