Season wrapup for the Chiefs

Kevin Capie of the Peoria Journal-Star has this about the '08 Peoria Chief season

Sunny days are ahead for Chiefs

It wasn't really until today that I sat back and realized everything that has happened," Chiefs president Rocky Vonachen said Thursday night as the Chiefs finished the home portion of their schedule. "Looking back on it, it went so quick."

The high point, of course, was the "Road To Wrigley" game the Chiefs played against the Kane County Cougars at Wrigley Field. Without that game, because of the rain outs, the Chiefs would not have set their single-season attendance record for the second consecutive season. The Chiefs finished with 275,673 fans walking through the turnstiles.

It also helped that Ryne Sandberg returned to Peoria to manage.

"We were definitely planning on the year without Ryno," Vonachen said. "But having him here helped get our name out there around not just the city but the region."

Also, here is a gift the manager of the Chiefs received.

As nice as having his number retired by the Chiefs, Sandberg found another gem on Thursday.

A fan sent him a DVD containing the whole broadcast of the game in which the then future-Hall-of-Famer picked up his first Major League hit.

"I have (the hit) on VHS, which I never watch," Sandberg said. "Now I've got the whole game."

You see, kids, VHS was something that we used when we wanted to tape sporting events or TV shows or movies. There was this device called a VCR -- video cassette recorder -- that used VHS tapes....but that is an entirely different topic for an different day.