Saturday night Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander and The Heckler teamed up to get the city of Chicago pumped up and ready for the 2010 Chicago Cubs home opener. Their Next Year Day party at Harry Caray’s Wrigleyville had everything Cubs fans love: beer, babes, bands and a healthy dose of humor at the expense of the White Sox.

Monday afternoon a new year of Wrigley baseball will begin. Fans will get to see the changes to the ballpark, have a brew at the new bar on the block and welcome their 2010 Cubs at home for the first time. If you don’t have your Cubs Day-O-Fun mapped out yet, here are a few of the events going on in Wrigleyville!

Check out some pics from Next Year Day to get pumped for Monday’s home opener against the Milwaukee Brewers!!

Thanks to the uber-awesome Will Byington for a few of his photos. Check out more of his shots here & here!

Chug-Chug The Clown & Bill Murray at a past Next Year Day

T.G.I.F. and all that crap. Here are some tips & links for this weekend.

FRISKY FRIDAY:

BLACKHAWKS @ AVALANCHE – Friday 8pm – The regular season is winding down. Watch the Hawks tune up for the postseason. [Blackhawks]

WORLD BEER CUP PARTY – Friday ’til 2am – Head over to Moonshine in Wicker Park for this party, in honor of the Craft Brewers Conference in Chicago,  [Metromix]

SUPER SATURDAY:

CHICAGONOW RADIO – Saturday 9am – Yours truly will be back behind the mic at WGN to guest-host ChicagoNow Radio. My spectacular guests will be the authors of the following blogs…  American Princess, Chicago Political Commentary, Chicago Food Snob, Always a Bridesmaid, Beer Travelers, Staying on Course, Golf Chicago.  

NEXT YEAR DAY - Saturday 8pm – The 102nd Annual Next Year Day, presented by The Heckler & Sun-Times Columnist Rick Telander, celebrates another year of hopin’ and wishin’ and dreamin’ about a Cubs World Series Win. Celebs, pin-the-mullet on the South Sider, a champagne toast, bucket boys, JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound. What more could you ask for??? [Next Year Day]

SUNDAY FUNDAY:

CHICAGO’S BEST ON WGN RADIO -
Sunday 9am – Ted Brunson, Brittney Payton and I will be chatting about
our new WGN TV show, Chicago’s Best, on the Dean Richards Show on WGN
Radio 720. [Chicago's Best] 

TWINS @ SOX -
Sunday 1:05pm – I’ll be in the booth with Hawk and Stoney to talk about
Chicago’s Best during the third inning of the Sox/Twins game. Tune in!

HAWKS HOST RED WINGS -
Sunday 2pm – The Blackhawks close out the regular season by hosting the
hated Detroit Red Wings. Start painting your “DETROIT SUCKS” sign now. [Blackhawks]

We’ve all heard stories about fans gettin’ busy at public sporting events. Heck, we’ve even seen video of it. But few of us have actually witnessed it firsthand.

Well on Opening Day, labeled “Rock The Sox” Day on the team’s promotional calendar, two White Sox fans took the whole socks-rocking promo a bit too literally. As a result, a dad and his young son were treated to a live showing of America’s Second-Favorite Pastime: boning at a baseball game.

Writes John Kass of the Tribune:

This was an Opening Day that [Dr. Paul] Nemeth and his son will never forget. Ever.

On Monday, Nemeth’s son had to go, and his father took him to the
nearest restroom. They stood in line for the first urinal next to a row
of stalls.

As they waited, Nemeth said, he noticed noises coming from the last
stall. A man’s legs — clad in blue jeans and sneakers — were sticking
out from under the stall door.

“The toes were pointing up,” said Nemeth. “The legs were shaking and
quivering. From a visual standpoint, all you had to see was the legs
quivering to know something was going on.”

As a trained physician, he had an idea what was happening in there, but he worried it might have been something else.

“It was bizarre. It caught the attention of a lot of people. I tried to
turn my boy’s attention away from it, then I thought, ‘Is someone
having a seizure?’

“So I kicked the door, just to get a reaction. I just wanted to make
sure nobody was dying in there. That’s when I heard a woman’s voice
yell, ‘HEY, STOP!’ Something was going on and I had interrupted.”

Moments later, the stall door opened, and a tall, thin, blond man exited. The tall man held his arms up in triumph.

“His arms were straight up, like in victory,” Nemeth said. “Everybody was hooting and hollering and giving high-fives.”

Saturday, April 24 is “Girl Scout Grand Slam Group” day at The Cell. Please God don’t let anyone misinterpret that promotion, too.

• Wrigley Field gets a makeover for the Home Opener. Check out a live view of the new additions to Wrigley’s facade. [CubWorld]

• The long and short of it. [The Windy Pixel]

• Tiki Barber is good at marriage. [With Leather]

• Single ladies devastation. [YouTube]