Gracie drinks in victory

By Bruce Martinez

Things are mostly ugly. Nothing ever seems to go right often in this world, and this continues on to the sports world.

Players are busted for drugs, they have illigitimate children and play with dollar signs in their eyes instead of smiles on their faces. Ever so often however, incredible redemption occurs and smiles are left on all our faces.

Special moments like this happened this past Sunday. So put this one in your stowage pocket and savor it, Mark Grace is a world champion.

Gracie had more hits than anyone else during the '90s while playing for some terrible Cubs teams. More important than his hits were all the beers he put away with the fans on Chicago's North Side. While other players were distant superstars, Gracie and the Shooter Rod Beck were accessible Everyman's.

After a decade of such success surrounded by failure, it was a emotional moment to see Gracie lead the bottom of the ninth off with a single that eventually proved to be the tying run in this past Sunday's dramatic World Series game seven. When the chips were down Gracie shined brightly as he always has.

The best thing about this is knowing Gracie is celebrating with his fans, chain smoking, drinking, raising hell and picking up the tab.

Harry Caray once said some thing to this extent: seeing Mark Grace walk into a bar was like sitting on a porch and suddenly looking up andd seeing the most beautiful person you could imagine walking towards you with a smile on their face.

A DiamondBack by trade and a Cubbie for life, Gracie is everything baseball players should be, and for this I raise my glass to him.