ProductionNinja.com

Recently the Cubs have had a habit of dropping bombshells right at the beginning of the season. For example last year on Opening Day, the Tribune Company announced that they would be selling the team (which still hasn’t happened, by the way). This year they have announced that the Yosh Kawano-era is now over in the Wrigley Field clubhouses:

Kawano, 86, who has been with the team since 1943, has been relieved of his clubhouse duties and reassigned because of health reasons. He is as much a part of Wrigley as the outfield ivy, often seen wearing his trademark floppy hat, baggy khaki slacks, and white T-shirt.

“He was a favorite of [William] Wrigley’s,” Hall of Famer Billy Williams said Wednesday. “He was a guy who did what he thought was right. He tried to preserve the organization, he wanted to keep the equipment in the clubhouse. Maybe he did some things out of the ordinary, but that was his way of doing it.”

Kawano was named the clubhouse equipment manager in 1953, and held that position until 1999. He was the home clubhouse manager emeritus in 2000. In 1984, the Cubs’ clubhouse was named in Kawano’s honor.

Yes, Yosh Kawano has been at Wrigley Field so long the he was actually working for the Cubs the last time they were in a World Series. He’s been with the Cubs so long that he was working there when Harry Caray started broadcasting for the Cardinals. He may even be older than Ronnie Woo-Woo.

Yosh and his Gilligan-style floppy hat will be missed.

If they build a Yosh statue, when can only hope that they hire someone to proof read it.