The Cubs bought a large ad in the print editions of both the Sun-Times and Tribune today.
It confirmed the on-sale date for single-game tickets of Friday, February 24, and in addition had a list of promotional dates, which can also be found here.
Most of the giveaways again will be via scratch-off cards with anywhere from 100 to 500 winners, depending on the prize. What's most interesting is the players, both current and retired, who are being honored.
Only five players on the 2006 roster will have a giveaway with their name attached, and the most glaring omission is Carlos Zambrano -- he gets none. Mark Prior (photo and jersey) and Greg Maddux (photo and baseball) get two each, and Michael Barrett, Derrek Lee, and Juan Pierre one.
Of retired players, Ernie Banks (base and retired jersey flag), Billy Williams (photo and retired jersey flag) and Ron Santo (base and retired jersey flag) have two each, and there will also be a Ken Holtzman road jersey. There's also a giveaway of a ball autographed by Santo and Pat Hughes.
The schedule attached to the promotions list also indicated game time changes or replacement of "TBD" with exact times, now that Fox and ESPN have set some of their schedule. I list the changes below, and will also change them on my tentative (now more or less official) 2006 schedule page. (All times Central)
April 9, St. Louis: 7:05 (first Sunday home game!)
April 30, Milwaukee: 7:05
May 20, at White Sox: 12:20
May 27, Atlanta: 12:20
June 3, at St. Louis: 3:05
June 17, Detroit: 3:05
July 1, White Sox: 12:20
July 15, New York: 12:20
July 16, New York: 5:05 (odd time)
July 22, at Washington: 12:20
July 29, St. Louis: 3:05
August 5, Pittsburgh: 3:05
August 19, St. Louis: 12:20
August 26, at St. Louis: 12:20
September 2, San Francisco: 1:20
September 16, Cincinnati: 3:05
September 30, Colorado: 3:05
August 27 at St. Louis, originally listed as 1:15, is now TBA -- this is a game that could wind up on ESPN on Sunday night; also, another Sunday, September 10 at Atlanta, originally listed as 12:05, is also TBA.
Some of the Saturday dates will wind up on Fox; each team is limited to eight such dates. The others will be local or WGN games.