John Baker Day Update

If this is the first you are hearing of "John Baker Day", I recommend reading my BCB announcement of the event a few weeks ago, as I will henceforth be referencing aspects already written about.

But in a discarded Terrace Reserved peanut shell, The Ivy Envy Podcast and The Son Ranto Show, in association with BCB, are teaming up to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the pitching heroics of Cubs 2014 backup catcher John Baker, on July 29 at 11 a.m. at Nisei Lounge, before the Cubs and Mariners game that afternoon at 1:20. And all the proceeds are going to benefit Cubs Charities, per the wishes of Mr. John Baker himself -- he will be in attendance!

Since announcing the event, there have been 70 T-Shirts/Tickets sold! But in order to get the T-Shirts in time for July 29, we are cutting off ordering on June 28. I just wanted to give you all a heads up in case you wanted a shirt in this first batch. If you order after the 28th, you'll have to wait and have it sent to you.

However, we will still be selling tickets up until we reach capacity for Nisei (about 140). As a reminder, you don't have to attend John Baker Day to order the T-Shirt. Corey from Ivy Envy will contact everyone who orders the shirt as to whether they will be attending the event or not. I love this shirt! I think I may need two!

In other "Baker Day" news, John Baker's dad, David, had an idea a while back on Twitter about having a Bobblehead made of John pitching in catcher's gear. In fact, his father's idea was one of the catalysts which hatched this whole "John Baker Day" event in my brain. But instead of "John Pitching in Catcher's Gear," which is already emblazoned on the T-shirt, we opted for John Baker's iconic slide into home. We are still in production, but check it out!

The Bobbleheads have to go into production even sooner than the shirt. As in, next week!

When I tweeted this image out the other day, many people asked me how they could get one. So I decided I would let fans pre-order the Bobblehead. They are not cheap, though. Cost is around $40 until you buy a bunch of them. And I was only going to buy five. It's an extremely "limited edition" Bobblehead, you see. Since we are raising money for Cubs Charities, I priced it to the public at $55, shipping included, on The Son Ranto Site. But the more we sell in the pre-order, the better the bulk pricing, the more money we will raise for charity.

Hopefully, Amazing Bobbleheads will have a finished picture of one soon that I can share with you all. But this is what I have so far.

Once again! If you can't attend "John Baker Day" and want a Limited Edition John Baker Bobblehead, I'll ship it to you! We will also be raffling a Bobblehead off at the event! Maybe you'll get lucky!

Even more incredible news, is that John Baker has volunteered to have all five of last year's Cubs rookies sign artist Matt Kammerer's original artwork that he donated to be raffled off!

But now, with the autographs of Javier Baez, Jorge Soler, Addison Russell, Kyle Schwarber, and Rookie of the Year, Kris Bryant, this piece of art becomes considerably more valuable, so we have opted for a silent auction instead of a raffle. We are still ironing out the details, but you DO NOT have to attend the event to make a bid. We will open up bidding a week before via email and announce the winning and final bid at "John Baker Day". Of course all proceeds will go to Cubs Charities as well.

I would easily pay $500 for this signed artwork if I had it. But I'm curious. What do you all think it should be worth? What should the starting bid be?

Finally, some very exciting news personal to me. My interaction with John Baker started the morning of July 30, 2014, when I hung-overdly wrote "The Night the Back-Up Catcher Got the Win" and posted it on BCB. I have since changed the title to "The Ballad of John Baker", and reworked a few lyrics as well. Not to mention, performed the song live all over the country for the past few years.

My plan has been to re-record the song with my full band, Bad Teenage Moustache to release at "John Baker Day". But now this "full band" recording will also include recorded performances by John Baker himself, and his brother Will Baker, who is a trombonist for the Des Moines Symphony, among many other varied musical projects. How cool is that!?

So to recap this "John Baker Day" update: You have until June 28 to buy a T-Shirt in the first batch. Half the tickets are already sold. You have only a week or so to pre-order the Bobblehead. There will be an auction of 2015's five Cubs Rookies on an original piece of artwork. And John Baker and his brother Will just joined my band. So, how was your June so far?

The moral of the story is... if you ever wake up hungover after an epic Cubs game, write a song about it. You never know where it will lead.