"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do, I stare out the window and wait for spring." - Rogers Hornsby

:: Saturday, June 21, 2003 ::

Blame Dusty

You know, many of us, myself included, have hailed Dusty Baker as the savior of this franchise. And clearly, he has this team playing in a motivated way, with a purpose, and winning, with first place definitely a possibility.

But we were warned by a lot of Giants fans that we'd be driven nuts by some of his lineup selections and other in-game choices. And today, the latter came back to bite us as the Cubs lost to the White Sox 7-6, an eminently winnable game.

Maybe next time the turns of Clement and Estes come around, the club should just forget it and start some of the relievers and tell them it's the fourth inning or something. Today, despite being used up yesterday, the pen threw 5 2/3 hitless innings, striking out nine and retiring the last fourteen batters in order. Unfortunately, that was after Matt Clement blew up in the first three innings, allowing eleven hits and seven runs. He has shown very little of last year's form.

Even so, with the bullpen throwing well, the tide seemed to turn after Moises Alou's 2-run HR, and when Damian Miller led off the seventh with a hit, and Ramon Martinez doubled... but unfortunately, Wavin' Wendell, our idiot 3B coach, sent the slowest guy on the team, Miller, home with nobody out, down four runs, and he was out by 20 feet. There was the ballgame, but no, we weren't done.

In the ninth, down by a run after Sammy Sosa singled in Mark Grudzielanek, Dusty sent Tom Goodwin out there. Gee, wonder what he's going to do? After not running on the first pitch, there went Tom, there went a pitchout, tying run thrown out.

Aggressiveness isn't a bad thing in baseball, but sometimes Dusty takes it too far. Sometimes being patient, letting the other team get itself into trouble -- especially the White Sox, who have had all kinds of bullpen problems this year, is the better way. Bad managing and coaching cost the Cubs this game; they had 15 hits and all kinds of opportunities. Now it's up to Carlos Zambrano to avoid the sweep. At least this felt like a ballgame, and as the Cubs rallied, the crowd finally got into it -- the blowout yesterday kind of took all the air out of the ballpark.

We met a nice young couple here in Chicago from London -- Lisa and (I think) Tom, who bought tickets for the game on eBay, and were exploring the city for the first time. We gave them some restaurant recommendations and they seemed to be having fun, though I don't think either of them really understood the game (they asked how many innings we play, and how the game ends, which we happily explained to them).

Sue came to the game -- she's doing radiation now and didn't wear her wig, since it was "too hot". I kept trying to get her to take her straw hat off, even offered sunscreen for the top of her head, but she wouldn't do it, not even for "rally cap time". (Kidding here!)

Sight seen (and a gratifying one): Hee Seop Choi in uniform during BP, taking grounders from Wavin' Wendell. I presume he'll be sent on a rehab assignment soon and maybe back in a major league uniform in a week or so.

Another sight seen: someone wearing a T-shirt with red spots and the words "Fear Farnsworth". I swear, everyone's out to make a buck.

After the game I got to see another team of Cubs lose; this one lost to my son Mark's park district Pirates team 24-17. Mark made a couple of really nice defensive plays. I got my first look at Sosa Field, the new park donated by Sammy at "Cubs Care Park" near North & Clybourn, where, if you were so inclined, you could watch the game from your rooftop across the street. There are sheltered stands for about 500 people and the field is nicely manicured -- a real treat for park district kids to play on.

:: posted by Al at 5:40 PM [+] ::
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Better Never Than Late

Phil, Brian and Howard all got caught in traffic today, and by the time they got there (and I had to meet Phil downstairs with his ticket), they might as well have turned around and gone home, because the brutal 12-3 loss to the White Sox today was pretty much over after the first inning. I've rarely seen a pitcher with less than Shawn Estes had today; he threw 52 pitches in that first inning and even so, might have settled down if he hadn't hung a curveball to Miguel Olivo with the bases loaded.

With the game pretty much out of hand, the Sox fans couldn't even do too much taunting; there was one shrill-voiced female Sox fan a couple rows in front of us who screeched every time one of her "heroes" was even announced, and someone else wearing a Konerko jersey kept holding up a sign that said "Sammy: Embarrassment to Chicago", but otherwise, the Sox fans were pretty calm. So it came down to people-watching, which was easy to do on this, probably the nicest weather day we've had so far for baseball this year in Chicago. There was a large group of really idiotic people wearing IHOP hats and gold chains with dollar signs on them, who claim they pick one game a year to come to, and this was it.

Good. They pretty much kept walking back and forth, blocking the aisle and leaning on our backrest all day (and security couldn't handle the numbers of them doing this), not watching the game. They didn't seem too drunk, but they could have bought cheaper beer and not had to pay $30 to get in, if they'd just stayed across the street, which is where they finally wound up in about the seventh inning. The game had an ethereal quality about it after the second, when it was 8-1; it was almost as if the two teams were playing separate games, and would just report their individual scores afterwards.

Dusty managed it like a spring training game, too, replacing everyone except Sosa and Martinez, and by the time he finished he'd used the entire bullpen except for Alfonseca, which meant Mark Prior wound up batting for Joe Borowski in the bottom of the 9th (he struck out -- but I can just hear Prior saying the whole game to Dusty: "Can I bat? Huh? Can I?").

Other random stat notes: Carlos Lee, who's hit the Cubs like heck at Wrigley Field, was 2-for-5 with 2 RBI, and that wasn't even close to the biggest hitting day they had.

The Cubs almost outhit the Sox -- 10 hits to 11. The Sox drew nine walks off Estes and Wellemeyer; after the fourth the bullpen pretty much shut them down, giving up only three hits.

Jose Hernandez batted twice and only struck out once -- it was his 96th K of the year. Now that he's a Cub, I suppose we'll get to see him break Bobby Bonds' 33-year-old strikeout record, which he would have broken last year if Jerry Royster hadn't wimped out and benched him for a week. The trade is ridiculous -- Hernandez is having a poor year, and the Cubs already have too many guys who strike out. Maybe this spells the end for Lenny Harris, though.

Kyle Farnsworth got huge cheers upon warming up in the bullpen, for his role in the brawl yesterday. Say, if the pitching gig doesn't work out maybe he'll line up next to Brian Urlacher this fall.

Mike said to me last week that the Sox would come in playing like wounded animals, and he was right. Matt Clement will have to have his "A" game on tomorrow, to stop this thing in its tracks.

:: posted by Al at 8:48 PM [+] ::
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I Was Watching A Baseball Game...

... and a hockey game broke out.

Seriously, one of these days someone's going to get really hurt in a baseball brawl, and then maybe the powers that be will take Steve Stone's suggestion -- which is to adopt the hockey rule, that the "third-man-in" gets a severe penalty. There's really no reason for the bullpens and dugouts to empty, for everyone to get into a pile, and for fifty-something coaches and overweight umpires (yeah, yeah, I know, there are fewer of those than there used to be) to try and break up fights between 6-6 twenty-somethings.

The Cubs lost to the Reds 3-1, but that was kind of lost in the shuffle when Reds pitcher Paul Wilson, who had squared around to bunt, took exception to a pitch that clearly simply got away from Kyle Farnsworth. The high/inside pitch also got away from Damian Miller, so when Farnsworth made a move to the plate that was most likely just a pitcher reacting to having to cover a base, Wilson had words, and then charged the mound. That's a mistake when you're going after someone like Farnsworth, and Wilson left bloodied. I suppose both of them will be suspended, but this one was clearly Wilson's doing.

You know, the Reds are becoming a very disliked team. First, it's their "Group Grope -- er, Jump & Hop" after they have a walkoff homer; some people like this while others are quite offended. Then there was the brawl they got into last Friday with the Phillies, which was precipitated by a hard slide into home by Adam Dunn with a 10-0 lead, something that's pretty well frowned upon in the baseball world. Then there were some beanballs, and it rapidly degenerated. They seem to walk around with a chip on their shoulders, and teams like that don't usually go very far baseball-wise. It doesn't help them that the bizarre-lineup-minded Bob Boone is their manager.

The Cubs and Reds don't play again till September, when the games might be really meaningful. We'll see if this bad blood carries over to then.

Troy O'Leary was rung up on a strikeout to end the game on what was obviously a checked swing on a pitch in the dirt. It was clear to me that the umpires were more concerned with getting in out of what was becoming a pretty heavy rain, than getting the call right, with the bases loaded.

:: posted by Al at 7:23 PM [+] ::
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Clicking On All Cylinders

At a time when Cub teams of the past would go into the famed "June Swoon", the 2003 version is starting to play really well. Kerry Wood took a perfect game into the sixth before settling for a three-hit complete game and Sammy Sosa hit a 464-foot HR in the Cubs' impressive 4-1 win over the Reds last night.

With Mark Prior going today, there's a real chance the Cubs could take 3 of 4 and wind up with yet another winning road trip. With a 1.5 game lead, they're guaranteed to come home tomorrow in first place. This team has played much better on the road than at home; I hate to say that this year's team is a warm-weather team, but it does have a lot of players who are native to warmer climates and maybe this does have some impact on their performance. And the early-season weather in Chicago has been about the worst that I can ever remember for the months of April and May. So we shall see, starting tomorrow, in the first really sustained nice-weather homestand. In a week or so Hee Seop Choi will be back, and then maybe the offense will really start to perform as we thought it might earlier this year. The Cubs are first in the division in fewest runs allowed, but fourth in runs scored.

Even Tom Goodwin, who I've been telling my son is useless (and his retort: "Would you still think he was useless if he hit 1,000 home runs?" My answer: "Yes!"), had two hits last night. And frankly, I'm getting tired of hearing the idiot columnists like Jay Mariotti (and no, I won't give you a link to his latest nonsense; find it yourself) continuing to harp on the corked-bat thing. It's over; Sosa paid the penalty, and now he, just like anyone who has been asked to pay the price for a transgression, should be allowed to get on with his life and career. Even the execrable Albert Belle was allowed to continue playing without constant mentions of his corked-bat situation, and he was not only obviously guilty, but a jerk on top of that. (I have to imagine it frosts White Sox fans to know that he's the team record-holder in home runs for a single season, set in 1998.) A big deal was made out of the fact that Sosa's HR was booed. Well geez, he's playing on the road, the HR put the home team behind, and Reds fans think they are still in the division race. Wouldn't you boo that if it went against your team? I would.

Rachel update: she finally came home at 2 am, is happily sucking on popsicles at home. Yes, she's the only kid in history who had a tonsillectomy who doesn't like ice cream, so popsicles will have to do.

:: posted by Al at 9:03 AM [+] ::
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Rachel's Fine

Although, she's still at the hospital; we had to wait more than two hours after the appointed time, which I guess is typical for these kinds of things.

They said that her tonsils were much larger than they expected, which might explain some of the breathing problems she's had, which was the reason we had this done in the first place. They took out the adenoids too, and oh yes, a tooth happened to fall out during the surgery, so the nurses played tooth fairy and left a dollar, which was really sweet.

I can't say enough about how professional and nice they are at Children's Memorial Hospital here in Chicago. I've met some of the people here before, as we used to do telethons with them years ago, and they do a terrific job making both the kids and the parents comfortable in situations that can be stressful.

:: posted by Al at 7:43 PM [+] ::
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Like Having Your Tonsils Out

That's what last night's frustrating 2-1, 10-inning loss to the Reds felt like. It was the Cubs' second straight extra-inning loss after six straight extra-inning wins this year without one.

I mention tonsils because my daughter Rachel is having hers out this afternoon. She's a bit worried about it, but I know everything will be just fine -- I never had my own out, but I know this kind of surgery is totally routine these days. And no, I didn't specifically schedule this while the Cubs are out of town, though it's a serendipitous coincidence -- this is the only date between school and summer camp that the doctor had available. Lucky me, I guess.

The Cubs had seven hits and five walks and the Reds kept trying to give the game away but the Cubs wouldn't take it. Why would you intentionally walk Lenny Harris, someone who came into the game with a .270 OBA and was 2-for-20 as a pinch hitter? Well, you do it because that allows you to double off Alex Gonzalez on a short fly ball, thus killing a rally. And I still don't understand why Bobby Hill's been called up to sit on the bench.

Dusty Baker may be a great motivator of men, and he still has this somewhat ragtag bunch of Cubs in first place (by a half game), but sometimes his lineup selections are absolutely mystifying. We were warned about this by Giants fans before the season even started, and it's turned out to be true. Nevertheless, Dusty came up with good results almost all of his ten years in San Francisco, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt till there's a long losing streak -- which there hasn't been; the longest losing streak of the year is still only three games.

Sammy Sosa comes back tonight and I have the sense he's going to go on one of his hot-weather tears; June has always been one of his best-hitting months.

:: posted by Al at 8:31 AM [+] ::
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Dumb and Dumberer

No, not the current film (which I won't see -- I've heard it actually lives up to its name), but the news this morning about the guy who got involved in the brawl at the Cub-Dodger game back in May, 2000. Yesterday a jury awarded Ronald Camacho $475,000 for his "pain and suffering" during this event. That's in addition to the $300,000 the Dodgers paid him already.

So it seems that a good money-making scheme is to go to the ballpark, get drunk and get involved in something stupid. Damn! Why haven't I thought of this all these years?

Seriously, this is just another example of the behavior of what I'm going to call the "Jackass Generation" -- that group of 20- and 30- something young men who like that MTV show (sorry, no link, find it yourself) and think it's cool and/or funny to act out stuff like that in public. I had forgotten to mention in my review of "The Italian Job" that one of the preview commercials was a series of scenes of college-age men doing stupid, dangerous, embarrassing, juvenile stunts. Had no idea what this was for until the tag line said something about "Labatt's being for friends".

Well, that's just freaking stupid. So the message is to young men, get drunk and get stupid, and it doesn't matter. Labatt's has a lovely disclaimer on its website promoting "responsible drinking", but guess how many people read that as compared to how many see that commercial? Credit to the people in the theater watching the film along with us; the murmured buzz seemed to indicate disapproval from a lot of the audience.

Damn, I know I sound like an old curmudgeon. YES, we did stupid stuff when we were younger. But not that stupid. Not dangerous, to ourselves or others. Grow up. And that goes for corporate advertisers, too.

Oh, the Cubs won 4-3 last night at Cincinnati, thanks to back-to-back HR by Moises Alou and Eric Karros and some really nice pitching by Matt Clement and the bullpen trio of Antonio Alfonseca, Kyle Farnsworth and Joe Borowski. It was weird not being at a Cubs road game; the four in Cincy are the only ones I'll miss from now through June 29.

One final note on Toronto. I always knew Corey Patterson had a huge ego, but he proved it at Skydome, which has probably the largest JumboTron at any ballpark. Corey made a couple of nice catches in the series. At least twice I caught him standing in CF watching himself on the screen as they replayed the catches.

:: posted by Al at 8:32 AM [+] ::
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Going Home...

TORONTO -- this afternoon.

But before we leave this terrific city, I wanted to give you some idea of what it was like staying in the hotel at the Skydome. It's run now by the Renaissance chain, which is part of Marriott, but that didn't make any difference. Though the hotel was full, it never seemed very crowded; we were warned that the walks down the corridors can be very long, but we wound up not too far from the elevators, which we never had to wait very long for.

Watching the field at all hours of the day and night is -- well, what can I say. It's extremely cool. In addition to getting ready for all the ballgames, the Blue Jays had a "Father's Day Sleepover" Saturday night where people paid $200 Canadian to sleep on the field, watch videos, play catch with Blue Jays players, etc. So we watched that for a while. And yesterday, by the time we got back to the room after the game (maybe 15 minutes), they had already started to tear down the baseball field to get ready for a CFL game this coming Thursday.

It's a pricey experience and I don't even want to tell you how much, and I probably wouldn't do it again for that reason. But as a once-in-a-lifetime blowout thing to do, I'm glad we did it. I would stay at this hotel again; the rates for the non-field view rooms are pretty reasonable and I would recommend it for a stay in Toronto, since the location is convenient to many of the attractions here.

:: posted by Al at 8:56 AM [+] ::
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Movie Review: "The Italian Job"

This is a remake of a 1969 film of the same name which starred, among others, Michael Caine, and believe it or not, Benny Hill. I never saw it and don't know anyone who did, but the word that describes the remake is "stylish".

From the sets to the dialogue to the always-lookable Charlize Theron, this film sets up the typical "old man coming out of retirement for one last job" -- Donald Sutherland -- and the job gets pulled off without a hitch. Well, except for the doublecross pulled by a very evil-looking Edward Norton, and the twist is, that Theron is Sutherland's daughter, and she's a safecracker by trade (how convenient!), so the rest of the gang manages to entice her in the obligatory plot to get back the gold they stole.

This could be trite, but instead is done... well, stylishly. There's a running joke about the Napster file-sharing service which could have rolled your eyes, but instead is thrown in at clever moments, and if you didn't love the new Mini Cooper cars before, you will now. Mark Wahlberg plays the gang leader with a wink in his eye, and Seth Green is the computer whiz, though I was having trouble seeing him as anything but Scott Evil in the "Austin Powers" movies.

There are the obligatory car chases... and explosions... but they're all done, well, stylishly. I loved this film, it's really cool summer escapist thriller fare.

I only wish the lights had been up in the theater when we came in, because we almost tripped over some people. Only when they started the too-loud 20 minutes of commercials did they bring the lights up to "dim". They did wind up turning them off when the feature started.

AYRating: *** 1/2

:: posted by Al at 9:02 PM [+] ::
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Reed WHO?

TORONTO -- I pride myself in following baseball enough so that I know most every player. But I have to say, I'd never heard of Toronto rookie RF Reed Johnson, who was called up earlier this season when Shannon Stewart went down with an injury, and frankly, I wish I still had never heard of him.

Johnson led off today's game with a home run, and then finished it in the 10th with another one, as the Blue Jays won a thriller (for their fans anyway) 5-4 over the Cubs today, to win the interleague series.

I really have to question Dusty Baker's lineup selections again. Sure, today was his birthday. Maybe his thoughts were elsewhere. But batting Lenny Harris second? Playing 3B? He did make one nice play in the field (and the Cubs turned 5 DP's, or the game wouldn't have been that close), but also waved at a few other balls going by. I still don't understand why Mark Bellhorn played in only one of the six games I saw on this trip. Yeah, he's not hitting -- but how are you going to hit if you don't play? I saw a woman at Skydome today who I swear we've seen at Wrigley Field often -- Jeff & I have dubbed her "Mrs. Bellhorn", a young woman who wears a jersey with his name and number.

So between Harris, Paul Bako, Tom Goodwin and Troy O'Leary, the Cubs had four starters today who were hitting under .220. Amazingly, they managed 8 hits, one of which was a well-timed first career grand slam for O'Leary. The bullpen also did a pretty good job, until Mark Guthrie surrendered the game-winner to Johnson.

A couple of statistical notes: the grand slam was the Cubs' first since August 11, 2002 (Sammy Sosa), and the loss was the Cubs' first in extra innings this year after six wins.

I can't say enough about the Toronto fans and people here in general -- they're friendly and helpful; today we sat in front of one very knowledgeable baseball fan, who rooted hard for his team but seemed to know quite a bit about the Cubs as well. We both wished each other luck as we left the stadium (I can't really call the huge Skydome a "ballpark"); if the Blue Jays had any decent pitching, they'd be way out in front in the AL East, because everyone up and down their lineup can hit. Carlos Delgado, who the Cubs pretty well neutralized (except for yesterday's HR), is probably the AL MVP to date. I also finally met Bing, a nice young Toronto fan who I'd originally started corresponding with from the Blue Jays' newsgroup; he's a real autograph seeker who got Corey Patterson, Dusty Baker and Moises Alou to sign this weekend.

The only annoying things at Skydome, which resembles Yankee Stadium and New Comiskey (I refuse to use the corporate name) in its size and waves of blue seats, are the fact that they missed a few lineup changes (and don't keep a lineup posted despite having multiple scoreboards), and they have an annoying DJ-type announcer (host of a local morning TV showwho does between-inning stuff and contests. They had a guy like this at White Sox games a couple years ago and the reaction was so negative that they had to get rid of him. Toronto ought to do the same. Baseball's interesting enough, without having to resort to constant noise.

Reflections on the trip: if you haven't been to the ballparks in Baltimore and Toronto, you should see them. Camden Yards is the prototype for virtually all the new "retro" parks, and has many Wrigley Field-like features, including the Wrigley Field ivy growing on the hitters' background. I really can't understand the opposition that Peter Angelos has to putting a team in Washington, because the Orioles and the regional transit people sure don't make it very easy to get back to DC on public transit, as we learned during the incessant rain the last two days there. On the other hand, once you get there, there are tons of food choices, either in the park or on the closed-off Eutaw Street outside, and the Oriole employees have a well-deserved reputation for being among the friendliest in the game.

Toronto, on the other hand, has excellent public transit, though it's pricey ($2.25 Canadian, about $1.75 US), and doesn't let you off right at the stadium (it's about a 10-minute walk to the nearest station, though you can walk in a "skywalk" from there right to Skydome, so in bad weather, you never have to go outside. Toronto's a great town, with tons of live Broadway shows, restaurants, and a lakefront much like Chicago's. Skydome is a huge edifice, probably the largest of any of the current retractable-dome stadiums, and it never feels "intimate" like some of the newer parks do. Yet, even with artificial turf, on a nice summer sunny day like today, it's still a good place to watch a game; the seats in the lower deck all have great sightlines. Food is typical ballpark fare, and even accounting for the difference in the dollar, it's expensive.

It'll be strange to see a Cubs game on TV tomorrow -- this'll be the first game I've missed since I was at my Colgate reunion on May 31, that's 13 consecutive games. And even with the loss, the Cubs go on to Cincinnati at no worse than a first-place tie (at this moment, the Red Sox and Astros are tied 2-2; you can click here for an updated/final score.

Catch you all from Chicago tomorrow!

:: posted by Al at 3:45 PM [+] ::
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