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BY GEORGE CASTLE
Times Correspondent | Saturday, July 09, 2005 | (No comments posted.)
Times correspondent George Castle has written his seventh book, "Where Have All Our Cubs Gone?" On sale at Region bookstores and via Amazon.com, the book profiles 41 former players, managers and executives in their lives since their Wrigley Field days ended. In this second excerpt of a four-part series, Castle visited former second baseman Mickey Morandini at his family's business in Chesterton.
The corner shop on Calumet Avenue in quaint downtown Chesterton doesn't distinguish itself just from outward appearances.
But once a customer entered RSVP, run by Peg and Mickey Morandini, the senses automatically shifted to a positive overdrive.
Before the eyes can scan the displays in RSVP, the nose picks up the scent of apple cinnamon. The mood is automatically soothed, and is further relaxed by the messages offered in all the sample displays. Cards for every occasion, further customized by Peg Morandini and deftly printed up in back by hubby Mickey.
Up front by the register are a few sample gifts. Immediately to the left is a separate room devoted to weddings, with more sample cards and four white chairs surrounding a glass table. Through the rest of the store are even more samples for every happy occasion -- births, anniversaries, holidays. A lavender wall backdrop completes the positive mood.
"It's a happy place, because you're dealing with happy events -- weddings, new babies, parties," Mickey said.
Eternally boyish in appearance, clad in a pullover sweater and jeans, Morandini hasn't aged a day from a much more high-profile gig. He's a bit more than a half-decade removed from playing second base and spraying hits all over Wrigley Field, getting on base any way he could to provide more RBI grist for Sammy Sosa during the latter's starring role in the great Home Run Chase of 1998. And here he is, a radical lineup change in his life, as a shopkeeper on Main Street, USA.
Now you could go right up to Morandini, shake his hand, ask him to serve you, and he'd gladly oblige. But you don't know Morandini that well. There was never a shock to the system.
"Not really," he said when asked if there was a comedown from his late 1990s persona. "I was never a high-maintenance guy. Those things are great, but it's not something I had to have. I enjoy it now. I'd rather stay in the back, but if I have to do it (run the store), it doesn't bother me.
"Peg always loved unique stationery," Mickey said. "Once I retired (after the 2000 season), I decided I'd take a year off to be with the kids and then go into something. Originally, I looked into a big baseball facility to do instruction. But it cost too much, and that kind of fell through.
"Then she said, 'Let's do a stationery business.' "
The Morandinis invested between $75,000 and $100,000 from their savings for the start-up costs. "Decent" on the computer, he still hadn't picked up any of the kind of sophisticated know-how needed to power a business via the keyboard.
"At the start, I just did printing," he said. "I was self-taught. It was just practicing. I went into programs, played around, figured how to rotate stuff. Some of it is high-tech. It took a month or two to really get comfortable. I've enjoyed it."
Morandini's devotion to family was on firm display during his two Cubs seasons.
The former Peg Ohm is a native of Valparaiso. The couple had settled in Valpo early in his eight-year tenure as a Phillies second baseman. But as a Cub, he had the chance to stay at home the entire season with his young sons for a price -- a 120-mile round trip to Wrigley Field for each daytime home game.
Morandini would stay overnight in Chicago when a day game followed a night game.
"He'd drive double the time -- two hours -- before doing that (being away from his sons)," Peg said. "The drive was good for him. Going there, it was an hour of peace and quiet to think about what he would do that day. Going home, it was another hour to think about the game he had played. Surprisingly, traffic was not bad. It worked out great."
Except the wrapup of his Cubs career.
"I'm way past that," he said of the '99 contract squabble and inglorious end to his Wrigley Field tenure. "I'm a free spirit -- what comes, comes and what goes, goes. I've got three healthy, beautiful children and a healthy wife."
Friday: Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins gives up life on the ranch and gains peace of mind.
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