00:00The thing about James is that he was terrified of the ball.
00:02And the O'Connells were a big baseball family, right?
00:04Like when our grandpa was the mayor, or maybe great-grandpa?
00:07Our great-grandpa was the mayor from 55 to 76.
00:09Our grandpa was 89 to 2011, so our grandpa got this whole chunk of wall from Comiskey Park when they
00:13knocked it down,
00:13and he had it in his basement like a museum.
00:15And the O'Connells always had tickets for the whole season.
00:17And my other cousins, Liam and Matt and Sean and Mike, they'd always be out playing baseball,
00:20but James would get to the plate and he would just croak.
00:22I mean, he would duck away from the ball, he couldn't even swing, it scared him so bad.
00:25And he was Liam and Matt and Sean and Mike's age,
00:27but James would always have to go play with the younger cousins because it pissed them off so bad.
00:29You know, they couldn't understand why he couldn't just swing.
00:31And I remember one year they were all in the same peewee league, and I was really little, I was
00:34probably four,
00:36and James would just freeze at the home plate.
00:38And, you know, his dad would go nuts in the stand, and I mean, he was red.
00:40He'd yank him away at the end of the game screaming his head off.
00:43But, you know, he loved basketball, and when the Bulls kept winning in the 90s, he got obsessed with Michael
00:46Jordan.
00:46And I remember my grandma had a VCR in the basement, and he'd come over and record the Bulls games,
00:50and he'd watch them over and over.
00:51But, I mean, he was pretty shrimpy, you know?
00:53He never got too tall, so he wasn't a great player.
00:55And I think Leemann, Matt, and Sean, and Mike thought it was sort of dorky,
00:57which is funny because it's fucking basketball, you know, how's that dorky?
01:00But I think they just thought that because James was the one who liked it.
01:03With the O'Connells, because of all the political connections we have in the city of Chicago,
01:06and obviously just the money, there was always a sense that everything would be all right when someone fucked up.
01:11You know, Leemann, Matt, and Sean, and Mike, they could total cars and beat the shit out of someone,
01:14you know, underage at the bar, and they'd always get bailed out,
01:16and the Tribune would never report on it because my grandpa had so much sway.
01:19But James never did any of that.
01:20You know, he's cautious.
01:21He seemed very concerned all the time, and he couldn't throw a punch.
01:24So when everything went down in 96, it was a shocker that he was even out with them.
01:27I mean, I could count on one hand the amount of times that they'd invite James to a party.
01:30But the story as I know it is that Leemann, Matt, and Sean, and Mike are at this party,
01:33and James is there too, right?
01:34And they're all 16, 17, and Leem, listen, I wasn't there, so I can't say for sure,
01:39but Leem did something sort of creepy to a girl there.
01:41I think, I mean, I don't know.
01:43It might have been before the party, but the girl's brother was there,
01:45and all of his friends were there, and they're like,
01:47we're going to fucking kill Liam O'Connell.
01:48And my cousins are outnumbered.
01:50Like, this guy had all his friends there, right?
01:51So, you know, they get in the car, and they start driving away.
01:53And this guy and his friends get in his car, and they start following my cousins.
01:56So it's this fucking chase up Harlem Avenue.
01:59My cousins are all drunk and panicked, and they don't want to stop me.
02:01No one has any cell phones yet, right?
02:02And so they pulled up to this place McNally's that all the O'Connells have been drinking out all day,
02:08and it was my cousin Mary Claire's baby shower.
02:11And everyone's totally hammered, right?
02:12I was 10, but, you know, I was still there, and I see Liam and Matt and Sean and Mike
02:14and James knock on the window.
02:16My dad goes outside, and then everyone else goes outside.
02:18So I follow, and I see a bunch of teenage boys and my cousins and all my aunts and uncles,
02:22and this kid, this big fucking kid throws a punch at my uncle right in his face.
02:26And it was like someone smacked a beehive.
02:27I mean, it was mayhem.
02:28And I'm just standing there on the side, and my mom's going crazy and screaming,
02:30and someone pulls a baseball bat out of their car.
02:33And my uncle said it was a big group of boys that brought it, and the boys, you know, they
02:36said it was my uncle.
02:36Whatever.
02:37People start wrestling for it.
02:38It falls to the ground, and everyone's so swept up and everything that it's just on the ground waiting.
02:42And I'm standing there staring at it, and I look across, and I see James just standing there, too, staring.
02:46And I see him walk towards the baseball bat, and he picks it up, right?
02:49And this is where my story's going to differ from everyone else's, okay?
02:51Because they're going to say that he tried to swing it at one of the other boys' stomachs, right?
02:55And that the boys swerved out of the way, and that the bat swung right up in my Aunt Jill's
02:58jaw.
02:58That's what they all say.
02:59That was the official story after it happened, that it was an accident.
03:02But I was the only one who saw it.
03:03I watched him pause and look around and hold up the bat and look right at Aunt Jill.
03:07I saw him think about it.
03:09And I saw him step forward and swing straight and shatter her jaw, okay?
03:12It was hanging off of her face.
03:13She needed months and months of reconstructive surgery.
03:14It was a mess.
03:15I mean, he ended the fight with that.
03:16Everyone stopped.
03:17You could hear a pin drop.
03:18And he was totally all right after it, too, in the legal sense, at least, you know, in the way
03:21that my brothers and cousins always were.
03:24And listen, my cousins always ragged on James.
03:26I think really because they thought he was a coward just in general in life.
03:29And, I mean, he was.
03:30He hit a lady in the face, you know, his own aunt.
03:31I mean, that's a coward.
03:33But, you know, I always think about that moment when I saw him stop and think right before he did
03:37it and how, for the first time in his whole life, he thought swing.
03:40And there was nothing stopping him.
03:41Just for that moment, you know, he could swing.
03:42He looked around.
03:43You know, he looked at all of us and he could swing.
03:45You know, he could swing.
Comments