Constable: 'Goat be with you' designer hoping this is year for sales

Limping along since 1908 without a World Series championship, Chicago Cubs players never have been that marketable. I remember balding third-baseman Steve Ontiveros, who hit .299 in 1977 as replacement for National League batting champ Bill Madlock, starring in a TV commercial for Hair Club for Men. And Cubs legend Ryne Sandberg did commercials on the joys of driving a Chevy and “downloading old pictures” by using RCN, an Internet and phone company.

Today, Cubs slugger Anthony Rizzo will host a news conference to promote

“RizzO's” - his honey nut, toasted oats cereal that comes in a 14-ounce, limited edition collector's box boasting an illustration of Rizzo smacking the ball. A portion of profits from the cereal, available at Jewel-Osco stores and online at plbsports.com and amazon.com, will benefit the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation, which supports research and people with cancer through the rizzo44.com website.

Publicizing his new line of Cubs products isn't nearly as easy for Angelos Theotokatos of Arlington Heights.

“Mine is completely different than anything else on the market,” says Theotokatos, 68, who was born in Gastouni, Greece, grew up in Athens and immigrated to the United States as a teenager in 1966. Using his own design of an eagle with wings that incorporate the flags of Chicago and the United States, Theotokatos partners with a licensed California company to make his Cubs lapel pin, keychain, dog tag and a

combination keyring/bottle opener/nail-clipper, which he sells at his maythegoatbewithyou.com website.

“The force that drives me is that people like them,” says Theotokatos. He says that he empathizes with the Cubs because he knows the struggle of working hard and still falling short of the promised land.

A successful restaurateur who opened Sam's in 1986 in Mount Prospect and Angelos 14 years later in Vernon Hills, Theotokatos now works part time at the Palm Court restaurant in Arlington Heights.

“For the first 10 years, I was there seven days a week,” he says of his restaurant life. “It's a tough way to make a living, but it's very rewarding. You meet a lot of people. It was a good run.”

Theotokatos says he's hoping the Cubs' good run and high expectations for this season might make this the year that his designs finally jump off the shelves.

“The idea for using the eagle as the main character in my designs came to me back in, I can't remember the year, but it was the Olympic Games in Atlanta,” he says, recalling the 1996 Summer Games. Did his artistic and colorful T-shirts make money?

“Not really,” he says. “If you don't have the marketing ability, it's hard to get everybody with it. I just have ideas, but I never give up. Wait until next year. Maybe someday.”

After the deadly attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Theotokatos designed a

clock to mark the date, and partnered with a charity that serves blind people.

“I think that clock belongs in every fire station and every police station in the country,” he says. Instead, he pulls out one of the few from his bedroom closet.

He designed several products when Chicago was bidding to host the

2016 Summer Olympics, but, of course, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, snuffed out those dreams. In 2003, Theotokatos and the Cubs seem poised for some World Series marketing success, but that wasn't meant to be, either.

A soccer player in his homeland and for Bradley University in his youth, Theotokatos never played baseball but has become a Cubs fan. His wife, Roula, and sons, Alex, 26, and George, 22, support his dream.

This year, Theotokatos says he fantasizes that Rizzo, Cubs manager Joe Maddon or team owner Tom Ricketts takes a liking to his products, maybe posts one of his pins on Facebook or Twitter, or even sells them as part of a Cubs fan club package.

Which brings us to another Theotokatos pin, one that features his eagle and the Latin phrase

“Dum Spiro Spero.”

“As long as I breathe, I hope,” Theotokatos translates. “Maybe that pin personifies me because I've been trying with these things for a long time and never make it. The Cubs are like me. We keep on trying.”