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CHICAGO — Of all the dreams answered with this series, perhaps none is sweeter than the one belonging to Cub reserve outfielder Marvell Wynne.
He was a Chicago city high school basketball player in 1979 when he left the playground to attend, on a whim, a Kansas City Royal baseball tryout camp in nearby McKinley Park. He was joined by 200 other hopefuls.
“There was so many people, and nobody knew me, I didn’t think I had a chance,” Wynne said.
Yet he was the only one the Royals signed. Ten years later, after being traded to Chicago this summer from San Diego, he is staying with his mother in his childhood home and living out a fantasy.
“It’s strange, but I’m loving it,” said Wynne, who will be the starter if Jerome Walton’s sore right hamstring gets worse. “I’ve come a long way from the West Side, all because I took a chance. Now I’ve made my ultimate goal, right here at home.
“About the best way to describe it is, a miracle.”
On Sept. 7 in Philadelphia, Wynne’s first hit as a Cub was, well, what else? A home run.
Times columnist Mike Downey contributed to this story.
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