Fred Hornkohl (1951-2016): Donations to Rizzo Family Foundation

[CubmanPi]

Thanks for all the kind words, everyone. And thanks Omar for digging up his last post. I hadn't even thought about looking for that. A great last post indeed.

[MarkR]

Of all the [expletive] cups of coffee I've had at 24 hour diners, the ones with Fred were my favorite.

 

I met Fred and a few others through this site way way way back when (2005-06 timeframe?) and it was certainly a memorable experience. How cool was it to meet THE stats guy from NSBB at a Cubs game in real life!? He was an amazing person to share a Cubs game with. Very sad news.

Edited September 12, 2016 by MarkR

[BigSlick]

Ah, man, what awful news. Fred was such a great good natured poster (and I'm sure human!) He really set the tone for all of our discussions and goofing.

 

Gotta win it for him this year now, Cobs

[Splendid Splinter]

Fred was the guy who always said "old man" swears right?

 

Like horsefeathers instead of horseshit for example. I always get a kick out of that.

[imb]

wow, this freaking blows.

[Derwood]

Wow, Lotus brings me back to the days of Word Perfect, etc. on the old IBM 486

[UMFan83]

Of all the [expletive] cups of coffee I've had at 24 hour diners, the ones with Fred were my favorite.

 

I met Fred and a few others through this site way way way back when (2005-06 timeframe?) and it was certainly a memorable experience. How cool was it to meet THE stats guy from NSBB at a Cubs game in real life!? He was an amazing person to share a Cubs game with. Very sad news.

 

Yeah I remember he'd call me at like 9am on a Saturday and be like "hey I've got Cubs tickets come on down to the park and let's go" and I'd be like "ugh Fred I'm kind of hung over" but I couldn't say no and was always happy I went.

[CubInOK]

Cubs are 90-0 when they score more runs than their opponent.

 

Go CUBS !!

 

Ok seriously I'm gonna miss all the stats he used to post. RIP Fred.

 

Perhaps you should pick up where he's left off. Pi, send him Fred's famous spreadsheet. You will probably have a couple months worth of data to update but then after that you should be all set

He ran it on Lotus. I don't even know what that is, other than the move Will Farrell did with Napolean Dynamite in Blades of Glory. I already thought about grabbing that, and maybe making an off-season project out of getting caught up on it. I'm not sure any ten of us would have the time or devotion it would take to keep that thing going, but I'm game to give it a shot.

I was always amazed at how quickly he could post obscure W-L numbers from his database.

[17 Seconds]

I liked his consistency. Whenever the Cubs were playing, he was kind of a comforting presence you could always rely on, even if he wasn't saying much. Rest in peace.

[imb]

Thanks for all the kind words, everyone. And thanks Omar for digging up his last post. I hadn't even thought about looking for that. A great last post indeed.

 

Not only was that his last post, it was from a victory against the Cardinals.

[UMFan83]

I liked his consistency. Whenever the Cubs were playing, he was kind of a comforting presence you could always rely on, even if he wasn't saying much. Rest in peace.

 

Not to mention the fact that he was pretty much the ONLY presence in game theads in Sept of 2005,2006,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014

[Ding Dong Johnson]

wow, it's crazy how this kinda hurts a little considering we never met in person.

 

sorry for your loss

[CubmanPi]

:: Cubs issue an intentional walk ::

 

1.6 seconds later, Fred wrote:

 

The CUBS are 2-0 when they issue at least one intentional walk on day games at home when facing an opposing SP who is left-handed and at least 40,500 in attendance and the guy in the taco truck has to switch to rat meat in order to stay open after the 6th inning because he didn't check the weather ahead of time to prepare for the possibility of another rain delay.

 

Go CUBS !!

[Rob]

Fred passed away earlier this evening. He was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, and it was already late stage and very advanced. He passed peacefully in his sleep, in his home. He is survived by his wife, three sisters, two children, and two grandchildren.

 

Our family wants to express gratitude to everyone on this site who knew him and went to games with him and joked with him and made fun of him and cheered the Cubs on with him. He loved the Cubs as much as anyone ever has, and he loved going to games all around the country with people from this forum. It meant a lot to him, and we are grateful for the friendships he had that started here (and on cubs.com and espn).

 

Anyone who has any stories, memories, or pictures of Fred, whether you knew him IRL or not, please share those here. I'll start with one:

 

Fred wasn't often a very loud Cubs fan at the ballpark, but when Jeromy Burnitz played for the Cubs, every single time they announced him over the PA system, he yelled "COME ON, BEER NUTS!" He did this every. Time. I can't eat a beer nut without thinking of that.

 

If any of us would like to make a donation in Fred's honor, is there a preferred charity for that?

[CubmanPi]

Fred passed away earlier this evening. He was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, and it was already late stage and very advanced. He passed peacefully in his sleep, in his home. He is survived by his wife, three sisters, two children, and two grandchildren.

 

Our family wants to express gratitude to everyone on this site who knew him and went to games with him and joked with him and made fun of him and cheered the Cubs on with him. He loved the Cubs as much as anyone ever has, and he loved going to games all around the country with people from this forum. It meant a lot to him, and we are grateful for the friendships he had that started here (and on cubs.com and espn).

 

Anyone who has any stories, memories, or pictures of Fred, whether you knew him IRL or not, please share those here. I'll start with one:

 

Fred wasn't often a very loud Cubs fan at the ballpark, but when Jeromy Burnitz played for the Cubs, every single time they announced him over the PA system, he yelled "COME ON, BEER NUTS!" He did this every. Time. I can't eat a beer nut without thinking of that.

 

If any of us would like to make a donation in Fred's honor, is there a preferred charity for that?

Good question, thanks for asking - I'll try to find out about actual charities, but I'm pretty sure that if you send Tim a few bucks earmarked to support NSBB operations (don't forget to click some ads!), that's probably as good an idea as any. Like I said though, I'll find a better answer and make sure to post it.

[Brian]

How about renaming the Game Thread forum, Fred Hornkohl Game Thread forum, or something like that?

 

A highlight of the forgettable '06 season and Juan Pierre era was Fred posting 'Juan Pierre grounds out 4-3.' seemingly before the ball got to the 2nd baseman.

[Clem Fandango]

There should be a macro button added to the text editor that automatically posts the code for Fred's Cubs Win post.

 

Appreciated everything Fred would do for the forum, this sucks. I was always perplexed because Fred would often censor my posts in the game thread when I would get mad at umpires. Even if my post was already censored from the swear filter he would just delete it and replace it with a period. He was not a fan of foul language against umpires apparently, or at least not my foul language, lol.

[Rob]

Fred passed away earlier this evening. He was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, and it was already late stage and very advanced. He passed peacefully in his sleep, in his home. He is survived by his wife, three sisters, two children, and two grandchildren.

 

Our family wants to express gratitude to everyone on this site who knew him and went to games with him and joked with him and made fun of him and cheered the Cubs on with him. He loved the Cubs as much as anyone ever has, and he loved going to games all around the country with people from this forum. It meant a lot to him, and we are grateful for the friendships he had that started here (and on cubs.com and espn).

 

Anyone who has any stories, memories, or pictures of Fred, whether you knew him IRL or not, please share those here. I'll start with one:

 

Fred wasn't often a very loud Cubs fan at the ballpark, but when Jeromy Burnitz played for the Cubs, every single time they announced him over the PA system, he yelled "COME ON, BEER NUTS!" He did this every. Time. I can't eat a beer nut without thinking of that.

 

If any of us would like to make a donation in Fred's honor, is there a preferred charity for that?

Good question, thanks for asking - I'll try to find out about actual charities, but I'm pretty sure that if you send Tim a few bucks earmarked to support NSBB operations (don't forget to click some ads!), that's probably as good an idea as any. Like I said though, I'll find a better answer and make sure to post it.

 

Already done. But please do let us know if you hear of something more official.

[Andy]

I got to meet Fred at an NSBB meet up in 07. I don't recall any specific stories from the game, but Fred was a gentleman that day, I do remember that. And I had as much fun reading his posts as anyone's here.

 

RIP buddy, enjoy getting plastered on all the drinks Ernie and Ron are going to buy you in October.

[seanimal]

can we name something here in honor of him? like the game thread subforum or something

 

edit: brian beat me to this but the point is that it's an incredibly good idea

Edited September 12, 2016 by seanimal

[TruffleShuffle]

this news makes me really sad. i always enjoyed fred's obscure stats and his optimism. he made me laugh frequently in threads with posts like these:

 

Isn't it about time for one of them dong thingies ??

 

or on the rare occasion that he made a mistake (especially the obvious ones) and people made a joke about it, he always had a funny reply:

 

Yeah, I know. I was so mad after yesterday's game, I couldn't bring myself to enter the box score.

 

 

best of all, i enjoyed when he would start a game thread or post his usual stats when he driving his truck out on the road, and he'd always say something like "Greetings one and all from beautiful ____ !!!" but the place would really be some remote small town craphole that wasn't beautiful at all. i'm not sure why i enjoyed that so much; i guess because i'm a travel nerd and it also spoke to fred's eternal optimism. i found a few of those posts in the archives:

 

 

I'm sitting at a loading dock in beautiful Perrysville, MO, looking out over the yard at a ship's container with the shipping company's name all over it...... "Dong Fang". It must be an omen, no ?

Greetings one and all from beautiful Van Alstyne, TX !!

Greetings one and all from beautiful Rawlins, WY !!!

Greetings one and all from beautiful North Kansas City, MO !!

Greetings one and all from beautiful Saxonburg, PA !!!

Greetings one and all from beautiful Horse Cave, KY !!!

Greetings one and all from the parking lot of Bimbo Bakeries in beautiful downtown West Hazelton, PA !!!

Greetings one and all from beautiful Minot, ND !!!

 

 

i will miss having him around. he made this board a better place and no doubt the world a better place for those who knew him. my condolences to his family and friends.

Edited September 12, 2016 by TruffleShuffle

[Brian]

We should also figure out a time during a game for several people tweet or otherwise contact Len to mention it on the air, he seems to be pretty good about doing things like that. Maybe wait till they get back to Wrigley?

[TruffleShuffle]

How about renaming the Game Thread forum, Fred Hornkohl Game Thread forum, or something like that?

 

yes, do this.

[Andy]

We should also figure out a time during a game for several people tweet or otherwise contact Len to mention it on the air, he seems to be pretty good about doing things like that. Maybe wait till they get back to Wrigley?

That's an awesome idea. Whenever we decide to do it I'll be happy to contribute a tweet.

[philosophizer75]

This really sucks. My condolences to his family. He will be missed. His cubs win posts are what made me start loving this site.