"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 23, 2003 ::

Will The Real Cubs Please Stand Up?

So which are the real Cubs? The ones who blasted the Astros 6-0 behind Mark Prior on Wednesday? Or the ones who lost a not-as-close-as-the-score 9-3 game to the same team the next day?

Or are they the ones who nearly no-hit the Diamondbacks last night, and blasted three homers off Curt Schilling?

Or the team that got blasted by the same Arizona team today 13-2?

The team that ESPN.com's Rob Neyer termed the Bizarro Cubs continued their alternate-day pattern on this trip today, in this awful-looking loss, which had so much bad stuff I can hardly even sum it all up in a short post here, and I really would rather not. It got so bad that I decided to take time out and go get my car washed, and in listening to Ron & Pat on the radio, they were so bored that they started listing names of different animals, and how so many animal names have three letters (trust me, you don't want to hear the entire transcript).

All I can say is that no matter how loyal Dusty Baker is to his players, he's got to realize that Shawn Estes and Antonio Alfonseca are absolutely killing his team. Lefty or no, I think I'd sit Estes down for the rest of the season. We are finding out first-hand why both the Mets and Reds let him go last year. Alfonseca had some gaudy save stats with the Marlins, but frankly, I don't think he was ever as good as he was touted to be, and Jim Hendry seriously miscalculated by paying him big money this year, and wound up with the world's highest-paid bad setup man.

The good news is that as of this writing, the Reds are leading the Astros 2-0, though it's early, and if they can hold on the Cubs will still only be half a game out, though behind both Houston and St. Louis, since the Cardinals beat the Phillies this afternoon.

[rant]

I would like to take this part of today's post to say what an execrable little [deleted] Thom Brennaman is. First of all, what's with that "h" in his name? That just screams out pretension. I never liked him when he was a Cub announcer; he got his job because his dad, Marty, the Reds lead announcer, turned it down, and recommended little Thommy for the job.

Now, he's the Diamondbacks' lead TV announcer, as well as Fox TV's 2nd team baseball announcer and football play by play man. And during today's telecast he didn't hide his rooting interest at all, getting all excited about Arizona rallies and runs.

What's even worse is his hype over things that should be ordinary, and total lack of a sense of baseball history. In talking about the Cubs' playoff chances he said, "They haven't made the playoffs since 1998 and haven't won a playoff game since nineteeeeeen-eiiiiighty-niiiiiiiine", as if 1989 were somewhere in the Middle Ages. Yeah, sometimes it feels like it's the dark ages, but fourteen years in baseball terms isn't a very long time at all.

Brennaman has a good broadcast voice, but that's all. I think he's an embarrassment on a national network telecast. Obviously, Fox used him for this game because they're cheap -- why fly another announcer in when their own guy is already in town -- but in general, I think for games like this which are supposed to be "neutral", they ought to use a neutral announcer.

For his part, I have heard Joe Buck, the Cardinals' lead radio announcer, do Fox games involving the Cardinals and he does not root for his team, not the way little Thommy does, anyway.

[end rant]

The Cubs can still salvage the last game of the series tomorrow, but that will take the good Matt Clement to show up.

:: posted by Al at 6:47 PM [+] ::
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Carole & Ernie's Wedding

Last night, we traveled out to Wheaton to see our dear friends Carole & Ernie get married.

You know, everyone in love should have such a gorgeous setting for their wedding. Danada House is an old country home that now hosts events like this. The ceremony was held in the outdoor garden -- and don't think they weren't counting their blessings that it was yesterday, when it was about 75 degrees, rather than Thursday, when it was 95. In fact, the minister even made light of this fact. He was a hoot -- cracking jokes about the love both of them have for baseball, and Ernie's love of horse racing. Everyone was smiling and laughing.

The reception was held in a huge tent connected to the building by a corridor that reminded me of a jetway, it was so long. But the tent didn't feel tent-like at all; it was cozy and intimate for the approximately 75 family and friends who were there last night -- it was great to meet many of Carole & Ernie's relatives, who are all terrific people, including his mother's four brothers, who entertained themselves and the rest of us by dancing together to the music the DJ's brought. They had travel-themed tables, and themed (Asian & Mexican) buffet stations, and all in all, through all of Carole's hard work (she must have burned a hole in her ear with all the time she spent on her cellphone making arrangements).

It was perfect.

And, last night, Carlos Zambrano was almost perfect, too.

Carole had said she'd try to find a TV where we could sneak away to watch. Unfortunately, this didn't happen, so I was elected to stay in touch with the game and give everyone updates, via my web-enabled cellphone.

So I started. And after Sammy Sosa's first-inning HR, everyone was excited, especially after we learned of the Astros' and Cardinals' losses.

And every few minutes I kept looking at the linescore. And that "0" stayed there under the hits column.

OK, I released myself. I realized that I wouldn't be able to see even one pitch of this game, though since it was on WGN, I know most of you did get to see it.

I didn't mention the word. I did call a few people over and silently pointed to the "0" on my cellphone screen. Everyone got it.

Well, as you know, Carlos lost the perfect game in the fifth with a walk, and the no-hitter was broken up by a controversial close-play call on Shea Hillenbrand's infield grounder with two out in the 8th. Frankly, this is the fault of the rookie umpire, Kevin Kelley. An experienced umpire would have realized the game situation (4-0 Cubs) and the import of the no-hitter, and that would have ended the 8th inning, and created an entirely different dynamic in the 9th.

Nevertheless, the Cubs won the game 4-1, which is, after all, the reason they play the games, and the most important thing, since it put them back where they were two days ago, half a game behind the Astros, and in second place ahead of the Cardinals.

Since August 10, when Sammy hit two homers against the Dodgers, I've been waiting for him to start one of his patented late-summer hot streaks. It didn't happen at home -- last night's two homers, which gave him his ninth 30-homer season, were the first ones since then. He has always hit well in Arizona, so perhaps this time it really will start one of those streaks. The club could use one.

The Cardinals attempted to bolster their pitching staff by picking up Mike DeJean from Milwaukee and Sterling Hitchcock from the Yankees yesterday. Hitchcock will go into their starting rotation. If this is the best they can do, the Cubs are in good shape. DeJean started the year as the Brewers' closer but has been awful in the second half, and Hitchcock is yet another player that the Yankees have attempted to fool other teams into thinking he's better than he really is, now for the second time. I hope the Cubs get to face him (though since he's a lefty, that means Doug Glanville in the starting lineup again -- groan!).

I apologize for the lateness of this post, but it was a late night last night and a lazy morning this morning as a result! And, there's another game to watch in just two hours, and I'll post on that one this evening.

And if you really want to be jealous, take a look at where Carole & Ernie are spending their honeymoon. Truly, I hope they enjoy. They're wonderful people, and I know they'll be very happy together.

:: posted by Al at 1:00 PM [+] ::
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Mark Is Eight!

My son Mark turned 8 yesterday; we got him an old-fashioned wooden baseball game for his birthday, and then gave him his choice on where to go for dinner. California Pizza Kitchen... OK, I know, boring.

Well, that's it for my entry today. Catch you tomorrow.

Oh!

You want to know about the Cub game too, I suppose. Gee, I was trying to avoid that.

The Cubs got blown out by the Astros 9-3 last night in a game that wasn't as close as that score indicated.

How bad was it? Kerry Wood got shelled again. Whether his back was bothering him or not, I don't know (he claims it wasn't), but we saw the Kerry Wood we don't like again -- I don't mean the pitching, I mean his antics in the dugout, showing his frustration, showing how angry he was, and you simply can't do that, because that channels all your energy away from the job at hand and shows the other team that you can't handle it. Simply put, Kerry needs to grow up. It's almost embarrassing how a pitcher nearly four years younger shows much more maturity than a five-year major league veteran. Mark Prior insists "Kerry's our go-to guy." But he's not. Prior is.

The Cubs loaded the bases twice in the first five innings and came out with only one run. Damian Miller hit into a double play to end the first rally, and then after a sac fly, Ramon Martinez made an ill-advised run to third (why would you bother doing that with two out, and it's going to take a hit to score you anyway?) and was thrown out for another double play.

I still cannot understand why Dusty insists on starting Doug Glanville against lefties. Look, Dusty: Glanville can't hit. Whatever hot streak he had with Texas, it's gone now, and not coming back. This is the only one of the recent acquisitions that is a complete waste. Not only that, but by starting Glanville, that left only left-handed hitters on the bench when it came time to pinch-hit for Wood with the bases loaded in the fifth. So Tom F. Goodwin (yes, that "F" is back) came up, and of course, struck out.

Now what's wrong with that picture? Well, first of all, wouldn't you want a power hitter up then? Someone who could clear the bases? OK, so Randall Simon isn't exactly a perfect power hitter. But he has a better chance of making a then 5-1 game close than Tom F. Goodwin. Frankly, leaving Wood himself up to hit, then taking him out, or pinch-hitting Mark Prior, would have been a better choice.

Even at that, the game wasn't out of hand till the Astros got five straight hits off Dave Veres, who was way off his game last night.

This isn't a disaster yet. The Cubs sit exactly where they were two days ago: third, a game and a half out, and one game down in the loss column, and the Cardinals are playing the Phillies this weekend, and I'd bet the Phillies are fighting mad after getting swept in Milwaukee. Meanwhile, the Astros play the Reds this weekend at home. The Cubs finished the season series 9-7 against Houston, so any ground to be made up there, they'll need help. The Cubs can still put the Cardinals away themselves, with eight games coming up against them in the next two weeks.

But that makes it even more imperative that the Cubs win two of three in Arizona this weekend. Carlos Zambrano faces Curt Schilling tonight. Schilling has been death on the Cubs in his career, but his year has been up and down, and Zambrano, obviously, needs to throw the game of his life tonight.

I wound up listening to some of the game on the radio, and both Ron and Pat mentioned how "up" they both were for the game. Too bad the rest of the team wasn't.

:: posted by Al at 9:04 AM [+] ::
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One Step Back...

... and then, a giant step forward.

As bad as the Cubs looked Tuesday night, that's how good they looked last night in Mark Prior's gem, beating the Astros 6-0 to move back to within a half game of first place, and even in the loss column. With the Pirates' 14-0 blowout of the Cardinals, that also moved the Cubs back into 2nd place. St. Louis' pitching staff has allowed more than 100 more runs than the Cubs' has, and despite their great offense, that's probably going to make the difference. I expect the Cardinals to fall out of contention and this race to come down to the Cubs and Astros.

The Cubs clinched the season series against Houston -- 9-6 with one game left, today, with Kerry Wood's back apparently fine and ready to go.

You could tell as early as the first inning that Mark Prior had absolutely electric stuff -- he struck out the first five hitters of the game and made everyone look silly until he had all of us thinking -- not, as I told my son Mark, saying "no-hitter". Mark didn't know of the baseball superstition to not mention a no-hitter in progress, so maybe he jinxed it when he mentioned that word as early as the 2nd inning. In less than two weeks it'll be 31 years since the Cubs' last no-hitter, Milt Pappas' 8-0 gem over the Padres which should have been a perfect game, except that then-rookie umpire Bruce Froemming called a borderline pitch ball four on what would have been the final out. Froemming has spent most of the last 31 years hating the Cubs anyway; that was just a sneak preview.

Anyway.

Several of the new Cub acquisitions produced -- Tony Womack had three hits and Randall Simon hit a monstrous three-run homer deep into the right field seats that made it 6-0 in the sixth, and allowed Dusty to pretty much empty his bench late in the game. There's another lefty -- Ron Villone -- starting today, so Eric Karros will no doubt get the start at 1B. Let us hope that Dusty doesn't get platoon-itis and start Doug Glanville, who appears to have forgotten how to hit, despite the meaningless single he had last night.

The doomsayers will be happy that Prior was pulled after throwing seven innings last night, only 100 pitches, though he probably could have gone longer than that. What I really didn't understand was the use of Joe Borowski again in a non-save situation; often, these things turn into run-producing nonsense, since many closers lose their focus when the game isn't that close, and then they're not available the next day. Luckily, Borowski shut down the Astros in good order in the 9th and threw only 15 pitches, so he should be ready tonight.

According to the Sun-Times, the following players may get September callups:

Josh Paul, Hee Seop Choi, Dave Kelton, Augie Ojeda and pitchers Juan Cruz and Todd Wellemeyer, and perhaps Class AA pitcher Sergio Mitre.

I think Paul right now would be a better backup catcher than Paul Bako, even though Paul hits righthanded like Damian Miller, and despite Bako's good defense. Bako really can't hit, and Josh Paul can. This was a good pickup made by Jim Hendry.

:: posted by Al at 7:48 AM [+] ::
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Um, That's Not How It Was Supposed To Start

Losing last night's game to the Astros 12-8 wasn't exactly what I, or I'm sure the Cubs, had in mind for the first game of this road trip.

Especially when 8 runs are pretty hard to come by -- it's been since August 7 since the Cubs had scored that many runs (that day, it was nine against the Padres as they completed a sweep in San Diego).

When the score was 12-6 and the time was approaching 10 pm CT, I decided it was time to go to sleep -- back to work this week, after all, and I figured the game was over. All I missed was Alex Gonzalez' 17th homer of the season -- one more and he'll match his career high, set last year. Even so, A-Gon is hitting well below his lifetime average, and that's one reason the club is doing so poorly.

We have known all year that if the Cubs were to go anywhere, the pitching was going to have to carry this club, and it failed again yesterday. Matt Clement struggled from almost his very first pitch; it was clear he had no command, and 102 pitches and four miserable innings later, he was yanked. If Dave Veres hadn't had his worst outing since his return from the DL, the Cubs would have been able to stay in the game.

So many people I know were horrified when the ballclub picked up Tony Womack yesterday from Colorado. Womack's having the worst year of his career, and like most of the other pickups, he won't take a walk to save his life. However, he is still an offensive upgrade over Augie Ojeda, and he won't play much after Mark Gruzielanek comes back; I'd see him as strictly an insurance policy. I figure that what Jim Hendry is doing isn't just going after Proven Veterans; it's Proven Veterans With Playoff Experience. With the addition of Womack, the current 25-man roster has no less than 17 players who have been in the postseason (the 8 who haven't: Prior, Farnsworth, Borowski, Zambrano, Clement, Ramirez, Gonzalez and Glanville). I don't necessarily think this means a thing. But that may be Hendry and Baker's thinking.

Hendry appeared on the FSN telecast and said, among other things, that Kerry Wood's back seems to be fine, and he should be able to make his start on Thursday with no problems. That's good, because the Cubs need a healthy Wood for the rest of the season.

With Prior and Wood scheduled to start the next two days, I still feel confident about the chances of taking two of three from Houston. Keep the faith.

Especially after this loss, and having spent the better part of the afternoon looking at cabinets for our upcoming kitchen renovation, I need a better day today.

:: posted by Al at 7:42 AM [+] ::
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Afternoon Notes

1) The losses on the homestand are all Jessica's fault. She e-mailed me today reminding me that the Cubs won all four games in which she sat with us in the bleachers, and lost the other three, in which she was sitting in her season-ticket seats. Therefore, I will have to insist that if she does return later this year, she'll have to sit with us. Case closed!

2) Worth reading: an open letter to Richie Daley from former Mayor Jane Byrne which was published in Sunday's Chicago Sun-Times, in which she correctly blasts him for the Stalinist way he destroyed Meigs Field, along with several other things that she brought to the city in her 1979-1983 term as mayor, which the current occupant of that office has lost or destroyed. The mayor's office, in the response which you can also see on that link, is their typical sputtering nonsense.

Good for you, Jane. Though it's been 20 years since she lost a 3-way primary to Richie and Harold Washington, she is even now only 69 years old. In many ways, the city would have been better off if she'd remained mayor.

Click here for a short bio of Jane Byrne.

:: posted by Al at 1:24 PM [+] ::
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Some Pictures For An Off-Day

My friend Sue was in LA weekend before last when the Cubs were there and took a couple of cool pics, which she has graciously given me permission to post here. First, check out Mark Prior warming up before his start on Sunday, August 10:



And, here is Sue giving one of our favorite ex-Cubs the treatment he deserves:

:: posted by Al at 4:01 PM [+] ::
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Something New Here!

Since I was finding it impossible to find enough cool or interesting links to put on the "featured site" on the sidebar, I've replaced it with "What Al's Reading", to let you know of books that you might want to try.

I have just finished Walter Isaacson's biography of Benjamin Franklin, an engaging portrait of perhaps the greatest American of his era, yes, maybe greater than George Washington in his far-reaching influence on everything that made this country what it has become.

Now, I'm about to start a less weighty tome, and I do enjoy books on the English language. Recommended to me earlier this summer by Michael Quinion's World Wide Words newsletter, by an American writer who lived in England for many years, Orin Hargraves' "Mighty Fine Words and Smashing Expressions."

I did promise a review of Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" a couple months back, and I see I haven't gotten around to that. Well, one of these days, I suppose. Right now I'm enjoying the Phillies' sixth-inning 6-2 lead over the Cardinals, which, presuming it holds up, will leave St. Louis in third, a full game behind Houston and half a game behind the Cubs in second.

:: posted by Al at 8:52 PM [+] ::
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It's All Phil's Fault

So Jeff, Krista & I decided this today... that since Carole was at the ballpark all week, and she's getting married on Friday, there must be some connection between that and the winning streak the ballclub was on until yesterday.

We figured we have to have someone in that spot, engaged and ready to be married during an upcoming road trip, so Phil got nominated. And despite the fact that a nice young woman came up and started talking to him during the game, Phil wouldn't pop the question right then and there.

So if you are wondering who is responsible for today's inoffensive 3-0 loss to the Dodgers, just blame Phil, who is still single tonight. Keep in mind that I have known Phil since we both got out of college in the late '70s, yet last year he was trying to convince everyone that he was 38. Um, Phil, that would mean that I met you when you were 14. Not likely, my friend.

We are just kidding. I think.

I say "inoffensive" because that's what the new-look lineup did today. We are now starting 3/8 of the Opening Day lineup of a team (the Pirates) that is eight games under .500. This makes no logical sense, especially since two of the best Pirate hitters, Jason Kendall and Brian Giles, are still there. On the other hand, the Pirates have outscored the Cubs by 27 runs, including today's action, so maybe there's something to continuing to acquire their hitters.

I'm not as down on the Randall Simon deal as many are -- clearly, this is a six-week attempt to get someone with some real major league experience in the lineup, since Hee Seop Choi is simply not hitting. I personally think Hee Seop is still suffering aftereffects of his concussion. Let him hit every day the rest of the month at Iowa, and next year, since Eric Karros will be gone, and Simon won't be offered arbitration, Hee Seop will be the starter.

Really, the game wasn't that far out of hand -- Carlos Zambrano just got wild at the wrong time, then issued an ill-considered intentional walk, and that was it. The Cubs did have Hideo Nomo on the ropes in the first inning, but couldn't cash in; Simon hit a rope that Robin Ventura made a great play on, and that was it. Usually it's get Nomo early or don't, and today, it was "don't", even though the Cubs were run out of another inning when Kenny Lofton was caught stealing to end the seventh. He jumped up and screamed in protest, but he looked pretty out from where we sat. So the Cubs left nine on base, and Sammy Sosa didn't hit a home run during the entire homestand.

And really, sending someone like Paul Bako up to hit against Eric Gagne is totally unfair; like those kid scrub games where you'd give the scrawny kid a 2-ball advantage. Bako did actually hit the ball (he popped up), but that was after swinging and missing at an 88-MPH slider. I mean, really. Gagne extended his ML record for consecutive saves at the start of a season to 41. He's now struck out 102 in 61 innings. That's almost ridiculous. The Cubs don't match up well against the Dodgers, whose pitching staff pretty much tied the Cubs in knots last weekend and this. It's odd to think that the Cubs would have a better shot in the playoffs against the Giants, who are clearly a better team than LA, but I believe that would be true.

The good news, of course, is that while the Cubs were losing two of three to a pretty good team, the Astros were losing two of three to the pitiful Reds, 4-3 today, and so the deficit is still only half a game, and even in the loss column, and if the Phillies can beat the Cardinals tonight, the Cubs will retain second place. While Albert Pujols continues his hitting streak, it doesn't seem to be helping his team very much.

There are now eighteen home games and twenty-one road games remaining, and that may be a good thing. Only Atlanta, Seattle, the Yankees, and oddly, Toronto, have better road records than the Cubs (32-27).

Maybe we should send Phil on the road in our quest to get him engaged. I mean, we all have to take one for the team.

:: posted by Al at 4:57 PM [+] ::
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