"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, May 22, 2004 ::

Don't Rusch Me

OK, I figured I'd get the pun out of the way first off, considering neither Howard nor Jon was at the game and no one can smack me with a clipboard here.

Glendon Rusch was absolutely dominant. My friend Dave, who has seen a lot of pitching in his day as a semipro coach and now team owner of the Rockford Riverhawks, said it was perhaps the most dominant performance of the season. Rusch looked almost effortless as he threw 7.2 innings, striking out nine and allowing only six hits -- it almost seemed like the double to Pujols was a present to Rusch, because it allowed him to get a standing ovation as he left the field (including applause from Dave, who is very hard to please) -- and the Cubs beat the Cardinals in a breeze, 7-1.

The day, in fact, started very breezy, so much so that I completely gave up the idea of reading the Tribune I had brought. I settled for the Sun-Times, which today had a very funny comic strip involving Sammy Sosa (if you click that link after May 22, you'll have to click "5/22" on the calendar at the lower left of the page).

We were watching some approaching rain, but most of it fizzled out before it got to the ballpark. At no time was the game delayed; there were two little 15-minute sprinkles and by the 7th inning the sun came out, and it was yet another warm day, 78 degrees at game time. It's been so wet that a female mallard (thanks to Mike for identifying its sex by the markings) who apparently lives in the center field juniper bushes, spent about half the game sitting in CF right behind Jim Edmonds. The grass was so wet that Todd Hollandsworth nearly slipped and fell running in to make a routine catch in the sixth.

It was so wet, apparently, that the guy who had the 88-year-old grandmother who talked to us yesterday decided to stay home. We never saw him.

Meanwhile, Jeff had shown up having not slept at all because Jon's dog doesn't like thunderstorms (which blew through the area overnight again) and spent the night huddled up with Jeff, because Jon is out of town. He was grateful that the game went so quickly, so he could go home and get some sleep before tomorrow's night game.

It was really over in the first inning, when five of the first six Cubs reached base, crowned by Derrek Lee's stuck-in-the-ivy double. Woody Williams has never pitched well against the Cubs, and today was no exception. He somehow managed to get into the sixth, allowing all seven runs. Mike and I agreed after the first that four runs wouldn't win the game, but we were wrong today; Rusch's performance made sure of that, and the Cubs did do what they haven't been doing -- had multiple rallies in one game.

I was a bit puzzled when, with a big lead, Dusty didn't let Kyle Farnsworth bat in the 8th, considering he'd thrown one pitch (at 100 MPH) for the last out. Instead, Damian Jackson pinch-hit and LaTroy Hawkins, who threw yesterday, came in again. Dave explained that sometimes pitchers ask for this extra work, and in that case, it worked out OK since Hawkins threw only 13 pitches, and with the night game tomorrow and a day off Monday, both of them should be able to go Sunday night if needed.

Hollandsworth's homer in the third landed about 30 feet from us -- right in the next section over, right in Cheryl's seat, just after she had left to get something to drink. She was pretty pissed when she found out about this when she returned. Instead, a bunch of college-age men formed a scrum behind us to grab at the ball. That's the closest HR to our section in about two years, and none of us could remember a game in which the Cubs beat the Cardinals this easily, for about that long, either. Naturally, I had to look this up -- it was the 7-0 combined shutout that Mark Prior and Kyle Farnsworth threw last Labor Day, the first of the amazing five-game September series at Wrigley Field.

Since there were only four of us today, we gave up the second bench to a nice young family, who apparently were at their first Cub game ever (Metra train schedule in the dad's back pocket -- dead giveaway) -- and wildly cheered virtually every catch made by the Cubs. I guess we have just learned to pace ourselves better.

Fun comment of the day: In the second, the Cardinals scored their only run when Edgar Renteria's popup landed among Hollandsworth, Corey Patterson and Todd Walker, none of whom could make the catch. It was at that point that Dave, who pretty much can't stand anything Patterson does, said, "Why is he playing so deep? Look at how Jim Edmonds plays CF, always middle to shallow, and goes back on the ball."

Two innings later, my friend Ron came over to visit from LF and told us that after this run had scored, Moises Alou had walked over to the warning track (apparently, Alou trusts the LF group because they're about the only ones not giving him grief over the... well, you know what) and said to them, emphatically, about Patterson, "He's playing too deep!"

Guess that's what you do when you have a manager for a father!

:: posted by Al at 3:23 PM [+] ::
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Phil Almost Comes Through

So my buddy Phil comes marching into the bleachers this afternoon saying, "Got the scoop! Got the scoop!"

He proceeded to tell us that "inside info" said that Michael Barrett would be batting second today. (Guess he must have been listening to The Score or something -- that's usually where he gets his "inside info".)

Well, turned out he was right, and Barrett took advantage of the new batting-order slot to slam home runs in his first two at-bats, so I'm guessing he'll be batting second for a while. It's actually a pretty good idea -- Barrett's shown decent bat control so far, and he's far better than Corey "I Never Saw A Pitch I Didn't Like" Patterson in that spot.

Sadly, I can't credit Phil with the win today, because Sergio F. Mitre decided to be bad Sergio today, and gave the homers right back to the Cardinals (Pujols and Edmonds back-to-back in the fourth) and the Cubs lost 7-6, despite another Moises Alou bomb onto Waveland (none of the six homers hit today needed any help from the wind).

Phil did give us another somewhat substantiated rumor, which I'll save for the end of this post.

A huge thunderstorm raced through the area this morning, knocking out power at Jeff and Howard's place (Jeff & Krista are living with Jon, in the basement of Howard's building -- don't ask), so he had to call me to get the updated weather report. When I got there I talked to Bill from Rockford who said he thought he was going to be seeing a tornado on his drive in this morning, that's how dark it got.

Nevertheless, it stopped raining, I put on the shorts (though took several other layers into the park, none of which I wound up needing), and by gametime the sun came out and it was quite a pleasant afternoon. Official game-time temperature was 61, though it felt like it was in the 70's at the ballpark -- I think they use the lakefront temp reading for the ballpark temp, so it may have been a bit cooler right at the shoreline.

Joining us today was David Geiser from the Cubs newsgroup, and the Cubs also lost the game he attended in the bleachers last year, so I jokingly told him he might have to be banned. He'll be at the other two games this weekend in the terrace and/or boxes, so I'll forgive him if the Cubs take the next two games.

Early in the game a guy walked up to us and asked "How do you get these great seats?" We explained that we have season tickets and either Jeff or I get there at gate-opening. He said he was bringing his 88-year-old grandmother to the game tomorrow and was looking for a place where she'd be safe from the drunken idiots.

Actually, I'd recommend somewhere other than the bleachers for an 88-year-old woman, but that's another story. We told him that we might have room for them tomorrow, and that we'd try to keep the drunks away from them.

Today's game drove home the lesson we've learned since Kerry Wood has been out -- that the vaunted pitching staff does have some holes. The last two spots (Mitre and Rusch) are being held down by less-than-replacement-value pitchers, and Mark Prior (who had a stellar appearance at Class-A Lansing last night) and Wood can't come back too soon.

It appears that Wood will start one of the games of the makeup doubleheader at Pittsburgh on May 28, so that's only one more start for Rusch in his spot, and Prior probably the weekend following, at home vs. the Pirates, after which Mr. Meat-Tray will either be sent back to Iowa, or the bullpen.

Frankly, I simply cannot understand Dusty Baker's use of his bullpen. Todd Wellemeyer did an excellent job of keeping the Cubs in the game, throwing two spotless innings and lowering his ERA to 2.08 in 13 IP. But it was only the third time he's appeared since April 27, a span of 21 games, and that's just silly. Again, why carry twelve pitchers if you're not going to use them all? What it does is force ridiculous moves like allowing Sergio Mitre to bat for himself in the fifth. What did Dusty think? That he was going to bang another double off the wall (and we all thought he should have been credited with a triple)?

Someone like Bill Selby, who's hitting .305 at Iowa, or David Kelton, who has 11 doubles and six homers, could be useful to the Cubs on the bench, especially with Sammy Sosa out and Todd Hollandsworth in the lineup every day. Maybe when Wood and Prior come back, the bullpen can be adjusted and the Cubs will acquire some bench strength.

Which leads me into Phil's other rumor. With Alex Gonzalez out, there's been talk about acquiring another SS, and the Mariners have apparently soured on Rich Aurilia already, and Aurilia used to play for Dusty Baker, of course, and Cubs scouts have been seen scouting Mariners games, and so...

It's not Aurilia the Cubs are after, it's Ichiro.

It'd probably take Corey Patterson and a pitching prospect, and you know what, I'd do it. Ichiro is 30, an established star, and I like his approach to the game much more than I like Patterson's. He'd be an instant fan favorite, could easily handle CF, and solve the leadoff problem. And, his #51 was vacated by the Juan Cruz trade.

If this is really what Jim Hendry has in mind, I say do it.

And remember where you heard it first.

:: posted by Al at 6:04 PM [+] ::
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Carole's Birthday

That's about the only nice thing I can say about the Cubs sleepwalking through another loss to the Giants, 5-3 in 10 innings today.

Sue showed up with brownies for Carole's birthday (which is actually on Monday), so I had to eat one, particularly when the Cubs were trying to rally. We all signed a card and someone wrote on it: "See me after the game - #44" -- that's for Carole's longtime "thing" for Kyle Farnsworth. Pretty funny, actually.

Sue is a breast cancer survivor and said she had gone on the low-carb diet, and lost 10 pounds so far. Congratulations to her, and knowing what cancer can do to you, more power to her for beating it.

For the first time this unusually warm spring, it was actually feeling a bit humid, almost August-like, as there was a forecast of thunderstorms (which never did hit, and I have bought the Weather Channel radar application for my cellphone for $4 a month, so we can keep track of approaching storms out there).

How warm and humid was it?

For the first time ever at Wrigley Field, I wore sandals to the game. I had done so in Arizona at spring training, but this was their first appearance at the Yard. I told Jeff that though I had broken through and worn shorts and sandals, I draw the line at tank tops. Nope. No way. Never. No, I really mean it this time!

How warm and humid was it?

The mirrors in the men's room were all fogged up (and for once, there were no lines for either restroom) and the ramps were wet even though it hadn't rained at all.

So with the wind blowing out we all played HR derby, where I got last pick -- that seems pretty traditional. At first I picked Paul Bako (who hadn't hit a homer in a year and a half), but then turned him in for Jason Dubois. Didn't matter. Pedro Feliz and Moises Alou traded homers and the Cubs managed somehow to turn a sleepy offense into a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning.

Greg Maddux, who passed Cy Young on the all-time strikeout list today with his 7 K's, pitched another creditable game, but this game started looking a lot like so many we have seen in the past. All five Giants runs scored in innings where the first two hitters made outs. These are situations where, as my friend Phil would say, you have to "close the deal". Maddux couldn't do that, and neither could Joe Borowski, who disposed of the first two hitters in the 10th inning, but then walked Michael Tucker (who didn't have the kind of bad attitude he's shown in this series when he was a Cub) on four pitches and then gave up a homer to Neifi Perez, who came into the game with zero homers and hitting under .200. Perez was once a hero for homering against the Giants when he was with Colorado, winning the last game of the 1998 season against San Francisco with a homer and forcing the 1998 wild-card tiebreaker game which the Cubs won.

The problem is, believe it or not, missing Sammy Sosa. Though Sosa can be maddening at times, he was having a good year before The Sneeze, and further, without him in the lineup, the bench is weakened tremendously by having to put Todd Hollandsworth in as a starter every day (my son Mark concurs with this, in comments made after the game. Glad to know that the city's eight-year-olds are up on current trends!).

There are other people hurting -- it's clear that Todd Walker's shoulder is still bothering him, because he was sidearm-slinging almost every throw, and one inning when they were throwing the ball around the infield in warmups, he uncorked one that landed in the seats behind third base. He could use a day off, and maybe Dusty will give him one against the Cardinals, to rest up for the series in Houston next week.

Jon decided today was going to be Bad Pun Day, as when Dustan Mohr came up, he said, "Do you know why the Twins traded him? Because they didn't want him any Mohr." That got a light tap on the head from my clipboard. But when Matt Herges came in to pitch and he said, "Herges is as good as mine" (say that out loud for full effect), I gave him a good whack, something he felt even through his ponytail.

But the blame must go to my friend Brian -- this isn't Brian who usually sits with us, but another Brian. Yeah, I know, it's confusing. This was his first time out there this year, and after the 9th he said he had to go coach his son's team. A fine excuse, but right after he left, that's when everything started to go wrong.

The Cubs really miscalculated on Kerry Wood. After all things seemed ready for him to pitch this weekend, he was placed on the DL today. Had they known this before, I'm sure he would not have dropped his appeal of his suspension. Players on suspension cannot be placed on the DL, so the Cubs are trying to figure out what date they can make this DL stint retroactive to -- they're hoping it'd be to his last start on the 11th, but it might have to be to today, since the last day of the suspension was yesterday. Michael Wuertz, who started out well but was sent back to Iowa with a 10.38 ERA, was recalled, which means Glendon Rusch inherits Wood's starting spot for a while (as of this writing it appears he will start Saturday against Woody Williams).

**** UPDATE to this... Sandy Alderson of the Commissioner's office allowed the Cubs to backdate the DL move to May 12, the day after Wood pitched last, which means he could pitch in the Pittsburgh series beginning the 28th, and will still have to have an appeal of his suspension heard later.

The Cubs thus far almost seem like a better road team than a home team (the records nearly identical, 11-8 at home, 12-9 on the road). The wind blowing out so many times this year may have sucked the team into thinking that hitting home runs would come easily. It doesn't. This team should not be losing two of three to a team with a pitching staff as bad as the Giants.

And yet, even with all the injuries, even without Mark Prior all year and now without Kerry Wood for a while, they still stand only a game out of first place, since the Marlins beat the Astros 6-2 tonight.

Besides that, Sports Illustrated did the Cubs a favor this week by putting Roger Clemens on their cover, thus jinxing him (and I replicate it here, to even further jinx him):

:: posted by Al at 5:18 PM [+] ::
...

Stylin'

We figured it out, Howard and I did.

Corey Patterson likes stylin'.

The last time the Cubs were on ESPN (OK, so tonight was ESPN2) was Opening Day against the Reds. Corey homered that day.

And today, with the ESPN cameras and a blimp hovering over Wrigley Field, Corey homered again, plus drew a four-pitch walk (we almost fainted on that one). After the homer I called Carole, who spent last night ragging on Patterson all night, and before I could say a word she yelled, "He still sucks!"

The game ended on a majestic note, one of those times when you see the ball hit the bat and start its arc and you just know it's gone, and you can raise your arms in the air in triumph, and we did at Moises Alou's second walk-off homer of the season (the first was the back-to-backers with Sammy Sosa on April 16) and the Cubs came from behind to beat the Giants 4-3 in 10 innings, their first home night game win of the year after three losses.

Today's unusual (for Chicago) 6 pm starting time had a lot of people confused, particularly Jeff, who until yesterday thought today was a day game. Good thing I told him or he'd have shown up at 11 am wondering, "Where is everyone?" Unlike last year when the ballpark opened at 4:35 for a 6:05 start, today was a prompt two-hour-before-first-pitch 4:05 opening. It was warm, then cool, then warm again, and both Jeff & I were taking off, then putting layers back on. It wasn't nearly as cool as last night, a comfortable 63 degrees at game time. By tomorrow, supposedly it's going to be in the mid-80's, with a good chance of thunderstorms. We shall see.

I'll bet the ESPN people were pretty upset when they realized there would be no Barry Bonds and no Sammy Sosa in tonight's game. Bonds, according to a couple of security people I talked to, could barely walk after last night's game and won't play tomorrow either.

Meanwhile, Sammy officially sneezed himself onto the DL today and he was replaced on the roster by Jason Dubois, who made his major league debut (wearing #4, last, um, disgraced by Doug Glanville last year) pinch-hitting for Carlos Zambrano in the 7th and delivered a game-tying sac fly to right, handled by ex-Cub Michael Tucker, who was...

Well, let's say that the usual abuse given to an opposing player was given in much larger quantities to Tucker tonight. The usual ("Tuuuuuuuuucker! Tuuuuuuuuuuuucker! Tuuuuuuuuuuuucker! You suck!") was yelled so many times by some of the drunks behind us (and if I yelled like that, I wouldn't be able to talk for a week), that Tucker finally turned around and shook his head. I said to Mike that these guys probably didn't even remember that Tucker had played for the Cubs only three years ago. Plus, Tucker was the offensive hitting star for the Giants today, singling and homering.

The cobbled-together Cub lineup (seriously, I had gone to the bathroom when the lineups were announced and I thought the scorecard that Howard handed to me to copy was a joke -- Jose Macias playing right field and leading off?) was kind of sluggish for the first six innings, and Carlos Zambrano was just bad enough to leave while down 3-2, though Dubois got him off the hook. It might have been worse if Michael Barrett hadn't thrown out two runners trying to steal, which now gives him five caught stealings in fifteen attempts off him, a pretty decent percentage given his reputation coming in as a guy who couldn't throw out runners.

Today, the bullpen came through yet again. Kyle Farnsworth decided to break tradition and not walk the first batter he faced, and had a 1-2-3 inning; LaTroy Hawkins (who Howard said was only in the game as part of a MLB promotion for the movie "Troy"), had a less-than-stellar inning (and aren't the Cubs having some Achilles problems right now?), including hitting Tucker on a 2-2 pitch (after which Tucker slammed his bat to the ground), but he got out of it. Then the next movie promotion guy, Joe "The Big Borowski" (OK, you can stop groaning now), had a scoreless inning, though walking two (one intentional). (Have I put enough parentheses in this paragraph?)

It ended when Felipe Alou did what I have criticized Dusty Baker and so many other managers for, so often. Jason Christiansen, a lefty, had thrown an uneventful inning and a third, and had a good rhythm going. Nevertheless, there was no way Alou was going to let him face his son Moises, a right-handed power hitter. You know, percentage baseball. So in came righty Jim Brower, who's been probably the only really decent pitcher in the SF bullpen. Six pitches later, the game is over. So, it worked out for the Cubs, but sometimes I shake my head when managers go "by the book" like this, rather than keep a game that has a good rhythm going.

The drunk idiot quotient was pretty high tonight; we didn't have two full benches so we let some college-age people sit with us. They were pretty nice, but did keep getting up to get ... well, so many mai tai's that I lost count. They also insisted on standing right behind us to smoke, which is not allowed. And seriously, do smokers really think that if they blow smoke straight up in the air that it won't bother the nonsmokers? It doesn't work that way, especially when the wind is blowing the smoke straight back at us.

Oh, well. Eventually the Chicago City Council is going to get around to passing their proposed ordinance banning smoking at all workplaces in the city, and since Wrigley Field qualifies as a workplace, that'll be the end of it.

Despite more drunks than usual (and oddly, last night there was actually a guy who had spent money to put the word "DRUNK" on a Cubs home jersey -- and he didn't drink!), there weren't any fights that I could see, and people actually were into the game at some of the tense moments, particularly when Hawkins got out of a jam in the 9th by inducing a contact-play grounder that Aramis Ramirez made a nice play on and threw Pedro Feliz out at the plate.

When this series began last night Mike said we ought to think about a sweep, since the Giants (particularly without Bonds) aren't a very good team. That, along with Houston's win tonight leaving the Cubs still a game back, makes Greg Maddux's start against Dustin Hermanson tomorrow even more critical.

Finally, we learn today from Jayson Stark's column on ESPN.com that an ESPN resarcher discovered that Randy Johnson's perfect game was the first ever pitched on a Tuesday.

Some people have way too much time on their hands.

:: posted by Al at 9:35 PM [+] ::
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One For The Ages...

... well, almost.

If not for Michael Barrett -- and isn't that the way it always works, one of the slower guys on the team? -- beating out an infield hit in the fifth inning, last night would have gone down as the second day in major league history on which two no-hitters were thrown, the other being June 29, 1990 when Fernando Valenzuela threw one for the Dodgers against the Cardinals, and Dave Stewart no-hit the Blue Jays in Toronto for Oakland.

And on a night when Jason Schmidt decided to show everyone why he should have been the NL Cy Young Award winner last year, that's what you start rooting for. It was hard because with the score only 1-0, you figure you still have a chance to win the game if you can get anyone on base, but apart from Barrett's single, the Cubs had only a Moises Alou walk and, of all things, a dropped third strike allowing Matt Clement to reach base, and the Giants made that run stand up for a 1-0 win over the Cubs, snapping the four-game winning streak and starting the homestand on a down note.

We had June weather much of April, and last night we had April weather in May, and by tomorrow it should feel like August, hot and humid. Last night's chill wasn't oppressive, and the wind was blowing in, but the Cubs only hit six balls out of the infield anyway. Carole kept complaining about the lack of action on the field, and unfortunately, the only hit was early enough that there was really no no-hitter tension at all. Instead it was the first one-hitter at Wrigley Field since Jon Lieber and Kerry Wood threw them on consecutive days, May 24 and 25, 2001.

Ernie had called Carole after seven innings had passed in the Atlanta/Arizona game to let us know about Randy Johnson's masterpiece in progress, but we already knew by webphone, and there was a buzz going through the crowd as a few other people were talking about it. Naturally, the fancy new message boards gave no information whatsoever about the perfect game, either in progress or when it was over. However, they did post information on both of Matt Clement's wild pitches, which came with Schmidt on base in the eighth inning. We figured Clement was just trying to tire him out by making him run too hard, but to no avail.

We were all astounded that Felipe Alou left Schmidt in for 144 pitches and a complete game, especially since the no-hitter possibility was long gone, but then after looking at the Giants' bullpen roster, we understood. Alou did have Matt Herges and Scott Eyre warming up in the 9th, I suppose in case anyone got on base, but no one did. Schmidt had 13 strikeouts and pretty much made everyone look bad all night.

For Clement's part, he didn't have his "A" game on but pitched gamely through eight innings. If you give up five hits, two walks and a run, you should win 99% of the time, but (naturally) a Barry Bonds walk led to the only run of the game. Just for tradition's sake, Kyle Farnsworth came in and walked the first batter he faced -- Bonds, who had missed the Giants' weekend series due to back spasms. Bonds now has more than twice as many walks (56) as hits (27), and a .624 on-base percentage. After having skied a few balls into the bleachers during BP (against the wind), Bonds got roundly booed every time he came to bat. This strikes me as both a sign of respect for an opponent, and perhaps a statement by some in the crowd about Bonds' supposed involvement in the ongoing steroid scandal.

This game reminded me of a game the 1984 Eastern Division champion Cubs played against the Mets on September 7, 1984, going into New York with a 7-game division lead, only to see Dwight Gooden one-hit them, on, of all things, a hit almost exactly like Barrett's last night, an infield single to 3B by one of the slowest players on the team, Keith Moreland.

It was another scratch-off giveaway day (a Fergie Jenkins autographed ball), so Jeff, Howard and I picked up the usual collection of discarded cards. Just before gametime I decided to count them to see how many we had... 31. Fergie's number. I thought this was good luck. But I couldn't resist picking up four more cards later, and thus turned Fergie into Alan Benes, and that's probably why we didn't win any of the second chance giveaway balls.

Jon got a ticket at the last minute and showed up with raspberry Milano cookies, which we ate as "Rally Milanos" when the Cubs were batting. This failed, as did the orange Milanos he brought last time. Thus, all fruit-flavored Milanos have now been banned from the bleachers, as were the segregated (all-black) Oreos that Carole brought. Only Mint Milanos for us!

Finally, Sammy Sosa sneezed his way onto the DL with the violent sneeze that apparently sprained a ligament in his back. Wow. I sneeze pretty hard, and I got back spasms too, on Sunday, but a couple of Aleves took them away. While Sosa will be missed, Todd Hollandsworth is a much better option this year than Troy O'Leary was last year when Sosa was out, and even so, the Cubs went 13-12 without Sammy in the lineup in 2003. Jason Dubois, who tore up the Arizona Fall League last year and has 12 homers in 39 games at Iowa so far this year, will be recalled to fill the roster spot later today. And while Sosa is out, our little bench better watch out, because while Sammy frequently throws warmup balls into the bleachers, he rarely throws them more than about halfway up. Hollandsworth threw a couple fairly close to us, and of course every time there's a $10 baseball thrown into the stands, people are diving all over each other trying to grab it.

:: posted by Al at 9:37 AM [+] ::
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Confirmed!

... sort of.

The Cubs website confirms that Kerry Wood threw at Wrigley Field today. But reading here earlier today, you already knew that.

The first paragraph says he "should" be back in the rotation against the Cardinals this weekend.

The second paragraph says he "could" start this Saturday.

So are they hedging, or what?

I suppose this means that Wood will resume his rotation slot, but Dusty Baker isn't yet sure of the exact date.

It could have been written better. Yeah, I know, everyone's a critic. Oh yes, and my head still feels like someone shoved a couple of pounds of cotton in it. Nevertheless, I will be at the Yard tomorrow night.

:: posted by Al at 7:39 PM [+] ::
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A Scoop!

Kerry Wood threw for about half an hour this morning at Wrigley Field, with Paul Bako catching, in front of pitching coach Larry Rothschild.

How do I know this?

I can't say. But trust me, it's a fact. And, he didn't appear to be having any discomfort.

So, barring any setbacks, I'd expect him to make his planned start on Friday.

:: posted by Al at 1:08 PM [+] ::
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Correction Section

Kasey Ignarski, who has a Cubs site which includes, among other things, this cool page showing all Cub uniform numbers since 1932, wrote me this morning to point out a mistake I made in yesterday's post:

I was reading your BLOG today...and you mention the Cubs reversed their 2-4 homestand with a 4-2 road trip. This is wrong. Their last homestand they had a 3-3 record. They lost 2 out of 3 to the Diamondbacks but won 2-3 from the Rockies (including the rain delayed many times Mothers Day game). Minor point, but I thought I would point it out.

Well, of course. That Mother's Day game only felt like a loss. Thanks, Kasey.

The Cubs are 10-6 at home, and this upcoming homestand against the Giants and Cardinals is critical, as they all are, but especially considering that after that, they'll be playing nine games against the Astros in the following three weeks.

:: posted by Al at 9:31 AM [+] ::
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Sweep!

NOW we're talking.

This is about the least likely of the outcomes of the series in San Diego, isn't it? I mean, given that only one of the three starting pitchers (Maddux) was someone we had any confidence in?

So the Cubs reverse their 2-4 homestand of last week by having a 4-2 road trip (and after losing the first two games of it to boot) and come home Tuesday having made themselves and us extremely happy with today's convincing 4-2 win over the Padres.

I spent much of the early afternoon at school, where they were having a ceremony honoring the head of school who is retiring at the end of the school year, and among the presentations was a video made by the 5th graders, which included a poem written and read by Rachel. Meanwhile, Mark was playing baseball ("Did you win?" "Yes." "What was the score?" "I don't know!").

So by the time I got home, I was definitely ready to see this game, and especially once I found out it was on the INHD channel that I now get as part of my high-definition package, and sometimes they black out local games, but not this one -- so I decided to watch not only for the incredible picture (and if you haven't seen a HD ballgame, hie yourself down to your local TV store and see one there), but to check out the Padres announcers, since that was the feed they were carrying.

My friend Dan had told me how bad Matt Vasgersian, a former Brewers announcer now doing play-by-play for San Diego, was. I didn't really believe him.

Until today. Vasgersian is a walking cliche meter stuck on high, my friends. It's all Rick Sutcliffe can do to simply ignore Vasgersian and do the important commentary by himself.

As bad as Vasgersian is, that's how good Sutcliffe is. I'd love to see him back in Chicago to succeed Ron Santo whenever Ron decides to retire. Though Vasgersian roots unabashedly for the Padres, Sutcliffe attempts to be a neutral analyst, but his Cub bias occasionally shows through. At the end of the game he was giving high praise to Dusty Baker and the entire organization, telling everyone in his audience that he could see exactly why the Cubs are favored not only to win the Central, but to "go farther than they did last year."

You could almost feel the Cubbie blue oozing through Sutcliffe's veins.

Both announcers were as amazed as I have been about the human being who is wearing Jose Macias' uniform this weekend. He really was an absolute wrecking crew against the Padres the entire series, going 8-for-15 on the weekend with two triples, a homer today, and four RBI, raising his season average to .333. It made sense to start him today anyway against the lefty David Wells, and man, did he come through.

Now let's hope Dusty has the sense to sit him at home, now that Todd Walker can play again. There's still no timetable for Mark Grudzielanek to come back, and why should they with these two hitting the way they are? And since Dusty has now given Sammy Sosa two days off in the last four (both day games after night games) and the Cubs won them both, look for him to do this again, considering Sosa seemed rejuvenated over the weekend. It'll be a lot harder for him to do it for the home game on Thursday, though -- can you imagine a sellout crowd showing up at Wrigley Field only to find no Sosa in the lineup? Today's day off was, oddly enough, brought on by the same thing I'm dealing with today -- sneezes, which apparently gave Sammy back spasms.

Michael Barrett also homered for the Cubs, giving them an insurance run, and giving the Cubs seven homers in the three games. So who says you can't hit home runs at (Insert Corporate Name Here) Park? Six of the seven (all but Corey Patterson's) were hit by right-handed hitters, so perhaps that part of the theory -- that the park is death on lefties -- may be true. For their part, the Padres hit only one home run off the Cubs in the three games (by a right-handed hitter, Ramon Hernandez).

Glendon Rusch ran out of gas one out short of getting the win, and I was wishing Dusty had left him in because he really did throw well, until I saw his pitch count -- an alarming 100 pitches in less than five innings. The bullpen did an excellent job; Francis Beltran, LaTroy Hawkins, Kyle Farnsworth and Joe Borowski shut down the Padres the rest of the way, allowing no hits and only two harmless walks. Borowski in particular seems to have found himself again, with another swift outing -- it took him only eight pitches to retire the Padres in the ninth for his seventh save of the season. Despite Borowski's troubles this year, he now has a streak of 21 consecutive saves going back to August 5, 2003, which breaks a club record set by Randy Myers in 1994.

I had thought it had been a long time since the Cubs faced David Wells, since he had only been in the NL for half a season in 1995 with the Reds, but you only have to go back to last year, when he beat the Cubs 5-3 in the first Cub-Yankee game last June 6. He also pitched against the Cubs as a White Sox on June 8, 2001, when he had to leave the game after four batters due to his back problems. Wells actually looks in better shape than he has in years, and at 41 pitched creditably today.

With the Mets' 9th-inning comeback and extra-inning 3-2 win over Houston today, the Cubs return home tied for first, and we'll see how Dusty Baker handles his former player, Barry Bonds, in this year's Bonds-Walkfest. Bonds has never hit well in Wrigley Field, believe it or not, and over the last three years (2001-2003) is 3-for-21 at Wrigley with only one home run. Guess who that was hit off of?

It was Bonds' 50th homer of 2001, setting at the time a career high for him, off Joe Borowski on August 11, in the only start he made for the Cubs, called up from Iowa to replace Kerry Wood, and the Giants blew out the Cubs 9-4 that day.

So, I'll take those little sniffles I developed today, and rest up for the homestand starting Tuesday.

:: posted by Al at 5:54 PM [+] ::
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Plan Of Attack

That's the title of Washington Post writer Bob Woodward's new book about the run-up to the Iraq war.

I was reading it yesterday afternoon, sitting outside as it was a nice sunny (though coolish) day in Chicago.

Those of you who have read this blog for a time know exactly where I stand politically, so I won't go into my feelings about the book and the war any further.

But the title of this book -- OK, I admit, in a roundabout way -- leads me into the subject of this post. You also probably know how superstitious I am regarding the Cubs; just as players are this way, I've taken to becoming this way. Yes, I know that this has nothing to do with their actual performance on the field. But it makes me feel better.

So I have learned my "Plan Of Attack" for the West Coast night games, since I can rarely stay up to watch the end, given that I get up at 3 am for work.

I have learned that Mark has been staying up listening to the end of the games on the radio. Last night he didn't quite make it to the end of the game, but he said he fell asleep when it was 7-3, and that was good enough, because the Cubs held on for a 7-5 win over the Padres. So the Plan of Attack must have worked. I shut last night's game off after the fourth inning in a 2-2 tie, going to sleep to get up for work, and told him, "Get us a win."

Sammy Sosa hit his 549th career home run in the very next inning, giving the Cubs the lead they would not relinquish; that homer puts him in ninth place on the all-time list, one ahead of Mike Schmidt, and next up, 14 away, is Reggie Jackson.

Noting that, I might get another milestone later this summer. Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 489th homer last night in the Reds' 4-0 win over the Dodgers, and the Reds are back in Chicago for two games in mid-July... this might be just about the right timing for his 500th. If he doesn't get hurt again.

Now, back to the Cubs. Sergio Mitre threw yet another game that appears to be his trademark -- struggling with seemingly every batter, yet he comes out of it with six innings pitched, three runs allowed, and another win, his second of the season.

Dusty gave Todd Hollandsworth another start, this time subbing for Derrek Lee at 1B -- reason being, he had been 7-for-13 with three walks and two homers lifetime against SD starter Adam Eaton, and he responded with a 2-for-4 game. This is why Baker is such a good manager -- he gives his bench guys enough playing time that they respond whenever they get starts, and Hollandsworth could be the most valuable pickup of the offseason.

That guy, whoever he is, who is wearing Jose Macias' uniform had two more hits, raising his average to .297 (but he Still Sucks), and Moises Alou had four hits, including a homer to left-center that just made the first row. Sosa's was, at 421 feet, the longest one hit in the 21-game history of (Corporate Name) Park. Aramis Ramirez also homered, and with 22% of the season now gone, the Cubs have three players (Sosa, Alou and Ramirez) with at least nine homers, giving each of them a chance at 40, though with Alou I'd think 30 is a more realistic target. Once Derrek Lee gets going I think he also has a chance to hit 30 this year.

On Thursday one of my fellow soldiers in the Cubs Blog Army, Chris of The Northside Report (not to be confused with my friend Scott Lange's Northside Lounge), wrote of his fears that the Cubs would go into San Diego and get swept, due to the lack of hitting (and what he considered to be three shaky pitchers, including, inexplicably, Greg Maddux).

The offense got rolling, and while I don't have that much confidence in Glendon Rusch either, the right-handed Cub offense ought to feast on David Wells, despite Wells having a 1.71 ERA in his last three starts. Wells isn't much of a strikeout pitcher any more -- he's got only 14 all season in 44 innings -- and so the Cub fastball hitters ought to be ready for him. Instead of being swept, the Cubs could have their first road sweep of the year and come home with a four-game winning streak and wouldn't that be nice?

Something of note for those of us who like to keep score, and this only happens once or twice a year, generally in the American League where there's a DH and thus no need to pinch-hit for pitchers: last night's 3-1 Oakland win over Kansas City had no lineup changes, which included a double complete game by pitchers Mark Mulder and Darrell May. That was rarer than the usual double complete game, because the visiting team won, thus both pitchers threw nine full innings.

Hey, I'm a baseball geek and proud of it!

:: posted by Al at 10:55 AM [+] ::
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