damn, this really bums me out. never met the guy myself, but as so many have said, he seemed to be such a friendly person and he loved the cubs no matter what, as evidenced by the game threads and his overall cheery attitude on this board. honestly, when i think of NSBB, i think of Fred. he was always about the cubs, no matter how terrible they were, and always about NSBB. for a message board that's been around as long as this one, and one that has as many tight-knit posters as this one, we've been lucky to not lose a whole lot of people. it's a shame we lost one of the greats before he got to see the cubs win it, but i'm honestly glad i got to interact with Fred in some capacity during my lifetime, even if it was just on a message board.