(null)Created 5 Sep 2002 at 14:37 UTC by pedro, last modified 5 Sep 2002 at 14:41 UTC by pedro.
URL: http://www.mlb.com/Notes: It's baseball.
Love it.
Hate it.
Love-hate it.
The fans for the Duluth-Superior Dukes were quite possibly the greatest, most energetic fans in the Northern League Central -- they were also the smallest group of fans in the entire Northern League. And now, after ten years and four owners, the Duluth-Superior Dukes are no more.Shame on you, Duluth! Get a life, Superior! And make that life Baseball!
Duluth News-Tribune Article about the loss of the Dukes, ptui!
i know that you loved that team. but it kinda makes your hat even cooler. like having a tshirt of an indie band that broke up vs. having a tshirt of nsync.
Coming soon to a city near me.... Triple-A. (Yes, the name is from the Simpsons.) I really excited. I like baseball. I once heard some commentator quote somebody as saying- "Baseball is what we aspire to be, football is what we are" or something of that sort. Thought it was nice, though maybe not true. I am also a fan of baseball movies...
Ok, I know I'm a die-hard, blind-love kind of fan, but I'm really bitter that the Dukes are moving into a stadium/shopping center. Talk about selling out. I loved that team. Summers will no longer be the same.
Another real AAA team. For those of you who ever watched M*A*S*H*, I actually saw the Toledo Mudhens play this summer.
I've heard of ballparks, but this is ridiculous!Yeah... man. No more Dukes.
That sucks.
I don't even know what to say.
I guess I really need a Schaumburg Flyers hat now, or something. It's just not the same though. That town is loaded and they have a fancy ballpark and the people watch baseball like it's golf or something. What am I supposed to do?
Twins win Game 1. 2-1
i have to admit that i know no one on the team anymore but, damn that would kick so much ass if the twins went all the ways. GO TWINS!!!
go cubs. rah rah rah and all that jazz...
i wish i could get into baseball.
Go Toledo Mudhens...they moved their stadium into downtown, in a real seedy portion, with all the porn stores and strip clubs, trying to clean up the area... Now prostitution in the area is way up, and baseball game attendance is way down...
Toledo = the mold by which all cities should be built.
Okay, to continue my tangent of crummy cities, I'm in sort of a bad neighborhood right now, at the library, and there are hookers out, 11 in the morning, plain as day...ick ick ick...
bleah.
Wilfareline = Cprl. Klinger?
I'm really looking forwards to this baseball season. There's something about this time of winter that makes the words "spring training" seem like some divine ray of hope. Maybe it's the fact that when spring training is over, it will actually be spring in the midwest. Anywho, this season holds some promise for a fan like me. See, I'm a Cleveland Indians fan, and for the first two decades of my life the Indians couldn't win for squat. They had the longest streak of futility in baseball, including some of the all-time bad seasons. Every year I honestly believed that the Tribe had put all the pieces together and that this year (i.e.whatever year it happened to be) would be the one. Eventually, in the mid 90's, that sort of happened. The Tribe had a great streak of division titles and two appearences in the World Series (both of them heart breaking- especially 97). Anywho, they're back to re-building. The team will suck this year, and suck badly. The good part is- we've got all these great young guys on the team- some of the best prospects in baseball. Some experts say the Indians have the best farm system in the sport. It feels like we're a suck team on the verge of greatness again. It should be fun. My only job now is to clean up the back yard enough so I can relax in April and May in a lawn chair with a beer or a glass of lemonade and listen to some games on the radio.
I'd love to join you.
Sorry Homer, but they are indeed out of Springfield.
today is opening day. These are the 5 things I predict will happen this year:1.) Grand Moff Selig will deliver a speech where his suspenders snap off with a "boing" and his pants falls down.
2.) I will drink Old Style at Wrigley and enjoy it.
3.) The Kansas City Royals will be replaced with an all Japanese roster in mid-May.
4.) The Yokohama Baystars will be replaced with an all Kansas City roster in mid-may.
5.) Cracker Jack prizes will continue their downward spiral.
The fascinating thing about baseball is that teams can have momentum, or not have momentum. And depending on the momentum, good players can hit poorly and average players can hit like Ted Williams.Examples are the White Sox opener and the Cubs opener. The Cubs, whose offense is traditionally powered by Sosa and pretty much only Sosa gathered momentum early, and all of the sudden the average player is a superstar. Like Matt Gudzielwhatever, and Corey Patterson (a .250 hitter), who had 2 homers and 7 RBIs.
But the White Sox, who've assembled a huge offensive force, managed only 3 total hits against KC, who last year were a sub-500 team.
Opening day is traditionally not a great gauge of the rest of the season (the Angels, who won only 6 of their first 20 last year). But I just hate it when the Cubs win and the Sox lose!
I have an extra ticket for Friday's home opener at COMISKEY if anyone wants to go.
I would totally be there, but I'm going to be up in Wisco putting in a LAN at my hometown church.
I just LOVE it when the sox lose and the cubs win, it's great to see them get the shaft for selling out to the USCellular man! Hah! Sell your soul to the devil and your bound to get burned! I'll take good ol wrigley any day. Besides Wrigley was built by good hard working Swedes, and I support that too. I don't support the Tribune company, but that's my only drawback right now. If only Wrigley had never sold them, but if wishes were horses... Actually the game I'm most looking forward to this summer is the Kane County Cougars game I'm going to with work, good times, and it doesn't hurt I don't have to pay for the game or the beer. But in the end we all know that neither the Sox or the Cubs are going to do crap this year, because there's always next year...
I know, the name totally sucks. and the kicker is that the funds from the deal are supposed to go towards "stadium improvements". The stadium is only 10 friggin years old.my problem with wrigley is that every time i go i end up sitting behind a huge iron post, and in front of some dude who's so drunk i'm constantly worried he's going to throw up down my neck. whereas at Comiskey you get a whole section to yourself. that could actually be a main reason i'm a sox fan - i like to see baseball, and value my personal space. i even grew up a cubs fan.
It's easy to get caught up in Cubs v. Sox. I prefer the Sox and want them to beat the Cubs because if they don't, I have to pay for a trip to NYC for me and my girlfriend. The bet is, which team has the better record. I got a nice dinner at Arun last year, and the best part was when the check came and I didn't have to pay!
but whatever, i enjoy the game no matter where it's played.
Baseball is just a great game to watch and that's what matters, but I hate comiskey because I've only sat in the upper deck and it's like hitchcock's vertigo for 3 hours, not fun. The fans at Wrigley aren't the best because most are there to be seen and drink too much, but I feel it's a more intimate setting in which to watch a game, you feel closer to the action. Ever been to a Kane County Cougars game though? They're pretty entertaining. How was Arun's? I've heard the food is amazing, but alas have never had the cash to shell out for it.
And you're ALL INVITED! GO NORTHERN LEAGUE! DOWN WITH THE T-BONES!Ok, that's not very nice. But I'm bitter.
I hate the T-bones, too...for some reason. We ought to see if we can get a Nerth Pork neighborhood minor league baseball team in the Northern League. We'll insist that "yes, we have a stadium built" and "yes, it holds 15,000 people". When the commissioner of the league asks to see the stadium we'll just say "it's being fitted for a JumboTron". Of course, the team will have to consist of Diner people and we can only play road games.Go Tribe/Cubs/not-T-Bones!
Arun was incredible. i couldn't afford to make a habit of going there, but every chicagoan who likes thai should make it at least once per lifetime.regarding '97 tribe...i still believe mesa was paid off to throw in the dirt. omar vizquel does too.
Jose Mesa is one of my sworn enemies. I don't have very many, John Elway, Jose Mesa, John Rocker, Eminem, the WWE, reality television, and just two hundred or so private citizens.Anywho, I fell silent after that single went up the middle in the bottom of the 9th in that 7th game. Silent for about a week. Well, a few hours. anywho, once again my devotion to Cleveland sports left me utterly broken hearted. Omar is right. I hope Omar and Jose get to face each other on more time. I hope Jose throws at Omar, and I hope Omar charges the mound with his bat and beats Jose stupid(er).
Anywho, the Tribe in '05 baby.
John Elway is a god among men and there is no denying it.
I was at the second game ever played at u.s. cellular field, and that was my favorite ball game ever because it was the only that i left without my shoes reeking of spilled beer. That includes all the cubs games that i've been too, and all the sox games that i'd been to at the old field. So there. now you know where my priorities lie. Beer.
And I have to agree with Lukas, John Elway is a sports god. And I prefer to come home smelling like beer from a baseball game, lets you know who really won, you.
Back in '84...My dad taped the division clinching game and all of the postgame festivities. I used to watch that tape all the time when i was little. One day, I was watching it in the early afternoon, standing by the rewind button to replay Sutcliffe getting the final out, when i accidently pressed record. We still have the tape, though i havent seen it in years, but during Sutcliffe's stretch on the final pitch, the tape cuts to about 3 seconds of Fat Albert, and then back again to the game with everybody jumping up and down, charging the mound. Now the tape has two glorious retro flashbacks instead of one.
I was still logged into anonymous poster. ahem.
is a jerk. One time I was at the circus and he was in the row in front of us, and a nastier person you have never seen, just with the way he treated everyone around us. I think another time my mom ran into him and asked for his autograph (she had a crush on him and always referred to him as a "hunk"--yargh), and he was really rude to her. Plus, he looks like a horse. Coming from Denver, I hate the sort of demi-god status he has been elevated to. John Elway vehicle dealerships, John Elway night at bars, I'm surprised they haven't named one of the Rockies frickin' Elway Mountain. He's just another guy, and a hoss (or should I say "horse"--HAAA!) one at that. Not saying anything about his professional talent, which I wouldn't know about.
John Elway is a horseface weiner. I mean, look at the way he tormented my childhood/adolescence! I wish Bernie Kosar came to this diner. He'd agree with me.To return to the topic of baseball, I love listening to baseball at work. It makes afternoons...what's the opposite of boring? Exciting? No, not that far from boring. Less boring. Yeah, less boring.
I wish I had a dawg and a beer. -and one of those frozen lemonade cups.
Comisky Park apparently bears the curse of the guys-who-are-incapable-of-making-wise-decisions. What the heck was that about last night? Four people ran onto the field last night, one of them attacking the first base Ump. -you'll be glad to know that it looks like the Ump got the best of the fight-Remember last year when Cleatus and son rushed the Royals first base coach at Comisky and started punching and kicking him? What is this crap?!!
People rail on Wrigley fans for being drunks. fine., but it's attendees at Sox games that get drunk and violent towards people on the field. You know what I say, it takes a real man to hit a guy when his back is turned and he's doing his job.
well, a few of us are going to the game tonight and have really great seats. so, i for one am really stoked! is anyone going to watch the game tonight? if so, could someone tape the game for me?
We might actually be on THE TEEVEE!
YAAAA!
one week to go and the subs are still in it. By all rights they should have swept the pirates (arrr) and been sitting in first place today. Not that anyone in the NL has a chance of getting by the braves...but stillgo cubs!
I can't wait to see if we make the playoffs, and hey we're closing in on the wild card too, bonus! I just found out that I have tickets to the last game at Wrigley on the 28, and boy am I excited! The first game I get to this year is also the last game of the season, and it's a game that might actually mean something!
i am not a sports fan by any definition, however i was bored yesterday and watched most of the cubs game on tv.
pedro, the cubs weer acutally in cincy last night but apparently there were way more cubs fans than reds fans. And the reds are a rag tag bunch of strokes but zambrano collapsed and the cubs couldn't rally in the last three innings. they play a 2:20 game against the pirates at wrigley field. The last three games are really do-or-die for the cubs because florida pretty much has the wild card locked up. so it comes down to three home games against pittsburgh with the astros having three games at home against the brewers. things could get crazy in wrigleyville this weekend.
especially with a day/night doubleheader on Saturday. The second day/night doubleheader in a week against the Triple-A Pittsburgh Pirates, who apparently found the obscure baseball tradition that states "rookies who get a shot should make the best of it." (See OF Jason Bay, 8 RBI in 1 game last Pirate doubleheader. Jason, meet Mr. Prior. He has a mean curve and a hideous fastball he'd like you to not see . . .)It's nail-biting time! But it's weird to still be in it on the last days of the season. I haven't had this feeling since 1989 and even then the Cubs clinched the NL East with like four games to go . . .
RED SOX
TWINS
CUBS?
all in the playoffs? man. what a sept we've had.
double header tomarrow. houston lost today. so, if the cubs can win both tomarrow we will be in good shape. but, if not and we tie with houston this weekend we have a wild card tie breaker monday day! oh, the drama. it's killing me. i'm working sunday and monday. i can't wait to celebrate or have to deal with all the anger fans if they lose.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1624378.My favorite Cub, ever, retires.
I will assemble my crack SF A team of Chicago veterans and Marines to ensure a spectacular rescue of dogmanphil from being trapped in Goose Island Wrigleyville, and return him to Jen safely intact . . .In other news, CUBS WIN!!! CUBS WIN!!! CUBS WIN!!!
Bring on the Braves, ya tomahawk-choppin', Jane Fonda-likin', Coke-drinkin' weenies!
i f'n hatre the braves! almost as much as the yankees. it's funny. i'm not a huge baseball fan but, i love the twins, red sox, and the cubs, and really really hate the yankees and the braves, other than that i don't really care about baseball. so, to have the cubs play the braves and the twins play the yankees, i'm goin' crazy.
all your baseball planets have really lined up! Actually, I think that demographic is fairly true for a lot of people in chicago, since there are so many minnesotans here, the twins have a certain amount of popularity in the city. And of course there are the CUBS (cubs win!) -- and that means that we hate the yankees, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so we share a special bond with the red sox. I'm not sure how to tie in the braves. One of my favorite baseball hats ever was a braves hat, but I lost it.
is a World Series BREWERS team! Hah!
however watching Santo get his number retired was fricken awesome! It couldn't happen to a better guy. I was very glad to be there, but watching the 4th string players in a slow game with the Pirates was not too exciting, I'm kind of sorry they had already clinched before I got to a game, oh well, I'm still hoping for playoff tickets from the friends that took us yesterday, probably won't happen, but it would kick booty.
How much fun is a playoff anything in Chicago? (unless it involves the White Sox) What is great here is that the Cubs, the city's most beloved, yet most under-performing child is really in a great place. I just like saying things to neighbors and gas station attendants like "go cubbies" and "see the game?". It's fun.
It's one each for the series.
the cubs play a 3pm game in wrigley on sat.
So, did anyone notice how far out of the strike zone the pitch was that DeRosa drove for the game winning double last night? It was a fine pitch, but an excellent hit. The Cubs, with the exceptions of Simon and Lofton, are not good bad ball hitters. It would be nice to cheat a couple of good hits out of a game, especially with two outs. Oh well. Back to Chicago.
Does that mean 10:00 and $5 still stands?
story
The best way to get Simon out is to actually throw him meat pitches, but he hits enough of those to make calling pitch selection at his at-bats a nightmare. I'd hate to be the catcher and the pitcher,knowing that all the angles get taken away . . .
i haven't been following especially closely, so i don't know whether the twins still have any chance of going to the world series. but anyway, i was pondering the possibility earlier today of cubs vs. twins. assuming that he would somehow reconstitute himself from the pieces, i think it would be amusing to see phil explode.
the article on the bookmakers 'sweating' the Cubs' imminent victory is pretty funny for the following reasons:1) we all know that they haven't won in forever. it's kind of an old joke. which means...
2) with odds of 40-1 and even 50-1 against the Cubs over the years, the bookmakers have made a killing taking people's bets on the Cubbies.
3) so we're supposed to feel sorry for the bookmakers? this 'fluke' of a season is somehow putting them back?
4) the way the people are quoted in the article makes it sound like the House is going to be losing a bundle if the Cubs take it all the way. this is totally inaccurate. they make plenty of money on all the other bets against the Cubs to profit after paying out if Our Boys do take the title. not only that, they have the power to change the odds to their favor. and they employ people to do exactly that - figure out how the odds will be in their favor. if they somehow thought that long odds on the Cubs was a good idea because they haven't won, then somebody isn't doing their job in the statistics and probability department, and should be fired.
anyway, it's a funny article.
CUBS WIN!!!Cubs lead Atlanta 2 games to 1.
The Cubs lost today. Game 5 is tomorrow in Atlanta. Nothing like keeping us all on the edge of our seat.
:<
CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN!
They have been saying the first postseason series win since 1908 -- but the Cubs were in the World Series in 1945 -- the difference is that the postseason series' as we know them (NLDS, etc.) did not begin until 1969 -- so when they made it to the WS in 1945 it didn't have a series before it.
...but it's too bad that Harry Caray isn't here to see this.
...same goes for jack brickhouse
Fick Fined For Tomahawk Chop!
he was way out of line.i hate fick.
the cubs certainly deserve to celebrate for winning a post-season series. but i still remember the last two times they've been to the divisional series. in 1984 they went down to the padres in 5 games and in 1989 they went down to the giants in 5 games. should they win the division and make it to the world series, maybe then i'll really celebrate and make myself an "I Believe!" sign and come to chicago for the craziness. Anyway, it all starts tomorrow with a game at wrigley with zambrano at the mound.
There's no denying how exciting last night was -- but there should be a measure of reticence regarding what's going on. I have really high hopes -- but let's get to the world series before we go completely ape. I'm actually thinking more and more about trying to go watch at least one of the games down in Wrigleyville just to see the insanity.And get your radio warmed up because there's still an important game going on today!
stats from baseballreference.com:
What technicality do they have to say that '89 or '84 weren't "post-season series?" Because there was only an NLCS in '84 and '89 and they lost, because there was no NLDS? (But the NLCS started in '69 which is why the '45 world series doesn't count?)Either way, it seems a bit only "technically true" that they've been total losers since 1908. STILL -- let's kick some booty!
It is true that they haven't won a "series" but they have won games in those series. It's kind of a silly stat since the wild card was added only in '95 (creating the divisional series) and the leagues were split in '69 (creating the championship series). I guess they needed some sort of stat to show the cubs futility in the post-season. Between '08 and '45 they were in the World Series 7 times. Since then they've been in the playoffs three times (four including this year). '84, '89, and '98 as a wildcard (losing to the braves in three). They should have gone to the playoffs in '69 but they faltered in september and were eclipsed by the mets who went on to win the world series.
when you think about the "loveable losers" of baseball you think about the cubs and the red sox. Here are some stats:The last world series win for the Red Sox was in 1918 over the Cubs. The last for the White Sox was 1917 and the Indians and the Phillies won it in 1948 and 1980 respectively.
- Chicago Cubs (1903 - 2002) - 2 World Championships, 10 Pennants, and 13 Playoff Appearances
- Chicago Orphans (1898 - 1902); Chicago Colts (1890 - 1897); Chicago White Stockings (1876 - 1889) - 6 Pennants and 2 Playoff Appearances
- Boston Red Sox (1907 - 2002) - 4 World Championships, 8 Pennants, and 13 Playoff Appearances
- Boston Americans (1901, 1903 - 1906) - 1 World Championship, 2 Pennants, and 1 Playoff Appearance
- Chicago White Sox (1901 - 2002) - 2 World Championships, 5 Pennants, and 7 Playoff Appearances
- Cleveland Indians (1915 - 2002) - 2 World Championships, 5 Pennants, and 9 Playoff Appearances
- Philadelphia Phillies (1890 - 1942,1945 - 2002) - 1 World Championship, 5 Pennants, and 9 Playoff Appearances
Also did you know that prior to moving to Atlanta, the braves were a boston team and were known for a time as the Boston Beaneaters?
they did start in 1995, but they also played them for a single year in 1981 because of a 2 month strike.
That they were the Milwaukee Braves for a while in between? (When a little guy named Hank Aaron played for them.)
I had no idea how sucky the White Sox' long-term stats were.
they haven't been so good. for fun, i dumped the win-loss stats since 1901 into a spreadsheet for the cubs, sox, bosox, and the yankees. Here is what I learned:record:
cubs - 7958-7822 (.50431)
sox - 7942-7802 (.50445)
bosox - 8070-7696 (.51219)
yanks - 8895-6840 (.5653)averages (wins-losses, divisonal finish):
cubs - 78.02-76.69, 4.38
sox - 77.86-76.49, 4.11
bosox - 79.12-75.35, 4.12
yanks - 87.21-67.06, 2.86But if I looks at the same numbers from 1946 onward, the picture changes a little.
record:
cubs - 4162-4800(.46441)
sox - 4542-4426(.50647)
bosox - 4747-4230(.52880)
yanks - 5099-3865(.56883)
averages:
cubs - 73.02-84.21, 5.20
sox - 79.68-77.65, 3.66
bosox - 83.28-74.21, 3.63
yanks - 89.46-67.81, 2.58
Statistical analysis justifying the whingeing of Cubs fans! Excellent! This is why we pay you the big bucks, Lukas!
red sox curse
red sox vs. yankee's wed. night. oh my dewar lord what am i going to do!?!
This is incredibly exciting... Cubs at home for game one tomorrow! I may be watching some of it at Victoria's tomorrow... anyone else have plans?
I don't think anything explains the feelings of a Sox fan more than this column.
" Fast-forward to the eighth: After Grady pinch-runs for Ortiz, the unhittable Chad Bradford manages to get out of the inning, meaning Grady has managed to eliminate our first, third and fifth batters from the game ... a game destined for extra innings, no less. Just an unbelievable run for Grady this week. He did everything but order the tiger to attack Roy."
i think that at some point i will be hitting Victoria's before the TFT show. i probably won't get there until like 4:30 though.perhaps i'll see you there.
The cubs were 4-0 over the marlins and now the marlins are 5-4 over the cubs!!!
9-8 to the Marlins.
that it wasn't exciting. ooh sosa's homerun was awesome. but tomorrow things have to change.
Mark Prior. 'Nuff said.
jordan tells me that when sammy hit the home run last night he could hear the cheers from home. it's a little over a mile from here to wrigley field.
the local fox station is showing the sox-yanks. GARGARGAR
I don't know if your modem will do it, but you can listen to the broadcast online.
jesus, it's 9-0 cubs now. i'm going down to waveland.
12-3 over the marlins!
Sox over the Yankees 5-2!
about the inevitable sox v. cubs world series
wgn doesn't offer cubs game online because of mlb gameday audio, which you must pay for. for $10 I could get all the playoff games on wgn via the mlb website. All of the playoff games are on local espn radio AM stations so I just cranked up (literally) the radio/flashlight/siren (it's the only portable AM radio I have) and listened to the game.
Haha, the only AM radio I have (not counting the big one with four wheels and a luggage rack) is my clock radio.
Sosa's homerun yesterday was 498 ft. with no wind! Damn he cranked that thing. And where the hell did Gonzalez come from? I mean he's been consistant all year long, but not this crazy homerun hitter that he has suddenly become, God bless him!
go cubs!
But don't you think that's a personal question Lukas?
If you look at OUR Gonzalez's season splits, he hits homers in streaks. Unfortunately, those are almost always followed by a streak in which he couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat.I always have Wood. Picked him every year he's pitched for fantasy league.
CUBS WIN!!!!
WHAT A GAME!
5-4 Cubs in the 11th.Wood did ok, but had to sit down after a while. Joe Baworowsky with the pitching save, Remlinger closing out, and the game ends on an error, Ramirez bobbled, Castillo tried to book it towards third, and they pinched him between 2nd and 3rd. Man!
pedro vs. clemens
yesterday's tension and proximity was nowhere to be seen tonight. i think they clinched their win in the first inning.
the red sox yankee's game was crazy! red sox lossed. garrr.
but, the cubs won!!!ya!
5 more wins to go!!!
What exactly do you mean by proximity? I'm not quite getting your definition . . .In other news,
According to news reports, Ron Santo failed a stress test on Friday. . . .
To quote the apparently immortal C. Montgomery Burns, "Well, duh!"
The Cubs are 3 games to 1 up in the NLCS, and doctors are giving Santo a stress test? On a day when the game went extra innings? Are these Army doctors? What kind of HMO is Santo on?
Let the man watch the game, monitor his vitals, have the crash cart ready, BUT DON'T EXPECT HIM NOT TO BE UNDER ENORMOUS STRESS! He's sick, he's already overcome more than any human being in one lifetime, he's a hero to thousands of diabetic kids and adults all over this country . . .
I can't talk about this right now. I have to go take some very smart doctors out behind the woodshed, and pound into them an object lesson about intangibles like faith and love and heart.
This concludes tonight's rant. Eamus catuli. Go Cubs.
Go Cubs!(Oh yeah, and God bless Ron Santo!)
The cubs lost a tough game 4-0 today. As much as I hate to say it, Beckett did an awesome job. I don't even feel like the cubs were hitting that poorly -- not that they were doing great -- but Beckett just sat'em all down.And like I said, now we get to see the cubs win Here.
Panda.Monium.
being a glass-half-empty type of cubs fan, i'm slowly starting to believe. The last time the cubs had three chances to clinch the NLCS they lost three straight to the padres. The GM of the padres in '84 was jack mckeon. granted, they were three games in san diego and not two at home with prior and wood. And with those factors in mind, I think the cubs can win the pennant.
Is a little scary, to be sure, and it makes me quake in my boots to imagine seeing them get this close and lose. Especially after seeing them whoop so much booty on the Marlins in some of these games. Last night's loss might have been a shut-out, but it certainly wasn't a blowout.That said,
I really, honestly believe the Cubs are gonna go to the series, and I think that have a good chance to beat the Yanks. And I am totally thrilled about that.
I love it when the Cubs are beating a team by a bunch, and they have no points, the way Pat Hughes announces it with feeling, yet without being a total jerk:
<phughes> Cubs, Seven. Marlins.... nothing.
who else is ready to send al leiter to the plate against an angry pedro martinez? my wife, who is not really a crazy sports fanatic, has been yelling at the TV for leiter to shut up. It's kind of fun to see karna get all juiced up for the cubs.
At first she was like "what did this guy get a lesson in pitching right beofre the game and fee like showing off?" Than I told her he is an active pitcher and she said "well ok then he knows what he's talking about, but he's still annoying." I must say though that for this series, being a pitchers duel back and forth, it's been interesting to see into the mind of the pitchers through another pitcher, but I won't miss him when he's gone. I think the Marlins would need divine intervention to be Prior and Wood at Wrigley, and I think it's good that it came back here so that they don't have 5 days of rest, only 3 before beating the Yanks in the World Series.
Turn on WGN and listen to Pat and Steve... I don't find them annoying at all.
I actually conisdered calling some chicago folk on the cellular and having them place the phone by the radio broadcasting wgn...
you mean the red sox in the world series, it's an easy mistake i'm sure you didn't mean it. it's just almost as crazy as saying the cubs in the world series. you just used to saying yankee and worls series together.
RED SOZ WIN! The series is TIED, 2-2!!!w00t!
Santo hopes to broadcast
I said Yanks because they were up a game, and now I will say Sox until the story changes. I am not a fan of either, sorry.
The BOSOX have to win the next 2 to play the CUbs in the WOrld Series...
SOSA STEALS HOME PLATE!CUBS 2 MARLINS.... NOTHING!
that was so depressing.
The Marlins scored 8 runs in one inning to beat the cubs 8-3.IT'S GOT TO BE TOMORROW, CUBBIES! GET YOUR GAME ON! I STILL BELIEVE!
i mean i'm glad that the home team is winning and all, but i'm not much of a sports fan in general. i think the whole guy-grabbing-the-foul-ball thing is kinda funny. if i was there i'd probably spill a beer on him, but... it made me laugh.
he did what any fan in the stands would have done. the poor guy was scared for his life. what was even worse was the error by gonzales. That play had a far great impact on the score than fans reaching for a ball.1969 in fast forward?
1984 all over again?
The last time the cubs played a game 7, it was in 1945, at home, against the Tigers. They lost 9-3.
It's okay though, according to Back to the Future II, the Cubs will sweep Miami in 2015.
I am really scared for tonights game. Luckily I have class tonight and it will force me to not watch until 9 p.m. because I don't think I could handle watching the whole game.
WEDNESDAY, OCT 15, 2003 last updated at 7:26 a.m.HENCEFORTH, "THE SNATCH"
Just how are we supposed to get any work done today, swarmed as we are by the twin albatrosses of last night's mythical Cubs' loss and tonight's potentially spectacularly disastrous game seven?
That Marlins' 8th inning reeked of history, of pitiful stories we will tell our children's children in 2045 during the centennial commemoration of the Cubs' last World Series appearance.
...in aught three, we were cruising along, five outs away from the World Series, when a fan snatched a pop-up from Moises Alou. After that, of course, the floodgates opened and the team's spirit was crushed....
The announcers and even some of the players who were saying "don't blame the fan" for Tuesday's defeat were guessing, at best.
You never know, of course, but the way I see it, if Alou catches that pop up, then we have two outs and Alex Gonzalez doesn't rush trying to get a double play on the ground ball two batters later, fields it cleanly, and and we're out of the inning still leading 3-1.
(Speaking of which, if there's one person in all of Cubdom who's secretly grateful to the foul-snatching fan, it's gotta be Gonzalez, whose horrifying bobble is now just a footnote and not a new chapter in team history.)
And when they excuse the fan by saying, as pitcher Mark Prior did after the game, that "99 percent of the people" would have done the same thing, reaching out for a foul ball that close to the field of play, they're simply wrong.
Most fans, good fans, smart fans know to lean out of the way--scurry if possible -- when a guy from their team is running toward the seats with a bead on a foul fly.
And here's the doubly mortifying allegation from an S-T story this morning:
"In the section where the ball fell....Pat Looney, 34, of the Northwest Side said... the (grabby fan) already had a ball from earlier in the game when Alou tossed one into the stands."
If the Cubs lose game seven tonight, their fans will never forget and never forgive.
It sounds ridiculous and petty, but it's probably true that this young man will almost certainly have to leave town and start again elsewhere if he wants some semblance of a normal life.
If the Cubs win, he'll be OK, a footnote himself, just that knucklehead who kept us all on edge for an extra 24 hours.
Not for his sake but for the sake of everyone who'll otherwise spend the rest of their lives including him in their mutterings about goats, black cats and Leon Durham, I hope it all turns into a jolly anecdote:
...we thought the players would crumble under the demoralizing weight of it all, but, by golly, the next night....
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
it was crazy last night! i'm scared for that guys life. i really hope that the cubs win tonight, party so that guy (how ever dumb) doesn't have to move out of the state.
GO CUBS!YOU GOT IT!
GO CUBS!
Someone was saying today that the rumor is that the Cubs may not be able to afford to keep Lofton on the roster... has anyone else heard about this>
link
Just go to CNN's site and see for yourself.
but that's also because Corey Patterson will be back, and the Cubs want to develop him into a master center fielder. Also, I am thinking Randall Simon will be gone too, because they have Karros and Hee Sop Choi that they want to develop. A tricky call because Simon has been great for the Cubs, we'll see what Baker and what's-his-name decide to do.
ken-knee lofton is my favorite.
sox win 9 to 6. alcs goes to game seven.
BOSTON comes back to WIN 9-6 over the yanks!LET'S GO CUBS!
the marlins are going to the world series.there's always next year.
that really sucks.go redsox.
I bawled like a little kid in 1989, but really, I'm a little saddened, but reality here is that this was a wondrous season, when they weren't expected to do much more than win the NL Central and opinion of learned experts was very divided over that. What it does do is set up next year (and this is not your typical "wait till next year.") Hopefully Kerry, Mark, Matt, and Carlos keep ice on their arms until February, and next year looks fine.Lofton might stick around, just to teach Patterson the way it's done, and to play for Dusty--don't count the Dusty factor out-- but he's still got a lot of juice left, as this season proves. Simon might stay too--he's under contract--and he seems to adjust to being a bench kinda guy pretty well.
What does inspire great emotion in me is the media, specifically the worthless Chicago Sun-Times, publishing the name, home address, age, and work place of that fan. That is reckless, irresponsible, unethical, and a violation of privacy done without his consent. If I were him, I'd be screening lawyers now and out for blood.
I can't believe that this is the paper with the legacy of the Chicago Daily News, and Mike Royko, who no doubt is grinning and hoisting a Bud with Harry and Jack right now at the memorable moments this season has provided us fans. Mike would have something sharp to say too, about the media vilifying this fan.
Where are the eight or more other people who reached for that ball? All mysteriously silent, I see. "Wasn't me." "I didn't do it." He said he didn't see Alou, and he apologized for his inadvertence. Fine, leave him be in peace. By publishing his identity, the Sun-Times created a visible threat to this man's livelihood and to his life. That I cannot condone.
I don't buy the Sun-Times because it gives ad space to pornography advertisements, and now I'm adding a second reason; because it's claim to journalistic ethics is now a bunch of sophist lies.
Went out of their way tonight to publish his "apology" multiple times, as well as show all the many other fans who were grabbing for the ball too. I thought it was pretty classy how they handled it, and I'm sorry to hear that the Sun-Times couldn't be as upstanding.
the cubs losed.
Melancholy and Infinite Sadness....But, in the end, the demons that have reigned here for almost a century remain firmly in possession of the most beautiful ballpark on earth, like a glorious mausoleum atop generations of buried dreams. Perhaps two moments on this evening, both involving Wood, captured the potential for elation and the reality of ultimate Cub dejection.
In the second inning, Wood hit a two-run homer to tie the score, 3-3. Fans always cheer and clap, sometimes they scream. But when Wood connected, everywhere you looked, people jumped, danced, waved their arms and seemed to hover in midair with elation, like Snoopy on a joy jag in "Peanuts."
Four innings later, Wood shuffled off the mound after being tattooed for four singles, a double, a triple, a home run, four walks and seven earned runs. He kicked at the grass like a dispirited little boy, lost in despondent thoughts as he approached the dugout. All the dejection of 95 years of Cubness were written in his demeanor, though he has worn the luckless uniform for only six seasons.
....
"well, they had a good season and we're still young so they've got to win some point during our lifetime."
The Marlins played good ball. It's not like we were annihilated. We competed pitch for pitch, hit for hit. In the end, they just were playing better ball consistently and throughout the order.
ON MEDIA Should blame bring name? Ed ShermanOctober 16, 2003
The tale of the unfortunate fan in the Game 6 foul-ball controversy provided a case study in media ethics Wednesday.
News organizations wrestled over the news value of disclosing the fan's name and hometown. Would revealing his identity put him in danger considering the volatility of the situation?
The fan tempered some of the debate when he issued a public statement expressing his remorse late Wednesday afternoon. Even then, some media outlets still didn't immediately use his name.
The notable exception in the name game was the Sun-Times. Late Wednesday morning, the Sun-Times posted a story on its Web site revealing the fan's name, where he lived and worked, and where he grew up. Editor Michael Cooke had "no comment" for the Tribune, but he did explain his decision to Editor & Publisher.
"It is the biggest news story in town and this is Chicago," Cooke said. "We talked about it for a little while and came down on the side of publishing it. It was not 100 to 0, but the decision was made and on we go."
Even with the Sun-Times' disclosure, the majority of other news organizations still opted to do their reports without revealing the man's name and place of residence.
"If you were anywhere near the ballpark Tuesday, you know what kind of anger existed there," WMAQ-Ch. 5 general manager Larry Wert said. "We don't want to facilitate a fan misdirecting his anger at this individual."
Tom Peterson, news director for WGN-AM 720, also advocated caution.
"I don't want to be the guy to put his name out there," Peterson said.
Rich Gordon, a professor at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, said he had no problem with media outlets trying to get interviews with the fan to hear his perspective. He questioned using his name, however, "just for the sake of using his name."
"Given the risk, I'd need to have a compelling reason to name him," Gordon said. "I haven't come up with one."
Win or lose: It wasn't all-or-nothing just for the Cubs on Wednesday. Fox Sports had it all on the line too.
All is having the Cubs in the World Series. Nothing is having Florida.
Little wonder why Fox Sports executives were sweating almost as much as the fan who touched the foul ball Wednesday. While they liked having a Game 7, they would have felt more secure if they knew the Cubs would win.
The Cubs in the World Series would be the jackpot for Fox. A Cubs-Boston matchup would be a double jackpot.
The heartbreak series, with all its story lines, would be a sure thing. It would be just the remedy for baseball and Fox after last year's World Series did the lowest rating ever.
Anaheim's victory over San Francisco averaged only an 11.7 rating; 1 rating point is worth 1.084 million homes. The Cubs did better Wednesday, pulling a 12.6 rating. It was the highest ever for a league championship series game on Fox.
Game 7 figured to be even higher. That had Fox executives fantasizing about the Cubs playing Game 1 of the World Series on Saturday.
Florida as the National League champion is like getting coal in your Christmas stocking. Outside of Miami, nobody is buzzing about the Marlins. A New York-Florida series would be a dud, especially if the Yankees dominated.
Locally, executives at WFLD-Ch. 32 also were pacing. They wanted the postseason windfall to continue.
Wednesday night's game did an astounding 44.6 rating in Chicago, with 59 percent of televisions tuned to the broadcast; a local rating is more than 33,000 homes.
The rating peaked at 54 at 9:15 p.m., just as the ill-fated eighth inning began. By 9:45 p.m., and eight runs later, the rating dropped to 46.6. Apparently, some fans couldn't stand to watch anymore.
Update: Ron Santo received some good news Wednesday. A diagnostic angiogram revealed that a procedure won't be required on his heart. The Cubs broadcaster is set to undergo surgery to have tumors removed from his bladder Oct. 28.
The positive test lifted Santo's spirits after Tuesday night. After the heartbreaking defeat, he walked out to his back yard.
"I went into a state of depression," Santo said on WGN-AM 720's pregame show. "I thought about jumping into the pool so I could stay there."
Copyright © 2003, The Chicago Tribune
i know people work hardin baseball, and i know there is a lot of legend and legacy and all, but...i can't help thinking to myself 'its just a game'.
it is.but that doesn't mean it isn't important to a lot of people. however, it shouldn't be important enough to put a fan in danger because he mistakenly interfered with a play.
maybe this is just why i'm not much of a sports fan.
sox and yankees are in the 11th inning!
what a bummer. sorry phil.
it just ended a really hellish day. i'm way too tired to get worked up about it. but, damn it if i don't hate those f'n yankees! GO MARLINS! thats weird to say.
Yeah exactly Phil.GO... MARLINS?
npr - all things considered: cubs feel jinxed againI think this is the story I heard on the drive home
he described this as how his inner child felt about the yankees.
..I'm sort of glad it's over and I don't have to care anymore....except to see the (to quote phil, who expressed my own sentiment) f'n yankees LOSE!!! I can't handle one more night of staying up way past my bedtime to endure the rollercoaster rides that end with such heartbreaking results or wearing hope.
Seriously, I hope that Pudge and Cabrera and the rest of those guys kick the Yankee's butts.Interesting article about Sosa... Sosa better not go to the Yankees... can you imagine that? I mean, on the one hand, I could see why he would consider it, especially for the Championship value of it, but boy, would he be branded a traitor right quick.
I 've never put a lot of faith in Sosa. His hits are sporadic and he is far to easy to strike out (as he swings at nearly everything).
I can see the headlines now.
I think that Sosa is overrated. And statistically, he may swing at a lot of bad pitches.But just as statistically, he is still a heavy home-run hitter, and an adequate fielder. More than that though, he's a Cubs and a Chicago institution, and I think the team would really suffer a blow to lose his person, especially without someone ready-made to take his place. Especially having been this close to the series -- it would be one thing if they were in a slump.
So, my brother-in-law and I think Fox should air a series between the Red Sox and the Cubs instead of the the Yankees and the Marlins. I mean, who wants to watch the Yankees/Marlins series anyway?
good call.
Good idea!
Oh yeah... is there a championship going on or somethign?
Planning for next year...
sweet!
the cubs now have the best pitching staff in baseball!!
oh, and by the way i still hate the yankees!!!!!!!
hurry baseball season, please do hurry.
work is so slow now. i can't wait for april!!
cubbies pitching staff!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/cs-040222bartmanball.storyGoing, going, almost gone
By Melissa Isaacson Tribune staff reporter
February 22, 2004, 9:50 PM CST
In the final months leading up to its execution, the condemned has been talked about ceaselessly, gawked at shamelessly, photographed excessively and guarded in a manner befitting royalty.
The last days of a young but illustrious life will be spent mostly in seclusion, though the final 24 hours will include a whirlwind tour of the city, a national television appearance, an overnight stay in the sumptuous suite of a luxury hotel and, yes, a final meal of steak and lobster.
The end will come in spectacular, undoubtedly pyrotechnic fashion at precisely 7:31 p.m. Thursday, before a local throng and a global gallery, many of whom will celebrate what they believe in all their hearts to be the death of a curse and the exorcism of demons that have haunted this city for decades.
If nothing else, it will be a catharsis after a long, bitter winter.
And short of that? Well, it will be a great party, as well as a formidable fundraising effort for juvenile diabetes.
"I don't believe in black magic, but I think if you give a true fan something to grab on to, he will grab on to it," said Michael Lantieri, the Oscar-winning special-effects expert entrusted to obliterate one of the most famous baseballs in history in front of Harry Caray's restaurant on Thursday night.
The otherwise undistinguished little ball has traveled a long way since Oct. 14, when it left the fingers of Cubs pitcher Mark Prior, sliced off the bat of Florida's Luis Castillo, sailed down Wrigley Field's left-field line and grazed the outstretched hands of one Steve Bartman, deflecting it from the grasp of Cubs left fielder Moises Alou in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.
Five outs separated the Cubs, winning 3-0 at the time, from their first World Series appearance in 58 years. But they lost that game 8-3 and lost the series a night later.
The destruction of the ball, says Grant DePorter, was something he felt he had to do for Cubs fans everywhere.
"Our mission first was to control its destiny," said DePorter, a friend of Harry Caray's and managing partner of the late broadcaster's area restaurants, who purchased the ball for the princely sum of $113,824.16 on Dec. 19. "We had to get in on behalf of Cubs fans, make sure it didn't end up in a museum someplace."
Or worse.
"A guy called me and kept on calling," DePorter said. "He wasn't from Chicago, and he offered me $86,000. He said he was going to let the ball tour America and make me a full partner. He kept on saying I would make money beyond my wildest dreams, but all I could think about was this guy showing up with the ball right before the World Series and psyching the team out. I wasn't going to let him do that."
With equal parts mirth and utter seriousness, DePorter has gone about first buying, then insuring (with a $1 million policy), then protecting a 5-ounce bundle of cowhide and twine, while also sharing it with fans who have had the opportunity to view it in a display case just inside the front door of the restaurant.
It shares a compartment with Caray's famous black-framed, Coke-bottle glasses, and it has inspired a variety of reactions since taking up temporary residence in mid-December.
Often tentative, at times emotional, always curious, fans alternately have shrieked, hooted, shaken their heads and taken photographs of the infamous ball.
"This ball has taken on a whole life of its own," said Harry Caray's hostess Gayle Barton. "Of all the celebrities who have come through this door, and there have been many, this ball is the biggest celebrity yet. People have come from all over the country, and I have not heard anything negative. They just want to have their picture taken, ask questions.
"It's marvelous. It's been a lot of fun. I hate to see it go."
For security reasons, DePorter has not publicized when the ball is to be displayed and frequently has it locked in a bank vault.
"It's kind of like a President Bush appearance," he said. "You don't want to broadcast plans."
Thirteen surveillance cameras are trained on the ball inside the reinforced, tempered-glass case, with two alarms tied directly to the police station. At its peak exposure, when the ball is traveling to Wrigley Field on Wednesday, a day before its destruction, 11 armed guards will accompany it, DePorter said.
But as much as anything, the event, undertaken with the blessings of Major League Baseball and the Cubs organization and dubbed "Destroy the Ball--Find the Cure" because they hope to raise more than $1 million for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, is envisioned as an opportunity to turn a negative into a positive.
While the ball's seller, known only as "Jim the attorney," presumably has profited, Bartman has received death threats and has been vilified by Cubs fans everywhere, from the countless mocking and even hateful Internet postings to the turtleneck Halloween costumes ridiculing him two weeks after the game.
Through his attorney, Bartman, a 26-year-old suburban youth-league baseball coach, has indicated he has no plans to attend Thursday's event. But DePorter has been bound and determined to make it a day of clearing Bartman's name and responsibility for the Cubs' loss.
"I believe all of Chicago now supports this guy," he said. "We haven't called it the 'Bartman ball' in a long time, and I look at this as a pro-Bartman rally.
"Nobody knows what this guy went through. A lot of fans were reaching for that ball. No one blames him. From the beginning, I was very concerned about the guy."
Fans who viewed the ball seemed to agree.
"If he would have gone on shows and capitalized and perpetuated the thing, it would be one thing," said Deborah White, 29, of Glencoe. "We looked a little rough around the edges as a city [for blaming him]."
In addition to inspiring songs, movie scripts, more than 25,000 e-mails and donations--one man dropped off a $25,000 contribution to JDRF, asking that it be kept anonymous--literally thousands of suggestions have surfaced for destroying the ball.
One fan suggested using Caray's glasses to ignite the fire that will melt the ball, collect the ashes and have Bartman fly over Yankee Stadium and scatter the ashes, thus transferring the curse to the Yankees.
Several proposed involving NASA and depositing the ball into eternal orbit, with one e-mailer adding, "I actually know a guy in the program who can get it done."
Another fan suggested "slicing the ball into thin pieces, cover with milk, sugar and flour, bake at 350 degrees for a half-hour, then feed it to a billy goat. When it passes through the goat, the curse will be gone forever."
One fan wanted it unraveled a little at a time at a Cubs game. Several wanted it pickled in Budweiser. Others suggested it be dropped off the Sears Tower, devoured by animals at Lincoln Park Zoo or knocked into Lake Michigan by Ron Santo, whose own battle with diabetes inspired the charitable involvement.
In a symbolic gesture, a 53-year-old Cubs fan who lives on a remote island in Alaska plans to take the Ernie Banks autographed bat his father gave him and whack a baseball onto the Mendenhall Glacier on Thursday, where he predicts it "will settle in a crevasse, be crushed, pulverized and ground up slowly into powder, then fall into the lake and be carried out for burial at sea."
Meanwhile, in a secured room in Hollywood, Lantieri has been feverishly and secretively devising the method of execution. The Evanston-born, Los Angeles-bred Cubs fans won an Academy Award for his work on "Jurassic Park" and has coordinated special effects for such films as "Minority Report," "The Hulk" and "Back to the Future," so he knows his business.
Lantieri has been in consultation with DePorter and Rawlings, which supplied the exact makeup of the ball to aid the process. Lantieri acknowledges that his volunteer role has been challenging. No doubt a bit intimidating as well, as the event will be televised live by MSNBC in all 50 states and Canada. And Beth Goldberg Heller, director of special events for Harry Caray's Restaurant Group, says it probably will be picked up live by CNN and ESPN.
Thursday morning's "Today Show," anchored by Katie Couric, Lester Holt and Al Roker, also will be broadcast from NBC's Studio 5 in Chicago.
"We've talked about ideas for almost six weeks, taking Cubs fans' suggestions and mixing them together, taking what Rawlings has told me and experimenting with eight to a dozen balls a day," Lantieri said.
"Very quickly I realized that they build baseballs to absorb shock, so it became very difficult. We'd like to make an event out of it, but when it comes down to it, science is involved. We think we've finally got something."
Lantieri said a build-up of about 20 seconds will precede the destruction and that Caray's glasses probably will be involved in the initial stage.
"Two things that were most important to me," he said, "was that we have Cubs fans' input and that the ball could never be reconstructed in any way or for any reason."
Lantieri acknowledged this has become bigger than he had imagined.
"It's a great thing to be around," he said. "It's not about a hex or a curse but about revving up the team, about camaraderie and spirit. Cubs fans deserve this. They deserve to have some big fun."
And so, in this case, does the condemned, visited Friday by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has not indicated plans to stay the execution.
In its last 24 hours, the ball's schedule calls for a trip--by armored car, of course--to Wrigley Field "just to say goodbye," DePorter said. Then it's on to the Amalfi Hotel Chicago, where a fluffed pillow, luxury suite and even a masseuse will await.
A server from Harry Caray's will present the last meal of steak, lobster and a Budweiser, all of which will be on roped-off display to the public--"kind of like Lincoln's Bedroom," DePorter said.
The end will be bittersweet, an inanimate object having taken on a personality of its own.
"But it's also time for all of us to move on," DePorter said. "Cubs tickets go on sale the next day. It's time to turn a bad symbol into something good."
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune
so, jen and i both stood in line (differant times) for around an hour weds and thursday to get a cubs wristband. this morning at 6 am they gave out the number that would randomly be #1 and well jen and i were only 6000 away from that number. SUCK!!!!! now it's 7am and i can't fall back to sleep and it's not looking good for getting tickets other that scalpers/brokers this year. damn.
I have scored tickets for 2 games, Thursday May 20 against the Giants, and August 14 against the L.A. Pigs (sorry there's a hatred in my family for the Dodgers) and now I shall try for more, the Virtual Waiting Room Awaits!
i was at work all day today. i'm just now trying online!!!!
SO, I GOT THREE GAMES SO, FAR! not bad for getting a late start.
i wasted my opportunity to see them at interleague play in Baltimore last year. Now the closest the cubs play to DC is philly, so maybe a pilgramage to the friendly confines is in order.
Pittsburgh really isn't that far, and PNC Park, in my opinion, is the best park opened in the last 15 years.Pirates tickets are more than the Cubs but worth it . .
Damn, those must be pricey, I was a little shocked to pay $26 for Terrace Reserve seats, damn Prime seating dates. Although I did get tickets for the cheap game on May 20 against the Giants, woo hoo Uper Deck Box on the first base side of home plate, 3rd row, those are gonna rock!I think Upper Deck box are my favorite seats, you can see everything perfectly. I suppose I should do some work now...
there are no home games left with 2 seats together. I was thinking maybe there would be a weekday game or two left, but not with the season they had last year, at least I've got 2 games, and plenty of friends with season tickets, oh yeah baby!
Isaak, that is. PNC is pricey--some of the highest in the majors. That's because the city is still technically paying for three staduims (imploded Three Rivers, may the Toilet Bowl rest in peace, and the new Heinz Field, and PNC Park).I still think it's worth it to sit there, watch the city skyline above the rivers, and watch some good baseball. Of course this depends on who's playing the Pirates . . .
Now that would totally mar the entire sport, it seems like a majority of the big hitters for the past few years have all had some type of enhancing drug scandal, what has baseball come down to?
Money? HR Chase=Attendance=Ticket Sales=Money=Contract Raises=HR's
Patterson is back in the game (homering his first ST at bat).Sosa is looking for a comeback after the corked bat incident and lost numbers do to his hurt toe.
We got a new lefty from Atlanta, and he lead the International League in Strike Outs last year.
Prior is scaring me a little with the swollen achilles, bu tI think he will rebound.
Meanwhile Wood is looking great, and has a homer for the spring, I love a pitching staff that can hit too.
There's so much more to talk about, so I don't want to ruin it all at once, but the season is approaching and I am more excited than ever for a baseball season. I haven't been this excited for a Cubs season since I was 10.
My family and I are traveling to the UP this year for family togetherness time at Covenant Point (including the MN branch of the fam), and so quite logically we're going through Chicago.... So, I'm standing in my parent's kitchen and my mom says, "there's a Cubs home game on July 22nd, wouldn't it be nice to go." (I had just mentioned how excited I was about the pitching staff so it wasn't completely out of nowhere.) I started laughing and told her that there tickets wouldn't be available, but she's convinced that she can still find four tickets together for a decent price. I love my mom!
for the white sox!!!
Is your mother willing to shell out somewhere around $1K to a ticket broker?Even all the Cubs series tickets in Milwaukee are sold out. I've had better luck getting tickets to Cubs games...in Pittsburgh.
Good luck, Ma Chris***son!
home opener today, i'm gonna get my botty kicked today.
that if you check for some games now on the internet you can find pairs of seats here and there because all of the tickets are getting processed and with credit cards getting denied and such there are more tickets available, if only I had more money...
Today's Chicago Tribune, for the latest on tickets.
I saw an ad for this in the back of Harper's and thought of the NPRBL crew. Elysian Fields Quarterly - The Baseball Review. It's a literary baseball magazine (who knew) and here's the blurb from their website:
Welcome to EFQ, the literary baseball journal that is short on hype and long on content. Intelligent, quirky, iconoclastic, funny, and opinionated . that's us! If you love baseball and its timeless beauty, you'll love EFQ. Every issue features 96 pages of great writing on baseball from rookies and established veterans. Anything having to do with baseball is fair game. Best of all, our print doesn't come off in your hands! When you're done with an issue, it goes on your bookshelf, not in the trash.It don't know if it's any good, but I thought some of you (gunch) would enjoy it.
I'll give it a look before I raid Dahlin's players' biography library.
what a great series agains the reds! i wen to two out of the four games! they were great and won the two i was at. go cubbies!!!
the red sox won three out of the four games against the yankees this weekend!!!
Now I love the Cubs more than any other franchise in the MLB, and I love the moves they did for the team within the past three years.... but all I see is a great shot at the wildcard spot. They have been playing great, but so has everyone else in the NL central. It'll be great to watch Lee's bat get into gear (earlier today was a great pressure example) and Alou and Ramirez are having MVP outings, but the central division is insane this year. I just don't know........ Hey, what about Florida getting shanked by Atlanta after thier scoreless run with Montreal? I love it.
sweep!!!!
look for us on wgn today. pedro, freakinfreak, jen and i will be sitting somewhere behind home plate. andronicus is going to be there, as well as loser.
The title says it all.
Johnny Damon
I love Johnny Damon.
hit the plays of the games on the right side for baseball highlights. check out the red sox, cubs, and twins wins!!!!!!!
i'm in section 131 row 15!
But we got the tickets for Friday. Mark Prior!!!
i want to go sooo bad. i can't wait for pior to school the pirats after last weekend in pitt. hey you should come into goose i'll be working before the game!
have to meet some friends for the ole give them their tickets dance first. One of these days I'll get back to the Goose...I was at Pittsburgh last Sunday for the final game. Lots of bad blood between the Cubs and the Bucs, 'tho the Cubs have a point. The Pirates don't make much of an effort to avoid being hit...
todays game was one of the best i've seen this year next to the one greg and ben and i were at against the reds. wow, i still can't believe it! what a game!!!!!!!
they lost. boo!
but, i meet ryan sandburg today. yaaa!
but I skipped work and went to the game yesterday, and the tenth inning walk-off homer by Sosa that went like 410 feet onto Waveland Ave. was AMAZING!
where were you sitting?
down the third base line right behind the bullpen 9 rows up field box, they were nice seats, and we bought them day of for $40 each, which is $4 under ticket window face.
what section. thats where i was sitting!!!!!
Overheard yesterday on WGN-TV's telecast of the disspointing cubs brewer's game after returning from a commercial (paraphrased):<<Swedish Covenant Hospital logo appears on the screen>>
Steve Stone: Well, tomorrow at Wrigley its Swedish Covent Hospital day. Come to Wrigley and recieve great prizes from Swedish Covenant!
Chip Carey: <<not sounding genuine>> Well, won't that be fun...
Steve Stone: As many of you know, Swedish Covenant.. a great Hospital, with great suprises for cubs fans.
Chip Carey: <<borderline sarcastic>> oh yes... GREAT hospital.. great suprises.
Steve Stone: Not that you'd want suprizes if you had to go there...
Cchip Carey: <<100% GENUINE>> you can say that again.
dude I totally didn't see that you posted again in this entree, I wasn't ignoring you. We wre like section 205 or something, it was pretty far down the line, but the view was nice.
I had them playing the spoiler for the Cardinals in September. Now with Spivey, the sparkplug, out for the year with shoulder surgery...My Fantasy Team, Bob Hope's Arm Candy, has lost two good 2nd Basemen. First Todd Walker dumbasses his way into a Platooning Situation with Grudzelalphabet and now Spiver has season ending surgery.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
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Dave
i'm not sure what harder to believe. nomar is a cub or that he doesn't play for bostonanymore
I see the Cards snagged Larry Walker. Arguably Canada's best ever baseball player, Larry fine tuned his swing by clubbing beavers and baby seals in British Columbia during the offseason.Going down the list of great Canadian baseball players is like running the list of NBA stars that don't smoke weed...daily.
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Dave
i am sooo tired of sosa it's not even funny. this season he has gone from bad to worse fast. he's stricking out, missing catches.
Last 7 Days
G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG
6_23_3_4_1__0__2__5___0__0__2__7_.174_.269_.478
the best thing he's done this year is sneezing and pulling a muscle in his back. ya right he's not on the roids. i've sneezed a few times but, never injured myself from it. i thinking of dropping a big can of peper in the dugout maybe sammy will be out for the rest of the season! i want todd hollandsworth back!
sammy went 0 for 4 with two more stike outs!!!!!!
i ment strike outs, i'm not sure what a stick out is but, i'm sure sammy's good at those too!
DogmanYour refusal to correctly spell words has drawn my ire.
Step into my rage cage!
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Dave
never got on the Sosa Gladiator Chariot myself. I have always preferred players like Garciaparra (whose acquisition by the Cubs has me whining at my wife like a 6-year old in a toy store for a Garciaparra Cubs jersey) or Alou, even though Moises this season appears to have heatstroke of the brain. Right now Maddux, Remlinger, Ramirez, and Garciaparra are my current favorite Cubs, with apologies to the oft-injured Prior and Wood...(I want to believe in you, Mark, Kerry, I really do, but you have burned me before, this season...)Somewhere Clemente is looking at this guy who's replaced him as the Great Dominican Hope and shaking his head.
Sosa isn't the terror in the lineup anymore. Too many mediocre pitchers get him out by simply going after him. Contrast that with Bonds, who, if pitchers go after him, will take the walk, doesn't strike out and generally is a 90% lock to do something that will benefit his team, i.e. get on base, or score runners, or advance them.
Sosa could leave next year and I'd applaud his going. AL teams would be all over him as he's becoming slowly and surely a DH. And faster than I thought. When does his garguantuan contract expire? Well, whenever it is, you can expect Brian Cashman with Steinbrenner checkbook in hand to come calling...
i get sloppy when i'm mad. oh, and my spelling is bad, my typing isn't much better. but, at least i'm not 6-64 like someone who's name rhymes with blowsa!
Sosa does not equal Bonds. No one can dispute this.In the history of the game, only three or four people equal Bonds, and they have names like Aaron, Mays, Ruth, and Mantle.
Sosa should be measured against Griffey Jr. Both are great players on decent clubs with poorly run front offices. Had it not been for Sosa's three or four consecutive 50+ Home Run seasons, I doubt the Cubs would have the dough to take on Nomar's potentially bank breaking contract.
How many awesome years did Sammy give Cubs fans? Now, when he needs the support of the fans the most, where are they? On the bandwagon of the Nomar-Come-Lately?
How's the weather in Chicago? It sounds fair.
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Dave
i've not been a fan of sammy's other than in 98' but, that wasn't even for sammy as it was a fan of baseball. sure he's given cubs fans something to cheer about for a ton of years but, i'm not sure your right about him being the reason we have the money to pay nomar. i think a few other guys like wood and prior have more to do with us winning games and having a pay roll than sammy.
as far as being a fair weather fan, i a red sox/cubs fan please do not talk to me about fair weather when have we had any sunny days? i'm just saying that know that we are so close to the playoffs we need to what is best for the team and sammy is killing us! 0-17 again the giants. at least move him down the order. patterson, nomar, alou, ramirez, lee, then sammy!, walker/gruds, pitcher. and he needs to set up to the f'n plate. he's too far back in the box. garrr.
to start previewing my posts. my typing sucks!
What sells tickets?Deftly working your pitches, hitting spots, and changing speeds effectively so that you can be pulled for a middle-reliever after 5 innings?
Even if people did come to the game to see pitching, which they don't, Wood and Prior could then only account for 2/5ths of any ticket revenue brought in as they are two men in a five man rotation.
What else sells tickets...?
Taking the wide turn around first to test the arm of the left-fielder?
The single up the middle, bunting the runner to second, hit and run to third and then grounding to short, ending the inning with two hits, no runs, two left on base?
Winning games? Ask the Marlins.
Last I checked, it was homers.
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Dave
Wrigley Field
______ave._____total_____t.hr__s.hr__record__________________________
1998--32,186--2,623,194--212---66--90-73, Finished 2nd in NL Central Division
1999--34,739--2,813,854--189---63--67-95, Finished 6th in NL Central Division
2000--34,438--2,789,511--183---50--65-97, Finished 6th in NL Central Division
2001--35,196--2,780,465--194---64--88-74, Finished 3rd in NL Central Division
2002--33,248--2,693,071--200---49--67-95, Finished 5th in NL Central Division
2003--37,032--2,962,630--172---40--88-74, Finished 1st in NL Central Division
after 52 home games
2004--39,355--2,046,464--158---25 with 29 more home games at an ave. of 39, 355 = 1,141,295,
for a total of----3,187,759
do you think this record breaking attendance is from people looking to see home runs or because they were picked to win this year. i still think that people go to see their team win more than to hit home runs. or if you wanna get picky home runs help win games so years with more HR are more wins and more attendance.
sammy's hr are going down and attendance is going up. but, what do you think?
ave. is game attendance average.
total is attendance total.
t.hr is team home runs.
s.hr is sosa home runs.
Through the years, Sammy has hit home runs.Which HAS sold tickets.
And NOW the CUBS are in a financial position to retain the talent they have developed, like Wood, while going after high ticket guys like Nomar.
Besides the Cubs are still #2 in their division. Is St. Louis setting turnstile records? How 'bout Minnesota? Howsabout all the other #2 teams in baseball? Crunch me out them's numbers!
Maybe the Cubs have huge gate because...THEY'RE FASHIONABLE?
To clarify, I'm not a Sosa fan. I just don't like seeing a guy trampled on like I have seen the Cub "Faithful" trample Sosa this season. That's not a knock on Phil, just an observation. Keep in mind, I'm from Twins Territory and not used to seeing The Cubs Media Blitz 24-7 IN MILWAUKEE...!?
In closing, part of being a fan is believing in redemption.
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Dave
i'm not saying that winning always means attendance. i'm just talking about wrigley. i know that there are teams like the twins, marlins, and even the braves that can win and still not draw. i was just saying that i'm not sure that sosa is the reason that we are in the position the team is in now. i think it's winning games last year, which had more to do with prior, wood, baker, then sosa. i'm also not saying die sammy die. i just am tired of him being the captin and killing the team. and if you think the media blitz is bad up there just guess what its like here. i'm tired of hearing how sammy is soo great when he hits a HR but was 1-5 and left 4 on base, and missed a few catches in right. now in the last two weeks that he's been batting .174 or 0 for 17 or what ever now all the media is all over him, when it's been like this most of the year.
i also believe in redemption and i hope that sammy wakes up and starts listening to dusty and the batting coach and start playing well or even average. i think for 17 million a year he owes it to the "fans." or the cubs trade him to an AL team and sammy finds redemption in being a DH.
when i am watching a closely contested game....with or without alcohol in my system...
and sammy strikes out when the runners are in scoring position, i curse him up and down. i tell the television set that i hate sammy sosa. my loved ones get worried expressions on thier faces at my behavior.
but when he hits a home run (WHEN he hits a home run) in the same circumstance i jump up, i cheer, i dance, if i'm driving i slap the steering wheel, and i tell sammy that everything is OK and i still love him.
admit it phil, when sammy sosa hits a come-from-behind home run in the bottom of the 9th, it is ten times as exciting seeing ramirez make the same play.
I think that Sammy's playing of several years ago, in addition to his personality (good rapport with fans in the field, especially the bleachers) has definitely contributed to the money brought in by the team, and that has allowed the cubs (whether through direct influx of tickets/merch or through increased confidence from Tribune Co.) to spend the money on players like Prior, Wood, Nomar, and all the midseason trades from last year like Lofton to make the team competitive on a national level. I don't think they expected it to happen last year, but it did, so now they suddenly have all this buzz and momentum and now ticket sales are huge, which hopefully can be translated into a good lineup for the future.I think that Sammy was a big part of that wave building some 6 years ago or whenever the homer contest was... I think he's still selling seats too, but I definitely agree with Phil that his numbers are not really helping the team right now in any meaningful way, which makes him seem extremely overappreciated. Basically, I think Sammy has been a big part of where the cubs are at now. He is not currently a big part of where the cubs are at now, because I think he's basically just past his prime. It happens to everyone.
The Indians are in the midst of a Lazarus-style turn around. They're salvaging a rebuilding year where they started off with one of the worst records in baseball and are now just 4 games back of the Twins, competing for both the AL Central and Wildcard spots. Man, what a fun team. Young, not-quite-millionaires hitting doubles, running aggressively and playing defense. This is fun.The Cubs are fun to, but some of the fun of baseball is lost when your team *should* win all the time.
...and some of the fun is lost when you are privy to the long process building towards competitiveness, especially when it includes lots of money and midseason trades which are basically short-term hired guns. It's probably more fun for people who don't follow anything happening and then just one day realize that their team is "suddenly" really good.
i'm a twins fan too. can't help you with the tribe. go twinkies!!!!! they'll have to play the yankees again in the first round but, it's nice to see that the team that was up for elimination because attendance has been the al central winner the sence then.
and for the record. i do get excited when sammy hits a homer to win the game but, less than if any one elese does it because i know that thats all i'm going to hear about is sammy winning the game for us. rather than he was 1 for 5, left 4 on base and dropped the ball and missed the cut off man.
i'm going to the game tonight. will talk to you more on thursday!!! love you guys!!!
If only I could be a hired gun for a couple of days. I would retire.
Maybe I'll break my shoulder and when it heals all of the muscles will be super tight and I'll be able to throw 99mph like in that movie "Rookie of the Year". That would be great.
THIS IS OUR PROBLEM THIS SEASON, NOT SAMMY'S SLUMP.one bad call, or a lucky break by the opposing team and Dusty and the team loose thier cool. Arguing a bad call is fine, but its better to rise above it and hit the next pitch, strike out the next batter, whatever.
This is what teams like the Cardinals have been able to do all season. And this is why we loose to them. Sure, there are other problems, like trying for homers when you should be trying for base hits, but this is what irks me most about the Cubs this season.
(Or last season... 5 outs to the world series and a fan intercepts a would be out. NO PROBLEM. GET THE NEXT OUT. but no, they loose thier cool, and let games slip away from them.)
Did anyone catch Dusty Stengel's response to questions about moving The Gladiator lower in the order?Hang on, whilst I search for it;
Sosa met with Baker after being informed by a reporter that Baker said he was "sensitive" and that he wouldn't drop Sosa in the order because "you just can't lose him psychologically and spiritually."
After Wednesday night's game, Sosa said the meeting was "personal" and declined to discuss it. He doesn't want the focus to be on his relationship with Baker.
"I don't know what to tell you," Sosa said. "It's something I'm kind of surprised at. I've just got to continue to play hard, and that's it ... I don't need to make a comment on whatever happened outside the lines."
There's a good point in tomorrow's Tribune about Scott Rolen making room for Larry Walker to hit in his accustomed spot because it hopefully meant more chances for the team to perform and to win.
Sosa's still having a good season, but he is in quite the slump, punctuated by the occasional meaningless 460-ft home run. Then today, who is it who pulls the Cubs ahead with a 2-run shot. The "other guy", the one getting all the roars these days? Sometimes it ain't easy being a gladiator, folks.
Forget bringing Vince Coleman in (which is paying off). Hendry needs to lock the players in a room with Banks and Santo. By the time Banks is done being endlessly optimistic and Santo has whacked them all over the head with his legs because he's so disgusted at their collective lack of effort this season, I'll have enough time to find Hank Aaron, kidnap him, and Hammerin' Hank, Willie Mays, and I will "explain" to Dusty Berra the concept of a "walk" and "on-base percentage".
are only 5 1/2 games behind the evil empire!
But the evidence of the Red Sox being such a streaky team points in the direction of the wild-card, which is not a sure thing, given the three-way dogfight that is the AL West. On the other hand, if collective prayer works, the city of Boston woke up to the Yankees just creeping into view and headed for early Mass to light a candle before work....I'm more worried about Dusty and his inability to see that taking a walk and getting on base leads to runs being scored . . .and there's that nagging Mark Prior concern. . . .
There are currently two schools of offensive strategy in baseball.1. Old School - As made popular by Tom Kelly, Larry Bowa, and Connie Mack.
This style features lots of bunts, hit-and-runs, and stolen bases. Ideally, the inning starts with a single. The runner steals second. Is sac bunted to third. So then you have two out to get that runner home. Either a sac-fly, suicide squeeze, single up the middle, etc.
This offensive style typically yields low runs, so you need good pitching and defense to make it work.
2. New School - As made popular by Earl Weaver.
Hit three-run homers.
This offensive style typically produces a large amount of runs, but will only do so in clumps, usually when up against poor pitching. It doesn't require good defense or pitching.
Good managers are often excellent at appraising available talent and building a comprehensive strategy around said talent. Dusty Baker has never shown himself to be capable of doing this. Neither has Larry Bowa. Tony LaRussa is excellent at doing this.
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Dave
I agree with you there, Shred. Excellent summary.The "Moneyball" strategy--high on-base percentage guys clogging up the bases for power hitters to drive in-- is but a variation of ole No.2, with elements of Number One.
This year's Cardinals have shown themselves capable of doing both. What's interesting is that there's a perception that Number One is a "National League" type strategy and Number Two is an "American League"-type strategy, due to the presence of the DH, a guy whose existence can be solely argued is to hit home runs.
Lt.Yeah, it is interesting to trace the evolution of the DH. Ron Blomberg, the first DH, was a heavy handed, slow, defensive liability for the New York Yankees. His name didn't exactly strike fear into the hearts of any pitchers.
Now, if a rookie has pure stick, teams won't even try to develop his defensive skills.
If the National League ever adopts the DH, I hope they re-raise the mound to restore some of the competitive balance of the game.
As much as I don't like the DH, some of my favorite players in days of old were Designated Hitters. Dave "The Cobra" Parker, Don Baylor, and even Kent Hrbek, who was an excellent fielding first basemen, spent their last days in the DH role.
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Dave
I'm currently enamored of Rondell White, and Sosa the Gladiator's on a slippery slope towards DH, as is Moises Alou . . .I'm not fond of the DH either. There was an excellent article a few days back on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about how Pittsburgh had accepted back Dave Parker (and of course, saying that they could, if they could learn not to hate Parker, there was a lot less reason to not accept back Barry Bonds).
I also cannot stand Tony LaRussa. Ever since I read "Men at Work". I have got to get my first edition of that signed by George Will sometime, though I don't think we travel in the same circles.
It's about time for Phil to interrupt this conversation with an update on the BoSox, so I'll sign off--I am enjoying this discussion much however.
Vaya con Dios, LT.
9-1 out of there last 10!
now they are 4.5 behind the yanks!
the 87 twins just beat the 2003 yankees 4-1! shed and lieutenant we should play!
not only did the bosox beat the angels tonight putting them up 2.5 games up on them in the wild card but, the yankees lost to the indians 22-0 which puts the sox only 3.5 behind in the division!!!!
Thanks to my roster being half Erie Warriors, I briefly crawled out of dead last in the ole North Park Rotisserie Baseball League.
!
it's now two and a half!!!!!!!!!!!!!
here's hoping!
The Curse of Kevin Brown. What an idiot. Makes me, as an inveterate Yankee-hater, laugh.
Just wondering: How can the Cubs, with that pitching staff, be 14-23 in one-run games? If they don't make the playoffs, that will be the stat that defined their season. ..
Cannot--just cannot--in those situations, play small ball, advance runners, and get the tying run from second with a long single, a double.Instead their runner languishes on first (perhaps moving to second on a groundout or a sacrifice bunt) while the succession of sluggers attempt to hit a two-run homer. AND NONE OF THEM TAKE A WALK, BECAUSE IT WOULD JUST 'CLOG UP THE BASES'.
It also is worth mentioning that Hawkins is a three-run closer; he needs all three runs of the save statistic to get the save; he needs a cushion.
Those poor Expos. They are my favorite team. I wish I could have been in Chicago this weekend to catch their latest beating...instead...I caught it on ESPN.
in case you needed more reason to hate the yankees!
i didn't think they could get any slimierthank you Mr. Commissioner!
The art of stealing a base has gone the way of the dinosaur in modern baseball and that is a shame. Perhaps the only element of the game that is as exciting as the triple, swiping a base here and there used to be able to keep a player on the payroll. John Cangelosi, Otis Nixon, Stan Javier, and Mookie Wilson were all able to justify their roster spots due to speed and good baserunning skills. If you had film of yourself getting from 1st to 3rd on a single more than 5 times in a season, you bettered your chances to win an arbitration hearing.What I don't understand is that if ball players are getting themselves totally roided out (Giambi's pituitary tumor was most likely brought on from using Human Growth Horomone), why the speed numbers haven't also increased. With more and more baseball players taking on the physical characteristics of football players, it bewilders me. Warren Sapp could probably steal more bases than your average major league baseball player.
Is this speed drought consistent with the one that afflicted baseball in the 50s and 60s?
Rickey Henderson's achievements stand out more and more when compared to current players. I would even put him on my short list for the generic Best Baseball Player (Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, Ted Williams...) Argument.
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Dave
the iowa cubs clinched the pacific coast league title when colorado springs lost the other day. My family and gretchen went to a game last saturday, but left in the sixth inning when they had a twelve run lead...and because they never shot any hotdogs or tshirts in our direction (just kidding).
Moises Alou just got doubled off second again. He's a 15-year veteran of the major leagues. No doubt the TV broadcast announcers were responsible for this, as they were Mike Remlinger (a player I normally have the utmost respect for) walking three men last night, or Kent Mercker's 1 every 3 innings meltdowns....You know something Moises? When I can run bases and coach baserunners better than you, YOU HAVE NO F'IN RIGHT TO CRITICIZE A FORMER MAJOR LEAGUE PLAYER SAYING THAT YOU HAVE MADE TERRIBLE DECISIONS. Last I looked there was the highest award for individual achievement by a pitcher on Mr. Stone's mantel, and no individual achievement awards on yours. I grant you your '97 Series ring
I can't do this anymore. I can't watch the Cubs. This is a guy who watched all those 95-loss season saying this. I watched the Tom Trebelhorn, Don Baylor, and Jim Riggleman years!! I can't stand their whining--it's never their fault they lose (except Maddux, and Barrett), the umps robbed them, Chip Caray doesn't praise them enough, Steve Stone says the Cubs are playing terrible.... I can't take this anymore. Go Red Sox!
but, the cubbies better win both tomarrow or it's going to be a very long day. erik (oldpossum) and i are going to the game friday(today) doubleheader. if it's like weds. night i think might start killing them selves.
Has never gone a season without hitting at least one triple.Dang.
That's a good stat.
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Dave
i've always wondered this. what's the difference between a ticket scalper, and a ticket broker? Besides the street?
The ticket firms have licenses to do business in the city, and renew them annually--complying with the city and state codes about ticket sales. Some of the brokers on the street technically--the ones on the steps--are "on" their premises, and therefore not "scalping".
Scalpers have more style but less teeth than a ticket broker.btr
Dave
Now what was that score?
and now it's 2 & 1/2
damn yankees!
clinched a winning record for the second straight year. Sounds like a pretty minor accomplishment but it's the first time they've done it in over 30 years. '71-'72 was the last time. They actually had a winning record from '67-'72. Prior to that was '45-'46, a nice stretch from '26-'39, '22-'24, '18-'19, and another nice run from '03-'14.For my curiosity I dumped the win-loss records into excel. cubs total win-loss record 1903-2003: 7925-7441 (.506) From 1953-2003 it's not so pretty: 3771-4277 (.469).
saw the twins clitch last night at the cell. it was the first time i've been to the ball park the sox play at. it's wierd. i guess i've been spoiled go to fenway and wriggley. and maybe i was too young but, from what i remember i think i even like the metrodome better than the cell.
The Cell is definitely my least favorite between the Cell, Wrigley, the Metrodome, County Stadium (old Brewers) and Miller Park (new brewers). County may actually be my second favorite, next to Wrigley. And Miller Park gives you faith that man may one day be able to build giant space-arks that can cruise distant galaxies in search of new habitable planets. I mean that in a good way.
i've been to the royals park too in KC. very 80's but, even though it's still nice. great food options, fish and veggie burgers. good quality food. better than the cell. hell, the flyers have a better park the the sox.
The Dome?The Dome is a pit.
County ruled. It looked like like a scrap metal junkyard from the outside and then you got inside and it was beautiful.
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Dave
All of you seriously need to pile in some dilapidated vehicle and hie thine selves to PNC Park. Park at Station Square on the Monogahela and take the ferry past the point where the three rivers join and to PNC on the north bank of the Allegheny. Just incredible.Miller does look like a space ark landed just to the north of Milwaukee's city center, doesn't it? Next to the State Fair? Look, Klaatu, bratwurst! Land there immediately!
Seriously... watch what you say until you come to the Cell. Yeah, that is exactly what I liked about County stadium. My mom and dad drove down and I came up with my sister who was visiting and we caught a game there a couple years ago... it was the last year that County was open. I also like that Milwaukee county built it to "attract" interest in a team. Nowadays ball clubs require you to spend enough money to land a man on the surface of Jupiter in order to make them happy.Lt: Yeah -- I like Miller -- don't get me wrong. But it is awe inspiring to me, it's so huge. I can also imagine this conversation:
Klaatu, now that we have procured our cured meats, we must make our attack. Lord Ditka was forced to make a crash landing in Chi-ca-go and we must strike before their shield generator comes back online. Many Daleys died to bring us this information. Lock roof foils in attack position.
wrigley is certainly the best. the "cell" as you refer to it, was a nice place at one time, when i was a kid and didn't realise how cold it was, like a big cement bowl. I think though, that the old comisky park was a wonderland. I think it had more character than even wrigley field, but it's gone now, so it doesn't count.
I'm rolling around on the floor. That was hilarious.Also,
Space Minion"Lord Klaatu, the human negotiator has arrived." Klaatu: "We don't want nobody nobody sent."
Went to Bewers/Astros in Miller today with Pedro and Mrs. Pedro and Dogman and Mrs. Dogman and Crystal.Good game, good friends, hassled by the man, Daddy-man took away a guy's beer and had to duck a punch, guys taking away T-shirts from little kids, and the Brewers scored 7 runs, bringing their season total to 8.
btr
Dave
has to go.
And it's always fun to see the Brew Crew win. Of course, I'll be paying for my next winning brewers ticket with Social Security checks.
but have any of you been to SBC park in San Francisco? Now that's a nice fricken stadium, don't get me wrong it's no Wrigley, but it's damn nice for a new stadium!
While he was in Minnesota, LaTroy was known as Heart-Attack Hawkins due to his need to walk the bases loaded before he could start throwing strikes. I once saw him walk the bases loaded on 12 pitches, then get a DP and a K to end the inning.And the Brewers scored 8 runs on Saturday, bringing the season total to 9.
And also, Geoff Jenkins looks like Brett Favre.
btr
Dave
We need to get Dusty some enabler's class therapy and soon....
Looks like I'll be gettign to watch the Cubs at RFK next year blow one-run games to a mediocre team! It's kind of cool but then you realize that DC will be shelling out $400mil for a new stadium when the schools are falling apart and there's a need for a new hospital. But than I remember that I'll be able to hop on metro and go watch Cubs load the bases with no outs and score only one run. I hope they call the team the Senators which would funny because DC residents could say we may not have a senator, but we have the senators.
cubs are going to lose another one in extra innings after not begin able to put runners in scoring position across home plate.
@#$!@#%!@#$%!#$%#@$!@!!!!!!
wanna talk about it.
in better news i bought tickets to game one in minnesota yesterday.
I'm used to this by now.
twins win in yankee stadium 2-0!!!!!!! i'm going to the game on friday at the dome. wow i love playoff ball. wish we have some in chicago.
Yeah!Twins in the thick of it!
Seligs out of the Brewer Bidness!
Now, if only Wotan would grant my wish and strike Bud down with a volley of lightning bolts...
btr
Dave
I would just like to take a minute to shake my fist at the Yankees.*shakes fist*
Ok, you may now return to your regularly scheduled BBS.
I hope you guys saw this game tonight! Boston takes game 4 away from the yanks in the 12th inning, 6-4. First time a team has come back from 3 games down in the leage championship since 1910.
i watched it can barely stay awake at work. what a game though. Boston went six innings without allowing a new york run at the end of the game which is amazing considering how the bullpen has just been handing them runs. good times, but i wish i could have slept in this morning.
For turning the game off in the bottom of the 12th, which as we all know, means that Boston would thereby win in the next five minutes, unseen by me.
was one of the best games i've ever seen.
video of the game
5-4 Sox in the bottom of the 14th!
we live to fight another day!!!!!!!
i have this bad feeling it's going to be a sad day in boston tomorrow. sure hope they prove me wrong.
last night was crazy drama. man, i hate a-rod!! i'm soo, glad the umps made the right call's. then we would really be talking curse.
Curt Schilling postgame quotes
Pitcher taks about the win, steps taken to treat his ankle
Q. You heard Terry; how much did it hurt to pitch with your ankle like that?
CURT SCHILLING: Well, I don't know that pain was the thing.
Seven years ago I became a Christian, and tonight God did something amazing for me. I tried to be as tough as I could, and do it my way, Game 1, and I think we all saw how that turned out. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to do this alone. And I prayed as hard as I could. I didn't pray to get a win or to make great pitches. I just prayed for the strength to go out there tonight and compete, and He gave me that. I can't explain to you what a feeling it was to be out there and to feel what I felt.
Q. From the time period over the last game you pitched, besides them working on the injury, did you also change your pitching style a little where you were coming more from the arm and not so much from the leg?
CURT SCHILLING: No, I tried not to. My goal was to try and get this to the point that I could compete and use my normal stuff. Dr. Morgan, Jim Rowe, this training staff was just phenomenal, the things they did for me over the last four, five, six days, I would not have gone out there. I would not have been able to go out there had he not come up with the plan that we ended up executing.
My goal was to pitch as normal as I could pitch.
Q. When you arrived at the minor league complex in Spring Training in Fort Myers, did you have a vision how October would play out and does this in any way approach that vision?
CURT SCHILLING: I had an idea of how I wanted it to play, I'm sure. I had no idea it would play out this way.
I am so freaking proud to be a part of this team. My teammates, Bronson Arroyo, Wakefield, Keith Foulke, Bellhorn, all of the experts in Boston and half the guys and the girls in the Boston media on the bench wins us a game tonight. These guys are phenomenal. I'm just so proud to be a part of this team. We just did something that has never been done yet. It ain't over yet. It ain't over by any stretch against this team and this organization. We have as much respect for them as any organization in the game.
I'm feeling pretty special about being a part of this club right now.
Q. Did the stitches that Terry talked about allow you to pitch without pain?
CURT SCHILLING: Yeah, I couldn't wear the high tops because they were putting too much pressure on the stitches around the sutured area.
What they did is my tendon is out, it is subluxed or dislocated. To avoid having it popping in and out, they sutured the skin down to something in between the two tendons to keep the tendon out. And it worked.
Q. Was that the color or blood we saw on your sock and is this a procedure that can be done again if you pitch again?
CURT SCHILLING: There's a little -- I think there's a little bit of blood on my sock but that's just from the area.
Yeah, we will do it again if we can find a way to pull this out tomorrow. We'll do it again for the World Series.
The Red Sox won 10-3 over the Yankees tonight! They're going to the world series. Johnny Damon whopped his slump out of the park with a grand slam and a walkoff homer!
RED SOX WIN!
RED SOX WIN!
RED SOX WIN!
RED SOX WIN!
RED SOX WIN!
RED SOX WIN!
RED SOX WIN!
RED SOX WIN!>BR>RED SOX WIN!
RED SOX WIN!
RED SOX WIN!
RED SOX WIN!
RED SOX WIN!
RED SOX WIN!
RED SOX WIN!
RED SOX WIN!
i am one of the many happiest men on earth!!!!!!!!!!!!
jesus is just alright with me-dobbie brothers.
wwjd- what would johnny do!!!!!!!
Congrats PhilPretty big strike zone last night...
btr
Dave
I felt that way about both game 6 and 7.
I didn't feel like it was unfair towards one team or another. I guess to be honest I noticed it more in game 6 and not so much in game 7.
...Baseball thought it was probably better for Baseball if the Yanks gajillion dollar payroll didn't get the close calls.BUT, even if the Umps did conference and say no close ones for the Yanks, the Umps couldn't help Mullethead Damon club a grand salami.
314 is a very short porch in right. The Yanks have lived by it, but the Sox got a taste this time around, thus the Ouroboros of Baseball continues.
btr
Dave
got a couple hundred dollars they want to give me so i can buy tix down in st. louis?
Cubs decide not to pick up his option, eh?That's interesting...
btr
Dave
bet he'll go to san fran.
Cubs should cut him...McPhail should make T.K. an offer...
btr
Dave
i really didn't think that the cards would go down 3 in a row. anyways i will be at mullens next to goose tomarrow night to possibly see the bosox actually win the w.s. anyone is well to come. i will be running around wrigglyville in my underwear banging pots and pans if they win!!!!
also in bosox news the cubbies will host the red sox june 10-13 next season and then go to yankee stadium the following weekend. how cool is that!!!!!
will be in yankee stadium, to make that clear.
in DC on May 13 for 3 games!
true origins of the curse
There is indeed joy in Mudville!! This is a good omen.
i did my lap around wrigleyville in my underwear, banging pots and pans. man, i haven't ran that much in a longt time. my chest hurts. anyways i'm still a little loopy. but, in the end all i can say is... i don't knopw what to do with myself now? do i become a bigger cub fan? i don't think so. i will alway cheer the bosox first and foremost. it's a odd feeling. which has got to be alot wierder for a whole lot of othe rred sox fans that have loved them a whole hell of alot longer than i have but, still.... i don't really know what to do other than be happy that i got to see "it."
Seriously,I've never cared much about the Red Sox. Even when they had Clemens, Boggs, Ellis Burks, Mike Greenwell, Jodi Reed, and Lee Smith, they never did anything for me.
BUT, I am glad to see them win the World Series.
btr
Dave
PS: Truth be told, I always hated Boggs.
about boggs.
after two great LCS matchups that was a boring world series excepting game one. and now chicago owns the two teams with the longest world series droughts.
Did you see LaRussa after the game? He seriously looked like he wanted to cry... I hope he's not getting fired. I mean, I don't really care about the Cards, but they were obviously The SECOND BEST team in Baseball, LaRussa must be doing something right. The BoSox just totally outgunned them.
I can't stand watching the interviews of the losing team after a big loss like that. I don't think they'll fire him. It was the cardinals bats that choked in the WS not his managing.
Are not clowns.LaRussa's job is fine. The Card's didn't go down in flames from a lack of strategy or poorly executed game plans. They just got punched in the mouth.
Four times.
btr
Dave
Bestest and most succinct game analysis I've ever heard, Dave. The Cubs play-by-play TV gig (and maybe the color spot, too) is open, if you're interested.No more Tim McCarver yea. The only time I've ever agreed with Deion Sanders on anything was when he purposefully tried to blind McCarver with champagne in the locker room once.
The Cards pitching got exposed for the fragile house of cards it really was. Most of their season was built on mystique and psyching opponents out--one of the things LaRussa is famous for.
i really had no big view on chip carey, positive or negative.Steve Stone, on the other hand, I sorta grew up with. i dont really remember seeing him when he started in '83, but i vividly remember watching channel 9 in '84 every single day with him and harry calling the game. having Stone resign because of WGN/Trib/cubs management is almost the last straw for me following this team. I have many bad words to spew at what the cubs represent nowadays. I felt alot better about liking them and following them back when i was 5 years old in '84, or even during their bad years between 85 and 88 and the early 90s, than siding with them now even when they're a competitive team. i hate the fans at the games, i hate the greediness, and with them causing stone to resign....i wish they were still losers in the mid 80s
Someone recap what happened, or post a link.About the WS and the repeated mouth-punching of the Cards by the BoSox -- basically, the ALCS was the World Series this year. As it unexpectedly turned out, the WS happened to be exhibition.
Is that he was a good glove/no stick middle infielder during his career, and thus always has one or two good glove/no stick middle infielders on his roster.btr
Dave
Steve Stone resigns
it is a real shame what the tribsters did to stoney.
with reality.It happens to everyone who stumbles through Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Look at Prince.
btr
dave
TOKYO -- A great story line in Boston has now become a global phenomenon. There are no limits, apparently, to the legend of David Ortiz, half-Dominican, half-Godzilla, one monster Big Papi.
While New England slept Friday night, Ortiz hit a shot that won't be heard 'round the world only because it came in the Tokyo Dome, a bubble-roofed edifice known as the Big Egg that nearly cracked from the force of the blow struck by the Red Sox slugger.
Ortiz, in the second game of an eight-game series between major league All-Stars and their Japanese counterparts, hit a home run that struck above a bank of lights where the inflatable roof meets the concrete just inside the right-field foul pole. Estimated distance, according to a press release distributed to the media: 157 meters. Grab the calculator, multiply by 3.28, and you arrive at 514 feet, an outrageous number. That's a dozen feet farther than the red seat in the Fenway Park bleachers marking Ted Williams's longest home run. And it may be dubious, given that it's just 328 feet down the line in the Egg.
But forget the number, and listen to those who witnessed it, including the unfortunate Japanese pitcher, a submarining mushballer named Shunsuke Watanabe, who threw a 3-and-0 fastball that Ortiz sent on a course traversed very few times before.
"It felt like he hit the ball almost twice the length of the stadium," said Watanabe, who had kept the major leaguers off-balance with an assortment of slow and slower changeups thrown from an arm angle that requires him to practically scrape his right knuckles across the mound. "Since the count was 3-and-0, I knew I could not walk him, so I threw a fastball knowing he might hit it. I saw one of the greatest home runs in the world."
While the pitcher recoiled in shock, Watanabe's teammates tumbled out of the dugout to get a better view of the home run, which came in the fourth inning of a game won by the major leaguers, 5-3, giving them back-to-back wins in the first two games. Ortiz was named Most Important Player in the first game for his game-tying, two-run single, for which he won a 300,000 yen prize, roughly $2,900. For Most Incredible Player last night, there were no prizes, just words of wonderment.
"In one way, I'm glad it was a dome, so you could see where it hit, but in another way you wish it wasn't a dome so you could see where it would have landed," said Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson. "I talked to David. He said it landed right after the game, in the Dominican. So the ball's waiting for him when he gets home.
"Have I ever seen a ball hit farther? No, I play in Pittsburgh, and if he hits that in Pittsburgh, it's halfway across the river. I would have loved to have seen that in Boston."
Bruce Bochy, the manager of the major league stars, was in San Diego managing the Padres the night that Barry Bonds hit a ball off the center-field scoreboard in Qualcomm Stadium, a home run that until last night he considered the longest he'd ever seen. No more.
"This was definitely up there with the ball Bonds hit," Bochy said. "The thing is, it looked like it was still going when it hit. I think it was farther than the ball Bonds hit. It's hard to judge when you hit a ball in a dome, but that was right there with Bonds.
"He's awesome. Manny [Ramirez], both of them have been great. To come here and be as enthusiastic as they have says a lot about them."
Ortiz chose to pass on expounding on his home run. Through PR man Tim Hevly, he issued a short statement. "I'm a big guy. I got a fastball out front with full extension. That's what happens. It was a 3-and-0 fastball right down the middle."
Ramirez had the night off. Vernon Wells, the Toronto Blue Jays' center fielder, was on deck when Ortiz connected.
"I was thinking, `3-and-0, man, he might swing here, and if he does, it could be damage,' " Wells said. "When he hit it, you could do nothing but just laugh.
"I'd like to see where that goes in Fenway Park. I couldn't say anything to him. I laughed. I went to give him a knuckle after he hit it and he said, `That's how we do it right there, Papi.' Just funny.
"He's a strong man. He's one of the best hitters in the game. I think he showed it in the playoffs and he's showing it here."
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) - Brian Cashman wanted to make this perfectly clear: The umpires were correct when they called Alex Rodriguez out for interference on that crazy play during the AL championship series."They got it completely right, 100 percent," the New York Yankees' general manager said this week. "But you would hate to have a game, or a series or even a season come down to a play where they miss it and instant replay could have helped," he said. "So as far as instant replay, I'm in favor of it." The umpires made the right call on this play, deciding Alex Rodriguez was out. Instant replay might have made the decision easier. (Doug Pensinger / GettyImages)
Now, after a pennant race and postseason dotted with reversed rulings, baseball will get another chance to see who else wants to give replay a look.
The topic is on the agenda for Thursday at the GM meetings. And there seems to be growing support among teams to join the NFL, NBA and NHL in using instant replay on calls such as fair or foul and homer or not, but definitely not balls and strikes.
"I think its time has come," Milwaukee assistant Gord Ash said. "The technology has improved and is there. I think there's a place for it."
Even if replay comes up for a formal vote - it did not go very far last year when GMs debated it - there's no assurance it would show up during games anytime soon.
"I don't see it," Bob Watson, vice president of on-field operations, said Wednesday. "And I don't think the commissioner is in favor of it, either."
Earlier in the day, GMs were briefed on plans to play a spring training game next March in Athens - Baltimore probably would be involved - and efforts to hold a World Cup-style tournament in early 2006.
They also talked about letting teams trade first-round draft choices and were told to be vigilant in verifying the ages of players signed in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
But with so many procedural issues to sift through this week, the prospect of adding instant replay is intriguing.
The Cincinnati Reds asked that replay be included on the agenda. Their executives have talked about it internally for a couple of years, and they've heard from other clubs lately.
"I think there seems to be some level of understanding that getting the play right is what underscores this thought process," Reds GM Dan O'Brien said. "I don't think any of us have any idea of a timetable."
Said Brad Kullman, the Reds' director of major league operations: "It doesn't make sense that you might have a million fans out there watching on TV and knowing what happened while the umpires huddle without that benefit." That said, there's no guarantee that umpires would want it.
"My sense is no," said former ump Richie Garcia, now an umpire supervisor. "I think we'd be fooling around with something that would take away from the game. "Baseball is very traditional, but I'm not going to rule it out," he said.
Garcia worried that not every ballpark would be equipped with equal cameras to show replays from all angles. He also said he thought the concept of umpires huddling on close calls helped "take away the idea of instant replay."
Garcia was involved in one of the most disputed calls in October memory. He was working the right-field line in the 1996 ALCS when young fan Jeffrey Maier reached over the wall and grabbed the ball before Baltimore's Tony Tarasco could make a play, and it wound up as a home run for Derek Jeter.
This year, the umps eventually did make the right calls in key spots at the end of the year.
In mid-September, Manny Ramirez circled the bases after his drive to left field was ruled fair. Moments later, the umpires correctly said the Boston star's shot hooked foul.
In Game 6 of the ALCS, Mark Bellhorn's drive to left field was originally ruled in play after it hit a fan in the front row at Yankee Stadium. After the umpires got together, it was rightly called a home run.
Later in that game, Rodriguez wound up on second base after he swatted at Boston pitcher Bronson Arroyo's arm and knocked the ball loose. After all six umpires huddled, plate umpire Joe West said he had a better view than first-base ump Randy Marsh and called Rodriguez out.
New Seattle manager Mike Hargrove thinks replay on such plays might help. "They got it right with A-Rod, but it could be a benefit," he said. "I mean, I don't want to see us spend 15 minutes waiting on whether a ball is fair or foul. And not on balls and strikes. But I could see it happening on selected plays."
Atlanta GM John Schuerholz looked forward to Thursday morning's debate. "I think it's an appropriate topic to discuss," he said. "With modern technology, it's worth talking about.
"I'm not sure how I ultimately feel about it," he said. "But I'm open-minded, and want to hear what people have to say."
It's official. The DC club is officially the Washington Nationals (logo). Now if only they can get the city council to pass a stadium resolution. And, Cubs in town May 13, 14, 15
...that a rebirth of the Senators would have been cooler.
RAD!
there is just something about leaving the name in the past. i would have been pissed if they had used the senators but, i'm glad they didn't. my vote was for the washington puppets.
The Supreme Court
ba dunk ch ( drum hit - cymbal hit )
the strangeloves!the obelisks!
the masons!
the illuminati!
WILLOWBROOK, ILL. -- A complete set of 1914 Cracker Jack baseball cards featuring "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and Ty Cobb has been sold for a record $800,000.
The cards were in pristine condition, said Doug Allen, president of MastroNet Inc., an auction house in this Chicago suburb. He said the previous record for a complete set of baseball cards was $360,000.
"Condition and rarity are what make high-grade cards, and this particular collection was fortunate to have both," Allen said this week.
The New York woman -- who along with the buyer asked to remain anonymous -- found the 144-card set with 2,500 other baseball cards in a shoe box in her home. The cards originally belonged to her uncle, who died during World War II, and the woman's father kept them until his death last year, Allen said.
The set did not have the usual caramel stains found on many Cracker Jack cards, and included a rare Christy Mathewson card that looks "like it was printed yesterday," Allen said.
Sportscard Guaranty, which evaluated the cards for authenticity and quality, called the set "monumental."
Free agent shortstop agrees to one-year contract. Shortstop Nomar Garciaparra will play another season for the Cubs. (Darren Hauck/AP)
CHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs reached an agreement Tuesday on a one-year contract with free agent Nomar Garciaparra, and were still optimistic they could sign the other half of the middle infield, second baseman Todd Walker.
Tuesday was the last date for teams to offer their declared free agents arbitration. If the Cubs refused to make an offer, they would lose the right to re-sign or negotiate with the player until May 1. It effectively ends a player's relationship with his 2004 team.
Once offered arbitration, players have until Dec. 19 to accept or reject salary arbitration. If the player accepts arbitration, he will return to the team for at least one year. If he rejects arbitration, the team can continue negotiations until Jan. 8. Perhaps more importantly, by offering arbitration, a club receives draft pick compensation if the player is signed by another team.
Garciaparra made $11.5 million in 2004, and the Cubs wanted to sign the shortstop for less with incentives.
Acquired July 31 in a four-team deal, Garciaparra batted .297 in 43 games for the Cubs with four homers and 20 RBIs. He missed the first 57 games with the Boston Red Sox because of an Achilles problem, and needs to show he's healthy to gain a long-term deal for 2006 and beyond. A healthy Garciaparra batted .301 with 28 homers and 105 RBIs in 2003.
The Cubs did not announce decisions yet on free agents Todd Hollandsworth, Paul Bako, Matt Clement, Tom Goodwin, Ramon Martinez, Mike DiFelice, Ben Grieve and Kent Mercker.
The Chicago Cubs filled their middle infield Tuesday by signing Garciaparra and Walker each to one-year contracts. Garciaparra's deal calls for an $8 million base salary with a combination of performance bonuses for games started and plate appearances.
Walker will receive $2.5 million in 2005 and there is a vesting option for 2006 based on plate appearances. Garciaparra and Walker were teammates in Boston in 2003 when the Red Sox were five outs away from reaching the World Series. The shortstop called Walker on Tuesday shortly before the second baseman signed.
"We just said, 'Let's get after it like we did two years ago,'" Walker said. "Hopefully it goes one series longer. Nomar's a super guy and obviously a great talent and it should be a lot of fun."
"I felt that Chicago was the best place for me to be to continue my career," Garciaparra said Tuesday. "I loved playing there, I loved the experience I had there. The fans are tremendous, the organization is first class."
The Cubs acquired Garciaparra on July 31 in a four-team deal, and he batted .297 in 43 games with four homers and 20 RBIs. He started the season with Boston and missed the first 57 games because of an Achilles problem. Garciaparra also was sidelined with the Cubs because of a sore groin and wrist.
"This is a great, great player," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said. "Unfortunately, we saw a good player, but we didn't see the Nomar that we all know when he's completely healthy.
"You have a guy who plays the game the right way," Hendry said. "He plays hard all the time. He's a good teammate and a great example for younger players. He's our kind of player as far as effort and attitude."
Tuesday was the last date for teams to offer their declared free agents arbitration. If the Cubs declined to make an offer, they would lose the right to re-sign or negotiate with the player until May 1.
Once offered arbitration, players have until Dec. 19 to accept or reject salary arbitration. If the player accepts arbitration, he will return to the team for at least one year. If he rejects arbitration, the team can continue negotiations until Jan. 8. Perhaps more importantly, by offering arbitration, a club receives draft pick compensation if the player is signed by another team.
The Cubs did offer arbitration to pitcher Matt Clement, but not to Moises Alou, Ramon Martinez, Tom Goodwin, Mark Grudzielanek, Mike DiFelice, Ben Grieve or Kent Mercker. Hendry said he would make a decision on free agents Todd Hollandsworth and Paul Bako by the 11 p.m. CT deadline Tuesday.
"We're very grateful for what [Alou] has done, but we've decided to move in another direction in left field," Hendry said of the veteran, who hit 39 homers and drove in 106 runs.
Clement has received multi-year offers from other teams, and if he does sign elsewhere, the Cubs would be compensated by a draft pick.
Garciaparra was only with the Cubs for two months, but felt right at home.
"Ever since Nomar got here, he was happy to be here," Hendry said. "He was genuine and sincere about how well he was received by the fans. There was a lot of good will between himself and Dusty [Baker, Cubs manager] and his teammates."
The Cubs medical staff examined Garciaparra, and Hendry met personally with the shortstop to see for himself that he was healthy.
"He's very optimistic that he's going to have a banner year and is excited about it," Hendry said.
"Everyone was saying, 'What you need is rest,' and I've had a lot of rest so far and I've already felt a tremendous difference," Garciaparra said. "I'm back working out and preparing myself for next season. I'm looking forward to putting my Achilles in the past. It was a bump in the road ... The rest of my body is feeling wonderful."
Garciaparra did receive offers from other teams, but wouldn't disclose any details. He had spent his entire career with the Red Sox, and this was his first experience as a free agent.
"I didn't know what to expect," he said. "I just felt that Chicago was the best place for me. I'm hoping to turn this into a long-term relationship."
Plus, Garciaparra is a man of honor. Cubs catcher Michael Barrett gave the shortstop his No. 5 and joked that Garciaparra could have the number if he promised to stay beyond the 2004 season.
"I made a promise to a particular catcher that if I got a particular number that I'd be seriously considering coming back," Garciaparra said.
Anyone who has a Cubs' No. 5 jersey now knows who will be wearing it.
"Both sides agreed that Nomar's value on a multi-year deal would be enhanced by him playing and playing a lot and not being nicked up," Hendry said. "He was very understanding. I think a short-term deal worked for him, too."
Garciaparra would like to see the Cubs end their World Series drought just as his former team, the Red Sox, did in 2004. The Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908, and have not played in one since 1945.
"If I'm not in a World Series, I have a tough time watching a World Series," Garciaparra said. "But I was pulling for my teammates and that city. I have great friends and teammates there and to see them do that was really exciting.
"I was a part of reversing something over there, and I know that," he said. "Here I am in another organization and I want to be a part of reversing that as well. I'll be surrounded by people who have that goal, who want to bring a world championship to a great city."
Walker wanted to stay in Chicago, even though he was seriously considering an offer from the Texas Rangers.
"During the waiting period, in my gut I was scared [the Rangers] were going to give us what we wanted. I knew in my gut I wanted to come back to Chicago," Walker said.
"He's a quality left-handed hitter and a quality makeup guy," Hendry said. "He played a lot better defensively than advertised."
Walker became the starting second baseman when Grudzielanek was sidelined with a sore Achilles, and started 88 games. Grudzielanek made 61 starts at second.
"I said before, I have to get a starting job because it was so difficult last year," Walker said. "Jim Hendry opened the job for me. I felt I earned it last year. I get to play alongside Nomar and I'm comfortable with that. We've had a history together."
Garciaparra is happy, too.
"He's a tremendous bat, he's great on defense," Garciaparra said of Walker. "He's so solid and there's a comfort zone between us, too.
"We had a great year and a great time when we were together in Boston," he said of Walker. "If he's there next year, you'll see a big smile on my face. I'll get to play alongside a great player and good friend."
Also In Cubs News
Cubs agree to terms with BlancoThe Chicago Cubs today agreed to terms with catcher Henry Blanco on a two-year contract for the 2005 season. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Blanco, 33, appeared in 114 games last year with the Minnesota Twins, batting .206 with 10 home runs and 37 RBI. The backstop also spent the 2002-2003 seasons with the Atlanta Braves as Greg Maddux's personal catcher. In 2004, Blanco:
set career-highs in games (114), homers and RBI ... his home run and RBI total ranked 10th and 11th respectively among American League catchers.
compiled a .991 fielding percentage, committing just 7 errors in 737 chances.
threw out 25 of 56 (.446) runners attempting to steal. saw postseason action for the second time in his career, batting .250 (2-for-8) with a home run and 2 RBI in four Division Series games. Blanco is currently playing with Caracas in the Venezuelan Winter League where he is batting .306 (33-108) with 14 extra-base hits and 24 RBIs in 30 games.
In 521 career games behind the plate, Blanco has compiled a .992 fielding percentage (27 E/3389 TC) while throwing out 159 of 388 (.410) runners attempting to steal.
In addition to the Cubs, Blanco has played in the majors with Los Angeles (1997), Colorado (1999), Milwaukee (2000-2001), Atlanta (2002-2003) and Minnesota (2004). He began his professional career in 1990 after being signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Dodgers and made his big league debut in 1997.
how long till baseball season????
Whatever happened with Sammy?
i'm guessing we will be cringing again every shot to right and any time there are men on base with two outs.
hendry wants to deal him but not sure who will be willing to take him on. I'm sure they'd love to ante up for Beltran but Sammy's salary makes that impossible. Plus they've got to find a replacement for Alou and a new closer sure would be nice.Personally I think the Cubs should hang on to Sosa for the final year of his contract because I think they'll have to sacrifice to much to get rid of him. Plus, maybe they'll have a big group hug at spring training and dusty and sammy will kiss and make up. and then sammy will work on his defense and listen to coaches about his swing. and then ryne sandberg retirement along with andre dawson and the cubs will win the world series and celbrate by going to the moon.
There it is. Lukas has now exhibited all the signs of "Waittillnextyear"-itis, a classic disease that has gained resurgence with the lack of hockey this winter.If I have learned one thing about Jim Hendry, it is this; The man is Muhammad Ali. Never count him out.
i thanked McPhail for signing walker today at lunch.
The District of Columbia Council voted 7-6 Tuesday night to approve legislation that would finance construction of a ballpark. But it contained a provision that could cause the baseball commissioner's office to reopen the search for a long-term home for the Expos franchise, which has been tentatively renamed the Nationals.The legislation was amended to require private financing for at least half the stadium construction costs, a provision not contained in the September agreement between baseball and Washington Mayor Anthony A. Williams.
Linda Cropp -- slayer of baseball (but maybe that's not so horrible). Last week she axed a bunch of money out of the stadium package that would have gone towards school improvements and infrastructure and services--items that had been added to sweeten the deal for those not ready to vote on such a sweetheart deal for baseball. Even without those sweeteners the tenative deal still passed. The she went for the jugular and added an amendment that I think is a great idea: private financing for half of the stadium costs. Didn't kill the deal in the city council, but probably will with baseball. DC is a city where the schools are crumbling along with the roads and many of the city's residents lack a nearby hospital. So the city doesn't exactly have $500 mil to drop on a stadium that may not generate the kind of revenue they think it will. I would love to get a team here in DC but the deal the Mayor Williams agreed to was a crappy deal for the city.
City Administrator Robert Bobb said city negotiators were talking with baseball officials, but he didn't expect the owners to accept the change.Hahaha "showgirls"If the law stands, baseball's most likely response would be to have the team play the 2005 season at Washington's RFK Stadium while baseball's search committee resumes negotiations with cities that want the team.
One option could be Las Vegas, which was among the cities competing for the Expos and is still lobbying for a team. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman campaigned at last week's winter meetings, arriving accompanied by showgirls wearing feathered headdresses.
Baseball opponents in Washington said the change makes the deal more equitable.
``All we're asking for is private financing for half the stadium,'' said Councilman Adrian Fenty, who voted against the final legislation. ``That shouldn't be a problem.''
The way the deal was originally set up the new owners paid $3.5 mil in rent and got to keep most of the stadium profits and paid zero towards construction costs. While I'm on a DC baseball kick, let me quote another article written back before the team was named that echos some of my concerns over the new DC team:
Ricos also ties in nicely with the Expos' bilingual history because it's a Spanish word, meaning rich, which is what you'll have to be to get a ticket to that $400 million ballpark the district is going to build for the team.It's also just a good idea generally to be rico if you're living in a place that'll spend $400 million in tax money not on services or education or infrastructure but to build an office building for a company that only employs a couple hundred people. That's not a big company. According to the Census Bureau, in 2001 there were more than 1,900 businesses in the city of Washington that employed more than 500 people. And yet very few publicly financed corporate headquarters are built for them.
And don't forget that the vast majority of a baseball team's payroll goes to players, who all live somewhere else, so most of that money leaves the city. And that every independent study ever made about baseball stadiums says that all the claims about them being economic engines that can revitalize the surrounding area are demonstrably false.
I figure the Nats will play a season in RFK and probably go somewhere else where baseball can get all greedy for a publicly financed boondoggle. I think they will refuse to accept the 1/2 private financing deal whih the city. The deal they mayor got was a bad deal for the city. Rather than amend it without negotiation I think the council should have rejected it outright and started from scratch with MLB. Of course they couldn't do that since Mayor Williams doesn't have the votes in the new council that starts in Jan.
it looks like the bosox have clement!!!! which is good, because it looks like the damn yankees are going to get randy johnson.
looks like things are working out for them now, but i guess we'll see
best thing i heard on the radio this morning: "I hope Bud Selig and Linda Cropp go hand-in-hand and take a tour of DC schools."As much as I think baseball in DC is neato, I also think MLB is a giant rapacious beast and doesn't care about the locale, just the cashmoney. Mayor Williams put the city in a bad spot by negotiating a bad deal so he could be the hero that brought baseball back to DC and the city council didn't have the cojones to stand up to him and reject the deal. At least I'll get to pay high ticket prices to see the cubs get a couple easy wins.
funny stuff
ding dong! sosa's gone!!!!
Samuel, don't let the door hit you in your steroid-bloated ass on the way out.
I realize that Sammy wants out bad and the Cubs want him gone bad but they are going to pay the O's $12.5Mil and all they get is a 2nd basmen who only played 86 games and hit 2 hr...plus a couple minor leaguers?? Heck, if they could have landed Beltran I can see it a little better but now they've got no one for right. But I guess having a no-name utility guy is better than having a petulant cry-baby who might hit 35 home runs.
the hope that they'll sign Magglio, which will help immensely--should he even come back 3/4 of the way.And Jason Dubois had a monster year in Triple A last year, 31 HR and 99 RBI are almost Ruthian in the minor leagues.....
See, we're Cubs fans. Therefore we must hope against reason....
Baseball fans want their favorite players to accomplish super-human things but then expect those players to act like regular joes. That's B.S.And as far as him being a head case, this is not news the same way steroids weren't news. Sammy just didn't become a headcase. He became a headcase *who wasn't producing* on a team that excelled at bedwetting.
There is a direct correlation between Sosa and the Cubs last year and Randy Moss and the Vikings this year. The difference is that when Moss started to Randy-up this year, the real leaders of the Vikes (Culpepper and Birk) stepped up and said, "Ok, ignore Pantsy Walk-out McPotPipe. There are 10 other guys out there on the field. Let's do our jobs."
To my knowledge, that kind of chatter never surfaced in the Cubs locker room. Maybe everyone was too busy burning their sheets and flipping their mattresses.
rats off to ya!
Dave
Who do you like better, the superhuman ballplayers that act like regular joes? Or the superhuman ballplayers who act like spoiled, petulant kids? The greatest thing about Superman is that he uses his powers for good, not evil, even though he could get away with it.The people you really like are the people who produce and manage to be regular people. Johnny Damon is a good example of a guy who is great on the field and seems like a pretty cool Joe off the field. There are other examples. People do make mistakes -- everyone is flawed -- so I'm not asking that every star baseball player also moonlight as Saint Francis of Assisi -- but I heartily disagree that it's BS to expect great players to be great people. I think you should expect everyone to be great people, All-Star baseball players and your local garbage men included. Otherwise, you're just making excuses for people to not be. "Oh, well, he's our best hitter so we let him act like a child." Why do we not hold our idols to our own codes of conduct? Is it because deep down we don't want to be held to that code but we are, and we resent it, and since we idolize them the least we can do is excuse their ridiculous behavior (and feel jealous that we can't act the same way)?
I agree that Sammy didn't become a headcase overnight, and I agree that it doesn't seem like there was anyone in the Cubs organization who stepped up... but the stuff he pulled this year definitely tops the stuff he's done in the past and add that to the fact that he wasn't producing, and Cubs fans just got tired of it -- again, nobody's asking him to be a saint... they're just asking him to not be a baby.
they are used to gamers not ego's. like cal ripkin. sosa is going to have to change his ways or he'll be hearing so boos all over again.
"but I heartily disagree that it's BS to expect great players to be great people. I think you should expect everyone to be great people, All-Star baseball players and your local garbage men included. Otherwise, you're just making excuses for people to not be. 'Oh, well, he's our best hitter so we let him act like a child.'"Once you drop a truckload of cash in someone's front yard, you lose any rights to expectation.
"Who do you like better, the superhuman ballplayers that act like regular joes? Or the superhuman ballplayers who act like spoiled, petulant kids?"
I don't really care for either. My favorite player was a recovered drug addict who spent the second half of his career as a DH, sitting down for 95% of the games he played in. Neither super-human nor petulant. My second favorite player of all time could've been one of the greatest, but remained true to his love of beer drinking and duck hunting when everyone around him was running to Jesus to make them worse ball players but better people.
My point is, if you want to watch superhuman ballplayers who act like regular joes, don't watch major league baseball.
A majority of Cubs fans loved Sammy when he was juiced up and hitting 60 bombs a year. In fact, I seem to remember MLB putting crowns on him and Mac as the "saviors" of baseball. People *rushed back to the game they had left curbside after the strike because the game was exciting again. Juiced or not, Sammy had the single best 5 years of baseball EVER. How many children born in Chicago between the years of 1997 and 2002 were named "Sam" or "Samuel" or "Samantha"?
Yet, he had to *ask for the "C"?
Why?
Why put a camera on a guy in the dugout after he strikes out with the bases loaded?
Because the Cubs have "The Thing". Everyone in the organization has it, from the chewing gum barons in the front office to the guys who hose off the vomit from the wrigley bleachers to schmoes who liquidate their childrens college fund for season tickets. They can't send it down to the minors, trade it, or get shots to cure it.
If MLB, Chicago, and Cubs fans want to take a dump on the guy, that's their business. They better remember to whipe.
rats off to ya!
Dave
!
But the Cubs, as an organization, are dumb.And being a Cubs fan has the aesthetic of dumb written all over it.
"I'm going to cheer for a team best known for not winning."
This defies all kinds of logic.
Here's something else that has me scratching my head. Sammy had to ask to be made team captain and get the C on his jersey. But look at his numbers from 1997 through 2002
Year Ag G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG 1997 28 162 642 90 161 31 4 36 119 45 174 .251 .300 .480 1998 29 159 643 134 198 20 0 66 158 73 171 .308 .377 .647 1999 30 162 625 114 180 24 2 63 141 78 171 .288 .367 .635 2000 31 156 604 106 193 38 1 50 138 91 168 .320 .406 .634 2001 32 160 577 146 189 34 5 64 160 116 153 .328 .437 .737 2002 33 150 556 122 160 19 2 49 108 103 144 .288 .399 .594
*Why wasn't he made the captain in 2000 without having to ask?*
What more did he have to do?
He was in his prime putting up phenomenal numbers.
HE SAVED BASEBALL!
He created gate at Wrigley, helped move Cubs merchandise, and helped with MLBaseball's T.V. revenue.
And yet because he never delivered World Series Bling, like Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, Andre "The Hawk" Dawson, Lee Smith, Greg Maddux, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Ernie Banks, Fergie Jenkins, Ralph Kiner, Chuck Klein, Leo Durocher, Gabby Hartnet, and ROGERS F-ING HORNSBY, he has somehow earned disrespect.
Is it more likely that the Cubs never made Sammy Sosa their Captain until he asked for it because they evaluated him and determined that he did not have Captain type qualities OR is it more likely that the Cubs dropped the ball because that's their thing? That's what they do?
Even the way they made him a captain has all the smatterings of amateur hour. 4 Co-Captains? Whoof.
Anyway, now that I've pretty much let my true feelings on the Cubs be known, they're pretty much a lock for the 2005 World Seires.
In fact, I'm calling it.
Cub vs. Orioles
Orioles in 4.
rats off to ya!
Dave
Year Ag G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG1997 28 162 642 90 161 31 4 36 119 45 174 .251 .300 .480
1998 29 159 643 134 198 20 0 66 158 73 171 .308 .377 .647
1999 30 162 625 114 180 24 2 63 141 78 171 .288 .367 .635
2000 31 156 604 106 193 38 1 50 138 91 168 .320 .406 .634
2001 32 160 577 146 189 34 5 64 160 116 153 .328 .437 .737
2002 33 150 556 122 160 19 2 49 108 103 144 .288 .399 .594
.
!
wow, does sammy play dodge ball or baseball. he wouldn't anything about what happend with the cubs. go to mlb.com
He immediately anointed Camden Yards as "his house". Uh, Sam, two words, Cal Ripken Junior, or maybe Jim Palmer. Hell, Fred Lynn. Even take a look down the clubhouse and see Rafael Palmeiro....Yep, I ain't gonna miss him. Not one bit.
However, I was at the Friday day game in May last year--first game my in-laws had ever seen at Wrigley--told them to dress warm; ended up buying them Cubs sweatshirts--where Jeromy Burnitz smacked head-first into the doors in left-centerfield and knocked himself silly trying to catch a Patterson drive, which led to a triple and three runs. i'm not exactly hopeful for the Jeromy Burnitz Era to begin.
I hope you didn't let the door hit you on the way out.Love,
Grady.
more on that latter.
cubs tickets are on sale right now kids!!!! if anyone would like to help me get ticket let me know here.
StillCubs Orioles in the World Series.
btr
Dave
i pretty happy i got everything i wanted other than the june 10th red sox game.
The Cubs system really penalizes people who actually work for a living, and would penalize you too, if your place of work wasn't 200 yards from Wrigley. (Edit; I'm not saying Phil that you don't work hard for a living--I'm just saying you are incredibly lucky in that your place of work is in Wrigleyville.)Baseball's really starting to piss me off again, what with athletes who grew several head sizes between the end of one season and the opening of camp denying that they used performance-enhancing drugs, and blaming others, and not taking responsibility, and....the fact, that I, average baseball fan, Cubs fan since I was 9 years old, can't get tickets to more than one game, and yet, smarmy lawyers from Naperville will be able to scoop up a row of seats from a broker and take their screaming, shilly, underdressed soccer-playing 13-year old daughters, who look forward to driving their SUV to high school, to Wrigley on July 3 when the Cubs honor Mrs. Garciaparra.
I remember when I got my ticket for Kerry Wood's home debut, and people could still walk up to the window and get the seats that didn't sell before the game. I'd rather have them lose just to be able to enjoy Wrigley again--not that the level of enjoyment was ever so great that the distinction between the cell-phone idiots who came to get drunk, and the people who care about baseball couldn't be spotted in an instant.
At least the Red Sox got the monkey off their backs, and put happiness into Stephen King's life. (Next book, "Life is Really Good!" by Steve King...dedicated to the 2004 Boston Red Sox). Guy almost gets killed, and then makes a full recovery to a.) finish the Dark Tower series, and b.) Sees his beloved Red Sox win the World Series.
I'd go watch hockey...wait, no, no hockey, no football, college basketball, the sport that encourages illegal gambling, and don't get me started on the NBA....so what does that leave?
Follow independent minor league baseball!
i mean, i understand being bitter about not being able to afford tickets to games that often, but... since when are we surprised about the entertainment industry having hefty prices for entertainment events? it's not the guy in naperville's fault that you can't afford the tickets and he can. don't blame him. blame your 'heroes'. stop paying their paychecks.they invented a nifty way for the 'average baseball fan' to view games: televised broadcast of the games. from a better view and viewed privately from the comfort of your own home or local sports bar.
the sports bar. It's wonderful that masculinity can find safe harbour in such a feminist world ;)
i am not necessarily championing the sports bar here. just saying that its an option to watch the game.
I think baseball games on tv were more invented "to get more people to watch advertisements," some of whom couldn't afford to go, but most of whom probably either had to work jobs, or could only afford to go a couple of times a year, or didn't live in Toronto. I do agree with you however that the only real option is to let people know that you won't pay that much, and then don't!Minor league baseball is considerably cheaper than major league and the seats are much, much better. You can even go to independent games (Schaumburg Flyers, Gary RailCats, Joliet Jackhammers) and not support the MLB system (unless you count that a couple of guys actually make it out of IB into AAA every year).
You also typically don't see overpaid mamas boys not suiting up because if they did that, they'd be fired. Try it sometime, just go a couple of times, and pretend that everyone on the field is somebody famous -- their stats aren't really that much worse than the major leaguers... or better yet, when you watch real major leaguers on TV (like the rest of us proles) from the comfort of your neighborhood sports bar, just pretend that it's church league fastball -- then when your favorite players make bad plays, you think, "Oh, that's just Nomar doing his best, I served with him on the Sunday School board."
In conlcusion, Zoink!
got ejected from a spring training game....while he was playing right field!!!!
link
So what?btr
Dave
cause people usually don't get ejected when they're playing right field.
People DO get thrown out when they argue balls and strikes.It's a big no-no.
btr
Dave
but he wasn't really arguing, i mean, he was in right field. He obviously wasn't expecting anyone to hear him i certainly would be if i were in right field. also, what does "btr" mean?
Have you ever played right field?btr
Dave
"Cabrera threw a pitch and I was like, 'That was a strike.' And then the second base umpire said, 'Knock it off.' I said something back to him and that was everything. I wasn't even talking to him."I love how he acknowledges that he said something back to the 2nd base ump and then in the next sentence claims he wasn't even talking to him.
That's pretty ambiguous don't you think? I mean, it's possible that Sosa said, "Nice weather we're having?"
should start a club w/ bonds, whitney houston, and bobby brown.
It would be awesome! Phil, you forgot Ike Turner.
Grrrrrrr.
that's all
I think things like jokes and cartoons are funny. We have two very different senses of humor. I like to watch South Park for a good laugh, you apparently, like to watch ESPN documentaries about Earl Weaver, Bill Sharman, and Billy Martin.So, this one is for you. Sometimes baseball players and managers get thrown out of games for arguing balls and strikes from their dugout. Sometimes, and this, I guess, would be the funny part, they are even sitting on the bench.
Funny stuff.
A player named John Boozer was once thrown out during warm ups.
Isn't that a riot?
btr
Schadenfreude
if i ever see a cartoon of sammy sosa getting thrown out of a game, you'll be the first to know, dave.
i found one!
Funny on multiple levels.Good on ya!
btr
Dave
sosa's funny and you know it!!!
have been looking good in spring training.
But yes,My beloved Brewers will be the surprise team in the division.
btr
Dave
haha
Oliver says bees attracted to his hair gel.TUCSON, Ariz. -- A swarm of bees invaded the field on Thursday and forced a game between the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks to be called after five innings.
Philbo was at one of the Wrigley games last summer when Biblical-esque swarms of gnats and bugs invaded the stands....
so, the week of the final show the guys in the band are going to the cubbies game that wed. the 27th. if there is anyone intrested in going we may have an extra ticket or two. if there is a bunch of people intrested in joining us i've seen a few listings of seats near ours. just shooting out the idea.we are in sec. 430
these aren't really close but, there cheap:
4 tix Section:436 row 5these aren't close but, there are amazing seats! i'm tempted to buy them myself!
4 tix Section:134 row 15
there are also some good prices on stub hub
Happy Opening Day
what's wrong with this picture:chicago cubs 1-2
washington nationals 2-1
blah blah 162 games blah blah
well, it's 5:45 and it's almost time for me to leave the house. i never thought i'd have to work this early working at a bar.
what's wrong with this picture: cubs 1-3 brewers 3-0 reds 3-0blah blah 162 games blah blah
Eric Gagne got kicked out of a game that he wasn't only not playing in, he wasn't eligible to play in because he was on the Disabled List.http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/baseball/mlb/04/07/roundup.wednesday.ap/
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
btr
Dave
i'm going to my first game this year, just hope the rain will hold off.
i broke down this afternoon and purchased gameday audio for the season from mlb.com so I can listen to cubs games via the internets. it was only 14.95, but still, it should be free.
...both offered streaming coverage of games through their websites, but that stopped in 2002. Pay radio is the future.btr
Dave
who's this "lyon" or whatever guy that plays in chicago and takes his pants off for the crowd?
NeoBeats me.
Steve "Psycho" Lyons used to drop trow all the time, usually after a hard slide into second. Of course, that was in the days before sliding shorts. I think Steve is now part of the White Sox Broadcast team.
btr
Dave
i'm not sure of how old the clip is, so who knows. it could be from the 80s or something
Dave's right.Steve Lyons now works for Fox Sports Net, and is usually found as part of their Saturday baseball announcing team as the color analyst.
That clip is of him going headfirst into first, and then realizing that he'd taken half the diamond down his pants....so naturally he dropped trou to dust himself off...
so, the week of the final show the guys in the band are going to the cubbies game that wed. the 27th. if there is anyone intrested in going we may have an extra ticket or two. if there is a bunch of people intrested in joining us i've seen a few listings of seats near ours. just let me know and i'll see if there are more seats around.
DAMN!
I got tix for the sat night game. (i acutally found a good deal on stubhub phil). now I need to find tix for the sun afternoon game. woohoo
Saw three games at RFK and watched a pretty hapless Cubs team take 1 of 3 in DC. I had a blast though and friday and saturday it was almost half cubs fans. Sunday was particularly painful as the cubs left the bases loaded twice and the winning run scored by going 5-hole on Perez.
Hapless would be the perfect description so far. Also "unmotivated" and "underachieving" come to mind.
anybody intrested in two tickets for next thursday against the rockies? just looking to get face value for them. otherwise is there someone that would take one and go with me for 25bucks?
my gf would like them. I, being in iowa can't make it, but she can and hasn't been able to get tix for this season yet. if they're still available, email me please with your phone number and i'll have her call you.
julstrom (a) iastate.edu
thanks!
the cubbies found a replacement for matt clement! well not really. but in the facial hair department I think Sergio Mitre is a fine replacement for Clement. And the 7 innings he's pitched so far today have been outstanding.
cubs/bosox!!! jen and i are going to be in section 426 row 10. can't wait to the red sox first time in wrigley. should be a blast! sunday we will be in 108 with mcguinnis.
last friday we went to the new choke yankees stadium to see the cubbies play the yanks. sunday we saw the bosox beat up on the pirates. got david ortiz and johnny pesky's autographs on my world series ball. tomarrow we'll be in clevland for indians/bosox!
http://tastytronic.net/gallery/baseball-trip
vote now!! vote 25 times!!!
write in Neifi Perez at shortstop, vote for derrek lee @ 1st, and johnny damon for am- outfield.
great game weds. night. the jake is really nice minus the bugs. cleland was really cool. our hotel was the best deal ever. 15ft ceilings, king sized bed, free breakfast, jacuzzi in the room, and free appitizer and wine bar in the afternoon, all for 99dollars a night!!! we are totally coming back.
anyone need tix for friday's game @ face value?
What time is the game?...hang on, lessee here...1:20. Dangnabbit....
I've got to work. Phil, if you don't find any takers, let me know, and I'll see if I can get a sub.
Second question, where are the seats?
427 - row 7
i will be trying to sell them tomarrow morning around the park if i don't see that you want the matt.
Phil,I got called in to work a desk shift, and forgot to check the diner before you put them in.
otoh, we saw the Prior masterpiece yesterday...looked up in the 6th inning and went "wow, he's making this look like Little League."
http://tastytronic.net/gallery/baseball
feel free to add pics from games you go to
http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/
is anyone looking to go to a game? i have some tix that i need to sell.
I would love to go to a game or two, but I am limited in being a 8-4 working slob.so, when are your tickets?
no good then?
I can sneak out for those. Got any?
the only friday game i have is against the cards and i was planning on trying to get more than face for them.
any weekend games?
i have four for next wed, dodgers. i just want face for them
but, in sept. i have the friday cards game that i was planning on selling to recoop some of the other games.
What's face?Email me at mguncheon at northpark.edu
128 for all 4
Can't do that....sorry.Hope you find someone...
have two and not going. anyone?
two tickets for face
Maybe Murdock, B.A., or Hannibal would want them? I guess of all those guys, Face is the most likely to have a date though, so maybe that's why you're offering them to him.
cue drums???
but the funny part is that it took me a second to realize why you were listing the characters of the A-Team. I thought they were code names for actual people you knew or something.I'd buy the tickets but my company is throwing a big party that night. I was told what it's costing them, and let's just say I've never been to a party that costs more than $1,000,000 and I'm not about to miss one.
uly's brother is going to email you phil. obviously, I didn't know what to tell him about price or location so i gave him your email and told him to contact you.
430-row 5- face is 84 for the two
those are some expensive tix
we can probably work something out.
wow if won the lottery i would totally do this!!!
you know, I really want to be able to support the White Sox, especially since they have such a good shot at taking the ALDS, but my true blue feelings still wants them to plummet. I hate to openly admit it, but I want houston to take it, just for the sake of believing that pitching is everything in baseball. What if the White Sox and the Cardinals go to the World Series??? I figured my brain would explode before I decided to root for one of them. Who am I kidding, I'll stick with my "the National League is the TRUE form of baseball" theory. Go Padres!!!!
nomar to the rescue
I've had lots of dreams about Nomar coming to my rescue, but they all ended differently, er I mean yeah go Nomar!
on getting Alfonso Soriano in d.c.!!!
He's probably one of the most dangerous base runners in baseball right now, and he's a Cub. Combine that with a .305 Avg. as a lead off hitter and hopefully the Cubs will now have a good 1 inning hitting team. He was always the one Marlin that made me nervous when he was at the plate.
Weird deal since Vidro is already at second. Plus Soriano won't be putting up 30/100 numbers playing at RFK. But they need some bats (and an owner, and a stadium...)
not sence the trade the trade of one tom brunansky of the twins for tommy herr of the cardinals have i had to deal with my favorite baseball player playing for my least favorite team. i mean come on! the F'n yanks!?! johnny, you know that george is gonna make you cut your hair. what were you thinking?
Johnny Damon a Yankee, now that will really rile up the Red Sox Nation.
I wanted Damon to be a cub. Who do we get? Jacque Jones? Juan Pierre? Matt Murton? It sounds like a french singing trio. The trib gave props to their defensive prowess but who knows if they can hit.
if the twins can't have him i'm glad he's a cub.
johnny damon... big mistake
Damon, who was one of the major players in Boston's 2004 championship run, is well-known for his long hair and beard, but he knows that by taking the Yankees' money, those will both have to go."Without a doubt, George Steinbrenner has a policy and I'm going to stick to it," Damon said. "Our policy with the Yankees is to go out there and win and we're going to try and bring another championship to them."
good riddance jd you greedy, sell out bas&%^$@. can't wait to see you lose to the BRS with your new ugly shave/haircut!
Apparently sell out.
Off topic, I know.This was two years ago. I heard about it but never saw it. Well, recently, I tracked down this news spot:
http://www.csulb.edu/~ehobbs/ortiz-in-japan.html
and this audio file:
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/events/japan_series/y2004/index.jsp
Dang.
btr
Dave
Cub fansI think JJ could hit 30 out of the friendly confines. He's a solid #5 stick, and will protect Lee and Ramirez. I think it is a great fit.
btr
Dave
i wish he had desided to come back before the damon deal failed.
Theo's back!! and better still we signed Arroyo for 3 more years!they can have damon and his greedy agent...my only concern is that tek has the same agent...i just hope that we can hold on to him when his contract is up.
damnon replacement
you going to bean twon this summer?
there is a lottery for the highest demanded tickets for the red sox. if anyone would fill this out and would happen to be selected to buy Yankee tix or Monster tix not only would i pay you back for them but, i would owe you so much more and we can deside what your reward would be. check it out
Be careful what you wish for....
sosa
Talk about an implosion.btr
Dave
The guy has all the emotional stability of Tony Montana.In other, more hopeful news, pitchers and catchers reported yesterday.
He's 37. He's in good shape. He's 12 bombs shy of 600. He doesn't have a ring.What a waste. I wonder his career could've been if he had never signed with Chicago?
btr
Dave
The large market teams who would have had the chutzpah for Sammy....the fishbowl might have closed in on him a lot sooner in New York (Brooklyn or Bronx) or Boston or Los Angeles. Or, conversely, Dave, he could have eaten all that attention up and be as close as Barry is to the Hammer's record.I believe someone will get a DH injury around mid-April or early May, and Sammy will be in the AL, where he's really belonged the last couple years.
The Chicago Cubs aren't a large market team? Wrigley, the closest field in the majors *isn't a fishbowl? Huh?I wonder if his career would've been different if he *hadn't been on a team with intense media scrutiny and never had to burden the weight of Cub-itis. Like, if he had just remained a Ranger or even a White Sock, and not been the center, but part of a larger group effort.
Cub's upper management knew he had problems upstairs but I doubt they missed an opportunity to make him the poster boy of the team during the late 90s, early 00s.
I empathize with Sosa a lot theses days. Is there anything the Cubs, or baseball for that matter, wanted from him that he didn't deliver?
Agreed on the DH thing, though.
btr
Dave
No, he delivered, but things went sour... and people got ugly.
click on the gallery
The only person who probably hit more meaningless homeruns for a team that seldom was in the pennant race was Ron Santo. I wouldn't be surprised if Sosa waits to get into the hall, too.
which now includes a large category of eligible or soon-to-be eligible is the steroids/banned substances issue, and several of those who would have been sure locks for the Hall did irreparable harm to their candidacies with their appearances before Congress, i.e. McGwire, Sosa, and Palmeiro. Bonds has his own trial cloud hanging over his head.Bill James likes to point out that it's not a Hall of Stats, it's a Hall of Fame (which argument I can be relied upon to trot out Santo as a deserving candidate)...Maybe we should start a similar museum outside Cooperstown's limits, the Baseball Hall of Infamy. 'Course, they'd have to double the wing for Cubs-related gaffes, shames, curses, and foibles . . .
I would like to nominate the following people, animals, objects, and film for induction into the Chicago Cubs Hall of Shame:Every Cubs player from 1909-2006, Andy McFail, Kerry Wood's arm and doctor, any remaning falling debris from Wrigley, any remaining cork from Sosa, the episode of Punky Brewster that was cleverly shot in Wrigley Field, all goats, Steve Bartman's Walk Man, Ron Santo the announcer, Precious Moments Give-Away Day, Beanie Baby Give-Away Day, and the movie Rookie of the Year (since 4 out of 5 Cubs fans think it was based on a true story).
I am still on the fence whether or not to nominate Van Halen's "Jump" for induction since it was the theme song for the 1984 NL East Champs. At least it is better than "Don't Stop Believing."
I am very familar with Bill James's ideas. Perhaps they are most poignant in "Politics of Glory" where he deconstructs Dick Allen's chances of ever getting into the hall.I still firmly believe that Dick (aka Richie)Allen is far more deserving than Ron Santo.
The numbers...
Dick Allen (1749 games, 351 homeruns, 1119 RBI, .292 average.) vs. Ron Santo (1785 games, 342 homeruns, 1331 RBI, and .277 average).
Awards... Dick Allen (1964 NL ROY, 1972 AL MVP,1972 & 1974 AL HR King, and 7 time all-star in 14 seasons) Ron Santo (5 Gold Gloves and 9 time all-star in 15 seasons)
Granted, they played different positions (one while hiding diabetes, the other while being a jerk), but Allen was one of the most feared hitters of his time. If anything, he is facing the same bias that's keeping Jim Rice out of the HOF.
But perhaps the best comparison, statistically against Santo is his comparison to Chili Davis (2436 games, 350 homeruns, 1372 RBI, .274 average, 3 World Series rings, 3 time all-star).
I call this the Chili Davis Factor. When comparing triple crown stats, if Chili Davis has better one 2 out of 3, that player probably should not be included in the HOF. Especially, if said player played a position that is traditionally associated with power hitters (OF, DH, 1B, and 3B). This qualification allows for people like Ozzie Smith to be in the HOF. But that is a diffrent argument. And if this post doesn't convince everyone that I have too much time on my hands, nothing will.
Last time I checked, Meaningless Home Runs weren't stats officially kept by MLB.Last time I checked, there were very few sports fans in the world who were unaware of Sosa's name.
When you bring up Dick Allen, you have to take the cultural context of his career into the picture. To that end his is *very much like Sosa.
And guess what?
I think they should BOTH be in the Hall.
Any of you two geniuses wanna discuss Bill Mazeroski?
btr
Dave
Wait, does that Both mean Santo and Allen or Sosa and Allen? (I'll agree with the Santo and Allen but for the moment, not for Sammy, or McGwire, or Bonds. I'll vote for Mark Grace and Craig Biggio before I vote for any of the 90's behemoths. (Ain't it a good thing I don't have a Hall vote?)Maz is to Pittsburgh what Allen and Santo are to Chicago. He now makes a good living off of this by motivational speaking at every envelope opening in Southwestern Pennsylvania. And he's not even in the top 5 players in the history of his franchise; he may not even make the top 10.
One wonders if those two had done some of their talent in the spotlight of a World Series, as Maz did, if we'd not be having this discussion about their Hall-worthiness; they'd be in.
I think Maz got in becauseA. He was the equivalent of a defensive Black Hole.
B. He was a good guy who did something amazing for baseball.
The ugliness about the stats of Bonds, Mac, and Sosa is not only that they probably cheated to put them up, but also that MLB *made them cheaters.
I can think of no greater example of what baseball was vs. what it is than the HOF Ceremony in 2001 where Mazeroski starts to thank his friends, tears up, and can't finish his speech, so then Dave Winfield gets up and delivers a 600 word sermon on the greatness of being Dave Winfield.
I'm for Biggio, but not Grace. Biggio deserves to go in just for his HPB numbers, and he *will go in, make no mistake. From where I sit, Mark "Too Pretty" Grace still is looking at the backs of Dave Parker, Jim Kaat, Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Goose Gossage, and Jack Morris.
I also think Albert "Don't Call Me Joey" Belle should get in. AND Sosa. And Mac, and Bonds, and all them other jerks who juiced and knocked 500 out.
Except Palmeiro.
MLB *needed those clowns to use chemicals, illegal in the game or otherwise, and the custodians of the game are just as responsible for any smears. To deny someone a spot in the hall based on their numbers now only succeeds in letting MLB off the hook.
Put all the juicers in the hall, if just to rub the commissioner's nose in the fact that he had multiple opporunities to do something about steroids, but it had to take a drug addicted, draft dodging, lying, cheating, scoundrel to comment on it on live tv to inspire any official action on the matter.
btr
Dave
Kirby Puckett Dies At 45
Kirby Puckett was never supposed to amount to much on the baseball field. He just didn't look the part. Short, stocky, and undisciplined at the plate, most scouts wrote him off. What they failed to see in him were the intangibles, like, a thirst for the game, a contagious enthusiasm, and vision.His favorite pitch to hit, it could be argued, was the first pitch thrown to him in any at-bat. Though I'm not sure if the stat is tracked, I am willing to bet #34 ranks amongst the career leaders in swings at the first pitch, as well as first pitch hits. Some called it undisciplined, but the thirst that drives a man to swing at the first pitch is the same thirst that drives him to leap over walls and rob opponents of home runs. A good center fielder might do that once in his career. Kirby did it so many times, it became commonplace to see him in any number of highlight reels.
Kirby was the rarest of all players in that he made the others around him better. His personality made that happen. The contagious smile and jubilant grace made him a natural ambassador for the game. Even more the case, you would have a hard time travelling anywhere in Minnesota in the early '90s without seeing his likeness. I, myself, had a shirt with a large charicature of him on it that I wore often. I'm not the first to say that if it hadn't been for Kirby Puckett, we would probably be calling them the Washington DC Twins.
He saw the game in a way that was truly his own. There was no one else in the league clubbing eye-high sliders off the Hefty Bag in the Metrodome's right field for a double, no one getting 200 hits, 20+ homers, and 100 RBIs, no one else buildt like a fire-hydrant hustling out infield singles, stealing bases, or playing the acrobat in center.
Like many other players from his generation, Kirby had a hard time adjusting to life after baseball. A rough divorce ended with rumors of drug use and infidelity. Still, his election to the Hall Of Fame was something undeniably earned. His enthusiasm was not only contagious to his teammates, but to everyone he came in contact with.
I feel like I should close this by saying that a small part of myself died along with one of my childhood heroes, but I don't think that is what Kirby Puckett would want people to be saying. Life's a game, and the ones who remind us of that are often taken too early, because we all need to hear that message, as often as possible. He wasn't a perfect man, but he made his mark by working hard and enjoying himself, and guess what, maybe that's all you need to do.
btr
Dave
To compare the @-hole factor between Sosa and Allen is pretty hard. Allen was a tempermental jerk who, to some extent, faced racial prejudice.Sosa is a wife-beating, money stealing, no English-speaking when faced questions about 'roids, cork-using cheater.
Remember how charismatic he was during the '98 homerun chase? That man was on TV talking to anyone who would listen. Then Congress asks he to speak, and he forgot his English?
Sometimes it is what you don't say that makes you guilty.
I'll agree with the no Grace in the HOF. He NEVER had a 100 RBI season.
We've gone at least a page without mention of the Red Sox.And the Grace thing; I don't really think he deserves the Hall--offhand, Mattingly probably has better numbers, not to mention the list Dave rattled off--I'm just using him and Biggio as placemarkers for my ire, so to speak.
Maybe Dave's suggestion is a good one; and then the curators can make a sort of living impeachment exhibit of the state of baseball. You can walk past the Aaron and Mays exhibit, and then descend into the jungle of madness and hype.
and start playing football with a bat. We'll call it footbaseball and it will be the Next. Big. Thing.
It's about accountability.The fans need to be accountable for their own willing blindness.
The owners and commissioner's office needs to be accountable for their own greed.
If we deny the Hall Of Fame to ballplayers who used or were suspected of using performance enhancing chemicals, solely on the ground that such activity is tantamount to "cheating", then we need to open the books of the "cheaters" who are already in the HOF.
Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale, Whitey Ford, Juan Marichal, all threw the spitter *decades after it had been banned. After MLB lowered the mound in the late 60s (as a response to pitcher dominance and low-scoring games that were hard to make interesting for televised broadcasting), tons of guys started doctoring balls.
Even today, guys like Maddux and Mussina are suspected of doing something, albeit unknown, to the ball.
As long as we're expressing "fake rage" towards cheaters, let's look at the rules for the lining of the batters box. How long does the back line of the box last in a game? Usually, about 1 at bat. Even after they are rechalked, the next guy up will typically stamp out the line. The rule about the batters box has been around for 100 years, so let's take a microscope to all the at-bats of every game for the last century, I mean, since cheating is so untolerable.
The Hall should be a reflection of the greatness within the game. The problem is that the people running the game have put the dollar sign ahead of the game and made it something less than great. How can the Hall not reflect this?
btr
Dave
Dave, you sure you didn't draft the wooden bats rule for the Cape Cod League?That actually does make a lot of sense, to someone who sat frequently in the biergarten that is Wrigley in the late '90's and watched awful Cubs teams for the spectacle that was Sosa. (I was mostly hoping that Grace would run him over with the bullpen cart, but I do admit to a certain fascination with how high Sosa and McGwire could take their act.)
Gaylord Perry comes to mind; Jim Bouton's Ball Four...Wonder if Senator Jim Bunning is gonna have some things to say to Bud Selig vis a vis Barry Bonds?
And with the Bonds revelations--or the final publishing of the account of what he is alleged to have done, though it saddened me a little to hear Derrek Lee defend him, even if he used the "red-handed" argument--the self-inflicted black eye gets bigger.
Skimming through the posts only allows me to believe moreso that I am about one of maybe 12 people in chicago who's into the World Baseball Classic. GO KOREA! You guys have been snoozing on some great games!
I love the idea of the WBC. I hate that it was Selig's baby, thus, my lukewarmedness.btr
Dave
Watched most of USA v. Japan and saw the US get a gift from an american umpire. Wish I had cable so I could watch more games.
Soriano refuses to play outfield for Nationals.The Washington Nationals were on the field and ready to play, eight of them at least.
There was only one problem: Left field was empty because Alfonso Soriano was missing.
Soriano refused to play the outfield for Washington in what was supposed to be his spring training debut Monday night, and general manager Jim Bowden said his biggest offseason acquisition could go on the disqualified list if he doesn't agree to switch positions this week.
I'll play and take the guaranteed money...
Are you left-handed? We can platoon. . .
I'm 3 for 3 in my career from the left side!Once in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade.
btr
Dave
I hold a Don Baylor/Craig Biggio-esque record for getting hit by the most pitches in one season in Little League.
We need to talk about the inside corner...btr
Dave
you in a fantasy league yet?
i have sworn off fantasy. plus, all excess monies are being saved for liposuction.
YOUR FAT HEAD!!sorry I couldn't resist...
no monies needed
Phil, but really, I have to channel excess energy into other things right now. so thankya.
How many times did you get hit in that little league season? I hold a similar record.btr
Dave
Between 20-25, at least 6 of which were in my Big Fat Head, thank you BigJ. . .and at least 5 or 6 times by the same pitcher--he had absolutely no control whatsoever.I kinda sorta gave up on playing baseball after that.
BASEBALL, BASEBALL, BASEBALL!
syringe
syringe
Wow, dude. I never got plunked on the noggin, but I did get hit 4 times in a game in two consecutive games in HS ball. I had a reputation for not getting out of the way of inside pitches, and that reputation was often put to the test.I was hit 18 times between the regular season and summer league that year.
btr
Dave
Well, the Brewers are on pace for a 162 win season, highlighted by Derrick Turnbow's 162 Saves (Which should break a few records) and Prince Fielder's 486 strike-outs.I was at the Brewers v. Pirates yesterday. Miller Park has added some nice new fangled scoreboards, which look pretty neat. Only 15,515 in attendance, but it's early April. I didn't think the Crew opened at home, ever.
The Brewers will finish 2nd in the central, but fail to gain the WC. This will not prevent them from going to the World Series in 2007.
btr
Dave
it's 6:15 and i'm leaving for work. i thought i had this job so i didn't have to get up this early.
Cubbies are only half a game back from the wild card!
Tuesday marks the 30th anniversary of a day when national pride and baseball intersected during a game between the Cubs and Dodgers in Los Angeles, where Rick Monday rescued an American flag from protesters intending to burn it.
I've never heard that story before. It's pretty awesome. Escpecially that the crowd started to singe God Bless America after, that would totally give me goosebumps too.
There are a few things I like about that story.1. That this happened in LA a year after America had left Vietnam. Way to be on point.
2. Vin Scully automatically classifies the protester as a "nut". Awesome.
3. The flag was saved by a guy named Rick Monday. What? Was John Applepie not in the lineup that day?
Was this event staged by the same people who faked the moon landing?
btr
Dave
that made me laugh :)
kudos dave
wow, i don't even have to say anything here. it speeks for itself
The Bonds card is funny, but wrong. Meanwhile the Arod video is just plain funny.
but, it's funny
just because you can, doesn't mean you should
Posting a regular Bonds rookie would have been just as effective....he was quite slim and slender in those days.
Wait Phil, I think that was his little league photo from when he was thirteen!
Leave it to the cubbies to fumble with a few minutes left in the fourth. If they woulda scored a touchdown, gotten the onside kick and managed another touchdown with the 2 point conversion, they'd have won 17-16 today.Cubs suck. Being a cubs fan sucks worse. there's always next year...
And calling my bluff, he takes the hand with a king-high flush. . .
Any of you left-handed and pitched in Little League? See Dusty Baker.
Wasn't Bond's rookie card in the '86 Topps Traded set, not the '87 Topps regular season set that had the woodgrain borders?btr
Dave
His card was in the 86 topps traded set.
The 86 Topps set was the best of the decaded. Only the 71 set beats it for the title of best ever.and now I am a supreme dork for bringing it up.
The 86 set looks like Russian Propaganda posters to me. Big, heavy block lettering, bad pictures, and not a lot of action.It's gotta be the '88 Topps set for me.
btr
Dave
When I was a kid in the mid-eighties, I saw a show on Public Television that I can only remember a few blurry details from.1. It was like an afterschool special kind of thing.
2. It had Andre Dawson, who was a Montreal Expo at the time, in a small role where he signed a kid's baseball cap.
3. The kid lost the cap.
Does anyone know what I am talking about? Did anyone else see this?
btr
Dave
The Cap
twins are getting a new outdoor ball park!!!!!!!!!!!!
PNC Park.Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Saturday, May 27, 2002
Five hours, 49 minutes.
18 innings of baseball.
Pirates 7, Astros 6.
2 Penn Draft pilsners, 1 grilled chicken sandwich
8 double bobbleheads.
Without a doubt, the best baseball game I have yet attended.
An outdoor open-air park. In Minneapolis. When summer does not arrive until August. I get worked up about this and then I remember that these are the elected and supposedly educated inhabitants/voting demographic that elected Jesse Ventura as their governor.They couldn't have had a retractable roof park? It's cold enough in Wrigley and PNC and the Cell and New York and Boston in April. Minneapolis in early May and late April is still quite cold.
Sigh.
than have to watch the twins in a football stadium.
out of the ones I mentioned, and the addition of Minneapolis, is colder, double P?
- Frigidaire Field -- The Point Barrow Barrow Wights
- Haagen-Dazs Park -- Ellesmere Island Glaciers
- Icee Stadium -- International Falls Freedom Fighters </ul
Any other questions?
you wanna go to that cubs/twins game with us???
major league parks, you Northern/Independent league freak!
Sat 06/24/2006BOSTON -- It has reached the point where David Ortiz's parting shots into the cheap seats have become almost too overwhelming -- and too frequent -- for his teammates to know exactly what to say to him when he lands at home plate and finds that sea of white jerseys waiting for him.
The latest walk-off blast by Ortiz came on Saturday afternoon at Fenway Park, when he clocked an ill-fated curveball by Tom Gordon and hammered it to center field for a two-run homer with one out in the bottom of the 10th. Red Sox 5, Phillies 3.
And so it was that a packed house of 35,654 went home happy after witnessing yet another dramatic capper by No. 34, who has now slugged eight walk-off homers (including postseason) since joining the Red Sox at the start of the 2003 season.
Papi of walk-offs
Since joining the Red Sox at the start of the 2003 season, David Ortiz has hit eight walk-off homers (including postseason). A glance at those eight memorable shots:
Date--------------Pitcher------------Inning-----Final
Sept. 23, 2003----Kurt Ainsworth---10th-------Sox 6, Orioles 5
April 11, 2004----Aquilino Lopez----12th------Sox 6, Jays 4
Oct. 8, 2004*-----Jarrod Washburn-10th-------Sox 8, Angels 6
Oct. 17, 2004*----Paul Quantrill-----12th-------Sox 6, Yanks 4
June 2, 2005------B.J. Ryan ---------9th -------Sox 6, Orioles 4
Sept. 6, 2005-----Scot Shields-------9th -------Sox 3, Angels 2
June 11, 2006-----Akinori Otsuka----9th -------Sox 5, Rangers 4
June 24, 2006-----Tom Gordon------10th-------Sox 5, Phillies 3
*denotes postseason play
Monday 06/26/2006BOSTON -- Charlie Manuel wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. After Mark Loretta doubled, representing the winning run in the 11th inning against the Phillies on Monday afternoon, the Phillies manager had Tom Gordon intentionally walk David Ortiz, who had hit a walk-off home run off Gordon on Saturday. However, after taking the lead and then squandering it in the 12th inning, the Phillies and reliever Clay Condrey didn't have a choice but to pitch to Ortiz with runners on first and second in a tie game.
In the only predictable moment of a wild game, Ortiz delivered a line-drive single to left-center field to give the Red Sox an 8-7 win in a marathon that last four hours, 59 minutes. It was Ortiz's third walk-off hit of the season and his second in as many games, and it extended Boston's season-high winning streak to nine.
http://tastytronic.net/gallery/baseball
anyone intrested in two tickets for the cubs @ milw brewers next thursday??
i have two tix for tomarrow (thurs) game in milw. i can't go because of a mix up w/ the brewers, i'm going friday. but, still have tix for thurs.2 field box 127 ROW 3!!!!!! seat 13&14
face on these are 42 each i need to sell them anybody know of someone intrested??
Buck O'Neil on Tuesday became the oldest player to appear in a professional baseball game
Twins!btr
Dave
gotta love a sweep of the white sox!!!
Aug 8 - Morneau needs one homer to become the first Twins player to hit 30 in a season since Kent Hrbek, Tom Brunansky and Gary Gaetti all did it in 1987. Morneau would also become just the fourth Canadian to hit 30 homers in a season, joining Larry Walker, Matt Stairs and Jason Bay.
Should be cool. I hear Petco Park is pretty awesome.I can't believe we haven't posted in here in almost a year!
i got all wrapped up in the all-star game last night. it was a good game and it was fun to see the stars of baseball shine. they did a pretty cool tribute to Willie Mays at the beginning too; and as much as i detest the yankees, it was nice to see cheater's, i mean jeter's kindness and respect for a living legend.i am going to see my Red Sox @ the cws in august, YAY! my dad though, he gets to go to Fenway on friday. he works for ge and they own a luxury box at Fenway; they gave their 20 luxury seats for friday's game to a raffle for employees and my dad's name got picked. i am so jealous!
went to camden with phil for the first time ever. which is a travesty since i live 45 minutes from the park. awesome park. awesome game! also my first experience with red sox nation. a little but scary.
I'm going to the game tomorrow against the Brewers. It's my first game of the season and to go for the division leader claiming series is too much fun. I just had to post because I'm as giddy as a school girl.
i was at the cubs game tonight and learned life's greatest lesson. a true fan throws the other team's home run ball back onto the field.
Did you catch the ball? Or did you just see this play out?
Yeah -- that is an important lesson to learn. Right after "Don't be Steve Bartman".
Red Sox take the AL. East for the first time since 1995 the same night the Cubs take the NL. Central.
I'm still waiting for that Cubs/BoSox series -- this could be the year!
Read all about it
i mean, really....
Can you imagine going to a series game at Wrigley? Granted, I wouldn't be able to afford a ticket, but still... Talk about home field advantage--one hundred years of summer hopes...
seems whoever wins the alcs might be the underdog in the world series, the rockies look great.....does anyone else think it's a little arrogant to call the u.s. championship the world series. it hardly seems accurate since it is only u.s. and canadian teams that compete.
I mean, I think it's funny, and I get the irony, but I see it more as a historical artifact from the days when baseball was a uniquely American sport. It would be arrogant (or really just stupid) if they started the "World Series of Soccer" in America and it was only American teams. But you can't change the name of the World Series now. I kinda like it, actually. Kind of like a restaurant that advertises (along with 100 other places) that they have "The Best Burger in Town!"
red sox all the way! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!dogman, i thought of you last night when coco caught the final out and i sat crying on my couch once again. maybe you'll let me make you a meal and we can make cap'n watch a series game with us. let me know when or if that might work.
if the red sox keep up this winning stuff the red sox nation is going to have an identity crisis.dogman, did you manage to keep your clothes on?
was at home watching with ake and whitmer. good night great season.
ake is here!? for how long? i'd love to have any and all over for dinner....or apple pie or something.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/05/23/minor.leaguer.traded.bats.ap/index.html?cnn=yeswhen you get traded for ten bats....not even retail priced bats... ouch!
