"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 14, 2004 ::

Gut-Check Time

A day after the entire bullpen stunk it out in an ugly loss to the Dodgers, Kerry Wood, who's supposed to have been doing this all year, stepped up big-time and beat LA almost singlehandedly.

What didn't he do? He hit his first home run of the year (and seventh of his career -- he's always been a good hitter). He struck out seven, including a virtuoso performance against MVP candidate Adrian Beltre in the eighth inning with the bases loaded, ending the inning and his day on his one hundred and twenty-first pitch.

The Cubs shut out the Dodgers 2-0, the fifth Cub blanking of an opponent this year, on a day when the clouds that have lowered our sky all week finally broke for a gorgeous blue sky. With the wind blowing straight in again, it figured to be a low-scoring day, which makes Wood's homer even more impressive.

But more impressive than that was that Beltre vs. Wood showdown, so let's examine it a little bit further.

I suspect many people were shaking their heads, wondering why Dusty didn't come and get Wood in that situation. It's the most pitches he's thrown so far this season, but even with that, he had three 1-2-3 innings in which he threw almost effortlessly; 82 of the 121 pitches were for strikes, and he took Beltre out with sliders that slid down, down, and downer, the last one almost scraping the ground for strike three, after Beltre had fouled off a couple of good sliders and what the scoreboard said was a 99 MPH fastball -- though I wonder about the accuracy of that reading.

Now, let's talk a little about Mike Remlinger, who got his first save in almost three years today.

You know, for as good a pitcher as LaTroy Hawkins is, sometimes he goes out there to close a game and his body language is just terrible. Remlinger, on the other hand, strode to the mound as if to say, "I'm not wasting any time here -- you guys are simply going to make outs." And they did, though Alex Cora lofted a single in between the three groundouts, the last one a comebacker. As Mike said to me, that's the way the Cubs have been closed out of losses in recent weeks and it's about time they did the same to an opponent.

I wouldn't be opposed to using Remlinger permanently as closer instead of Hawkins. So what if he's lefthanded? Other lefties (Billy Wagner, Eddie Guardado, though he's hurt right now, and in past years, John Franco and Randy Myers) have been successful closers. It wouldn't hurt at all to put Hawkins back in the role where he's most successful -- setup -- and let Remlinger close until Joe Borowski is back, which based on the simulated game he threw the other day, may not be too far off.

Howard's in Boston tonight, and the gates opened before Jimmy John's does, so I decided to buy a Wrigley Field hot dog and use their tomato piece for the reinstated Tomato Inning. Mike chose the piece and held my scorecard while I dropped it, and -- well, suffice to say that the Cubs won today. It landed on the seventh inning, a 1-2-3 inning. We'll take the win, thankyouverymuch.

Tomorrow is a critical game in re-establishing this starting rotation as the one we thought we were getting before the season started. If Mark Prior can dominate the way Wood did today, I think that could start a long winning streak. The Dodgers will counter with Jose Lima, who's on about his fourth resurrection and is 11-3, but with a 3.89 ERA, and this is just the guy for Sammy Sosa to resurrect himself -- Sosa is 13-for-34 with seven home runs lifetime against Lima.

Today, they were selling limited edition Greg Maddux photoballs, limited to 300, so I went down to find some -- got the last two, one for me and one for Mike. They're not numbered, but they're attractive baseballs anyway, and one day I'll hope to get Greg to sign mine. Tomorrow before the game, the Cubs will honor Maddux with a ceremony commemorating his 300th win. We all agreed if it were up to him, he probably wouldn't even show up, he's that modest.

Finally, Jeff and I got into a disagreement on whether the Cubs will be able to re-sign Nomar Garciaparra. I say yes, Jeff says no. After a couple of really nice picks on grounders today, particularly starting a 6-4-3 DP in the sixth inning, I said, "Can we have the contract ready for him when he gets back to the clubhouse?"

I figure they can pay for it with the proceeds from all the Nomar T-shirts and jerseys they have sold in the last two weeks.

NOTE: To all of you who tried to read this blog between about 11 am CT and 5 pm CT today, there was a configuration error made by my web hosting service. It's been fixed. Apologies!

:: posted by Al at 4:35 PM [+] ::
...

Catching Up

Mike decided to take today off work and come to the game -- for one thing, it was at the time he made this choice, a possible Maddux 300th win start. About the middle of the 9th inning, I asked him, "You glad you took the day off?"

Howard returned today with sandwiches in hand, though arriving late, we both decided that the Tomato Inning would get the day off. Wouldn't have mattered, probably, anyway. Howard is off to New England with his family on vacation tomorrow, which will include a stop at Fenway Park for Saturday's Sox/Sox game, and so I'll bring the sandwiches myself over the weekend.

Jeff and Krista just got back into town this morning, returned the rental car they drove across country and promptly got a flat tire on their own car on the way down the Kennedy Expressway to the ballpark. Luckily, the car is new and still under warranty, so once they got it into the dealer, the tire should be fixed for free, and Jeff made it to the game without having been home yet.

None of them made it to the ballpark for a while after gate-opening, so I spent my time perusing the current issue of Sports Illustrated, which is a college football preview. Frankly, I'm not all that interested in college football, but it passed the time in the sunshine, and then I read Consumer Reports, which has a long article on how to protect yourself against computer spam and viruses. I have a few tricks, but reveal them here? Uh-uh! No way!

As it turned out, we all should not have bothered. The Cubs kept it close for eight innings and then looked as bad as they have all year at home, with the possible exception of Opening Day, and gave up six runs in an ugly, ugly ninth inning, and the Dodgers won easily 8-1. The only solace that I can take from this is, that after that amazingly bad Opening Day loss (also pitched by Greg Maddux), the Cubs won six in a row.

It got so bad that Eric Gagne, who was warming up with the score 2-1, sat down again and the bottom of the ninth was pitched by somebody with the unlikely name of Yhency Brazoban (and that's the way it's spelled on the scorecard and on his shirt).

After three really rotten, drizzly, rainy, cold days, today started the same way, and I wore three layers (jacket, sweatshirt, T-shirt) to the ballpark. By the time the gates opened at 12:20, the sun was breaking through and only the T-shirt was needed for the rest of the afternoon. It was still nearly 20 degrees below normal -- 65 at game time -- and the wind was listed in the boxscore as 9 MPH. Wrong. It was blowing in fairly hard, something that robbed a couple of players, notably Sammy Sosa in the fifth with two men on, of home runs. This, even though balls were flying out pretty good during batting practice.

Good defense by Corey Patterson -- and credit where credit is due -- kept the game close. In the seventh he pulled off a DP nearly identical to yesterday's, throwing a strike to the plate after snaring a line drive by Cub-killer Steve Finley (who had three RBI just to spite us anyway), and in the eighth he ended the inning throwing out Adrian Beltre trying to advance to third after a medium-deep fly ball. You know, maybe, just maybe, Corey is finally beginning to blossom. Today was his 25th birthday, and I think at that age you can officially no longer be called a "prospect" (for perspective, consider that David Kelton is only four months younger than Patterson). If it's happening now, it's not a moment too soon. Corey also drew yet another walk today.

This game was winnable until Glendon Rusch came in to start the ninth. To be fair, one of the batters he faced hit a Bartman-like ball to Moises Alou; predictably, perhaps, Alou dropped it for an error, and after a walk, Kyle Farnsworth came in and made a ridiculous throw to the plate with the bases loaded, that wound up being charged as an error to Michael Barrett. By then the game was way out of hand, so much so that a pinch runner, Jose Hernandez, came up to bat after scoring a run in the pinch-running capacity.

Other good things that happened in this fiasco: Greg Maddux settled down after a shaky first inning and threw really well into the seventh; in fact, there was only one hard-hit ball off him all day, a Cesar Izturis double. The other five hits were dinky little singles, but with the lack of offense (and in fairness, Odalis Perez is a pretty good pitcher, and the Cubs rarely hit him well), it would have been enough even without the 6-run LA explosion in the ninth inning.

There are rumors that if the White Sox fall further out of the race, Jose Valentin might become available, and with the thought that Todd Hollandsworth is out for the year (which I fear he is), this would be a good pickup. Valentin can play several positions (OK, none of them very well, but you get the idea), is a good left-handed bat, and would be insurance for the Cubs just in case they cannot retain Nomar.

LaTroy Hawkins began his three-game suspension today, and let's hope we actually need a closer the next two days, or maybe not -- how about a couple of blowouts? Meanwhile, no decision was made on Kerry Wood's appeal, so he will start tomorrow. I wonder if after that, it'd be too late to drop the appeal and start serving the suspension on Sunday, which would mean, as it did for Carlos Zambrano, he wouldn't miss a start.

Still and all, the Cubs can be no worse-off than a wild-card tie after tonight's action.

Keep the faith, all. This one still only counts as one loss.

Finally, Jeff & I both spotted a woman wearing a T-shirt, just as the game was about ending and she was leaving, reading as follows:

Alex G. Is Gone
I'm 30
What Now?

(and on the back)

GO CUBS

:: posted by Al at 6:45 PM [+] ::
...

Where Do I Begin?

OK, how about here:

It was cold, and it was wet, and there were 78 minutes of rain delays, and the Cubs lost to the Padres 5-4 in 11 innings today.

That's it! Bye! See you tomorrow!

[sigh]

Seriously, that's about all I want to remember about today's fiasco, but there's more to tell, so sit a while, because eventually it'll all come pouring out of me.

First of all, Jon and I were the only ones there today (other than Jon's friend Dave, who he said was just a FOAF he had met the other day) -- reminiscent of days Jon and I spent together on our bench back in the early '90s when he was a college student and used to come out there every day just like I did, and do now.

And he figured it out.

What, exactly, did he figure out? Why, the answer to this rotten, rainy weather.

THE WHITE SOX ARE IN TOWN!

I think he's hit the nail on the head. While up to now the Cubs have had no rainouts, generally warm and pleasant weather, when the Sox have been in town it's been cold, and they have had three rainouts, one of which (an interleague game against the Phillies) they have to squeeze in on an off-day later this month. And it's no coincidence, I think, that the most torrential downpours of the entire season at Wrigley Field were at the Cubs/Sox game on July 3, the one that had four rain delays and was finaly called in the sixth inning.

The same schedule-makers who scheduled the Cubs and Cardinals to not play after July 20, and who scheduled the Cubs and Brewers to play 63 times in six weeks (it only seems like that many; really only 17), in their infinite wisdom had the White Sox playing home-and-home series with Kansas City, last week and this week -- only last week, when the Cubs were out of town, so were the Sox, and both teams here in Chicago this week. Insanity.

So it's no surprise, really, that when the Sox happen to be in town head-to-head with the Cubs (all three days -- two night games and a day game, all at the same starting times), that we had the coldest August high temperatures in over 100 years. Today, it was 60 at game time, and rainshowers kept sprinkling down, not hard enough to stop play, just hard enough to make me cover the scorecard with a plastic sheet, and at one point I said to Jon, "This is stupid. Either rain or don't!"

Careful what you wish for. It started raining hard in the third, though by the time the field was covered it let up, and the delay was about 35 minutes. A similar little shower moved through, with a 43-minute delay in the 7th, and it was then that I finally got the weather radar cranked up on the cellphone, and figured out what these were -- lake-effect rainshowers.

OK, so I'm a weather geek, but here's the short explanation. In winter, you can get lake-effect snowshowers off the Great Lakes, Michigan being no exception, when the air gets really cold, and the water's warmer than the air, and the wind's blowing the right way.

Today was a weird late-summer occurrence similar to that. At this time of year the water temperature of Lake Michigan is in the 70's. With the air temp of only 60, as soon as the wind shifted from northwest (gametime) to northeast... boom! Rain!

OK, weather lesson over. I have a feeling that's more interesting than the game, too.

There are a couple of bottom lines on today's game, the first being that Cubs pitchers gave the Padres TEN walks, and even so they managed to wiggle out of most of the jams -- San Diego left eighteen men on base, and that would have been more if the Cubs hadn't turned two neat double plays, one on an absolutely fabulous throw, perhaps the best of his career, by Corey Patterson after snaring a line drive by Ryan Klesko on the run, and gunning down He Of The Blond Hair (Khalil Greene, for the rest of you) at the plate.

The second is the fact that veteran Cub-hating umpire Bruce Froemming blew a call at second base on what should have at least been a forceout. Sure, Nomar Garciaparra threw the ball halfway to Fenway Park on the relay, but the result should have been a runner on second and one out, rather than a run in, the same runner on second and nobody out -- this led directly to two San Diego runs, unfortunately earned off hard-luck Jon Leicester, who deserved better.

Amazingly enough, Froemming admitted after the game that he missed it:

You don't like it to happen. On the field I had him coming across the bag, I came in here and looked at the replay. I wanted to know if I had it right. I did not have it right. You don't like to miss them. But I mean I looked at the replay and it's clear that he got the bag.

Yeah, thanks a lot, Bruce. What's done is done, and while this play didn't directly cost the Cubs the game, it sure didn't help matters any.

Still and all, Nomar could have been the hero, as he gave the Cubs a 4-3 lead on his first Wrigley Field homer in the seventh, but our non-autographing pitcher, Dr. Tightpants, gave it ight back in the 8th -- though to be fair, the tying SD run came in after he had left the game in favor of Mike Remlinger.

After the Cubs scored in the first, I said to Jon, "They're telling Matt Clement in the dugout, 'There's your run, and if you want any more, drive them in yourself!'"

Guess Clement heard he, because he hit a sacrifice fly in the second, his second RBI of the season, and this might have been enough if he could have stopped walking people -- five walks and 98 pitches in five innings isn't my idea of winning baseball, even though he allowed no runs. With the wet conditions, Aramis Ramirez was lifted after the fourth, which I agreed with, but that left the bench short -- again, with twelve pitchers, this forced Dusty to let Clement bat for himself in the fifth, knowing he was coming out of the game anyway. It also forced Paul Bako into the game in the seventh in a double-switch, and Bako really, really, really, REALLY can't hit.

Other player news of note: we got several other people yelling, "Corey, you suck!" at him (as a motivational tool, of course!) and it worked -- he drew two walks and had three hits, but Sammy Sosa looked perhaps worse than ever, striking out four times and getting booed (no, that's not "ALOOOOOUUUUU", Sammy, those are BOOOOOOS), and at a certain point, I think Dusty's just going to have to TELL him he's batting sixth. If Todd Hollandsworth were healthy, I'd bet Sammy would be getting a day off tomorrow. Maybe he'll get one anyway.

We didn't get anything from the tomato inning today either -- the sixth. Jon brought me my sandwich today, having called me just before the gates opened and offering to do it, and we agreed that maybe the trick is that Howard has to bring the sandwich, which he'll do tomorrow. If there's Tomato Failure tomorrow again, Jon and I decided that, just as ballplayers need a day off every now and then, the tomato inning will be rested on Saturday.

And with that, I bid goodnight. The Cubs still maintain a one-game wild card lead, with forty-eight games remaining, only six of which (the three this weekend, and the last three of the season against Atlanta) are against teams who currently have winning records.

Faith and hope.

:: posted by Al at 9:56 PM [+] ::
...

Meet The Team, Have A Ball

That's the Cubs' title for today's Cubs Care event at the ballpark, where for a donation to Cubs Care, 300 of us were allowed into Wrigley Field at 3:00, given a baseball, and got signatures on it from the entire team, then given a disposable camera and permitted to gallivant on the outfield grass for half an hour.

There's more I'll tell you about this, but first I must mention an incident that is perhaps the most bizarre thing I've ever had happen to me in the bleachers.

There were only five of us in attendance in our group today -- me, Mark, Mike, Brian and Carole. I had held the second bench just in case anyone else that I hadn't heard from showed up, and I had my umbrella stretched across the seats. I was just about to give the seats up when a guy behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said, "I'll give you $100 for the umbrella seats."

I had to look at him to see if he was serious, and when I figured he was, I said, "Deal!" and pocketed the $100, and then the guy's friends left to sit somewhere else! We all examined the bill, and it had the security strip and the watermark of a legit bill... so, that beats by $80 Al's "Found Money" record for this season, set earlier this year when I found a $20 while looking for extra scratch-off cards. Tonight was another scratch-off, this time for a Rick Sutcliffe 1984 jersey. I assigned Mark to check the 17 cards we found discarded, since Jeff is still on his way back from California, but we had no winners in the second-chance drawings.

Anyway, the "seat sale", plus the fun time we had at the ball-signing event, gave tonight's tomato inning (the 8th, a 1-2-3 inning) the night off, as the Cubs had tonight's 5-1 win over the Padres well in hand by then, and we didn't need any tomato power.

This is the second year the Cubs have had the ball-signing event as their charity "outing" of the summer -- I was unable to get tickets last year, but Mike managed to score four of them for this year's affair, so he, Mark and I, along with Mike's boss' son Colin, arrived around 2:30 for the 3:00 event. We were ushered in, given one baseball each, and found the players and coaches seated underneath the upper deck, spread out along several sections, and in assembly-line fashion we moved through the line in about twenty minutes. There wasn't enough time to really have any conversations with anyone, though I did tell Dusty Baker, "Bring us home this year," to which he smiled, congratulated Greg Maddux for his 300th win (he was, as you might expect, very modest and almost shy about it), and told Nomar Garciaparra, "We are SO glad you are here!", which brought a big grin to his face. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen Nomar NOT smiling, which, to me, is something this club badly needed. He didn't have any hits tonight, but made a couple of sweet-looking acrobatic plays in the field, including a nice one for the last out.

All the players seemed polite and nice during the signing, though Jose Macias, Aramis Ramirez and Ramon Martinez spent the time as we were passing them by, yakking away in Spanish among themselves.

And there were only two players who didn't sign -- today's starting pitcher, Carlos Zambrano, and that's understandable, as a starter doesn't need additional distractions on his day to throw...

and Dr. Tightpants.

The last man in the line was, of all people, Vince Coleman, who's just been brought to Chicago to help the club with its baserunning. Apparently he's already had an effect on Sammy Sosa, because Sammy hit an all-out-hustle double in the sixth, then advanced on consecutive fly balls to score the fifth run.

Anyway, after the ball signing we went on the field for about half an hour, taking some photos at the outfield wall (I had to stop Mark from running into the wall. Why was he doing this? "I want to see if it hurts to do it." OK, he's eight.), and I'll post some when I get them back. There was an off-and-on drizzle through much of this event, and afterwards they served hot dogs and drinks, and we sat in the RF stands till about 4:20 when they moved everyone out to wait for gate-opening. As soon as we got to the car, incidentally, and pulled the umbrella out, that was the end of any precipitation for the night.

During this time Joe Borowski was first throwing on flat ground, then on the bullpen mound, and then he moved onto the pitcher's mound and we watched him throw a simulated -- well, I guess it was at least an inning, maybe more. He looked like he was airing it out pretty good, and usually when you're at this point, a rehab assignment isn't too far away. I'd expect, based on what I saw today, that he could easily be ready to return by September 1, which would give the club more options for [whispering here] the postseason roster.

And based on today's game, the Cubs may be riding the arms of Z and Maddux into the playoffs.

Z had six days off due to the off day Monday and serving his suspension, and he came out strong, allowing only four hits through the first six innings and he'd have had a chance at a shutout if he hadn't wild-pitched in Mark Loretta with the Padres' only run. He had a very high pitch count -- 86 through five innings -- but blew through the lineup easily in the sixth and seventh, and in order to give the bullpen a rest Dusty allowed Z to pitch the eighth, and his 124 pitches didn't seem like too many given the fact that he had six days off. And, in addition to pitching well, he also had a groundout that moved up a runner and an RBI single. I was a little puzzled at Dusty's use of LaTroy Hawkins in a non-save situation, but as Dave has pointed out to me before, sometimes pitchers ask for the work, and that may have been what happened in this case. Since Hawkins got the inning done in an efficient 10 pitches, he'll be available tomorrow if needed.

Meanwhile, the Cub offense discovered that it was OK to have baserunners without hitting solo homers; Michael Barrett hit two doubles and scored twice, the first on Corey Patterson's homer over our heads and later on Z's single. I expected more than one home run tonight, considering that the wind was blowing right in our faces at 13 MPH and balls were flying out during BP. Mark dove at one BP ball hit by Todd Walker and got his very first BP home run ball.

It was unseasonably cold tonight again -- 59 degrees at game time is probably the coldest temperature I've ever seen at the ballpark in August, and it felt more like an April day. And this year, that's backwards again. We had June weather in April, we had August in May, and now we're having April in August. I'll just consider 59 degrees and windy weather, good training for October.

One of the security guards came up and asked me if I'd heard anything about the suspension hearings held today for Kerry Wood and Hawkins and I hadn't, though they did say that both players were at the ballpark by noon for the hearings (I suppose, done by conference call), and both were at the ball-signing event by 3:00. If Wood's suspension isn't reduced, the club may try adjusting the rotation with the off-day next week, just as they did for Z.

As Mike said to me near the end of the game, "Win tomorrow and all is forgiven." Indeed. Taking two of three from the club which currently is your nearest rival for a playoff spot, is all you can really ask, and including tomorrow the Cubs have only seven games remaining against teams currently over .500 (that'd be the four left in this homestand, and the last three games of the season against Atlanta).

And maybe tomorrow the Cubs will pretend Matt Clement isn't on the mound, so they can score more than one or two runs!

:: posted by Al at 10:20 PM [+] ::
...

I Came Back From San Francisco For THIS??

It was a nice evening... for NOVEMBER!

I had no idea that the plane today would bring back a heap of San Francisco weather with it. After a week's worth of mostly sunny days and only a little bit of the famous San Francisco damp fog and wind, we got back at 2:30 this afternoon, and I thought today would be lucky, because:

* our plane landed early and they didn't make us wait in the "penalty box", we went right to the gate;

* our bags were the first ones off our flight at baggage claim;

* there was absolutely no traffic on the Kennedy Expressway, and at 2:30 on a weekday afternoon, that's almost unheard-of.

Seeing the cloudy weather, I dressed in three layers tonight and was still cold; the game-time temperature was announced as 65 degrees but with a wind howling right at us, it felt a lot colder. Like playoff weather, actually, and we thought that was another good omen.

Nope.

The Cubs lost to the Padres tonight 8-6, and one thing is really, really clear.

Hitting five solo homers, and getting a run on a walk, a bobble and a bloopy single, is NOT my idea, or anyone else's for that matter, of a playoff-caliber offense.

More on this in a moment.

Despite the rotten weather, it was nice to be back in our own ballpark. I had a nice pre-game conversation with four guys who had driven in just for tonight's game from Dubuque, Iowa, and Andy, the one who I spoke with the most, seemed first bemused and then amazed when I told him what I do for a living and how many games I attend, then he asked me, "Do you post on the Cubs message board?"

No, I told him, but then gave him the address for this blog, and I figured I'd give him a thrill by mentioning him. Hi, Andy! Hope you guys enjoyed the game anyway, despite the result.

As Sue was also here with her brother, his wife and another friend, we played Home Run Derby, and amazingly enough, I got first pick, which has never, ever happened.

I picked Nomar. Nuff said. After the back-to-backers by Sammy Sosa (his 25th, and 564th of his career, putting him in sole possession of 8th place on the all-time list and giving him a shot at 40 homers this year -- and about 84 RBI) and Moises Alou in the second inning, Nomar ("King Nomar" in a sign that I saw in the first row of the bleachers tonight) hit his first as a Cub. Then Derrek Lee smacked one of his own, two outs later, in tonight's tomato inning. Incidentally, I had been used to dropping the tomato on the visitor's end of the scorecard -- the top portion -- for the last three days, and the first drop accidentally landed on the Padres half. So, a new tomato piece was called upon and landed squarely on the fourth inning.

Sure, this was lots of fun and got lots of cheers. But by then that made the score 4 to 8.

I'm beginning to wonder if something's physically wrong with Mark Prior, and if not, his head has got to be completely screwed up. He's had a couple of good starts, particularly the last one in Colorado, but tonight he just looked bad. It didn't help that he absolutely had Ryan Klesko struck out in the third inning, but the veteran Cub-hater, plate umpire Bruce Froemming, didn't agree, and that would have ended the inning after Prior made a nifty Maddux-like stab of a comebacker, to start a double play. In fact, the Padres produced the trick of scoring four runs in back-to-back innings, both of which had double plays, the second one a 1-2-3 job with the bases loaded.

After that, Glendon Rusch, who had relieved Prior, made his only mistake of the game, and Ramon Hernandez took advantage for San Diego's only homer of the night, a three-run job that just made it into the first row in right field. After that, Rusch and the rest of the bullpen allowed only two hits and a walk in six innings of work.

So -- is it injury? Or was Prior just pissed at the missed strike call? If it's the latter, then he needs to get his head screwed on straight again, just like Matt Clement had to after the missed Barry Bonds dropped foul popups, after which he totally lost his composure and command.

This, you'd think, would be a job for our pitching coach. Or Greg Maddux. Or somebody.

The Cubs did make it interesting in the ninth, after Lee's second homer of the night and a walk, Aramis Ramirez (who'd been given a needed day off) had a superb pinch-hit at-bat, and came within about ten feet of hitting a game-tying homer himself. That's still not the way to win games. The Cubs now have four players on pace to hit 30 homers, and three others (Patterson, Barrett and Walker) with a chance to hit 20.

It won't mean a darn thing unless some of the other players on this club (are you listening, Corey?) can draw walks or get singles or something. I still can't imagine how Dusty Baker can see a game like tonight, when his own pitchers sealed their doom by walking six batters, and not see the value in taking pitches, something Cub hitters simply don't do enough. Example: Tom Goodwin pinch-hits for Rusch in the seventh, the lead cut to 8-5, and swings at the first pitch from Scott Linebrink, a reliever the Cubs smacked around pretty good in San Diego in May, and lined out to right.

Excuse me? Anyone listening? Let's get some baserunners!!!

Despite the loss, the Cubs maintain a one-game lead over the Padres in the wild-card race, and all the other nearby contenders (the Giants, the Phillies, the Marlins) also lost tonight, and the Phillies have now lost Kevin Millwood for what appears to be an extended period of time.

Finally, it was 70's Night at the ballpark, a day when the Cubs rescind their "No Costumes" rule and encourage people to dress like idiots. I had to laugh at the guys who came in with Afros about four feet high. We speculated they must have had beer bottles hidden in there. Mike & I, meanwhile, pretty much dressed the way we did in the 70's -- jeans and sneakers. Some things, after all, are immutable.

:: posted by Al at 10:40 PM [+] ::
...

For Whatever It's Worth

Standings At Close of Play of August 9, 1969

NL East 
                     W    L   PCT    GB   
Chicago Cubs        72   42  .631     -  
New York Mets       61   48  .559   8.5   

Standings At Close of Play of August 9, 2004

NL Central
                     W    L   PCT    GB   
St. Louis Cardinals 72   38  .655     -
Chicago Cubs        61   50  .550  11.5

:: posted by Al at 10:51 PM [+] ::
...

Cosmic Things Are Happening... Again

SAN FRANCISCO -- This morning and early afternoon was tourist day with the family.

Yes, we had to do the cable car ride with the kids (they thought it was cool, riding up and down all the hills), though it was, of course, on the coldest and foggiest morning of the trip.

Then, we rode across the Golden Gate Bridge ("Cool!" again from the kids) and had lunch at Sam's Anchor Cafe in Tiburon, one of my favorite old spots from when my dad used to live in that part of the Bay Area back in the 80's.

But those things aren't cosmic.

This one is, and I have a few other off-day musings.

Before the season, Scott Lange of the Northside Lounge blog, polled many members of the Cubs Blog Army on a number of topics, for our predictions of what might happen during the 2004 season.

Among them was the question: When will Greg Maddux get his 300th win?

In writing about the 300th win the other day, I said:

... 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?

Scott e-mailed me today:

The answer is "all of us," sort of. I averaged all the entries in the CBA Prediction Contest back at the beginning of the year, just to see how our mean opinion did. Believe it or not, the group predicted August 7, on the nose, for Maddux's 11th win of the year and 300th of his career.

Like I said... cosmic things are happening. (I think he meant "mean" to signify "average", at least I hope so!)

I got a couple of other e-mails today regarding both last night's game and the wild-card race, and today seems like a good day to discuss those. First, Helen Simmims-McMillin, devoted Cub fan from southern California, wrote:

... the Padres and the Giants just aren't that good. I predicted that the Pads would win the West, and they still may after the Dodgers lost Brad Penny today with a strained bicep. But they needed outfield help, and since Finley and Walker went elsewhere, they're a bit weak. The Giants are just plain bad, and benefit from being in the same division as Arizona and Colorado. So I'm more worried about the Phillies and Florida, actually, as our Wild Card competition.

Good points, and let's take them one by one. First, Penny appears to not be as bad as it seemed last night, though he will miss his next start -- guess when? Friday against the Cubs. Kaz Ishii, who's been getting pounded around lately, is a possible replacement.

I'm not so sure about the Marlins and Phillies. Both of them have their weaknesses, and the Phillies finish the season with a four-game series at Miami, where they haven't won a game in about two centuries. Other than that they both play the Braves six times, and the Cubs will have their own chance to put Florida away when they play back-to-back weekends in September.

As far as the Giants and Padres are concerned, the fact that they are in the same division with Arizona and Colorado worries me, because the Rockies are bad and the Diamondbacks are ... well, they're putrid. However, SF and SD play each other six times and a split of those games would work wonders for the Cubs, and the Padres have the added bonus of having to face the Cardinals six times. Never thought I'd see the day when the Cardinals could help the Cubs out in a playoff race, but that's how it is in Wild-Card Land.

Dick Murphy wrote me today with a scathing indictment of this year's team which surprised me in its vehemence:

There's no leadership or energy. The "stars" are too selfish (Sosa and Alou) or too new (Ramirez, Lee, Nomar) to be true leaders. There's no kangaroo court because none of the big names care enough about the team to demand performance from others, and they don't set the tone themselves.

In his playing days, Dusty would have called Alou out in the clubhouse over that ridiculous double play (this is a 15-year vet who's 38!), but now Dusty's so concerned with being a player friendly manager that there's no woodshed to be taken to.

I wonder about Nomar. I think his energy has jump-started the entire team. Yes, they looked pretty stupid yesterday, and the worst play was the failure by Mercker to cover third base, and even so, if Mohr doesn't make the amazing catch, maybe the Cubs win anyway.

And I have to disagree on Dick's opinion of what Dusty did or didn't do in the clubhouse. One of his hallmarks is to talk to players privately, not letting it get into the press, and each and every man who's ever played for him will tell you that's one of the reasons they have such deep respect for the man. I'd imagine the entire team got an earful -- behind closed doors -- after last night's game.

The Cubs are 5-2 since the acquisition of Nomar and I do not think that's coincidental. They are coming home to play two good teams, but also teams they can beat, and in the case of the Padres, need to beat. This is a week that will show us the true heart, if indeed there is one, to the 2004 Cubs.

Let's hope it's there. Patience, faith and hope.

:: posted by Al at 5:23 PM [+] ::
...

Lessons In Defense

SAN FRANCISCO -- Can we all finally agree that Dr. Tightpants must go?

It wasn't all Kyle Farnsworth's fault, of course, but his throw that nearly went all the way to McCovey Cove on what should have been a routine sacrifice bunt, helped give the Giants the two insurance runs they needed, and the Giants took an ugly game from the Cubs 6-3, winning the season series 4-2.

Oh, but Kyle's bad throw wasn't the worst defensive play of the game. Maybe this will finally convince Dusty Baker (and other managers) that the exaggerated shift on Barry Bonds is just silly.

In fact, my son Mark asked me when Bonds batted in the first with a runner on second, why Aramis Ramirez wasn't shifted over. Of course, it's because you can't leave third base uncovered in that situation.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened in the seventh, after Kerry Wood had allowed a leadoff single, Kent Mercker came into the game and got Bonds to ground to second. Mark Grudzielanek thought for a moment about throwing to second, and, figuring he couldn't get Pedro Feliz, threw to first.

Where was Mercker? Where was Michael Barrett? I'm guessing they were staring at the upper reaches of SBC Park watching the fog roll in.

It was a pretty impressive day for watching that today, and by the end of the game, neither Mark nor I were properly dressed, both being in shorts, and I had my Wood jersey on, and that's it -- I'm not wearing it to games Wood starts any more, because he hasn't won yet this year when I've worn it.

Anyway, I've digressed. And so did Mercker and Barrett, because neither one of them covered third base on this routine play, with Ramirez stationed near second, and Feliz scampered around to third on the groundout, and eventually scored on a succeeding groundout from A.J. Pierzynski, which Derrek Lee had to catch on a real high hop, and then throw to Grudz covering.

Grrrrrrrrr.....

Meanwhile, the Giants' CF Dustan Mohr put on a fielding clinic. In the 8th (tonight's Tomato Inning, thankyouverymuch, providing the impetus for Ramon Martinez' triple), after a run had scored, Mohr made one of the best diving catches I've ever seen, right in front of us in left field, off a sinking liner by Moises Alou. If Mohr doesn't catch that, Nomar Garciaparra, who had reached on an error, would have scored the tying run and Alou would have at least been on second base. Then Mohr, having moved to RF, made a nice sliding catch to end the game in the ninth.

Speaking of LF, that's where we were today, in the bleachers, in the ninth row just behind Barry Bonds. And the bleachers there seem in some ways just like the ones at home -- populated with many regulars (a lot of them must be season ticket holders, because the tickets I bought off eBay for today, had "Season Ticketholder" printed on them), who seem to know each other, are knowledgeable and friendly, and root passionately for their team. Even better than home, there aren't a lot of drunks just hanging around. I've never had a bad experience watching a game in San Francisco, either at SBC or years ago when I saw several Cub/Giant games at 3Comdlestick Park (including the 1989 NLCS), and I told some of the Giant fans this as we were leaving. There was one guy in particular sitting behind me who was dissing anyone criticizing Barry Bonds, and despite the steroid controversy and the fact that Bonds is about as fan-friendly as an obstructed-view stadium seat, there is no arguing that he's the greatest player of his generation, and watching him play is indeed watching history.

I also ran into Marv, who's 79 years old and sits in the RCF bleachers at Wrigley Field near the concession stand; he flew out for the series with a few of his compatriots, who I never did wind up seeing. He said he was having a good time. Good for him!

One thing I wish I'd been a bit quicker about: there's a booth where a guy will make a custom-designed baseball for you. Sue had gone there and ordered a special one they were making today only, commemorating Greg Maddux' 300th win. By the time I got there, they said, "Sold out" -- he said he could only make so many a night.

More on this frustrating game in a minute; I want to digress with the rest of our day. We'd found an art fair/festival event in Burlingame, about 15 miles south on the Peninsula, so we hied the entire family down there. The kids enjoyed the slides and wall-climbing activities, and unlike so many of these street fairs, the food booths actually had decent food (one of the better Philly cheesesteaks I've ever had, believe it or not) and the prices weren't ridiculous. A fine time was had by all on a gorgeous sunny afternoon (well, at least it was sunny till the fog rolled in, which we could see hugging the western hills of San Francisco all afternoon, just waiting to pounce).

Kerry Wood had nothing tonight -- and struck out nobody for the first time in his career, covering 155 starts. Only one Giant struck out at all, pinch-hitter Marquis Grissom in the eighth, but by then, most of the damage had already been done. Wood got himself into trouble in the first, although it wasn't all his fault -- again, the Cubs' defense failed, with Ramirez missing a popup that fell just fair for an RBI single off the bat of Edgardo Alfonzo. Actually, considering how poor Wood's stuff was today, I give him a lot of credit for surviving into the seventh and throwing only 92 pitches, which is fairly efficient for him. I suppose the lack of strikeouts actually has something to do with the low pitch count. It'd have been better if the Cubs could have won the game, something predicted by the tomato piece today, which after bouncing off the 8th inning, actually landed on the tenth inning, predicting a possible extra-inning game, which might have happened if not for the extremely poor defense.

Gail, who's Jeff's friend Mark's wife (yeah, I know, clear as mud. I simply know too many people named Mark!) brought me a whole bagful of tomatoes from her garden in Gilroy, where they live south of San Jose. For a while some people were joking that I was going to throw them at Bonds -- I'd never do that. Not only is it not a nice thing to do, it'd have been a waste of some really tasty tomatoes!

[rimshot optional]

And, that was the tastiest food of the day -- I ate one after I got home, excellent home-grown tomatoes -- since I finally gave in and bought Mark a bag of cotton candy bigger than his head, and he's still bouncing off the walls this evening.

Finally, Sammy Sosa, who is 5-for-27 since the Cubs picked up Nomar Garciaparra (hmmm... superstar jealousy here?) looked particularly clueless tonight, striking out twice on really bad pitches and hitting into two double plays, although the second one wasn't his fault -- Moises Alou must have been in the Mercker/Barrett fog, because he was wandering between first and second base when Sosa hit a lazy line drive to Michael Tucker in right. I'd say Sammy needs a day off, but he's getting one tomorrow with the entire rest of the team, and they need it. Sue reported (as she was staying in the same hotel where the team stayed) that the club had checked out this morning. I found that odd -- that puts them on a redeye flight back home, probably arriving at 5 am or so, and even with a day off, I'd have thought they'd stay overnight, then leave in the morning.

Despite this tough series, relax. The Cubs maintained their two-game lead over the Padres (and now, the Giants, too), with San Diego losing to Pittsburgh today 4-2, and losing two of three to the Pirates over the weekend... and we'll all still be Pirates fans this week, as they'll host the Giants while the Padres visit Wrigley Field starting Tuesday. ESPN's pitching probables page lists Carlos Zambrano as the starter then, but with the off day, Z dropped his suspension appeal last week, served it starting the day after his last start on August 4, so Mark Prior starts on normal rest on Tuesday, and Z will start on Wednesday, followed by Matt Clement on Thursday, and then the rotation goes back in order.

One more note about yesterday's game: I got an e-mail from Eric Nehrlich, who lives here and was also at Greg Maddux' 300th win (and hadn't known that I was going to be there, or I'd surely have said hi to him), and who took some really cool pictures of this historic event. Thought I'd share with you another perspective. Thanks, Eric!

Faith and hope, everyone.

:: posted by Al at 11:20 PM [+] ::
...