"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 29, 2004 ::

Want To Waste An Evening?

Go try a fun website called "Lost In Translation" which has nothing to do with the Bill Murray movie, but instead, using a common web-translation algorithm, takes any text you input, translates it into various languages and back into English, several times, getting more ridiculous with each re-translation.

So, I decided to try it with the first couple of paragraphs I wrote in this morning's post.

The site allows you to use Chinese, Japanese and Korean in addition to European languages, so I put the text through the following sequence:

English, Japanese, English, Chinese, English, Korean, English, French, English, German, English, Italian, English, Portuguese, English, Spanish and English.

The final product included the following sentence:

The measured value putrid is LaTroy Hawkins.

Yeah, that's just about right.

Now, to go out and right the ship tonight.

:: posted by Al at 5:33 PM [+] ::
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Ka-BOOM!

That loud sound you heard last night was the sound of the Cubs' bullpen imploding. Or maybe exploding.

Dusty Baker decided to try LaTroy Hawkins to close out game two, with a two-run lead, rather than Joe Borowski. I'm not sure if he did this simply because Borowski had thrown 31 pitches in his horrid game one appearance, or whether he's thrown in the towel and given up on Joe.

Hawkins failed too, giving up a game-tying HR to Oak Lawn native Rob Mackowiak (the ingrate -- probably a Sox fan growing up, and who would have guessed that on May 28, Mackowiak would have as many HR and more RBI than Sammy Sosa?). Even at that, the game was only tied and sent into extra innings, and I had fallen asleep by then, thankfully, so didn't have to see Francis Beltran give up the game-winning homer to Craig Wilson.

That gave the Pirates a 5-4, 10-inning win, and a sweep of the doubleheader.

Incidentally, I wrote when the Cubs played the Padres a couple of weeks ago that Padres SS Khalil Greene had the best hair in the National League. No way, after watching Wilson play. Wilson's hair might make Britney Spears envious.

This is a low point, not only for this year, but equalled the longest losing streak from 2003 (four games) as well. That makes it even more imperative to get the injured players back. The offense of this club without Sammy Sosa really is different, even though Todd Hollandsworth has done a much better job filling in for Sammy than Troy O'Leary did last year. The club now has seven players on the active roster (Remlinger, Beltran, Rusch, Kelton, Dubois, Ordonez, and Anderson) who were not on the club on Opening Day. This is an alarmingly large number this early in the season.

That said, it is still that early in the season. We are not even at the one-third mark yet (that'll be another week or so). Excluding Arizona, Montreal and Colorado, the entire rest of the National League, 13 teams, are within four games of each other. Even at this early stage, that's almost unheard-of, and with interleague play only two weeks away, that's going to begin to sort itself out soon. We can take a lesson from history -- Cub teams that weren't that good were in first place at this stage of the season and then faltered, and I see that happening to the Reds as the season goes on. Conversely, there were very good teams like the Phillies of the mid-1970's, who stumbled along around .500 for half the season, then poured it on in the second half.

Perhaps I'm rationalizing, but this sort of thing has happened many times, and this Cubs team is too good for them to flounder like this for too long, and bullpens are going to have slumps like this from time to time, but even so, it'll give this club a huge lift to get Mark Prior back, which we still assume is going to be next Friday against the Pirates at home.

Hurry back.

:: posted by Al at 9:12 AM [+] ::
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I Know You've Felt This Way

When the Cubs didn't score with the bases loaded and nobody out in the top of the fifth, I had a bad feeling.

So I figured, go out to dinner and forget about the first game, and in listening to the game on the radio, Ron Santo actually gave some pretty cogent analysis, and that's rare for him!

He said that when a team does something like this, a pitcher will go out there and press, because he's figuring, gosh, it's all on me since the team isn't scoring. What pitchers in situations like this tend to forget is that although the their blew a great scoring chance, they are still winning the game.

Predictably, Matt Clement, who had breezed through the first four innings, got in trouble and gave the Pirates the same bases-loaded, none-out chance that the Cubs had, only they capitalized with four runs.

Figuring the game was over, I went out to dinner.

Coming out from the restaurant only an hour later, I learned that Michael Barrett had hit a pinch-hit grand slam, the first for the Cubs since Julio Zuleta hit one almost three years ago, June 5, 2001.

Should have stayed there. As soon as I turned the radio on again, Joe Borowski had one of the worst innings since he's been a Cub. Even at that, had he retired Rob Mackowiak, the Cubs could have gotten into extra innings. I yelled at the TV (since I was back in the house by now), "Just throw strikes! If he hits it, he hits it!"

Well, he hit it. Mackowiak hit a grand slam and the Pirates beat the Cubs 9-5 and I think it's time that Dusty Baker thought about replacing Borowski as closer, or maybe Borowski can join the nine other Cubs on the DL.

The ninth inning might have turned out differently if Rey Ordonez, who's on the club for his defense (certainly, he's not here for his .290 lifetime OBA), hadn't made a horrible throw to third base when Tike Redman tried to stretch a double into a triple. That was only the first bad play Ordonez made, the second was trying to make one of his allegedly patented "flashy" plays on a potential double-play grounder.

OK, so Damian Jackson wasn't the answer as a backup infielder, and apparently, neither is Ordonez. Next?

The second game has just started and David Kelton is getting his first start of the year, and Jason Dubois his first major-league start, and why not? Nothing else seems to be working right now. This was about how the rest of my day went, with a bank ATM screwing up to the point I had to go to the bank to make sure it hadn't actually debited my account for the money it didn't deliver.

Let's hope Glendon Rusch is as good today as he was last Sunday. This club cannot afford to be swept by a team that came into the game with a 6-13 record at home.

:: posted by Al at 7:55 PM [+] ::
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Movie Review: "Supersize Me"

The first reaction I had when I heard this movie was being made was, here's a guy who's a Michael Moore wannabe.

Thinking more in-depth about it, what Moore has done with his features "Roger & Me", "Bowling For Columbine", and the widely-anticipated, upcoming "Fahrenheit 911", is to open up the field for documentaries like these, and like Morgan Spurlock's devastating indictment of the fast-food industry.

If you haven't heard about this, Spurlock's idea was, since McDonald's is omnipresent in the USA (84 locations in Spurlock's native Manhattan alone), that he'd eat only McDonald's food for 30 days (under the supervision of three doctors and a registered dietitian), and see what happened.

Of course, McDonald's would have told you (at least before this film was made) that everything would be just fine, that their food is well-made and healthy.

The results were predictable. From a healthy, in-shape early 30's man, with weight proportionate to height, Spurlock gained 25 pounds, his cholesterol and other bloodwork spiraled out of control, and the doctors were worried about permanent damage to his heart and liver. In one of the biggest ironies, Spurlock's girlfriend is introduced as a vegan chef, and not only does she worry about this diet, but she's disgusted by it.

You'd say that no one would do this, eat nothing but McDonald's every day, for all meals. But Spurlock cites statistics of the number of people who eat fast food each day, and interviews enough people (including a family who easily quotes McDonald's Quarter Pounder slogan, but cannot recite the Pledge of Allegiance), that you easily believe that there must be some people who do eat this way.

Even more amazing is his indictment of the entire food industry in this country for filling up our schools with sugary food (one girl at a junior high school orders nothing but fries for lunch, to the oblivious disregard of adults around her), under the guise of "giving money back to our children by supporting the schools".

I'd say this movie was "food for thought", but that'll just make you groan. Seriously, this is a well-done documentary, with the use of songs and animation that makes you laugh, but also proves a point.

Spurlock ate 30 pounds of refined sugar (equivalent) during his month on McDonald's food, and in my opinion that is the biggest culprit in this country, making people obese. When I started my low-carb diet 18 months ago, one of the main things I cut out was refined sugar. It is addictive. Once you stop eating it, your body stops craving it and you can lose weight fairly quickly (50 pounds over about seven months) and keep it off, without necessarily going full-Atkins and eating large amounts of red meat and fat.

It's a good thing that filmmakers like Spurlock and Moore are around, making these films about topics important to American life. Until them, documentaries had an image as being dry, boring films that you'd watch 20 years after they were made, while falling asleep in a high school classroom. Spurlock and Moore have learned how to make these topics funny and interesting, while still making their point. In any other year Spurlock might win the Oscar for Best Documentary, but it's likely that Moore's upcoming "Fahrenheit 911", whenever and however it is released, will top it.

This movie has apparently already had an effect -- within a few weeks after Spurlock finished shooting it, McDonald's announced they would eliminate the "Supersize" option. They claimed the movie had nothing to do with this decision. Yeah, right.

Well worth seeing.

AYRating: *** 1/2

:: posted by Al at 8:57 AM [+] ::
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Quiz Time!

Situation: runner on second, two out, batter hits a soft little fly ball into right field for a hit, the right fielder has one of the best arms in baseball. Oh, and the runner is one of the slowest players on the team, and your team is losing by two runs.

You're the third base coach. What do you do?

Why, if you're Wavin' Wendell Kim, you send that runner, Michael Barrett, on home, where he's thrown out by Richard Hidalgo by about 30 feet. Barrett's only chance was to knock the ball out of Brad Ausmus' glove, and he tried, but there was no way.

Kim must go. There is a time and place to be aggressive on the basepaths, but that wasn't it. The Cubs had rallied to make the score 5-3, and they would have had two runners on and the top of the order (OK, so it was only Jose Macias, who probably would have struck out) coming up. This wasn't the worst decision Kim ever made, and it probably didn't cost the Cubs the game, which they lost to the Astros 7-3, but even Kim's apologist, Dusty Baker, must have shaken his head at that one.

Did you know, incidentally, that Wavin' Wendell (and if you think he's been bad for the Cubs, just ask a Red Sox fan -- he did this and worse for the Red Sox from 1997-2000) has his own website? Of course, it hasn't been updated in a year; I guess his arm is too tired from waving runners, to type.

Before I continue with way too much baseball analysis for any one post, let me tell you about yet another head-shaking experience at the post office yesterday.

[rant]

I had to mail something that needed to be weighed for postage. When I got there, there were about a dozen people in line and four windows open. So what did they do? Of course, they closed two of the four windows. At one of the other open ones, a guy seemed to be putting his entire wardrobe into envelopes (don't you usually do this before you get there?) and at another, a nice older woman had about 30 envelopes to mail.

I found a scale at the other end of the post office, and luckily I had enough stamps in my wallet, so I put the stamps on the envelope and put it in the mailbox. Had I not had the stamps, I'd have been out of luck, because the lobby vending machine was out of order!

[end rant, back to baseball]

Greg Maddux didn't throw too badly yesterday, though I suppose he would disagree with that. In the second inning Morgan Ensberg hit a ball that smacked off Maddux' ankle, fielded cleanly by Aramis Ramirez for an out. Maddux shook it off and stayed in the game, but things like that can subtly change your release point, and it showed in the next inning when the two Jeffs, Bagwell and Kent, homered back-to-back, and even when Todd Hollandsworth's second-deck homer brought the Cubs to within 5-3, Kim's idiotic decision effectively ended the game.

This was the first two-game series of the year, and thus the first two-game sweep. The last time the Cubs were swept in a two-game series was last July 23-24 at Wrigley Field by the Phillies. In the second of those games, Kerry Wood got bombed pretty good in a 14-6 loss, and the Cubs went under .500 at that time, 50-51, and fell 5.5 games out of first place, and there was lots of hand-wringing, but guess what? They won the division anyway. It's way too early for worrying, particularly with all the injuries.

To add to the injury list, Tom Goodwin and Todd Wellemeyer are probably going on the DL. If this happens there will be nine players on the DL at once; the club record is 16 in 1970.

Let's look at that 1970 team for a moment, for comparison's sake. On June 20, 1970 the Cubs were 35-25 and had a 4.5 game lead over the Mets. They played just a little under .500 from then on, 49-53, and finished second, five games out, the closest they'd get to a fivision title in the late 60's-early 70's era.

The only major injury to a regular that I can specifically remember was the horrible knee injury to Randy Hundley, who played only 73 games that year and was never the same after that. Six regulars (Hickman, Beckert, Kessinger, Williams, Santo and Callison) played 143 or more games, and three starters (Jenkins, Holtzman and Hands) started 38 or more games, and all three had ERA's of 3.70 or lower, and Milt Pappas, acquired on June 23, started 20 times, not missing a start after the trade.

That team must have had its share of bad luck. They scored 806 runs and allowed 679, and by the Pythagorean formula should have gone 94-68, which would have won the division easily. Without specific records (and the fading memories of this year which happened when I was in junior high school), I'm guessing that most of those 16 DL trips were made by lesser players.

Anyway, the DL trips for Goodwin and Wellemeyer aren't such a big deal since Wellemeyer is dead (or appears to be, anyway, from the number of times he's been used, and I had to laugh when one of the papers this morning said the Cubs had been 'a pitcher short' in this series. Huh? They've been pretty much going without the 12th guy anyway!) and Goodwin hasn't contributed all that much this year.

So, it appears that Jimmy Anderson will probably be called up to replace Wellemeyer, and will go to the bullpen (at least at first). Glendon Rusch and Matt Clement will start the doubleheader on Friday, and then Rusch may go to the bullpen and Anderson will start sometime next week against Houston. David Kelton will most likely be called up to replace Goodwin, and then...

We await Mark Prior's return. He'll start Sunday for Iowa, and then be on target for a Friday, June 4 start in Wrigley Field against the Pirates.

Things seem bleak, perhaps, but the Cubs still trail by only a game and a half. It's early. Relax.

:: posted by Al at 9:48 AM [+] ::
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Steve Stone, Broadcaster Extraordinaire

Here's yet another example of how good Steve Stone is, in case you didn't see last night's otherwise boring 5-0 Cub loss to the Astros.

Stone and Chip Caray were discussing some long-ago game or games from the mid-1970's, when Stone was pitching for the Cubs and one of his teammates was Burt Hooton, now the Astros' pitching coach.

Stone was talking about how bad a hitter he (Stone) was as a player, and how Hooton was nearly as bad...

And right at that time, one of the WGN cameras happened to be on a fairly tight close-up of Hooton, in the Astros dugout, picking his nose.

After what must have been a very tense moment, Stone broke it by saying, without really missing a beat, "And the key to hitting, was that Burt always picked a good pitch."

There was a bit of a silence after that, and you could almost hear both of them trying to stifle hysterical laughter.

Incidentally, Stone was right. Burt Hooton was a .123 lifetime hitter, which is pretty bad even for a pitcher. So was Stone himself -- he hit .100, with no homers and 92 strikeouts in 219 career at-bats.

Stone's been broadcasting now for over 20 years, and despite his relative youth (for a broadcaster, anyway -- he'll be 57 in July), I'd love to see him win the Ford Frick Award, the award that a broadcaster can win that gets him Hall of Fame recognition. He's that good.

Not that good were the Cubs last night; they've never done well against Roy Oswalt, who is now 6-2 lifetime with a 3.05 ERA in 65 innings against them, and just as last Tuesday against Jason Schmidt, I doubt anyone could have hit Oswalt last night, he was that much on his game.

Carlos Zambrano wasn't, and he was laboring through the first four innings. Even at that, the Astros only had a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth, and that's when Stone had another prescient comment when Lance Berkman came to bat... he said, "You've got to keep the ball down against Berkman, because otherwise this game will be 4-0."

The next pitch was slammed over the yellow line in left-center field for a two-run homer, making it 4-0. It was at that point where I figured, "This game is over, they'll never score four runs off Oswalt," and started getting ready to go to sleep (it was about 8:25 CT) so I could get up for work this morning.

I did get a glance at Zambrano smacking the Gatorade cooler on the dugout bench, to which Stone said, "He has to learn not to hit that with his pitching hand," which would indeed be a good lesson to learn. This is why I think Zambrano really is the age he claims to be (turns 23 next Tuesday), because first of all, he was born in Venezuela and unlike many from the Dominican Republic whose ages have not only been questioned but changed, there has never been this kind of doubt about Venezuelans, and second, sometimes people that age don't have the maturity to deal with setbacks.

And sometimes ballplayers just get mad and want to smash something. But Carlos, use your left hand, OK?

Here are two good things that happened last night, and I'm really reaching here:

* Paul Bako stole a base. This was only the fourth of his career, and his first since 2001.

* Michael Wuertz threw 2/3 of a scoreless inning, lowering his ERA... below 10.

Tonight should be better. The Cubs beat the living daylights out of Andy Pettitte last year at Wrigley Field when he was a Yankee, and the Cubs' right-handed power seems well suited to hit a guy like this at the Juice Box. Pettitte's home ERA so far in three starts there reflects this: 6.06.

I'll be well satisfied with a split.

According to today's Tribune, the rotation for the next two series lines up as follows:

Friday, DH at Pittsburgh: Mitre and Clement
Saturday at Pittsburgh: Rusch
Sunday at Pittsburgh: TBA
Monday vs. Houston at Wrigley Field: Zambrano
Tuesday vs. Houston at Wrigley Field: Maddux
Wednesday vs. Houston at Wrigley Field: Clement

And, thus, Mark Prior against the Pirates Friday, June 4.

Mr. TBA would probably be Jimmy Anderson or Jon Leicester, called up from Iowa just for the one game, replacing Michael Wuertz, who would be inactive for just that day, and then Wuertz (or better yet, another hitter for the bench) would return for the Houston series, then to be replaced by Prior.

This makes too much sense, so it probably won't happen that way.

:: posted by Al at 9:40 AM [+] ::
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This & That

Today is an afternoon in anticipation of the first test between the Cubs and Astros, with the pitcher who's really been the most consistent all year, Carlos Zambrano, facing Roy Oswalt, tonight.

So, I thought I'd turn over this space to a couple of you who have e-mailed me in the last day or so.

First, this from Robb Curtice, who made it to Chicago from Evansville, Indiana, for the Cardinal series (and I reproduce this exactly as written, punctuation, abbreviations and all):

My girlfriend and I managed to score tics to Friday's and Sunday's games (via the torturous "Virtual Waiting Room") and were in the bleachers on Sunday. We got to the field @ 2pm to MAKE SURE I was one of the lucky 5000 to go on the field for the Gawk-fest while she got us a good seat. Don't get me wrong, being on the field was flat-out magical for me. (I'm 33, been a Cubs fan since '84, and it was my 3rd visit to Wrigley ever.) But standing down on the field and snapping a few shots of the players and watching the masses attack them like jackels was a bit odd for me. I did end up getting a pic w/ "the Polish Assassin," mainly b/c there weren't a lot of people around at the time, but for the most part I just felt bad for the players to have to w/stand this dog-and-pony show. So, instead of the players I ended up taking a lot of pics of the bricks-n-ivy, the foul-poles, etc.

This is where I get to something that you might possibly find amusing.

After I came up from the field, I looked straight ahead at a guy that I'm pretty sure was you. Perched on the top row, score-card (on a clip-board) in hand, with what looked to be a bald/shaved head under a cubs hat. Now, I don't really know what u look like, but I know u've talked about shaving your head, where u sit, and maybe a few other things, to lead me to believe that the guy I was looking at was you.

So, at first I thought, "I should go say hello, and tell him I read his stuff." But then, I considered what was going on down on the field.

I thought of the pained look on several players faces as hundreds of fans cried, "how bout one more w/ my sister?" to the Cubs players.

I thought about the way-too-weird atmosphere as I walked by the players parking lot Friday and about 50 fans were yelling @ Kyle Farnsworths' girlfriend (or wife... whatever) as they were just trying to leave the park as quickly, and quietly as they could.

My next thought was that you probably had people bothering you all the time, and I should let you enjoy your conversation and the evening un-interupted. It was about an hour later that I laughed to myself as I realized I had just put u on the same celebrity level as the Cubs PLAYERS! I really don't want your ego to get out of hand, but I wonder if you have any idea how many people read your blog, and really kind of consider you a Cub "insider?"

You may have a firm grasp of your influence and "place in the world (of Cubs fans, at least)," but I think it must be fairly cool to write something that so many people around the country (and abroad) fine entertaining and informative enough to read on a daily basis.

And I hope that you still get at least a little of the feeling I got on Sunday when I looked out at Wrigley Field, the Cubs, and the great game of baseball, played at the highest level, from my seat in the 1st row in left field. I will never forget that feeling, and I hope I get it every time I'm there.

One last thing about Sunday's game: In the 7th, when Scotty Rolen hit the home-run to left, it was MY girlfriend that came up w/ the ball - and threw it back onto the field. This is remarkable because we are from Evansville Indiana... Scott's from Jasper (about an hour away), he hit a bomb off me in high-school that might still not have landed, and my girlfriends' whole family are Cardinal fans. She figures she might be dropped from a will or two, but it was well worth it... except I really wish she'd have waited long enough to get the "dummy" ball from the guy next to me and throw IT back... but u can't be nit-pick when your girlfriend does something so cool, can you?

First of all, and I've written this here before, I never lose sight of the fact that so many Cub fans never get the chance to do what I do every day, and it is special and will always be so.

Second, Robb, I wish you had said hi. From your description, and knowing that everyone from the photo day was coming up the stairs right next to us, that almost certainly was me that you saw sitting there. If you get back to the bleachers any time, please stop by and introduce yourself. The same goes for anyone reading this.

I also heard from Kasey Ignarski, who as I mentioned recently has a cool Cubs site of his own (you're welcome for the plug!), who I learned shares a superstition with me...

I bring several pencils to the park. I, like I assume you do, score every game I go to. The pencil I start out with may or may not be the one I finish with. This is because when I feel the game is not going the Cubs way, I tend to put some of the blame on the pencil I am using. If they start going bad, I change my pencil. I might go thru 5-6 different pencils during the game looking for the one that has a win in it. Sometimes, I end up using only 1 pencil. That was the case last Sunday. In a situation like that, I try to remember which one I used and start out the next game I go to using that pencil and hope for the best. Sometimes, I just can't find the right pencil for today (or feel I need to add more pencils since none of these are working right). My friends think I am nuts. When I cleaned out my backpack after last year, I found about 20 pencils in it.

Is your pencil superstition like this?

Oh, man, you have to be kidding. I thought I was the only one who did this. I have often brought in a "relief pencil" when I thought the Cubs needed a rally. This year, so far, I haven't really needed to do that, but I do keep backups, plus a battery-operated pencil sharpener, in my backpack. Beyond that (and getting my Big Gulp from the same spigot at the 7-11, which I've written about here before), I've started a new one: If the Cubs win, I have to wear the cap I wear to that game until they lose. This means I must wear my 2004 Cub Convention cap (which I put on for the first time this year on Saturday, and wore again on Sunday), to the next home game. Here's hoping I'm wearing it for a week or more.

Yes, we're all nuts. But then, we are Cubs fans.

:: posted by Al at 1:06 PM [+] ::
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We Have A Winner!

Tom Kamnikar, who's been a devoted reader here for nearly a year (and who wrote this to me when I was most down after the game six loss in the NLCS), submitted to me a logo that I think captures the essence of the Cubs (without violating anyone's copyrights!), and so he wins my contest.

Here's the new logo for this blog, which as soon as I figure out how, I'm going to incorporate into the template.



You can buy a T-shirt, sweatshirt, or cap with this logo at the store I just set up at Cafe Press, so that any of you who are so inclined, can order hats or shirts or whatever with this logo on it. I think the prices are pretty reasonable, actually, and no, I don't get a free one myself, I'll be paying the same prices that you would. Tom, as the contest winner, gets an item of his choice as a prize.

:: posted by Al at 5:16 PM [+] ::
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Who Wants To Be In Pictures?

So I get up to the gate at my usual time and there are literally thousands of people in line, and I figure, "uh-oh, these are people who have been out drinking all day, and they're just waiting to drink some more."

I had forgotten it was Photo Day, where you can go on the field and swarm around Cub players and attempt to point out to your friends that the little speck of blue in the background really is Derrek Lee. I didn't bring my camera (but always have my camera phone; more on that later), so I didn't bother. Phil wanted to go on the field (after his disappointment when the wind blew over his Super Big Gulp -- I tried to grab it but failed, and this proves that anyone in our group can spill over a drink and the Cubs win as a result) but I was busy checking the radar on the phone, so he couldn't borrow it, and we wound up both sitting there watching, among other things, two people parade by us holding up a sign saying "Right Field Sucks". Creative, at least.

About 30 minutes after the gates opened, when the line outside was still almost half a block long, we suddenly heard booing coming from behind us. Phil & I turned around and saw a busload of Cardinals fans walking down Sheffield -- and the entire line was booing them, yelling "Hey! I-55 is that way!" Too funny.

When Mike got to the ballpark it started pouring. No, that wasn't his fault, but it was weird -- a 15-minute storm in bright sunshine. We could not figure out where it was coming from. After that it cleared out and though breezy, it began as a pleasant evening.

It got pleasanter (is that a word?) in the bottom of the first when Aramis Ramirez smacked a three-run homer, and with Michael Barrett's subsequent RBI double, the Cubs made up for Matt Clement's wildness in the first inning, when two walks led to a St. Louis run. Mike commented that he didn't think four runs would win the game, and with the wind blowing out, I agreed.

We were wrong. Clement settled down and allowed only two more hits -- solo homers by Albert Pujols (that ball is somewhere in orbit) and Scott Rolen, and LaTroy Hawkins and Joe Borowski slammed the door and the Cubs hung on to win 4-3 and take another exciting series from the Cardinals.

At the end of the game Borowski struck out Jim Edmonds on a pitch reminiscent of the way he struck him out last September in that pulsating 8-7 Cub win in the middle of the 5-game series. This was just after he somehow got away with throwing three straight changeups to Pujols (who originally wasn't even going to play tonight, having hurt his hip flexor yesterday), but Pujols just got under the third one and hit a lazy fly to left, and the final out was a fly ball to Corey Patterson, who must have listened to Dave, because he was playing relatively shallow and actually backed up on the ball to catch it.

Phil didn't want Borowski in the game, but if he's your closer, and he still is, you have to do this -- if you don't, and this was clearly his situation, that wrecks his confidence, which I think is just starting to return. His 11-pitch outing tonight was very much like all his saves last year... with the caveat that the velocity is still down. Nevertheless, if he can keep locating those slower pitches where he wants them, and he did tonight, he'll continue to be successful.

In about the third inning it started getting ... well, the sky turned some awfully strange and interesting colors, and the radar on my phone showed a storm that looked like it was headed straight at us. Jeff had gone to the bathroom and came back and reported that a guy was on the phone saying to a friend, "You mean there's no way it's gonna miss us?"

It missed us. Brian called from the Southwest Side to say it was pouring, with heavy rain, wind and lightning, and he wasn't going to come. He should have -- it stayed totally dry after the pre-game shower, but the sky was absolutely amazing, and here's what I took with the camera phone:



I've never seen a sky quite like that, at Wrigley Field or anywhere else, and with the ballpark in the foreground, those are two pretty spectacular-looking pictures, if I do say so myself, even taken with a camera phone.

It was right after I finished taking the pictures that I somehow, in sitting down, managed to stab myself in my left leg with my pencil.

Don't worry, I'm fine. Seriously.

There have been paramedics stationed at our stairwell all year -- apparently a new MLB edict. Tonight, my little stabbing incident actually gave them something to do -- I had them go get me a couple of bandaids. All is well, though it hurt like heck for an inning or two.

Jeff finally figured out how to use the light-up cap tonight. Not only does it have to be turned on only during Cub at-bats, and off during visitor at-bats, but it also has to be turned backwards during visitor at-bats. This worked like a charm.

With Cincinnati's third straight win over Houston, 7-0 today, the Cubs remain tied for first, but with the Reds, and Houston moves a game behind. This means that if the Astros can salvage one game of the four-game wraparound series tomorrow, the Cubs would be alone in first place, as they travel to Houston for a mini two-game series Tuesday and Wednesday.

Despite the lineup alterations; despite the pitching staff being decimated by injuries (and there's bad news about Kerry Wood -- he left a sideline session after only eight pitches today and will have a bone scan tomorrow), the Cubs finish the homestand on a high note, taking two of three from a tough division rival, and are now 13-9 at home, which is a pace for a 48-win home season.

Oh, incidentally, if you think the Sports Illustrated jinx is a myth... right after he appeared on the cover this past week, Roger Clemens had his worst start of the year last night against the Reds. I was pleased to help out by posting a copy of that photo here.

:: posted by Al at 10:03 PM [+] ::
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