"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, August 02, 2003 ::

Attack of the Aphids

In the seventh inning, swarms of what Mike (who is an expert on bugs) called aphids descended on the ballpark, causing a scene that would have been hysterically funny if we weren't part of it -- the sight of literally thousands of people swatting at bugs flying in front of their faces. This included almost all the ballplayers, too. Howard & I wound up putting towels over our faces, which led to the inevitable cries of "Osama!" and "Saddam!" Jeff brought some bug spray so we all sprayed ourselves, then loaned it to the security guards. It seemed like that sent a fair percentage of the crowd home.

Then the wind shifted and the bugs blew away, and Joe Borowski blew the Cubs' lead away with a very bad ninth inning, as the Diamondbacks traded yesterday's score for today's and beat the Cubs 4-3.

It was clear that Borowski had nothing; he seemed to be laboring from the moment he took the mound, and as usual, Dusty had no one warming up till it was too late, after Raul Mondesi, who had struggled for two days, had a really good at bat against Borowski and doubled in the eventual winning run.

Up till then, it had looked like a pretty good game; the Cubs had timely hitting, including a double by Shawn Estes, who threw yet another good game by a Cub starter; Paul Bako threw out a couple of runners and had an infield hit. But the Cubs also left eight on base through the first 8 innings and had the chance to break the game open several times and couldn't do so. This is, as I've said so many times before, the maddening thing about this team, that they can't build on emotional wins like yesterday's. They still do have the chance to win two out of three, by winning tomorrow, and once again, that would continue the current little streak. If Matt Clement can even come close to what he did in his last start, that ought to do it.

And with Houston losing to Florida, in progress as of this writing, 4-0, the Cubs would remain only 3 1/2 games back, presuming that score holds up. And tomorrow also ends a very long stretch -- going back to the series at Philadelphia at the end of June -- in which the Cubs played only teams with winning records. If they can stay this close until Labor Day, the schedule turns dramatically in the Cubs' favor.

Today was Howard's birthday and he brought Mint Milanos, which used to be a staple of my diet till I went off carbs & sugar (current count - down 50 pounds). Since it was his birthday I had one ceremonial Milano.

Tomorrow is Jeff's birthday and Brian promised to bring a cake. SHHH! Don't tell Jeff.

Now, it's off to a party at Roz Varon's. See ya!

:: posted by Al at 6:37 PM [+] ::
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A Long Day's Journey Into Night

I had about three different leadins to today's post and soon, I'll take you through my thought process and the final result.

First, it's my opinion that if the Cubs had finished the bottom of the 6th (when the rain started falling) with the lead, the umpires would have waited the minimum time, then called the game. But with this being Arizona's only visit here this year, and with a national-TV date tomorrow (meaning no TV would be possible for a DH), the pressure was on to finish this game. That's why I call again, as I have
earlier this year after the ridiculous May 11 non-game vs. St. Louis, for a MLB rule change allowing games like this to be suspended.

Howard & I stayed for a very long time, well dry under ponchos and umbrellas (yes, I kept the backpack and scorecard completely dry) and finally, after Phil (who called me at 9:40 pm from Bernie's -- a bar near the ballpark, if you don't know, wondering if I was still at the game), Brian and Jeff (who had Lion King tickets tonight) all left, we started playing a game of chicken -- neither of us wanted to leave first. So at 6:15, with rain coming down harder than ever, we left together, each of us to drive home and see if they'd resume. I mean, I'm nuts, but I'm not stupid. It appeared that maybe 3,000 or 4,000 people were left after the delay, which is about normal for these kinds of things. If the delay hadn't been three hours, I might have stayed myself.

It's Howard's birthday tomorrow, and he's bringing his wife and daughter, so I guess he had to get home to rest up, also!

Anyway, Juan Cruz threw very well today (though I still don't think he has the stamina to be a fulltime rotation starter), and matched up almost pitch for pitch with Curt Schilling. Both starters were long gone after the delay. And then ... they played on long into the night. And I started working on today's game post, and, well...

So here, as promised, is an inside look at my thought process as I was preparing the post for today's marathon.

This is the paragraph I had ready to go as the game was reaching two out in the bottom of the 11th:

"I was all ready, especially when the Cubs had the bases loaded in the 7th, to sit here and post, right after the end of the game, an optimism-tinged post on the great comeback win, but unfortunately, Joe Borowski blew up in the 11th, and a dink hit by Rod Barajas scored two runs and the Diamondbacks beat the Cubs 3-1, snapping their own four-game losing streak."

But then Eric Karros and Aramis Ramirez hit dinky little singles themselves, and when Troy O'Leary doubled into the gap, our old friend Wavin' Wendell waved Ramirez around, and he either slid under the tag or the catcher dropped the ball (it was hard to tell even on the replays), and play continued into the 12th.

Then, I had this exciting paragraph ready to go, figuring they'd win it easily in the 12th, with the winning run at third with one out:

"Now I'm kind of wishing I'd stayed till the end of the incredible 4-3 comeback win over the Diamondbacks, probably as impressive and emotional a win as the Cubs have had all year."

After that, when Antonio Alfonseca managed to load the bases with only one out:

"Instead, here's the sad ending to a very long day, as Antonio Alfonseca, the last pitcher out of the bullpen, came in and sucked again, and the Diamondbacks finally beat the Cubs 4-3."

But somehow, Alfonseca got out of it by striking out Raul Mondesi and getting Alex Cintron to hit into an easy forceout. And then, amazingly enough, Antonio had to bat in the bottom of the 13th, and he laid down a nice sac bunt, but to no avail, as neither Damian Miller nor Kenny Lofton (sandwiched around an intentional walk to Ramon Martinez) could bring Aramis Ramirez home with the winner, so the night continued...

And here is the real game summary, finally decided after typing and re-typing over the last hour and a half...

Incredibly enough, Antonio Alfonseca, who has been booed off the field several times in the last month, turned out to be tonight's hero, throwing three scoreless innings, as the Cubs won 4-3, on what would have been a sac fly by Aramis Ramirez, his first game-winner as a Cub. I say "would have been", since Raul Mondesi dropped the ball, and it simply goes as a bases-loaded single. After nearly eight hours, I think the club will take it! This was an incredible, improbable win, and now I wish I had stayed -- even though, since I was parked in a zone-parking area, I probably would have gone home with a parking ticket.

I've said many times after a big win, how it could give the Cubs a lift -- and it rarely has. Now it's August and wins like this have to give that kind of lift. This makes 5 wins in the last 7 games, and that's a start that they have to build on.

They don't have to face Randy Johnson in this series, and oddly, Elmer Dessens, who was supposed to start on Sunday wound up pitching the 10th and 11th innings -- so Brandon Webb will make the Sunday start against Matt Clement. They pretty much ran through most of the rest of their bullpen today, as did the Cubs, and everyone threw well -- until Borowski, who is generally reliable, except for these kinds of spectacular blowups which happen at the absolute worst times (like the June 26 game against Milwaukee where he blew a game where Mark Prior had 16 strikeouts). Speaking of Prior, he has now officially been pencilled in to start on Tuesday at San Diego, and not a moment too soon. Again, the starting pitching came up strong today, but the anemic offense didn't help the staff out.

Alex Gonzalez, he of the 3 game-winning HR this season, came up in the bottom of the 9th with a chance to do it again, but struck out.

Sight seen: when we walked in, a bunch of 20-something men sat down wearing t-shirts that read -- well, I can't remember, but it was something about drinking, and we figured we were in trouble, but they were actually pleasant enough, and busied themselves flirting with a group of young women sitting in front of them wearing t-shirts reading "midwestern girl" (yes, in all lower case). By the time it started raining hard, they were all huddling together, and I suppose not only for keeping dry.

Signs seen: these were made down in the first row during the game by some enterprising people who came armed with markers. Sign #1 read: "Alfonseca 4 President". Followed by sign #2, which read: "So He Can't Pitch Anymore".

And I hope those signs were left in the rain -- since Antonio Alfonseca pretty much saved the day today. It just goes to show you that no matter how long you follow baseball, every day brings something new, interesting and exciting, that you hadn't expected to see.

:: posted by Al at 10:12 PM [+] ::
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The White Tiger

And no, I'm not talking about Shane Halter. (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

"The White Tiger" was the name of the short play put on by my daughter Rachel's summer class, kind of an introduction into drama for kids her age, and to learn not only acting but all the nuts and bolts of how to put on a production. In addition to her role in the show (quick plot synopsis: it's about a child whose father is killed by a white tiger, and he spends years learning how to hunt, so he can hunt down the tiger. In the process of doing so, he also rescues a young girl and brings her home), she was the stage manager. A great job was done by all!

And this is the reason that I missed my fourth home game of the season, a delightful 9-4 Cubs win over the Giants. Now some of you are probably saying, gee, if they won and you didn't go... but no, the club is 2-2 in the four games I've missed (April 11, a 3-2 loss to the Pirates; May 30, a 9-1 loss to Houston; May 31, a 1-0 win over Houston, and today). So I'll return to the Yard tomorrow, and look! The Cubs have now won four of their last six, two of three in each of the last two series, and if they can continue this pace, things ought to look a lot better.

I heard and watched a fair amount of this game via radio and FSN. By the time I arrived at the play, the first run had already scored. This is why this team is so maddening. You look at a game like today's, and Tuesday's, and wonder how they could ever look as bad as they did yesterday, with their supposed ace on the mound. They also wound up winning the season series from the Giants 4-2, against a team that's got the second best record in the National League. I guess I could say that's a classic .500 team mode of playing, that they play up or down to the level of their opponent, but I'm still hoping this club shows better in the last two months of the season. Carlos Zambrano threw his second good game in a row, despite losing a bit of concentration in the 8th, balking in a run after the game was already well in hand; and Sammy Sosa took over 11th place on the all-time list with his 522nd HR.

I don't listen to a lot of games via radio, since I'm either at the home games or watching road games on TV, so today was a different experience. I normally don't care for Ron Santo, since he doesn't give me what I want from a color commentator, which is analysis from a player's point of view that I can't get elsewhere. From Ron, I get grunting and yelling, a lot of "I don't know" even though he has a sheaf of press notes in front of him, and some really bad play-by-play when Pat Hughes has to go to the bathroom. I give him credit for loving the Cubs and being passionate about the game.

But today he was actually pretty good when they started talking about all the trades that were being reported at the deadline, and especially when he mentioned that he really couldn't figure out what the Reds were doing, trying to sell a new ballpark at the same time that they finished decimating the team by trading Aaron Boone and Gabe White to the Yankees. Last winter, "The Onion" ran an article saying satirically that the Yankees had bought every player in baseball, and it's turned out to be not too far from the truth. The Yankees also traded Robin Ventura to the Dodgers, which means Ventura, who's already played a series in Wrigley Field this year, will play six more games against the Cubs. It was mentioned last Saturday on the FOX-TV telecast that due to the way the schedule has panned out, that Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton will probably play 26 games against the Astros this year (they'd already played 16 while with Pittsburgh, and the Cubs had 10 left with Houston after the deal). Let's hope they both love to hit Astros pitching.

But the Reds are going to wind up like the Tigers if they keep getting rid of all their good players -- they're left with Austin Kearns and... well, Sean Casey isn't panning out like they hoped, neither is Adam Dunn (.217??) and their marketable guys, well, Barry Larkin is done and probably going to retire, and Ken Griffey Jr. is a huge financial and performance bust.

Who cares, really, except for the fact that I actually enjoyed listening to a radio broadcast. And today, the Cardinals lost to the Expos 3-2, so the Cubs creep a game closer to second place, and all of us, of course, will be rooting for the Braves to beat the Astros tonight. If they do, the Cubs will have picked up two games in the standings in the last six games, and that's not a bad pace at the end of July.

One last note on trades: I was pleased to hear today that the Royals acquired Al Levine from Tampa Bay for cash. Al's a friend of Dave and Brian's, and he really got screwed over when the Cardinals cut him at the end of spring training. The Cardinals could have used some bullpen help. Instead he threw well for Tampa Bay, and now he gets to be in a pennant race, plus the Royals need the help too. Good for Al!

:: posted by Al at 4:23 PM [+] ::
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Two News Stories That Pissed Me Off This Morning

1) About two weeks ago, a van carrying 18 people to visit family members at a downstate prison crashed on I-57, killing several people including a couple of children.

Now, the mothers of two of the children are suing the van driver and the company that owned the van, and this makes sense, since the driver may have been unqualified, the van uninsured, and the company did not take proper steps to make sure of any of this, and they probably had too many people in the van.

But yesterday these women announced they were also suing Daimler-Chrysler, the manufacturer of the van.

Get a clue, people. I don't like defending large conglomerates, but it is clearly not Daimler-Chrysler's fault that the van was overloaded, or that the driver didn't know how to drive it properly. Their claim apparently is that there is a "steering problem". This changes this case from one of sympathy for mothers who lost their kids, to viewing it as pure greed, trying to suck money out of a company that had nothing to do with this tragic accident.

Someday, people will learn to take responsibility for their own actions. But I won't hold my breath.

2) Last Sunday, a small plane en route from Jackson, Michigan to the airshow in Oshkosh, Wis. developed electrical problems and made an emergency landing on the taxiway at the shuttered Meigs Field. The pilot landed safely and no one was hurt, and a couple of days later he flew out.

Yesterday, the Butcher of Meigs Field, Richie Daley, accused the pilot of doing this as a political setup. The mayor was quoted as saying: "This is the city of Chicago. It's in the state of Illinois. Oshkosh is up there. It's north of here a couple hours. If he's going to Oshkosh, that man is going in the wrong direction."

Gee, Richie -- if you're flying from central Michigan to central Wisconsin, isn't Chicago right in the flight path? And gee, isn't it a coincidence that he "made up" engine trouble right over the lake?

Hearing Richie say stuff like this simply proves that he's embarrassed over the whole thing, that he should never have closed Meigs in the first place, and especially not in the Stalinist way he did it.

Guess he'd rather the pilot ditched in the lake and died.

Setup, indeed. Richie's been hanging around the wrong people for far too long.

:: posted by Al at 8:16 AM [+] ::
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Dave Jinxed It

After the fifth inning today, with no hits, Jeff & I looked at each other and we both knew what the other was thinking. If we were going to lose -- and it was pretty clear we were -- why not have a no-hitter to generate some excitement?

Then Dave mentioned the magic words that you're not supposed to -- "no-hitter" -- and poof! it was gone, with Kenny Lofton's 2-run homer.

Yeah, I know this is all superstition. But baseball is full of them, and it's part of the charm and lore of the game, and I wish he hadn't said that, given the fact that the Giants went on to beat the Cubs 6-2.

This team is maddening. No consistency. One day after Matt Clement throws the game of his life, Kerry Wood goes out and does exactly what he did in his last start -- get himself into trouble, this time with walks, and then he lost his focus for one batter, Edgardo Alfonzo, and poof! (there's that word again) it's 4-0 Giants.

Lofton hit his first HR with the Cubs, but he also very badly misplaed a line drive hit right at him by Andres Galarraga with two out in the 8th. He broke the wrong way and the ball flew over his head for an RBI double. Then he came up in the bottom of the 8th with a runner on and popped up on the first pitch. This is not the way to play winning baseball.

Aramis Ramirez did have his first RBI as a Cub, a consolation sac fly in the 9th. But here's the value of defense: in the decisive 2nd inning, a ball was hit right at him with a man on 1st and nobody out. Most major league third basemen would have turned a sharply hit ball like that into at least one out, and maybe a DP, and Wood would have gotten out of the inning when he struck out Benito Santiago. But Ramirez misplayed it, not badly enough to get charged with an error (it went for an infield hit for Galarraga), and that's about when Wood started to lose focus. He does this often when something goes wrong in the field behind him. I say it's about time for Kerry to grow up and become the staff ace we've been expecting him to be for three years now. He did strike out nine, but so what if you lose.

Antonio Alfonseca, who was probably being showcased for a trade, probably took himself out of consideration with another terrible outing, 28 pitches of agony, including two walks; at one point he threw seven consecutive balls, and left to an enormous chorus of boos.

I should mention, since I've been on the case of him being worthless, that Paul Bako walked twice and scored a run, which is pretty good production from the catcher's spot these days.

I missed BP since I was at work till 12, but when I got there nearly everyone I talked to was raving about the show Barry Bonds put on, skying several balls out onto the street, including one that broke a third-floor window across the street, a shot that must have been at least 520 feet.

In other news today, the Cubs reacquired Doug Glanville, a former #1 pick, from the Texas Rangers, in exchange for Jason Fransz, who is having a decent season at Lansing. Glanville's not a great player and unfortunately, he fits the current Cub mold of don't walk and strike out a lot, but he's better than "Really-Bad" Hubbard, who will no doubt be sent back to Iowa, never to be seen again. I wish I could say it would have promoted the release of Lenny Harris or Troy O'Leary, both of whom struck out as pinch-hitters today (and that makes Harris 3-for-31 as a PH, which is truly awful), but I think these guys are both Dusty's pets, and we're stuck with them for the season.

Still, just as there was over the weekend, there's still the chance tomorrow, with Carlos Zambrano going, to win this series (and win the season series over the Giants, too), and that's all you can ask. Two of three for a period of a few weeks would keep the club right there with the Astros and Cardinals. The Astros lost Roy Oswalt to the DL again, as he hurt the same groin muscle that put him out for a while a month or so ago. As I said yesterday, I hate seeing players hurt, but I'm not sorry the Astros are without their best pitcher for a while.

Tomorrow, incidentally, there is an event at my daughter Rachel's summer camp that is scheduled for 2 pm, so I will miss my fourth game of the season. I'll try to catch the end of it, and report afterwards anyway.

Off to watch the Braves/Astros on ESPN tonight -- and to be a big Braves (and Expos, too) fan for another day.

:: posted by Al at 5:22 PM [+] ::
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Additional Notes From Last Night

1) You may have seen our section on TV; I looked up at one point and a WGN camera was in the aisle. This time he was shooting Jeff's scorecard instead of mine.

2) The price of a Super Big Gulp (that's 44 ounces) at the 7-11 across the street from the ballpark went up during the road trip to $1.29 from $1.19. That's still cheaper than inside, where you pay $3.50 for 32 ounces. Incidentally, this 7-11, I have learned, is the largest-grossing 7-11 in the world.

:: posted by Al at 4:01 AM [+] ::
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This Is Why I'm A Cubs Fan

Just when you think all is lost. Just when you think you ought to give up. Just when the Cubs have lost 10 of their last 14 home games.

That's when they come up with a win like tonight's efficient and fun 3-0 shutout of the Giants, a team the Cubs should probably have not been able to beat so easily -- they came in 29 games over .500, running away with the NL West.

But Matt Clement picked today to throw not only the best game of his season, but perhaps the best of his career -- a two-hit, two-walk shutout, throwing a surprisingly high 111 pitches (it seemed like many fewer in a game that ran only 2:14). Neither of the two hits was hard-hit; the first was an infield grounder by Marquis Grissom (a slower runner would have been thrown out), the second a little popup into short right by Andres Galarraga.

Barry Bonds was rendered harmless too; oddly enough, he's never hit very well in Wrigley Field. During his record-breaking HR season in 2001, in six games vs. the Cubs he hit only one HR (by comparison, the same year the Giants played six vs. Atlanta, with a much better pitching staff, and he hit seven against the Braves).

The only Dusty move that I really didn't understand today (and it turned out not to matter, but anyway) -- why wasn't Ramon Martinez in the game in the 9th for defensive purposes at 3B? Aramis Ramirez made another error today, though it didn't matter, and he really is as, well, bad as advertised. It'll be forgiven if he hits, but in a game like this, you ought to put your best defensive team on the field in the 9th. Joe Borowski was, in fact, warming up, but he wasn't needed.

It was nice to be back "home" -- you may remember we were aced out of our seats during the last home game, and Jeff was back from his trip to NY and Yankee Stadium (where they scored skybox tickets, of all things). Carole showed up late and missed all the scoring, and is considering doing this for more games, since -- well, since baseball is full of superstitions, and if this one works, why not? For my part, I'm wearing the same cap tomorrow that I wore today.

With the Astros' 6-3 loss to the Braves, the Cubs move to within 3 1/2 games of first place (down only 3 in the loss column), and with Kerry Wood going tomorrow, I think the club's chances of winning another series are very good. I had told everyone when the scoreboard indicated Roy Oswalt was pulled in the 3rd inning of a 2-1 game, that he had probably been hurt again, and in fact, that's exactly what happened; he reinjured the groin muscle that had him on the DL earlier this year. While you never like to see players hurt, I can't say I'm unhappy that the Astros may be again without their best pitcher.

I also wanted to show all of you how quickly I can get home from the ballpark -- the game ended at 9:21, and it's now 9:50 pm, and I've been writing here for a few minutes already, and soon it's off to bed. But I'm glad I was able to post the game report tonight.

Beloved old Cub news: Bill Mueller hit two grand slams tonight, one from each side of the plate, and had 9 RBI for the Red Sox.

Sight seen: the scoreboard lights were off today. We couldn't quite figure out why -- either they were burned out, or they turned them off to save a little electricity. If burned out, it could take months to fix them, as it took seven months to replace the lights in the men's room. According to Carole, half the lights are now off in the women's room in the bleachers now.

If they'd spend some of this money on better players, I'd be happy to pee in the dark.

:: posted by Al at 9:51 PM [+] ::
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Rumor Mill

I'm getting antsy for tonight's game, so as of now all I can report to you is that the Cubs and Brewers may be close to a deal for OF/1B/PH John Vander Wal, who is currently hitting .278/.374.504, .878 OPS in 248 at-bats. Apparently this would involve no more than a B-level prospect on the Cubs' part.

Gosh, I'd drive the guy to the airport myself. Vander Wal is one of the majors' best pinch hitters and we could only hope that this would mean the release of Lenny F. Harris.

:: posted by Al at 3:07 PM [+] ::
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So Where's The Cub Post?

Today being a day off, I spent some time catching up on some paperwork and following the Pirates' 3-0 shutout of the Cardinals, which was made even better since I have Jeff Suppan (who threw the CG shutout, his second of the year) on my fantasy league team. This put St. Louis 3 games out, going into their series at Montreal, and Houston is visiting Atlanta, a place they've never played really well.

All this means is that the Cubs must take 2 of 3 from the Giants, starting tomorrow night. 2 of 3 has to be a mantra the rest of the year, and as I mentioned yesterday, it's time for this team, which does have some power hitters, to take advantage of Wrigley Field.

Matt Clement faces Damian Moss. Moss hasn't pitched in Wrigley Field in his career, and Clement hasn't had much success against the Giants over the last three years (one start this year, 6 IP, 7.50 ERA, and a 4.56 ERA over the three previous years vs. San Francisco). But Clement threw well in his last start, and perhaps it's time he turned it around.

Perhaps I'm just babbling here tonight. I'll shut up and go back to watching the Braves-Expos game, the only one on TV here in Chicago tonight.

:: posted by Al at 8:10 PM [+] ::
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Stupid City Law Strikes Again

In what is surely not a surprise, the city of Chicago is coming down hard on a family-owned business in Pilsen.

Why? Because two nine-year-old twins helped their grandmother, who owns the secondhand store, by cleaning some windows and getting paid $1 each.

The city inspectors got involved because of a Chicago Sun-Times photo of the two of them that ran about a week ago. Eventually, there were no citations issued -- maybe someone in City Hall figured out how stupid this is -- but no one from the city should have gotten involved in the first place, except maybe to congratulate this hard-working family on having a successful business and teaching kids the value of work.

Look -- there are good reasons for child labor laws, because for many years in this country kids were exploited and made to work long hours for little or no pay. But that's not the case in a small family-owned business like this, and giving two nine-year-olds a dollar for work is hardly breaking the spirit of this law.

Maybe the big brains at City Hall who work so hard to suppress any semblance of free thought in this city, ought to attempt to change this law so it reflects the times.

:: posted by Al at 7:47 AM [+] ::
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Roller Coaster Ride

I decided to go back to the future today.

If you've been reading here since spring training, you know that there was a streak when I was not listening to the games on radio, and the Cubs won nearly all of those.

So today, being pretty tired from being out late at the wedding shower last night, I decided to take a nap, wake up whenever, and join the game in progress.

It worked. They had a 3-2 lead by the time I woke up and hung on for a hard-earned 5-3 win over the Astros. By napping, I managed to miss Wavin' Wendell costing the Cubs a run in the first by sending Kenny Lofton after he stole second and advanced on an error. There is a fine line between aggressiveness and stupidity and unfortunately, Wendell crosses it far too many times.

Luckily, Sammy Sosa's 521st career homer, tying Willie McCovey and Ted Williams on the all-time list, and another by Mark Grudzielanek, were enough, and Shawn Estes pitched well enough for a win and to save his job for another turn in the rotation, which will come up this weekend against the Diamondbacks.

The Cardinals' dramatic comeback win over the Pirates today tightened up the Comedy Central, as even with a .500 record the Cubs are only 4 1/2 back, and the Cardinals now 2 1/2 back. The club has played very well on the road, and particularly in Houston, where they have won four of the six games played this year.

It's really simple. Championship teams take advantage of their home ballparks, and there's no reason that this Cub team can't do for the next two months, what they did the first two months of this year, when they were 30-24. A record like that won't quite be enough to win the division. There are 58 games remaining and the Cubs will probably have to win 35-38 of them to have a realistic chance; I believe the Central can be won with between 87-90 wins.

But they had better start now.

Another Pirates-Cardinals game took place at Welles Park in Chicago today, as my son Mark's Pirates team lost their playoff game; so their season is over. Just today I realized that their team, sponsored by the Lincoln Park Savings Bank, could be called the Lincoln Park Pirates (obligatory reference to those of us who grew up here in the '70s and loved the music of Steve Goodman).

[digression]

Since napping seems to work, I may try it again on game days. Just do not start calling me "Napster" or anything like that. Don't want to be targeted by the RIAA or anything. If they think that prosecuting music consumers is the way to get them on their side, they are fooling themselves. Yes, getting music for free isn't the way for artists or recording companies to make money. But there has to be a way, given current technology and interest in music, to compromise so that music lovers can have the music they love, while still making money for those who create it.

[end digression]

[another digression]

And get a load of the 2004 All-Star logo, which was revealed yesterday by the Astros, who will host the game.

How boring is that? It gives no sense of history or place; the only connection to the Astros is the very small "star" logo, the Houston logo, between the words "All" and "Star", and really has no distinguishing features to make it interesting at all. They claim that it honors "icons of the ballpark", but so what? The park's only three years old and while interesting, the logo doesn't really capture its feel. If I were an art teacher having had this submitted as a class project, I'd have failed it. Awful.

[end second digression. done for today!]

:: posted by Al at 4:41 PM [+] ::
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