368 So my mother stopped by my house last week to see her grandson mainly, but since he was napping her son (being me) was the only option available. Upon our little bonding time we usually get nowadays, we always manage to talk a little baseball. We got on subject of the Cubbies, then talked about past players and I brought up one of my favorite memories. This being her beef with current Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez. Most people tend to call him "Pudge". But if you mention that to my mother, she will definitely curuse his name. Now I know that the '03 NLCS is a bad taste in the mouths of every Cub fan, but despite all that happened I got to learn a lot about a couple of my mom's favorite ballplayers (Ron Santo is #1 in her heart, Carlton Fisk is second, and during '03 she had a thing for Joe Borowski. . . don't ask). While we watched the NLCS together, every time Ivan Rodriguez came up, they would call him "Pudge". . . which would get my mother howling at the TV. . . "THERE'S ONLY ONE #$#$#$! PUDGE AND THAT'S CARLTON FISK!" This happened a lot. And when Rodriguez was apart of that rally that killed the Cubs in game 6, she cursed Rodriguez. Hard. My mom asked me "Why is he 'Pudge'?". It dawned on me, I don't know why they call him Pudge. So it just made me think that maybe Carlton Fisk is Pudge Highlander and should behead Ivan Rodriguez in my active imagination. Since my mother said "THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE PUDGE! THAT'S CARLTON FISK! $*#( THAT RODRIGUEZ GUY!". . . with him winding up as a big name in the Mitchell report and how the Tigers are doing this year, I guess her curse on Rodriguez is finally coming through. Thanks, Mom! true 2008-06-04T16:43:13Z 56390 1 2008-06-04T16:52:52Z