John Baker Day Bidding Wars!

While we wait for new info on the possible Aroldis Chapman deal, here's something fun.

John Baker Day is almost here! This is the day The Son Ranto Show and The Ivy Envy Podcast have teamed up to celebrate the heroics of Cubs catcher John Baker, who pitched a scoreless frame in the 16th inning, and then scored the winning run in the bottom of the inning on a Starlin Castro sacrifice fly, on July 29, 2014.

If this is the first you're hearing of this event at Nisei Lounge to benefit Cubs Charities, check out this previous article. And the update.

The purpose of this article is to let you know that you can still attend the event and/or get a fabulous John Baker Day T-Shirt by buying tickets at Ivy Envy's Website. But I also wanted to let you about a unique piece of artwork that we are auctioning off with the help of John Baker and artist Matt Kammerer.

The painting below is the 2015 Cubs rookie class: Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Jorge Soler, Addison Russell, and Javier Baez. John Baker is seeing to it that all five Cubs players will autograph the painting. (Though we may have to wait a bit on Soler as he's currently rehabbing and not with the team.)

Would you pay more than $1000 for five Cubs autographs on a unique piece of art? Because if you want it, you'll have to! I started bidding at $250 and it's already up to a grand! As all proceeds from this event will be given to charity, this is certainly exciting news!

If you wish to bid on this item, here is the link.

In other John Baker Day news...the bobbleheads will arrive very soon! (as you might imagine from the lead photo of this article.) Many of you bought them, and they will be shipped out shortly. Thanks for helping us write an even bigger check to Cubs Charities!

John Baker bought.... wait for it... a Baker's dozen of them for friends and family -- one of those friends being none other than Anthony Rizzo! So not only is the bobblehead extremely rare, only 31 in existence, but one of them is owned by a Cubs superstar! We will be raffling off a Bobblehead or two at John Baker Day. So if you missed out on buying one, come out and maybe you'll get lucky!

Personally, I'm super excited for this Friday's event at Nisei Lounge! Not only is it a chance to hang out with great friends, sing a song, have some fun, and raise money for charity, but also a time to celebrate John Baker returning to the Cubs and his heroic contribution to hopefully the last dismal season of baseball on the North Side. Plus. I like John. He played guitar in the dugout, he pretended to lick Hector Rondon. He karate kicked in catchers gear. And now he's back! John's a humorous and thoughtful man, and I look forward to hanging out with him at the event, and in the bleachers on Friday as the Cubs take on the Mariners.

So...have at it! Bid away and let's raise a ton of dough for Cubs Charities!