On the last day of the last Cubs home stand of the 1990 season, the manager’s wife decided to skip the game. She’d said good-bye over the weekend to the regulars who sat around her all summer, and to the ushers and other personnel who tended to her during the season.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
As Don Zimmer left on the Cubs’ last 1990 road trip to Pittsburgh, Soot packed their clothes and personal items into the car and drove back to their home near Saint Petersburg, Florida. “Because Don was never stable in one area and we were never situated, we decided to make our home where we wanted,” says Soot. “When Don started in baseball, there was no such thing as a multiyear contract–you could be traded at any time. So we stayed put–where we wanted to live. At one time we were tempted by California–the new frontier–when Don was with the Dodgers. But we knew we could never get the value in a home in California that we have in Florida. Our kids grew up in Florida, and I always stayed behind every spring until school was out. And then I’d join Don where he was.”
They have lived in several cities during the playing season, and this is Zimmer’s third Chicago stay of his career–he was here in the early 60s and mid-80s, and came back in 1988. “I’ve taken people to the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry, and I enjoy walking on the lakefront,” says Soot. “But to me, the best part of the city is the fans. What’s so great is that the fans are with you through thick and thin. The fans support you whether you win the [division] or whether you’re in fourth, fifth, or sixth place. That’s a good fan. The fans here enjoy baseball as a game, as entertainment–which is as it should be.
“Even in baseball, no one knows my name is really Jean Carol unless I write a check or pull out my charge card,” says Soot. “When Don introduces me, people will ask, ‘What did he say?’ And then they’ll call me Sue, or something else. Even if they see it written, they can’t figure out what to call me. My grandmother, who was of German descent, used to call me ‘Sootala’–that was a little pet name that meant ‘sweetie pie’–and my sister shortened it to Soot and told all the kids and teachers at school that was my name. And everyone’s called me that ever since.”
