"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, July 19, 2003 ::

Just When All Seemed Lost...

Kerry Wood showed us how the Cubs can still win this thing. He was absolutely masterful tonight, throwing the Cubs' best-pitched game of the year, a 2-hit, 1-0 shutout of the Marlins in Miami.

The one run was unearned, and the Cubs had only three singles and a double by Moises Alou (who scored the only run on Alex Gonzalez' sac fly), and this points out the sheer folly of starting someone like Lenny F. Harris, who actually had a hit tonight (OK, hitting .171, that probably does mean he gets a hit once every ten games or so). Best thing about this game, too, is that it was played in a snappy 2:29.

Jim Hendry says he's going to make a deal before the end of July, and if the Cubs can go out and get some offense before they fall too far behind (and I don't consider 4 1/2 games at this stage "too far behind") and without totally mortgaging the future, I say do it. The latest rumors have the Cubs going after Colorado's Jay Payton, and I think this would be a good move, since Payton is very similar statistically to Corey Patterson, and next year could become either a very good fourth outfielder, or perhaps even play left field, if the Cubs decide that Moises Alou isn't going to have one final season of the kind of performance he has had up to now this year. Payton turns 31 in November, so he could still have a few decent seasons left.

This brief five-game trip is the longest stretch that I have not been at a game in person since the 13-game trip ended on the 25th of May, nearly two months ago. It feels odd, even though I've done a lot of things other than go to ballgames, including touring Washington and Toronto and, of course, work all but one week of that time. Being able to follow the Cubs in person day after day, I consider it a privilege, even when they lose.

Today's game went so quickly that I spent part of the between-innings time finishing up the book I spent the afternoon reading, Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything". I've enjoyed Bryson's books for a long time, but this one's very different from his others, which are either humorous travelogues, or books on the English language. This one is an examination of all things scientific, whether it's astronomy, physics or genetics, and an attempt to bring incomprehensible things into layman's language. Bryson's writing style helps do this; it's long (478 pages), but worth a summer read.

And now for something completely different.

[rant]

As you know, I always take whatever opportunity I can to slam Richie Daley. He's decided to crack down on people sitting and waiting for friends and relatives coming into O'Hare and Midway. Probably related to that fear that a terrorist might take off from a small plane at Meigs. Today, my sister-in-law came in to Midway, and I have to tell you, I was quaking for the 30 seconds it took to get the bags loaded in the car, for fear that one of his minions would come over and start writing a ticket. I mean, COME ON! It's Saturday afternoon, traffic is extremely light, and sitting for a few minutes doesn't hurt anyone. Is this really the best use of police resources?

Really, and of course he'll never admit it, the idea is to get people to park in the garages that are owned by his cronies. I'm sick of it, but he won 79% of the vote last March, and so he figures he can do anything he wants. And he's probably right.

[end rant]

:: posted by Al at 7:47 PM [+] ::
...

Correction Section

Once again, I have misread the day-by-day schedule. The Cubs have not been below .500 all year until after yesterday's game; I thought I read them as being under .500 for one day on April 6, but I was wrong.

In either case, things aren't going well right now. Let's hope they right the ship tonight.

:: posted by Al at 9:37 AM [+] ::
...

I'm Not Waiting...

... for the end of this one. You'll have to wait till the game is over to click here for details of the Cubs' loss to the Marlins -- yes, I'm assuming it's going to be a loss, even though it's right now only the bottom of the 8th and the Cubs are losing 6-0.

I'm pretty disgusted today. This game wasn't going to be easy to win with Mark Redman going; he's been one of the Marlins' best pitchers, coming in with a 7-4 record and 3.28 ERA, and the all-right-handed hitting lineup had lots of trouble solving him. Matt Clement did OK trying to keep up with Redman, but as often happens when you are going bad, a single just got under the glove of Alex Gonzalez; then a ground ball which could have been a DP was handled by Mark Grudzielanek, but he missed stepping on 2nd and threw late to first. Then Clement lost it and hit Derrek Lee, and with the bases loaded, Todd Hollandsworth doubled and it was 2-0 Marlins.

Even at that, the Cubs went into the 7th down only 3-0, but bad Kyle Farnsworth showed up and gave up two long home runs and made it 6-0.

Worse was the news that Mark Prior's shoulder is still bothering him and as a result, his scheduled start Sunday is being pushed back to Tuesday. It doesn't seem serious, but the Cubs don't need any more problems. Carlos Zambrano will start in his place.

Are we at the point at which we should stop thinking about picking up help for the stretch run and start being sellers? Maybe, but the problem is -- who do the Cubs have that anyone would want? That's not a slam, it's just the fact that several Cubs -- notably Alou and Karros -- are untradeable due to their contract status. The Astros won tonight and thus the Cubs, who were in first place only a little over a week ago, find themselves four and a half games out, and under .500 for the first time since April 6, when they were 2-3.

Since I started typing this, the game has ended, in the same 6-0 score. I still think this Cubs team can compete with the Astros and Cardinals, both of whom are flawed teams.

But they had better start doing that tomorrow.

:: posted by Al at 9:25 PM [+] ::
...

While We Are Waiting...

... for the Cubs' season to resume tonight at Florida, I had a couple of comments about the car accident at the farmer's market in Santa Monica, CA the other day.

Did you know that in Illinois, there are very strict regulations as to how drivers 70 and over can retain their licenses? That's a good idea, and do you know why that law was passed? Because several years ago, a driver in his late 80's lost control of his car at O'Hare Airport and three people were killed.

They tried to pass such a law in California and the AARP lobbied against it, causing it to be watered down and worthless.

In the link above, the AARP spokesperson says: "The things AARP has been opposed to is arbitrary testing based on age. Everyone's an individual, and folks who are older tend to be in better health these days."

While that is true, what's wrong with such testing? Statistics prove that both teenage drivers and those over 75 are involved in the most accidents. Teenagers in many states must put up with restrictions on their driving. Why shouldn't older people? If they are competent drivers they won't have any problem passing the test. If they're no longer competent, they should just quit driving, as did the 80-year-old mother of Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich (Tribune requires free registration).

I'll bet the state of California gets a driver-testing law passed now. Too bad ten people had to die to prove this point.

:: posted by Al at 11:16 AM [+] ::
...

Movie Review: "Northfork"

This review would have been posted a while ago, but severe storms went through the Chicago area this evening (believe me, I was sitting watching my sump pump) and my DSL line went out.

Now, having Internet access again, here's a review of a film that got four stars from Roger Ebert, and whose trailer looked fascinating, and which has a terrific cast including Nick Nolte, Kyle MacLachlan, and James Woods.

I'm sorry to report that I found this movie to be... well, it's either too deep for me, or it's a sad mishmash. I'm leaning toward the latter.

What it's about, in a nutshell: it's 1955, and the town of Northfork, somewhere in Montana, is going to be relocated, and all its residents evacuated, because developers want to turn it into a lake. Men who look like federal agents in black suits and fedoras and driving big black 40's era cars, are arranging for the evacuations. There's something in it for them: an acre and a half of property on the lake, but only if they evacuate everyone.

Well, of course there's some resistance, and there's also a bizarre storyline about a sick child who's abandoned by his parents, and then what might be a dream sequence involving the kid and some "angels" (one of whom is played by an almost-unrecognizeable Daryl Hannah). There's a shot at the beginning of this film that leads you to believe, if you can follow the very-hard-to-follow story, that the entire film is a dream sequence.

I'll give this film credit for this: the cinematography is terrific; Michael Polish (the director, whose brother Mark appears in the film as one of the "agents", and who directed a highly-acclaimed film that I have not seen, "Twin Falls, Idaho") has created a bleak, stark, almost colorless vista of rural Montana; in this way the film is somewhat reminiscent of the 1978 film "Days of Heaven", which is filled with shots of the Big Sky country. The characters are interesting, no doubt about it, but they don't ever really seem to relate to each other. You'll be amused at the thought of Nick Nolte playing a rural priest, and his performance is the best thing about this movie.

I don't want you to think that because this is an "art" film, or an allegory, which it appears to be, that I didn't like it for that reason. There are plenty of films I've seen this year alone that aren't in the "boobs and bombs" category, that I loved. But this one just didn't get through.

AYRating: * 1/2

:: posted by Al at 6:29 PM [+] ::
...

And On The Forty-Sixth Day, He Rested

No, I don't have a God complex. Seriously.

But from June 1 through July 15, a period of 45 days, I attended a baseball game on 35 of them. The only days I missed were the Cub road series in Cincinnati and Philadelphia (4 games each), and the Cub off days on June 2 and June 9.

That's a lot of baseball and I'm certainly not complaining -- I enjoyed every single bit of it, despite the losing which seemed to start piling on top of itself after the middle of June.

But at a certain point, you find that you don't mind having a few days away from it, to catch up on paperwork. I also learned that attending three straight night games and then getting up at 3:30 am to go to work is probably too much. Since the last two, the HR Derby and All-Star Game, were special occasions, this probably won't ever occur again. I've done back-to-back night games before with not too many ill effects, but I can get home from Cub night games in ten minutes; it takes longer to get home from the Ballmall. Anyway, the Cubs have only seven night games remaining (and only 32 home games, period) this season.

So I actually had time to take a nap yesterday afternoon, and drop my son at his baseball practice (playoffs this weekend, you understand!) and have dinner with my dad, and a couple of his close friends, and it was just a nice day.

Later today or tomorrow (since the Cubs and Marlins are the only teams not resuming the season today), I'll post some thoughts about the first half, and what lies ahead.

:: posted by Al at 8:33 AM [+] ::
...

A Few More All-Star Notes

1) Now how could I have forgotten this:

I noticed on the scoreboard before the game that they had posted the names of winners of something called the "Viagra Sweepstakes".

I wondered out loud to Mike exactly what the winner of such a sweepstakes might get.

He said, "Maybe dinner with Rafael Palmeiro."

I replied, "Well, they better hope it's just dinner."

Rimshots optional.

2) Just how old is Jamie Moyer, 40-year-old Mariners pitcher making his first All-Star appearance?

He was a teammate of current Cub batting coach Gary Matthews Senior, at the game assisting Cub manager Dusty Baker, on the 1986 and 1987 Cubs.

Davey Lopes was also a teammate of Moyer's in 1986.

3) Rumor heard: Juan Gonzalez is about to be traded to the Royals, which would just about assure them of winning the AL Central.

:: posted by Al at 10:28 AM [+] ::
...

History!

That describes my experience at last night's dramatic 7-6 American League win in the All-Star Game, in so many ways.

The obvious one is the one you already know, that when Hank Blalock is watching the World Series on TV this fall (because his team has no chance of making it), he can take satisfaction in the fact that his two-run homer in the eighth inning gave the Mariners their home-field advantage. Incidentally, despite the fact that the ESPN.com link above says it was the AL's sixth straight win, it was actually their seventh; the last AL loss was in Philadelphia, 6-0 in 1996.

The other way is this -- on July 10, 1984, nineteen years ago, my dad got me tickets for the ASG in San Francisco, that one won by the NL 3-1. So this year I returned the favor and he came into Chicago and went with me and my son Mark. This is what baseball is all about, I think -- connecting the generations. My dad talks about seeing Billy Herman and Stan Hack and all the Cubs of the '30s, the years when they won pennants every three years, and now my son is growing up watching Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, when we have hope that they may win something soon, and thus we continue. That is one thing that all of us can appreciate about living in this country -- that we have created traditions like this one, that we can pass down from father to son.

OK, sappy stuff over, let's talk about the experience, since you all probably know about the game itself.

Though security was supposed to be "tight", I didn't notice any real difference from any other game at the Ballmall -- I usually don't drag my backpack down there, and last night I simply went with a camera bag. Lines to get in were very short. They handed out envelopes with photos of past All-Stars, some of which were supposedly autographed. We didn't get one of those -- and what are the odds of this? We got three identical photos, all of Andre Dawson. I traded one to Brian for the Don Mattingly photo that he got.

Brian also got a "Rally Cap Face Mask" that they were handing out free outside the ballpark and gave it to Mark, which was awfully nice of him. He sat with us, and his brother Jake stopped by. Jake didn't have a ticket but wound up getting one outside. I won't tell you how much he spent, but he's lucky he didn't get a counterfeit ticket, because there were apparently dozens of them outside the park. I also said hi to their dad, Dave, who was in his regular season seats. Meanwhile, their brother Kevin, who plays for the Rockford Riverhawks of the independent Frontier League, spent the day hanging with his buddy Jody Gerut, Cleveland Indians outfielder, and some of the Cleveland all-star contingent including pitcher C.C. Sabathia.

I'm a sucker for pre-game hoopla at events like this and there was just enough to be nice, without overdoing it. It was pretty windy for the huge flag that they unveiled in the outfield and at times the sailors holding it had trouble keeping it from blowing away. The largest ovation for any non-Chicago player was for Dontrelle Willis of the Marlins, who didn't even get into the game (neither did 11 others, as the managers did play more to win, but more on this later). A bit of a razzberry to Sox fans, who booed every player from the AL Central. I mean, come on, people -- this is a game celebrating the best players in the sport; if you don't want to cheer for them, at least give them polite applause. As you might expect, there were boos for both Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, but there were a fair number of cheers for them too from the Cub contingent, which was pretty visible (OK, I wore my Wood jersey last night too). Jerry Manuel was roundly booed; ex-Sox manager Tony LaRussa got a much warmer welcome.

The Blue Angels flyover was extremely cool; too fast to take a picture of it, unfortunately, but they couldn't have been more than a couple of hundred feet above the ballpark. And last night, there were no lame singers, as both Vanessa Carlton (geez, someone else I've never heard of. My pop culture credentials are gonna start being questioned!), who sang the national anthem, and Amy Grant (and yes, I have heard of her), who sang "God Bless America" in the 7th, sang beautifully.

About the two managers -- Dusty Baker seemed to manage this much more like an exhibition, replacing everyone by the sixth inning and never coming to get a pitcher in trouble during an inning, not even Eric Gagne, who had about the worst appearance of his career, culminated by the Blalock HR (only the 2nd he's allowed all season). Mike Scioscia, on the other hand, was really managing this like a game -- making three double-switches, taking Shigetoshi Hasegawa out during his bad inning that gave the NL an early 5-1 lead which made the game feel like a blowout for a while, and sticking with his own players, Troy Glaus and Garret Anderson, for nearly the whole game, then making the key move in the 8th when he pinch-hit Blalock. Baker clearly got outmanaged last night. I was really surprised he didn't use Mark Prior in the 8th; Prior's in front of at least some hometown fans; he hadn't pitched since Friday and won't till at least Saturday (depending on how they rejigger the Cubs rotation), so it would have been well-timed for him to throw an inning. And for Sox fans, the bitter irony of their ex-closer, Oakland's Keith Foulke, coming in to save the win for the AL

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see any of the homers land in the seats except for Andruw Jones' to left because of the obstruction from the seats we had in section 164. The Sox did this inadvertently when they built the CF patio and only found out about it when some ticketholders complained the first day they sat there. The Sox could fix this and probably should. I won't complain since I knew about the seats before I agreed to take them. You also can't see the JumboTron from there, which on most days isn't a big deal, but at a game like this I'd have liked to see some of the video tributes that were on the board. I have only one complaint to address to the White Sox -- at the end of the game they closed off gate 6, which deposits you at 35th & Wentworth, and forced everyone from the LF and 3B side to exit via gate 5, which really slowed things down getting out.

This was my sixth All-Star Game: 1975 in Milwaukee; 1983 at old Comiskey; the aforementioned 1984 in San Francisco; 1990 at Wrigley Field, and 1991 in Toronto. The AL has now won four of the six games I've attended; and in two of those seasons -- 1983 and 1984 -- a Chicago team made the playoffs. Well, I can dream, can't I?

Rumor heard: That the White Sox might replace Jerry Manuel with Jim Fregosi as early as today. We shall see.

The entire All-Star experience was terrific, even though it's such a corporate marketing thing these days; back in '75 you could walk around County Stadium pretty much unhindered, and I ran into A's owner Charlie Finley holding court among a group of fans in his green jacket and cowboy hat, and you can't really do that any more. But the weather was great; the events were enjoyable, and the game itself was terrific, with that dramatic Blalock home run, well played and exciting, and the players seemed really into it, hanging on the dugout rail throughout.

:: posted by Al at 8:00 AM [+] ::
...

Notes

1) One sight seen from last night that I forgot: One of the designated "ball-shaggers" (and no, I'm not using that word in the Austin Powers meaning!) was a teenager wearing a White Sox jersey that read "WILLIAMS 5". Jeff & I puzzled over that for a while till we realized it must have been one of Sox GM Kenny Williams' kids.

Two of Williams' older sons were arrested in North Carolina a couple of months ago. The kid shagging balls looked younger than that; I know Williams was deeply affected by this arrest, and hope the All-Star Game means better things for his family.

2) The scoreboard last night indicated HR Derby winners going back to 1985. None of us remembered any such event prior to 1990. And in 1990, it listed Ryne Sandberg as the winner, but both Jeff & I remembered Jose Canseco as the winner that year at Wrigley Field. MLB's revisionist history at work.

3) There's a fascinating and well-written article in today's Chicago Tribune on how baseballs are made in Costa Rica, all stitched by hand. (Tribune requires free registration)

:: posted by Al at 10:36 AM [+] ::
...

Correction Section

Dennis Goodman of The Northside Lounge e-mailed me this morning to point out that I got the name of the lame bar-band at the HR Derby last night wrong!

The correct name of these near-musicians is The Ataris. You know, like the video-game company.

I forgot to mention that they were still playing as their equipment was being driven off the field, like an old vaudeville act that tries to keep going even as someone offstage is giving them "the hook".

My apologies to The Ariels, who had nothing to do with last night's events and who, I'm sure, are a really good band.

:: posted by Al at 10:00 AM [+] ::
...

Hey Now, You're An All-Star

Jeff, Mike, my son Mark & his friend and I were walking out of the Cell after the Home Run Derby last night when I remarked to Jeff how nice it was to walk out of that place without hearing someone yell "Cubs suck!" Of course, someone picked that very moment to start shouting just that.

Just thought I'd get that little dig in. Even at a fun, festive event, the Sox fan simply cannot let his anger go. Oh, well.

The rest of the evening was, in fact, fun and festive. We got there in time to watch the batting practices, which were supposed to be part of the show, as Gene Honda, the Sox PA announcer, spent time announcing who was batting, and there were interviews, etc. during the BP's. Too bad they didn't continue this concept during the HR derby -- it would have been nice to hear some of the ESPN commentary (I watched a bit of the replay of the event on ESPN2 after I got home) during the contest itself, especially for those of us who had the partially obstructed seats near the huge CF patio. Not complaining about the seats, which were actually pretty good, but the patio does block part of the view of right field. It was a good gauge for the game tonight, because after seeing all the balls fly off the bats of left-handed hitters like winner Garret Anderson and Jason Giambi, I now have a really good idea of exactly what kind of fly ball will leave the park and what will be an out, based on the trajectories of the balls!

You can tell when MLB's sponsors have taken over. I had a thought that I might watch part of the event from the patio, where you have a nice view of the entire field. Nope, that's a private ESPN party. There were also hundreds of people crowded around a temporary TV booth set up on the LF concourse. I finally got a look at who was in there -- it was the ridiculous Tom Arnold, host of that silly sports show on Fox Sports Net that has the swear word in its title. Walked away from that one pretty quick.

There were a few players signing autographs during BP but with literally hundreds of people crowding the seats near the field, it was impossible to get close enough to get any. Maybe today. We did see a couple of large men walk down the aisle we were sitting in to get to their seats, who looked like pro athletes, but we didn't recognize them. I suspect they were football players, from their builds.

Two people I've never heard of did the national anthems -- I'm told Brian McKnight is pretty popular, but to me, it sounds like a guy who used to be a utility infielder for the Astros. The only really bizarre, discordant note about the evening was sounded by a group called the Ariels, who were far too much bar-band for an event like this; they did a medley of their hit (and I can't even remember the name of it), and then a really lame-sounding cover of Don Henley's "Boys of Summer". Even worse, the speakers were set up on a bunch of mobile carts, facing the main stands, so those of us in the outfield heard just muffled noise. Better would have been to simply put their audio on the PA system, which has actually been toned down at the Cell since last year.

About the HR derby itself -- gee, it started out slow. I mean, here are batting practice pitchers specifically chosen by each participant, and Bret Boone whiffs? Embarrassing. Then Albert Pujols and Jason Giambi started to put on a show, sending a number of bombs to all fields. Nothing exceeded 500 feet, which Jeff & I agreed is because the throws are coming in at 70 MPH. If you get the fastball you're looking for in a game situation, you can hit the ball much farther. The closest ball that came to us in section 164, was, of all things, an opposite-field shot by Jim Edmonds that landed about 5 rows in front of us. I had actually gone out and bought a new glove for the occasion, to learn that I had, without knowing it, bought nearly exactly an identical glove to Mike's (though, of course, he throws lefty).

It was a fun evening -- so nice to be at a ballpark and just relax, without keeping score (though they did hand out scorecards, I didn't bother). There were nearly as many Cub fans, judging from shirts and caps, as Sox fans, but there were plenty of fans of other teams there too. Brian is sitting with us tonight, and though I thought he was going to be in the lower deck, he called and said he and his girlfriend Kristy got upper deck tickets, so I met him on the concourse to give him his ticket for tonight. I also managed to find my way down an unguarded aisle entrance, and tried to find Dave in his Sox season seats, but he hadn't arrived yet. Hope to find him there tonight.

Sights seen: so many, hard to mention them all, but here are some highlights: a huge tent set up in the 34th & Shields parking lot, for tonight's postgame invitation-only parties, but it was empty last night; people walking up and down the concourse toward the end of the HR Derby holding up signs looking for tickets for tonight (and coming up empty); a guy selling All-Star merchandise (maybe counterfeit?) right under a sign on 33rd Street that said "No Peddling"; two kids with a lemonade stand at 32nd & Canal with a big cardboard star that said "All-Star Lemonade". We were in a rush so didn't get any, but they were throwing in a free cookie for the 75 cents; and of course, virtually everyone in the outfield seats where we were, brandishing a baseball glove.

As predicted, it rained and stormed hard this morning, but the rain's done now and it's supposed to clear out by afternoon and be absolutely gorgeous weather for the game tonight. Will of course report here tomorrow morning.

:: posted by Al at 7:59 AM [+] ::
...

More Notes

Gosh, I really must have been sleepy this morning.

1) Sign seen: A sign based on the "Big League Chew" gum package, saying "Big League Choi", with his picture and even his "Net Weight": 240 lbs.

2) Before the game and between innings, I finished (with Mike's assistance) the Sunday NY Times crossword puzzle. I normally don't get the Times on Sundays (it's pretty pricey at $5!) but I got it so my dad could read it, and then I brought the puzzle to the game to pass some of the downtime waiting for the game to start.

OK! There! Now I'm ready to go to the HR Derby!

:: posted by Al at 1:27 PM [+] ::
...

I Knew I Forgot Something!

Told you my brain was fried from lack of sleep.

During Cubs BP yesterday I spotted someone standing in LF wearing #22, and I said to myself, "That doesn't look like Mark Prior." He was too short. Then I noticed he was left-handed. He was standing shagging flies and kibitzing with Kyle Farnsworth.

Then he turned around and I recognized the face -- it was Will Clark, who always wore #22 during his career, and who has been a minor-league hitting consultant for the club, brought here by Dusty Baker, who was his longtime manager with the Giants.

I know it's been fashionable for Cub fans to hate him, dating back to his devastating performance in the 1989 NLCS, but he was laughing, talking with people in the front rows, signing autographs, and tossed a few balls into the stands, and seemed to be a really nice guy.

:: posted by Al at 10:29 AM [+] ::
...

A Smoltz-Free Weekend

Braves closer John Smoltz, who the Cubs never hit when he was a starter, and who sits at the break with 34 saves, possibly ready to take a run at the record (57, by the White Sox' Bobby Thigpen, which has now stood for 13 years), didn't appear in any of the four games this weekend.

This isn't necessarily a good thing, as it meant that all four games were blowouts, including last night's one-sided 7-2 Braves win over the Cubs, which dropped the Cubs to .500 at 47-47 (and me to a personal .500 at 28-28) at the break.

I'm going to try to look at this glass-half-full. The Cubs have a better record than one of last year's division champions (the Twins). They're three games out of first place, hardly an insurmountable lead with 68 games to go.

But there are disturbing signs. The pitching staff, which is supposed to be the strength of this team, gave up a ton of runs to the Braves. This isn't necessarily a bad sign, since pretty much everyone does that (the Braves are 2nd in the NL in runs scored among teams not named Colorado). Dusty Baker has turned into Don Baylor lately, bunting in the early innings, which is ridiculous, giving up outs when the offense is struggling. And Lenny F. Harris got another start last night, and was roundly booed, even when he got a hit, an ultimately meaningless single in the sixth. Let us hope that is his final hit in a Cub uniform.

Chipper Jones hit a line drive off of Antonio Alfonseca's hip in the 9th, and Alfonseca actually wound up pitching better after that happened. Maybe this is what we should have tried a month ago. Jones left town before I could give him the $20 I owe him for doing this (THAT IS A JOKE, INCIDENTALLY!).

Several of my bleacher friends (not from our group; we all sold our Futures tickets, those of us who had them) went to the All-Star Futures game at the Ballmall, then headed back to Wrigley for the night game. Ron said that the park was less than half full despite an announced crowd of 42,983. This isn't a big surprise. Cub "future" David Kelton was the USA team DH and went 0-for-2; it's entirely possible he'll be patrolling center field for the Cubs soon, as "Really-Bad" Hubbard hasn't shown any of the bat he showed us during spring training, going 0-for-7 since his recall.

Otherwise, we were pretty much sitting there depressed most of the evening after the Braves' big rally in the sixth. I did tell Tom that the Cubs were supposed to split series while he's here; he almost seems resigned to seeing the losses, meaning maybe I've finally indoctrinated him as a Cub fan. You'll have to forgive him as he grew up a Mets fan on Long Island, but at least he roots for the Cubs while he's visiting.

We spent much of the rest of the night trying to figure out how we would boo Todd Hundley when the Dodgers come to town in August, since Todd might still be on the DL. Maybe we'll just pick a Dodger and boo Todd by proxy. Or boo Fred McGriff, that is, if he isn't still out. Wonder if the Dodgers would like the Karros/Grudzielanek deal back. Howard left after 7, but not to leave the game; his son Jon was sitting elsewhere in the park with a childhood friend. No, Howard didn't sneak over. He had a ticket for the "other side".

The Cubs must average 37,606 for their remaining 32 home dates to get to 3 million attendance this year. According to the ticket availability page on the Cubs website, approximately 13 dates are already either completely or virtually sold out, which pretty much insures a crowd of around 39,000. Six other dates have fewer than 5000 tickets left. They'll have to continue to contend and get good weather throughout, to reach the 3 million mark. It'll be very, very close.

There's some stuff that happened last night that I know I'm forgetting, but my brain is pretty frozen up after getting home at 10:45 last night and getting up as usual at 3:30 am for work. If I think of this stuff later on, I'll add some notes.

And I will be reporting the next couple of days from the Home Run Derby and the All-Star Game, both of which I'll be attending. I'm really excited about just having some fun watching baseball, and especially tonight -- we have primo seats in the CF bleachers, and yes, I'll be bringing my glove.

:: posted by Al at 7:55 AM [+] ::
...

All-Star Fan Fest

Well... I have to say I'm disappointed.

First of all, you didn't have much of a choice in these tickets -- you had to buy them as part of the All-Star strip of tickets. Sure, I probably would have gone anyway, but the idea of being forced to pay an extra $16 (not even including the $15 "service charge") kind of rubs me the wrong way.

And, you were also forced to choose a date and time, maybe weeks or months before you knew when you wanted to go. As it turned out I couldn't make the original time I had purchased. The White Sox wouldn't exchange the tickets, so I had to go to a ticket broker to swap them for the time I really wanted. On getting there, they just scanned the tickets and didn't pay too much attention to the time of day (we were a half hour early), so I guess it didn't really matter -- I suppose they just wanted to avoid large crowds at popular times.

Anyway, of course this is all about money, and the MLB-sponsored booths had lots of merchandise, much of which is way overpriced. I mean, why would you want to pay $20 for an official All-Star ball when you could walk over to an independent vendor's booth and get the same item including a ball cube for $16? And why are they selling the "Limited Ballpark Edition" of the All-Star program, outside of the ballpark?

Also, the lines for the popular stuff like autographs, and the video batting cages, were up to 90 minutes, which means they didn't have enough space for the people who wanted to do these things. We didn't feel like hanging around for that long, and my son Mark understood. This is the luckiest kid in the world -- he wins all kinds of stuff. When we entered, they gave us all two "Prize Cards", sponsored by MasterCard, where you had to stand in a short (5 minutes) line to enter it into a machine, to find out if you won something. You could do this three times before you made an out. And Mark won on both of his cards. OK, the prize was an All-Star t-shirt, but that's OK for free, right?

The Hall of Fame exhibits were OK; mostly jerseys and gloves and bats from several different eras, and I take a little bit of unbrage at the "Hometown Heroes" exhibit -- yes, I know the White Sox are hosting the game, but they could have included a few things about the Cubs too.

The MLB shop merchandise, particularly the caps and shirts, were way overpriced; I figure in six weeks I can get the same stuff at half-price, so why buy it now? I just bought a few programs, some pencils and the "MLB Showdown" card game for Mark, which his friend Mitchell brought over today (he went yesterday) and the kids enjoyed it.

The FanFest is just OK; I wouldn't make it an all-day affair unless you like waiting in lines, and paying ballpark prices for mediocre food.

But I got to spend an afternoon with my son and my dad, and that, my friends, was worth it.

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