TBOX Opening & Closing Ceremonies & “Wire to Wire”

Wire to Wire, Baby! Perhaps the 4 sweetest words in the English Language, the mantra, the clarion call, the alpha and omega of all things TBOX, this short phrase sums up what the TBOX experience is all about.

Harold, Fred, Tracey, and Sarah at the TBOX2010 Wire Cutting Ceremony

How did it start? Mr. Festa had a friend back in the 90s who was a big Cincinnati Reds fan who always bragged about how the 1990 Reds not only won the World Series but were in first place every day of the season, from Game 1 to 162, and he always used to say, “90 Reds, Wire to Wire, Wire to Wire, Baby!” (Verified here) — annoying, yes, but the phrase stuck in my head. If you’ve read the story of TBOX1, you know that Mr. Festa was ALONE for the first 45 minutes at Bar #1 – because everyone thought 4PM was too early to start! So around TBOX3, 1998, he started pressuring people, “You gotta go wire to wire, baby!”  And at Bar 1 of TBOX3, there were 100 people ready to go, and Mr. Festa never again had to worry about crawling alone. TBOX now starts at 8AM to a Full House!  And yes, it is a fact, that “the herd thins greatly” by closing time, but, you’ll have that. There is no pressure to go Wire to Wire, but we do GREATLY encourage you to FULLY COMMIT for MAXIMUM TBOX PLEASURE!

And starting at TBOX10 in 2005, Fred, said, “Hey, why don’t we actually GIVE people WIRE?!” So I decided to give people GREEN wire at Bar 1 and RED wire for Bar 12… and over the past few years, we’ve handed these out to the crowd. Literal, actual, electrical wire, that we cut from a spool and hand out for you to twist around your badge lanyard and keep as a souvenir, forever.

Opening and Closing Ceremonies

The beginning and end of any TBOX is a momentous occasion that we feel deserves appropriate pageantry and ritual honoring the history and origin of the event, and setting the tone for the day of merriment. To be honest, there wasn’t much formality to the first few TBOX’s… but at TBOX8 in 2003, we got the idea to have a Torch Procession — using Kerosene Tiki Torches — and have whoever  wanted to show up early to march from Mr. Festa’s old apartment in Wrigleyville to Bar #1, while humming the Olympic Theme Song. This tradition carried through TBOX9 and TBOX10, until we finally felt that standing under the El Tracks, and marching down the street with open flames, was something we had outgrown. There were no ceremonies at TBOX11, but at TBOX12 in 2007, they began to enter their full glory, with the presentation of the Royal Court and the Number One for the year onstage at Bar #1 at the Cubby Bear. With all the excitement… and all the cereal… it is something not to be missed. Below are photos from the Opening Ceremonies, 2003-2005…

Starting with TBOX12 in 2007, we began the tradition of having the Royal Court onstage at Cubby Bear, and presenting/initiating that year’s “Number One” by creatively dousing them with massive amounts of cereal. Below are pictures of Goze/Biggins/Bill, Sarah K, Harold, and Tracey K having their moment onstage, along with shots from the Royal Court Procession…

Closing Ceremonies

We’ll just be perfectly honest… for some completely unknown reason, the Closing Ceremonies tend to be a bit less crisp, a tad less sharp, a smidge less energetic than the Opening Ceremonies that precede them 13 hours earlier… Go Figure! But seriously, folks, the Closing Ceremonies are an important part of every TBOX. This is where the act of going WIRE TO WIRE is Officially Consummated, and where TBOX Virgins OFFICIALLY are no longer Virgins.