"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, July 03, 2004 ::

It All Depends On Your Perspective

When the fourth rain delay hit, Howard, Phil and I decided there was probably going to be no more baseball on the North Side today and we all left. (See below for the results of our prescience!)

A few minutes later after he had gotten to his car, and before I had gotten to mine, Howard called me and told me that all the sports talk radio stations were talking about the weather conditions and how wet the field was and how players were slipping and sliding (Willie Harris nearly killed himself rounding first in the wet top of the 6th, and Moises Alou let Paul Konerko's drive fall in front of him, when in normal conditions that'd have been an easy out), and how the game shouldn't be resumed.

Then he mentioned that on the Sox radio station, they were saying the game ought to be suspended, while on the Cub broadcast, they were saying it ought to be called!

This sounds funny, of course, but according to major league rule 4.11, a game in this situation cannot be suspended unless the visiting team has either tied the game or taken the lead, which the White Sox didn't. The umpires were conferring with Ozzie Guillen before the top of the sixth, with the skies darkening and rain on the way (the inning was played in a pretty heavy rain), and I think they must have told him, "You're playing this half-inning as if it's the top of the ninth and you're behind." Another clue that the game was going to be called early was Guillen's use of Frank Thomas to pinch-hit in the fifth -- yes, it could have been one swing and game tied, but generally you'd save a hitter like this for the later innings. Thomas had never faced Greg Maddux before and Greg tied him in knots before striking him out.

Given the weather conditions, the Cubs will take their 4-2, rain-shortened, 5 1/2-inning win over the White Sox, their third win in a row, lifting the club to a season-high ten games over .500.

We can't complain too much. This is only the second time in forty home games this year that there have been any rain delays at all -- the first being the 5-4, 13-inning win over the Rockies on Mother's Day.

Dave brought his daughter Lauren for the second consecutive Cubs/Sox Saturday, and they didn't bring rain gear. Luckily, Howard had an extra umbrella for them. The rest of us had our umbrellas and of course Howard brought his pink Teletubbie-like poncho, so we managed to keep mainly dry, particularly the scorecards, which is the most important thing.

I had just gotten finished discussing with Dave what we had talked about regarding today's Sox starter, Felix Diaz, last weekend at the Cell, and said to him in reference to how well Diaz pitched last Saturday, "Every dog has his day". At that moment Rey Ordonez hit a two-run homer off Diaz. Howard thinks Ordonez ought to be National League Player of the Week. I think he was joking. Then Moises Alou slammed a homer for a 3-0 lead and Dave reminded us that Diaz has now allowed eight homers in 15 innings of major league work this year. That's pretty awful.

No one scored in the Tomato Inning (the fourth) today, but that may be because of the rain, plus I say that Rey Ordonez hitting a home run (raising his average from awful, .128, to horrible, .143), shows the Power of the Tomato.

Meanwhile, in between raindrops Maddux had his stuff working very well today, inducing eight groundball outs in the first five innings. We were all very surprised to see Maddux come out for the sixth, despite a low pitch count, because of the third rain delay of 59 minutes after Sammy Sosa hit an opposite-field homer (his 14th of the year and 553rd of his career, putting him ten behind Reggie Jackson on the all-time list) into a pouring rain in the bottom of the fifth. Even so, this might have been the best stuff Maddux had all year, and the win, his seventh, is also the 296th of his career.

These were no ordinary rain delays, either. The first one hit with no warning at all -- just a sheet of water coming past the right-field upper deck. There was a bit more warning for us for the second and third delays, since I had time to look at the radar image that I now can get on my cellphone (worth every penny of the $4 a month that I pay for it).

NEWS FLASH! As I am typing this at 5:10 pm, word from our local Fox station that the game was called, according to the local reporter, because of "deteriorating field conditions". That's the right call, in my opinion. The infield got incredibly muddy right before the third delay because they played a couple of at-bats in heavy rain, and it took the ground crew (Dave was impressed by their hustle and said that the ballplayers ought to hustle that fast all the time) nearly half an hour to put enough Turface on the field to dry it off (200 bags of it, compared to the 40 or so used during most rain delays). Incidentally, did you know that Turface is mostly made of dried corn starch? That's from Mike, incidentally. Thank him for that bit of trivia. Since he stayed till the end, he also reported to me that after the fourth delay, the umpires and managers came out, peeled up a corner of the tarp, and pronounced the field unplayable. Dusty and Ozzie then exchanged low-fives and that was that.

So, the four rain delays were:

1) 30 minutes in the top of the second

2) 16 minutes just before the top of the third

3) 59 minutes in the bottom of the fifth

4) 75 minutes after the top of the sixth

That's a total of three hours of delays and (by my stopwatch, which I tried, in the rain, to stop and start when play was called and restarted) one hour and thirty-nine minutes of playing time. (The boxscore says 1:40, so I got pretty darn close!)

One more baseball-related note: to no one's surprise, Todd Hollandsworth was placed on the 15-day DL today, retroactive to June 28, and Triple-A infielder Brendan Harris (who will wear #19) was recalled to take his roster spot. It appears that Aramis Ramirez won't have to go on the DL (whew!) but may miss three to five days. Today, Rey Ordonez played the role of Ramirez, but I hope Dusty at least tries Todd Walker at 3B, to get his bat in the lineup as well as Mark Grudzielanek's. Baker says he's emphasizing defense (and Ordonez turned a nifty force in the pouring rain in the top of the 6th), but the Cubs could use some offense too.

Finally, the weirdest thing during any of the rain delays: a woman plucking a man's eyebrows over toward right-center field. The Metrosexual Revolution has hit Wrigley Field!

:: posted by Al at 5:15 PM [+] ::
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You Can Put It On The Board ... Nope!

Here's what really happened in the first inning when Ross Gload's long drive to right was first ruled a home run, then overturned and ruled (correctly) foul.

The ball hit the flagpole ropes attached to the foul pole, which is why 1B umpire Charlie Reliford originally called it fair -- he must have seen the ball change direction briefly. Three Cub players, including Sammy Sosa, rushed in to protest, and Sammy almost never does this unless he's sure he's right.

I haven't seen replays, but apparently they showed the ball going foul. You can see why it was originally called fair, though, based on what we saw in the RF bleachers.

This didn't seem that important when Gload doubled in two runs on the next pitch, but in reality it was a turning point in the Cubs' 6-2 win over the White Sox today, evening the season series at two wins apiece.

If four runs had scored that might have put the game out of reach with Esteban Loaiza on the mound. The two runs that the Sox probably felt were "taken away" from them kept the Cubs in the game, and the two runs that did score were unearned, due to a rare error by Derrek Lee, who couldn't get the handle on Juan Uribe's bunt attempt. Meanwhile, Carlos Zambrano again, just as in his last start last week at the Cell, didn't have his sinker working early, throwing 54 pitches in the first two innings.

As quickly as the Cubs went down 2-0, though, they came back, scoring first in the Tomato Inning, when Gload dropped Derrek Lee's fly ball, scoring Aramis Ramirez, who had doubled. Once again, the Cubs managed a good offensive day (six runs, thirteen hits) without hitting a home run (the wind was blowing in from CF pretty good, and a couple of fly balls got knocked down). It could have been more except for three White Sox double plays, all of which were really close calls at first (in the third, Derrek Lee looked out, as did Corey Patterson in the 8th, but it did really appear like Carlos Zambrano had beaten the relay in the sixth).

The Cubs, through the four different scoring rallies, showed some real signs of life today, some fire in the belly, so to speak. This is something that must carry over on nearly a daily basis if they are going to make up the ground to the Cardinals.

Just as last weekend at the Cell, the Cub/Sox hostilities among fans seemed pretty subdued. With so many season tickets sold at Wrigley Field this year, the Sox portion of the crowd, though loud in the first inning, was fairly small (I'd say no more than 5,000 or so) and after the Cubs' rallies in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, pretty silent. I remarked to both Howard and Mike that a possible reason for this, is the fact that Wrigley Field this year is sold out every day. There didn't seem to be much change in the atmosphere compared to yesterday, for example. There were no fights in the bleachers, and we wound up giving a couple of seats to a nice young couple who were Cub fans, and in talking to them Jeff learned that the guy, who was British, was flying back to England next week on the airline Jeff works for. Small world indeed.

Now, of course, we have more potential injuries to worry about. Zambrano called out the trainer and coaches twice, and finally had to leave the game with what was officially termed "cramping" in his arm. This was probably smart after 124 pitches, and the official word is that Zambrano will not miss his next scheduled start, which should be Wednesday night in Milwaukee. After that we hope his next appearance will be in the All-Star Game -- his win today was his ninth, and since he allowed no earned runs his ERA dropped to 2.41.

A bit more concerning was what happened to Aramis Ramirez, who left with what was called a "strained groin" after a head-first slide into third base in the sixth. This is one player the Cubs simply cannot afford to be without for any length of time; tonight the word is "day-to-day". It's also still undetermined whether Todd Hollandsworth will go on the DL or not; an obvious situation for him was hitting for Francis Beltran in the 8th, but Dusty sent Todd Walker up instead (he was intentionally walked, something Mike and I thought was an odd strategy, even though setting up the DP, and it blew up in Ozzie Guillen's face when Mark Grudzielanek singled in the run that really sealed the win).

In case you care, the Cubs wives beat the Sox wives in the charity softball game played in lieu of batting practice today (say, maybe this is a good omen, not taking BP on Fridays). Starring was Danielle Grudzielanek, who has both power and speed. Maybe it'll rub off.

Today was another picture-perfect weather day (game-time temperature 75, with some high, wispy clouds), and I cannot remember a year in which there has been as much good weather for Cub home games (and we have nearly reached half the home schedule -- today was home game #39) as in 2003.

The next two days are supposed to be not quite as nice, so we may be dodging raindrops. This forecast calls for rain most of the afternoon tomorrow -- let's hope it holds off till late -- and then clearing out after midday Sunday.

Finally, I have discovered yet another good luck charm, in the person of my daughter Rachel, just back from summer camp. She has a newish Cubs cap which she likes -- and wore it all day both yesterday and today. I told her that she now must wear it every day. She's willing to take one for the team.

:: posted by Al at 6:08 PM [+] ::
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Bewitched

You can ask anyone who was there -- Howard, Carole, Jeff or Brian.

I really did say this, right when Brad Lidge (who threw 35 pitches in two innings yesterday) came into the game in the bottom of the 10th to face Sammy Sosa:

"How about he hits the first pitch onto the street and let's go home!"

BOOM!

That, as you no doubt know, is precisely what happened, and Sammy's 13th homer of the season and 552nd of his career, gave the Cubs a thrilling 5-4 win over the Astros, winning their first series in two weeks (since the Oakland series) and moving to within three games of the first-place Cardinals, who were idle today.

That wasn't the only eerie thing that happened today. Howard wasn't going to stop and get sandwiches, but he decided to anyway, and then he had some extra tickets to get rid of, so he finally arrived in the bottom of the first. So the game had already started when I dropped the ceremonial tomato on my scorecard.

These tomatoes must have more power than we think. No, the Cubs didn't score in the Tomato Inning, but get this. It landed right on Rey Ordonez' square in the second. We got immediate gratification -- Ordonez slammed a double into left-center. Not only that, he got another hit in the fourth, an RBI single, and raised his average from putrid (.083) to awful (.128).

Do NOT underestimate the power of tomatoes from Jimmy John's!

This all happened after the Embarrassing Al Moment of the Day. About half an hour after the gates opened, a woman wearing sunglasses and a Colorado Buffaloes baseball cap walked by and said, "Hi, Al!" I said hi, pleasantly, then turned to Jeff and said, "Who was that?"

Turned out to be our ABC-7 weekend morning anchor Stacey Baca, who had come to the game along with her sister. Embarrassing? Gee, I only work with her five days a week. She's good luck for the Cubs, though -- she's shown up a couple of times a year since she moved to Chicago in 2002, and the Cubs always win when she's there. As I was leaving I told her about the statement I'd made to everyone else about Sammy's homer, and she said that she was worried about what I'd said about the Cubs always winning. But they came through, in dramatic fashion.

Let me take this opportunity to say that I agree with my friend Craig, who is a Cub fan living in Kansas City, and thus has seen Carlos Beltran play often during his career there, and who e-mailed me today:

Do you understand now about Beltran? He is immensely talented and has a flair for the dramatic (or "clutch," if you must). This is why I so desperately wanted the Cubs to go after him. Beltran has already talked about how much he likes it in Houston; I would not be at all surprised to see him stay there if he finishes the year there. If he does in fact go on the FA market, I hope the Cubs go after him in a big way. And you haven't even seen what he can do on defense yet - he's the best I've seen going back on the ball since, well, since Willie Mays.

I'm in agreement here, except for what he says about Beltran staying in Houston. Since his acquisition, the Astros, who no longer have much of a bullpen, are 2-4, and the two wins (yesterday, on his homer, and last Sunday at Texas, when he stole a homer over the CF fence and the Astros won 1-0) have been accomplished by Beltran himself, almost singlehandedly. If Houston falls further out of the race, as I mentioned yesterday, I can see him being traded again. Speaking of that, here's another e-mail I received from Mike Johnson, clarifying that doing that wouldn't really be like Mike Piazza in 1998, but more like another recent deal:

While your reference to that trade of Piazza to the Marlins for just one week would be similar to Beltran if the Stros flip him before the deadline, the intents of those deals were different. The Marlins were in the middle of their firesale and everybody knew they would dump his salary as soon as they could. The Astros acquired Beltran because they were trying to win the division. If they indeed trade him again, it will be more like the Cliff Floyd trade in 2002. He was traded to the Expos for two weeks and then traded to the BoSox after they fell out of contention.

Mike, you're absolutely right on both counts.

More on today's game, played on a warm but not hot day (81 degrees at gametime) in bright sunshine: Mark Prior finally looked like he was clicking on all cylinders. He ran out of gas in the 8th having thrown 96 pitches, and had Kent Mercker not given up Beltran's three-run homer (his second homer of the game, fourth in six games as an Astro, and 19th of the year overall) on the first pitch he threw, Prior's ERA would have gone way down -- as it was, it's still a respectable 3.37. Kyle Farnsworth and Jon Leicester kept the Astros bats silent the rest of the way, and Leicester, who doesn't throw really hard, seems to have great location on his pitches and perhaps could become a valuable setup man as his career progresses.

It's been said that the Cubs have become a team sitting back and waiting for home runs, and as if to contradict that, they had two nice run-scoring rallies today that did NOT involve home runs, particularly in the fourth, when they parlayed a walk and two singles, sandwiching Michael Barrett's third triple of the year (tying a career high for him), into three runs. Corey Patterson played well, beating out two infield hits and playing nicely in the outfield (yes, we made sure to tell him how bad he sucks after each nice play; can't get complacent, you know!).

We witnessed perhaps the weirdest defensive play you'll ever see: in the Houston 9th, Morgan Ensberg led off with a single and after numerous Farnsworth throws to first, they finally caught him off base -- with the strange sight of Barrett running directly at him, rather than throwing the ball to either Derrek Lee at 1B or Mark Grudzielanek at 2B. Barrett wound up tagging Ensberg out. This is how they teach players to do rundowns -- as a fielder, you're supposed to run directly at the runner. Barrett, of course, came up as a third baseman, and in this play his infielder's instincts took over and it worked. It was well executed, and though my friend Dave doesn't think much of Barrett as a catcher, and yes, he's not the best in the game, I think he has worked hard and improved his defense, and you cannot argue with his .285/.337/.482 hitting stats (.820 OPS, excellent for a catcher).

In other news today, Kerry Wood threw another simulated game, only to be conked on the chin by a hit off the bat of Paul Bako. Wood wasn't hurt, and considering it was hit by Bako in a simulated game, maybe it was just a simulated line drive (rimshot optional). The article also says that Wood may go on a rehab assignment next week and if that goes well, could start in St. Louis before the All-Star break.

Finally, tomorrow the White Sox invade, and let's hope their five-game winning streak will satisfy them and they'll be ready to lose a few. Oddly, the White Sox have won this interleague series 4-2 in each odd-numbered year since 1999, and in each even-numbered year since then, the teams have split. If that holds this year, the Cubs should win 2 of 3 this weekend -- but let's hope for more!

Expected pitching matchups:

Friday, 2:20 PM, FSN: Zambrano vs. Loaiza
Saturday, 12:20 PM, Fox-TV (regional): Maddux vs. Diaz
Sunday, 7:05 PM, ESPN: Rusch vs. Buehrle

Bring 'em on.

:: posted by Al at 5:21 PM [+] ::
...

Staccato

That's what today's game felt like -- a sleepwalk punctuated by solo home runs. Five runs were scored, four of them on solo homers, the last by Carlos Beltran, finally doing what the Astros got him for, and they beat the Cubs 3-2, wrecking a chance for the Cubs to pick up a game on the Cardinals, who lost to the Pirates 6-5, getting swept in Pittsburgh for the first time in 12 years. You could have made a lot of money in Vegas betting this week that the Pirates, with the worst home record in baseball, would sweep the Cardinals, who came in with the best road record.

Today, Brian (I'll call him Other Brian since our regular Brian finally did show up today) brought his family out to the bleachers. His son Aaron insisted, since the last time he was there he won some money playing Home Run Derby, on playing it again.

So guess who picked Craig Biggio? Of course, Aaron's mother Elise, who wound up taking dollars from Jeff, Howard and me. Biggio hit two of the solo shots today.

And I am blaming Other Brian and his family for this loss, because after they stayed through the very tense 8th inning where the Cubs tied the game, they left. And then they called and wanted the $ from Beltran's homer in the 9th! Hmmm. Well, usually you must be present to win. Jeff even told them that they were out of the game when they left, so I'll have to mull this over.

In between all the homers were several sleep-inducing innings; the teams combined for a stultifying 13 walks. There were a number of good defensive plays, including a nice stab of a liner off Roger Clemens' bat by Matt Clement, and a sliding catch by Corey Patterson, who had one of the best at-bats of his career, an eleven-pitch masterpiece off Brad Lidge, after which he walked (his second of the day!). Ramon Martinez followed with a nine-pitch at-bat, but he looked at a hittable strike three, and that was it for the Cubs. Even though Lidge threw 35 pitches in his two innings of work, all the air was let out of the Cubs' balloon after Beltran's homer. Up till then, the crowd was nearly up to playoff intensity in the bottom of the 8th, when the Cubs loaded the bases with two out after Michael Barrett's solo homer tied the game leading off that inning.

Matt Clement helped put all of us to sleep early with a 104-pitch outing in which he couldn't even finish the fifth, but Michael Wuertz managed to get him out of it and Clement's ERA even went down today, from 2.98 to 2.93. Roger Clemens sailed along pretty well and was in line for his 11th win of the year until Barrett's homer.

There was a weird argument after Derrek Lee was thrown out at 3B on an attempted sacrifice in the 5th by Ramon Martinez. Lee looked out and was called out. But then we heard the groans from the terrace fans looking at the replay on the monitors beneath the upper deck. Gary Matthews must have heard this because he spent much of the next inning jawing at plate umpire Jim Joyce and was ejected.

Mike told me yesterday in anticipation of Joyce being the plate umpire today, that his strike zone as an umpire was much like the author Jim (OK, for you sticklers, JAMES) Joyce -- in Mike's words, "all over the place for no particular reason." He was right. The zone seemed low at first, then high, then in the crucial 8th inning the called third strike on Martinez was right down the middle. The pitchers deserved better, and that's probably the main reason the game slogged on for three hours and thirty-two minutes -- the goofy strike zone was probably mainly responsible for the thirteen walks.

There's no word on the status of Todd Hollandsworth, but he clearly wasn't available today, because there were a couple of situations that cried out for him as a pinch-hitter. Dusty did a double-switch after the Martinez strikeout, putting Rey Ordonez in the game, which led Howard and me to agree that we were automatically giving up an out in the 9th. As it turned out, once the Astros took the lead, Dusty pinch-hit for him with Mark Grudzielanek, setting up a situation where Grudz would have had to play SS if the game had gone into extra innings. This is intolerable -- as I've said before, there have to be ten players in the independent minor leagues who can hit better (and at this stage of his career, field better than Ordonez), and the Cubs ought to call up Ricky Gutierrez, sooner than later, because Ordonez is simply a waste of a roster spot.

It was a depressing day, but I know tomorrow will be better.

:: posted by Al at 5:27 PM [+] ::
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Corrections and Updates

Last night I wrote that Glendon Rusch had a quality start (6 or more IP, 3 or fewer ER).

That's not correct; the run that scored as a result of Moises Alou's kicking the ball into the ivy, an error, wound up being an earned run because two batters later, Andy Pettitte's double would have scored him anyway.

Even without the "quality start", Rusch did at least keep the Cubs in the game until they came back with Biggio's error in the 7th. With Jeff Kent suffering a hamstring pull last night, if I were Jimy Williams, I'd put Biggio at 2nd and Jason Lane in the outfield. But we shall see.

Also on the Astros' injury list now is Wade Miller, who was supposed to start on Thursday. He will be replaced by Pete Munro, who has faced the Cubs only twice in his career, one start in 2002 and one relief appearance last year.

With Clement and Prior going, I don't think it's silly for the Cubs to think sweep.

:: posted by Al at 10:00 AM [+] ::
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Corey, You Still Suck

Now, just in case you think I've gone X-rated on all of you, keep in mind that the word "suck" seems to have passed into common parlance these days, and that we were making jokes in the 9th inning about Orlando Palmeiro, who is a cousin of Rafael Palmeiro, and the latter's connection to Viagra (and incidentally, there was a reference I made to the ad for that drug, which is no longer on the scoreboard at the Cell, something about it being "up", which I won't repeat here), but that's too much for this space -- I mean, my kids read this!

But anyway, we may have hit on something. Corey Patterson started hitting well right after Mike made the "COREY SUCKS" stickers at work, and though we didn't have Carole's clipboard with the sticker on it with us tonight, after he doubled and got picked off, and then let Morgan Ensberg's triple fly over his head, we got on him bigtime.

He responded with a two-run homer in the fourth, and though he struck out each of his later at-bats, the Cubs came from behind no less than three times and beat the Astros 7-5, when Craig Biggio, who really has no business in the outfield at all, couldn't handle Moises Alou's long drive, leading to two unearned runs that turned out to be the winning runs.

Idiot highlights of the day: the indignant woman standing in line when we, the season ticket holders who are allowed in first (so that we, like all the other season ticket holders, can have our preferred seats every day), came up in front of her. I asked her: "Do you really think you won't get your seat if six people go in in front of you?" She didn't have an answer to that, and she wound up in the front row, and I'm sure we'll never see her again.

There was also a guy who was ejected in the first inning holding two large cans of Guinness beer, which leads to the obvious question: how did he get those past security in the first place?

Other than that, it was a peaceful evening, with really pleasant weather, perhaps the nicest weather evening of the summer so far.

Glendon Rusch got roughed up in the first for a run after getting the first two easy outs, and then Patterson's misplay helped lead to three more runs, and it was made worse when Moises Alou actually kicked a ball that got stuck in the ivy; he held up his arms trying to hold the runner to a double, but you can't do that from your own misplay, and Adam Everett circled the bases. I was kind of hoping they'd call it an inside-the-park homer, which would have been about the weirdest one I've ever seen, but it was ruled a double and an error, which allowed Rusch to post that most amorphous of stats, a "quality start" (minimum 6 IP with 3 ER or fewer). He did manage to keep the game close until heroics from Aramis Ramirez (game-tying homer) and the winning rally started by pinch-hitter Tom Goodwin's double in the 7th.

The first-ever major league Beltran vs. Beltran matchup, the Cubs' Francis vs. the Astros' newly-acquired Carlos, resulted in a mammoth home run onto Sheffield that nearly hit a long white limo parked behind us. If Houston keeps up its current slide, now 1-3 since Beltran's acquisition, he may be on the market again, a la Mike Piazza in 1998, with his short stint in Florida in between the Dodgers and the Mets.

Beltran was lucky, since the winning rally took place in the bottom of the inning he threw, and he got the win. We got good Kyle Farnsworth today; he threw an easy seven-pitch, 1-2-3 inning, and LaTroy Hawkins' line shows he gave up two hits, but one of them was an infield grounder that Ramon Martinez wisely sat on.

This was truly a team effort, since Sammy Sosa didn't hit today -- maybe he needed that Whiff-O-Meter that I saw over the weekend -- with three strikeouts and a popup, and this was just after Mike got finished telling me that he's been thinking the team just hasn't jelled in the right way for a while now.

I look at it this way: as I said the other day, the games at the Cell have an other-worldly quality to them, something that doesn't even relate to what's really going on in the NL Central race. I stand corrected on Cub/Sox series -- the Cubs have lost five straight series on the South Side, but did win the Wrigley Field series in 2002, something we hope they repeat this weekend.

The "tough stretch" of the schedule continues (theoretically ending this coming Sunday, though you could argue that with the Brewers playing so well, it might extend through the All-Star break), with the Cubs now 13-8 since it began on June 7, and with the Cardinals and Reds both losing today, the deficit is cut to 3 1/2 games. The Tomato Inning today was the 2nd, in which two doubles scored a run, so we shall continue that new superstition/tradition again tomorrow, which is also the S vs. T (ClemenT vs. ClemenS) re-match of a month ago; the Cubs beat up Clemens pretty good in Houston two weeks ago. Hope remains alive.

:: posted by Al at 10:16 PM [+] ::
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Movie Review: "Fahrenheit 9/11"

Oh, boy.

How do I review this film in a dispassionate way?

If you've read this blog long enough, you know where my political sentiments lie, and so you know that I'm pretty much in agreement with Michael Moore.

I am going to try to review this film first simply as a film, how it was made, rather than for its content. I happened to be watching CNN last Friday when the movie came out, and Michael Medved, a syndicated radio host and movie reviewer, was on, being asked much the same question by CNN anchor Daryn Kagan. They made it clear that Medved is a conservative commentator, and I didn't think he tried very hard to keep his biases out in reviewing the film.

At first he said it didn't even have a point of view. Well, of course it does, and Michael Moore made it clear that it has a point of view. Other commentators have said that the film can't be a documentary if it takes a point of view. Well, of course it can -- I think a documentary must take a point of view. Does that not make it a documentary if you don't agree with that viewpoint? Of course it doesn't.

Anyway, I'm digressing. That's an easy thing to do with a controversial topic like this.

Moore is his typical self here, and one of the best things he does is use music to make his points. You've probably heard the Go-Go's "Vacation" used in some of the trailers for this film, used to illustrate Moore's point that George W. Bush spent almost half of his time before 9/11 on his ranch or other time away from Washington. In some ways I agree with those who say this is a bit over the top. Yes, presidential work can be done away from Washington. But other presidents, particularly in their first year in office, weren't as leisurely as G.W.

The other songs that were used that I thought were particularly effective were REM's "Shiny Happy People" and the Joey Scarbery song "Believe It Or Not (It's Just Me)" that was originally the theme song from the TV series "The Greatest American Hero". Funny stuff, as was a montage that I won't ruin for you, of some of the Administration's people put into the theme sequence of a popular TV show from the 1960's.

So as a piece of filmmaking, I think it is well done, well edited, shot in Moore's typical rushed, hand-held style that you think is going to be annoying but is particularly effective for the type of thing he is trying to do.

About his message: even though I agree with it, I do think parts of it are a bit too heavy-handed, particularly in regard to the Saudis and their relationship with the Bush family. While this is true, I think Moore put it a little over the top. The rest of it, I can see why the right is so angry about this film, because much of it reveals truths that they'd probably rather have hidden.

The final proof of this is a new film that's coming out by a man named Michael Wilson titled "Michael Moore Hates America". Seriously, does anyone believe that? Whether or not you agree with Moore's views, I don't think there's any doubt that Moore loves this country, a country that was founded by dissent and that has always embraced peaceful dissent. If Michael Wilson has a different viewpoint, why not make a movie espousing that viewpoint rather than slamming Michael Moore?

It has been said that this movie is "preaching to the choir", that the only people who will see it are those who agree with its views. I can't speak to that, but I will tell you that I went to a 5 pm show on a Monday and it was completely sold out. That's unprecedented for most movies, much less a documentary.

Go see it, even if you don't agree with its point of view. It's a terrific piece of filmmaking and will no doubt win the Best Documentary Oscar next year.

AYRating: ****

:: posted by Al at 9:06 AM [+] ::
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Rationalizations

1) It only counts as one loss.

2) The Cubs have lost five straight series to the White Sox. So what?

3) The Cubs lost four of six to the White Sox last year and made the playoffs anyway.

4) The Cubs have had a better record than the White Sox in two of the last three seasons.

5) Did I mention it only counts as one loss?

Oh, and couldn't the Sox have traded Miguel Olivo and others to Seattle for Freddy Garcia BEFORE today's game, when he homered and drove in two runs and threw Corey Patterson out stealing, taking a potentially really big inning away from the Cubs?

(Incidentally, if Garcia stays on rotation he will miss the series next weekend, a good thing since he's hot and in his only start against the Cubs with the Mariners in 2002, he gave up one run in eight innings, with seven strikeouts, and won.)

OK, I'm done rationalizing. This was an ugly game, today's 9-4 loss to the White Sox. It would have been a winnable game if:

(OK, here come some more...)

1) Greg Maddux had been able to throw strikes anywhere but up in the zone, where the Sox mashed him for eleven hits including homers by Olivo and Timo Perez (yes, Timo Perez), and also not botched one of the grounders up the middle that he usually snags;

2) The Cubs hadn't run themselves out of a couple of rallies;

3) The Aramis Ramirez who played for the Pirates hadn't shown up and made two errors today;

and

4) Oh, that's enough. When I leave the Cell after a Cub series, I really feel drained. It's not a playoff-type series for the Cubs, I keep telling myself, it's just another road series. But the Sox fans and the noise that they make give it a carnival atmosphere, if not a playoff atmosphere, and I think the Cubs actually dread coming there. Kerry Wood said it best, a year ago after the series at the Cell:

Now we can worry about playing baseball. It's a fun series for the fans and everybody enjoys the Cubs-White Sox rivalry. But for us, it's another game and there is a lot of attention that we feel is sometimes a little overboard. I'm just glad it's over with.

He's right. I tried everything today. I got a hot dog with onions before the game, and before I knew it, I had onion stains on my scorecard. They wound up being in the Derrek Lee square in the 7th, and the Paul Bako square in the 8th. Neither batted. So it's safe to say that onions don't have the same effect as tomatoes, and we will have no more Onion Innings this year.

Today, none of our group was there (or at least accessible -- Mike had an upper deck ticket) and so I sat near the Sox fans that -- gasp! -- I have actually become somewhat friendly with, enough so to know first names. You already know Jesus (and he told me today he's going to be in the bleachers next Sunday -- watch out!), and today I was formally introduced to Nick and his nephew Aaron.

And they are nice guys, really. No, I mean it. They don't bait Cub fans. They don't yell "Cubs suck". They root passionately for their team and they're knowledgeable and they scoreboard-watch like we do and root for the teams that are playing Minnesota, their closest competition. It's funny to hear fans of other teams disparage their own like we do when rallies fizzle -- I had to laugh when Paul Konerko came up in the first, when one more Maddux strikeout would have gotten him out of the inning with no damage, me fearing the worst, and Nick calling him "Popup Paul". Of course, Konerko smacked a two-run single.

Sammy Sosa hit his first two homers since coming back from the DL, the first one a massive 463-foot shot into the new CF patio that's above the bleachers, and when he came up the third time I told Nick that if he hit a third, he would set a new ML record for most three-homer games in a career (currently tied with the old NY Giant Johnny Mize, with six). Nick was impressed, and instead of disparaging Sosa, he said it'd be cool to be around to see history made. Unfortunately, Sammy didn't oblige, though he didn't oblige today's cool sign-bringer, either. Someone brought a carefully-printed sign saying "SOSA WHIFF-O-METER" with his career total on it (2020 entering the game today), with other numbers ready to go. Sammy grounded out and flied deep to center in his other at-bats.

All in all, the entire series was somewhat less intense than previous Cub visits to the Cell. I didn't find the fans as hostile as previous years, and in fact, it felt more like a regular road series at, say, St. Louis, where the fans are passionate about their own team. Maybe this truly has morphed into a real baseball rivalry, rather than who can yell "You guys suck!" the loudest.

The only discordant note today was a small brouhaha near me in LF in the 8th inning, and three white-shirted Sox security dragged off a guy wearing a Cub shirt -- though I didn't see exactly what he did to merit this treatment.

Other baseball-related Cub news: Mike Remlinger was placed on the DL today, replaced by Michael Wuertz, who actually threw two pretty good innings in relief of Maddux; Todd Hollandsworth had to leave the game (reluctantly; he kept trying to convince Dusty to leave him in) after fouling a ball off his shin. X-rays were negative and I doubt he'll miss any time; and Kerry Wood threw a three-inning simulated game today.

I swear, if they ever had a simulated World Series the Cubs would win every year, they have so many simulated games.

There are two weeks before the All-Star break and I doubt we'll see Kerry back before then.

Finally, with the Reds losing big to the Pirates today, the Cubs remain tied for second, except now five games behind the Cardinals, who finished a sweep of the Beltran-less Royals today. The Cubs have five games left with St. Louis, and it's pretty imperative to win at least four of those. On the comparable weekend a year ago, the Cubs were also second behind the Cardinals... but only a game behind, rather than five.

It's time to begin cutting that down to size.

:: posted by Al at 6:32 PM [+] ::
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