"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 26, 2004 ::

So You Were Saying?

So I stopped by Dave's seat to say hi today; he was there with his daughter Lauren, who was supposed to come yesterday but got stuck behind a train for two hours -- this has become a standing joke among us with members of Dave's family, particularly Brian, who always calls on the way to the game and says, "Traffic's terrible!" (and when you say that, give HUGE emphasis to the word "terrible"!)

Anyway, since Lauren never made it to the game Friday, that's why Mike got a chance to sit with Dave then, and today Dave, who also follows the Sox, was saying how bad they are, how they'll finish under .500, they have no bullpen, etc. I asked him about Felix Diaz, an emergency callup from AAA to be today's scheduled starter for the Sox after they put Scott Schoeneweis on the DL, and he said, "Don't worry. The Cubs will light him up." He had an 11.42 ERA coming into today and Dave said he had seen a game earlier this year where Diaz had been lit up for four home runs.

Me, I was worried. Guys like this usually give the Cubs fits and today was no exception. Mr. 11.42 ERA pitched six credible innings, allowing three earned runs, and it was Carlos Zambrano who struggled with his control, and the White Sox beat the Cubs 6-3, evening this weekend's series at a game apiece.

Oh, Dave also said (and he's observed baseball closely for many years and as I have written here, is now a team owner) that if the Cubs don't win the NL pennant this year, it'll never happen -- he says this is the best all-around Cub team he's ever seen.

Man, I hope he's right this time.

The crowd was a little more feisty today than yesterday. I was in the LF bleachers, and there were at least two fights behind me, none serious, at least as far as I could tell. At one point, some Sox employees came out to do one of those T-shirt tosses, and one wound up in the hands of a guy wearing a Cub shirt, who thought it would be funny to throw it on the field.

They brought down three uniformed Chicago police officers along with several white-shirted Sox security people to throw the guy out, and presumably, arrest him.

If only they'd be this strict in the Wrigley Field bleachers.

I actually had a nice time talking to a couple of Sox fans who weren't there just to bait Cub fans, but were actually just rooting for their team, and knowledgeable besides. I also ran into Jesus, sitting in the same section, who I had met during the Sox day game I went to on May 13. I think he was surprised to see me in a Cub shirt, but he wasn't nasty about it. See, there are decent people who are Sox fans, believe it or not. Anyway, one of them got into a spirited discussion with the guy sitting behind us, who was trying to convince him that Jerry Reinsdorf is a good owner. The two Sox fans I was talking to were amazed, because they said they'd never heard anyone say this before, and frankly, neither have I. At one point he asked the guy "Are you related to Reinsdorf or something?"

Answer: "No, I'm Irish Catholic."

Seriously, that's what he said. I don't make this stuff up, you know.

When Paul Konerko hit the three-run homer off Zambrano in the third, I said to the same guy, "Three runs isn't going to win this game." As if the Sox players had heard me, two batters later Joe Crede homered to make it 5-0. It was clear that Zambrano didn't have his game today, not only from the five walks but the fact that he couldn't get any outs on ground balls, his forte -- only five outs on ground balls, and six strikeouts. He threw 127 pitches and it seemed like more -- in fact, the Sox scoreboard people thought it was more. At one point I looked up and nudged the Sox fan and said, "Look at the pitch count." It said 207. We both laughed. But seriously, 127 pitches is way too many, even for eight or nine innings, much less six. The only justification for this is that there's an off day Monday, which means that all the starters will get five days' rest, rather than four, before their next start. Zambrano's next start will be Friday, also against the White Sox, at home.

The Cubs possibly could have gotten Diaz out of the game early except for a really bad baserunning error by Ramon Martinez, who got doubled off first in the second, after singling, when Mark Grudzielanek hit a rope right to Timo Perez in left. The Cubs made some noise in the fourth, scoring two runs on a double and three singles, and then Corey Patterson homered in the fifth, which meant he could spend the rest of the day looking up at us in the LF bleachers. I kept pointing at him and yelling, "FOCUS ON THE GAME!" Patterson does this all the time; I saw him doing it in Houston, though I think he might have been admiring himself on the big screen.

The last thing I want to say about the baseball today is:

Shingo Takatsu.

What the heck is that stuff he is throwing? The loopy, fading sinker or whatever it is -- geez, half the adults, men and women, in the stands, could probably throw that hard. Mike says that he has just enough 90 MPH fastballs and spots them well enough, that he can get you out by throwing your timing off with the slow junk. After today he has allowed a ridiculous 12 hits in 28 innings and has a 0.95 ERA. Shame, though, on the Sox staff people who play some kind of Japanese war song when he comes in the game, unless that's at his own request.

As I've said before, I like tomorrow's pitching matchup much better -- the Cubs hit Esteban Loaiza pretty good a year ago, and Greg Maddux is the kind of fast worker who won't allow the Sox to sit and wait him out for walks, which is what killed the Cubs today. So, I'm still optimistic for a series win.

Sign seen:

"WELCOME Ticket Scalpers And Bandwagon Jumpers"

(nicely printed and hung from the CF patio area -- points for creativity and neatness)

:: posted by Al at 7:26 PM [+] ::
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Dee-Fense!

You think the Sox might reconsider these 3:05 starts for the Cub/Sox series next year?

It was a gorgeous, sunny day today, not a cloud in the sky, and unusually cool (69 degrees at game time, in fact, when the game started and we were in the shade, down the RF line, it was almost chilly) for this time of year. And the 3:05 start meant that by the middle innings, the shadows would be over the plate and that parts of the outfield would become treacherous.

It worked to the Cubs' advantage today, as the Sox made three errors, the last of which, a little popup that Juan Uribe couldn't find, helped lead to a four-run inning in the Cubs' decisive 7-4 win over the White Sox at the Cell. The Cubs couldn't handle the sun any better; Corey Patterson and Sammy Sosa nearly collided on a ball ruled a double by Jamie Burke in the 8th, and Aramis Ramirez couldn't find a foul popup in the 9th. Fortunately, those had no impact on the result.

Before some more game commentary (and look out, Kyle Farnsworth), a little color.

The crowd was very late-arriving, even for a Sox crowd, which traditionally doesn't get there for the first pitch. Half an hour before game time, the place wasn't even a quarter full. I brought my brother-in-law Joel, who is visiting from Arizona, and just about then I said to him, "Let's go look for Howard," who was at the game today, and who Joel met last year at spring training.

We turned around and Howard was standing behind us, having come over to our section. Weird, huh? Anyway, we got to talking, and by the time we had finished it was nearly game time, so I didn't have a chance to find Mike or Dave today; hopefully I'll run into both of them tomorrow.

The Sox fans seemed... subdued, which I found really odd. There wasn't the outright hatred that I have seen in past years; some of them were actually friendly, like the guy in front of me who spent time throwing peanuts at a Cub fan a few rows in front of us, but then (as a joke) decided to offer him half a hot dog with peanut shells alongside. I thought that was kind of clever and funny; the Cub fan in the front didn't, but it was all done in good fun.

Memo to Sox fans: Stick the "cork" stuff in the attic, will you? That's yesterday's news. If you really want to bait Sammy this year, do something creative about sneezing. I didn't see any clever signs today, unlike last year, and the crowd appeared to be about 40% Cub fans, vocal and loud, even to the point where you could tell the "Alooooouuuuuu" yells weren't booing.

The Sox did something different than normal when introducing the players; for most of this season they have been introducing the lineup, then having the national anthem. Today the anthem was first, and then a separate, very loud announcement of each player as he ran onto the field, an attempt, I suppose, to rev up the crowd. Furthermore, during the game the Sox decided to do more baiting by putting up stats for Derrek Lee and Todd Hollandsworth that had to do exclusively with their performance for the Marlins in last year's NLCS.

Speaking of the national anthem, which I usually don't, today's rendition is worth mentioning. Chicago favorite Jimmy Peterik and his Ides of March did a wonderful a cappella version (though there was a small acoustic guitar introduction), one of the nicest national anthems I've heard in many years. It truly set the mood.

Mark Prior was not on his "A" game today; in fact, the very first pitch he threw was up and in to Aaron Rowand. Sox fans thought that was a purpose pitch, but after seeing Prior throw, you could tell he didn't have his command all day, and after slogging through a 99-pitch, five-inning stint, he was done, especially after the Cubs' two-run top of the sixth, which followed perhaps the most unexpected homer of the season, Mark Grudzielanek's first, which also produced his first RBI of the year.

This is what Dusty Baker does -- produces a team. We saw this all last year and today too; the middle of the order (Lee, Alou, Sosa, Ramirez) went 2-for-17. That left it up to people like Hollandsworth (two hits), Corey Patterson (a single) and Ramon Martinez, who hit a homer in the ninth to give LaTroy Hawkins some breathing room, after Hawkins had to be summoned to bail out Kyle Farnsworth.

Farnsworth was throwing 99 MPH today, but he should have been given a speeding ticket. He wasn't anywhere near the strike zone, walked the first two men he faced, then gave up a long homer to Paul Konerko. I wish he'd keep his head in the game; he seemed a million miles away today, even when striking out Jose Valentin.

Another really bright spot today from Jon Leicester, who threw two shutout innings yesterday in St. Louis, then was called upon to do the same today. This saved people like Francis Beltran and Mike Remlinger to throw tomorrow, and Hawkins could go again, since before today he hadn't thrown since Tuesday.

This felt much more like a home game than any of the previous Cub games I'd been to at the Cell. Even with the lowered seating capacity (and today's attendance of 39,596 is a bit below what the Sox list as their official capacity), Cub fans managed to get a large enough portion of the seats to be good and loud. Once again in an important series, leading off with a win gives the great possibility of a series victory, particularly with Carlos Zambrano going tomorrow. I will be in the LF bleachers then.

The Cubs are now 12-6 since the "tough" part of the schedule began on June 7. Keep it alive.

:: posted by Al at 7:39 PM [+] ::
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Short People

Remember the old Randy Newman song?

Short people... got no reason to live...

OK, I won't go that far. But there are a couple of... um, vertically challenged individuals I want to talk about tonight, who must be gone from the Cubs, because they are costing us ballgames.

Wendell Kim is five-foot-three. You know, maybe that's the problem. He simply can't see over the fielders to see what's going on in the outfield. He got deked good by Jim Edmonds, who faked a catch on Corey Patterson's long single in the third inning. That fake was good enough to fake Wavin' Wendell into sending Sammy Sosa into an out at the plate; as usual with Wendell's coaching, Sammy was out by thirty feet, and so instead of having the bases loaded and one out, the Cubs were run out of yet another inning.

That's it, people. Wendell must go. Did you know he has his own website? Yeah, it hasn't been updated in a year. But maybe he has a future as a webmaster.

Another not-so-tall person is Rey Ordonez (generously listed as five-foot-nine), the second-best Ordonez in baseball history. (Also, as my friend Jon says, the second-best Rey in Cub history.) He's listed as five-foot-nine, and frankly, there is absolutely no reason for him to be on a major league roster. He cannot hit (three hits in 36 at-bats? You gotta be kidding me. There must be ten players in the independent Frontier League who could hit better than this), and his fielding error, trying to be slick and flashy, led the way to the Cardinals' four-run rally in the fourth. Furthermore, he is an automatic out at the plate -- if it were an AL ballpark, I'd let the pitcher hit and DH for Rey, if the rules allowed it.

So, I'm recommending a recall of Ricky Gutierrez from Iowa. He was a fan favorite in his first stint with the ballclub in 2000-2001, and though he's had some serious injuries since then, there is no way he could be worse than Ordonez, who has now officially taken over from Jeff Kunkel (who went 4-for-29 in his brief Cub stint) as Worst Cub Of All Time, in my book.

If Dusty wanted to play a hunch today, he should have started Tom Goodwin somewhere. Goodwin was 9-for-16 lifetime against Chris Carpenter, and he followed through on this by singling as a pinch-hitter. Here's a good one for you, Dusty: you ought to sit Sammy Sosa at least one game this weekend. Sammy never hits well at the Cell and his presence in the lineup just revs up their fans.

Want one that sounds stupid but that just might work? Jose Macias tomorrow. Macias is 3-for-7 with two doubles and a homer lifetime against Jon Garland. Trust me, Dusty. Sit Sammy tomorrow and play Macias in right field.

Remember, you heard it here first.

I had the sense after the Cubs' blown rallies that one run might have won this game, and Chris Carpenter was snapping off curveballs really well all night anyway, and the Cardinals shut out the Cubs 4-0, winning the series, evening the season series at 7-7, and putting the Cubs three games out of first place.

Steve Stone said that this wasn't a critical game; it is, after all, only the 24th of June, and I would agree with him. Nevertheless, it's never fun to lose to your arch-rivals (Chip Caray, given to hype, called Cubs-Cardinals the "greatest rivalry in baseball". He's nuts. Much as I love the Cubs, the greatest rivalry has to be Yankees-Red Sox.) and especially since the Cardinals are the team to catch right now, with only five games remaining with them, it's critical to win almost all of the remaining five.

Matt Clement deserved better -- he threw only eighty pitches in six innings and actually lowered his ERA (to 2.98) by allowing only one earned run. Bright spot: Jon Leicester has come out of nowhere to establish himself as a very effective long reliever, both from his appearance in Anaheim in the 15-inning game on June 13, and tonight, striking out four Cardinals in his two innings of work.

The desperate Astros traded for Carlos Beltran tonight, and that will improve their offense, though they have hurt their bullpen by sending Octavio Dotel to Oakland in the three-way deal that gave the Royals three top prospects. The Astros now count on Brad Lidge to close. It'll surely make the Central more interesting, especially with the Astros coming to Wrigley Field next week.

Tomorrow, I safari to the South Side for three games that ought to be, as always, raucous and hard-played. The White Sox are capable of scoring ten runs any time they take the field, but occasionally look clueless at the plate. I like the pitching matchups:

Friday: Mark Prior vs. Jon Garland
Saturday: Carlos Zambrano vs. Scott Schoeneweis
Sunday: Greg Maddux vs. Esteban Loaiza

With later starts (3:05 Friday and Saturday, and 2:05 Sunday), the hitters will be in shadow for much of the day, for all three games.

Finally, Joel, my brother-in-law, spent the evening on the couch while I was watching the game, reading "The DaVinci Code". I think he had a much more enjoyable evening than I did.

:: posted by Al at 9:19 PM [+] ::
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Gut-Check Time

A week ago Sunday, the Cubs won a 15-inning game in Anaheim, which helped propel them to the four-game sweep in Houston.

I've always felt that when a team wins a championship, there's one game that you can point to, where the ballclub realized that it is of championship caliber, and takes that leap over the rest of the teams, and that even though you could have some tough losses for the rest of the season, it doesn't matter.

The "Sandberg Game", which coincidentally happened 20 years ago yesterday, was such a game. The 1989 Cubs had such a game on August 29, when they came from a 9-0 deficit to beat the Astros 10-9. There were four such games last year in the amazing series vs. the Cardinals at Wrigley Field in September.

Let us hope that yesterday's wild 10-9 loss to the Cardinals in St. Louis doesn't become such a game for the Cardinals, which it easily could.

I'd almost have been happier if Albert Pujols' three-run homer in the fourth yesterday had been the only runs of the game. At least then we wouldn't have had to go through the agony of coming from behind twice, taking a four-run lead, and then losing anyway.

There are so many culprits I don't want to single anyone out, but the thing Dusty Baker has to instill in everyone on the team is:

DON'T BLOW UP AT AN UMPIRE!

Yes, Kent Mercker was being squeezed on the strike zone. But I saw several pitches from Cardinal pitchers called in exactly the same way. Plate umpire Sam Holbrook didn't call a very good game last night, but he was consistently bad for both teams (Cardinal pitchers issued six walks, certainly uncharacteristic for the Cubs, who as we all know don't walk that much).

That doesn't justify the outburst, and it certainly didn't justify losing Michael Barrett. Would Barrett have stopped the pitch that got by Paul Bako, allowing the winning run to score? We don't know. But the Cubs could have used his bat in the ninth inning, and Steve Stone was throughout that inning, expressing puzzlement at why the Cubs even bothered to bring Rey Ordonez into the game, only to pinch-hit for him. At this point, Ordonez is simply a wasted roster spot. I'd expect Ricky Gutierrez to be called up as soon as the Cubs feel he's ready. Yes, at this stage of his career Gutierrez isn't a very good player, but he has to be better than a guy hitting .088 (3 for 34).

Furthermore, the fact that Mark Grudzielanek pinch hit for Ordonez, would have forced Grudz to play SS if the Cubs had tied the game. Maybe this isn't such a bad idea, even for a game or two, just to get both Todd Walker's bat (another homer last night, his 11th) and Grudz' into the lineup.

I don't have a whole lot more to say today, only that Matt Clement will try to right the ship tonight, and that's so important going into this weekend's series at the Cell. For the Cubs and most Cub fans, this is just another series of road games against a pretty good team.

For the Sox and their fans, it always seems to be a matter of life and death. Silly, but true.

:: posted by Al at 9:23 AM [+] ::
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Movie Review: "Troy" (and Cub game report for 6/22)

From May 31 through June 20, a twenty-one day period. I attended ballgames on all but five days (June 3, an off day, the three-game series in Anaheim, and the first game in Houston on June 14).

Starting Friday I'll be at nine games in ten days, including the three games at the Cell.

So, a break was needed. Coincidentally, With my brother-in-law and his wife in town, and I had a free Director's Guild screening of the movie "Troy" last night, so I wound up missing all but the last couple of outs of last night's come-from-behind 5-4 Cub win over the Cardinals, which put them at a season-high 10 games over .500 (one game better than they were after 70 games in 2003) and within one game of first place.

Having seen some of the highlights of this game, I will say that sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, as Sammy Sosa scored the winning run only because Mike Matheny couldn't handle a relay throw -- otherwise Sammy would have been out easily. Otherwise, Aramis Ramirez (who doubled in the tying and winning runs) and Derrek Lee (now 12 for his last 17, with a homer) continued their hot hitting, and it's a good thing that the Cubs can win the series by simply splitting the remaining two games. Of course, you don't want to think that way -- after winning game one, you want to go for the sweep, and the Cubs are now 7-5 against the Cardinals so far this year.

About the movie, it was a CGI masterpiece. I kept looking for odd shadows or lighting in some of the mass battle scenes, where you couldn't possibly have had 50,000 extras. They looked pretty good, but you knew they were computer-generated.

Brad Pitt was eye candy for the women, I'm sure, but I wonder if I would have cast his wounded-little-boy look in the role of one of ancient Greece's biggest heroes. He buffed up for the part, but there were other men in the film who seemed even more buff. Orlando Bloom (from the "Lord of the Rings" series) did a nice turn as the bewildered Paris, whose seduction of Helen of Troy (German actress Diane Kruger) starts the whole Sparta vs. Troy war in the first place.

And I couldn't help thinking of Monty Python's Trojan Rabbit when the Trojan Horse was wheeled up to the gates of the city, with the predictable results. There's a ton of fire in this film, and some really gory battle scenes -- it's NOT suitable for kids.

The best performance in the film is Peter O'Toole as Priam, the king of Troy. He's got a terrific scene with Pitt, and I will go no further, only to say the entire film is validated by this scene.

So this got me thinking, how would you cast this film with the 2004 Cubs?

How about...

Achilles: Mark Prior
Agamemnon: Sammy Sosa
Paris: Mark Grudzielanek
Hector: Todd Walker
Priam: Dusty Baker
Odysseus: Moises Alou
Ajax: Corey Patterson
Boagrius: Kyle Farnsworth
Messenger Boy: Wendell Kim

OK, that's enough...

Today is the 20th anniversary of what became known in baseball lore as the "Sandberg Game", where the Cubs came from a 7-1 deficit to tie the game twice on homers by Ryne Sandberg, and won in extra innings -- coincidentally, also against the Cardinals, but at Wrigley Field.

Let us hope for similar excitement -- and a similar result -- today.

Finally, I got an e-mail from my late cousin Fred's longtime companion Becky, in which she wrote:

I was asked to recontact you to let you know, Fred was buried in his Cubs shirt. If they ever need help... they've got it now!!!

You bet, Becky. I note that Fred passed away on June 15 -- the Cubs have gone 7-1 since then.

AYRating (for "Troy"): ** 1/2
AYRating (for last night's game): ****

:: posted by Al at 9:18 AM [+] ::
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Cosmic Things Are Happening...

This is a phrase my buddy Mike likes to use when weird things start to happen that perhaps foreshadow a special season for the Cubs.

Last October during the Division Series vs. Atlanta I got an e-mail from someone identifying himself only as "Fred", who wrote:

I grew up in Chicago in the 50's-60's, and have been away for 30 years. A lifelong diehard, we return to Wrigley yearly. We went to the Ted for Game 1. The number of our fans there was unprecedented and unrivaled.

My mom died the day of the last Cubs game of 2002, almost to the hour that a year later they won this past Tuesday. It was the Cubbies that kept her going, and gave her solace. Since then, her soulmate of 57 years (dad) is understandably lost. The only thing that keeps him looking forward are the Cubbies. They've been more than a ballteam to us. They are, and will always be, a significant fabric of our family. They've kept us from falling apart, and drew us closer, especially now.

Mom's smiling down right now. She "told" me to tell everyone in the NG something we already know; There's magic in the air right now. Eat it up. Go Cubs.

I loved that sentiment and posted it here, only to learn later that "Fred", and his mom, were my cousins, who I hadn't seen in many years.

I received an e-mail today from Fred's longtime companion, Becky, that he had passed away on June 15, far too young at the age of 51.

Now, Fred and his mom are both smiling down on us. The Cubs won on June 15, last Tuesday, in Houston, a game that I attended. Watch over us, you two. We cannot fail.

:: posted by Al at 7:01 PM [+] ::
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Happy Father's Day!



This is a photo of me, my son and my dad at last year's All-Star Game at the Cell.

If you saw the ABC-7 Sunday morning news today, you also saw this photo featured on the air, as the producer of the show asked the anchors and crew to bring in pictures of their dads, a nice tribute on this day.

And today, probably the most gorgeous weather day of the spring so far (the summer solstice hitting tonight at 7:57 pm CT), 69 degrees at game time, though it felt warmer, the Cubs completed another series victory with a decisive 5-3 win over a very good Athletics club, and coupled with the Reds' 6-0 win over the Cardinals, the Cubs moved to within two games of St. Louis with the big upcoming series this week at Busch Stadium.

I don't want to look too far ahead, but I like the probable pitching matchups for next weekend's series at the Cell:

Friday: Mark Prior vs. Jon Garland
Saturday: Carlos Zambrano vs. Scott Schoeneweis
Sunday: Greg Maddux vs. Esteban Loaiza

The Cubs will miss Mark Buehrle, and they did pretty well against Loaiza last year at the Cell. And, that makes the rotation vs. the Cardinals Maddux vs. Marquis (Tuesday), Rusch vs. Suppan (Wednesday), and Clement vs. Williams (who the Cubs have hit hard this year, Thursday).

That's looking ahead. Let's look at today, shall we?

Derrek Lee is... well, using the trite phrase en fuego doesn't do him justice. He is 11 for his last 14, has also walked twice, homered (today, a bomb onto Waveland), and has four RBI.

Hey, naysayers who looked down on the Lee-for-Choi deal when Hee Seop was so hot in April, let's look at a comparison now (stats complete through today):

     G   AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS 
Lee  67 248 36 77 25  1  9  44 28 52  5  3 .310 .387 .528 .916 
Choi 63 184 35 49 12  1 12  31 33 53  1  0 .266 .383 .538 .921 

Man, you can't get too much closer than that. I am, however, particularly impressed with the 25 doubles that Lee has, which would translate to about 58 doubles in a full season. Furthermore, Choi has cooled off to what I would think is about his best level, while I think Lee might increase his power numbers. Today's homer was his ninth, and that's a lot less than he was projected to have, getting out of a poor HR park in Miami, to Wrigley Field. I'll still say he'll have more homers than Choi at the end of the season, and the other numbers will be comparable or better.

Carlos Zambrano struggled with his control today, walking four, and didn't have his sinker working -- he recorded only two outs on ground balls, far different from his normal game. Nevertheless, he slogged through a 122-pitch performance into the 7th, lowered his ERA to 2.25, second in the NL, won his eighth game, and -- dare I say it? -- established himself as perhaps the front-runner to start the All-Star Game for the National League, now that Roger Clemens has proven he is human again.

I did worry a bit about LaTroy Hawkins, who due to Lee's homer wound up in a non-save situation, and after getting two easy outs lost focus and allowed three straight doubles, scoring two A's runs and bringing Mark Kotsay to the plate as the tying run. Luckily, Hawkins struck him out, but Hawkins showed an annoying tendency to do this in spring training, and perhaps someone else should have warmed up in the 8th just in case the save situation was negated. This happens to a lot of closers, oddly enough.

Mike brought his sister, brother-in-law and nephew, who usually make an annual pilgrimage to the bleachers. I have seen this nephew over the years, and he's a nice kid, though about the smallest 13-year-old you've seen. I suppose he's got a growth spurt coming to him. Another family who we didn't know stood behind us today, nice kids and mother, but the father had a few too many and though he wasn't violent, he was getting kind of nasty after I asked him to stop screaming in my ear, and he was saying things like "The Cubs are in my heart and soul" and Howard and I just looked at each other knowingly, thinking, if this guy only knew....

By the sixth inning they had taken off, anyway.

Also arriving today was an old friend of Mike's and mine, who used to sit with us years ago, a woman named Marion who lives up in the general area where Mike used to live way out in the northwest suburbs; they occasionally shared rides home. She walked up to the gate today hoping to get a single seat or standing room and wound up, somehow, with a single bleacher ticket, for a game that was supposedly sold out for months. Hmmmm....

In other superstitions today, Carole called half an hour before the game to say she was in CTA Hell. This usually means a Cub win, but Jeff, Krista and I were all telling her to start walking down the street until a bus came. And, the Tomato Inning didn't really work today -- it splashed over the fourth inning, in scorecard squares that didn't have any batters. There was a tiny bit on the fifth-inning square where Todd Walker's triple resided. We figured we could turn this into a sponsorship deal with Jimmy John's -- hey, maybe we could get free sandwiches out of it, if nothing else.

Can you tell we're happy today? The Cubs reach another high-water mark for the season, nine games over. 500, and as I pointed out to Howard, you don't have to streak to victory. If a team goes six games over .500 every month (say, 17-11, not impossible to do), you win about 95 games. And on what everyone said would be the toughest stretch of the schedule, beginning with the June 7 game against the Cardinals, the Cubs are 10-4.

We hope and believe.

:: posted by Al at 5:19 PM [+] ::
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