Thoughts while wondering how I got jetlagged on a north-south trip

Note: I am writing this as I sit down to watch the Cubs and Phillies tonight. I'll interject comments on tonight's game in italics as I go.

First off, congratulations to my friend Robert and his new wife Tara. I spent the weekend in Pittsburgh at their wedding, an affair at which a good time was had by all. Is that really Lenny Harris leading off? One pitch, one out... I guess it is. One damper on the party was (approximately) two-year old Clayton, running around in a Braves jersey. I tried to whisper subliminal messages to get him on the path to a fulfilling lifetime of rooting for the Cubs, but I don't know how well they took. Good to see Choi hammer one in his first PA back with the club, too bad it was right at the center fielder. I suppose wedding talk isn't exactly hitting our target audience though, so I'll move on to the baseball game I managed to get to Friday night- Pirates/Rockies at PNC Park.

I left Atlanta around 6:30 a.m. with five of Robert's high school buddies. The ticket the hillbilly cop gave us in the West Virgina speed trap notwithstanding, we got into Pittsburgh about twelve hours later. My traveling companions dropped me off at PNC and went on to the hotel to check in. Estes just tied Lenny for homers on the year. Let's see if Lenny can answer... well, no, but kudos for drawing a ball before going on to strikeout on four pitches. Despite a fireworks induced sellout (more on that later), the good folks at the ticket window produced a $27 ticket in the tenth row almost directly behind home plate. Why is it I can pull that off at Wrigley and PNC Park, but never at home in Atlanta?

I took my seat just before gametime, and was fortunate enough to meet Rice physics professor Doug and his father Mike who lucked in to good seats at gametime just as I had done. Although they didn't seem to be cut from the sabermetric fold, they did bring up Moneyball of their own accord, so maybe saber-folk are going mainstream after all. Steve Stone just called that WP/PB three seconds before it happened. He is uncanny.

PNC Park is a beautiful facility. There are a very limited number of seats beyond the outfield walls, making the walls appear much closer to the fan than they really are. Behind the wall is the Allegheny River, and behind that is the city skyline. I can report that the footlong hotdog ($5.25) is respectable, although you have to buy water to drink since their beverage contract isn't with Coca-Cola. I can also recommend that you not go to get that hotdog when the Pirates are planning to jar the ball from the catcher's mitt on a play at the plate right in front of your seat.

The Pirates took the lead in the fourth on a homer by ex-Cub Matt Stairs and tacked on three more in the fifth. The bullpen gave back two but got the ball into Mike Williams's hands with the lead at 5-3. Williams retired the side in order, even as I learned that standing up as your closer tries to record the final out of the game just isn't done in Pittsburgh. Ah well...

After a brief setup period, the fireworks show commenced. I can safely say that Skyblast '03 was unlike any other fireworks show I have ever seen. It consisted of comedy sketches on the big screen and live performances on the field, with massive pyrotechnic displays providing the segues from sketch to sketch. Lenny goes down to a five-pitch strikeout. At this rate, he'll be striking out on seven or eight pitches in no time. The sketches starred everyone from manager Lloyd McClendon to Pirates broadcaster Bob Walk (aka Squarebob Walkpants) and were unfailingly funny. There was a dead-perfect sendup of Behind the Music chronicling the long road traveled by Pete the Potato Pierogi, and a touching episode of the power... the passion... of Hannah, Warrior Pierogi Princess. Perhaps my favorite was the episode of the Real World: PNC Park in which ex-Pirate catcher Manny Sanguillen caught Jack Wilson shoving a massive piece of cake in his mouth after dinner was over. "I caught Lou Brock stealing seconds," said the thickly-accented Sanguillen. "You don't think I can catch a little punk like you?" There were about a dozen sketches, all hysterical. I only wish they were available on the Pirates website or somewhere.

Let's go to bullet thoughts for the final few innings here:

• Chip just correctly pointed out that the Phillies seem to have been the beneficiary of a neighborhood call at second on which the neighborhood in question was about the size of the European Union.
• Estes has now made it through six with a 3-2 lead. I don't profess to know exactly why the Cubs starters have seemed to stay in one inning too long, but the perceived problem is certainly on my mind about now.
• Dennis is IM'ing me, livid that Baker didn't have Guthrie warming to start the inning and thus having no option but to leave Estes in against Thome. I wonder if I should bring up Lenny's leadoff performance to distract him.
• Choi looked like he might have been laboring a bit, but he got into second so we'll take it. Need a hit, Ramon...

Well, that's all she wrote. Another day, another one-run Cubs loss. A cynic would point out that Mesa has been significantly tougher against lefties than he has against righties (.529 OPS allowed versus .820 to righties this year, and a .732/.689 reverse split over the last three years.) A cynic might point out that Miller has essentially no platoon split. A cynic might point out that O'Leary has a worse OPS against righties this year than Miller (.592 to .693). A Cubs fan though would just turn the TV off and go to bed, having expected nothing else.
posted by Scott at 10:00 PM : |

 

Deja Vu all over again

OK, this is getting old. For the 3rd consecutive game, the Cubs lost a game in the ninth inning. The game before this little streak the Cubs bullpen blew a lead for Shawn Estes and got beat by 6 runs in extra innings, no easy feat. Carlos was by no means overwhleming yesterday but he did give a gritty performance. He held the Sox when needed, but Alfonseca gave up a 2 run homer in the 8th to tie the game. Juan Cruz and Mike Remlinger combined to give up a run in the ninth. The Sox won 7-6.

Both the Astros and the Cardinals won last evening so the Cubs are officially looking up at first place. They are also only three games above .500. I had hopes that the Cubs would use these games before the All Star break to strecth out their lead. Now, I just hope they are within 5 games at the break and the rest will rejuvenate them. The Cubs need Wood to step up today to end their longest losing streak of the season and also to avoid their first sweep.

Random Thoughts

The Cubs are depressing me, so here are some random thoughts from this weekend so far:

I caught some of National Lampoon's Vacation on Comedy Central yesterday and was quite surprised at one of the cable edits. There is a scene where girls are comparing their experiences with boys. The country girl comments that she has french kissed guys. Clark's daughter replies this is no big deal to which Eddie's kid retorts "well, my daddy says I am the best at it." Comedy Central changed the line to "well, my science teacher says I am the best at it." OK, so some censor decides that insinuating a 14 year old girl is kissing her teacher over her father is better! Personally, I think the line should have stayed as is. I watch the Godfather and don't kill people, I watch Return of the Jedi and don't try to control minds, I watch Superman and don't try to fly, I have seen Field of Dreams and know Joe Jackson was left handed, so I think I can watch a film and not think it is wrong to kiss your daughter. It is a movie for goodness sakes.

Have you ever done the video store tango? Usually at the store people start in the "A" movies and move around. Someone always seems to get there at the same time as me. For the entire length of the store I am constantly going around them, stopping, and then having him go around me and so forth until we reach the "Z"s. I must have said excuse me to one guy 10 times yesterday.

OK, that's enough for now. I will be back tonight or tomorrow after the Cubs salvage a game of this series.

posted by Dennis at 8:36 AM : |

 

Cubs beaten by 9th inning homer for second consecutive day

Antonio Alfonseca was in the game long enough yesterday to serve up an RBI single to Magglio Ordonez in the 8th inning and then a walk-off homer to Jose Valentin in the 9th. Just like last weekend, the Cubs dropped the first game of the crosstown series this time by the score of 4-3. The Cubs were down 3-1 going into the ninth inning before rallying against former Cub Flash Gordon and Sox closer Billy Koch. They loaded the bases with no outs on two softly hit singles by Grudz and Goodwin and a walk by Alex. Koch then came in to strike out Patterson, induce a sac fly from Sosa, and allow a clutch two out hit from Moises to plate the tieing run.

The momentum would not last as Alfonseca put a slider on the outer portion of the plate when Bako wanted it inside and Valentin deposited it into the stands. Thankfully, the Sox announcers had this game for Fox Sports so I have Hawk Harrelson's "you can put it the boarddddddd yes!!" in my head until today's game. Great.

Sosa had some big strikeouts again yesterday and he and Moises combined to strand a ton of runners (see the NOTD). I think Sosa is seeing the ball fine, but wanting to do to much to them. I will love to see 390 foot homers to right center once every 10 ABs compared to a 500 homer to left center once every 25 ABs. All was not negative in the game though, Grudz got 4 hits in the leadoff spot and is flirting with .300 again, Patterson actually walked twice (once intentionally), and Clemet pitched a heck of a game. He only allowed 5 hits in 7.2 innings. That bodes well for the future.

The Cubs are playing pretty brutal baseball at the moment, but no one wants to come and take first place from them. They are still tied with the Cardinals and a half game up on the Astros. It leads to very conflicted feelings. I realize that this team is probably no better than an 87 win team, if that, and would hate to see them make a hasty move for a chance to win 90 games when that usually does not win the division. But this season, 90 wins could very well win the division given the competition. One more offensive player and Dusty playing the right guys could get us the promised land. One thing is for sure, we need to win games where Estes and Clement pitch well like the last two.

The Cubs and Sox will play game 2 this afternoon. It will be a rematch of last Sunday's awesome pitching duel between Carlos Zambrano and Bartolo Colon. Again, the Cubs need Carlos to be the stopper to a losing streak. I am confident he can do it.

posted by Dennis at 8:52 AM : |

 

Jenkins boom booms Borowski

Geoff Jenkins hit a three run homer in the ninth inning off closer Joe Borowski to give the Brewers a 5-3 gut punching win Thursday afternoon at Wrigley. The blown save took away Mark Prior's victory. Minus a homerun pitch to mighty Keith Ginter, Prior was dominant. He struck out 16 men over 8 innings and walked nobody. He did use 126 pitches to get through those 8 innings, so Dusty really had no choice but to bring in Joe in the ninth.

Joe was annoited closer out of spring training because the octopus was on the DL with a strained tenticle. Joe has pitched nothing short of fantastic, but now I wonder if Dusty will be tempted to go back to Alfonseca. If I were the manager, which I am not, I would leave Joe out there. He walks less (2.84 versus 3.03 BB/9), strikes out more (9.47 versus 5.74 K/9) and better command (3.33 versus 1.89 K/BB ratio)- what else is there? Besides, Dusty's perceived biggest asset as a manager is the personal side. How would Joe feel if he got demoted after one bad outing?

Yesterday's loss ended a short 6 game home stand in which the Cubs went 2-4. The Cubs are barely a .500 team at The (not so) Friendly Confines this season going 20-19. Compare that to St. Louis (25-15) and Houston (23-14) and you can see where the team needs improvement. Thankfully though, they are a very good road team and the only team in the division over .500 on the road.

Baker trotted out Lenny Harris to pinch hit in the ninth inning again yesterday. I guess he figured having three outs was a little unfair against the commissioner's team. All joking aside, Harris is just plain and simply killing this team. His BA/OBP/SLG is .175/.243/.227. He has fewer extra base hits (3) than Prior and Zambrano (4). I just wonder how low the batting average has to get before he is released. Playing talent in baseball is distributed somewhat like a half normal distribution - imagine the right side of the bell curve. There are not an equal number of players 2 standard deviations from the mean in both directions. Rather, there is a large mass of people near the average and the extremes are on the positive side. Bonds will get on base 50% of the time, but GMs would likely not keep a player who only reaches base 15% of the time (in theory). Harris is single handedly trying to be a negative outlier. Good for him!

The Cubs move on to US Cellular Field to face the White Sox today. Speaking of the field, I think AT&T should have bought the naming rights because fans like to "reach out and touch someone" - usually a coach or umpire. Matt Clement takes on Dan Wright in the opener. Clement got roughed up pretty bad in his last start against the Pale Hose. Today, the Cubs need a big start from him to get the road trip off to a good start.

I added some new Cubs Blogs on the left hand side of the page. Take some time and visit Weeghman Park, And Another Thing!, and The Waveland Chronicles. You will not be disappointed.

posted by Dennis at 8:05 AM : |

 

Cubs request a mulligan

Yesterday was one of the ugliest bullpen days of the season as the Cubs dropped a game 12-6 in 10 innings. The Cubs took a 5-1 lead behind the strong pitching of Shawn Estes. Estes went 6 innings allowing only the one earned run walking 4 and striking out 6. He left the game only to have Remlinger and Alfonseca give up 5 runs to vault the Brewers into the lead. Lenny Harris came up in the 8th and made an out, but at least it was deep enough to score the tying run. I always say you have put people in a position where they can succeed. Giving Lenny Harris a chance to be productive while making an out is a good example.

The Cubs had a golden opportunity in the 9th inning to win the game. Corey Patterson flew out with runners on 1st and 2nd and then Sammy Sosa had one of his worst ABs I can remember in recent memory. He tried to jerk two sliders about 500 feet. Problem is that they wound up on the outside corner. Sad part is that he is excellent at driving the ball the other way, but he decided to try and pull these. Oh well, it is just one AB and hopefully not a trend.

Suffice to say that Wellemeyer will not remember this 10th inning with the fondness of his first outing against the Brewers. He allowed six runs in the 10th to take the loss. He also allowed 6 runs in his last outing against the White Sox. Another distrubing potential trend is that the Cubs AAA starters are having little success in the bullpen. Little success might be unfair so lets change that to a problem being consistent. Cruz and Wellemeyer are both guilty of this.

With the shuffling of the starting pitchers, Mark Prior will take the mound this afternoon against Wayne Franklin. The Cubs are looking for a series victory to take into the cross town challenge series part 2. The Cubs are also guanteed to be in first place when they see the Sox because the Astros lost last night and remain a game behind.

Random notes

King Kaufman, a senior sports editor for Salon.com, wrote me last evening to tell me about his newest metric - the Neifi Index. Take a team's winning percentage without a player in the lineup and subtract from it their winning percentage with the player in the lineup. If this number is big, then the team fares a whole lot better without player X in the lineup. The NL leader at the moment is our very own Lenny Harris. Through Tuesday's games, the Cubs are 18-3 without Lenny in the lineup and 23-31 when he plays. He has nearly a 100 point lead on his nearest competitor.

I see Dr. Tightpants got a 3 game suspension for his tackle of Paul Wilson. Wilson only got 5 games although the game's only hit batter came from his hands. Farnsworth is quoted as saying he will not appeal, but I think he should. He would probably get the standard one game deduction which would obviously help the Cubs. Personally, I think this result is garbage. What was the good doctor supposed to do? He made a pitch that was closer to being a strike than striking Wilson, then defended himself once Wilson charged. Given this precedence, I would have the Cubs charge at Billy Wagner the next time he even gets one close. Might as well get him suspended as well.

There has always been debate on whether people are born bad or simply become bad due to environment and other factors. Can this debate be applied to sarcastic bloggers? Talking to my dad yesterday afternoon he wondered if the Cubs would warm a bullpen pitcher up before the game since Estes was pitching. See, my biting comments on Harris and Goodwin are merely a function of genetics. OK, maybe not, but Dad got off a good line and I am always looking for material.

posted by Dennis at 7:58 AM : |

 

Cubs offense explodes versus Brewers

Now that's more like it.

Last known image of Sammy Sosa's fifth inning homer. Ball is in foreground, lower left.

The Cubs showed no mercy at Wrigley today, hammering the AAA Brewers 9-1. One Sammy Sosa was the ringleader, releasing two months of frustration into a Luis Vizcaino pitch that still hasnt come down, and chipping in a 420 foot homer, a scorched double, and a four pitch walk in his three weaker at-bats. Kerry Wood was effective again, striking out eight and walking just one while getting into the offensive act with his second homer of the year. The Wood homer was followed by circuit clouts from Grudz and Gonzalez for the ninth back-to-back-to-back jacks in team history.

Shawn Estes tries to right his ship tomorrow against Olympic hero Ben Sheets. While I would like to see the Cubs take our friend Jason Steffens' suggestion and replace Estes with Juan Cruz, I certainly want Estes to turn it around if and when he is in there. I am sure Sammy's got a three-homer game he can bust out to make it a little easier on him.

Last but not least, HP5 is the best of the bunch. I was a little worried about the three year layoff, but like Sammy J. K. Rowling came back with a vengance. I don't want to discuss any spoilers here, but I heartily reccomend it to anyone who is able to set aside their prejudice and leap into a so-called children's book.

posted by Scott at 11:56 PM : |

 

Cubs offense looks to explode versus Brewers

The Cubs welcome the Brewers into town this evening to start a 3 game series. The last time these teams played the Cubs swept the Brewers in Milwaukee to begin their monster 14 game in 14 days road trip (1 game eventually being washed away). Kerry Wood (6-5 3.06) takes on former Cub Ruben Quevedo (1-3 5.75). Wood is coming off his best start of the season. Against Cincinnati last Wednesday night he carried a perfect game into the sixth inning before eventually pitching a complete game and winning 4-1. He did not walk a man and struck out nine.

The Cubs are going to use the off day to flop their rotation again. Shawn Estes will pitch the second game of the series and Mark Prior gets moved to the finale. Basically, the Cubs are scared of having bullpen busters Estes and Clement pitch back to back. Hopefully Estes and Clement will find their form again, but if not, I don't have a problem with this move.

My favorite writer Mike Kiley has some interesting things to say in his column this morning. Talking about how the Cubs have never been a good offense since 1945 he states

If you want someone to blame, point a finger at Wrigley Field. It's not a hitter's park and never has been. Houston and Cincinnati have new ballparks that are built for offense. St.Louis and its humid summers are made for the ball to jump off the bat at Busch Stadium. Milwaukee can shut its roof and control its hitting conditions.

A quick glance at Baseball Reference's Cubs team page shows a lot of offensive park factors over 100 which means that Wrigley has on some occasions been a good place to hit compared to other parks in the league. Before the quoted paragraph above Kiley uses batting average to make his claim that the Cubs have never hit well as a team. He either does not know better or is simply forgetting that the '84 and '89 teams lead the league in runs which, of course, is more important than batting average.

He ends his piece with this quote:

Would Cubs fans rather have a monument to admire or a park that can compete in runs scored with Minute Maid Park in Houston and Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati? Would Cubs fans rather have a lovely beer garden or a championship?

Let me get this straight, first he makes the erroneous claim that Wrigley has never been a good hitter's park followed by the claim that the Cubs have never had a good offense since 1945 even though they have led the league in runs scored twice in the last 14 seasons and uses those two fractured facts to jump to a point where the Cubs need a new ballpark to compete. Man, those Sun-Times boys will stop at nothing, especially facts, to get a pot shot in at the Tribune Company. Plenty of teams have won in pitching dominated ballparks by using it to their advantage. The Dodgers are the first example that comes to mind. The key is figuring out what type of park you have relative to the league and building your team to it, not building your team and then deciding what sort of ballpark you need.

[Update] It appears that Jason Steffens over at the Clark and Addison Chronicle and I are sharing a brain this morning. That shows that we are either both really smart or debunking a Mike Kiley article is like shooting fish in a bucket. Probably a little from column A and a little from column B. On a somewhat related note, I would like to wish Jason and his wife a happy anniversary. 3 years with a Cubs fan?!?! The girl deserves a medal and a support group. Hope you have a good day.

Milestone for Barry

Barry Bonds became the first member of the career 500-500 club last evening with an 11th inning swipe against Eric Gagne. He becomes the 36th person in big league history to swipe 500 bases. It was also his 7th steal of the season already. Last season was the first time in 17 big league seasons that he did not have a 10/10 season as he finished the year with 9 swipes. Man, those are some mind boggling facts.



posted by Dennis at 8:12 AM : |

 

June Swoon?

The Cubs are used to a June swoon most seasons, but in 2003 they have played .500 ball in ths month thus far at 10-10. What is cause for concern has been the swoon in the offense over the month. Here is a list of players and their June OPS (greater than 10 ABs):

• Patterson - .779
  
• Alou - .852
  
• A-Gonz - .713
  
• Grudz - .639
  
• Karros - .872
  
• Martinez - .788
  
• Sosa - .810
  
• Miller - .661
  
• Goodwin - .699
  
• Harris - .274 (and no that is not a misprint....see for yourself)
  
• Bako - .427
  
• Choi - .845
  
• Bellhorn - .528
  
• O'Leary- .771
  

The league average for OPS is usually around .750, so the Cubs have about 7 of 14 players with an above average OPS. Does not sound too shabby, but consider this, the player's who routinely bat leadoff are two of the players (Grudz and Goodwin) who are below the league average. The most important thing an offense can do is get its leadoff man on base. The Cubs have not done that in June which goes a long way to explain the meager 3.7 runs/game output.

The Cubs team OPS in June is .707. It was also .707 in May but a much better .762 in April. It is no coincidence that the Cubs downward trend in offensive production follows a downward trend in walks. The Cubs received 3.96 walks/game in April. It dipped to 3.0 for May and stands at 2.1 for June. Patterson and Soriano can survive as hackers because they hit the ball hard, but they are exceptions to the rule. This team could use an infusion of patience.

I realize that looking only at a limited subset of a season opens the door to all sorts of sample size issues and skewing of the data. So, I looked at the pitching staffs the Cubs have faced this month. They played Houston for one game and they are 9th in the majors in runs allowed. They also had 3 against the Rays (25th), Yankees (7th), Orioles (20th), Blue Jays (23rd), and White Sox (13th) with a four game series against the Reds (29th). Taking the weighted average of the team ranks in runs allowed (weighted by games against) the Cubs faced about the 19.5th best staff in the big leagues this month. That position has given up 369 runs this season or 4.99 runs/game in 74 games. Remember from above, the Cubs have scored 3.7 runs/game this month. In a nutshell, the Cubs June offensive swoon cannot be blamed on the competition.

The good news is that they have actually split their games during this horrendous drought. It may be that the Cubs were lucky to get that split, but those games can never be taken away. The Cubs have yet to get really, really hot. This is a team that with some decent offense could easily pop off a 12 of 15 game stretch given their pitching. With the other teams in the Central struggling, here is to hoping it happens soon.

posted by Dennis at 1:21 PM : |

 

Cubs salvage one

If you like pitching duels, the Cubs are your kind of team. Carlos Zambrano turned in yet another gem, this his fifth start in the last eight of at least seven innings and one or zero runs allowed. The White Sox pushed one across against him on a double, ground out, and a sac fly, and for a few nauseating minutes it looked like it might hold up. Damaso Marte came on for Colon in the eighth though, and after getting O'Leary he gave up consecutive hits to Grudz, Martinez, and Patterson to earn the Cubs the lead. JoBo mowed down three Sox hitters in the ninth and some small scrap of diginity was regained on the Northside.

Lenny Harris got the start at third today with Jose Hernandez coming on as a ninth-inning defensive replacement. I have no idea what to say about that, so I'll just say that Bellhorn was 0-2 with a walk for the Rockies today, dropping his OBP since the trade to .583. In other news, we have a share of first again pending the outcome of tonight's Astros/Rangers game. We'll have the day off tomorrow before welcoming the American League reject Brewers to Wrigley on Tuesday.

posted by Scott at 7:30 PM : |

 

Sometimes Chicken Little is right

I don't mean to be overly pessimistic, but today's fall from first is putting me in a lousy frame of mind. The Cubs are finding ways to lose, falling 7-6 after fighting back from an early 7-0 deficit. Matt Clement walked three and saw eleven White Sox hits fall in, but when the bullpen came on (an inning too late don't you know) they were strong and allowed the bats to make it close.

It was another brilliant day on the bases for the Cubs. Wendell Kim got Damian Miller thrown out at home in the seventh trailling by four. I mean come on. My lousy company softball team knows better than to send runners when you are down four late. Then, in what I think is an even worse decision, Dusty yanked Sammy Soas in the ninth for pinch-runner Tom Goodwin. Of course, the chance of that slot in the order coming up again was promptly removed when Goodwin was gunned down at second to end the Cubs hopes. As I have said before, this is not a team with enough talent to make a lot of dumb decisions and still contend. Sigh. Clark & Addision has more detailed coverage of the Kim fiasco.

One of the most underrated starters in baseball takes on one of the most overrated as Carlos Zambrano takes on Bartolo Colon today in the final game of the series. If past history is any indication, he'll pitch seven great innings and the team will make Colon look like Walter Johnson and we'll lose 2-1.

posted by Scott at 11:43 AM : |

 

Crime wave

Attention citizens! Crimes are being committed all across our fair land, and the suspects remain on the loose. Be on the lookout for the following:

Wanted for assault and battery: The Chicago White Sox
Dusty has had a habit of letting his starter go one inning too long and today that inning was the first. Shawn Estes walked four and gave up a grand slam to Miguel Olivo in a back-breaking first inning. Todd Wellemeyer was placed in the unenviable role of second inning relief pitcher and gave up six more over the next four innings. Dusty made sure to get Farnsworth, Guthrie, Remlinger, and Borowski an inning each to make sure we don't have anyone, you know, fresh or anything for tomorrow's game.

Wanted for larceny: Rockies GM Dan O'Dowd
How do you turn your mediocre starting shortstop into a younger, cheaper, better infielder? Just sit around waiting for the Cubs to come begging you to take advantage of them. Actually, this may be one case where the "she was asking for it" defense may work. If you were curious, Mark Bellhorn was 2-3 with a walk today while Jose was 0-2 with a strikeout. The sample size is admittedly a bit small, but its enough to convince me. Guilty!

Wanted for vandalism and car theft:John Doe
I don't know who you are, John, but this is really getting out of hand. I mean, the Caddy I watched you and your buddy break into outside my window the other day at 6 a.m. was one thing. The six cars you broke windows of and stole stereos from until I chased you off at 4:30 a.m. Thursday was something else. But breaking into two cars right outside my window at 11 p.m. on a Friday night is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE. As its been an hour since I called the cops and a half hour since I called them again and they still haven't showed, you may think you have nothing to fear- but not so fast, my friend. If I catch you I will beat you down and hand you to the cops myself or die trying. Try me.

posted by Scott at 12:25 AM : |

 

Everything old is new again

Travis Anderson
Team	IP	ERA	K/9	BB/9	HR/9
Daytona 03	22.2	0.00	9.0	0.4	0.0
West Tenn '03	35.0	4.37	6.4	3.3	0.77

As you probably know, the Cubs picked up Jose Hernandez from the Rockies today in exchange for Mark Bellhorn and AA pitcher Travis Anderson. Anderson is one of the guys we picked up when we dumped Tom Gordon on the Astros a couple years back. He's a 25-year old AA righty and not all that highly thought of, so I'll assume his value is minimal. For simplicity, I am also going to ignore Lenny Harris and Ramon Martinez and instead concentrate on the head-to-head comparison between Hernandez and Bellhorn.

Name	Age	OBP	SLG	EQA
Hernandez '00-'02	--	.324	.434	.254
Hernandez '03	33	.308	.362	.221
Bellhorn '00-'02	--	.350	.466	.287
Bellhorn '03	28	.341	.317	.244

Third base has been a mess for the first three months of this season. Mark Bellhorn has gotten a little more than half the starts at third, but despite a decent OBP hasn't shown the power that made him one of the better infielders in the league last year. Meanwhile, Jose Hernandez has been a disappointment in Colorado as well. After a career year in Milwaukee last year, his raw numbers have gone way down this year despite playing in the hitters' haven of Coors Field. In fact, the numbers show that despite Bellhorn's mediocre performance this year, Hernandez has been even worse.

So let's see- we have one guy who is 28 and one who is 33- advantage Bellhorn. We have one guy who hit better over the recent years, and one who hit worse- advantage Bellhorn. We have one guy with a mediocre offensive record this year, and one with an even worse record this year- advantage Bellhorn. We have one guy who has played third base in 2001, 2002, and this year, and one who hasn't played a game at third since 2000- advantage Bellhorn. We have a guy who is making $400,000 and one who is signed up for $1,000,000- advantage Bellhorn.

I really don't see a reason on paper for the Cubs to prefer Hernandez to Bellhorn. There has been talk that Bellhorn is not mentally on the same page with Dusty and the Cubs- bad attitude, uncoachable, things like that. I am generally suspicious of such talk, but obviously I have no way to say that it is or isn't true. Based on what I know though, there is no way this is a good move. Hernandez was admittedly a very good player last year, but the odds are fairly strong that he will play more like the Jose Hernandez of 2000, 2001, and 2003 than the Jose Hernandez of 2002. In short, this move is not going to help the Cubs.

posted by Scott at 2:08 PM : |

 

Blood, rain and tears

The Cubs ended their 10 game road trip 5-5 after splitting a 4 game set with Cincinnati. The sad part of the Reds series is that the Cubs with any sort of offense would have taken all 4 games. Yes, the optimist says that they split on the road which is very good. The pessimist states that the Cubs only scored 10 runs in Coors Field East and wasted two good pitching performances. Now, like a man whose bi-polar prescription needs filling I fluctuate from optimist to pessimst about 20 times a day when thinking about this team. I am not sure if the glass is half full or half empty I just feel that having half a good team will not be enough. Despite losing winnable games, the Cubs open their interleague series against the Sox in first place a game up on the Cardinals with the Astros and Reds still within splitting distance. Shawn Estes pitches against Jon Garland.

Obvioulsy the story of yesterday's game was the brawl between Wilson and Dr. Tightpants. The sad part is that I missed the beginning of it. I was down the third base line and had a hard time telling whether pitches were inside or outside. The pitch whizzed by Wilson's head and the runner took second on the wild picth. I am watching the runner as he rounds second and all of the sudden he darts toward what I think is third. I look back toward the catcher to see where the ball is just in time to see Wilson indented into the sod at the GAB. It turns out the runner was coming in to join the fight.

The funniest thing about brawls are when the bullpen guys come in to join the fun. All of the Cubs players left their gloves on the field as they got into the scrum, but in the outfield was also the warm up jackets for two or three Cincinnati relievers. Not only did they rush in to just stand there, but they disrobed on the way. They were about half way back to the pen with Russel Branyan started jawing with Karros almost starting another fight. Upon hearing a new excitement in the crowd they turned around and started jogging back. The best side story of the brawl was Alou's efforts to get to Wilson. Mo was the one that Wilson hit in retaliation to Prior throwing behind LaRue. Red third base coach Tim Foli spent the entire brawl holding back Moises. I was hoping someone would come and set a pick, but it never happened.

I have seen the tape of the fight and will be disappointed if Farnsworth gets a stiff penalty from MLB offices. He was not throwing at Wilson. What is the first thing they always tell pitchers to do when they know a guy is bunting? That's right, throw the ball up so they can induce a pop up. Wilson was even leaning over the plate and it missed him by 6-8 inches. Besides, why would you want to put men on 1st and 2nd with no outs in the 7th inning of a game you are losing?

Bob Boone was convinced that it was intentional. He also tried to double steal with his pitcher and catcher earlier in the season, so maybe his thinking is skewed. Boone was also quoted as saying that something was "up" because Prior threw behind LaRue and he has good control. Well, of course something was up, it was a get off the plate pitch. With his control, if we wanted to hit him he would have. There is nothing in the rules about sending message pitches. There is something about intentionally throwing at someone and the only person who did that was Wilson. If I were MLB, I would not suspend anyone but make Wilson wear his bloody jersey as a badge of stupidity the next time he pitches.

The fight was the big story, but it is not the thing I will remember from the game. I will remember the putrid Cubs offense. The Cubs were able to get the bases loaded in the 9th with 1 out and only put one decent swing on the ball. Dusty decided that Lenny Harris and Troy O'Leary were better options that Bellhorn or Miller. I watched the replay of the game and O'Leary's check swing looked like a ball on the television. To be fair though, I was sitting with the exact same angle the umpire had and I got up and started walking out before the appeal even happened. Karros (who had a great 9th inning PA) and Harris got hosed on some check swings but O'Leary swung.

Let's play the Pyramid

One of my favorite game shows of all times is the old $100,000 Pyramid. In honor of this great show, I decided we should play a little round of the bonus game. Lets see how sharp The Northside Lounge readers are on this Friday morning. Here is how the game works: the giver (me) will give a list of items and the receiver has to guess what they all have in common. For example, if I said banana, apple, orange, the correct answer would be "types of fruit". Get it. You will have highlight the blank text at the bottom to get the answers. Let's begin...

1. • "My son should have been given a hit"
     
   • "My 250 lb pitcher can steal a base"
     
   • "Let's go ahead and try that squeeze play"
     
   
   
2. • Paul Wilson
     
   • Europe in the late 70s
     
   • Ashton Kutcher's friends
     
   
   
3. • 3 to the question 1+1
     
   • Jose Hernandez to the Cubs offensive woes
     
   • Allen Iverson's backup
     
   
   
4. • An air conditioner to an Eskimo
     
   • A bat in Tom Goodwin's hands
     
   • Fake Diamonds
     
   
   
5. • White Sox fans
     
   • Jan Brady
     
   • Every man that sees me walking down the street
     
   
   
6. • Astros
     
   • Cardinals
     
   • Baby deer in the forrest poker game holding a pair of 4s
     
   
   

And the answers are:

1. Things Bob Boone would say
   
2. Things that got Punk'd
   
3. Things that are not the answer
   
4. Things that have no value
   
5. People stricken with envy
   
6. Things hoping the Cubs will fold
   

Hope you enjoyed the Pyramid. We will be back later with a recap of Cubs/Sox game 1.
posted by Dennis at 8:14 AM : |

 

Thursday afternoon fights

The Cubs trail the Reds 3-1 in the seventh inning this afternoon in Cincinnati. The third Reds run scored after Kyle Farnsworth was booted from the game for A) throwing a pitch that missed Paul Wilson by six inches despite Wilson's leaning in to try to bunt it or B) being attacked by Paul Wilson immediately after the pitch or C) defending himself a little too well. Its probably "C" as Wilson found himself on the receiving end of what I believe is the WWE move known as the "Spear," followed by enough haymakers to turn Wilson into a bloody mess of a fight instigator. I'll be back with a recap when this one ends. Here's hoping my fully Cub-clad tag-team partner makes it out of the Great American Brawlpark alive.

Updated 3:30 pm- The Cubs spilt the series with Cincinnati, losing today 3-1. They loaded the bases in the ninth, but Lenny Harris and Troy O'Leary came up empty in two chances to tie it up with a single. Scott Williamson was bailed out by two horrible calls on checked-swing strikes in the ninth, but when O'Leary and Harris are the best pinch-hitters you can come up with maybe you don't deserve to win.

Mark Prior pitched his typical strong game, allowing an unearned run in the third and a second run on a groundout in the fourth. The lone Cubs run came when Patterson, Sosa, and Alou strung three singles together in the third. We've got Sosa back in the lineup, but we are at least two hitters away from a lineup I'll feel comfortable with (that is to say Choi and Trade Acquisition #1).

The Cubs weren't the only team getting the short end of the arbitrators' sticks today, as the US soccer team fell victim to a hostile French crowd and a hostile Uruguyan referee. The US took the lead on a pass from Landon Donovan marvelously headed home by DaMarcus Beasely, but a dubious penalty kick was awarded just three minutes later to allow the Turks to equalize. The Turkish fans, who jeered through the Star-Spangled Banner, were sent home happy with a late defensive breakdown allowing Tuncay Sanli to beat Tim Howard for the winner. The US is now faced with the prospect of having to get at least a point if not all three off of the World Cup champs to have even a chance to advance.

Nothing like two bitter defeats to really make a great Thursday afternoon, huh? Anyway, if Dennis survived the afternoon at the game, he'll be in to tell you all about it.

posted by Scott at 3:01 PM : |

 

Sammy returns but Wood steals show

During my lifetime I have been lucky enough to see some memorable/historic moments at the ballpark. I was there for McGwire's 70th homer in 1998, Dawson's 399th in 1992 (also got my one and only foul ball at this game), the last opening day in Riverfront/Cinery Field history, an actual Todd Hundley homer in a Cubs uniform, and just this season Sammy's 500th homer (if any Northside Lounge readers have been to historic games, tell your story in the comment section). I have never even gotten close to seeing a no-hitter yet alone a perfect game. That almost changed last inning. The first five innings were quadruple goose eggers (0 R 0 H 0 E 0 LOB). He retired the first 17 batters before leaving a curve ball up to Reggie Taylor who singled cleanly into center field. The only run scored in the seventh on a Carlos Guillen homer to right field.

It was amazing to watch Wood cut up the Reds with a glove popping fastball and a knee-buckling curve. He did not walk a batter and only reached 3 balls on a few. He was also very economical needing only 108 pitches to complete the game. We were down the first base line last night, so I could tell the speed of the pitches but not the actual movement at times. My wife was also struggling to determine pitches and asked me "how can you tell when it is a curve ball". Carlos Guillen struck out on the next pitch which prompted my reply, "when you see a right hander's butt bail toward the dugout, swing weakly and look silly, that is the curveball."

The other big story last night was Sammy Sosa returning from his corking suspension. He was loudly booed by the Cincinnati pot fans right after they proclaimed Pete Rose a Hall of Famer and called the kettle black. Sosa responded by almost hitting one into the river. He dented the batting eye structure 464 feet away from home plate. It was an absolute no doubter. Also, the homer was to center field. Sammy is his best when he drives the ball to right and right center field. I thought he was pulling off the ball a little when he returned earlier. Glad to see him locked in at the present time.

Again, here are some random thoughts from the ballpark:

• The Reds don't bring a team representative to catch the ceremonial first pitch. They have the pitcher and then state who will be catching the ball. You mean to tell me that Pena has something to do?
  
• I was real happy to see Bellhorn get another start and ring a double. Hopefully he is starting to gain the confidence of Baker. If not, Texas needs pitching and they have some extra young third sackers. Wouldn't it be great to get both Prior and Teixera. A guy can dream right?
  
• The Reds PA announcer urged fans to get out and stuff the ballot box for Reds. I think this is somewhat shady. Shouldn't you vote for the best players regardless of team.
  
• I was real worried we were going to run ourselves out of the game early, but thankfully we got just enough offense.
  
• Wood retired the side in order in 7 of 9 innings
  

I am actually pretty busy this morning, so this is an abbreviated update. I will be back tomorrow with more. The Cubs play an early game as Mark Prior looks to close out the series victory again Paul Wilson.

posted by Dennis at 8:59 AM : |

 

Five-year reunion

He's back and he's pissed.

The Cubs are in contention. They are getting dominating pitching from Kerry Wood backed up by mammoth home runs from Sammy Sosa. Its like there is a glitch in the matrix or something.

Kerry was perfect through five and two-thirds and ended up striking out nine and walking none in his best start of the year. Better yet, he went all the way on just 108 pitches showing the economy he's been needing. In the "As the Lineup Card Turns" saga, Dusty stuck with Goodwin at leadoff but also stuck with Mark Bellhorn at third. Bellhorn was 1-3 with a double and a walk, lending some faint hope that he might continue to get opportunities.

Anyway, Dennis will be in tomorrow morning with another commentary on the rampant pituatary disorders among the Ohio populace. In the meantime, tide yourself over by skimming over my lengthy but heartfelt USA soccer Confederation's Cup preview. Then roll your eyes at me and *boom*- back to baseball!

posted by Scott at 11:17 PM : |

 

A sport other than baseball

Tomorrow afternoon as the Cubs tangle with the Reds, the US Men's National soccer team takes the field in the Confederations Cup. Unless you are a dedicated soccer fan, you probably haven't heard of it, but the Confederations Cup is the biggest tournament other than the World Cup that features full top teams from all over the globe. In order to maintain the status of the Northside Lounge as the unquestioned leader in soccer coverage among Cubs blogs, I present you with a brief tournament primer.

The good guys
Coach Bruce Arena has selected a largely domestic team for the Confederations Cup. With Brad Friedel and Kasey Keller unavailable for the tournament, Tim Howard of the NY/NJ MetroStars is expected to be the main keeper for the US squad. It will be an interesting test for a man who has had success in MLS but who has had to wait behind Keller and Friedel for a chance in a major competition. Defensive rock Eddie Pope is out with a fractured knee, so look for rising star Carlos Bocanegra and the perennially underappreciated Gregg Berhalter to anchor the defense in front of Howard. Either that, or they are just my favorites.

Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley (the Corey Patterson and Hee Sop Choi of the US team) will be counted on to provide much of the offensive thrust. The two phenoms from last year's World Cup have reached legal drinking age and should see plenty of playing time. Conyers, Georgia's own Clint Mathis is a bit of a wild card- while he can be brilliant he also has a habit of disappearing for long stretches. I'll stick by him though, and predict at least one highlight reel goal for him. The reliable veteran Ernie Stewart is on the roster- it would be great to see him bag a goal in one of his last shots at the world stage.

The enemies
Game one: US vs Turkey, 6/19- The Turks are one of the hottest teams in the world. They made an amazing charge through the World Cup and in the end only the Brazilians were able to stand between them and the final. They have talented players able to push forward and threaten from anywhere on the field. Two of their premier players, Hakan Sukur and Ilhan Mansiz have struggled a bit over the last year, but Turkey has more than enough firepower to contend with anyone even without those two.

Game two: US vs Brazil, 6/21- Fresh off an opener with one of the world's hottest teams the US has to deal with none other than Brazil, land of Garrincha, Pele, and Ronaldo, and owners of five World Cup trophies. Now you begin to see why even first round elimination might not mean the US played poorly this tournament. Ronaldo is too busy getting divorced (lesson: women ruin everything) to be at the tournament, but look for Ronaldinho to pick up the slack both in the attack and in shear buck-toothedness. Emerson will be the key player in the Brazilian midfield, and Lucio is as dangerous a scoring threat as any defender in the world.

Game three: US vs Cameroon, 6/23- The African champions are an individualistic, counter-attacking team not un-like the US on one of our more aggressive days. The so-called Indomitable Lions will return six starters from last year's World Cup squad including the captain Rigobert Song. Expect an especially hostile reception for the US team in this one, as most of the Cameroon squad plays professionally in France. Unless one of these two teams can pull off an upset, this may end up a consolation game while Turkey and Brazil duel for the top spot in the group.

The revolution will not be televised
So you are all fired up to watch some soccer action right? Well, hold your horses. None of the US games will be available on English language TV, and only Saturday's match with Brazil will be live (on Spanish-language Telefutura.) If you happen to have Telefutura, I promise a couple hours out of your Saturday afternoon will be well worth your time even if you don't speak the language. If not, check around on the web and see how your country's team is doing. If all else fails, I'll probably find time to mention the scores here. In the meantime, give 'em hell USA!

posted by Scott at 7:07 PM : |

 

Goodwin leadoffs, hits for out cycle, Cubs produce no offense

Tom Goodwin came to bat in the 7th inning of a 1-1 tie with a runner on second base and only one out. To that point, he had popped out, grounded out and flew out. I commented that he only needed a strikeout and a lineout to complete the cycle. Feeling the telepathic gauntlet being thrown down, Goodwin struck out in the 7th. He then lined out in the 9th to complete the feat. Thankfully for the Reds the lineout in the 9th was the start of an inning ending double play. 5 ABs for Goowin accounted for six outs. He now features a .238 OBP and fewer extra base hits than Carlos Zambrano. Although numbers themselves are black and white, the interpretation of numbers is subjective. Just in case I thought I was looking at the wrong set of numbers to judge Goodwin consider this - Cincinnati manager Bob Boone walked a .178 pinch hitter in the ninth to get to Goodwin. If Boone can figure out Goodwin stinks, shouldn't Baker.

Zambrano was out of this world again last night. He started off wild walking 3 in the first two innings, but he recovered to walk only one (intentional) in the reamining 6 innings of work. He allowed only 4 hits and struck out seven men. One perceived negative attribute to Carlos is his ability to control his emotions. Last night in the 8th he had the chance to self destruct after umpire Joe West called a phantom hit by pitch. I have not seen the television replay yet, but the ball did not change direction, made no sound as it passed the batter, and still had enough steam to hit the backstop and come darting back toward the plate. If that ball hit him, I am Mr. America. Last night was the second time Zambrano has went 8 innings while giving up less two runs only to be saddled with a no decision.

Here are some other thoughts from the game 2 loss:

• My wife mentioned that Lenny Harris probably has a dreadlock for every career pinch hit. He is the leader in that category afterall.
  
• We wound up three rows from the field last night which is always nice, but I sat next to man-child who was at least 6'5 275. This guy looked exactly Pvt. Pyle in Full Metal Jacket and boy did I wish I had a sock full of soap. He was one of those 25 year old guys that brought his glove to the ballgame. After every Reds play, he would pound his enormous hands into the glove like the Reds won the World Series. To top it off, another very large man sat in front of us. Oh well, we got a good look at all the Cubs.
  
• Why did Dusty bring in Ramon to play first base in the double switch. I would have just brought in Wellemeyer, pinch hit Ramon and then let him stay in the game to play one of the other infield positions. The pitcher's spot was up fourth in the 11th, so no real advantage was gained. The only reason to double switch is if Wellemeyer was slated to pitch 3-4 innings. In that case you could have brought in Alfonseca and took him out for a pinch hitter and then brought in Wellemeyer. Odd move in my opinion.
  
• I was happy to see Bellhorn get the start but his 0-3 with a walk probably puts him back on the bench for a few games.
  
• Tough 0-5 night for Karros as he made the 3rd out in three innings all with runners on base. He can mash lefties, but is quickly showing how much we need Choi back.
  
• Grudz is a pretty annoying hitter to watch bat. He basically just lunges and slaps at the ball. It is like he is trying to hit four hoppers to the second basemen. There is no power to his swing. Who cares if you never strikeout if you never hit the ball hard. Besides, he struck out twice last evening in crucial situations.
  

Game 3 of the series is tonight as Kerry Wood takes on Jimmy Haynes. The Tribune is reporting that Baker is giving Patterson the night off this evening. That means I get to see more of Tom Goodwin. Great. Tonight also marks the return of Sammy Sosa, so I imagine there will be a lot of cork jokes around the stadium. Wouldn't it be great if he hit a couple of homers and got the Cubs on a roll.
posted by Dennis at 8:46 AM : |

 

Reds get another walk-off win

Cincinnati's good luck continued with a two-out RBI double from Sean Casey on a Wellemeyer pitch well out of the strike zone. Carlos Zambrano was on once again, striking out seven Reds in eight innings and allowing only one run. In a completely unexpected turn of events however, the Cubs offense was throttled all night long. The need for the return of the real Sammy Sosa tomorrow and Hee Sop Choi in a few days cannot be overstated.

Tonight's loss dropped the Cubs into a tie for first with Houston. I hate to flip over to panic mode, but time is running out for Jim Hendry to make something happen. He was crowing in the Trib the other day about how he would be free to make a move to add salary if necessary, but its going to be too late if something doesn't happen soon. The great pitching of Prior, Wood, Zambrano, and most of the pen has kept us in it along with the lack of great play from our competition, but there is no way this team with this offense hangs in there much longer.

Dennis will be in tomorrow morning with his in-person report. How fun is it to fight GAB traffic after an extra-inning loss? Dennis will tell all.

posted by Scott at 10:54 PM : |

 

To Dusty, one victory, from Bob

This space has been pretty hard on Dusty Baker in the past for lineup decisions and on the field strategic moves. Think of it like getting mad at your family. You get mad, state your peace and in the end are happy they are around. I think the attitude Dusty brings to the ballclub is great. The players believe in him and want to play for him. He is a great player's manager, so his moves can be taken with a small grain of salt. The same can not be said for Bob Boone. Ol' Boone gave Clement a chance to settle down yesterday and it wound up costing the Reds.

Clement was shaky to begin the game as the first two players reached via single and he could not find strike one all night. Griffey and Kearns whiffed (first 2 of 9), but Boone decided to attempt a double steal during the Kearns strike three (well, to be more fair he started the runners 3 and 2). He should have run himself out of the inning but Dunn was safe at third. To be honest with you, I don't know how he was. I saw the ball beat him, looked down to record the put out in the book only to hear the Reds fan cheer. I have no clue how he beat it. The current NL Player of the Week Aaron Boone then shot a single through the right side to give the Reds a two run cushion.

After Uncle Kracker look alike Jimmy Anderson gave the Cubs back a run in the second (this inning also featured the Cubs losing another runner on the basebaths), Clement struggled to start the second. Jason LaRue, who has an .853 OPS as a catcher, singled to lead off the inning. One batter later the portly port-sider singled himself to give the Reds 1st and 3rd with one out for the leadoff man Dunn. Now the fun part, Dunn gets to 3-2 and Boone sends Anderson. Dunn strikes out, which he has done in 32% of his PAs this season, and Miller throws a dart to second. On the throw LaRue tries to take home and the Cubs easily retire him. This dumb call lets Clement settle down minus a hiccup in the fifth and the Cubs win on the Alou and Karros homers.

Here are some other thoughts from game one in random list format:

• Each of the Reds player's has a "theme song" that plays as they step into the box. Most are rap, some are country, but Juan Castro's is a song that would elict fear from the most intimidating pitchers. He stepped in the first time to "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler. I guess every now and then he falls apart. He came up to some salsa stuff later in the game so maybe someone was playing a joke on him.
  
• There was a lady behind us rooting heavily for the hometown nine that sounded exactly like the "Where's the Beef" lady from the 80s commercial with a tracheotomy. They should have filmed this woman for an anti-smoking ad.
  
• Jimmy Anderson is not small, but hey neither am I and he is a big leaguer. My question is why are most heavy set pitchers left handed. You don't see too many heavy righties. I guess if your left arm works well enough major league teams want you even if you are missing a leg.
  
• How crappy should Bellhorn feel that Hill was chosen to pinch hit before he was? Of course he struck out, so he will not be used for 5 days.
  
• The GAB crowd really came to life in the 9th. This was before the runners got on base. I guess they are used to so many come from behind wins by the Reds this season. The Reds have 4 relievers with 3 or more wins. The Cubs have one (Remlinger). My point, the Reds starters don't stick around too long.
  
• When I walked into the stadium I felt the wind blowing out and became worried. The ball carries well there without the wind. Clement hung tough though and only allowed one extra base hit.
  
• Clement struck out more last night (9) than Jimmy Anderson (7) has all season.
  
• The Cubs struck out 13 men and only walked 2 with one being sort of intentional because Borowski wanted no part of Dunn in the ninth.
  
• If Larkin and Griffey ever were to collide on a short fly ball it would produce the most cataclysmic event in the history of the Reds. Larkin's weak legs and Griffey's weak body should not even be on the same plane together for safety sake.
  
• How in the world is Borowski's WHIP only 0.98? He seems to put two runners on every ninth inning. He gives me a heart attack.
  
• The Cubs bullpen only allowed 2 baserunners and one ball out of the infield in three innings last night. They also struck out 4 and walked only 1. That is the way it should be.
  

Tonight, the Cincinnati area will be dodging raindrops again. Carlos Zambrano takes on Ryan Dempster in what should be a good matchup for the Cubs. The game is on WGN. Keep an eye on the seats behind the Cubs dugout as the wife and I are in row 2 or 3 I think. Look for the pretty woman (as in a real pretty woman not the type of person Julia Roberts was in Pretty Woman, man, I gotta keep you guys in line sometimes) standing next to the guy who makes you think "what is she doing with him"? Sort of a Billy Joel, Ric Ocasek, Daid Copperfield thing going on.

posted by Dennis at 8:22 AM : |

 

Well, at least the Cubs won

Pitching a slow-pitch softball game in a park with a 220 foot outfield fence is a lot of fun right up until that 30th run crosses the plate. Then it starts to suck. Just so you know...

In other news, Matt Clement had a third consecutive strong outing as the Cubs won 4-3 in Cincy. Moises and Karros had back-to-back homers in the sixth and Farnsworth, Alfonseca, and JoBo eached pitched scoreless innings to close it out. Dusty had his relatively benign lineup in today, with Goodwin and Harris both riding the pine. The criminal neglect of Bellhorn being a given, this is about as good a lineup as we've got.

As the Clark & Addison Chronicle had figured out yesterday, Francis Beltran lasted a little under 24 hours before being sent down in favor of Bobby Hill. Check out Jason's coverage on this, since its far too baffling for me to explain. Also, check in here tomorrow for a dispatch from our ace field reporter Dennis Goodman, with an honest-to-god Cincinnati byline.
posted by Scott at 11:33 PM : |

 

Cubs' bloggers attendance streak to reach 7

Check out Chris' first hand account of the first two games in Toronto over at the Yarbage Cub Review. I imagine he will have his thoughts on the third game later in the week. Hopefully he did not lose any notes after vomiting on them after seeing Harris was not only starting but batting second. That unfortunately is not a typo. OK, maybe Bellhorn made fun of Baker's mother, would not sign an autograph for his kid or maybe Baker just hates strikeouts, fine then play Harris. But for goodness sakes do not bat him second. You are giving a .170 hitter an extra AB in the game. Uggh!! This officially becomes an Oakland A's blog if Baker ever writes out a lineup with Goodwin leading off and Harris batting second. OK, maybe not.

The Cubs head to the Queen City to play four games against the Reds this evening. Yours truly has tickets for all four games. Tonight the wife and I are sitting in the upper deck along the third base side. There are even money odds for rain in the first three games of the series. The radar looks promising at the moment though. Hopefully all that junk near Memphis stays to the south. I am one of those fans that keeps score at all games I attend with my own scorebook, but sadly, due to the threat of rain, I have not done it in the last few games. Hopefully tonight breaks the streak. The Cubs start the series one game ahead of the Astros, two up on the Cardinals and three up on the Reds. The first two games of the series will be the last without Sosa.

Baseball Reference added a new feature recently, not that I needed a reason to spend more time there. You can examine the head to head records for any team. Here is how the Cubs stack up against Cincinnati. I had no clue the Cubs were 5 and 12 against the Reds last season. That is pretty horrible. They are 5-2 against them thus far in 2003 including the last three games by a combined score of 37-8.

The mighty New Palestine Dragons (my wife's high school) fell short in their bid for the softball state championship on Saturday night. The Friday night semi-final game was rained out so they had to play all the games on Saturday. The games were delyaed so the New Pal did not even start until 2:30-ish. They finally won their semi-final game 4-0 in 11 innings with the game ending near 5:00. They then had to turn around and play the chapionship at 7:30. They lost 1-0 while threatening in the last inning. Definitely a great season.

Tune in tomorrow for notes from the ballpark.

posted by Dennis at 7:56 AM : |

 

Extra inning magic leaves with Gonzalez

Without our walkoff specialist in the lineup the Cubs lost their first extra-inning game of the season today, 5-4 to the Jays. Troy O'Leary managed to give the Cubs a 4-2 lead with a sixth-inning grand slam, but Shawn Estes gave the lead back in the bottom half. The Cubs mounted two minor threats the rest of the way but came up empty, while Toronto rookie Reed Johnson hammered his second home run of the game to end it in ten.

Sanity returns tomorrow as the Cubs play a National League opponent, this time the Reds in Cincy. The GAB has proven to be a homer-friendly venue for Reds hitters, so it will be a test for Matt Clement who has seemed to have curbed his homer woes of late. John Riedling was scheduled to start for the Reds, but elbow tendinitis has derailed that plan. MLB.com says the Reds' options include ground-ball specialist Jimmy Anderson as well as relievers Chris Reitsma or Felix Heredia.

Before the game today, Dave Kelton was sent down to Iowa in favor of Francis Beltran. Wellemeyer can't get in a game if it doesn't go at least 15 innings or feature a mid-game deluge, but its still important to add an arm to help the pen cover the last couple innings each day. Besides, there's nowhere for Kelton to fit into this power-packed Cubs lineup. I am beginning to think that neither Baker or Hendry recognize the black hole that is the Cub offense. Our pitching is good, even very good, but it isn't so good that we can make the playoffs with this collection of bats.

posted by Scott at 5:09 PM : |

 

Cubs split first two games in Skydome

Friday night the Cubs managed twelve hits, but zero walks and only one run as they fell 5-1 to the Blue Jays. Kerry Wood allowed three homeruns and all five Toronto runs as the Cubs missed a chance to take sole posession in the Central. Ramon Martinez got the start at third but went 0-4, and Dave Kelton rode the bench in favor of Tom Goodwin and Troy O'Leary (3-4 and 0-4 respectively.)

Today, the Cubs jumped on top early when Vernon Wells misplayed a ball off Moises Alou's bat for a 2 RBI knock, with Alou coming on around when he tried to stretch it and the throw bounced off his arm. Mark Prior allowed no earned runs on the day, and Farnsworth, Remlinger, Alfonseca, and Borowski combined for 3 1/3 scoreless to finish it off.

From the "credit where its due" file, I really liked the Cubs lineup today. Dusty went with Kelton in left, Martinez at second, and Bellhorn at third. O'Leary was the one weak link, but Hendry and circumstances haven't left Baker with a lot of options. Tomorrow features Shawn Estes against Corey Lidle. The Jays have been significantly tougher against righties this year (.857 OPS compared to .815 against lefties), so hopefully Shawn can keep the nacent win streak going.

posted by Scott at 8:48 PM : |

 

Cubs winning streak washed away

Looking to stretch their winning streak to a season high five games, the Cubs could never get on track due to the weather and the right arm of Carlos Zambrano. In what is becoming a blog tradition of reverse karma, Carlos got roughed up a bit more than 5 hours after I praised him in this space. He gave up 5 hits and 4 runs (3 earned) in only 2 innings as the Orioles beat the Cubs 6-1. This game not only had its start delayed by rain, but a lengthy rain delay between the second and third inning. Given that Carlos had given up so many runs, I was performing a rain dance in my living room to no avail. I did see one of the cut-ins during the rain delay on the Extra Innings package and Oriole announcer Buck Martinez stated that the normal American League curfew had been "lifted" for this game since the Cubs and Orioles don't play again this season. This sounds a lot like asking you parents if you can stay out until 2:00 on prom night. I can just imagine the O's calling Bud Selig and saying "Sandy Alderson said we can play later, can we Bud, please, please?!"

Personally I am a little peeved that they finished the game. They could have easily brought the Cubs back for a day game when the teams had a mutual day off, or they could have let the game hang out there only to be replayed if it mattered in the standings. MLB decided to do as recently as 2000 as the A's only played 161 games. I suppose the bigger question if why the game was even scheduled at night anyways. I know that Toronto and Baltimore are in the same time zone, but common courtesy would be to get the visiting team out in a timely fashion. Now the Cubs face Toronto after a short night of rest. Kerry Wood (5-4 2.96) takes on Kelvim Escobar (3-3 3.60). I wonder if candy manufactures in the Toronto area have made the Esco-bar yet. I would put peppermint in it, but thats just me.

Mike Kiley is beating the trade drum again this morning in the Sun-Times This time he talks about giving up Zambrano to get Lowell. I usually don't spend much time discussing trade rumors because most of the time they wind up being false. Given that, I say its a huge mistake if we trade Zambrano. He just seems to have the perfect repertoire of pitches to succeed at Wrigley. He has not won since late May, but he pitched one very good game in there against Houston which he should have won. In other games he was one or two pitches away from being out of jams. He is young and therefore inconsistent, but still one of the top number five starters in the league. You just cannot give up this proven ability when you have other bargaining chips in the minors.

Matt Williams decided to call it a career yesterday ending the speculation that he would come to Chicago. I saw Williams play in a game at Wrigley in '94 when he was just on fire. Good player who simply did not have anything left in the tank. I am happy he is not coming to Chicago and obviously wish him well. In other baseball news Steve Phillips was fired as Mets GM . The Mets are just dreadful. They have yet to figure out that 30+ year old players are not only more expensive but are not as productive as younger players. Like I said yesterday, players by definition can only peak once. Signing players who peaked years ago might make a team look good on paper to some, but baseball games are played on grass, turf, or that funky faux grass they have in Tampa. The Mets are in some deep trouble not that I lose sleep about it.

The Amazing Race

This is the first time I have talked about The Amazing Race in this space. It is my favorite reality show of the bunch. It is fun to see the teams fight with each other and other teams. The main appeal of The Amazing Race is that it is the one reality show that people can clearly imagine themselves as participants. Who couldn't travel all over the world?

There is one annoying aspect to this season though, Chuck and Millie. Not them personally because I am sure they are nice people and they play the game hard and fair. But, everytime their team name is flahsed it mentions "dating 12 years / virgins". First of all, dating 12 years! Man, I know marriage is a big decision, but 12 years! Talk about commitment issues. Secondly, does anyone care about what people do or do not do in the bedroom? I don't go around talking about my personal life like that (especially with my mom reading this blog), and I really don't want to hear about others. Are the other teams supposed to be described as "engaged/sexually active". I am all for people's personal decisions/opinions whatever, but somethings I don't need to be told.

Back off tangent, the show last night featured one its staples - the bungee jump. One of the recurring themes on the show is that people do extreme activities they would never do in real life. I have to admit, bungee jumping would be a hard thing for me to do. With a million bucks on the line and in the heat of the moment, I would probably take the plunge, but I would ask for Depends first. Russell and Cindy were eliminated last evening when a ticket broker led them astray. He misunderstood the city they needed to wind up at and therefore they lost time correcting the mistake and their place in the race. Tough break.

Father's Day Weekend

I am going out of town to see both my dad and my father-in-law this weekend, but I might have time to make brief posts. Also, tonight I will be watching the Indiana High School Softball final four because my wife's alma mater is playing. Good luck to the Dragons. It has been a good year for our high schools because mine won their first basektball championship this season going undefeated. It was also my school's first state championship in any sport. Nothing like a little small town Indiana athletics to fill the time.
posted by Dennis at 8:31 AM : |

 

Cubs looking to sweep Orioles, run win streak to 5

In a somewhat rare getaway night game, the Cubs look to sweep the Orioles in Camden Yards this evening. Carlos Zambrano (5-5 3.05) will face Rick Helling (3-4 6.13). The Cubs have faced Pat Hentgen, Omar Daal, and Rick Helling in this series. Quite the list of pitchers that used to be effective but now and shadows of themselves. This is why teams like the A's can win with limited resources. The Orioles have lots of money but they decide to wrap it up in players like these. Now, they do only make a combined $5.2 million this season, but surely there are cheaper, better pitchers out there. These guys all peaked in the late '90s. Don't GMs understand that by definition a player can only have one peak season?

Carlos on the otherhand has been downright nasty and is only getting paid $350,000. Gotta love the Cubs minor system after seeing that comparison. His ERA is just over 3 his WHIP is 1.28. Take away two close pitches from the Yankees game and he beats them. I love watching Carlos pitch. He has a real heavy sinker and a fastball with a ton of movement - a perfect groundball pitcher for the Cubs. It is sickening (in a good way for Cub fans) that he is the "5th starter".

If the Cubs do pull out the victory tonight it would be there third 5 game winning streak of the season. They also have one four game winning streak. The amazing part is that their longest losing streak of the season is only three games and that has only happened once. The Cubs have yet to be swept this season and it is June 12th. Given the quality of the Cubs starters, a long losing streak can be avoided all season

There were a few articles I ran across this afternoon that are worth mentioning. First Phil Rodgers gives his opinion that Sammy should not have appealed his corking suspension. Now, he begins the article stating that the game Tuesday should have been game 4th of his suspension. Then he states that serving it now costs the team because of who they are playing. Fact is the Cubs are hurt no matter when he takes the suspension. If he is worrying about the Cubs (which he is probably not), Rodgers should state that Sammy appealing, which he has every right to do, and staying in the lineup against a better Yankee team was good for the Cubs. The argument continues that Sammy will be rusty after he comes off suspension which of course would have happened whenever he took it.

The last gem in this piece is the accusation that Sammy used the corked bat once against Houston because he used a bat that "appears identical" to the corked bat. Nothing like a little baseless accusation to fill column space. Bonds uses a darkly colored bat that is spherical in shape. Maybe he is corking as well. On a related note, does anyone else think the picture of him on the Tribune website makes him look like Kevin Arnold's junior high math teacher on The Wonder Years.

The second piece is by ESPN writer Rob Neyer and discusses commissioner Bud Selig and some of his ideas. Neyer takes the time to shred some of Bud's new ideas. Some like the All Star jerseys are more annoying than harmful while others like the shorter season and the inclusion of more playoff teams could have a far reaching impact on the game. I don't like the wild card and am not for adding even more playoff teams. The sad part is that all the reasons Bud gives for playoff expansion like television ratings and increased interest by fans of "contending" teams are verifiably false. I don't know if Selig believes these things or not. If he does, he is stupid and not able to either do research or hire someone to do it for him. If he does not, then he is a liar. Life is tough when your only choices for media perception are either idiot or liar.

posted by Dennis at 3:48 PM : |

 

Cubs win in Bawlmer

Matt Clement was effective for a second consecutive start and Joe Borowski came on to bail out the bullpen as the Cubs emerged victorious from monsoon season in Charm City. The offense staked Clement to a 6-0 lead before Clement gave two back in the sixth. Farnsworth struck out the side in seventh, but gave up two singles to lead off the seventh. Alfonseca and Guthrie poured gas on the fire, and it wasn't until Joe Borowski came on four runs later that the Cubs got out of the inning. A two-hour rain delay ensued, after which JoBo came back out to shut down the O's in the ninth. Dave Kelton got the start in left, picked up his first ML hit in the fourth, got his first ML RBI in the sixth, and doubled and scored in the eighth.

In other news, here's reason #183 I am glad I busted my budget to get the MLB Extra Innings package- watching Derek Jeter slink into the clubhouse as his home fans cheer the opposition's no-hitter. Roy Oswalt left the game one inning in after aggravating the groin he strained last month (hey, no cheering that.) The Astros just calmly called on first Pete Munro, then Kirk Saarloos, then Brad Lidge, then Octavio Dotel and finally Billy Wagner to hold the Yanks without a single hit. Its never really good to see the competition pick up a win, but if it had to happen then six guys combining to humiliate the Yanks isn't such a bad way for it to happen.

Finally, I was woken up at 4:30 this morning to hear two car alarms going off. I was amazingly slow to react given the car theft I witnessed and recounted in this space the other day, but when I got up and looked through the window I saw a child (I guessed eight years old) running out of our parking deck. I went outside and found two cars with windows bashed in, another with the trunk busted open, and three jeeps with doors hanging open. Twenty short minutes later the popo arrived, told me they couldn't do jack, told me they wouldn't even bother to contact the victims and that they could just telefile the police reports in the morning (wouldn't want to trouble a cop or anything). In summary, if you are looking for a car radio or perhaps a selection of merchandise from someone's trunk, come to my apartment complex! I can guarantee no police interference for a minimum of twenty minutes. You know, Baltimore's finest would never let things like this happen. And so we have come full circle...

posted by Scott at 6:22 AM : |

 

Cubs take game one behind Estes, despite Kim

Shawn Estes pitched absolutely brilliantly last night leading the Cubs to a 4-0 whitewashing of the Orioles. He pitched 7 innings allowing only 6 hits while striking out 5 and walking only 2. He also got stellar defense behind him as the Cubs rolled over 2 double plays (3 in total for the game) and Estes himself even got into the act with a great barehanded catch-and-throw play on a high chopper to the mound. Estes biggest crime this season has been his inconsistency. Believe it or not, he is 6-5 despite having an ERA over 5. When he has been bad, he has been very bad, but he pitches well enough on occasion to be a decent 5th starter for this team. Last night his curve ball was outstanding and it was good to get a strong performance by a starter to begin the 10 game road trip.

The story of the night was clearly the pitching of Estes, but the coaching of Kim is a close second. Third base coaches are a lot like umpires. If they are noticed, then they are doing a crappy job. Twice the Cubs had runners thrown out at the plate with no outs in an innings. In the second inning the Cubs got 5 hits and only 2 runs while in the 5th they had a leadoff single and double and failed to score. In my mind there are two times to be aggressive while trying to score: 1) when you have a fast runner and 2) with 2 outs in the inning. Neither one of the above conditions applied in the 2nd or 5th. Looking at Baseball Prospectus' Team EQA numbers, the Cubs have scored 10 runs less than expected. I imagine the two biggest factors in being under expectation (well, besides the possibility that the model does not account for some systematic effect) would be outs lost on base and double plays. The Cubs are third in DPs and have if memory serves have lost their fair share of runners. The Clark and Addison Chronicle and Let's Play Two both have more comments on Kim.

For Kim to give the other team outs, the offense has to be one base. The sticks did a pretty good job last evening of making contact. Well, all of them except Lenny Harris. Harris is hitting .183 with no power. I wonder how low this has to go before he is relegated back to the bench. Sammy Sosa almost got his first homerun since returning from the DL. His second inning shot hit off the top of the wall. The worrisome fact is that the ball he hit a mere 380 feet is one he used to hit 440 feet. His ABs are starting to look better though. Once he starts driving the ball to right field again, all will be right with the world.

Corey Patterson had a double and a triple last evening to raise his batting average to .328 and his slugging to .593. As stated in the NOTD, he still does not walk but with the impressive average and power numbers, he is a productive player. Here are his stats at the moment and then projected out for the rest of the season:

	PAs	Runs	Hits	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB
Now	248	40	79	14	7	12	46	10	7
Projected	652	105	207	37	18	31	120	26	18

Despite the low total of walks, that is a monster season. A lot was made of Ryne Sandberg's run in 1984 to become the first player with 200 hits and 20 doubles, triples, homer and steals. He came up just short in homers and triples. Patterson will give the same record a very good run but also add 100 runs and RBIs. I would have to do some research, but I bet not too many full time players ever gets close to having the same number of triples as walks.

Being a baseball fan is a funny thing sometimes. Going from hating a team one instant to rooting for them the next. Well, that is the position of Cubs' fans this week. After taking a series from the Yankees (and costing Juan Acevedo his job) the Cubs must now root for the Yankees as they play the Cards and the Astros this week. Last night was good as the Yankees beat the Astros to put the Cubs back in a first place tie.

Tonight the Cubs will try to take the second game of the series against the birds. Matt Clement (3-6 4.61) is coming off a good outing against the Devil Rays and will face Omar Daal (4-6 4.91). The game is on Extra Innings for those who subscribe.

posted by Dennis at 7:56 AM : |

 

Cubs travel to Baltimore, face old St. Louis team

It is sometimes difficult to come up with a great "hook" to lure fans with some of the interleague series. Baltimore/Chicago may not be as bad as Milwaukee/Tampa but I had to do some thinking to come up with any sort of compelling story line. Then it hit me. The Orioles are descendents of the old St. Louis Browns (and original Milwaukee Brewers for a season, in fact them moving to St. Louis probably broke the heart of Bud Selig's parents/grandparents). The Cubs hate all things about St. Louis in context of the baseball season, so there you go. This could be a pseudo rivalry. Ah, who am I kidding, there is nothing interleague play can offer that can top the Yankee series. Speaking of the Yankees, the Cubs will now become their biggest fans as they welcome in both Houston and St. Louis into the stadium this week.

Tonight Shawn Estes (5-5 5.67) will take on Pat Hentgen (1-3 5.25) at Camden Yards. Being in the midwest I have only been to a few stadiums in my life (Wrigley, Busch, Cinergy, Great American Ballpark, and old Tiger) Camden Yards is behind only Fenway on my list of parks I would like to see. One of these days, I will go on a massive east coast road trip myself and see both of them.

Sammy Sosa's appeal of his eight game suspension will be held today in Baltimore. The Cubs are looking to get an Albert Belle type reduction in the total number of games according to today's Tribune. One quote from the article struck me as funny:


The Cubs will be satisfied with a two-game reduction to six games. But look for an angry reaction if Sosa gets a token one-game reduction, and an explosion if the eight-game suspension stands as is.


The Cubs will explode if the suspension stands as is? Granted I don't know MacPhail and Hendry all that well, but they don't look like the exploding type. I think someone on the Tribune staff has seen one too many Hulk trailers (which by the way looks really bad, the CGI makes Hulk look like Shrek).

I have heard some media types talk about how Sammy should have not appealed the corking to begin with. Their argument was that since he admitted he corked his bat, he should just serve the time. Do these guys follow the game at all? Batters will routinely appeal suspensions after they charge the mound and are obviously guilty. Appeals are a perfectly acceptable part of the CBA and it is not uncommon for players to use the appeal process to "pick" which games they will miss. I think people are just piling on Sammy after his mistake. For my own selfish reasons (I have tickets to all four upcoming games in Cincy), I hope the decision on the appeal comes soon and that he gets his sentence reduced. The prospect of watching four games without Sammy or Hee Seop is not a good one.

Rob Neyer's picks for all-time lineups for the various major league teams are going up on espn.com over yesterday and today. The Cubs lineup isn't posted yet but you can sneak in the back door to it here. I have actually purchased his book, so I know the list unless he has had a change of heart between now and when he published. I am sure his lists will spark some debate. Jason Steffens over at the Clark and Addison Chronicle talks specifically about one of his picks.

posted by Dennis at 8:07 AM : |

 

Cubs take game, series from Yankees

Last night on national television the Cubs were able to score early and often against Yankee starter Andy Pettitte and then hold on in the 9th to win 8-7. Scott and I were both online and chatted throughout the game. I decided to take notes and will present our thoughts on the game diary style. Yes, this is a direct rip off of Bill Simmons from ESPN's Page 2 sans the Beverly Hills 90210, Karate Kid and NBA basketball references. It is a fun format though and could give some insight into the tortured mind of a Cub fan.

• 7:42 - I am sitting in my upstairs den with my favorite adult beverage getting ready for the game. Baseball Tonight is live at Wrigely and they send it to Jon and Joe for some pre-game talk. Morgan has a really large forehead. They show the lineups and Ramon Martinez is the third basemen du jour.
  
• 7:52 - I see the first ad for this year's ESPYs. I am now prepared to see them for the next 12 weeks.
  
• 7:59 - ESPN shows some memorable Cub and Yankee homeruns in a montage. I was looking away for part of it, but I don't think they included the Sandberg game. That is a shame.
  
• 8:02 - The wind is blowing out. Given Prior's control and lack of gopheritis I think the advantage goes to the Cubs.
  
• 8:10 - Prior just showed ESPN how he grips his pitches. He is holding the ball between his legs and we almost see way too much of young Mark. I am sure the ladies across the country loved this segment.
  
• 8:12 - Soriano got two strikes on him and flubbed a double to left center. That ball was not hit very hard at all. Lets see if the Yankees try and bunt
  
• 8:15 - Jeter looks pretty silly on a couple of sliders as Prior records his first punchout.
  
• 8:23 - After hitting Posada, Prior strikes out Ventura on fastballs. Prior got the side in the 1st as no runs score.
  
• 8:26 - Grudz works the count to 3-1 and rips one up the middle. He almost took Pettitte's head off with that one. I am wondering if Dusty will bunt like yesterday.
  
• 8:30 - Alex is up and they are showing most of the pitches from a high camera behind the catcher. Look, when people watch the games on TV, they want to see the game. This angle is terrible. Alex rips the ball but unfortunately it goes right to Giambi for a line drive double play. Tough break.
  
• 8:32 - Patterson takes his turn on trying to remove Pettitte's head with a sharp single. He almost gets picked off and the organist plays the theme music from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
  
• 8:37 - After a good Sammy Sosa PA that turned into a walk, Moises loses one onto Waveland for an early 3-0 Cub lead. There was a fan on the street that caught the ball in the air. Nice. Saying the fans are pumped up would be an understatement on the same level of saying Skip Bayless does not like Sammy.
  
• 8:45 - Prior lets the first two Yankees reach in the second inning. Good thing this is in a National League ballpark because we have their 8th place hitter and then the pitcher coming up.
  
• 8:47 - Umpire blows a strike three call to Rivera, but Prior does not mind as he later grounds into a double play.
  
• 8:49 - Prior blows away Pettitte and gets out of his mini-jam. I think he is just toying with them at this point.
  
• 8:53 - Mike who? Martinez hits his second homer of the series to put the Cubs up 4-0. After the homer they show Sandberg and Banks sitting next to each other in the seats. I wonder if they got their tickets at Wrigley Field Premium. Scott mentions that if the stadium sections engage in a pick-up softball game, his money is on that one.
  
• 8:58 - Gonzalez gets a hanger from Pettitte and knocks it against the ivy to knock in Miller and make it 5-0. Pettitte's night is done after 1 2/3 innings. He got five total outs, 2 of them on a crushed line drive that would up being a double play and 1 because the Cubs gave it to him on a sacrifice. Not good for him. The Yankees are brining in their 6th starter Weaver.
  
• 9:03 - We officially have a route developing as Patterson triples in Gonzalez. The Cubs hit for the cycle in the second inning and lead 6-0.
  
• 9:10 - Giambi puts the Yanks on the board with a solo homer. I guarantee if the Cubs were up by 3 runs or less, he does not get the fastball to start the AB. Prior is a smart guy and realizes that solo homers cannot do too much damage.
  
• 9:14 - I do not want to be gellin', have a vague memory of learning about Magelln, do not really like melon and have never been a felon.
  
• 9:18 - Jon Miller just wished Hee Seop Choi well in Korean. Lets hope that he did not pull a JFK and blow the translations and say something like "I have naked pictures of your mom" or something.
  
• 9:26 Tom Seaver at the moment. Morgan mentions that Seaver used m