A Prior Occurrence

In May 2004, when Mark Prior was still the hope for the future of the Chicago Cubs, he spent some time in Lansing, Michigan, making two rehab starts for the Low-A Lugnuts of the Midwest League. The Lugnuts were the Cubs' affiliate in that league from 1999-2004.

While he was there, the photo you see at the top of this post was taken. It was framed and placed on the wall in the press box at the stadium, now known as Cooley Law School Stadium:

As many of you know, BCBer Zeke is the official scorer for the Lugnuts. Saturday night, he texted me this story:

A true Cubbie occurrence: a framed picture in the ballpark pressbox just blew off the wall, fell onto the main stadium audio board and fried it. The photo: Mark Prior during his 2OO4 rehab assignment in Lansing. Unreal.

Here's the wall where the photo used to hang:

And here's the audio board that got fried:

Here's the happy ending to the story, from Zeke:

They got the board working again with about 1O minutes to go before first pitch. Lugs scored 5 runs on the bottom of the 8th to win 8-5 over the Great Lakes Loons.

(Note the name connected with another former Cub in the Lugnuts lineup.)

These kinds of things seem to happen only to the Cubs. (As noted by Zeke above, you'll remember that it was Lou Piniella who termed these events "Cubbie Occurrences".) Thought you'd be amused. Prior, for his part, is still working on his comeback; he's got a 4.66 ERA and 1.345 WHIP in nine relief appearances for Triple-A Louisville in the Reds organization.