Chicago fixes to memorialize Steve Goodman, who wrote "City of New Orleans", "You Never Even Call Me By My Name", and "Go, Cubs, Go!":


According to the Tribune today, "Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., introduced the measure to have the Lakeview post office, 1343 W. Irving Park Road, renamed for Goodman. The lawmaker said the bill is supported by the entire Illinois congressional delegation, the Old Town School of Folk Music and musicians including John Prine, Bonnie Koloc and Corky Siegel."

Word is if everything moves along there would be renaming ceremony in a few months.

Quoting the Trib, a post office works because, "James Bau Graves, executive director of the Old Town School of Folk Music, judged it 'entirely fitting' since the business of everyday life inspired much of Goodman's work."

Works for me. I didn't know much about Steve's music until that magical summer of '84 when I found out he was sick, then I learned what a legend he really was in the music business. Goodman died only a few days before his beloved Cubs clinched in Pittsburgh that year.

Later this summer, I'll post some fun about "Go Cubs Go" and how Steve roped Jimmy Buffett into being a Cub fan, but I'll keep it to one story today.

My personal favorite of Goodman's Cubs songs is "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request". There is a line in there where the dying fan is laying out his funeral wishes and says, "have Keith Moreland drop a routine fly in right". I asked Keith about it and he was proud to be part of the song.

"Steve Goodman was ill and I was in the clubhouse was day and the phone rang," said Moreland. "Usually there are no phone calls in the clubhouse. Yosh Kawano, our longtime clubhouse man, called me and said, "Keith, there's a call for you." I said we didn't take calls there, but he told me it was Steve Goodman. Yosh knew who Steve was. I did, too, because I'm a country music fan and I had listened to a lot of music he had written. Steve said, 'Hello Keith. I'm Steve Goodman and I'm a songwriter,' and I told him, 'Steve, I know who you are.' He said that was great and told me he had written a song that mentioned my name and wanted to know if he could play if for me. I said sure and he strummed it and there was the line about come to Wrigley Field and watch Keith Moreland drop a fly ball. He said, "Would that be all right?" I told him absolutely yes, that it wouldn't bother me, because I had dropped my share of fly balls, the same as any player who goes out there and I always tried my hardest to catch everything. It's a great song, Steve was a great guy, and it doesn't bother me in the least."