baseball

World Champions by Michael Durr

Someday has finally arrived. The Chicago Cubs are the World Series Champions. Throughout my life, I have gone through ups and downs with the sport of baseball. I played t-ball as a young kid and continued playing for a while after that. However, growing up in the era of Michael Jordan, basketball quickly stole my attention. I played basketball in grade school and into high school. In respect to baseball, I guess I have always been somewhat of a bandwagon fan. I remember the days of Andre Dawson and Ryan Sandberg. I remember shifting my attention to the White Sox during the years of the Big Hurt and then shifted back to follow the Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire home run race. I also remember being in college when the infamous Bartman game happened. There was an outdoor watch party down the street and I remember on my way home a door came flying off a balcony. It was in that moment I realized that a Cubs World Series would be absolutely insane.

After 108 years of waiting.

It didn't disappoint.

This is the year.

2016

The Wedding Day PreGame by Michael Durr

On October 19, 2013 not only did I get to marry a beautiful, smart, strong, fun, perfect girl, (despite being from the same town as the Pacers) but I also had the dream of the A and B team come true. Over the years I have attended, stood up and photographed many weddings. It was no secret I wanted to do something that I had never seen. Being that I have a lot of guy friends and each one is as important to me as the next. I decided not to have the traditional "groomsmen" or "ushers." I decided to create an A-Team and a B-Team. The A-Team aka The Pillars consisted of my best man Jim and a solid group of gentleman that were not only influential in my life but have been apart of my life for many years. The B-Team aka The Band of Misfits is another solid group of gentleman that influenced my life, for better or worse. haha. This was incredibly thought out. All the jersey numbers correspond to real Bulls players. The A-Team corresponding to the 90's Bulls and the B-Team corresponding to the current Bulls.I remember becoming overwhelmed when I got engaged on December 25, 2012, only because the planning started about 30 minutes after the proposal. During that 30 minutes, as I heard Lindsay and her mom talking about locations, photographers, dresses, etc. etc. I thought about this and it came out even better than I imagined.

Photography by Cal Engel

Michael Durr #23

The A-Team (The Pillars) Jim Braniff #33 Mark Baluga #10 Glen Hilton #34 James Hultgren #25 Cal Engel #54 Landon Erwin #7

The B-Team (The Band of Misfits) Matt Mills #1 Cody Jankowski #13 David Starke #5 Steve Fischer #9 Rob Tarpey #21 Matt Bridges #22

Benchwarmers Chris Berry #24 Dustin Wissmiller #91

Thank you Jessica Strickland for helping my dream come true.

Special Thanks to the NBA Store and the Chicago Bulls!

Go Bulls!