Uh, can I just take back everything bad I said about Bellhorn in my last post? His pinch hit homer in the top of the 9th just gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead.
posted by
Derek at 2:12 PM MST [link] --
w
I was initially pretty excited to actually be able to sit and watch a game last night, but if I'd known how ugly it would be I probably would've rented a movie instead.
What a mess! The Cubs looked an awful lot like a team who has just played a 17-inning game. Baserunning errors, throwing errors, pitching errors, we had a little bit of everything last night.
On the bright side, the Cubs hit Woody Williams pretty well, and Todd Wellemeyer continued to dazzle hitters with that 95 mph fastball and the change.
Listening to "Who's Next" right now - on vinyl no less. I keep forgetting how good that album is.
Man it's great to have Stoney back in the WGN TV booth. I remember when he first started doing games with Harry back in the early '80s - I found him really annoying. He was always saying stuff like "what the pitcher's thinking right now is . . ." and "Here's what the catcher is saying right now . . ." I was just a high school kid at the time, and it took me a while to realize that he was right pretty much all the time. Last night in the 6th, when Clement made that horrific throwing error to put a runner on third, Stone noted that this would really hurt with Vina up, as he would be very likely to punch it throught the drawn-in infield. Vina did exactly that on the first pitch.
I vote we just peg Vina on the first pitch every time he comes to the plate. Who's with me?
I haven't said much on Bellhorn lately as the topic is well-covered elsewhere, but I've generally been in favor of letting him play through his season-long slump. I really thought he'd hit his way out of it, and there have a couple of brief periods where it looked like he was going to. But man, he is just killing us. Every at-bat right now is just a big, gaping hole filled with popups and called third strikes. Horn has generally had a pretty good batting eye, as his walk totals attest. But pitchers will figure out that all they have to do is throw strikes to get him out, and then even the walks will disappear. Watching him with a 2-strike count is just painful, it looks like the batter's box is the last place he wants to be. The more Florida struggles, the more plausible a Lowell trade sounds to me.
Our early line on Most Likely Marlin to Be Dealt Before the Deadline: Mike Lowell to the Cubs, who have been pursuing him relentlessly for months.
Is anybody else aware of this "relentless pursuit" of Mike Lowell?
It's almost game time, today I'll be watching the game on my 5" black&white TV as I move around outside the house doing yard work. I've even figured out how to hook it up with cable. I'm such a dork.
UPDATE 11:13 AM - Uh, I guess I won't be hooking up the TV, as Denver's FOX affiliate has opted to show "Pet Shop" - apparently a show about pets - in lieu of the Cubs game. Looks like I'll be hooking up my computer to the stereo for the RealAudio broadcast instead. Yes, I'm still a dork.
posted by
Derek at 11:01 AM MST [link] --
wFriday, May 16, 2003
The ESPN.com article on Rod Beck made me want to quit my job, hop in my car and drive to Des Moines. Who wouldn't want to drink a beer or two at The Shooter's trailer?
Better do it now, I can't imagine he'll be at Iowa much longer . . .
posted by
Derek at 12:02 PM MST [link] --
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Well, yesterday's game was pretty special for a lot of reasons and deserves better treatment than my impromptu game log of the last couple of innings, so here goes.
First, I wasn't kidding about the chills I was getting throughout almost every inning of the game. Kerry Wood mowing down batter after batter. No Brewer passed first base until the 8th, after Wood had departed. Sheets was dominant, too, if not quite to the extent Wood was, but it almost didn't matter. You just knew Kerry would carry us through it.
When Karros homered in the 7th, I thought the game was over. When Corey knocked in the go-ahead run in the 10th, I knew the game was over. When Damian Miller hit that 14th inning line drive, I thought the Cubs had won - and when Clayton caught it I was sure they'd lose. Gonz's 15th inning blast was the game winner, until Jenkins reached over the wall and grabbed it, at which point it seemed like the Cubs had nothing left to give. But through it all the Cubs' pen just got the job done over and over.
Finally, Corey belted the real game-winner in the 17th, a no-doubter way up in the stands. And Dusty had only one relief pitcher left, Todd Wellemeyer with exactly 0 innings of major league experience. And he struck out the side to end it. Just an awesome game.
You can't even pick the hero. Kerry was at his most dominant, but by the time this thing was over I couldn't even remember who the starting pitchers were. Juan Cruz, the delicate youngster you can't trust in pressure situations, pitched the scoreless 11th, 12th and 13th innings. Meat Farnsworth, he of the million dollar arm and five cent head, pitched the scoreless 14th, 15th and 16th innings. And Corey, who didn't even start, played 9 innings anyway, went 3 for 5 and drove in 3 runs.
But I don't have to pick one hero. The Sportscenter highlights showed each Cub hanging on every pitch, rally caps engaged, leaping out of the dugout at every hard hit ball and finally, delirious with joy as it ended. Wellemeyer's face said it all as he walked off the mound - he couldn't believe what had just happened.
If this season comes to anything for the Cubs, we may look back on this game as a milestone of sorts. The one where the Sosa-less Cubs, facing a pitcher they've never beaten, hung in there and won anyway.
A man who ran on the field at a Chicago White Sox game last month and was charged with attacking an umpire pleaded not guilty Wednesday.
After all, it's not like there were witnesses or anything. And it's not like it was caught on video. And then broadcast across the world. Hundreds of times.
posted by
Derek at 4:22 PM MST [link] --
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Bottom 17 - Did Todd Wellemeyer really just strike out the side to earn a 17th inning save in his MLB debut?
Tell me you don't have chills running down your spine right now . . .
posted by
Derek at 3:50 PM MST [link] --
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Top 17: Role reversals in the pen today. Ol' Dozen Digits and Studly Joe can't hold leads, but Cruz and Meat throw 3 scoreless innings each.
How long can this go on?
And can't anyone take a freaking pitch from Kieschnick?
UPDATE (3:38 pm) Hey, Miller and Corey finally took some freaking pitches, and then Corey took one out. Corey, I love you.
posted by
Derek at 3:34 PM MST [link] --
w
16th inning: Kieschnick alert! Kieschnick alert!
posted by
Derek at 3:25 PM MST [link] --
w
About 10 minutes ago, I was asking myself, "Why the hell did Dusty start Karros against Sheets (a right-hander)?"
About 1 minute ago, Karros hit a home run off Sheets to stake the Cubs to a 7th-inning, 1-0 lead. Ron Santo just told me Dusty started him because he's hit Sheets well throughout his career. Maybe this guy does know what he's doing.
posted by
Derek at 12:48 PM MST [link] --
wWednesday, May 14, 2003
I was checking out The Cub Reporter this fine evening, in which Christian found his site had been "googled" by the phrase "Ron Santo's call of Brant Brown". Christian went on to say "I don't have a copy of this call, and honestly I hope I never hear it again."
Well, I'm a pretty morbid guy, and I did want to hear it again. Nothing makes me want to laugh and cry simultaneously quite like one of Ron's cries of pain, and that one, "Nooooooooooo! Oh noooooooo!" was his worst. And as painful as that moment was for all of us, it still brings up fond memories of that crazy wild card race of 1998. It was a 3-team race which neither the Cubs, nor the Giants nor the Mets seemed to want to win. If you look up "backing into the playoffs" in the dictionary, you'll see a picture of the '98 Cubs.
Anyway, I googled something similar and wasn't able to find the Santo-Brant Brown audio file. But I did find a 1998 "blog" (I use quotation marks because I'm not sure the word "blog" existed in '98) written by a Giants fan during the waning days of that season.
Sometimes we fall into the trap of believing that only we Cub fans know the true meaning of suffering. But while the Giants don't have quite the history of suffering the Cubs do (Merkle's Boner notwithstanding), that old blog is proof that others suffer too.
It's easy to forget that if the Giants had just held on to a 7-0 lead over the Rockies on the final day of the season, they would have won the wild card. Instead, the Rocks came back to win, forcing the Cubs-Giants tiebreaker. The tiebreaker entry is here.
I highly recommend reading these entries, which are incredibly detailed and well-written. It really took me back to the joy of that amazing season, and reminded me about why we're all so obsessed with this stupid game.
posted by
Derek at 7:28 PM MST [link] --
w
Since Sammy's been out with his toenail injury, the Cubs offense has:
Not a bad little streak. This offense has been up and down all year, but it's great to see this team pick itself up after losing one of the very biggest offensive forces of the last few years. But should we really be surprised?
Anyone familiar with ESPN's Bill Simmons, aka "The Sports Guy" surely recognizes this as a miniature example of The Ewing Theory. For the uninitiated, The Ewing Theory is a phenomenon in which a previously underachieving team unexpectedly excels after losing a superstar. For example, the 2001 Mariners after losing Griffey, A-Rod and the Unit.
Grudz is back in Opening Day form. Patterson hits lefthanders. Estes wins a road game. Alou explodes out of a month-long slump. The first baseman produces no matter who it is. Can there really be any other explanation?
I'll leave it to others to figure out whether Sosa's absence has in any way positively affected the Cubs offense. In all seriousness, this season looks promising if the Cubs offense can produce without Sammy in the lineup. The last two games, as well as Sunday's non-game, were encouraging because they never stopped scoring. Every time the opposition put a run or two on the board, the Cubs answered right back. If they can start scoring with any consistency without Sammy in the lineup, what might happen when a rested, pain-free Sosa steps back into the 3-hole?
posted by
Derek at 1:09 PM MST [link] --
wTuesday, May 13, 2003
As you know, I've been out of touch for a few days, with virtually no contact with the Cubs/sports world. We stayed in a little villa on the beach, with no TV, no radio, no phone, no newspapers, no nothing. Slept 10 hours a night and hung out on the beach all day. Drank Mexican beer and pina coladas by day, and ate like kings every evening. One of the first truly rejuvenating vacations I've taken.
My contacts with sports:
ESPN Deportes - a couple of restaurants we ate in had Latin American Sportscenter on. Lots of soccer highlights, but plenty of NBA and baseball too.
Casa O's - we sat down at this incredible restaurant and watched the sun go down, then ate a marvelous dinner. As we were finishing, the owners showed up and noticed my Cubs T-shirt. Turns out they're big Cub fans. One of them said "my father was born in the year they last won the Series." My wife shouted, "1908!" They couldn't believe she knew that (neither could I).
The Miami Herald, Cancun edition - Michael, the cool owner and bartender of Villas Allure, shared the paper with me Sunday, and I was able to find out that the Cubs had split the first 2 games of the Cards series. Alas, no box scores, so I didn't find out about Gonz's continued late-inning heroics until last night when I got home. I met a couple of others at Michael's bar who cheered when they saw another of my Cubs shirts. They were from Chicago and have relatives in Glen Ellyn, where my Cubs allegiance was born.
That was about it for me. If you really want to find out what happened to the Cubs this weekend, check out any of the blogs in my links block at left. All bloggers were prolific in my absence!
More tomorrow, fun stuff about Palmeiro, the Cubs' success without Sosa and whatever else comes up. That's the beauty of baseball - they play every day so there's no shortage of crap to write about!
posted by
Derek at 11:06 PM MST [link] --
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I was just getting ready to write a little, with Baseball Tonight on so I could catch Cubs highlights, when an ad for that ridiculous stooge Jim Rome came on the screen.
In the ad, Rome says, in that stupid halting voice, "What Bonds. Is doing at his age. Is just stupid. Two years ago. 73 bombs. The best baseball player. Should not be nearly 40." This is earthshaking stuff. It's crap like Jim Rome getting yet another goddamn show that really shakes my faith in the human race. Jim Rome is to sports analysis what professional wrestling is to sports. In other words, not all that closely related.
The voiceover says, "Love him, hate him, you just have to watch him."
No, I don't.
posted by
Derek at 10:33 PM MST [link] --
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I'm back. What a great trip. I'm tanned, rested and ready.
Unfortunately, I'm busy as hell catching up at work today. There's nothing like firing up Lotus Notes and seeing a red number 137 pop up - that's right, 137 new emails which have occupied most of my day. I'll try to write something tonight while I'm busy not watching the Cubs. I hate it when they're not on WGN - needless to say, Fox Sports Rocky Mountain prefers to show Rockies games.
But duty calls immediately, as I just received a reminder that Estes is pitching again today. As such, it is my sworn duty to crank up the Estes pool. It's especially important today, as Estes will be pitching on the road, no double play-inducing high Wrigley grass to bail him out.
So let's have your pessimistic entries detailing when the first reliever starts throwing in the pen, pick the reliever for tie-breaking purposes. Winner gets admiration plus name in print in their (or my) font of choice, assuming I can do the html. Remember, Shawn needs you!
I've got bottom 3rd, no outs, Cruz warming up.
Tom's got bottom 5, Wellmeyer throwing.
UPDATE (9:44 PM) - Well, I wasn't paying attention, as 24 was on when Alfonseca started warming up, but I'll assume it was sometime during the 7th inning. And today's pool winner is:
Chris!!!
My admiration for you is boundless. Thanks to Chris and Tom for participating.
But of course, we are all winners, as Estes throws his 3rd straight solid game, guaranteeing that I stay with this still-questionable gimmick through his next start.
posted by
Derek at 3:33 PM MST [link] --
wReigning NL Central Division Choke Artists
Eamus Catuli
AC016097
wOfficial Let's Play Two Favorite Cub (TM)
Carlos Zambrano
3-3, 3.22, 68 K
5/31: ND,8 IP,0 ER,1 H,9 K
Next start: 6/05 @ SD
