"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, March 27, 2004 ::

Back To The Drawing Board

PEORIA, Arizona -- I could blame Ernie again, but he and Carole were at the Grand Canyon all day, and didn't get to the game untiil the second inning, by which time the Cubs were already down 1-0.

Incidentally, here is Ernie's analysis of spring training: "Spring training is all about being physically prepared for the season, not mentally prepared. They weren't mentally prepared to play tonight, and tonight they weren't mentally sharp."

You can't argue with that, especially tonight, when what is likely to be the opening day lineup lost to the Padres 7-1 in the final night game of the Cactus League season (I'm not counting next Friday night's game at Bank One Ballpark against the Diamondbacks, because that one will have a regular season feel to it).

Jeff & Krista & I met at a recommended "cheap eats" place near Peoria Stadium called Caramba's, which was as advertised, good Mexican food at cheap prices. It's fairly easy then to get into the Peoria Sports Complex parking lot, though as usual, the local police make you go what is inevitably the opposite direction to where you want to go when leaving. Luckily, there are plenty of places to turn around and go the right way.

If you think I'm avoiding talking about the game, I'm going to do some more of that. We had first row seat down the third-base line and couldn't get there before the game because literally hundreds of people were trying to get Cub autographs. Moises Alou did come over and sign a few after warmups, and Jeff was sitting close enough to reach out and... well, let's not go there.

There were six military parachutists who landed on the field before the game, and that seemed to enthrall the Cub players more than the game itself; they all stood and stared at the precision landings, except for Alou, who was sprawled out, appearing to take a nap.

The game program they sell at Peoria ($3) has some really nice photos of the Padres' new stadium, Petco Park.

Was supposed to meet Eric Margheim from the Cubs newsgroup, but he never came by. Perhaps tomorrow at Mesa.

OK, I have avoided discussing the game long enough. Greg Maddux started tonight, which surprised me -- what's happened to Matt Clement? His last start was last Saturday in the split-squad game against the A's and tonight should have been his turn. Maddux threw well enough, until he started to not get some strike calls that he wanted, from Alfonso Marquez, who has a reputation as a poor ball-and-strike umpire, and that helped turn a 1-0 game into a 5-0 game in the fifth, the big blow being a 2-run homer by Cub tormentor Brian Giles; I'm very happy that Giles is no longer in the NL Central, meaning we only have to face him six times this year instead of 18.

Andy Pratt (wearing uniform #29) made his Cub debut in the sixth, throwing an uneventful scoreless inning. He's got a quirky little motion and if he can get his out pitch, the sinker, across the plate I think he will be quite successful. Everyone else would have gotten out of the game unscathed if not for a dropped fly ball by Tom Goodwin, which allowed two unearned runs to score off Joe Borowski, who had walked a couple of batters in the bottom of the 8th after getting two easy outs.

Meanwhile, the Cubs could not generate any offense; two doubles in the first inning were wasted after Jake Peavy settled down and struck out the side and the only excitement later was a triple by Michael Barrett (wasted) and a couple of singles sandwiched around a walk to Todd Walker, which resulted in the only Cub run, and even then the rally was snuffed out when Tom Goodwin was thrown out at second. The whole team didn't look like they wanted to be there today; I hope they have their good attitudes on for tomorrow. At least the game was fairly fast and merciful, two hours and twenty minutes.

One of the greatest names ever to wear a Cub uniform, Buck Coats, who has spent the last two years at Lansing, played half the game at SS. Coats is tall and skinny and will probably play this season at West Tenn (double-A).

I cannot figure this out for the life of me -- the seat next to us was occupied by at least four different people throughout the game, telling us they were "switching", though why they did that is beyond me. I also saw that their ticket had been purchased two days ago. How can this be, when I bought the five tickets immediately adjacent on January 30?

Finally, there is disquieting news about Mark Prior -- there's an unsubstantiated rumor that he might be out till June, which Larry Rothschild was quick to deny. But you cannot deny that Prior has been held back another couple of days, and the Cubs website says he'll probably miss at least the first two weeks of the season.

Let us hope they are just being overly cautious.

:: posted by Al at 11:14 PM [+] ::
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More Roster Cuts

After yesterday's game, the Cubs sent Bill Selby, Trenidad Hubbard, Calvin Murray, Casey Kopitzke, Fernando Lunar and Jamey Wright to the minors.

Now we're getting into a numbers game; Selby in particular has played well enough to stay with most major league clubs, but there is no place for him right now. Wright might have been the Mark Prior replacement, but he's pitched poorly.

These six will be some of the mainstays at Iowa this year and any of them could be called up in case of injury. I'd expect Selby and Wright to be September callups.

:: posted by Al at 1:04 PM [+] ::
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Movie Review: "This Old Cub"

Ron Santo is really a remarkable human being.

To have played major league sports for 15 years with diabetes, in an era when they didn't have the diagnostic tools they have now (Santo's remedy for low blood sugar during games was to "feel" how he felt and eat a candy bar), and at the high level he did, makes it even more of a crime that baseball writers who have never even picked up a ball or bat, never elected him to the Hall of Fame, and now that such decisions are in the hands of his peers -- well, don't get me started.

This documentary is a labor of love from Ron's son Jeff, an aspiring documentary filmmaker, and is being exhibited in digital video at several theaters in Chicago, and at one screen here in the Phoenix area, since there are so many Chicagoans like me here in the area for spring training.

The film was shown in a very small theater, only about 80 seats (about 2/3 full) and three teenage boys were messing around in the front, apparently trying to sneak into an R-rated movie through the front exit. Management caught them and escorted them out. Good to know that someone's watching these things.

As a young filmmaker, Jeff Santo does make mistakes. I think he went overboard on the "Let's Go Cubbies" chant that is omnipresent for the first few minutes of the film -- I found myself thinking "Enough already!" But seeing some rare footage of Santo playing back in the 60's, and a clever use of cutting-and-pasting of black-and-white photos, brings Ron's playing career to life.

I also hate it when filmmakers use songs incorrectly. At one point Rick Nelson's "Garden Party" is used during a scene when Ron is, in the song's words, "reminisc[ing] with my old friends" -- but the film wants to use it in a sentimental way, while the song was originally written by Nelson with great bitterness toward a concert at Madison Square Garden that ended in a near-riot. It's like the people who think Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" is a patriotic song, or Green Day's "Time Of Your Life" is about nostalgia (it's about a guy who just got dumped by his girlfriend).

It was also disconcerting when a big buildup was made over the impending announcement of the Hall of Fame vote in February 2003, with TV cameras in Ron's home, only to cut away for half of the 2003 season, then 20 minutes later, see the conclusion, which of course we all knew anyway, that Ron wasn't elected last year and must now wait till 2005.

But I'm nitpicking.

This is a love letter from a son to his father, and Ron Santo truly has tremendous courage. You are almost shocked when you see this former athlete with closeup shots of his amputated limbs, and see what he has to go through just to get to work each day, and he does so with good cheer and with a kind word for all his family and friends and "just fans", people who he sees every day on his way to the ballpark.

And of course, you shed a tear when the film ends with the retirement ceremony of Ron's #10, last September 28, and I'm still absolutely amazed when I think of that day, so emotional for all of us, a cloudy and cool day -- except for about fifteen minutes during the ceremony, when the clouds parted and the sun shone on Ron Santo.

There are the requisite celebrities, but this time they are not there just to show off -- people like Dennis Franz, Gary Sinise, Bill Murray were really there as Cub fans, growing up with Ron Santo as one of their heroes, and Jeff Santo doesn't hit you over the head with them, just shows you that in their love of the game and of this man, they're just like us. Joe Mantegna, another lifelong Cub fan, does a nice job with the narration.

The film reminds us that Ron couldn't make the broadcasts during the playoffs last year, and just like the rest of us, he too was crushed when the Cubs came up short of the World Series.

Ron Santo was part of my childhood and as such, this film was indeed a nostalgic trip back to those days when baseball players were larger than life, and somehow seemed more dedicated than they are today.

AYRating: *** 1/2

:: posted by Al at 11:31 PM [+] ::
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Making A List, Checking It Twice

MESA, Arizona -- No, it's not Santa Claus making a list, but Dusty Baker and the coaching staff, trying to find a pitcher to temporarily replace Mark Prior in the rotation.

I could just see them scratching another name or two off the list today after the 10-7 loss to the Rangers.

Gary Glover started. OK, this is a stretch to begin with, and I think he pitched himself off the team today. He was awful, giving up five hard hits in the first inning, including two homers, one by Hank Blalock and one by Alfonso Soriano, who was playing his first game ever at Ho Ho Kam Park, and you couldn't blame him if he wanted to stay, because he homered again off Bryan Corey in the 7th.

So at this point, that empty starter's spot is still open, no one having laid a good claim to it. I know Jim Hendry was quoted as saying they wouldn't push new acquisition Andy Pratt, because he's thrown only eight innings this spring, but why not? No one else has stepped up. Yet.

Today was Jeff & Krista's first day in the sunshine and it showed, they were both pretty pasty white. I brought a scorecard for Jeff but he didn't want to score today, wanting to ease into it, and Krista spent much of the afternoon napping, and it was a pretty somnolent game, punctuated by huge rallies; after the Cubs went down 6-0, they mashed around a couple of mediocre Texas relievers. Everyone hit today, just like yesterday, and not a single regular player was taken out (other than the pitchers), which is highly unusual for a spring training game. I'd suspect that several regulars will get the night off tomorrow at Peoria against the Padres, and so will be fresh for Sunday's televised game at Mesa.

Also ran into Bob the baker (he's not a baker any more, but that's what we call him) and his wife, who are down here for a week or so, and chatted with them for a while. Carole & Ernie took off for the Grand Canyon this morning, and will return in time for the night game tomorrow.

Sammy Sosa had three hits and three RBI and appears to be ready. One thing we learned today is that Todd Hollandsworth is a really bad first baseman; he attempted to start a 3-6-3 DP and threw about 15 feet off the bag; luckily, Alex Gonzalez was there to complete one putout back at first, but the failure to get the lead runner cost the Cubs the sixth run of the game in the third inning off Todd Wellemeyer.

I shouldn't say that all the pitchers stunk today. Kent Mercker, who has thrown very well all spring, struck out all three batters he faced, and Mike Wuertz, who wasn't even on the radar screen earlier, struck out five in two innings and he may have put himself in a position to make the team, now that Juan Cruz is gone.

But, after the Cubs had actually taken a 7-6 lead, Bryan Corey came in and gave it right back and Joe Borowski had a poor inning of work, though in fairness, Tom Goodwin almost made a spectacular catch on what woound up as a David Dellucci triple to CF.

Today, for the first time all spring, there were a couple of people smoking in the back of the lawn area. Smoking is completely prohibited at Ho Ho Kam, by Mesa ordinance, and the Mesa police had to come by and ask them to stop. Yes, it's outdoors, but it's still annoying, and I compliment the city of Mesa (and also Tempe, where they have a similar prohibition) for this forward-thinking ordinance.

Finally, in the first inning, a plane flew over -- and this happens often, as Ho Ho Kam is directly in the landing path for Sky Harbor Airport. Suddenly I heard cheering, and looked up, and realized it was Air Force One. The president was in town today for a two-hour appearance and the plane was actually a little off the flight path to Sky Harbor, but indeed did wind up landing there. (I originally wrote that he was headed to Luke Air Force Base, but today's Arizona Republic confirmed he did indeed land at the international airport, delaying many flights.) Many of you know that my political leanings are away from the current occupant of the White House, but I still have respect for the institution of the presidency. Still, it's kind of silly to applaud an airplane -- after all, no one on board could hear. Maybe the president knew his old team, the Rangers, were playing and he wanted to get a glimpse of them... naaaaaaaah.

:: posted by Al at 6:25 PM [+] ::
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Cruz For Pratt

The Cubs finally gave up on Juan Cruz today, trading him to the Atlanta Braves for lefty Andy Pratt.

There were two others involved, infielder Richard Lewis coming to the Cubs and lefty Steve Smyth going to Atlanta, but Smyth had long ago ceased to mean anything to the Cubs and Lewis is a "future".

Frankly, this is a terrific deal. I don't think Cruz had the stamina or head on his shoulders to become the future starting star that we thought the Cubs had in him three years ago, and the starts he made here in Arizona did nothing to take away that perception.

Pratt is 24, led the International League in strikeouts last year, and is left-handed, which automatically gives him a leg up, in the NL Central where there has been a dearth of quality lefty starters for the last couple of years.

In the near future, Pratt will probably be asked to fill Mark Prior's starting slot till Prior is ready. After that, he's got a really good shot at remaining in the 2004 bullpen, and then will likely get an opportunity for a fulltime starter's role in 2005.

Given the current Cub rotation, Matt Clement should start tomorrow vs. the Rangers; Greg Maddux Saturday in Peoria against the Padres, Carlos Zambrano Sunday vs. the A's at Mesa, and Pratt on Monday in Tempe, thrown right in against a tough offensive team in the Angels.

Good luck to Andy Pratt. I'm rooting hard for you.

:: posted by Al at 11:16 PM [+] ::
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Kerry!

PHOENIX, Arizona -- Kerry Wood threw six strong innings and the Cubs pecked away at four Oakland pitchers for 13 hits in today's 2-1 win over the A's.

But first, a bit about Carole and Ernie.

Carole wanted me to mention that the reason she slept through half yesterday's game was, in her words, that "I'm a Norwegian-German white girl." OK, so there it is. Today she spent part of the game in the shade, went to have a Dove bar, but still kept up with the scorekeeping -- for the most part, anyway. Ernie, for his part, kept moving around seats in our section, couldn't sit still, kept getting booted out of seats, but hey, that's Ernie. At one point I wanted to dispatch him down to where the scouts were sitting so that he could find out for me how fast Kerry Wood was throwing, but he wouldn't do it. In any case, now that the Cubs have won with Ernie present, he can come back again.

In the first inning, Jermaine Dye fouled a ball off the mask of plate umpire Mike Winters, which shook him up a bit. After a five minute delay and a repair to the mask, Dye stepped in and promptly fouled the very next pitch off the very same part of Winters' mask. Winters playfully pushed Dye out of the way, and both men laughed, and the entire crowd began laughing and then applauding. You see so little of this spontaneous fun in pro sports today and it really was a charming moment.

All this happened right after Eric Chavez slammed a ball over the CF hitters' background for what turned out to be the A's only run of the day. Kerry Wood was slated to go seven today, and he would have made it but ran out of gas in the 7th, and Dusty Baker actually erred on the side of caution by yanking him with two on and one out, after he had struck out six and allowed only four hits. Wood will have only one more Arizona start before Opening Day (next Tuesday against the Mariners) and he appears ready to go.

Meanwhile, the Cubs were stranding runners all over the Valley of the Sun -- eight left on in the first five innings, before breaking through in the sixth off A's reliever Chad Harville, and then consecutive doubles by Corey Patterson and Sammy Sosa scored the winning run in the 7th, and at an apparently high cost to the A's. The ball was a little popup over 2B, and 2B Mark Ellis and SS Bobby Crosby collided, and when the dust settled, Ellis had to be helped off the field holding his right arm, and we learned later that Ellis will be out six to eight weeks with a dislocated shoulder, a tough break for him and for the A's as well, since they really don't have a suitable backup... say... you don't think they'd take Mark Grudzielanek, do you?

After Wood was pulled, Jimmy Anderson got out of the jam and then struck out two in the 8th, perhaps solidifying a claim on a bullpen slot. Anderson still has a bit of extra weight on him, which has troubled him in the past. I should mention here that Kerry Wood appears to have trimmed down over the winter -- he looks in terrific shape and this could be his true breakout year.

LaTroy Hawkins finished up and the box score line's going to look great, but he gave up three hard-hit flyouts, and I hope his next appearance is better than the last two.

Phoenix Municipal Stadium had $6 million of renovations over the last offseason, but you could have fooled me. There's still no grass berm (apparently no room behind the LF wall), all they did was build new concession stands and souvenir shops (the food selection is still mediocre, and the only place selling programs was a stand that also had t-shirts, so you had to wait in line behind people who were mulling over 6 different shirts), and a corrugated-aluminum press box that they are all raving about, but that is indeed ugly. Still, Phoenix Muni isn't a bad ballpark, and they kept the concrete "folded roof" that is so 60's and that you can see at Dodger Stadium and also similar to the one I saw last fall at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan.

On the positive side, the PA announcer was quite good, the pregame music selection excellent (Springsteen and Buffett), and it's absolutely the easiest park in the Cactus League to get out of the parking lot afterwards, and even though they force you to go south out of the lot, if you want to drive north (which we did), they conveniently tell you where you can make a legal U-turn to turn around.

:: posted by Al at 5:46 PM [+] ::
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It's Ernie's Fault

TEMPE, Arizona -- If you remember, last year we had to ban Ernie from the bleachers because the Cubs were always losing when he showed up. He did redeem himself by being there when the Cubs clinched the Central Division title... but now it's back to his old ways.

Carole & Ernie arrived last night, just in time to go to today's game and break my four-game winning streak as the Cubs lost to the Angels 8-7.

This was a day for testing out pitchers and it didn't work very well. Sergio Mitre started and though it wasn't all his fault -- Aramis Ramirez looked awful in the field, making an error and waving at a couple of other balls -- he gave up nine hits and five earned runs in two-plus innings. Ernie said Mitre looked like he didn't have a good release point, and I agreed, and in addition to that, every pitch was flat. He had velocity but no movement and it showed. Everyone hit, the key blow being a two-run double by Jose Guillen. Troy Glaus homered as well.

Then the bullpen shut the Angels down till the scrubs came in the game; Mike Wuertz, Kyle Farnsworth, Bryan Corey and Joe Borowski gave up nothing, and then Jamey Wright came in and couldn't throw strikes, and wound up losing the game after a double, walk and hit batter, and then a bases-loaded single, this after the Cub scrubs (including Ernie's favorite spring training basher Trenidad Hubbard, and this year's spring training hall of famer Scott McClain) tied the game in the top of the 9th.

For the Angels Troy Percival also got batted around pretty good, the Cubs hitting him for four hits and three runs in the seventh; oftentimes, closers don't do well in situations like this and that may have been what happened to Percival.

In the 9th, a tall lefty wearing #68 started warming up, and I dispatched Ernie to the bullpen (we weren't sitting too far away) to find out who he was. He returned having asked Todd Walker, who was running sprints, who the guy was and Walker had no idea, said "some guy from Triple-A". Nice to know there's such camaraderie in camp.

For the first time ever I found Tempe Diablo Stadium without getting lost, although the Tempe police still don't have a handle on traffic with a sellout crowd, either going in or leaving, where we had to snake through local streets to avoid a huge traffic jam. Though I like Diablo, there's only one way out after the game and it took quite a while to get through the remains of the 9,216 crowd (another sellout) that was left by the 9th inning, maybe 1/3 of the total. Meanwhile, Carole had given up scoring at the end of the second inning, and I think the heat was getting to her, because she spent most of the rest of the game lying down out of the sun.

I didn't get into the souvenir shop as the lines were too long, but it looked like they had only Angels merchandise for sale. The crowd seemed almost half Cub fans today. At least on the lawn at Tempe, you can hear the PA announcer and he did give most of the lineup changes, until some of the Cub scrubs perplexed even him.

Finally, today I heard that a lot of people (not mine, yet) received the tickets they ordered from tickets.com on February 27. After being forced to pay a separate $18 charge for each game for FedEx for each game ordered via the Internet, apparently all the orders for each address came in one envelope.

I call on the Cubs to stop this scam.

:: posted by Al at 5:59 PM [+] ::
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Credit Where Credit Is Due

MESA, Arizona -- I don't want to pat myself on the back too much, but the fact remains -- the Cubs have not lost since I started attending games here, now four in a row. The two games (Friday in Tucson and Saturday in Phoenix) that I did not attend were both losses.

Today, the Cubs put on their hitting shoes, pounding out 18 hits and beating the Giants 12-4 in front of another sellout, 12,684 in Mesa.

Before I tell you a little about today's game, I have a special place for whoever designed the jerseys the Giants were wearing today. And that's not a nice special place, either.

The jerseys are black. OK, first of all -- why would you dress your team in black on a hot sunny day? Those shirts have to be tremendously uncomfortable. Second, the numbers and letters are black with orange outlines.

That makes them nearly impossible to read at a distance of more than about 20 feet. Combine that with the fact that the Ho Ho Kam Park PA announcer gives you about half the changes, and the fact that today, in the eighth inning, I started scoring in the wrong scoring box, and my scorecard was an utter mess. Luckily, the box score allowed me to finish. I had no idea who was pitching for the Giants after Kirk Rueter, who got pounded around pretty good, until I finally heard the PA (because the crowd had mostly cleared out by then) in the 8th announce Felix Rodriguez.

Anyway, there was no one hitting hero today -- everyone hit, and the 18 hits didn't include a single home run. Corey Patterson doubled, Derrek Lee (the "Derrek!" "Lee!" guys were back again today) had two more hits and a sac fly, Scott McClain resumed his quest for the Spring Training Hall of Fame by having two more hits and playing nice defense at 3B, and Michael Barrett missed hitting a grand slam by about a foot, settling for a bases-clearing double.

Meanwhile, Carlos Zambrano had his sinker working, after missing one pitch in the first inning and having Barry Bonds (who was alternately jeered, cheered by the Giants fans, and then had a huge gaggle of people with cameras run to take his picture after he was pulled and began running in the OF -- a very leisurely run, incidentally) hit a 3-run homer, his fifth of the spring after a slow start. That was it for Zambrano giving up anything -- he allowed only a J.T. Snow single after that and got 11 of his 18 outs on ground balls. I was trying to pay particular attention to Barrett and how he called the game today and I think the results speak for themselves.

Adam Greenberg, a minor leaguer who came over from Fitch Park and was issued jersey #62, pinch hit for Gary Glover in the 8th, grounded out and got one of the larger ovations of the afternoon -- I suppose his family and friends must have come to the game today. Greenberg will probably play this season at Double-A.

It was cloudy today -- hazy-cloudy, I should say, since you could see the sun through the clouds, and the wind which has been blowing strongly (and mostly out to LF) the last few days has completely died. It was "only" 88 today, not over 90 as it was for five consecutive days. Normal high this time of year is only 78, so it's still way over that.

I ran into Bill from Rockford who has been in Arizona since January -- nice to be retired, huh? and sat again with George from RF and his son, and they were nice enough to save my spot as I arrived a bit later than I wanted to, due to noticing on the way that my gas tank was almost empty. He said that even though there was no batting practice today, that they didn't open the lawn till about 1/2 hour after the gates opened. I also noticed that George still had his ticket wristband on from the ticket sale at Wrigley Field on Feb. 27. He said he was still waiting for his number to be called.

:: posted by Al at 6:25 PM [+] ::
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No Surprises Here

In another round of roster cuts,the Cubs sent Felix Martinez, Jason Dubois, Nic Jackson, David Kelton, Francis Beltran and Juan Pena to the minors.

Martinez has major league experience with the Royals, but also has a reputation as a bit of a headcase, and while he can make flashy plays, he often botches routine ones. He basically takes the spot that Augie Ojeda has had for the last couple of years, the infielder who might get a callup in case of injury.

Dubois, Jackson and Kelton are, of course, all prospects, and all of them, I think, will get a shot at replacing Moises Alou in 2005. What the Cubs ought to do is try them all in right field (Kelton actually played some RF in the games I've seen), since that's where a replacement ought to go. In 2005, Sammy Sosa ought to be moved to left. It probably won't happen, but it should.

:: posted by Al at 11:48 AM [+] ::
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Dee-Fense!

MESA, Arizona -- First of all, I was absolutely thrilled to see the fastest game of the spring yet, 1 hour and 56 minutes, and I imagine the players were too, considering they've got a day game tomorrow in 95-degree weather. In fact, the game almost seemed faster than my drive from Scottsdale over to Mesa, which normally takes about 15 minutes -- except for a night game, you're fighting rush hour traffic, which is getting more and more LA-like in the Phoenix area. I finally wound up getting off the 101 freeway and taking the "shortcut" through the Salt River Indian Reservation. Shh! Don't tell anyone about this shortcut!

Greg Maddux was in midseason form, throwing his usual efficient 60 pitches or so (in six innings), and he also put on a fielding clinic, starting a nifty 1-6-3 DP and snagging another ground ball that was about to go up the middle, as the Cubs beat the A's 1-0 and Scott McClain hit his sixth homer of the spring, which leads all major leaguers, for the game's only run. I was sitting with George from the RF bleachers, who I finally ran into today, and his son, and I said before McClain hit, "How about another home run here and let's go home." No, really -- ask George, I really did say that.

McClain is an interesting player, a guy who had a cup of coffee with Tampa Bay in 1998 and has spent the last three years playing in Japan. At 31 he's no prospect and has no chance of making the team, with Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee (who had a cheering section in the LF corner today, one guy yelling "Derrek!" and then several others yelling "Lee!") entrenched at the only positions he can play. But he surely has impressed management with his hitting this March, and he strikes me as a very useful player who can capably back up in case of injury. It'd be better if he hit lefthanded, but you can't have everything.

Other Cubs got in on the defensive show. Ramon Martinez also started a nice DP, backhanding a ball in short CF and flipping it back to Todd Walker. Corey Patterson made a nice running catch and appears to be suffering no after-effects from the knee injury of last year, though there's now talk that Dusty Baker might rest him a time or two a week. This isn't necessarily a bad idea early in the season when it's cold.

The regulars got half the game off, since there's a day game against the Giants tomorrow, and I'm sure they all appreciated the quick pace of tonight's match. There were only two walks, both by A's pitchers, and Cub pitchers struck out only three (two in the 9th by Mike Wuertz, who will probably be the closer at Iowa this year), so nearly every ball was put in play.

In the "I'm Getting Old" department, the A's center fielder was Nick Swisher, son of former Cub All-Star (yes, he was an All-Star in a year he hit .236, and you can look that up) Steve Swisher. Nick was a top draft pick and will, in a couple of years (he's surely not ready yet and went 0-for-4) begin a much better career than his dad had.

It was absolutely gorgeous tonight, not a cloud in the sky, a crescent moon, and about 85 degrees at game time, which in this climate feels really comfortable. The Ho Ho Kams kept the outfield berm closed until after the Cubs took batting practice, something they started last year after a couple of kids got trampled by adults running after BP homers. This is a double-edged sword; I can understand this thinking, but I would have liked not to have to stand around for half an hour waiting to sit down, then have to run to stake out a spot. If anything it was more crowded on the berm than it was on Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow, it's unlikely anyone will take BP, so this won't be an issue. Otherwise, it was fairly peaceful out there -- probably because the game was too short for anyone to really get out of control. There were also a lot more kids there tonight than on Sunday.

Frankly, I'm not that crazy about night games during spring training and I don't think the players are either. Granted that night games are more routine during the season, but in March you play only one or two of them and this day really must break up their rhythm. Add that to the fact that Ho Ho Kam Park's lights aren't really major league standard (and I don't think any of the spring training parks have major league quality lights), and I'm not sure why the Cubs bother, since they sell out (12,712 today, another sellout) anyway and there's no broadcast involved.

Sight seen: a vendor carrying buckets selling water, wearing a t-shirt reading: "The Waterboy: Beer Is The Devil". Too bad one of the buckets had a sticker promoting a beer company.

:: posted by Al at 10:26 PM [+] ::
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A Few Notes

First, the bad news. It now appears nearly certain that Mark Prior will start the year on the DL. We can only hope that with off days, and back-dating the DL date, that he won't have to miss too many starts. If that wasn't bad enough, Moises Alou fouled a ball off his leg yesterday. Isn't it odd the way certain players just seem to have these things happen to them more than others? At least the Cubs have some options in LF, unlike last year. Tom Goodwin finished yesterday's game but I'd expect Todd Hollandsworth to get the playing time if Alou can't play for a few days.

I saw a blimp hovering over the park in Mesa and thought that was a little much for WGN's coverage of a spring training game. It wasn't. It was there for the Safeway International tournament on the LPGA tour, being held at nearby Superstition Mountain Golf Club, and won by Annika Sorenstam yesterday.

:: posted by Al at 9:37 AM [+] ::
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The Transformation Is Complete

MESA, Arizona -- If you've known me for a long time you know that up till last spring I never wore shorts to the ballpark. Never. Not in 95-degree heat.

OK, I decided to try it and it worked well and I enjoyed it. But I said -- sandals? No way.

I bought a pair of sandals (cheap, half-off at Famous Footwear) and wore them to today's 7-6 Cub win over the Padres. Since the Cubs won the first game sandal-clad, I consider them a sign of good luck. Actually, I didn't wear them at all once I sat down on the berm, since it was more comfortable to go barefoot.

This was my first game back at Mesa this spring and nothing much has changed. The concessions, which I learned in the offseason are controlled by Cactus Concessions, are still mediocre and overpriced and they won't allow any outside vendors in, not even for a cut of the action, so the city of Mesa is waiting another couple of years till the contract expires, then they'll make a better deal.

It's the same thing for souvenirs. The souvenir shop was packed , and it's amazing because the shirts, hats and other stuff is way overpriced compared, say, to a T-shirt store in Old Town Scottsdale (about $15 for a spring training shirt), to the $18 I paid yesterday at Maryvale -- at Mesa, similar shirts (they didn't even have the Cub shirt I bought at Maryvale) are $27 and hats $26. OK, I had to have a cap, so I splurged just this once.

You still can't hear the PA announcer on the grassy berm, so lineup changes were impossible, and the Padres brought over a whole bunch of people who weren't on the roster listed in the program, plus there were two #54's, and then the scoreboard got the SD hit total wrong about the third inning and never corrected it. I knew it was wrong and the box score confirms that I was correct.

Didn't see anyone I knew today; Carole & Ernie will be here on Tuesday night, and perhaps tomorrow night I might run into someone else from the bleachers.

The Cubs came out swinging again in the first inning, just like yesterday, went out to a quick two-run lead. Corey Patterson doubled and I believe he is ready to start the season. I have to say Juan Cruz didn't look much like he was, though. After a quick first he had a very shaky second, giving up four line-drive hits and a walk and wound up behind. He left the game tied after four, and if this is any indication, he needs more work. Cruz also looked pretty pathetic trying to bunt in the second inning after Paul Bako walked. The Cub hitting star of the day was Derrek Lee, who went 3-for-3 including a ringing double in the sixth.

A lot of people left the park after Sammy Sosa was pulled in the 6th; only after that did a group of fans down the RF line unveil a "Casa de Sosa" banner. Very odd. Those who left earlier than that missed Scott McClain's fifth homer of the season -- I was sitting in LF but wasn't all that close to it, it was closer to the foul line than I was.

The Cub bullpen was fine, both Kent Mercker and Kyle Farnsworth threw uneventful innings, that is, until LaTroy Hawkins came in to finish it off -- and he must have lost focus or something, because he retired the first two batters easily, then gave up four straight hits and they were all ropes, and the Padres wound up with the tying run on base, only to have catcher Fernando Lunar pick off pinch-runner Bobby Scales to end the game. I don't think this is indicative of the type of game Hawkins will throw; he was facing Padres minor-leaguers and it's easy to lose focus in a situation like that. I've seen that happen in spring training games many times, when an easy victory is turned into a tense finish.

This is the first time I've seen the Padres new uniforms and it took me a while to realize that the road pants aren't gray, they're "sand" colored -- it's very subtle. The shirts were the typical dark colored spring training tops and they didn't look all that different than the Padres' previous incarnation, and I guess that's part of the purpose of them, even though the team has a new logo that incorporates ocean-type waves as a big part of it.

One of the drunks that you see on the lawn spent the day telling Padres LF Ryan Klesko that he was heading back to A ball -- how ridiculous is that? He looked like an A-baller waving at a couple of fly balls headed his way, though he might have had a good excuse -- it was very windy today, unusual for Arizona this time of year. Another strange guy spent time trying to sell a homemade CD of Harry Caray calls for $5. The artwork alone (looked like it was hand-drawn by a 10-year-old, and not very well) turned me off.

Tomorrow is the Cubs' first night game of the year at Mesa against the A's. Today's attendance was 12,737, the largest crowd of the spring. I would expect nearly every game from here on out to be sold out or close to sold out as the Cubs approach a spring attendance record.

:: posted by Al at 5:34 PM [+] ::
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