The making of the Chicago Cub baseball movie Pedaling:

I used to live and work on Cornelia street two blocks from Wrigley Field. I rode my bike to work and everywhere else around the neighborhood. There is tremendous congestion around the neighborhood during ball games and walking around drunk, lost fans is extremely annoying. Cars move at a snails pace around the neighborhood so it is easy to weave in and out of traffic if you are on a bike. Several times when I was riding around during the hot summer weekend games, a fan would call out to me and ask if I would help find their car, but I always just smiled and rode on.

   One day a particularly pathetic couple appearing to be suffering from heatstroke made a good case for help. The woman was drunk, but still holding what was left of a frozen margarita and falling over on the heels she wore to the game. The guy was at least 150 pounds overweight and soaked with sweat from head to toe. He offered me $25 to find his car. He was sure it was nearby and described it as a Green SUV with and Eddie Bauer interior. He also knew his license plate number because it was a vanity plate that spelled something like CbzRule.

I agreed to look for it headed off for the car. Twenty minutes later, they pulled up next to me in the Green SUV with Eddie Bauer interior. It turns out the man's brother had already found the car and was driving around Wrigleyville looking for them. He felt so bad, they tracked me down until they found me and demanded that I still take the $25.  

While I was $25 richer, the experience didn't sell me on the job. But it got me to thinking. I was sure that a 16 year old kid could make a good living on game days riding around and finding people's cars. I still think the opportunity to make a buck is out there if you want to give it a shot.

That experience led to the idea that came to be Pedaling. I thought it was even more enterprising if the kid was under 16 so I chose my nephew Josh for the role. For ten hours a day over two days, my nephew Josh rode all around Wrigleyville and let me tape him. We had a lot of fun and for two days he never complained and he did everything I asked. For the interior shots (his "office" - watch it again if you need to remember), I went to his home in Kansas City and spent a few days shooting the rest while visiting my sister. While shooting the scene in the office it became clear that the money used in the seen was more than Josh had ever handled before. So I think that was his favorite part of the shoot.

Everyone else in the movie is a friend or co-worker that helped me out that day. It was a great experience. Drop me a line if you have any questions.