John Hughes

I have been a baseball fan my whole life. My father would take me and my brother Bob to Sox games at Comiskey Park (Dad was a diehard Sox fan so Bob and I had to wait a few years before we could take the CTA to Wrigley Field on our own).

I fell in love again with baseball when my wife and daughter and I went to several games of local clubs for a few years because they are so family oriented. It was a great way to  introduce our young  child to the game.  She and my wife both loved going.  We could sit up close. We could even have picnics there.

The ball park was like something out of the movie “Field of Dreams” and utterly charming.   The immediacy and energy of the games, and being so close to the action, gave the games an attraction that can sometimes be more appealing than the Majors’ games.  My daughter could get up and walk around and we could easily go with her to get another hot dog or coke.  Our little one never liked noisy crowds where fans would scream for their favorite team.  Our daughter was in her element in the local clubs.  Her excitement at these games inspired her to eagerly join the local little league in our neighborhood.  So was another baseball fan born.

When she grew up and moved away we had nostalgia for those precious times.  One day a lightbulb went off.  I thought it would be a great idea to celebrate that special time by designing a memento that every fan in the league could share. That memento is the Sports Passport.  I thought such a “passport” would identify the holder as a “citizen” of their local team’s “nation.”  We knew without a doubt that this memento of the games would solidify the fan’s allegiance to their local team.