"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 31, 2004 ::

CUBS GET NOMAR!!!!

Today's game post was going to be titled "Tomato Failure", and I'll get to that in a moment.

By now you know of the four-team trade consummated right before the 3 pm CT deadline, in which the Cubs acquired five-time All-Star SS Nomar Garciaparra from the Red Sox.

Here are the details as first reported on WGN Radio:

The Cubs sent prospect pitcher Justin Jones from Lansing, to the Minnesota Twins for Doug Mientkiewicz.

Then, Mientkiewicz, Alex Gonzalez, Brendan Harris and Francis Beltran were sent to the Red Sox for Garciaparra and a minor leaguer from Sarasota in the Florida State League named Matt Murton.

The Red Sox -- you following this? -- then sent Gonzalez, Harris and Beltran to the Montreal Expos for Orlando Cabrera.

There you have it. This is a huge, huge, HUGE deal, the Cubs get a player who has been a superstar, and who, even injured, is right below that level, and upgrade their offense without losing anyone off the major league roster other than Gonzalez. Remember the rumors that Matt Clement would be going in this deal? Well, Jim Hendry pulled it off and kept the major league pitching staff intact -- and tomorrow, Ryan Dempster may be recalled from Iowa to further bolster the bullpen.

I'm thrilled. This trade is a major boost not only for the offense, but it's an emotional boost for a ballclub that's been flat, that's been surrounded by these sorts of trade rumors for a couple of weeks now, and now that the biggest rumor of all has come true, I'd imagine the players are going to be jazzed to come to work tomorrow.

And can you imagine Garciaparra, who's actually used to seeing sellout crowds every day, walking in tomorrow not only to see another one, but to know that he might be part of a history-making start by Greg Maddux? He ought to be just as excited to go as we will be to walk in and see him play.

Nomar's had a great career, and yes, he may not be the player he was two or three years ago, and yes, he's had a injury that has slowed him down this year (although he's hitting .321 with 21 RBI in 156 AB, not too shabby, and who has hit over .300 every year of his career, save his September callup season, and 2001 when he missed all but 21 games due to injury.). He clearly was hurt terribly when the Red Sox made their abortive attempt to get Alex Rodriguez to replace him in the off-season, and then with the injury and his upcoming free agency, it was clear that they had absolutely no intention to re-sign him, and that indeed, they'd make every effort to trade him.

I'd like to think that for a player like this, the change of scenery will work wonders. My friend Phil kept saying that about Orlando Cabrera (who, ironically, winds up as the Red Sox starting SS in this deal), but Garciaparra's a far better player than Cabrera, and is having a much better year. And IF Nomar plays well over the last two months, and helps the Cubs into the postseason, and appears to be healthy -- then, why not sign him and keep him for the next few years? He just turned 31 a week ago, and should have four or five good years left... with the caveat that he's got to be 100% healed from the Achilles injury, before you sign him. Seeing him play every day for two months ought to give a good indication of whether or not that's true.

I'll be very interested to see where Dusty bats him. In this lineup he ought to bat third, but you know how that goes. It wouldn't be a bad thing to bat him second and drop Corey down to seventh where he belongs. Tomorrow, with Randy Wolf, a lefty, going for the Phillies, and Paul Bako catching Maddux, I'd expect Mark Grudzielanek to lead off and Nomar to bat second.

This afternoon, the Cubs lost to the Phillies 4-3, their twentieth one-run loss of the season, and at least this one can't be chalked up to bullpen failure.

Well, that's it for today. Check back here tomorrow!

No, that's not it, really, although that's just about it. Howard brought his father-in-law today, and as a result was a bit late getting to the ballpark, and as a result, the tomato wasn't dropped until after the lineups had already been written on the scorecard. This has happened one other time and the result was similar, an offensive failure.

The game, unfortunately, turned on two errors, one by Todd Walker and the other, uncharacteristically, by Derrek Lee, and each one was followed by a two-run homer, and that was it. The Cubs also got a gift baserunner on an error, but Moises Alou couldn't follow it with a homer, only a run-scoring double, and despite the fact that the Cubs actually had an inning in which two batters walked and both of them scored, they had only one baserunner after the fourth inning, ruining yet another excellent Matt Clement start (at one point, he retired 13 in a row).

This problem, in theory, will be at least partly solved tomorrow when Nomar takes the field in a Cub uniform. Incidentally, I wonder -- will Michael Barrett surrender his #5 to Nomar, who's worn it his entire career?

I almost forgot to mention this sign of things to come that I saw while waiting in line to get in today -- a small boy walking down the street with his dad. The boy was wearing a Cubs cap and a Garciaparra T-shirt.

He knew.

In case you care, today's crowd of 39,086 brought the season total to 2,007,402, the first time ever that the Cubs have reached this milestone by the end of July. There are thirty home dates remaining -- that projects to about 3,200,000 for the season, an amazing number.

Today started cloudy and cool, but the sun broke through during the early innings and by the end of the game it was finally summer, warm, in the 80's (and supposed to be pushing 90 by tomorrow), and perhaps tomorrow, summer truly begins, and not a moment too soon.

Hope arrives tonight, on a plane from Minneapolis.

:: posted by Al at 5:25 PM [+] ::
...

Kyle's Excellent Adventure

I got a couple of e-mails regarding Kyle Farnsworth's at-bat, in which he reached base only to be thrown out at second.

As I noted yesterday, the wire-service box scores didn't even indicate that the at-bat had been completed; the pitch-by-pitch left off at a 3-2 count and the box scores said that Kyle had walked, which was wrong.

I wrote that he had reached on Roberto Hernandez' throwing error and then was thrown out 8-6, but that's not quite right. The error actually allowed Michael Barrett, who had been on second, to reach third, and then the putout, which was actually 8-4 (throw taken by 2B Placido Polanco), retired Farnsworth.

MLB.com's play-by-play says:

Kyle Farnsworth reaches on a fielder's choice out, center fielder Ricky Ledee to second baseman Placido Polanco. Kyle Farnsworth out at 2nd. Michael Barrett advances to 3rd, on throwing error by pitcher Roberto Hernandez.

This isn't precisely how it happened; the putout at 2B couldn't have been made the way it was, except that Hernandez had thrown the ball into CF first. It's simply a quirk in the scoring rules.

In any case, the correct scoring is:

Fielder's choice, 8-4 putout, E-1 allowing Barrett to advance.

Thanks to Steve and Lance for pointing this out to me.

And keep Kyle on the mound, not in the batter's box!

:: posted by Al at 5:08 AM [+] ::
...

Doing It With A Net

This morning, the City of Chicago approved the interim steps the Cubs had taken to prevent any more concrete chunks from falling at Wrigley Field, and so today's game went on as scheduled, with huge nets draped under the upper deck.

It looks odd, though from the bleachers it's far enough away that you don't really notice, or at least you can tune them out. They also draped nets above some of the ramps in the bleachers themselves, but I also noticed places above the bleacher ramps where some concrete had fallen away (you could see the steel retaining rods, and you shouldn't be able to see those) and they did NOT put any nets in those places. There haven't been any problems in the bleachers anyway, and so the rest of the season should continue unimpaired.

One radio station with a sense of humor was handing out yellow plastic hard hats with the station's logo on it (anything for a promotion, right?) and there were plenty of people wandering around the bleachers with them on. Of course, once you're in a bleacher seat, there's nothing over your head anyway, right?

Actually, today there were many flying objects going over our heads, absolutely none of them concrete. Eight home runs were hit (oddly, none by the majors' HR leader, Jim Thome, who was a harmless 0-for-5 with two strikeouts), three by Aramis Ramirez, yet it was an inning with a couple of bloopy little singles and some really bad defense by the Phillies, which overcame a three-run deficit and got the Cubs their seventh win in the last ten games, 10-7 over the fading Phils, who have lost five in a row -- and the Cubs didn't even have to pretend they were the Marlins to do it.

That's because I had my secret weapon today -- my friend Tom, an old friend from my college days at Colgate University, who's been making an annual pilgrimage to Wrigley Field since 1998, either to root for the Mets (accident of birth, folks -- he grew up on Long Island in New York), or, this year, for the Cubs against one of the Mets' main rivals. He claims he's death to the Phillies, and he'll be held to that all weekend, though he's not coming to tomorrow's game, only Sunday's. I figure that since Tom will be in the city of Chicago tomorrow, that's good enough.

It was a cool day for late July, only 70 degrees at game time, with low clouds seemingly threatening rain, though it never did. This made even weirder the sight of Phillies catcher Todd Pratt spraying the LF bleachers with the groundskeepers' water hose, something that is the bane of my existence -- I cannot imagine why they let him do this. I hope it turns out to be a one-time thing.

Anyway, as an honored guest, Tom was included in the Tomato Ritual, holding my scorecard while the tomato piece was dropped. It landed on the fourth inning, which was when the Cubs came from behind the first time, tying the game at three on Derrek Lee's two-run bomb, one of the few homers today that didn't leave the premises completely and wind up on the street. After Bobby Abreu worked a 2-0 count off Mark Prior (who was WAY off today, incidentally) in the top of the fifth, Tom was afraid that Prior would lay one right down the middle for him (because he had just walked Placido Polanco and didn't seem like he could find the plate with one of the nets) which he promptly did, into the juniper bushes.

This is when I said to Howard, "I don't think six runs is going to win this game."

Seriously, ask him. I did say this, and with the wind blowing out, Ramirez hit his second homer of the game in the sixth, and that's when the fun started, and Larry Bowa was checking his voicemail after each batter to make sure he still had a job.

Two singles later, Jose Macias pinch-hit for Jon Leicester (who threw yet another stellar inning-plus today and got the win), and bounced one high to third, and David Bell returned the favor by throwing high to the plate, making it 6-5. Mark Grudzielanek duck-snorted (sorry, but that's what those things DO look like!) a ball in between Abreu, Polanco and Thome.

Corey Patterson followed with a single, and the inning could have been even bigger than the five runs that did score if plate umpire Paul Schrieber hadn't blown the call on Grudzielanek trying to score.

Sammy Sosa, who came into the game 8-for-48 against lefthanders this year with zero homers, finally figured out that if you shorten up and try to go the opposite way, you can actually hit that way, and his opposite-field single drove in the final run of the inning.

The Cubs needed all of those runs, too, as Kyle Farnsworth decided he'd rather issue walks than get outs; he walked the first batter he faced (and inexplicably kept throwing sliders instead of his 100 MPH fastball -- the only reason I can fathom is that he threw an inning yesterday), a tradition by now, and then the first batter he faced in the next inning just for good measure, but Ramirez slammed his third homer of the day way onto the street, and then Farnsworth was involved in one of the weirdest plays you'll ever see.

First of all, I was surprised Dusty even had Kyle in the game, since he had thrown an inning yesterday, and then even more surprised to see him bat for himself... but since Dusty's alternative was to put Todd Wellemeyer in the game, something he seems physically incapable of bringing himself to do, Farnsworth batted.

Here's what ESPN.com's game log says Kyle did in that at-bat:

Roberto Hernandez pitches to Kyle Farnsworth
Pitch 1: ball 1
Pitch 2: ball 2
Pitch 3: strike 1 (looking)
Pitch 4: strike 2 (swinging)
Pitch 5: foul
Pitch 6: ball 3

Well now, that's not an entire at-bat, is it? The boxscore says that Farnsworth walked, which isn't right either.

Here's what really happened. On that 3-2 pitch, Farnsworth hit a sharp grounder back to Hernandez. Michael Barrett, who was on second base with one out, had broken for third. Hernandez ran right at him and almost had him dead to rights, but threw poorly to second, and Barrett was safe. When the ball scooted into center field, both runners set out for the next base -- Barrett was safe at third, but Farnsworth was thrown out, sliding headfirst into second base.

So the proper scoring is, Farnsworth reached base on an E-1, and then got thrown out 8-6.

That's got to go into the top ten funniest things I've ever seen a pitcher do in a major league baseball game.

And then not satisfied with this play, Hernandez wild-pitched Barrett home for the tenth run.

When the Phillies started playing Alphonse & Gaston, we figured Larry Bowa was being fired, and then each time they did something else goofy, we'd say, "Larry! Ed Wade's calling! You're fired again!"

Groan all you want, but the Cubs won today and so laughs were permitted and plentiful. Ramirez was on deck in the bottom of the eighth when Lee grounded out, and we all kind of groaned, because it'd have been nice to see A-Ram with a shot at the history books.

But we'll take the win, and hope we see the history on Sunday. Speaking of which, the Cubs have put on the scoreboard, on the bottom line on the AL side, the note:

GREG MADDUX 299

which knowing Maddux, probably just embarrasses him (and besides, it's not like the HR chase, which could be updated a couple of times a game -- this one can only be updated once!). I spotted him during BP standing about 60 feet from the 400-foot marker in CF, working on his pitches, working on his mechanics, the master craftsman never satisfied with his work. He's about the most modest superstar I think I've seen in modern baseball, and that's refreshing.

:: posted by Al at 7:39 PM [+] ::
...

Cosmic Things Are Happening

MILWAUKEE -- I told you weird stuff happens when I go to Milwaukee.

I knew it was going to be one of those kind of days early. I was idly checking a lottery ticket for yesterday's Illinois lottery drawing, and saw that I had matched three numbers.

WOO HOO! A whole $3. I had another $3 winner from last week in my wallet, so I stopped in at a 7-11 to get a Diet Coke for the road and to cash in these mighty winnings.

I was wrong, and I couldn't have been happier to be wrong. Yesterday's ticket matched four numbers, so instead of $6, I had $34.50!

OK, small victories, right?

Then traffic going up to Milwaukee was, after a few slowdowns on the Kennedy Expressway, not bad at all -- total travel time, 1 hour 45 minutes, and that included a stop to buy some Powerball tickets once I crossed the Wisconsin line.

What can I say, I like playing lotteries.

(And don't ask about the traffic going back -- it was awful!)

I had stopped last night to get the traditional Jimmy John's turkey sandwich, since I didn't figure they'd be open early enough this morning, stuck it in the fridge and then in a lunchbag with an icepack, so it'd be cold while I drove, and ready both to eat and to perform the scorecard ritual on a Miller Park scorecard.

With the park fairly empty when I arrived (and it was still about a quarter empty at game time), I had to perform the Tomato Ritual myself.

Guess which inning the tomato piece fell on?

Yes, the top of the sixth, which is when the Cubs broke through for their only runs of the game, the four-run rally capped by Sammy Sosa's 22nd homer (and 561st career jack, which puts him only two behind Reggie Jackson for eighth place), and Carlos Zambrano settled down after the first two batters reached, and the Cubs shut out the Brewers 4-0, winning three of four in the series, and now six of their last nine (that's more like it!) and allowed the Brew Crew only eight runs in the four games.

Incidentally, this win raises my road-game record to 5-2. Anyone want to contribute to the Send-Al-On-The-Road-With-The-Cubs fund?

In addition to the Jimmy John's sandwich, I had to have a Milwaukee bratwurst with "Secret Stadium Sauce", a spicy concoction they've had up there since at least the 1970's.

Now, all that seems pretty weird, doesn't it?

You haven't heard the most eerie thing that happened today, yet.

My son Mark was also at this game, as he was on a field trip with his day camp. I had pre-arranged to contact his counselor by cellphone, so I could pick him up at his seat and drive him home, so he wouldn't have to wait for the bus (which arrived on our block, dropping off one of the neighbor kids, an hour after we got home).

In the fourth inning, I called him, identified myself, and got the seat location from the counselor.

It was just then that the guy sitting next to me, a thirtyish man sitting with his dad, keeping score, asked me "Are you Al Yellon?" Apparently he had overheard me identifying myself on the phone call.

I said yes, and then he said, "I read your blog every day -- I read about Mark's game last night."

Spread the word! You guys are everywhere!

Anyway, we talked for a while about the Cubs and the game and why he was wearing an Expos cap (he just likes the look of the cap -- it was one of the old red-white-and-blue beanie style, and I pointed out that if the Expos move to DC, they could just turn the weird-looking "M" upside-down and make it a weird-looking "W". See what tangents you can come up with at the ballpark?), and I was absolutely floored to, by absolute chance, be seated next to someone, 90 miles from Chicago, who reads these words.

Like I said -- cosmic things are happening.

As for the game, I worried when Z let the first two batters reach base (and are there two bigger pests than Podsednik and Counsell?), but then he struck out the side, even though it took him 31 first-inning pitches, and when he struck out the first two in the second inning too, we knew he had reached his groove. He didn't have his best stuff today, but it was good enough for 120 pitches in eight shutout innings, matching Greg Maddux' club high with his tenth win, and lowering his ERA to 2.78. Perhaps best of all, he didn't walk anyone. You listening, Dusty?

Meanwhile, Ben Hendrickson, who came into the game with an ERA of 3,275,035.28 (no, just kidding: only 9.75, and giving up three earned runs in 5 innings actually lowered it to 8.47), shut down the Cubs into the sixth. It's guys like this, who Cub hitters haven't seen before, who tend to give them the most trouble, especially on days like this, when the Cubs didn't take BP (I suppose, simply because they often don't, on day games after night games).

The third time through the order proved to be enough time. Tom Goodwin, starting in LF for Moises Alou (I ran into Tim from the LF bleachers, who was at Miller Park for his first visit ever, and he told me before the game he thought Alou might get the day off. Good call!), doubled, so did Todd Walker (I hope this is the start of a straight platoon arrangement with him and Mark Grudzielanek), and then Sammy's blast made it 3-0. Corey Patterson laid down a gorgeous-looking bunt single -- and he ought to do this more often. At least make some use of one of those five tools that he allegedly has! Another double, this one from Aramis Ramirez, completed the scoring.

Patterson showed another tool when he slammed into the padding in CF making a nice catch off the bat of Geoff Jenkins in the bottom of the eighth, Z's last out. Kyle Farnsworth made it interesting, as is his wont, giving up a single and walking Bill Hall on four pitches, before ending it with a called-strikeout flourish.

This is how you win with this club, as we thought it would be when the season began -- with pitching, pitching, pitching.

The last time I was in Miller Park was in May 2003, at the 17-inning Cub win, and that was before the real bandwagon of Cub fans started going north in September of last year, during the pennant drive.

It's absolutely astounding to be part of a crowd at a road game that's overwhelmingly for the visiting team. WGN's radio broadcasters said on the postgame show that it was "half" Cub fans, but it had to be closer to two-thirds today, on a lovely summer afternoon with the roof open, and Miller Park feels like a regular outdoor stadium without its cover, as it also has windows that open in the outfield, so you don't get that closed-in feel you get in many other retractables, particularly Houston and Toronto. It felt like a home crowd, and the paid attendance of 42,443 brought the series total to 167,109, a new Miller Park record for a four-game series, and the ninth sellout there this year, more than the last two years combined. There will be three more, when the Cubs return to Milwaukee in the third week of August.

Mark wanted a Miller Park cap, so I got him one before the game, and saw some "retro" t-shirts that promoted the 1975 All-Star game, that was played at County Stadium in Milwaukee. Since I was actually at that game, I figured I'd use my lottery winnings to splurge on one of these. It has the garish powder-blue and yellow colors that were featured on Brewer road uniforms of the day (looking back, you wonder how anyone thought those looked good), but somehow, this t-shirt works.

The Cardinals were off today, so the division lead, for whatever it's worth, was cut to ten and a half games (seems bigger when I write it out, doesn't it?) and the wild-card lead will be pending tonight's Giants/Padres game, which occurs later this evening.

Three of four. Six of nine. This is how you put together a winning month, and a winning second half. Keep hope alive.

Peter Gammons, who is frequently wrong about such things, reported on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight" that the Cubs will acquire Orlando Cabrera from the Expos before the Saturday deadline. Ugh. I hope not. Nomar or nothing!

Finally, the Phillies lost to the Marlins 10-1 today. Ordinarily, that wouldn't be a big deal. But that was the fourteenth consecutive win for the Fish over the Phils in Miami, and 23rd of their last 26 meetings.

Think the Cubs could borrow some Marlins home uniforms for this weekend's series against Philadelphia?

:: posted by Al at 8:05 PM [+] ::
...

Bleah!

Let's get the good news out of the way right at the beginning tonight:

Kerry Wood struck out ten Brewers tonight.

Hey, ain't that great? Strikeouts are fun! Of course, he also gave up seven hits and two really damaging homers, one a two-run job by a guy who isn't a power hitter, Bill (Don't Call Me Mel) Hall, and the Cubs' baby two-game winning streak ended in a 6-3 loss to Milwaukee.

There's lots of bad news this day, so let's get right to it. Mark's dream of a Park District World Series championship also ended tonight, as his Diamondbacks couldn't get it done and lost 12-4, including an awful ten-run inning.

But, they played hard and they should be proud of themselves for winning a league championship, even though they couldn't take it one step further.

I'd take that from the Cubs. Now, let's dissect tonight's debacle, starting near the end.

Have I mentioned how much I hate it when managers take out a relief pitcher who's sailing along, in order to get the by-the-book, written-in-stone-tablets-handed-down-by-Connie-Mack-or-somebody, platoon advantage?

Dusty Baker does this all the time and it drives me nuts. He finally resurrected Todd Wellemeyer in the seventh inning tonight, and Wellemeyer should have been out of the inning with no damage at all, because after he struck out Brooks Kieschnick, Scott Podsednik grounded harmlessly to first, and Craig Counsell also K'd.

Oh, except that's not what the box score showed, because first base umpire Ron Kulpa blew the call on Podsednik's groundout -- this was almost as bad as the Don Denkinger call in the 1985 World Series, only this game doesn't have quite the impact that the WS game did. Replays showed Podsednik out by at least half a step, and it was obvious, and Dusty came out to make the pro forma argument that you have to make in that situation, and then the cameras followed him back to the dugout and showed him raising his arms in one of those "What are you gonna do?" gestures.

So, after Geoff Jenkins singled, why, of course, Dusty had to bring in LOOGY (if you've not heard that term before, it stands for "Lefthanded One Out Guy") Kent Mercker to face Russell Branyan. Quickly, Branyan was down 0-2, but then Mercker decided he'd like to see how many bounces he could throw his pitches with. (Answer: quite a few!) Michael Barrett bravely stopped two of them, but the third went through, scoring the sixth run, and Steve Stone said it best: "You can't expect Michael Barrett to keep stopping those, one after the other."

Anyway, this rotten pitching saddled Wellemeyer with an undeserved earned run, but Wellemeyer threw well enough, as has Jon Leicester, for either of them to be given consideration as a closer. Say, maybe we can get a fake birth certificate for one of them that says he's really 30 years old -- because then you could tell Dusty that he's actually a Proven Veteran, and he'd actually use him in this role. Tonight was Wellemeyer's eleventh appearance of the season, and yes, I know he was on the DL for a while, but he's gone as many as 12 days without throwing a pitch that meant anything, and once again, I say:

[rant]
IF YOU HAVE TWELVE PITCHERS ON THE STAFF, WHY ARE THEY NOT BEING USED?
[end rant]

Oh, and did I mention how many Cubs decided to swing feebly at the first pitch and ground out tonight?

And yes, Wood looked good, for the most part, on the mound. But what on Earth was he doing getting picked off after he managed to draw a four-pitch walk leading off the third inning?

Dusty's lineup selection was... well, I guess I understand the theory, as he started all right-handed hitters against the goofy-throwing lefty Chris Capuano, but leading off Jose Macias, who came in with a .292 OBA, is... well, it's dumb, is what it is. All Dusty has to do is look at his own pitching staff and how they get in trouble with walks, and wouldn't you think it'd dawn on him that maybe if the other team's pitchers did the same thing, it'd be good for his own team?

Yeah, I guess not either.

The Cardinals nearly blew a seven-run lead tonight (sound familiar?) but hung on for an 11-10 win over the Reds, so they increased their division lead to eleven games. Also, the Padres beat the Giants last night so the Cubs now trail San Diego, now the wild-card leader, by two games.

There are still sixty-one games left. That's a lot of games; it is not yet August. But this offense needs help, and if a Clement/Gonzalez for Garciaparra deal can really be made, I think Jim Hendry has to roll the dice and do it. Don't think small (Orlando Cabrera, YUCK!) -- think BIG!

Now -- fair warning. I am heading up to Milwaukee tomorrow morning for the matinee series finale.

Weird stuff happens when I go to Milwaukee -- from the Brant Brown game to monsoons to drenching thunderstorms after one game that turned the drive home into a three-hour ordeal, to last year's 17-inning marathon.

I expect nothing less tomorrow.

:: posted by Al at 9:40 PM [+] ::
...

I Want This One

In 1979, I went to St. Louis to see the Cubs play the Cardinals. It was a "wrap-around" series, Friday through Monday.

I went to the Friday, Saturday and Sunday games, but had to return to Chicago for work and couldn't stay for the Monday game -- and that was the day that Lou Brock got his 3000th hit, off Dennis Lamp. In fact, it was literally off Lamp, because it hit him in the shoulder.

That was the first of many of these major milestones that I missed. In 1992, Jon, Mike and I drove to Milwaukee in hopes of seeing Robin Yount get his 3000th hit. He got two hits and got to 2999 and was in the on-deck circle when the game ended. The two of them went back the next day and saw it, but I was unable to go due to work.

The following year, I was changing planes in Minneapolis and considered stopping over to see the Twins game, as Dave Winfield was approaching 3000 hits. He needed two hits. If it had been one hit, sure, that'd have been a reasonable reason to spend the money changing my plane ticket. But two?

The game went thirteen innings and he got the two hits, and the 3000th was off Dennis Eckersley.

I missed Sammy Sosa's 500th home run, which was hit in Cincinnati last year. We all had at least the chance to see Roger Clemens' 300th win at Wrigley Field when he faced the Cubs for the Yankees last June -- although I'm glad the Cubs beat him that day!

So THIS one, I want.

And I figure I'll get this milestone, because based on the upcoming schedule, again with no rainouts, injuries, etc., I will see all of Maddux' starts through the end of August, and he ought to win at least one of them, the first of which will be this Sunday at home against the Phillies.

The only other wrench that could get thrown into this would be if the idiots who run this city coming through on their idle threat to close Wrigley Field due to the chunks of concrete that have fallen. Though this isn't something to be laughed off, I have to laugh at the words of Ald. Bernie Stone, who happens to be chairman of the city council's Buildings Committee, trying to bluster and pretend that he knows more about this, and that city inspectors would know more about this, than the structural engineers that the Cubs have had in all week, checking out and repairing the problem (nets will be in place by Friday, underneath the concrete of the upper deck).

Stone was quoted in today's Sun-Times:

I don't want to be Chicken-Licken, but the sky is falling. If it's falling in one place, it could be falling all over the place and it has. It's not just one place and one incident. It's fallen three different times.

WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

What he doesn't remember from this fable is that Chicken-Licken (or "Chicken Little" in the version linked above) got eaten by Foxy Loxy, and that the moral of the story is:

Don't be a chicken little. Don't be afraid. The sky is not falling.

Be careful what you wish for, Ald. Stone.

Anyway, back to the exploits of Dr. Maddux. He carefully dissected the Brewers and the Cubs won 7-1 last night, and finally seem to be putting together some offense other than solo homers (though they had one last night from Sammy Sosa, who appears to be heating up -- his 21st, and 560th career home run), and with the pitching continuing to be solid even in losses, we can continue hope (c'mon. You never lost it, did you?) -- and with the Giants beating the Padres 7-4 last night, the Cubs pull to within one game of the wild-card lead.

There are many in the Cubs Blog Army who view the wild card as an abomination, and truth be told, in a perfect world I wouldn't like it either.

But it exists. And the last two World Champions have been wild cards (and in fact, the 2002 World Series was an all-wild card affair). Will I take it? You bet.

So let's get in.

Now, about the third straight incredible start for Maddux since the All-Star break.

Seriously -- this is almost like a team having Shawn Estes for the first half, then trading for the Cy Young version Maddux of the mid-1990s. Since the ASB Maddux is 3-0, with a 1.13 ERA in 24 IP, with ONE walk and 16 strikeouts. The only runs he's allowed have been on solo homers.

He threw only 79 pitches last night, and usually Maddux tells Dusty when he's had enough, and after two consecutive CG's, he most likely had had enough. This is also good for this reason: perhaps he'll have more stamina on Sunday. So few complete games are thrown these days, it'd be nice to think that he might actually be on the mound when the last out is recorded. I still recall watching on TV, Tom Seaver's 300th win, for the White Sox against the Yankees in New York in 1985, and the expression of joy on his face when the last out was recorded, and he finished a complete-game 4-1 win.

The Cub offense revved up last night -- gee, there's Todd Walker leading off the game with a double, and I hope that Dusty will perhaps put Walker and Mark Grudzielanek into a straight platoon (and I see Derek at "The Big Red C" is thinking along exactly the same lines); at least that would allow both of them to know exactly when they're going to start, rather than the hit-or-miss schemes of the last few weeks. Walker also homered, his twelfth, just before Sammy's in the third inning.

The only run Maddux allowed was a monstrous homer by the just-acquired Russell Branyan in the sixth, which was originally measured at 480 feet, later revised to 440.

By the ninth, the Cubs had the game well in hand, but that's when the Brewers decided to play like a T-ball team. For some unfathomable reason, with Derrek Lee on first and Moises Alou on second, Dave Burba must have thought it was Tom Goodwin on second, because he threw there four times before throwing the ball into CF, allowing both runners to advance, and one out later, something you never would think you'd see -- an intentional walk to Corey Patterson -- followed by a sac fly by pinch-hitter Michael Barrett off yet another reliever, Jeff Bennett, who wild-pitched in the final two Cub runs.

The Brewers are self-destructing, just like I told my Phoenix friend John Aldrich they would.

I wish I had as good news to report on Mark's Park District Diamondback team; last night, in the first of the best-of-three World Series, they lost 5-2.

What's worse is that they lost to the White Sox. GAH!

Mark had a good game with two hits and an RBI, and they'll try to even up tonight, while the Cubs, who have now won five of their last seven, send Kerry Wood out to make it three in a row over Milwaukee.

One hundred games into the season, there is reason to hope.

:: posted by Al at 9:24 AM [+] ::
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Glendon Rusch For President!

Yes, I know he can't run because he's too young (29). I still have the "GEORGE BRETT FOR PRESIDENT" T-shirt I got at the 1980 World Series, the year that Brett nearly hit .400 and led the Royals to the AL championship.

But man, after last night I pretty much think Rusch could cure cancer, or solve the Middle East crisis.

No matter what they ask him to do, he comes through. After Matt Clement left the game gassed (105 pitches) and with his batting order spot coming up, in the seventh, Rusch shut the Brewers down with a 25-pitch, 3-strikeout, one-hit, two-inning appearance, just what the ballclub needed.

And this is another reason that if Jim Hendry wants to pull the trigger on a blockbuster deal that would have Clement (and a mid-level prospect) go to Boston for Nomar Garciaparra, I say do it. Rusch could step right back into the rotation, and though Clement's been terrific, that's not a major step downward, and it would a major step up for the offense.

I was of two minds in the ninth, and I bet Dusty Baker was too. Rusch could have easily finished the game, but not sending LaTroy Hawkins out there, after his miserable showing on Sunday, would have sent the resounding lack of confidence in a player that a manager never wants to show. Rusch's batting order slot came up in the top of the ninth, but with two out and no one on, Dusty could have stayed with him, as he's a pretty good hitter anyway.

This is Dusty Baker's hallmark, backing his players, and he did so last night, batting for Rusch, calling on Hawkins, and Hawkins got his 14th save, striking out Brooks Kieschnick to end the game, and the Cubs had a satisfying 3-1 win over the Brewers, not only their first win in Milwaukee this season, but the first time they even had a lead there.

For a while it looked like Clement was going to suffer the same fate he did last time he threw at Miller Park -- a 1-0 loss. This time it wasn't a solo homer, but a sac fly from the worst hitter in the starting lineup -- .195-hitting catcher Gary Bennett.

The Cubs decided they would hit the solo homer today, getting one from Derrek Lee (his 19th) to tie the game in the sixth. Again, I say: if the Cubs are going to live by the long ball, they also have to learn to be patient hitters, so they can draw some walks and have some of these homers actually come with runners on base.

They actually accomplished this in the game-winning rally without a homer. Aramis Ramirez hit his second double of the game and then Dusty wisely pinch-ran for him with Ramon Martinez -- at that point, it's smart to rest Ramirez, who's just coming off a groin injury.

Then, yes, Tom Goodwin actually walked. It was only his third walk of the year in 68 plate appearances. But the key plays in the inning were Alex Gonzalez' flyout, which allowed Martinez to take third, and Goodwin... well, he pretty much walked to second base, as he was halfway there before the pitch was delivered.

It's not that frequent that the Cubs get two runners in scoring position in this way. I was almost shocked, and even more so when Mark Grudzielanek drove them both in with a single.

Here's how shocked I was: even though I had stayed up till the end of the game, and knew they won, when the alarm blasted me up at 3:30 this morning, I was convinced they had lost. Took me a minute or two to remember that yes, not only was it a win, but a satisfying one.

Cub pitching has been consistently good, despite the occasional bullpen meltdown, and this is why a long winning streak is still within reach.

Let's continue today. It sounded like a home crowd in the bottom of the ninth, and you bet the players feed off that energy. It'll be a rematch of the Greg Maddux/Ben Sheets matchup from ten days ago at Wrigley Field, with Maddux only two wins away from 300.

Time to start that streak. NOW.

:: posted by Al at 4:43 AM [+] ::
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Owning Up

Now, the true story can be told. Yesterday's loss is my fault.

I participate in an online fantasy baseball league sponsored by The Sporting News.

It's fairly straightforward -- you pick three pitchers and five hitters and accumulate points based on their performances.

The season "started over" after the All-Star break and so I was looking around for players that seemed like they were getting hot right then.

One of those was Eric Milton, who had a lot of wins and whose ERA was dropping. He made one good start after the ASB, and I had gone to the site and attempted to cut him just before the Phillies/Cubs series, since I knew he was starting on Sunday.

Unfortunately, due to not having enough "TSN Dollars", my transaction didn't go through and by the time I figured this out, it was too late. I got stuck with him for yesterday's game.

I got 128 points for his near no-hitter yesterday, which is about as many as you can get for a starting pitcher. I'd rather have given all the points up. And frankly, now I'm going to keep him, because he'll start against the Marlins on Thursday, and won't go in the series next weekend at Wrigley Field.

I take responsibility.

Now, let's go beat those darn Brewers.

:: posted by Al at 9:32 AM [+] ::
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World Series, Here We Come!

No, not the Cubs, silly, although with 64 games left in the season, anything's still possible.

I'm talking about my son Mark's Park District Diamondbacks team, which made their World Series with a 16-15 win over the Rockies today. This'll be a best-of-three series starting Tuesday afternoon. They are National League champions.

[sigh] If only...

And anyway, this was way more worth leading today's entry with than the Cubs.

Why not have a no-hitter thrown against you? It's been nearly 39 years since the Cubs were no-hit (Sandy Koufax's perfect game on September 9, 1965, and if you have not read Jane Leavy's excellent biography of Koufax, the book intersperses Koufax's life with the nine innings of that game), and nearly 32 since they were involved in a no-hitter of any kind (Milt Pappas' should-have-been-perfect game, that was spoiled by umpire Bruce Froemming with two out and two strikes in the 9th, on September 2, 1972).

Eric Milton of the Phillies threw lights-out for 8 2/3 innings today. If the no-hitter had been completed, I was going to write something like this as a lead:

The Cubs took my advice and decided not to hit any home runs today.

Or anything else, for that matter.

Frankly, even after Michael Barrett's bloop landed just beyond Doug Glanville's reach (irony: Glanville had been sent in as a defensive replacement), and Mark Grudzielanek's single, I figured the game was over when Corey Patterson came up, because Patterson had looked pretty clueless all day, and then he slammed the game-tying double over Glanville's head.

You know, games like this can be turning points. If the Cubs had come back to win it, they'd have taken two of three from the Phillies, had a huge emotional lift, and ... well, blah, blah, blah.

Instead, LaTroy Hawkins gave it all back in only ten pitches and it resulted in yet another depressing loss, 3-2 to Philadelpia, and worse, another one-run loss, dropping the Cubs' record in one-run games to 13-19.

Milton struck out twelve and made pretty much everyone look silly doing it. He threw a no-hitter for the Twins against the Angels on September 11, 1999 and you could easily see by his stuff today how he could do that. What you can't figure out is how his season ERA is 4.40, but the way the Cubs have been attacking pitchers lately (which is to say, not at all), this sort of result wasn't surprising.

One good thing that came out of today -- Mark Prior threw six solid innings, throwing 96 pitches and having no pain whatsoever. He was simply taken out on a pitch count, and that's a pretty generous pitch count for someone who missed a start with pain in his elbow. I'd expect that he'll make his next start on Friday with no problems.

Meanwhile, Chip and Steve went on and on and on about how good the Cub starting rotation has been, and yes, it sure has been. But the bullpen has been iffy. Even today, the bullpen (Jon Leicester and Kent Mercker) managed to keep the game close until Hawkins blew it. The Cubs have found out what the Twins did when he closed for them. Hawkins simply isn't a ninth-inning pitcher, whether it is in situations where the team is ahead, or behind. He needs to go back to the setup role, which he did quite well until Joe Borowski went down, and either the Cubs need to put Kyle Farnsworth, or Leicester, or anyone they can come up with in at closer.

Part of the problem in acquiring someone this year has been the fact that there are, in the National League alone, ten teams within six and a half games of the wild-card lead (and five more teams in the AL who are that close), and so there haven't been that many teams willing to part with anyone, since almost any team that close figures, "Hey, maybe we can do it." I'm not suggesting the Cubs become sellers either -- because, frankly, what do they have to sell? -- but maybe what Bill James once called a "challenge trade" might be the way to go.

A challenge trade is where you send players who play the same position to someone else, hoping that the change of scenery will do them good. Trading Alex Gonzalez to Montreal for Orlando Cabrera would be such a deal, not that I'm suggesting this, or maybe Gonzalez and prospects for Nomar Garciaparra, or Corey Patterson and prospects for Ichiro (yes, I know Ichiro plays RF, but he'd play CF for the Cubs).

Jim Hendry surprised us last year when he acquired Kenny Lofton and Aramis Ramirez, and that deal jump-started the entire ballclub. I'm sure Hendry's cellphone battery is getting a workout this week. IF a deal is to be made, it probably won't be any of the ones I mentioned above, nor any of the other rumored players we have heard -- I'll bet it'll be a deal none of us has thought of. That seems to be the way Hendry works.

Whatever it takes -- this team clearly needs bullpen help, and fast. As I said, with 64 games to go, it's far from over. And if you haven't had enough of the Brewers yet, having already seen them seven times this month, there's four more coming up this week. Bleah.

In the meantime, let's go Park District Diamondbacks -- at least maybe I can have one World Series win this year!

:: posted by Al at 5:35 PM [+] ::
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