12 Days of #108Mas: Merry Christmas To Me

Back in the day, had to have been early spring, I remember the Moore twins showing up to baseball practice both wearing the fantastic 1983 White Sox jerseys. It is burned into my mind, and like most people, I love that jersey. It’s either beloved or hated by everyone. But going with that, these guys were synonymous with those jerseys too.

I own a few ’83 jerseys, most recently I bought a Jeff Samardzija Cool Base one at SoxFest for $15. I was intending to change the name, but I got lazy. Plus when people see me in it they say 2 things. 1 – Man, Jeff really let himself go and 2 – I had no idea Jeff has retired. But fuck that guy. As much as I coveted a White Sox jersey from this time period, I really wanted the stuffed versions of Ribbie and Roobarb.

To quote a wise old looking man, here’s the thing, I had never seen these guys in person. I maybe had seen them on TV, but I knew their run at the park was less than spectacular. Lotta folks were crazy upset that a rando dressed like a clown was being upstaged by these fellas.

Side Note – I never met Andy The Clown. He might have been a great guy. A nice guy. Great with kids. I am just saying, that the track record for random clowns in Chicago isn’t the best.

Needless to say, as my father never took me to old Comiskey, I never saw these guys. And I seriously doubt I would have been able to swing the stuffed animal set from my father. As the refrain at every sporting event that we went to as a kid was “The game is the treat” (something that I am sure my daughters will never hear as I find it hard to deny them anything that costs less than a beer). So I grew up with no set of Ribbie and Roobarb stuffed animals.

When I moved to Bridgeport, I started my White Sox bobblehead collection. It’s dope AF, but that is another topic all together. In 2013, the White Sox made retail bobblehead versions of Ribbie and Roobarb. I loved them from the start. Talk to our guy Uncle Rico if you wanna see the prototype of Ribbie, he scored one from a damn gypsey. Spolier Alert – it looks exactly as the retail release. A guy took advantage of a new collector. What a POS. Anyways, here is what they look like –

Pretty badass, but this only made my fire for the stuffed versions grow larger. I started my fruitless journey for them back in 2013. I hit alot of thrift stores and I have never seen this twosome. Never. You see them from time to time on Ebay, but usually for $100+, not something I wanted to spend. Bums me out just thinking about it.

So anyways, while on Ebay a few weeks back, I spotted a pair for $65. Ribbie was pretty dirty, Roobarb was brand new, but what the fuck right? I offered the guy a fair price and never heard back from him. Foiled again!

Then, like a Christmas miracle, he contacted me a week ago accepted my offer (and even though he took his sweet ass time sending them) I am now a proud owner of the set. Which is awesome, cause my Spuds MacKenzie (The Original Party Animal) stein was getting lonely.

Merry Christmas from all of us at the 108! We appreciate your support and take this time to catch up with our podcast! We have 6 episodes, which is about 14 hours of content to listen to. Go to where you download podcasts and look for “fromthe108” podcast. Or do like I do, Google that shit and download it that way.

-MSS