George Kleemann of Palatine, Illinois has been a good friend of ours since he joined the NFBC in 2004, he's been a great competitor in all of our events, he's been a fun guy at the drafts and he's made our live events a family adventure as his two sons and his wife all have their own NFBC teams along with himself. George loves our events so much that he actually told his son to change the date of his wedding because it was conflicting with one of our baseball drafts a few years ago. His son and new daughter-in-law-to-be thought he was kidding, but dad wasn't and the date of the wedding was changed.
Now George needs our help. He is scheduled to compete in both Draft Champions Leagues in Chicago and both main events and he is going to do that hell or high water. But a nasty bug bite has put George in the hospital for the last two months and taken his mobility away from him for now. He told me he can see the Schaumburg Renaissance Hotel from his hospital room and he had hoped to walk out of that hospital and right into our draft, but unfortunately the good Lord won't allow that just yet and he faces surgery next week. As per George's orders, he told that surgeon last week that he can't have the surgery on Friday as the doctor wanted because he's doing two live drafts, so surgery will have to wait until George does back-to-back doubleheaders with us.
George is retired and in the prime of his life, but the Lord works in mysterious ways and he threw George a curveball just when his beloved Cubs are on the verge of winning the World Series for the first time in a century.
Thankfully, George has good spirits, his sound mind and four drafts to look forward to and then somehow he will beat this mysterious bite. I'm convinced that football will give George the competitive spirit to keep pushing forward through all this and that he will walk into our baseball draft next March good as new, with his lovely wife Sandi on his arm. No other scenario is imaginable.Sandi is going to be with George on Friday and Sandi and track every pick and we will accommodate George with a phone hookup into all four Chicago drafts. We've had inconveniences before and taken care of our members -- like Hurricane Katrina, family births, more bad weather, etc. -- but nothing like this. George, it's the least we can do, so be ready to fight for all four titles. Nobody will take it easy on you.
George, you will always be the head of the NFBC's first family. Our prayers are with you and we wish you God's graces through these tough times. You'll be working out and walking your dogs in no time, so hang in there. We'll see ya on Friday and Saturday, even if we can't SEE ya.
Thanks my friend and good luck.