"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, June 05, 2004 ::

Dave Was Impressed

While we were all sitting there glum and depressed over the Cubs' inability to score runs (through the sixth inning today, it was two runs in the previous 24 innings), Dave, who was at his last game before his son, our friend Brian, gets married next Saturday, told us that he sees positive signs in virtually everything.

He said today's 6-1 Cub win over the Pirates turned on three events:

* Pirate substitute manager Pete MacKanin's failure to lift lefty Mike Gonzalez after Corey Patterson had reached on Randall Simon's throwing error which allowed the first run to score. He didn't even have Salomon Torres (who never got into the game) warming up until it was too late, giving right-handed-hitting Rey Ordonez a chance to hit against Gonzalez, and Ordonez drove in the winning runs with a sharp two-run single up the middle (the bad part about that is, that hit probably kept Ordonez in the starting lineup for another week).

I agreed with this, and pointed out that it seemed like MacKanin, who has never managed a major league team and is substituting for Lloyd McClendon this weekend because McClendon is under suspension, was more proud of himself for being able to walk out to the mound and hold his left hand in the air to call in Gonzalez, than to actually make the right strategic move.

* Ordonez' hit itself, which broke open the game, followed by Carlos Zambrano laying down a beauty of a sacrifice bunt. This bunt moved two runners into scoring position and though neither of them scored, the execution of the play shows that the Cubs are still doing the right things.

* Finally, Todd Hollandsworth hustling down the line to beat a double-play throw (Dave said Bobby Hill hot-dogged his relay to short), scoring a run and setting the stage for the absolute bomb of a home run that Derrek Lee sent bouncing down Kenmore Avenue.

Will this be the hit that finally breaks Lee out of his season-long slump? After all, it is June, typically the month when Lee breaks out (from 2001-2003, he hit .223 in April and .246 in May, then .304 in June. This year, he hit .233 in April and .275 in May. Can we expect an even better June?).

I can't say enough about Carlos Zambrano, who has now beaten the Pirates in each of the four series the Cubs have faced them, 4-0 with a 1.29 ERA against them, and we were debating whether Dusty should have sent him out there for the ninth. He'd thrown 113 pitches, which is a lot but not ridiculously so. Dave said he'd do it. I agreed. Dusty had LaTroy Hawkins warming up while the score was 3-1, so at least for today, Joe Borowski has lost his closer's job.

Meanwhile, Zambrano, who has been the most consistent starter all year, is slowly putting together an All-Star season. I was listening to the post-game show on the radio driving home and Z said that having Mark Prior back has already given a lift to the entire team.

After Lee's homer, Francis Beltran hurriedly got up. Fortunately for him, Corey Patterson chose that time to get a hit, so Beltran had extra time to warm up, and threw an uneventful ninth inning. I think if there is a "closer of the future" on the Cub staff today, it's Beltran, who has great stuff (23 strikeouts in 20.2 IP), and if he can learn to harness his control (11 walks so far), he seems to have the mental makeup for the job.

Dave and I also agreed on the subject of Borowski. What he has done so far this year -- not throw strikes, not have command of his breaking ball, and lowered velocity -- all indicate some sort of injury that he's trying to "be a gamer" through. But this is just hurting the team and himself, and he ought to admit it, even if that means surgery. This is what happened to Rod Beck in 1998 -- he admitted later that he was hurt at the end of that season, and if he'd have had offseason surgery after 1998, he'd have been ready to go early in 1999, and not blown the early saves he did, AND make his injury worse by trying to pitch through it.

We also debated yesterday's decision by Dusty Baker to have Todd Walker bunt after Jose Macias' leadoff double in the ninth. I said I wouldn't have done that. Dave said he would have. He also said, "You could get six baseball people together and three would do it and three wouldn't." This is almost certainly true. The "book" says that you play for the tie at home. But, I say, given the fact that the Cubs have had trouble getting runners home lately, and that Macias was already in scoring position, and that Walker had hit the ball hard all day, let him hit.

Moises Alou was taken out in an odd double-switch; I mentioned this to Dave, who thought it was OK, but Jose Macias was put in the nine spot and the pitcher in the three spot. IF it got bad enough that the Cubs would have had to bat in the bottom of the ninth, Macias was going to bat anyway and then you lose Alou.

However, this was done not for double-switch purposes, apparently. On the same postgame radio show, Dusty Baker said that Alou felt "something" and so he was taken out as a precaution only. It better not be more than "something". Alou's been the only offensive bright spot, and his defense and hustle on the basepaths (he even stole a base today) have been as good as any time since 2001.

Finally, the last couple of days they have given away prizes to various seat numbers. Among the numbers called have been bleacher ticket numbers that we recognize as season ticket account numbers. Unfortunately, because they are now giving us the lower half of the ticket with the barcode and that number is on the top half, unless you know the number, you're out of luck.

I know mine, but mine hasn't been called. We were able to sleuth out the winner from Wednesday (an Empress Casino package), and today's winner (from some investment company -- what are they giving away, free stocks?) bore the number of a ticket I had bought for Tuesday night so my son Mark can come to the game. But I can't remember who I got it from!

We'll figure it out, I'm sure.

Today marks the 1/3 point of the season, the 54th game, and the Cubs are 28-26. For perspective, on this date last year, the eventual World Champion Marlins were 28-33.

Patience.

:: posted by Al at 3:22 PM [+] ::
...

Wasted

About the eighth inning, a security guard escorted a rather inebriated young woman up the aisle and began admonishing her, right behind us, because she had supposedly removed her shirt and exposed her breasts. She indignantly denied this repeatedly to security, but as soon as they turned their backs she told the guys standing behind us that she had done this, and giggled triumphantly as they let her go back to her seat.

I did not witness the actual event, only the aftermath as security was talking to this woman, and she was pretty wasted indeed, and so was Mark Prior's terrific return to the starting rotation today.

Prior was nearly perfect -- he retired the first thirteen batters he faced, and gave up only two harmless singles, while walking nobody and striking out eight. He didn't even hit 95 on the pitch speed meter till his last inning, the sixth, holding his best stuff for last, and four of the K's were called, including a couple on really nice knee-bending curveballs.

It was all for naught, as the bullpen blew up again in the ninth and the Cubs lost to the Pirates 2-1; it appears that the Pirates are the Cubs' designated nemesis team this year. Even though the Cubs are 5-5 against the Pirates, it feels like a lot worse than that. Let's just say that I'm very glad that after this weekend, that's it vs. Pittsburgh till six games in September.

Apart from Prior's triumphant return, everything went wrong today. Joe Borowski got roundly booed, but even though he pitched poorly (it could have been more runs off him except Moises Alou made a WebGem-type catch off a sinking Jason Kendall liner to start the ninth), it wasn't his fault; it was Mike Remlinger allowing a line-drive single to, of all people, Chris Stynes, who never got a clutch hit like that when he was a Cub, to drive in what turned out to be the winning run.

It seemed like both managers wanted to screw up this game. Lloyd McClendon, who will not manage the other two games in this series, serving a two-game suspension for a shouting match he had with Tony LaRussa in Pittsburgh yesterday, put in Stynes to face Remlinger, even though Rob Mackowiak (who Stynes pinch-hit for) wore out the Cubs last weekend, and Remlinger is generally tougher on right-handed hitters than lefties.

Dusty Baker, for his part, made some odd moves today as well. There was never any question of Prior throwing more than six or seven innings today, and his 85 pitches included 55 strikes. Still, Howard and I wondered what Dusty would have done if Prior had been perfect through six innings.

Kent Mercker and LaTroy Hawkins threw well, but then I was puzzled when Dusty pulled a double-switch when bringing Remlinger into a then-tied game, pulling Todd Hollandsworth and putting Jose Macias in right field. What if the game went into extra innings? Wouldn't you want Hollandsworth in there? Macias was going to lead off the 9th anyway, either as a pinch-hitter or in the game. Why waste a player?

Macias made this moot by hitting a double, and then I was absolutely mystified why Todd Walker, who had hit the ball hard all day (although he had only a third-inning double to show for it), was asked to bunt. I know the "book" says you are supposed to play for the tie, down a run in the 9th, but maybe Walker would have gotten a hit, driving in the tying run. I thought Dusty liked playing aggressive baseball; this move was more out of the Don Baylor Big Book Of Scoring One Run At A Time.

I was even more puzzled as to why Baker asked David Kelton to pinch-hit for Mercker and bunt in the bottom of the seventh. I doubt Kelton has had to lay down a sacrifice in several years, and he failed. If you want a bunt in that situation, why not leave Mercker in to do it? Or ask Greg Maddux, a good bunter, to do it? Again, I say, as I have said here before, the Cubs are completely wasting two roster spots with Triple-A outfielders who are used to playing every day, and are not accustomed to bench roles, and so when they fail time after time, when getting three or four at-bats a week, we should not be surprised.

My friend Mike from L.A. called and asked who was getting booed louder, Borowski or Corey Patterson. Today, it had to be Borowski, though Patterson struck out again in the first. He got a standing ovation when he drew a five-pitch walk in the sixth, but that only led to the situation that Howard and I both dreaded -- bases loaded. The Cubs haven't been able to do anything with the bases loaded this entire homestand. We thought that maybe since it wasn't a nobody-out situation, this would help. Nope. Hollandsworth struck out and Michael Barrett flied to right. I'll give Patterson credit for something today, at least: batting in the game situation, two out and the tying run at third in the bottom of the ninth, he actually ran the count to 3-2 and fouled a pitch off before flying to center to end the game.

And whatever convinced Jim Hendry and Dusty Baker that Rey Ordonez can still play major league baseball, ought to have been negated today, as Ordonez looked horrible at the plate (two strikeouts, a lazy fly to left and reaching on an error) and when he tried to make a fancy swipe at a ball in the sixth, all it resulted in was an error. Fortunately, Prior struck out Jack Wilson to end that inning.

This is a series the Cubs should have swept. Now, it'll take two great pitching performances from Carlos Zambrano and Greg Maddux, just to win two of three.

Finally, the Chicago Sun-Times' moronic columnist, Jay Mariotti, decided to take a slam at Mark Prior for leaving an autograph session in Naperville early on Thursday night.

I spoke to someone today who was actually there. As do some of these sessions, they turned into much more than autographs, many people trying to be selfish and get extra time, photographs, etc. with Prior, and he got frustrated. Honestly, this session should have been rescheduled, due to the start today, and his agent and the store should have worked this out. But I have seen many major league players try to accomodate autograph-seekers, both at sessions like this and at the ballpark, and frequently rude and selfish people try to take advantage. In those cases I truly can't blame the player for wanting to cut the session short.

Well, there was one good thing about today. The weather was gorgeous, and it's supposed to be so again tomorrow. Some entrepreneurs without MLB licenses were selling T-shirts with "PRIOR 22" on the front (no Cub or MLB logo, so they can legally do this). Howard bought one for $10. He was going to see if he could get his money back.

:: posted by Al at 6:31 PM [+] ::
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What's Wrong With This Picture?

TCF Bank is a Midwestern bank, headquartered in Minnesota, which has a large number of branches in the Chicago area, mainly in Jewel grocery stores. Lately they have opened a number of stand-alone branches, including one down the block from my house.

And so, today, that branch left this flyer attached to my doorknob:



It's a lovely offer, and with tickets being as hard to get as they are, you'd think people would be really excited about this contest.

But the TCF marketing department, as you can clearly see, screwed up -- that's a photo of SHEA STADIUM, for heaven's sakes (and a half-empty Shea Stadium, on top of that).

Back to the drawing board, TCF people.

:: posted by Al at 1:34 PM [+] ::
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What A Difference A Year Makes

Six days short of a year ago (remember, this is a leap year), one of the most highly-hyped regular season games in Cub history occurred when the Yankees and Roger Clemens faced the Cubs at Wrigley Field, Clemens' first start ever against the Cubs, and his opposition was Kerry Wood.

That was a magical day -- Clemens going for his 300th win, and Eric Karros denying it to him with a three-run homer, and the Cubs won it 5-2.

The next time we wanted Clemens to be throwing against the Cubs, unfortunately, he was pitching against the Marlins in the World Series last October 22.

Times have, unfortunately, changed. Wood is out indefinitely, and so it was one-letter-different Matt ClemenT against ClemenS today; Clemens is far away from the Yankees, and Eric Karros is playing 2000 miles away in Oakland, and the Cubs played one of their worst games of the year, sleepwalking through a 5-1 loss to the Astros, which, coupled with the Reds' 3-1 win over the Marlins (after Dontrelle Willis took a perfect game till two out in the seventh inning), put the Cubs a season-high four and a half games out of first place.

The Houston win made Clemens 8-0 for this year and his 318th career win, and I read with amusement the thought in the papers today that Clemens, the likely NL All-Star starting pitcher, will have his old NY nemesis Mike Piazza as his catcher. Watch for Clemens' first pitch to go straight to Piazza's mask.

I have an excuse for being tired on Wednesdays, which are the last day of my work week. What was the Cubs' excuse? They had the same short turnaround that the Astros did from last night's game, which didn't go all that late, but they seemed bored and unfocused. Matt Clement threw well enough, but he was constantly in trouble, and all four of the runs he allowed scored after two were out (the first one of which, he threw a wild pitch that bounced crazily off the new bricks behind the plate).

I don't really have anything good to say about any Cub's performance on this day. Corey Patterson got roundly booed -- I told Howard that Corey was going to have his name legally changed to "Corey Alou" so he would think everyone was chanting his name instead of booing him. Word is that Dusty Baker is furious at Patterson for his horrendous at-bats in last night's debacle. And he had another poor day today, popping up weakly twice, grounding out and flying to center to end the game (when Howard was convinced he was going to hit a home run, which would have been appropriately meaningless).

I'd say bench him, but for who? Jose Macias?

The injuries really have taken a toll. Todd Hollandsworth has done a really good job filling in for Sammy Sosa, but that weakens the bench tremendously. And, despite the fact that the bullpen has done an OK job the last two days, I'd think that on the off day, there will be several roster moves. Jimmy Anderson and Mike Wuertz really have to go -- I mean, how could it get much Wuertz? (You can whack me with a clipboard now -- Howard did, or at least tried to.)

Further, you cannot take two starting Triple-A outfielders like David Kelton and Jason Dubois, put them on a major league bench, and expect them to produce when they are getting three at-bats a week. The club needs to bring up guys like Bill Selby, who have major league experience, have filled the bench role before, can play several positions, and Selby, in fact, is hitting quite well at Iowa.

Teams do go through stretches like this, and I remind myself (and you) again that the 2003 Cubs were under .500 and 5 1/2 games out of first place nearly two months later in the season than now (late July).

The return of Mark Prior on Friday is not only a boost for the pitching staff talent-wise, but a real psychological boost for the entire organization. Today's crowd seemed bored entirely -- there had to be 5,000 no-shows (due to the threat of rain, though it never rained at all and the sun came out by the end of the game), and the biggest reactions all day were the boos for Patterson. I'll expect the ballpark to be rocking on Friday.

:: posted by Al at 5:19 PM [+] ::
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This Is Absolutely No Surprise

Shawn Morris e-mailed me this morning:

Hello from aisle 508. I noticed you listed Rusch as throwing 98 pitches. I assume you got that off the scoreboards at Wrigley. Big warning, whoever is doing the pitchcounts is doing a poor job. They were off by 3 today(Rusch had 101) and seemed to be off yesterday as well. I track pitch counts on my scorecard and have noticed they're usually wrong. Thought you might like to know.

Along with all the other stuff that's wrong with those boards (example: they put up a statistical note last night that said someone had been 13-for-25 -- didn't say in what period of time -- and then said that was a .500 average), this doesn't surprise me a bit.

I just wish they'd put hits and errors on the boards, like we used to have.

:: posted by Al at 9:27 AM [+] ::
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SHHHHH!! Don't Tell Anyone!

The way to get the Cubs out easily, any time, is to allow them to load the bases with nobody out.

This worked so well for the Pirates, taking the Cubs right out of last Friday's loss, that the Astros figured they'd do the Pirates twice as well, and it worked again last night. The Cubs worked their way easily out of two bases-loaded, nobody out situations (yes, I'm being sarcastic here).

This wasn't Cub pitchers doing so, which would have been a good thing; instead, Cub hitters loaded the bases in the fourth and again in the sixth with nobody out, and they failed to break a tie game open both times, paving the way for a miserable-looking 5-3 Cub loss to Houston, dropping the Cubs back into fourth place and provoking some of the loudest boos I've heard in a long time for a Cub hitter not named Todd Hundley.

But more of that later.

My friend Craig from the Cubs newsgroup made his annual pilgrimage to Wrigley Field from his home in Kansas City, and of course we welcomed him back to the bleachers because he was in attendance last year when Jon caught Rafael Furcal's homer, and the Cubs won that day. Howard showed off his brand-new throwback ball, and Jeff, Howard, Carole and I all spent the pre-game time dumpster-diving, since it was another autographed ball (Rick Sutcliffe, today) scratch-off card giveaway.

In doing so, Howard found an unscratched card that was a winner! So he went home with an autographed ball, and we figured that was a good omen. Even so, none of the other 80 cards we found discarded, was a winner. We have another idea on how to win the second-chance drawing, but I'm not going to reveal it here.

It rained hard for about 15 minutes before the gates opened, but then the skies cleared out, and the evening was pleasantly cool and breezy, with just a few clouds and a colorful sunset. That's the nicest thing I can say about tonight.

Ernie made his season debut in the bleachers tonight and may have to be re-banned, as he was last year after the Cubs lost every time he was out there, but not only for that reason. He went on a several-inning long rant about the new message boards and how the advertising was "ruining Wrigley Field" and it wouldn't be long until there was advertising like at the BOB, where I counted over 40 advertising signs (not even including the ones on the Jumbotron). All I could tell Ernie was that I wanted him to watch the game (and stop saying that his beloved hometown Indians were going to come back and make the playoffs this year) and that no, I didn't think that the additional revenue from advertising on the boards was going to keep ticket prices down.

And yes, I warned Ernie during the game that he better stay away from his computer Wednesday, because he was definitely getting written up for all of this!

Brian called me earlier in the day looking for a ticket, which I was unable to locate, but somehow he finagled three of them, and brought two friends from the Riverhawks, including the Riverhawks' GM, who showed up in one of those garish Astros jerseys from the 1970's. Then Brian left abruptly without saying goodbye -- we learned later that his fiancee had called and her car had broken down. What a guy.

And, Phil called from section 206 in the terrace, though it was hard to understand what he was saying. I guess he was with some friends from work, and he called later to say that his view was being blocked by a post. I asked him how much he paid for the tickets and he said they were free.

So, I told him, I guess you got your money's worth.

And finally, after the game, to add insult to insult, traffic was horrendous and it took me half an hour to drive the mile and a half home.

Now, to baseball.

I guess it's too late to trade Corey Patterson and a prospect to Seattle for Ichiro, isn't it.

Corey got roundly booed after striking out twice with the bases loaded, first in the fourth with nobody out, next in the sixth with one out. He was flailing at pitches in the dirt, and to me it doesn't really matter whether Dusty Baker tells him to be aggressive or not, he is hitting like he doesn't really even have a clue as to what he is doing. The scoreboard was almost taunting him by saying he had a 5-game hitting streak, and then when it didn't matter, two runs down in the bottom of the ninth, he singled off Octavio Dotel, stretching it to six games. So what. Either Patterson has to learn how to hit in situations, or he ought to be benched. It got so bad that when the Cubs had the second bases-loaded, none-out situation, I actually suggested to everyone that Derrek Lee attempt a squeeze. It would have worked -- the infield was playing way back.

Oh, and beyond that, how could anyone with major league managing experience actually think that Rey Ordonez can still hit major league pitching? At least he hit the ball -- a weak line drive back to Dotel -- but still made an out.

All the Cub scoring was on solo home runs, one each by the Todds, Walker and Hollandsworth, and a bomb onto Waveland by Moises Alou.

The pitching staff did its job -- Glendon Rusch wasn't great, throwing 98 pitches in his five innings, but he kept the club in the game and the bullpen gave up no earned runs in its four innings. Francis Beltran threw a very effective two innings, and Kyle Farnsworth should have had the Astros shut down in the 8th, because vacation-relief umpire Mike Fichter blew a call, saying Derrek Lee was pulled off the bag on Brad Ausmus' grounder to second, resulting in a tough-luck error charged to Todd Walker, and then two unearned runs when pinch-hitter Mike Lamb doubled -- a hit which sucked all the air out of a crowd that had gotten pretty raucous when Farnsworth had two strikes on Ausmus.

We know that Fichter blew the call because Krista called Jeff and told him that Ausmus was clearly out, and Jeff says that if Krista says so, it must be true.

We gave a seat on our second bench to a nice Astros fan who, as it turns out, is a "relationship counselor" who has a book coming out this fall and runs a website called ScreamFree.

That's what we could have used tonight. Existential question: if the Cubs free-fall down through the NL Central standings, will anyone hear them scream?

:: posted by Al at 10:25 PM [+] ::
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Correction Section

Marty Winn, who is a Braves fan but can be forgiven for this because he is also a Greg Maddux fan, e-mailed me to remind me that Maddux has had one stint on the DL -- at the beginning of the 2002 season, when John Burkett wound up getting the Opening Day start for the Braves.

The DL stint couldn't have lasted too long because Maddux made his usual 34 starts that year, and went 16-6 with a 2.62 ERA. It was the only year since 1987 that he threw fewer than 200 innings (199 1/3).

One scary thing: he has already allowed more homers this season (15, in 69 1/3 IP) than he did in that entire 2002 season (14).

:: posted by Al at 9:41 AM [+] ::
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Starting Over

After the horrendous road trip, and although it's not the first day of a new month yet, I felt it was important to put a "new beginning" stamp on today.

So I brought out a new scoring pencil. I wore my spring training t-shirt and cap (though it wasn't really warm enough to sit in the t-shirt for the whole game).

It worked. OK, I guess I shouldn't take all the credit. Greg Maddux threw probably his best game of the year so far (until he walked off the mound with trainer Dave Groeschner in the 7th, and might be hurt), and Moises Alou kept going what could be, if he continues and the Cubs do make the playoffs, an MVP-type season, with a two-run homer, and the Cubs started the homestand happily, beating the Astros 3-1.

You know, that reminds me of what Jack Brickhouse used to say whenever the Cubs won, and he'd come back on the air after a break to do the recap, and say, "Here are the happy totals."

I'd have this image of the numbers dancing happily up and down on the screen. If I'd been directing and they'd have had that sort of technology back in the 60's, I'd have done that, but we had to settle for Jack's goofy smile, and being happy that the Cubs won any sort of game back then.

But I digress.

It was a weird weather day. It rained steadily, not all that hard, for about 45 minutes before the game. About half an hour before game time it stopped and the sun came out, and the ground crew easily had the field ready for the scheduled 3:05 start.

Angry looking clouds kept scudding in and out all afternoon, and showers kept popping up for a few minutes, never all that hard; in fact, a couple of the rain events must have lasted only a minute or so. It never rained hard enough or long enough to delay the game, which went in a snappy two hours and fifteen minutes. I had the umbrella up and down several times, as did many of the people throughout the bleachers. I had to hear the drunk idiots behind me yell, "Put the umbrella down!" Well hey, I had to keep my scorecard dry! Howard was in his pink Teletubbie-like poncho, Jeff in his Eddie Bauer rain suit ($40 at Target; he's suggested I should get one and maybe I will), and Brian, who drove around for an hour looking for a place to park, also had an umbrella up.

I suppose I should consider it a positive sign that the drunks actually wanted to see the game rather than just standing back there drinking; this is a sign that people are actually into baseball this season.

Maddux threw an efficient 94 pitches, and we certainly hope he doesn't become the third member of the starting rotation to go on the DL. Maddux has never been on the DL in his career; the Cubs website doesn't specify exactly why he left the game, though mentions again the fact that he got hit in the shin in his last start last week in Houston.

That makes the news that Mark Prior will indeed come off the DL and make his season debut Friday against Pittsburgh, even more timely. The Cubs will have 110 games remaining at that time, so that will, presuming no more injuries, give Prior approximately 22 starts, somewhere around 150 or 160 innings. Since his injury was not arm-related, his arm ought to be strong when the stretch drive comes around in September.

Today, the bullpen did its job exactly the way it's supposed to: Farnsworth in the 7th, Hawkins the 8th, and Borowski the 9th, although Joe did make us worry a bit by giving up two line singles, he didn't walk anyone and finished up in a quick 11 pitches, seven for strikes. Perhaps he has found his consistency again. Let us hope so.

After having lost the two games in Houston, it was important to come out and win the first one here, and the Astros have injury problems of their own: Andy Pettitte, who was already scratched from tomorrow's start in favor of Brandon Duckworth, is now going on the DL himself.

Tomorrow, my friend Craig from the Cubs newsgroup will join us in the bleachers. The Cubs won last year when he attended, so he's now considered good luck.

Today, I also met a reader of this blog, Clayton from California, who is a friend of Donna who sits in the RF corner. It was cool to meet him, and since he brought us a win (even though he also brought us the rain!) he can come back any time.

The umpires showed up today wearing what looked like their normal black pullover tops -- and either sweatpants or jeans. This isn't a big deal, but we know who's to blame here, because Jeff's friend Mark works for the company that is in charge of delivering umpire uniforms. There was some sort of delay, and though they apparently do keep some parts of uniforms (like the pullovers) as spares, they must not have had enough pants that fit, because a couple of them looked like they were wearing pajamas.

Greg Gibson, the plate umpire (Wayne Messmer called him "Mike" Gibson when introducing the umpires), had a very small strike zone today, but I'll at least give him credit -- it was consistently small for both teams.

Mike said today that he was disappointed that the White Sox were sending Jon Rauch back down, because he was looking forward to a possible Rauch-Rusch matchup in June. I didn't smack him with the clipboard, but reminded him we do have Clemens-Clement to look forward to on Wednesday.

Finally, something weird happened to the new logo I had put at the top of the page here, resulting in the text scrolling off the right-hand side, so I've removed it temporarily until I can figure out how to make it look right!

:: posted by Al at 6:03 PM [+] ::
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Nothing's Ever Easy

... or is it?

After getting into trouble repeatedly in the first few innings, including three hit batters by Carlos Zambrano, emptying the benches and the bullpens and drawing warnings from the umpires (which came to fruition when Mike Johnston hit Todd Walker in the 9th, leading to an entertaining cap-to-cap yelling match between Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon and plate umpire Jack Samuels), the Cubs tore the game open in the last three innings, scoring eleven runs, including a seven-run ninth, and won the final game of the roadtrip easily, 12-1 over the Pirates. In doing so the Cubs leapfrogged back over the Brewers into a third-place tie with the Cardinals, as Milwaukee lost to the Padres 5-2. I trust this will be the last time this year that the Cubs will trail the Brewers in the NL Central standings.

It got so bad that McClendon brought in infielder Abraham Nunez to get the final out of the top of the 9th, a lazy fly to right by Corey Patterson, after the Cubs had scored seven unearned runs off various Pirate relievers. Though the Cubs have used distinguished infielders such as Doug Dascenzo and Gary Gaetti as pitchers over the last couple of decades, I cannot remember the last time a non-pitcher threw against the Cubs.

Zambrano toughed it out today. He walked three and gave up eight hits in addition to the three hit batters, and threw 110 pitches in a laboring six innings. But each time he was in trouble he reached back for a strikeout (eight) to get out of it, and the Pirates stranded twelve runners, which we're awfully used to, as the Cubs have been maddeningly doing this in recent days.

It was an awful road trip -- one win in six games, but at least the losing streak was stopped at five, before it got to epic proportions.

There were many heroes today, including seven consecutive men reaching base in the ninth after two were out: Ramon Martinez singled, Jose Macias doubled, Walker was hit by the aforementioned Mike Johnston pitch (maybe this was revenge for the Pirates making Johnston wear the Tweety Bird backpack at Wrigley Field in April as part of his rookie hazing), Moises Alou singled, Aramis Ramirez doubled, Derrek Lee tripled (good to see him break out of his slump, as it's just about June and time for him to start hitting), and Michael Barrett singled to finish the scoring. All told, the Cubs smacked out 17 hits and drew six walks and even with all the runs, left 13 other men on base.

And, even Joe Borowski had one of those "confidence-builder" appearances, being sent in with an 11-run lead and dispatching the Pirates in the bottom of the ninth on only 5 pitches (all strikes), though the outs were all medium-deep fly balls.

I didn't do a whole lot else today, having been at the wedding last night fairly late and then getting up early for work, so I'll just say that it certainly is going to be a happy plane ride home tonight (and I think it's very odd scheduling, to have a 3:05 game tomorrow, and then a night game Tuesday; with the return from the trip, it would have made more sense to play tomorrow night).

The pitching matchups for the Houston series:

Tomorrow, a rematch of last Tuesday, Roy Oswalt vs. Greg Maddux
Tuesday, Andy Pettitte will miss his start and ex-Phillie Brandon Duckworth (who has a 1.50 lifetime ERA vs. the Cubs in two starts, 12 IP) will face Glendon Rusch, going on three days' rest.
Wednesday afternoon should have been the Kerry Wood/Roger Clemens rematch, but instead, Clemens will face the man who's one letter behind him in the MLB player listing alphabetical order, Matt Clement.

Bring it on.

:: posted by Al at 3:43 PM [+] ::
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Boda de Laura y Sam

Run that through the Babelfish online translator (or any other online translator) and you'll see that it means "Laura & Sam's Wedding", which is where we were yesterday afternoon and evening.

It's in Spanish because Laura, a nice young woman who has been a babysitter for my kids for several years now, is originally from Colombia.

The wedding ceremony was at a small neighborhood church near my house, and I'm sure it was quite nice. Yes, I was there, but it was entirely conducted in Spanish and with the exception of their names and a few words here and there ("corazon", heart, and "amor", love), I didn't understand any of it!

At the reception, a few people giving toasts spoke English, but again it was mostly in Spanish, but it didn't matter. Of course the kids were invited, since Laura has known them since they were small. My son Mark made a couple of friends, playing with the toys that the bride & groom had thoughtfully left for him and for Rachel, and as for her -- well, she was cutting a rug on the dance floor with the groom, and with the other female guests when they danced around the room. She still refused to dance with me, however -- but she did promise to do so at her own wedding. I should hope so!

The last time I went to a wedding, not only did the Cubs win that night, but Carlos Zambrano came within four outs of throwing a no-hitter.

So I was optimistic about last night's game.

Apparently this only works when the wedding involves someone who actually sits with us in the bleachers, because not only did the Cubs lose to the Pirates 10-7, dropping them all the way into fifth place in the NL Central, but the game started going downhill almost at the very moment we got to the reception hall -- it was 4-1 Cubs when we left the car, and by the time I checked the score on my web cellphone, the Pirates had already had their five-run fourth and were ahead 6-5.

Incidentally, Carole and Ernie were at last night's game. So has that reversed the wedding good luck? We shall find out soon. Brian, who does sit with us, is getting married on June 12. So at least we hope that based on historical precedent, the Cubs should beat the Angels that night.

Is there a way that we could get Rob Mackowiak banned from the National League? Or, maybe just get him to retire and go straight to the Hall of Fame, since in this series alone he is 4-for-10, with four runs scored, three homers and eleven RBI. For the season he is hitting .320 against the Cubs, and who knows where he found this, because before 2004 he had hit only .208 with two homers in 125 at-bats vs. the Cubs.

Anyway, the good news is that the Cub offense finally woke up last night, getting twelve hits, three walks (including one to the nearly-unwalkable Rey Ordonez), two homers and seven runs.

Too bad the entire pitching staff couldn't stop the Pirates last night, until Francis Beltran finally managed to throw a scoreless inning. In fact, those who are wondering what'll happen to the 40-man roster once the Marks, Grudzielanek and Prior come back (they don't count against the 40-man roster limit while they are on the 60-day DL) shouldn't -- Mike Wuertz doesn't belong in the major leagues and could easily be waived or designated for assignment. I wonder if, even though Jim Hendry has denied it, the Cubs are going to ratchet up their interest in Seattle's Freddy Garcia, because Sergio Mitre, my friends, just isn't going to cut it as a major league starter, at least not at this stage of his career.

Some people have tried to make comparisons between Mitre, who turned 23 in February, and the 21-year-old Greg Maddux who stunk it up so bad in 1987, his first full season, that he had to be sent back to Iowa. Well, maybe. But the 1987 Cubs didn't have the weight of expectations that this team does, and while it's way too early to panic, especially with all the injuries, it would be a very good thing if Carlos Zambrano made a statement today and slammed the door on this five-game losing streak.

Which brings me to something I don't normally do... make comparisons to past teams.

But this stretch is beginning to eerily resemble 1985, a team which had similar expectations.

On June 11, 1985, the Cubs were 35-19, and four games in first place, ahead of the Mets.

They then lost 13 in a row, the longest losing streak in my lifetime up to that time. This has since been broken by the 1997 team, who lost their first fourteen games -- thanks (I think!) to David Geiser for reminding me of this.

When it was over the club was in fourth place, 3.5 games out, and even though the 1985 Cubs didn't go under .500 for good until August 25 (60-61, and by that time 15 games out of first place), the season essentially ended with that losing streak.

That said, this team is far more talented than the 1985 team, which had two starters (Cey and Matthews) who suddenly got old, and a rookie shortstop, and no bench or bullpen to speak of, and not a single starting pitcher started more than 25 games (13 different pitchers started games, including a desperation reacquisition of a way-past-his-prime, 37-year-old Larry Gura, who piled up an 8.41 ERA in four starts).

This Cub team will have Mark Prior back in less than a week, unless something really unexpected happens today in his rehab start for Iowa. Incidentally, if you are in Iowa, the game is being televised on various cable systems around the state at 1:05 CT.

Hurry back, Mark. We need you.

Dumb MLB thing of the day: in searching for something else, I learned that both the Blue Jays (at Tampa Bay) and Expos (at Philadelphia) are playing on the road on July 1, which is Canada Day, the equivalent of the 4th of July up there. And then they play each other in their annual interleague series, the weekend following July 1.

In Puerto Rico.

¿Es eso estúpido o qué?

:: posted by Al at 4:48 AM [+] ::
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