"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, August 07, 2004 ::

History

SAN FRANCISCO -- It was about the seventh inning that this thought hit me, and I had to call Howard (since we were all sitting in different parts of SBC Park this afternoon) to share this with him, and now with you...

Of all the sure Hall-of-Fame milestones (500 home runs, 3000 hits, 3000 strikeouts, 300 wins), 300 wins is the only one that the player achieving it doesn't actually have to be on the field when it occurs.

That notwithstanding, on a picture-postcard-gorgeous Saturday afternoon, I finally witnessed one after missing several 3000-hit, 300-win and 500-HR performances by a game or two.

Oh, coincidentally, so did Greg Maddux, achieving the 300th win of his sure-to-be-Hall-of-Fame career today.

The Cubs won too, 8-4 over the Giants, and Maddux himself would tell you that's the important thing.

Let me start at the end again. Mark and I were sitting in the 200 level (the "AAA Club" -- here, even the seating decks have corporate names), and I learned later that Jim Belushi was sitting in our section, though we never saw him, and the second-to-last pitch of the game was fouled off and caught by the guy sitting right in front of us. I had a nice conversation with a couple from Houston who had gotten the tickets through one of their employers, who were just there soaking up the atmosphere and couldn't believe how many Cubs fans had arrived in San Francisco for this series. Neither can I, actually -- it seemed like almost a quarter of the crowd, and we were loud, particularly when Maddux was taken out of the game in the top of the sixth, and also each time Nomar Garciaparra came to bat, and he responded again today with three hits (in six games as a Cub, he's now hitting .370 -- 10 for 27, with two steals, four doubles, six runs scored and three RBI)... but the most special moment came when we were leaving, and I heard people looking up and saying "Congratulations", and in looking up ourselves we realized that Maddux' family was sitting in one of the press box suites right behind us, his mom & dad, wife and children, all beaming and taking all our congratulations, just in stride, proud of their son but so low-key, just like Greg is.

Greg Maddux is a special ballplayer and a special human being and I think everyone who's ever been a teammate of his would say that about him. The Cubs had to negotiate for more than a month and spend perhaps more money than they wanted to, to sign him, and you know what? It was worth every dollar to have a man of this character and quality on this team, and who among us would have guessed that on August 7, he'd be leading the team in victories with 11, well on his way to his seventeenth consecutive season with fifteen or more wins?

It wasn't vintage Maddux today. He had a shaky first inning in which he threw twenty-nine pitches, and by the time the third had ended the Cubs were down 3-0. But the offense came through, and though Giants rookie Brad Hennessey, making his major league debut today, had them tied in knots till the fourth, a couple of squeaky doubles by Aramis Ramirez and Todd Walker, sandwiched around a Derrek Lee single, made it 3-2, and the Cubs took the lead for good in the fifth, giving Maddux the chance at the victory and entrusting it to the bullpen, which despite another wild-ass inning from Dr. Tightpants, gave up nothing in four innings -- Jon Leicester was the bad-luck inherited-runners guy today, giving up a single to Deivi Cruz that Ramirez almost snagged for a double play. Maddux himself put on one of his fielding clinics, spearing a ball that looked like it was headed for CF, and turning it into a routine fifth-inning putout. Mark even asked me at first, why Maddux had thrown to first base, because it happened so quickly it looked like he might have grabbed a line drive, rather than a quick-hopped ground ball. Then, after the first two batters reached on bloopy hits in the sixth, Maddux, as he is entrusted to do now, took himself out of the game. Despite what appeared to be ideal weather conditions (low 70's, low humidity), he was clearly gassed.

I was really glad to see Moises Alou's homer in the ninth off Brett Tomko (geez, the Giants are so desperate that they used Tomko, one of their rotation starters, in relief), because that meant that LaTroy Hawkins would have to have been really historically awful to deny Maddux the win, and instead he gave him the history, ending the game with a flourish (after the foul ball right in front of us) with a strikeout.

One Barry Bonds comment -- I was absolutely astounded in the seventh, when an obvious intentional-walk situation came up -- runner on second, one out, Bonds up -- and Dusty opted to have Mike Remlinger pitch to Barry. The Giants fans were happy, but Bonds hit a harmless flyout to center. Remember, no manager knows Bonds better than Dusty Baker.

Before the game I took Mark over to the speed-pitch thing in CF, where he proceeded to break that day's record for eight-year-olds by throwing 44 MPH (and no, I wasn't about to throw myself and show him that he can throw harder than me), then said hi to Sue and her friend Nancy, who had a number of ideas as to why the Tomato Inning failed last night. The consensus, after consulting them and others, was that the tomatoes weren't used to the peculiarities of the Pacific Time Zone yet. Having had a day to acclimate, today's tomato landed in the sixth inning and thankyouverymuch, got Paul Bako to smack a broken-bat double over third base, leading, after a vintage Maddux sacrifice bunt, to Corey Patterson's two-run homer into McCovey Cove, only the seventh hit there by a visiting player.

After the game, eighteen of us repaired to MacArthur Park (no, there's no cake left out in the rain, this is a restaurant a mile or so from the ballpark) for a 300th-win Celebratory Dinner. This included Sue, Howard, Jon and Jon's brother Mark, who lives here, Jeff & Krista and Jeff's friend Mark (too many Marks here, right?) and his family, who live south of San Jose, and Jessica, who is the biggest Maddux fan that I know, who flew here from New York to see this game, and was joined by her friend John Aldrich, who I met in Phoenix this year during spring training.

Jeff then proceeded to tell me the story of how he got the sandwiches at Jimmy John's in Reno, Nevada, and told the owner there the story of why he was buying them, to which he said, "This one, I gotta tell my wife!" Turns out the owner of this particular shop, located near the campus of the University of Nevada/Reno, is a retired professor from the University of Illinois at Champaign, who started up this franchise as a "retirement" job, and says he's making way more money than he ever made as a professor.

Hmmmm.

Anyway, this was a day of history, and though Maddux himself didn't want a big celebration on the field in a visiting ballpark (a class act, and you'd expect nothing else from him), it was, as I mentioned, more important to win the game, maintain the wild-card lead, and for the Cubs that makes twelve wins in their last seventeen games. Of such streaks, playoff spots can be won, and Greg and all his teammates will say "Eyes on the prize, please."

While that's true, all of us who shared in this history today will never forget it, and though there has been talk that Maddux may be the last 300-game winner, that's nonsense. The proverbial "they" were speaking that way in the 1970's too.

Tom Glavine and Randy Johnson notwithstanding, it may be a very long time before this happens again. Savor it. We did, and Greg's family and teammates are, and so should you. We may indeed never pass this way again.

:: posted by Al at 10:55 PM [+] ::
...

Crop Failure

SAN FRANCISCO -- You knew it wasn't going to be the Cubs' night when Matt Clement got Barry Bonds to pop up -- twice in the same at-bat -- and still didn't retire him.

Michael Barrett dropped the first one, something that he's done annoyingly often this year, and Aramis Ramirez couldn't locate the second one.

Bonds, naturally, walked, and then you could see Clement stomping around the mound after the walk, letting this get into his head, and he promptly walked J. T. Snow on four pitches, and one out later Michael Tucker homered, and that, for the most part, was that. The Giants went on to beat the Cubs 6-2, ending the Cubs' winning streak at four, although they have still won eleven of their last sixteen.

But I'm starting at the end of a busy day.

We headed over to Chinatown just to look around at the people and the activity and show the kids a different part of life. While Rachel was buying a pair of shoes, Mark spotted a store that sold swords and other, um, interesting Asian weapons.

No, Mark, we're not buying a sword.

I figured the Cubs needed all the help they could get on this road trip, and since the Jimmy John's tomatoes have been a very good indicator for the ballclub, I checked out whether this expanding Chicago-based chain had any stores in San Francisco.

Nope. There's only one in the entire state of California, and it's in Clovis, which is near Fresno, about 200 miles from here.

However! Jeff & Krista, who are here along with many of the rest of our bleacher group, drove here from Chicago (they stopped in Denver to see the Cub sweep) and were going to pass through Reno -- where there's a Jimmy John's conveniently located about a block off I-80.

So, they stopped and got me four sandwiches (yes, there's a spare), dropped them off yesterday afternoon, and I brought one to the park while storing the rest in my dad's fridge.

I hate to report that the sandwich failed last night. With Mark's help the tomato piece landed on the sixth spot in the batting order, straddling the sixth and seventh innings -- Derrek Lee's spot.

Lee struck out four times last night and looked bad doing it, and did I mention that Corey Patterson also struck out four times? The Cubs had all kinds of chances to win, or at least score more than two runs, and off Jason Schmidt, who one-hit them on May 18, this kept encouraging me, but runners kept getting stranded, ten in all. My dad says this is because they came from Denver and had gotten used to the altitude there and couldn't get the runners home at sea level. I don't know that I buy this, but -- anyone ever do a study of what happens to teams the first day they come off a Colorado series? I seem to recall some stats that the Rockies themselves generally do poorly on the road the first day after a homestand, but that may be just a reflection of the fact that the Rockies usually suck on the road anyway.

I have been to SBC Park before -- when it was still Pacific Bell, and many of the natives treat the new name with disdain; I mean, really, does the generic name SBC mean anything to you? It means even less to people out here -- and it's still, I think, the best of all the new ballparks. We sat in the "AAA Club" level, the second tier, down the RF line, and from there you have what is probably the most beautiful view of any ballpark in the country, I think -- the Bay Bridge off to the left, which fades into the sunset and then lights up, and sailboats drifting across the bay to the RF side of the scoreboard (which, incidentally, is almost impossible to read from that angle in the early innings as the setting sun glares right into it), which has about the most detail of any scoreboard I've seen, giving stats like OBA and SLG for all the players.

Mark & I met up with Howard, Jon, Jon's brother Mark (who lives here in SF), Sue and her friend, Jeff and Jeff's friend Mark (too many Marks, right?) before the game and as we were all sitting in scattered sections, Mark (that's my son) and I went up to our seats to wait for my dad and his friend Patty to arrive.

They, along with much of the rest of the crowd, were very late-arriving; the place was probably only half-full at game time, which I understand isn't uncommon for night games here, given the fact that people have to come across the Bay Bridge and other normally jammed-up rush-hour routes. There were way more Cub fans than I expected, considering how many Giants season-ticketholders there are; so many that the Cubs got a warm round of applause after taking batting practice, something unheard-of on the road. Incidentally, Todd Hollandsworth took BP, wearing a shin guard of course, and skied a number of balls into McCovey Cove -- Todd's one of the great HR hitters in BP, for whatever that's worth -- and maybe this is a good sign that he's close to returning.

The Cubs need him. They were forced to use Jose Macias and Tom Goodwin as their two pinch-hitters last night, and got a flyout and a strikeout as a result. Despite the nine hits, Schmidt seemed dominant, striking out eleven (though as mentioned, eight of those were Patterson and Lee).

I was also puzzled, after setting up what appeared to be a straight platoon at 2B with Todd Walker and Mark Grudzielanek, Dusty started Grudz against the right-hander Schmidt. Had to be a hunch -- Grudz was 10-for-37 lifetime against Schmidt coming into this game. Brad Hennessey, a rookie being called up today to make his ML debut against the Cubs, is a right-hander, so we'll see what Dusty decides.

During the game, Ernie called me with the news of the Cardinals' acquisition of Larry Walker. Frankly, I think this move is bizarre, even though the Rockies are picking up most of the contract. The Cardinals are already second in the league in runs scored (first among all teams not named Colorado). If they needed anything, it's pitching. Walker's a great player, no question about it. But he is nearly thirty-eight years old and missed almost half this season with injuries.

Anyway, today, we hope we see history in the form of Greg Maddux' 300th win. But more importantly, and Greg himself would tell you this, a win of any kind is the most important thing.

Finally, I know that many in the mainstream media as well as some of my fellow soldiers in the Cubs Blog Army, have spent a lot of time talking about Nomar Garciaparra and the various intrigues "revealed" since he left the Red Sox.

Here's the only thing I have to say about this: I generally like the Red Sox and their fans. But if this is what they spend their time thinking and talking about, it's no wonder they haven't won a World Series since 1918. Get over it!

:: posted by Al at 9:05 AM [+] ::
...

Taking No Prisoners

SAN FRANCISCO -- While the Cubs were completing their methodical demolition of the Rockies, defeating them in Denver today 5-1 and sweeping a series for the first time ever in Coors Field (they did sweep one in July 1994 at Mile High Stadium, and that seems odd, considering 1994 was a really bad year for the Cubs), I was on a boat in San Francisco Bay heading for the National Park Service's tour of the former infamous federal prison, Alcatraz.

This is a really cool tour and if you are ever in the Bay Area, it's well worth an afternoon. The tours run every half hour, and almost all of them appeared to be sold out, and I could pick up snippets of many foreign languages among the people waiting in line.

The boat ride alone, with terrific views all around the bay, of the city of San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the hills surrounding the bay, is spectacular. It was foggy this morning, as is customary this time of year, but by early afternoon the fog was beginning to clear, and if you see the bright sunshine, you're thinking, summer, warmth...

Nope. Particularly once you get to Alcatraz, which is only a mile or so offshore, the winds kick up and the temperature is only in the low 60's and at times you think you yourself are going to get blown right off the island. It's no wonder no one successfully escaped when it was a prison -- the only ones who might have were the three prisoners who managed to get out of their cells, through the ventilation system, and with homemade life vests, actually into the water. They were never heard from again, which suggests one of two scenarios:

1) they made it and started new lives;

2) they drowned.

Having seen how treacherous the water can be, I'm thinking the latter.

Anyway, there's a video and then guided audio tour showing you the main points of the prison, and they don't leave anything out, including the 19-month Native American occupation of the island from 1969-1971. During that occupation many of the original buildings were seriously damaged and had to be demolished, and you can see the ruins of others, including the warden's former house right off the main cellblock, which is now incongruously the home of quite a few lovely wildflowers.

Today, a couple of very enthusiastic young workers demonstrated how the guards could open and close the cell doors either individually or in groups (they claimed "Hey, we don't do this every day," but I bet they say that every day). They also said that several film directors had come there specifically to record the "CLANG" sound of the doors closing, even George Lucas for the Star Wars films.

So, I didn't get to see much of today's game, though I did follow it on the web cellphone (yes, there's a cellphone signal even on Alcatraz), and you know what?

I can't find a single bad thing to say about this ballclub right now. They really are clicking on all cylinders. They decided to play Solo-Homer again today (Derrek Lee and Corey Patterson), but with Mark Prior throwing his best game in over a month, it didn't matter. Nomar didn't do anything today (0-for-5), but it didn't matter. Things are going so well that two players hitting under .200 -- Paul Bako and Glendon Rusch -- drove in the other three runs. Bako, I presume, played today due to the length of last night's game. He will, obviously, get another start on Saturday, with Greg Maddux going.

Today's win, the fourth in a row, eighth of ten, and eleventh of the last fifteen, also put the Cubs a season-high 12 games over .500, made them the third team in the NL (and seventh in MLB) to reach the sixty-win plateau, and also assured them of coming into tomorrow night's game here in "The City" (as the natives here call it -- they even had that nickname as part of the NBA Warriors' jerseys back in the late 1960's), as the leader in the NL Wild Card race.

Meanwhile, the Giants have just finished being swept by the Reds, losing to them today 12-3, so they're likely to be a bit ornery when the Cubs arrive. According to today's San Francisco Chronicle, tomorrow's likely Giants starter is a rookie, Tyler Walker, who's started exactly one game in his career, on Sept. 7, 2002 when he was with the Mets.

I do have one bone to pick about today's game. With one strike to go, Rusch gave up a triple to Kit Pellow, who then scored when Sammy Sosa made an error trying to pick up the ball.

Yes, this isn't that important since the Cubs won, but had this run not scored, it would have been the Cubs' first-EVER shutout of the Rockies in Denver. They have shut them out five times since Colorado entered the league in 1993, but all five have been in Wrigley Field.

Isn't it nice to have this be our biggest problem?

:: posted by Al at 6:46 PM [+] ::
...

Now, That's More Like It!

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's tough to "watch" a ballgame via web cellphone and MLB.com's Gameday, but that's what I did today and will again tomorrow, here in San Francisco for a visit with my dad, who lives here, awaiting the arrival of the Cubs for the series on Friday. Flying into Oakland, I figured it would be quicker to get to my dad's place in downtown SF, only to run into a huge traffic jam on the Bay Bridge. Why? Oops! It's 6:45 and everyone's heading to the Giants-Reds game! Anyway, my dad met us outside the garage of his building with a big "welcome" sign and a big smile on his face. That was unexpected and sweet.

What's "more like it" is tonight's 11-8 Cub win over the Rockies in Denver, their third win in a row. The Cubs have also now won seven of nine (and yes, I think of Jeri Ryan when I hear that phrase), and ten of their last fourteen since the disastrous final regular season series against the Cardinals ended on July 20, and it is in such ways that teams start streaking, and as I have mentioned many times before, this 2004 season seems like such a season, not only for the Cubs but for many other teams. The Cubs matched their season-high at 11 games over .500. That sounds good, but what it really means is that they've been 13-13 since that pulsating win over the White Sox on July 4. Onward and upward.

Yesterday's game -- when each team scored in only one of its half-innings -- barely registered on the Richter scale of normal Denver games, but tonight was another story, with each team homering thrice (Ramirez, Sosa, and Walker for the Cubs, and Sweeney, Johnson and Helton for the Rockies), and featuring the ejections of Rockies pitcher Sean Dohmann and manager Clint Hurdle after Dohmann threw high and tight to Ramirez after Sammy's homer, his 24th of the season, tying him with Reggie Jackson on the all-time list with 563.

Here's a perfect example of why pitchers' wins don't mean a darn thing. Of the five Cub pitchers tonight, Kyle Farnsworth, who allowed two solo homers (Sweeney, Johnson) and retired only one batter, throwing only four pitches, wound up with the win when the Cubs came back from the 6-5 hole he had pitched them into.

Official scorers do have leeway in cases like this to give the win to someone other than a "pitcher who throws briefly and ineffectively" (MLB Rule 10.19c), although this is normally done only when the club already has the lead. This is another reason why official scorers ought to be MLB employees, rather than sportswriters, as has been traditional in baseball for decades. I'd have given the win to Mike Remlinger, who held the lead in the bottom of the 8th after the Cubs scored four more runs.

I've been to Coors Field. It's not quite baseball, but it's fun, especially when your team wins, and the Cubs have done that with regularity in Denver.

Tonight's Nomar-watch: he singled, doubled, drove in a run with a sac fly, stole a base, and also made his first error as a Cub, though the error had no impact on the scoring. It appears that Dusty may have, purely by accident, found a lineup that works. Corey Patterson, who most of us in the Cubs Blog Army have correctly felt is not an appropriate leadoff man because of his maddening lack of patience at the plate, has hit lights-out since being installed there on Sunday. He bunted his way on again tonight, had another single and a double, and also stole a base. Putting the second baseman, be it Todd Walker or Mark Grudzielanek (and it does appear that they have finally been installed as a straight platoon -- me, I'd play Walker every day, but at least now they know their role, rather than the guesswork of the last few weeks), in the #7 spot, also seems useful, as does hitting Moises Alou ahead of Sammy.

Accident or purposeful, it's working, so I'd say Dusty ought to stay with it. Almost more important than the 15 hits tonight were the six walks drawn.

As Mike e-mailed me earlier today, this is, at long last, the team we thought we'd see coming out of spring training. Two things have happened to make that reality:

1) Everyone is, at long last, healthy

2) The Garciaparra deal has energized every single player on the roster

Mark Prior throws tomorrow, and amazingly enough, he's been the worst starter on the staff. If he can step his game back to last year's level, there's no telling how far and fast this team can go.

Finally, I'm going to put another sort of Sammy Watch on. He's been hitting better the last week or so, capped with today's homer and three RBI, giving him 55 for the season. There are fifty-five games remaining. He needs forty-five more RBI to give him 100 for the tenth consecutive season.

:: posted by Al at 11:41 PM [+] ::
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Tomato Power!

I've been growing a tomato plant on my deck, and yesterday -- right about on schedule, the first few days of August -- I had my very first ripe home-grown tomato to eat.

No, I didn't perform the tomato ceremony for last night's game -- I don't usually keep score while watching on TV -- but it was really tasty, and IF I'd have dropped a piece on a scorecard, no doubt it'd have landed in the second inning, the Cubs' five-run explosion in their efficient, quick 5-3 win over the Rockies, a game I managed to stay up and see the end of, despite the 8 pm CT starting time; it was the sixth-fastest game in Coors Field history, only two hours and fourteen minutes. With the win and the Padres' 5-2 loss to the Phillies, the Cubs are now tied for the wild-card lead. They even picked up a game on St. Louis -- the Cardinals blew a 6-2 lead over the Expos, of all teams, and lost 10-6 in 12 innings.

Here's a perfect example of how Cub fandom can seep into even those who are from other places and relatively new to this. Ernie, who is from Ohio and an Indians fan, now also a Cub fan, was at the game on Sunday and I was explaining the tomato ritual to him, and its beginnings in June when the Cubs had their ten-run inning against the Cardinals.

He said, "Did they win?"

Ouch. Yes, they won that day, June 10th, 12-3.

As it turned out, I could have gone to sleep after the Cubs' five-run second inning, punctuated by a massive home run from Derrek Lee, and then the eventual game-winning hit, a little flare off the bat of Nomar Garciaparra, who reclaimed his Boston #5 from Michael Barrett, who had a little fun with Nomar by asking him for a promise to consider returning to the Cubs next year, in exchange for the number. Barrett took over the #8 that Alex Gonzalez had worn, and that Nomar wore on Sunday, he says, in tribute to Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra, who wore that number for the Yankees.

You can see by this kind of banter that this acquisition has both energized the ballclub and has loosened up a clubhouse that seemed to have its pants on way too tight (yes, all of them, not just Dr. Tightpants) for most of the first half. You wondered if anyone was even laughing or smiling when they got to the ballpark.

The meaning of things like this cannot be underestimated. Think about how you felt when you heard about the Garciaparra trade. Now project that feeling, that excitement, onto the men who were going to meet him the next day, and welcome him to their team.

So far, at least, it seems like it's been a happy marriage.

About the game -- geez, on TV the Cub portion of the crowd sounded almost as loud as it did in Milwaukee. It might have been, too -- the 40,716 in attendance last night was 25% over the Rockies' average of 30,019. Jeff & Krista are there, having stopped in Denver on their drive to the West Coast, so perhaps I'll get an update from them before Friday. The ovation for Nomar in particular was amazingly loud and must have given him goosebumps. It sure would have for me in that situation.

Kerry Wood threw a terrific game after the first inning, when he gave up what looked like an ordinary popup to Todd Helton that turned into a typical Coors Field down-the-line homer in a three-run inning, that I knew wouldn't be enough to win the game, and it wasn't. Wood settled down and threw what for him was a fairly small number of pitches, 110 in eight innings, with no apparent discomfort. This is, obviously, very good news.

The lineup that Dusty has apparently settled on for the time being -- Patterson leading off, Nomar batting second, and whoever's playing 2B batting seventh, and the catcher eighth -- has been productive in the two days that it's been in effect, and though Corey is emphatically NOT a "prototype leadoff hitter", as Carrie Muskat wrote on cubs. com, if he can bunt his way on base more often, he might actually work in that role.

Mayor Daley made some more stupid comments and took some more potshots at Tribune Co. for the falling concrete incidents; among other things, he was quoted as saying:

My God. There must be an investigative reporter for the Tribune here. Where are they? We need a special prosecutor. We need a thorough investigation by the federal, state and local governments and United Nations.

... after it was revealed that some repair work had been done without the proper paperwork being filed.

My God is right. Our mayor is an idiot. He ought to be pleased that the Cubs have spent millions of dollars to keep a 90-year-old building in pretty good shape, despite the recent problems. I'm no apologist for the Tribune Company, but Daley seems to have a visceral hatred for that corporation and of course, the Cubs, having grown up a White Sox fan.

I have read the engineering study made by the Glenview-based company The Structural Shop, in which the engineers conclude about Wrigley Field:

Considering its age, exposure and the number of times it is in use, the park is in better condition than buildings half its age.

I wonder if the mayor has read this report. Sometimes I wonder if the mayor knows how to read at all.

:: posted by Al at 9:14 AM [+] ::
...

An Explanation

Yesterday, I expressed puzzlement as to why Dusty pinch-hit Jose Macias for Paul Bako, when Michael Barrett thus would have had to come in the game anyway.

I got two similar and sensible explanations by e-mail.

First, from Ben:

Ron Santo actually figured out why Dusty did this, and I think it was the right move. You have runners on second and third, one out. Late in a tie game in this situation you either walk the guy to create a double play situation or you bring in the infield, increasing the chance that a ground ball will get through (which is exactly what happened). If Dusty sends up Barrett, there are two possibilities.

One, he gets walked, or two, you let him hit with the infield in. This is an easy call, you walk him (even if Todd Walker is in the circle, there was a lefty pitcher in the game). With Macias up, there are no good options for the Phillies, you either let Barrett hit with the bags juiced, or you let Macias hit with a drawn in infield, effectively turning him into a good hitter. Given that Barrett was the best hitter on the bench (and I think the team leader in sac flies), putting him in the on deck circle forced Bowa to bring the infield in and pitch to Macias. Certainly this was better than Macias batting with the bags loaded and the infield back after a Barrett walk, the grounder he hit would have been a double play.


Then this, elaborating a bit further, from Chris:

If you'll remember, there was a runner on second and Barrett was up in the on deck circle after Macias - so Dusty was planning on batting Barrett in the inning regardless. Ron Santo remarked on the radio broadcast that the reason Dusty batted Macias for Bako instead of Barrett was because he believed Bowa would have intentionally walked Barrett while he would pitch to Macias - and they did pitch to Macias. So instead, he had Macias bat for Bako, and Barrett batted in the pitchers spot.


This does make sense, and none of us in the bleachers saw Barrett come out on deck before Macias stepped into the batter's box.

And further, Ron Santo was the one who pointed out this bit of baseball strategy -- look, I know lots of people love Ron, but analysis of the inner game isn't what he normally does on-air!

What this situation really shows is how much the Cubs miss Todd Hollandsworth.

:: posted by Al at 1:57 PM [+] ::
...

Almost Perfect

It's a summer Sunday afternoon in Chicago.

And it's eighty-three degrees, with the wind blowing out from the southwest at fifteen MPH.

There's bright sunshine everywhere, a perfect early August day.

And Greg Maddux became the twenty-second pitcher in major league history to win his ...

Who writes these scripts, anyway?

I did say almost perfect, right?

Maddux himself would certainly say that his 300th win, which will now have to wait till next Saturday in San Francisco at the least (and the last pitcher to reach this milestone, Roger Clemens, had to try four times, including the famous Wrigley Field matchup with Kerry Wood on June 7, 2003, before he got it), was far less important than the Cubs' 6-3 come-from-behind win over the Phillies today, and, of course, he's right.

It was in the middle of the top of the first, when Maddux gave up two more solo longballs (and boy, am I glad to see Bobby Abreu go, because he just wore out the Cubs this weekend, hitting four homers in the three games; that's also 25 homers allowed by Maddux, a frighteningly large number, though many of them, as mentioned, are solo shots), that I started singing, to no one in particular, the old Scott McKenzie song from the sixties:

If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear
Some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet
Some gentle people there

Well, I don't have any hair and if I did, I doubt I'd wear any flowers in it, but I am going to San Francisco, where my dad lives, for a visit to him and also to see the three games this upcoming weekend. In fact, we are having a mini-reunion of many of our bleacher section at SBC Park; Howard and Jon, Jeff and Krista, Sue and one of her nieces, and Jeff's friend Mark, who lives there, will all be heading out to the Left Coast. We'll be well represented, and I imagine there will be, as there has been all year, a fairly large group of Cub fans at this series.

The day started oddly, as the scanners that normally scan tickets failed to operate. After attempting to reboot the computers within several times, security finally gave up and simply inspected the tickets, ripped the stubs (and gave us the picture half back instead of the short end, as they've been doing all year, and no comments about the term 'short end', please!), and let us in, about ten minutes after the normal opening time of 11:20.

Oh, we got a new shortstop too, and he drove in a run today. What's the new guy's name again?

Nomar Garciaparra, who had never set foot in Wrigley Field before this morning, took the field during BP to a standing ovation from those who arrived early; later he led a small army of media down to the area near the tarp and signed autographs for a few minutes. When his name was announced as batting second (and wearing #8, a number that I think will last only this game -- I'll bet he'll make a deal with Michael Barrett for his #5 before Tuesday's game), the crowd was so loud that they drowned out his name, one of the loudest ovations I've ever heard at the Yard. This so rattled PA announcer Paul Friedman that he announced Derrek Lee batting fifth and Aramis Ramirez batting sixth -- but when they came up to bat they batted in the correct order, Ramirez fifth and Lee sixth. Aramis hit a home run with this "apparent" change (though I think the actual order was correct and Friedman just announced it wrong), but Lee went 0-for-4.

In two other lineup changes of note, Corey Patterson led off today. For once, it worked. He bunted his way on in the first, singled in the third and reached on a HBP in the seventh. If he'd bunt like this more often, perhaps the leadoff spot would be the right place for him. With Nomar batting second, Dusty switched Moises Alou and Sammy Sosa, and for a day at least, Sammy responded with two hits, including homer #562, putting him one behind Reggie Jackson for eighth place, and this going into a three-game series in a place he's always hit well in, Coors Field (for what it's worth, Nomar played a three-game series against the Rockies this year at Coors Field; he went 6-for-14 with a triple and three runs scored). Sammy's homer came right before Aramis', and both came in -- you guessed it -- today's Tomato Inning.

The Tomato Inning took a couple of attempts today, as the first tomato piece fell into the at-bats column before falling onto the ground, so a relief piece was called into action, and did quite well, thankyouverymuch.

Returning to today's Nomar Report, he received another standing O before his first at-bat, and he was so impressed that he promptly grounded into a double play.

Welcome to Chicago, my friend.

Later, though, he made some sparkling defensive plays, showing no signs of the Achilles problem that forced him to miss the first 57 games of the season, and he singled in the last run with a line single to left. The key hit in the Cubs' four-run winning seventh-inning rally, though, was a little popup into right field from Mark Grudzielanek, with two runners on and one out, scoring the tying run, forcing Philly starter Randy Wolf from the game, and setting up some odd strategic moves -- we couldn't figure out why Jose Macias batted for Paul Bako, when Michael Barrett would have to come into the game anyway, but Dusty's inscrutable idea worked again; Macias drove in the eventual winning run, and then Barrett, batting for Mercker, knocked in another with a sac fly.

Even when he does dumb stuff, sometimes Dusty works magic. Don't ask me how.

This was one of the warmer days of the year, though not oppressively so, but the heat and humidity are enemies to a pitcher like Greg Maddux, and he was certainly gassed after the sixth inning. Dusty usually lets Maddux take himself out of games, and though I'm sure most of the crowd was disappointed that he left trailing 3-2 (not of his own design -- Sosa's misplay after a Jimmy Rollins single allowed the lead run, unearned, to score), after 87 pitches, but it was the right call.

So instead of Maddux' 300th career win, we saw Kent Mercker's 68th career victory, and he threw exactly three pitches to get it.

That's the way baseball is. And again, the most important thing here is the team, and the Cubs won the series and have now won 8 of their last 12, and we find ourselves in the odd position of rooting for the Cardinals tonight, as they play our wild-card rivals, the Giants.

Finally, I should blame my Colgate buddy Tom for the fact that the Cubs won only two of three, because he skipped yesterday's game -- but he's going to watch his hometown Mets play at Milwaukee this week, so I'll cut him some slack on this. And Phil was uncharacteristically silent most of the game -- not even yelling "Get the pen up!" in jest when Maddux struggled in the first inning, nor did he flinch when we were informed that Orlando Cabrera, who Phil had been touting all month, hit a home run in his first at bat as a Red Sox (Cabrera also later made an error that helped cost the Red Sox their game today).

As the day went on we realized he wasn't feeling well, and without going into graphic detail, he got sick enough that the paramedics stationed at our stairwell had to take him to the first-aid room. He came back in the 8th inning, feeling better, saying he might have eaten bad grapes and gotten a bit of food poisoning.

Phil's better now and so are the Cubs. Onward to Denver on Tuesday, and let's win there.

:: posted by Al at 5:50 PM [+] ::
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What Number Nomar?

Usually, when a player of the star status of Nomar Garciaparra is traded, he will get his old uniform number with his new team.

Michael Barrett has been wearing #5, the number Nomar has worn his entire career with Boston.

ESPN's Nomar player page shows him as wearing #15 for the Cubs. I have no idea whether they actually have info on this, or whether it's an educated guess.

Here's mine. Since this happened so suddenly, I'll bet Nomar wears something other than #5 (and maybe #15, which is worn only in pregame by part-time coach Sonny Jackson) today only, then he'll make a deal with Barrett and be wearing #5 Tuesday in Colorado.

Want a further guess? Barrett takes over Alex Gonzalez' #8.

You heard it here first.

:: posted by Al at 7:48 AM [+] ::
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