Death, Taxes and Fifth Place

The Score

2005-07-29T22:32:00.000-07:00

You know, I just can't get enough of bashing the Score. You see, Chicago's onetime favorite sports talk radio station got trounced in the ratings this past quarter. The usual excuses were bandied about, from Rick Telander's insanity, to Mike North just needing to find his footing in the mornings. Anyway, one of my favorites was that a big part of the reason that WSCR was lost the ratings battle for the 2nd quarter was that ESPN 1000 is the current home of the first place White Sox, broadcasting all of their games. It's an excuse that I expected, for the simple reason that WSCR has signed a contract to begin broadcasting the Sox games next year, thus they were basically building up the product that they'll soon have. Well, in today's Tribune, Teddy Greenstein pointed out that Mike Murphy's evening show on the Score had pretty good ratings against the first hour of ESPN 1000's powerhouse afternoon drive show, Mac, Jurko and Harry, and decent ratings overall. That's nice for WSCR now, but evidently nobody's pointed out that during the 2nd quarter, Murphy's show is usually going up not against Mac, Jurko and Harry, but the White Sox broadcasts. And if the White Sox games can't outdraw a hack like Murph in the ratings, the Score may have just made a very dubious investment.

Grievances

2005-06-04T09:11:00.000-07:00

Every day I ride the Metra train into downtown Chicago to work, and after several years of doing this I have begun to notice some strange behavior from some of my fellow commuters. I have decided to point out their evil ways to them, so that they might repent and be saved.

The Fearful Escalator Rider
By now, I had thought that most people in this country were aware of escalators, and knew how to ride them, but apparently that's not the case. Everyday as I file towards the moving stairs, it seems I get stuck directly behind someone to whom the prospect of stepping onto an escalator is only slightly less intimidating than leaping onto a moving freight train. I'm not exactly sure what they're doing, but they stand at the top as though looking for right moment to board. Perhaps they simply fear machines, or maybe they're waiting for their favorite stair to come back around, but it's very annoying. I have two suggestions for these people; either come back late at night and practice, or take the stairs.

The Person who is Intimidated by the Swinging Door
Yet another timid person who commutes in Chicago. First of all, I'm not sure how you can spend any time in the city and not understand the proper use of the swinging door. There are more of these doors at use in Chicago than any other place on earth. These devices were constructed to make using the doors easier, as they allow people to move in and out of a building through the same doorway at the exact same time. However, there's always one person in the group who has decided this is too hard. They stand at the swinging door and wait for it to be totally free of all people (and in some cases to stop moving completely) before they can proceed. This is actually okay at 2 in the afternoon, but during morning rush hour, the door is simply NEVER empty. My suggestion to these people is that they either find a job that let's you arrive at work at 2pm, or try using one of the regular doors that appear on the side of the building.

The Line Jumper
The line jumper is the most diabolical of all commuting dopes, because their act is somewhat malicious. You see, when a person exits the train at Northwest Station, they must then walk down the platform and through the swinging doors to get into the building proper. Since there are a lot of commuters, there are five swinging doors to use, behind which five distinct lines of people usually form, patiently waiting their turn to proceed inside. Unfortunately, there are those that feel that their time is too important to wait with the rest of the great unwashed, so they proceed to walk up the aisle between two of the lines, and then attempt to jump into the door, cutting off the person who is at the front of the line. Other than a good face punching, I really couldn't think of a way to stop such behaviour, but I may have inadvertently stumbled onto the answer. You see, I'm not the always the most aware person in the morning, and the other day, a woman attempted this maneuver when I was at the front of the line and not paying close attention. So when she jumped in front of me, I didn't stop, and we ended up going through the door in the same chamber, and she obviously thought I was some type of psychopath by the look she gave me, and hopefully won't do that again. So if that person is reading this, I'm sorry I scared you, and I'm sorry you're such a rude jackass that you can't wait in line like everyone else.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

2005-05-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

Some people toil in obscurity for years before they reach the big time. Well, in their faces, I only toiled for 3 months. Joe Aiello has invited me to join the staff over at View From the Bleachers, so I'm taking my baseball ramblings over there. I will still be posting on this page occassionally, and am hoping to get my brother to take it over full time. Anyway, thanks to the few of you who read my stuff over here, and if you liked it, check me out at the new place.

Comcast Sucks

2005-05-05T04:53:00.000-07:00

Last night, the Bulls, Sox and Cubs all played. Since channel 9 has turned their weeknight programming over to the WB(a decision that ranks up there right now as one of the dumbest of all time), I wasn't sure where the Cubs game would be on. According to the paper, the Bulls were on CSN, the Sox on CSN+(which is CLTV) and the Cubs were on CSN+2. Unfortunately, at this time, CSN+2 does not exist. So, thanks to Comcast's foresight, I didn't see any of the game until CSN picked up the feed following the Bulls postgame show (which came in right after Barrett had tied the game). Now, I'm still not exactly clear why the Cubs weren't put on WCIU (unless that network didn't think that pre-empting "Cheaters" was worth it), but one thing is clear so far, Comcast Sports Net is thus far, a joke. This conflict is just another in a long line of glitches for CSN. The productions themselves are often marred by technical glitches (the most unforgivable being the loss of sound and picture several times during the Bulls 1st playoff game) and their post game coverage is nothing special. I guess this shouldn't come as a surprise to me, since the network is owned by all 5 major Chicago sports teams (yes, I realize I'm being generous by referring to the Blackhawks as "major"). I mean, who knows more about turning in a half-assed effort than these franchises?

Cubs Nation

2005-05-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

Today's 4-1 loss to the Brewers reminded me so much of last year that I don't even want to talk about it. So, since I'm already thinking about the 2004 Cubs, I'm going to present you with a review of the recently released book Cubs Nation, by Gene Wojciechowski.

I'll start off by saying that I've been anticipating this book since I heard that Wojciechowski was working on it, in November of last year. I'm an avid reader, and I particularly like sports books (especially those about my favorite teams) but it was more than that. You see, while victory and triumph look good on TV, nothing serves the written word better than failure. Take a look in any bookstore, and you'll find a lot more books on Enron than about successful companies. That's because with failure usually comes conflict. And the 2004 Cubs were heavy on both. When ESPN the Magazine carried a small article by Wojciechowski in March which detailed Sammy Sosa's early exit from game 162, and the subsequent boom box smashing by an unnamed Cub, well, that just wet my appetite even more.

So I'm sorry to say that I was disappointed by Cubs Nation. You see, the full title is "Cubs Nation, 162 Games, 162 Stories, 1 Addiction". And the book delivers on that. Wojciechowski gives a short capsule review of each game, followed by a report on some aspect of being a Cub fan, or an interview with someone who's either a Cub fan, employee, or involved some occupation which the Cubs affect. The stories and interviews are very good. Wojciechowski has an easy writing style and his book seems to very much capture the essence of the groups of people that make up Cubs Nation, from the umpire room attendant, to the ball hawks on Waveland to the organist to the bookies in Vegas who Cub fans are constantly enriching, Wojciechowski covers them all. Unfortunately, this book could have been written about any Cubs season. The majority of the on field focus is on the Cubs NLCS collapse in 2003 (note, if you cannot think about games 6 and 7 without weeping, do NOT read this book) and while there are extensive player interviews, most of these sit downs involve questions about what it's like to be a Cub in general, never really giving us any insight into what it's like being a 2004 Cub.

It's my feeling that while Wojciechowski has written a nice book, he missed out on a golden opportunity. To put it simply, we all know that this team spent all season fighting itself and media, instead of its opponents, yet Gene never really dishes the dirt. We get nothing substantial on Sosa's deteriorating relationship with Baker, his teammates and management, Wojciechowski just sort of tells us that well, Sammy's numbers are going down, and hey, he left early that one time. Likewise, what we get on subjects like the Merker/Stone feud, the Zambrano/Edmonds incident and Kyle Farnsworth's descent into madness is pretty much what we read from the beat reporters at the time. There's an early chapter dealing with new trainer Dave Groeschner and the injuries to Prior and Wood, but he disappears from the book after that, with his firing noted in a throw away line in the epilogue (no mention is every made of the constantly changing timetable on Todd Hollandsworth's injury).

So my beef with Cubs Nation is this: the 2004 Chicago Cubs were laden with talent and expectations. They fought with umpires, opponents, fans, the press and each other. They collapsed horrificly in the final week of the season, while seemingly more preoccupied with their own broadcasters than the games they needed to win. I could write a 350 page book on this team, just stringing together the rumors and psychological problems that floated around that team. Yet Wojciechowski drops the ball. He had virtually a free run of the clubhouse, and since he wasn't a beat reporter (or even a reporter for a local publication) there really wasn't much that the players could do to him in terms of retribution. I wanted the dirty secrets of this band of nitwits laid bare for everyone to see. This book should have been the Bronx Zoo all over again. Instead, it's simply a nice summary of the ups and downs of being a Cub fan. Maybe someday, when my memory of the 2004 team is a little rosier, I'll appreciate Cubs Nation more. But for now, under the weight of my own expectations, it's a disappointment.

Yeah, I know, I shouldn't rag on a book for what it's not, but it's my blog, I'll do what I want. In conclusion, if you want to read a good book about every aspect of being a Cub fan, then I recommend this book to you. If you want to read an expose of the 2004 season, then I don't.

Things I learned while watching the Cubs this weekend...

2005-05-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

The Cubs lost 2 of 3 to the Astros this weekend, giving them a record of 12-12 on the season. Here's what I learned from the 3 games:

Greg Maddux still has it. He out dueled Roger Clemens on Friday to get the Cubs only win.

Kerry Wood needs to go on the DL. The Cubs bullpen isn't good, but it doesn't help when starters can't give you 4 innings, let alone 6 or 7. The Cubs can't afford to start Wood again, only to have him bow out in the middle of the game with bursitis.

Mark Prior is human. Prior came back to earth with a thud on Sunday, giving up a grand slam to Mike Lamb. Prior then fell apart, walking two and giving up a 3 run homer to Adam Everett(!?!).

Derrek Lee is not. Lee is leading the league in batting average, home runs and RBI.

Aramis Ramirez needs to start hitting. Lee's not going to be as effective if teams don't have to pitch to him. Right now they don't, and they've started pitching around him. If Aramis can get back to last year's form, this year's offense could out perform last year.

Neifi Perez still hasn't turned back into a pumpkin. I don't even know what to say about this guy. It's gotten so nuts, that I actually picked him up in my fantasy league (ironically enough, as a replacement for Nomar).

Dusty Baker feels sorry for the rest of the NL's pitchers. That's the only explanation I can think of for Jason DuBois to ride the pine while Todd Hollandsworth continues to start in left field. DuBois got 2 AB's this weekend. The result? A double and a homer.

Willy Tavarez is going to torture us for years to come. It seems like this guy was everywhere in the Houston series, getting on base, stealing and then scoring. To top it off, he threw out 3 runners at the plate. Corey Patterson is quickly becoming the 4th best centerfielder in his own division.

Chris Spier evidentially watched a lot of tape of Wendell Kim this offseason, and decided that Kim was far too conservative.

Jose Macias still stinks.

The 25th Man

2005-04-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

There's been a debate raging over at the Desipio message board over the uselessness of Jose Macias. Some feel Jose should be given a one way ticket back to Montreal (which conveniently lacks a baseball team, thus sparing fans everywhere), while others feel that such treatment is too harsh, and that Jose is actually a fairly competent utility man. I can't really agree with either of those assessments. Jose is a bad player, yes, but he's not the worst player in the majors (I reserve the right to retract this statement). He made this team essentially as the 25th man on the roster (and might not have if he didn't have a guaranteed contract) but the problem is, Dusty Baker doesn't use him like the 25th man.

Let me elaborate on how I think the 25th man should be used. He is always the worst player on the team, and it's very likely that he's not as good as the top 3 or 4 players at AAA. You don't want a top prospect as your 25th man, because he's going to rot on the bench. You see, the 25th man's playing time should be as limited as possible. Ideally, you want this player to be somewhat like Macias, in that he's versatile (Macias switch hits, and can play any position defensively-although neither his hitting or fielding are very good), but you have no interest in his development as a player, so it doesn't matter if he gets rusty. You see, it's my feeling that this player isn't so much a weapon, as a last line of defense. He should only play under drastic circumstances: an injury, an ejection or an extra inning game. He can start every 10 days or so, but shouldn't get more time than that. He's the 2nd to the last pinch hitter you use (in front of the backup catcher) and he's probably not good enough to be used as a defensive replacement. The 25th man has no real chance for advancement. Any minor league callups should be placed in front of him on the depth chart. Which is where I take issue with Macias, and by extension Dusty Baker. You see, Dusty is loyal to his guys, and Macias is now one of them. As a result, when Nomar was injured, Neifi became the shortstop, and Jose became the utility man. That's okay for two games, or so, but once Cedeno came up from the minors, HE should have taken Neifi's old spot in the pecking order, with Macias going back to being the 25th man. And Macias should NEVER be used to pinch hit instead of Jason DuBois or Cedeno.

So I guess my conclusion is that I wouldn't mind having Jose on the team, if I knew he was going to be used in the manner I described above. However, knowing Dusty's penchant for trying to get all of his players into games every week, and his seemingly bizarre attachment to useless veteran players, Jim Hendry should have known better than to bring Jose back this year. It almost seems to me that the best thing to do with a manager like Baker is to purge the bench players every year. That way Dusty has no attachment to them, and they'll be forced to win jobs on merit.

Dubious Milestone

2005-04-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

During the course of internet surfing, you come across a lot of dumb stuff. One of the more lucid sports columnists on the internet is King Kaufman over at salon.com. The rest of the site I can take or leave. It's unabashedly liberal, but mostly in a bad, whiny sort of way, as opposed to the good forklift kind of way. Anyway, they're celebrating the 4th birthday of Salon Premium. Which means that for the last 4 years, you've had to either pay a subscription fee, or watch an internet commercial in order to read the same crap you used to read for free. Sounds like a reason to celebrate.

Reds 11 Cubs 9

2005-04-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

God forbid the Cubs stay over .500 for more than one day. Carlos Zambrano is now 2-1 in 5 starts with 2 ejections. The man knows how to take a no decision. Did anybody think that the Cubs bullpen would be able to hold that 2 run lead following Z's ejection? Me neither. The Cub bullpen is a total shambles right now, and the Reds know what the rest of the league knows; if you can knock the Cubs starter out with a two run lead or less, there's a good chance you're going to beat them.

The Good:
The offense: homers by Lee, Ramirez, Burnitz and DuBois. A good showing overall by the offense, putting a 8 spot up on Eric Milton (didn't this guy nearly no-hit us last year?). Couldn't come through in the 9th inning though.

The Bad:
Not much good today, huh? For starters, Carlos Zambrano gave up 6 earned runs and got himself ejected in the 4th after nailing Austin Kearns with a pitch following an Adam Dunn homer.

The Bullpen-I have the feeling I'll be typing this one out a lot. Nobody in the pen pitched particularly well, so I'm not going to single anyone in particular out. Suffice to say they turned a 2 run lead into a 3 run deficit before I even realized it was happening. Now that's efficiency.

Dusty Baker-I didn't forget about you Dusty. Is there some sort of rule that if Jason DuBois hits a homer that Todd Hollandsworth must pinch hit for him later in the game? Even if you buy into this stupid percentages bullshit, DuBois needs to get some hacks against a right handed pitcher sometime. Or does Baker plan on using him exclusively against lefties? Maybe he thinks that Jason and Mike Remlinger are the same person?

The Ugly:
The outfield defense was terrible. DuBois dropped a flyball (which didn't hurt us, but will probably give Baker an excuse to leave him on the bench) and Corey Patterson allowed a shallow single to skip past him, resulting in two runners scoring instead of just one.

For those who wanted Hendry to make a run at Adam Graves, well, he's not much better than what we got. He was lucky to strand the tying runs in scoring position in the 9th when Hollandsworth (AUUUUHHHGGGG!) made the final out. He also fell down on one pitch and almost hurt himself. No word on whether he slipped on a piece of Chad Fox's elbow.

Cubs 10 Reds 6

2005-04-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

Well, the Cubs have put together a fine 2 game winning streak, bringing them above .500 for the first time since Opening Day. With Corey Patterson out due to the flu, Dusty Baker was forced to play Neifi Perez, Jerry Hairston and Jose Macias in what looked to be a pretty anemic lineup. All they did was put a 10 spot up on the board. Of course, due to some sort of Faustian bargain(perhaps it's a by product of Perez's), another Cub player suffered an injury in exchange for the victory. At this rate, the only ambulatory players on the team in August will be Neifi! (who is seemingly unstoppable), Carlos Zambrano (who would throw a 2 hit shutout from his deathbed) and LaTroy Hawkins (because we'll never get rid of him).

The Good:
Neifi! Perez is the straw that stirs the drink. He was 2/5 with a homer and 4 RBI.
In what I felt was a nice managerial move, Dusty moved the slumping Michael Barrett from the 8th spot in the order to the 6th. Barrett responded by going 3-4 with 2 RBI, looking more confident than he has all season.
Derek Lee also maintained his hot April going 2-4 with a walk and 2 knocked in.
Mark Prior continued his dominance. He pitched 6 innings, walking 2 and striking out 10, and giving up his first run of the season. Accusations that Prior is "soft" seem to have been silenced.

The Bad:
Aramis Ramirez still doesn't have it together at the plate. He was 0-4 with a walk, and chased some pitches out of the zone. I think Aramis may be putting a little extra pressure on himself this year. Not because of the new the contract, but because he was probably a lot more at ease hitting in the 4th spot when he knew that Moises Alou and Sammy Sosa were coming up behind him. Hopefully, he can get it back in gear, as the Cubs are going to need his bat.

I was hoping to go a game without criticizing one of Dusty's managerial moves, but no such luck. Normally, you can let bad moves slide in a blowout, but not this one. With the Cubs leading 10-3, Baker brought Chad Fox into the game in the 9th. This was bad for a number of reasons, because Fox has a long history of elbow problems, including a surgery this offseason. Fox had also closed out yesterday's game, and there have been questions going back to spring training as to whether Chad could pitch 2 days in a row. Since this game was well in hand, it would seem like today would not have been the day to press our luck with such a fragile (but talented) reliever. But defying logic once again, Baker marched Fox out to the mound, where he but up the following line: .1IP, 3BB, 1H, 3ER before leaving the game with what looked like a serious arm injury. Now the Cubs already thin bullpen (Glendon Rusch will probably be unavailable until the Cubs know Kerry Wood can make his next start, and even then he'll probably be kept fresh in case he's needed early in that game) is down another man. Come back soon, Joe Borowski.

The Ugly:
Chad Fox's aforementioned arm injury. You could tell it was bad just by looking at it.

The Wrigley Field Fans: Fox had a bad outing, but as he left the field, obviously injured, the Cub fans in attendance booed him. With Fox's injury history, it's not inconceivable that he's pitched his last game this year, and possibly ever. He deserved better from the fans. And I'm not done with them yet. Once again, a Wrigley idiot interfered with a foul ball that right fielder Jeromy Burnitz had a play on. Did people learn nothing from October 2003? Sometimes I think Lee Elia was right about the fans.

Cubs 5 Pirates 2

2005-04-24T20:02:00.000-07:00

The Cubs continue their mediocre ways, pushing their record back to .500 today. It was a pretty good game, Kerry Wood only gave up 2 runs (a good outing for him this year) but was only able to pitch 5 innings due to shoulder tendonitis. The guys in the broadcast booth made it sound like a precaution due to the weather, but I guess we'll learn more about that tomorrow.

The Good:
Neifi Perez continues to astound us all by hitting the hell out of the ball. Neifi's current line stands at .396/.420/.563 and he doubled, homered and singled today. He also continues to have good AB's, especially late in the game when he shortened up his swing to drive in Corey Patterson with a single for an insurance run.

Jeromy Burnitz slapped out of a mini-slump by clubbing a 3 run homer that proved to be the difference.

The bullpen: Chad Fox came in to pitch the ninth and managed to get the save without giving me a heart attack. Michael Wuertz also pitched another solid inning.

The Bad:
Wood walked the leadoff man in at least 3 innings. He also went only 5 innings, although it's still unknown if that was precautionary or reactionary.

Michael Barrett continues to look lost at the plate, with another 0-fer. Barrett does his best when he works the count, and hits the ball where it's pitched. Right now it appears he's trying to pull everything, and he's jumping on the first pitch way too much.

The Ugly:
The Cubs outfield defense was not good today. Jason DuBois looked extremely slow in leftfield, Jeromy Burnitz does not yet have a feel for playing Wrigley's right field when the wind is blowing, and the less said about Jerry Hairston in center, the better.

Not too much to complaining about, a win and no major injuries as good as it's gotten lately.

It's Drafty in here...

2005-04-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

The NFL draft wrapped up today, and the Bears are getting mixed reviews for their selections. I don't fault them for their first round pick of Cedric Benson (although I would have preferred Mike Williams), but their second round pick, Mark Bradley, a WR from Oklahoma appears to be a bit of a reach. The Bears needed help at receiver, but Bradley looks like a project to me, and the Bears already have several wideouts under construction as I write this. Maybe I'm wrong, and Jerry Angelo has gone and found an offensive version of Charles Tillman, but considering Angelo's track record on drafting offensive players, I'm not expecting much. I was actually much happier with the drafts of the Bears NFC Central foes. Despite having woeful defenses, none of them took a defensive player in the first round. And Minnesota managed to outsmart themselves and pass on Mike Williams to take Troy Williamson who is less of a sure thing. While I'm not pleased with the prospect of the Bears facing Williams twice a year in Detroit, I much prefer the prospect of Joey Harrington throwing him one-hoppers to Dante Culpepper heaving him bombs.

Pittsburgh 4 Cubs 3

2005-04-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

Cub pitcher takes 1 run lead into the 9th inning. LaTroy Hawkins comes in, gives up lead, Cubs lose. Apply, rinse and repeat. Those who are waiting for Hawkins to come around as the closer shouldn't hold their breath. Today's loss was inexcusable. Hawkins was unable to hold a 1 run lead against the worst team in the Central Division under ideal pitching conditions (cold, damp and a 25 mile and hour wind blowing in). I hold out no hope for this guy, it's been obvious to everyone he can't close, and while we hoped in vain that the excuses offered for LaTroy were legit (he didn't know the league, he was developing an out pitch, he doesn't pitch well in back to back games) today's effort has me officially closing the door forever on this guy as a closer. If Dusty Baker trots this guy out again in the 9th to protect a lead, he ought to be fired. And Jim Hendry isn't blameless in this whole affair, either, he should have done SOMETHING when Borowski went down with his injury. The worst part is, Hawkins was a great setup man, but it's pretty obvious that part of pitching is mental. My question is, after taking such a beating as a closer, will Hawkins still be useful as a setup man, if and when the Cubs find a new closer?

Cubs 3 Cardinals 1

2005-04-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

Quick roundup from tonight's game-

The Good:
Carlos Zambrano- 8.2 innings of 1 run, 4 hit ball, and an RBI triple. You can't ask for much more than that from Big Z.

The Cubs approach at the plate- 12 hits and 4 walks, shows the hitters are starting to find their grooves.

The Cubs beat the first place Cards in Busch Stadium. A rare occurrence, even when they are good. They also guarantee at least a .500 road trip.

Jerry Hairston will likely start at 2nd base tomorrow instead of Neifi

The Bad:
Hairston will start because Nomar went down with a groin injury early in the game, so Neifi will remain in the lineup to play shortstop.

Despite the hits and walks, the Cubs couldn't get runners home. This game should have been a route, not a 2 run nail biter.

Todd Hollandsworth got 2 more hits, meaning we won't see DuBois on the field for another week and a half.

The Ugly:
Everything about Nomar today. From his terrible throwing error, to his weak double play ball, to his groin injury, nothing looked good about him. The Cubs have announced that the injury is a "strain", but since Nomar was physically carried off the field, this doesn't look good.

LaTroy Hawkins- brought in with 2 outs in the 9th and a man on 2nd, LaTroy managed to induce a 399.5 foot flyout to centerfield from John Mabry. As the Cubs congratulated him after the game, LaTroy still looked petrified. Joe Borowski can't get back soon enough for me.

Busch(League) Stadium- Thank goodness they're finally building a new stadium for the Cards, because that place is absolutely hideous, inside and out. I've been there, and the whole place smells like the restrooms at Wrigley Field. I know people in St. Louis liked it, and will probably miss it, but the reality is, the dump was simply Veteran's Stadium West.

Cubs 7 Reds 1

2005-04-20T04:52:00.000-07:00

The score about says it all. The Reds were never in yesterday's game after the first inning. That inning belonged to Corey Patterson, who homered in the top half, and took away a two run homer with a great catch in the bottom of the first. Prior dominated the Reds from that point on, giving up 4 hits, with the only run scoring on a throwing error by Nomar. Other than that miscue, no complaints about this game. Hairston and DuBois both started, Derrek Lee continued his hot April, Aramis Ramirez showed signs of breaking out and Michael Barrett finally got a couple of hits. If this Cub team can put together efforts like last night's consistently, they're going to be a threat in the division. We may find out more tonight, with the Cubs heading to St. Louis for two games. While the team isn't yet firing on all cylinders, they're definitely picking up speed. They say that hitting is contagious, so here's hoping that Nomar catches what the others have got.

More on the Score

2005-04-18T20:34:00.000-07:00

I'm trying not to make this a daily feature here, but Mike Murphy is again pissing me off. Following tonight's loss to the Reds, Murph started his postgame show by touching on several points where Dusty Baker could have been second guessed, and also questioning whether something was amiss with Kerry Wood. That's fine, except after going over these things briefly, Murph then turned to his new agenda, ripping Bob Brenley and stumping for Steve Stone. First Murph hammered on Brenley for being too much of a homer, then he sarcastically asked if Dan Plesac was going to be fired for 2nd guessing Dusty Baker on Comcast's own postgame show. Murph's got an agenda, and it's getting a little tiresome. Stone serves as a baseball analyst for the Score now, and it's no secret that Steve and Mike are friends. But the fact is, Steve Stone resigned his position with the Cubs, he was NOT fired. And I'm a little sick of the woe is Steve crap that's coming from Murph and his ilk.

Look, I like Steve Stone a lot as an announcer, and I challenge anybody to name better color analyst in baseball or any other sport. I don't say this lightly, I mean I suffered through the Joe Carter Epoch like every one else. But I don't think it's right for fans to judge Brenley right off, when he's been thrown into a bad situation, where he's got to replace a beloved former broadcaster, and work with a play by play man who's also new to the team. You see there's a reason that Stone could make the criticisms he made on air-he had over 20 years of credibility built up with Cub fans(and a lot of non-Cub fans who watched the games on WGN over the years). People seem to forget that Stone's whole career basically hinged on whether Harry Caray liked him. Had Steve worn the wrong shirt to their first broadcast, he likely would have gone the way of Josh Levin. But Harry liked Steve, so the fans like him too, and Harry would actually let Steve talk sometimes, so what Stone had to say must be important, to make Harry actually stop spelling names backwards for a minute.

So Steve had lot of credibility, and he had a great job that paid him a good amount of money. And after a series of confrontations with Baker and Jim Hendry and several players, he quit. Some people say that he had no choice, that he was forced out. That's bullshit. Steve Stone had a very rare opportunity, one that most people rarely have both the financial standing, and personal courage to pull off, he quit a high paying, high profile job, soley because he felt keeping it would violate his principles. That's something you can do, when you know that people will come running to hire you. So don't feel bad for Steve Stone, he's got a job, and he's got his principles. But don't let anyone tell you that he didn't quit.

Wood Not Good

2005-04-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

Well, this was supposed to be the start for Kerry Wood. All the kinks were out, all the rust was off, and he was facing a team that he's dominated throughout his career, in a park where he'd never lost a game. His offense even showed up, staking him to a 4-0 first inning lead. So what happened? Do you even need to ask? Wood got nickeled and dimed for a couple of runs and then Cincinnati blew it open in the 6th inning and tied the game at 5-5. Glendon Rusch breezed through the 7th, but for some reason Dusty Baker chose to start the 8th with Jon Leicester, who loaded the bases on 2 walks and hit batsman, then induced a 5-2 double play, then gave up a towering double to Jason LaRue to make it 7-5. Another good question for Baker might be why he did not walk LaRue with two out and runners on 2nd and 3rd. A walk would have brought up the 9th spot in the order, and Cincy had only one pinch hitter left on their bench. One could also question why Baker decided to go with Leicester in this spot at all, since he hadn't pitched in over a week.

But as much as I want to question Baker's moves, the real blame here falls to Wood. He simply could not maintain focus with the lead, and while his control was better, the pitches that he left up were hit hard. Wood is coming to a crossroads in his career; he's too old to still be a wild, young phenom, and with the trade of Sosa, he has become the face of the team. Unfortunately, when things are going bad for the team, it's players like Wood who come under the heaviest scrutiny from the fans (as Sammy learned last year). Carlos Zambrano blew a lead on Friday, but nobody was suggesting that he was injured, washed up, or trade bait the next day; and you can bet you'll hear those things about Wood on Tuesday.

The Score

2005-04-15T22:05:00.000-07:00

Much to the chagrin of the Uncouth Sloth, a couple of people in Chicago, still listen to 670 the Score (okay, me, Mike D and Chuck). I don't know why, but after tonight's Cub game, I turned on Mike Murphy's show. Maybe I'm a masochist, maybe it helps my self esteem to laugh at idiots on the radio, or maybe I just like to listen to a guy who's voice apparently emnates from the world's largest nostril. Whichever the case, I didn't have to listen for too long before I got a little angry with Murph. See, I actually agree with him that Dusty Baker is a lousy manager, but Murph seems incapable of blaming GM Jim Hendry for any of the teams failings, when the sorry state of the bullpen is Hendry's fault. I like most of what Hendry has done during his tenure as GM, he's shown a knack for making the big trade at the right time to give his club a boost down the stretch. But the simple fact is, when Hendry first came on the job, he said his first order of business was to fix the bullpen, and now, 3 years later, it's still not much better than it was in 2002. And the fact that the bullpen's shortcomings may have cost us and NL pennant in 2003 and a Wild Card spot in 2004, means that Hendry does have some answering to do for this. But not the way Murph sees it. Somehow, the bullpen's failings are all due to one Andy McPhail, who, while a total weenie, hasn't been running the on field baseball operation for some time. Mike seems to think that it's Andy's fault that Hendry only has the 5th highest payroll in the league. Surely, no man could build a respectable bullpen with those kinds of restrictions. Unless that person is running the Minnesota Twins, who through trades and call ups have put together one of the best pens in the league. Hell, you don't even have to be that smart, as evidenced by Kenny Williams and the White Sox, who, while they lack a dominating closer, have a very deep pen, which they're going to need to win close games with their brand new pop gun offense. The truth is, Hendry has failed to build the bullpen, and it has cost the Cubs. Because almost every team knows that if they knock out Chicago's starter with a 1 run lead or less, there's a very good chance they're going to come back and win that game.

Losing Ugly...

2005-04-15T21:52:00.000-07:00

The Cubs lose to the Pirates tonight, and there's plenty of blame to go around. The Cubs failed to score with 1 out and the bases loaded, with Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee both looking bad in their at bats. Jerry Hairston broke the wrong way on what turned out to be the game winning double and Carlos Zambrano gave up 3 homers, two to catcher David Ross, who the Dodgers let go because they preferred Paul Bako. Not to be outdone, Dusty Baker continued working towards his goal of leading the league in questionable managerial moves. He continues to believe that because Mike Remlinger is a left handed pitcher, he can get left handed hitters out. Remlinger came in a gave up the tying run, then in the following inning was left in the game to face Rob Machoviak and Darryl Ward, both of whom hit the ball hard, and scored later in the inning when Chad Fox was brought on to finish the job that Rem had started. Also, with the score tied in the top of the 8th, Baker chose to pinch hit for Jason DuBois with Todd Hollandsworth because, well, seeing as how DuBois had homered already in the game, the only reason I can think of is that Dusty was playing the goddamn lefty/righty matchup again. When are managers going to realize that sometimes it's okay to go against the "percentages"? In this case, I might have considered the fact that DuBois is a career .300 hitter to Hollandsworth's .260.

When I'm rich...

2005-04-13T20:31:00.000-07:00

If I ever win the lotto (or aquire an obscene amount of money somehow), I know one of the things I'm going to do with it. I'm going to hire Bill Simmons away from ESPN.com, and pay him to write what he really thinks about ESPN and it's idiotic announcers, horrible anchors, ridiculous shows and brutally bad website. Just because you know he's dying to do it.

Double the fun...

2005-04-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

So the local media was all jacked up, because the Cubs were playing a double header that would feature "a pair of aces" in Kerry Wood and Mark Prior. Well, they might want to rethink that headline, and Wood was knocked around for 4 runs in the first inning, and the Cubs were never in it, losing game one, 8-3. So of course Mark Prior, who everyone was worried about after his sore arm and bad minor league start, came out and pitched a gem, with the Cubs winning that one by the same score, 8-3. It was a day to defy logic, as Dusty Baker blew our minds by starting Neifi Perez in both games, and Neifi followed it up by getting 6 hits in 9 at bats. Anyway, the Cubs should be happy with their split and after taking Thursday off, they'll play the team that always has the cure for what ails them, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Oh, and the opener of that series will feature the Cubs REAL ace, Carlos Zambrano.

Rain Delay

2005-04-12T19:34:00.000-07:00

Since Mother Nature refused to cooperate on Tuesday and rained out the Cubs, most of the rest of us were forced to find some other way to amuse ourselves. Jerry Hairston used his time off to go on the Score and beg forgiveness from Dusty Baker. Hopefully it works, and we won't see much more of Neifi in the starting lineup. Meanwhile, it looks like other people were hard at work as well. In fact, the West Virginia lawmakers were so busy trying to wrap up their work session, that apparently they voted through a bill that made English the official language of that State without even knowing it. Evidentially, one of the sneakier members of the legislature stuck the provision onto an existing bill, and since congresspersons have a lot more important things to do than actually read the laws they're voting on, nobody caught it.

Some people are going to think this bill is racist, or xenophobic or exclusionary or something, but there's one word I'd use to describe it: futile. Sure, it'd be a lot easier if everybody spoke the same language, and easier for me personally if that language was English. But what exactly does it mean to have an official language? Will those who speak French in West Virginia be fined or jailed? Almost all street and business signs are in English already, so that won't change. Will immigrants suddenly flock in droves to ESL classes, for fear of persecution? And what if other state's get into the act? Some states are going to have Latino majorities in the near future. What if California or Arizona votes Spanish as their official state language? I guess I should have paid better attention in my college Spanish classes.

Anyway, I'm sure that if it's a slow news day, West Virginia's decision is going to be plastered all over the national newscasts. We'll be repeatedly treated to the sight of field reporters doing man on the street interviews, asking idiots what they think about this issue. And the problem is, the question they should be asking is: what the hell do lawmakers have to do that's more important than actually reading the bills that they vote on, and will end up affecting all their constituents?

Neifi-gate

2005-04-11T20:49:00.000-07:00

When word came down that Todd Walker would be out for 4-6 weeks with a knee injury, almost every Cubs fan thought "well, at least it'll mean more AB's for Jerry Hairston, which will get Patterson out of the lead off spot". Well, that just goes to show that we haven't been paying much attention during Johnnie B. Baker's managerial tenure. Most of us were surprised to see that Neifi Perez was batting 2nd and playing 2nd base today. Baker's stated reason for this, that Perez has seen more of starting pitcher Adam Eaton, was utterly ridiculous. If that's the justification, then Hairston will never play, because he's spent his career in the American League. But Hairston evidentially took the news hard, expressing his disappointment to reporters and saying "the best news I've heard the last two years is that I'm an unrestricted free agent at the end of this year". Only a week into the season, and already the Cubs have a potential clubhouse problem on their hands, caused in part by the guy that they got when they traded their other clubhouse cancer, Sammy Sosa. And while it may seem minor, this situation has the potential to spin out of control, quickly. There are 3 parties to blame here. Let's take a look at each one.

1. Dusty Baker - Baker's fault is the most obvious. I'm not as high on Hairston as some others are, but he's much better than Neifi Perez, and light years ahead of Jose Macias. Yet Baker started Perez, and used Macias as a pinch hitter in today's 1-0 loss, while Hairston rotted on the bench. The latter is probably due to Hairston's comments to the press, brought about when he found out Neifi was starting. But what about that decision? Baker's strength is supposed to be his communication with his players. Baker knew that the press had anointed Hairston the starter, and should at very least told him immediately that Perez would be the second baseman today. Instead, Hairston was sucker punched by the decision, and gave a candid reaction to the beat reporters, which will not sit well with Dusty.

2. Jerry Hairston - While Hairston may have been right to be angry at his snub today, he was wrong in the way he handled it. A terse "no comment" to the reporters would have been enough to get his point across, with out publicly airing his grievances in a way that he had to know would bring repercussions from Baker. Dusty has talked all spring about eliminating "snitches" in the clubhouse, and this was what he meant. Hairston should at least gone into Dusty's office and aired him out there in private. In addition, while I think Perez and Macias stink, I don't see where Hairston seems to believe that he's owed something. He alluded to his previous record in the majors, but his career stats are just north of mediocre. Jerry seems to think that something was promised to him, somewhere down the line, and while the newspapers speculated on his role, I don't recall anyone from the Cubs stating it.

3. Jim Hendry - Let me say that I am not a Hendry hater. I think he's done a good job overall putting the team together that last few years. But he failed to do his homework on Hairston. While I'm surprised at how quickly Jerry became disenchanted with his role, I'm not surprised that it happened. Hairston lost his job to a much better player in Baltimore, and he let it be known he wasn't happy at all. Hendry brought him into pretty much the same situation in Chicago: an established 2nd baseman, who Hairston would spell, and an uncertain outfield situation, that would probably garner Hairston the bulk of his AB's. Hendry also probably saw him as injury insurance for Hollandsworth, Walker, and Ramirez if necessary. But Hendry also knows all too well Baker's penchant for rewarding "his" veterans with playing time they often don't deserve. Shouldn't Hendry have squared just such a situation away with Baker beforehand?

So, as you can see, the Hairston situation may be the symptom of a deeper problem. If this is a matter of miscommunication between Hairston and Baker, this incident could end up being anything from a minor annoyance to the start of a rift between the manager and the players. But if this is the result of Hendry and Baker not seeing eye to eye, then the entire situation could be disastrous.

Successful Weekend

2005-04-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

So after a tough loss on Friday, the Cubs bounce back to take 2 of 3 from the Brewers. Saturday's game featured a brilliant effort by Carlos Zambrano, who pitched 7.1 innings of one hit ball, had two hits, drove in a run, scored a run, sang the National Anthem, and sold beer in the stands between innings. The press can hammer Big Z for his emotional outbursts all they want, but that doesn't change the fact that he's the best damn pitcher in the National League, and the absolute joy he demonstrates whether he's stiking a guy out, hitting a home run or making a horrifyingly bad headfirst slide into 3rd base is a thing of beauty.

Today's win got the Cubs back to .500 on the season, and it also featured another solid outing from the Cub bullpen. Glendon Rusch looked like last year's version, hitting the corners with his fastball, throwing strikes and keeping the hitters off balance. The Cubs won 6-5 in extra innings, and hopefully will continue to win one run games, because I'm sick of hearing about their record in one run games from last year. I'm not one of those people who think that losing one run games is due to some sort of character deficiency on the part of the players. I want them to win all the games, regardless of the score.

The only down side now is the injury to Todd Walker. Walker was hurt when Carlos Lee took him out at 2nd base to break up a double play in the 10th inning. Kind of ironic, since part of the reason Lee was supposedly traded by the White Sox was that he didn't drill Minnesota's 2nd baseman in a similar situation following Tori Hunters forearm shiver to the head of Sox catcher Jaime Burke. The current word is that Walker will be put on the DL with a sprained knee, which will open up playing time for Jerry Hairston. It's kind of weird though, as I wanted Hairston to get some more AB's, but not at the expense of Walker, who had been the Cubs best hitter so far. Also, part of me is afraid that instead of Hairston, Dusty Baker is going to trot Jose Macias out there in Walker's absence. Let's hope that Macias stays on the bench, where his versatility* can be better exploited. Let's also hope that Walker's injury is only a sprain, as I believe that this usually the initial diagnosis on all knee injuries.

*versatility in this case is defined as the ability to strike out in every plate appearance while playing mediocre defense at a number of positions.

Brewers 6 Cubs 3

2005-04-08T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well, the Cubs lost today, and I can't say they didn't deserve it. Just about everything that could go wrong for the team did. Less than 6 innings from your starting pitcher? Check. Stranding runners in scoring position? Check. Inability to generate offense against a mediocre (at best) pitcher? Check. Blown save? Check. Bad defense? Check. Lot's of walks for the opposition? Check. Lot's of strikeouts from the Cubs? Check.

Wow, it looks even worse to lay it all out like that. I still can't get myself worked up over this, though. Part of it is, I look at this team, and it's really not that different on the field from last year's version. I mean, Sammy and Moises may have changed the clubhouse, but so far, this is still the guts of a team last year that couldn't seem to score without homeruns, couldn't executed basic fundamental plays, and had a bullpen who's pitchers were a bad mix of inexperience and ineffectiveness. So, I can't say that this is totally unexpected. I don't expect the team to stay this bad though, eventually, the starting pitching will right itself, and hopefully, a solution will be found at closer. Otherwise, 2005 may end up looking a lot like 2004.

Home Opener

2005-04-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

Only a few more hours until the Cubs home opener. The team went 1-2 in Arizona, but that may also have been a product of spring training hangover. Some of these guys haven't been home since mid-February, so I'm not going to make any snap judgements based on the first series of the year. I will say that I did notice a change in the way I watched the games though. Last year, I was amped up for every game, didn't want to miss a pitch, which was ultimately too exhausting over a 162 game baseball season. I wasn't the only one. It was obvious that from day one, the Wrigley crowd was hyper intense, standing and roaring through almost every game. While that kind of passion is admirable, it also has to wear down the players. I know their professionals, who aren't supposed to be affected by such things, but let's face it, that's impossible. When you're in the focus of the intensity of 40,000 people, well, I believe you can't help but get caught up in it, and after 82 games (and probably more, as the Cubs faithful seemed to turn out in force at any stadium with extra tickets) the players were quite honestly probably glad to get away from it. But I've noticed so far this year that I've been able to sit back and enjoy watching the games this year, without constantly worrying what effect the outcome is going to have on the Cubs playoff chances. Maybe I learned my lesson from last year, or maybe I'm just burned out from the Illini's tournament run, but I hope I can keep this attitude for most of the summer. Then, about August 1st, if the beloved Cubs are still within shouting distance of the division or wildcard, I can dial up the intensity a little bit. Here's hoping that the rest of you Cubs fans are feeling the same way. Let's try and enjoy this season, instead of impatiently waiting for October, because as watching Illinois taught me, sometimes the journey is as much fun as the destination.

Ah...

2005-04-05T19:24:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm over my Illini hangover, so I figured I go over some of the things that I liked and disliked from yesterday's Cub opener. The good news? The questionable new offense clicked on all cylinders yesterday, with every Cub player, both broadcasters and Yosh Kawano getting hits off of the Diamondback pitchers. Only 5 of the Cubs 16 runs were scored via the homer, meaning, well, that the other 11 were scored in some other way. The bad news: Carlos Zambrano lost his control in the 4th inning, and lost his cool after Dusty Baker removed him, thus receiving a meaningless ejection. Some people are saying that Carlos was getting squeezed, well, over the course of the season, that's going to happen. The big guy then needs to throw that fat sinker up there, and trust his defense to get him out of the inning. Anyway, I did actually see some good in this situation, as Dusty Baker came out to retrieve Carlos with 2 out and the bases loaded in the 4th, hopefully this is a sign that Dusty isn't going to screw around with the pitchers this year. Carlos had thrown too many pitches, and I'm hoping that if Baker keeps some of these guys on shorter leashes that they'll try and conserve a little bit. Of course, I could be totally off base on my assessment, but hey, that's why they pay me the big bucks. The only way we'll know for sure is if the next time Kerry Wood has a 40 pitch 4th inning, Dusty goes out and gets him, regardless of the score.

Oh yeah, I've been watching tonight's game a little, and I've got a question for Comcast Sports Plus...would it kill you to spring for the score overlay? I sat through the whole 3rd inning (I think), not knowing the score or inning, because there was no graphic. Then after the 3rd out, extra helpful announcer Len Kasper says "and that's the end of the inning and the score is 3-2". Thanks Len, real helpful.

#@%($)+#?!

2005-04-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

It's opening day. The Cubs won. I should be happy, right? Well, I can't be. Not tonight. Illinois lost a heartbreaker to UNC 75-70, and this one hurts. The Illini played a terrible first half, digging themselves a 13 point deficit with 20 minutes to go. They battled back valiantly, pulling even a few times, with a chance to tie or take the lead with less than a minute left, but they just couldn't get over that hump. I feel bad for the seniors, Powell, Head and Ingram played their asses off, and deserved a win. Unfortunately, James Augustine had a game to forget, fouling out after playing only 9 minutes.

I guess I can only fall back on my own sick combination of optimism and pessimism. Maybe in a few years, an NCAA investigation will discover that a combination of money, drugs and gay sex was used to recruit the current Carolina roster, and they'll be stripped of the title. Nah, not even that would make feel better. Congrats to UNC, they earned this one. But I'll say nothing good about Roy Williams, simply because he's got Billy Packer for that.

Infighting Illini?

2005-04-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

Illinois advanced to the National Final of the NCAA tournament yesterday, and will meet the University of North Carolina for the championship on Monday. Illinois did this by handling a Louisville squad that featured Juan Palacios and Francisco Garcia (who used to wrestle together in the WWF as the Conquistadors). Unfortunately, the buildup to the game was marred by bickering between the current Illinois players and members of the 1989 Flyin' Illini team. Basically, several members of the Flyin' Illini came out and said that there was no way that the current roster could beat the 1989 version. Deron Williams took offense to this, and the debate over who would win a game that will never be played raged on the rest of the week. On one hand, I can understand the way the 1989 players feel. The 2004-5 Illinois team has already done 2 things that the 1989 team never did, win the Big 10 and advance to the championship game. The 1989 team will likely go the way of the NFL Champion 1963 Chicago Bears, who were the toast of the city until the 1985 Bears were able to run through the season and win the Super Bowl in a more spectacular fashion. But I question the 1989 team's timing, and frankly, I question that they really could beat the 2004-5 team. After all, the Flyin' Illini managed to lose in the National Semi Final to a Michigan team that they'd already beaten easily, on two occasions. And despite the assertion that college basketball is watered down because of NBA defections, the truth is, athletes today are bigger and stronger than they were even 15 years ago. Obviously, this debate can never really be settled, but I'll look at it this way: I do not think that the Flyin' Illini could beat the current North Carolina squad. So if Illinois does win on Monday, in my mind, they'll be the best the school has ever seen.

Radio Daze

2005-03-30T18:20:00.000-08:00

Due to a fairly long train commute each day, I listen to a lot of sports radio. So, I was a little surprised to hear former CBS sports broadcaster Mike Adamle pop up on 670 the Score as a fill in for Rick Telander last week. Sure enough, both the Trib and Sun-Times confirmed that Adamle was hired to be utility guy for the Score, filling in as various hosts go on vacation. For those of you who didn't watch Adamle on CBS (and judging from the ratings, that's, well everybody) Mike is the answer to the trivia question: who was the only player besides Walter Payton to start at running back for the Bears between 1975-1987? Adamle started one game in 1975, the only one that Payton ever missed. In addition, Mike was one of the most brutal sportscaster's to ever grace a major market news cast. I never watched him, but every day at 6pm, Steve Dahl would play any lowlights from Adamle's sportscast the night before. Adamle was so bad, that this was basically a daily feature on Dahl's show. Mike basically got the job for two reasons; he was an ex-Chicago jock, and two, he looked the part. Which makes me wonder why the Score would hire him. Adamle's greatest(and I use the term loosely) asset was that he looked the part of the sportscaster. Having him on radio nullifies that. And while he played for the Bears, he didn't have a memorable career, and he's no more plugged in than anybody else on the Score staff. Finally, the guy would stumble over the words that he'd written (well, I assume he wrote them) for his sports cast. I shudder to think what he'll do when he's got to improvise. Now, this isn't really a major position he was hired for, and that's part of the problem. The Score could have hired somebody new, or given one of it's younger guys a chance as the fill in, but instead, they decided the safest thing to do was hire another Chicago retread. And that's why they're still in 2nd place.

Wood Pitches: Doesn't Hurt Self

2005-03-30T18:17:00.000-08:00

5IP
3ER
8H
4BB
3K

Not exactly a great line, but one I was happy to see just the same, as Kerry Wood returned to the mound today, in an effort to get himself ready by the home opener. I'm not going to read anything into Wood's stats, as he's behind most pitchers and is just trying to get his arm strength up to pitch in the regular season. In other news, I'm utterly bored with spring training and ready for the season to start. Can't wait until Monday.

Dammit...

2005-03-29T19:06:00.000-08:00

Well, I had written a brilliant post about the last two NCAA games, and large paragraph attacking Billy Packer, but blogger ate it, and I'm too lazy to type the whole thing. Anyway, since you all know what happened in Sunday's games, and I'll get a second chance at Packer this weekend, I'll skip it.

Back to baseball, and the Cubs specifically. Spring training if finally winding down, and we've yet to see Kerry Wood or Mark Prior pitch in live games. Wood's supposedly pitching tomorrow, but I'll believe it when I see it, and Prior wrapped up the simulated Cy Young Award today by winning his 25th simulated game. I can't say that I don't feel some doom and gloom about the upcoming season, with 3 of our 5 most important pitchers being injured, Todd Hollandsworth starting in left field over DuBois and Hairston, Corey Patterson failing to take even ONE walk this spring and Aramis Ramirez still not signed to an extension. Yeah, there's the optimism of spring training for you.

An interesting rumor was being bandied about on the radio today. According to some top-secret source (read: the little man in George Offman's head), the White Sox may already be so sick of AJ Pierzynski that they're trying to trade him. I can't see that happening, not after Kenny Williams has been trumpeting the swagger that AJ brings to the clubhouse. Besides, who would the Sox trade him for? Roberto Alomar is retired, and Carl Everett is already on the team.

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes...

2005-03-26T19:43:00.000-08:00

...I would not have believed it. When Illinois took a 2 point lead into half time, I actually thought they were in good shape. After all, I figured they'd tighten up the defense, and there's no way Arizona would keep shooting 62% from the field. But the Illini came out and played the worst half of basketball I've seen from them all season, and when James Augustine fouled out with 4 minutes left and the team down 15, I was looking for something heavy to put through the picture tube. Luckily I didn't though, as I would have missed one of the greatest comebacks ever. Dee Brown, Luther Head, and Deron Williams finally decided they were going to take over the game. They stormed back with a series of steals and three pointers that allowed them to tie the game near the end of regulation, and a Luther Head block of a Salim Stoudamire shot sent the game to overtime. The teams went back and forth in OT, but it ended when Hassan Adams wild three pointer missed the mark as time expired, and Illinois had won 90-89, to secure their first Final Four appearance since 1989.

I'd have to say I was right about a couple of things in this game. Illinois effectively shut down Salim Stoudamire, he scored 9 points on 2-13 shooting and hit only 1 three pointer. But Channing Frye decided to come to play today, pouring in 24, and Hassan Adams decided to be "the unheralded hack who torches Illinois", hitting for 21. I was a little puzzled by Lute Olson's play at the end of overtime. I don't care how hot Adams may be, and how cold Stoudamire may be, when you need a shot to win the game in overtime, you have to give the ball to your best player, and that's Stoudamire. Olson didn't, and it may have cost his team the victory.

The first game of the day was no slouch either. Louisville erased a 20 point first half deficit, and managed to pull out a victory against West Virginia, who had been absolutely fabulous from behind the arc in the first half. It's too bad for West Virginia, who was a great story, and as well as they played, I'd much rather have had Illinois face them in the semi-final than Louisville. Now two teams that have made terrific comebacks will be facing off next week in St. Louis.

Here's hoping that tomorrow's games are just as exciting.

Elite Eight

2005-03-25T21:28:00.000-08:00

Preface: from March 1999 to May 2001, I lived in Charlotte. During that time, I was continually bombarded by the ACC propaganda machine and I grew to utterly despise the league. Some of my views and analysis may reflect this hatred.

Well, the buzzer just went off on the Carolina/Villanova game, so I'm going to do what I love best when it comes to college basketball: rag on the ACC.

All week NCAA analysts have been asking: "who can beat Carolina?". Turns out that the answer was nearly Villanova, who lost by 1 to the Tarheels, and badly out hustled them. I've said all year that UNC is a team content to coast on its reputation, and they showed it tonight. Also, I think that their season average of 89 ppg is more of a reflection on the defense that's played in the ACC than of their offensive prowress, as they were held to under 70 points by a Villanova team with a serious size disadvantage.

I seem to remember at the beginning of the season, that many in the press were asking if the ACC/Big 10 Challenge should be called off, since the ACC was so dominant. Well, in the postseason version of the challenge, Michigan State and Wisconsin have run the Big 10's record to 2-0, and Wisconsin has a chance to make that a perfect 3-0. Oh, and not to belabor my point about defense, but the Badgers were able to hold NC State's Julius Hodge to 25% shooting; while against MSU, Mr. Everything, JJ Redick, could only manage to score 13 points (compared with his season average of 22) on 4-14 shooting. But I'm sure you'll be able to read all about that in JJ's next book of poetry.

In the other games, Utah was beaten by Kentucky, and nobody was surprised, because Utah stinks. Also, just when Washington had everyone thinking they were a good team, they went out and got their asses kicked by Louisville. West Virginia beat Texas Tech for the right to lose to Louisville, and finally, Arizona beat Oklahoma State in a very good game, while Illinois beat Wisconsin-Milwaukee by 14.

So Illinois will face off with Arizona tomorrow, in a rematch of their Elite 8 game from 2001. Except this time, hopefully, Illinois will not foul out 6 of their front court players, and everyone with the last name Walton will be barred from the building. Illinois has tall order in guarding Salim Stoudamire, especially since Luther Head is hurting, but I think they can do it. Illinois has made a habit this season of shutting down a team's best offensive player. They've also made a habit of allowing some backup hack to have a career day against them. The game should be good, as it sounds like Arizona's strategy will be to try and win it in a shootout, but I think Illinois' defense will be up to the task. Let's hope they're cutting down the nets tomorrow in Chicago.

Thursday...Finally

2005-03-24T04:53:00.000-08:00

Thursday is finally here. I've been waiting all week for the NCAA to start up again, and today it will with a vengence. Illinois will play Wisconsin-Milwaukee, followed by Arizona/Oklahoma State which could be a classic. I'm hoping that the UWM game is not a classic, but a blowout. Not for any revenge purposes, but just for my own piece of mind. On paper this matchup looks good for Illinois. UWM presses a lot, which was a the perfect defense to use against the freshman point guard of Alabama, and the mediocre backcourt of Boston College. Illinois has 3 guys who can run the point, so they should have no problem breaking the press, and hopefully scoring at will. All year the Illini have said they've got the best backcourt in the country...time for them to prove it.

I-L-L

Cautiously Optimistic...

2005-03-24T04:46:00.000-08:00

Sure, the injury to Joe Borowski was a bad blow to the Cubs, but there are some reasons to be optimistic about the team so far this spring. For one, Kerry Wood will make a Cactus League start today, hopefully without any complications from his shoulder. Also, Mark Prior is at least throwing the ball right now, which is better than this time last year when he was, well doing nothing. Nomar is tearing the cover off the ball, and so are Ramirez, Lee, DuBois and even Burnitz looks good this spring. Jerry Hairston looks like he may prove to be a useful player after all, and Carlos Zambrano is an absolute stud. So, there you have it, no smart ass comments, no doom and gloom, just a shiny, happy summation of the Cubs spring so far. And you can pretty much read between the lines to see where the problems lie.

Bruce & Jimmy

2005-03-21T17:38:00.000-08:00

Well, the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament are over, and neither Mark Prior nor Kerry Wood are throwing to live batters yet, so, until Thursday, I'm bored. I guess I'll use today to quickly address the Bruce Pearl/Illinois situation. Frankly, I don't care much about beating Pearl, I just want the Illini to win the game. I would, however, like to take a look at the fallout of that incident, and the impact it had on the careers of two men who are linked by it.

One thing I've always wondered about Pearl is what he thinks of Tom Davis now. By all accounts, Davis was the one who encouraged Pearl to tape record the conversations, going so far as to buy him the equipment. Tom Davis was a veteran basketball coach, he wasn't naive to the atmosphere of the coaching clique. He had to have had some idea of what the consequences would be for Bruce Pearl when the whole story broke loose. And when Illinois was investigated by the NCAA, the papers and pundits said it was due to Bruce Pearl's diligence (or dirty tricks). Davis could have taken some credit, or something, but instead, he tossed Pearl under the bus, pretty much torpedoing his chances at a major college coaching program(I believe that Dick Vitale went on TV and stated that Pearl had committed "career suicide". True to form though, Vitale had no such scathing statements for the good Dr. Tom). And so Davis had dealt a major setback to a conference rival, and it only cost him Pearl's career and reputation, which has only now been repaired, thanks to the fact that Pearl is a damn good coach. But wonders where he'd be now, if maybe Davis had taken some of the heat off him.

The other man who's career took a major turn due to the scandal was Jimmy Collins. Collins has risen to be Lou Henson's no. 1 assistant coach by the late 80's, and it was Collins who was recruiting Deon Thomas when the Pearl incident triggered the NCAA investigation. Although the NCAA found no wrong doing that involved Collins, some minor violations were found at the AD level, and Illinois was found guilty of "lack of institutional control". Until this point, Collins was considered to be the heir apparent to Lou Henson at Illinois. But for an assistant coach with no wins to claim as his own, having his name associated with an NCAA investigation was career crippler for Collins. Eventually, Jimmy would receive a token interview for the head coaching job when Henson retired, but the job would be given to Lon Kruger.

Collins and Pearl would both eventually land Division I coaching jobs. Collins would take over the Illinois-Chicago program after his apprenticeship at Illinois, and Pearl would claw his way back from Division II exile to take over Wisconsin-Milwaukee, ironically in the same conference as UIC. So now Pearl and Collins meet every year in the Horizon League, when just a decade ago, it seemed that they might meet as the heads of Big 10 schools. I'd like to say there's a lesson here, some sort of moral to be learned. Did Pearl do the wrong thing for the right reasons? Did Collins violate recruiting rules, or was he made the scapegoat for the failures of the higher ups in the athletic department? Nobody can really say for sure. Sadly maybe the moral is just this: when the shit starts flying, duck.

Random NCAA Tournament Notes

2005-03-19T21:57:00.000-08:00

Just a few notes from the first day of the second round:

The Vermont/Kansas upset seemed to light a spark under the underdog teams today, and there were several major upsets. The best had to be the West Virginia/Wake Forest double overtime thriller. No defense was played at all, but it was still the most exciting game so far. Every time West Virginia seemed to have the game iced, Wake would come down and make a 3. The West Virginia back door cut that resulted Wake blocking the winning layup at the end of the 1st OT was one of the best desperation sequences I've seen in a basketball game. Terrific execution by everyone. Glad to see the darlings of the media, Wake Forest, get beat by the hicks from WV. Take that, Billy Packer.

The Utah/Oklahoma game was one of the biggest turds I've ever seen. The average sequence went like this: Oklahoma comes down and puts up a brick. Utah rebounds, brings the ball up, then throws it into the 6th row of the stands. Meanwhile, the announcers calling the game are too busy talking about how Andrew Bogut has made 6 passes that should be assists, except that the other Utah players didn't make the shots. I was interested in seeing if Bogut would live up to his hype, and he didn't come close. It didn't help that his parents were calling the game for CBS, and seemed oblivious to what a horrible game he was playing. This guy is a lottery pick? Well, so was Luc Longley, I guess (and that comparison isn't a coincidence).

I didn't watch Kentucky/Cincinnati game, because, well I hate both teams. Nice to see Bob Huggins get sent home early again, hope you're next, Tubby.

Finally, Illinois beat Nevada rather easily, which should be a big surprise to the Chicago press. The papers were all over Illinois the last two days, saying they couldn't get past this tough Nevada team the way they were playing, since Nevada had a far superior front court. Some idiot on the radio this morning said that Nick Fazekus reminded him of Larry Bird. Well, James Augustine came out firing on all cylinders, scoring a career high 23 points, with Jack Ingram throwing in 12 (also a career high), while the two of them held Fazekus to 11 points, which is 10 off his season average. A nice piece of coaching in this game from Bruce Weber: as Augustine was showing signs of heating up, Nevada's coach drew a technical, and Weber had James shoot the free throws (he made both). It seemed to only boost Augustine's confidence higher, he was unstoppable after that point. Next up for Illinois, Bruce Pearl comes to town with his Wisconsin-Milwaukee team. I hope the Illini win by 40.

Still another day of second round action left. I for one am looking forward to the Louisville/Georgia Tech tilt. I'd love to see another ACC team get bounced.

Bucknell 64 Kansas 63

2005-03-18T22:15:00.000-08:00

Look, I'm not usually one to gloat, aw hell, yes I am. But I'm usually a little bit gracious about it. You see I attended to University of Illinois towards the end of Lou Henson's tenure, and when Lon Kruger showed up and started rebuilding the program, I was happy. Kruger seemed to be doing a good job but Lon bailed for the NBA bucks, and ultimately, coaching obscurity. I couldn't begrudge him that, not every college coach get's a shot in the NBA.

When Kruger left, I was hoping U of I could find somebody who wouldn't treat Illinois as nothing but a transitional job. I thought Self was a good choice. He was a good recruiter, he'd led mid-major Tulsa into the sweet 16, and he pledged that he'd stick around awhile. When the Kansas job came open 2 years into his tenure, I sincerely thought he'd stay, maybe out of loyalty to the school that gave him his first shot in the bigs. I mean, the press said it was Self's dream job, but it didn't seem that much better. Kansas is a program with a lot of history, and Self would inherit some very good players, but Illinois had very good players, and more importantly, they were BILL'S players, recruited to the University by the coach himself. Kansas didn't seem like much more than a lateral move in my eyes, but I guess I let my own allegiance to Illinois blind me, because Self bolted for Kansas as soon as he was offered the job. Nobody at Illinois was thrilled with the Bruce Weber hiring, I mean, Illinois shouldn't be cherry picking their coach from SIU, right? A lot of people thought that there was a chance that Weber would take us right back into doldrums that plagued the end of the Lou Henson era, and ultimately drive the program into obscurity.

Well, a funny thing happened on the way to obscurity. Bruce Weber took Bill Self's recruits and molded them into a team. And not just any team, the best team in the country this season. A team that thrashed opponents like Gonazaga, Michigan State, and Cincinnati. A team that took current media darlings Wake Forest to the woodshed. So, Bruce Weber proved most everyone (including his own fans) wrong.

Meanwhile Bill Self took Roy Williams recruits, and got off to a hot start this year. But then things went downhill. Kansas lost several games in a row down the stretch to blow what had been a sure no. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. And then last night, Bill Self got his ass beat by 14 seed Bucknell. Do I sound petty? Am I bitter? Should this be beneath me? Probably, so I'll take the high road on this one. I want to sincerely thank Bill Self for the 2 long years he coached at Illinois. I want to thank him for the great players that he brought to the school. And I hope he enjoys watching them on TV from his home in Kansas this weekend.

So Long Hub...

2005-03-18T08:56:00.000-08:00

The Chicago Tribune is reporting today that Hub Arkush has been fired by the Chicago Bears from his job as the 3rd wheel in their radio broadcast booth. A lot of people are happy about this, but Hub's dismissal will leave a lot of holes in the broadcast. For example:

Who is going to read all those ads? I don't know if I can live without knowing that this extra point was brought to me by the guys who sell tube socks next to the Kennedy Expressway on ramp.

Who will shout "BALL!" whenever there is a fumble, and several times a game when there isn't a fumble?

Who is going to totally oversell me on the talent of whatever mediocre Michigan graduate the Bears draft next? Hub spent all season railing about the unfair treatment that Anthony Thomas received at the hands of the Bears this year, and he insisted that the Bears would regret letting him go. Well, Thomas is such a hot free agent commodity that I think he just signed a two year deal to work at a Citgo Station. Maybe they can write a book together.

And finally, who is going to usher Lovie Smith through the pointless softball questions that are allowed through on the coach's radio show? Lovie's going to be sorry.

Count Down to Madness

2005-03-16T19:28:00.000-08:00

Just a few more hours until the best college basketball weekend of the year, and one of my favorite 4 days in all of sports. The NCAA tournament is always exciting, but there's something about the first two rounds, 48 games played in 4 days, that I really love. I guess it's the fact that with so many games crammed into such a short time period, you know you're going to see at least a couple of good ones. Also, the first two rounds are the time when the lower seeds get their chance to shine. While the 1's and 2's are playing in blow outs, the most compelling matchups are between the more evenly matched teams lower down. A five is almost always upset by a 12, either a 13 or 14 seed usually wins or at least gives one of the big guys a scare and the 6-11 seeds are usually so closely matched up that many of them are interchangeable. These are the rounds that transformed Gonzaga from an annual giant killer into a Goliath in it's own right, that made Bryce Drew a household name, that thrust Weber State into the center of the college basketball spotlight, if only for a week or so. By next two rounds, most of those teams will have been thinned out, the adrenaline from the opening round will have worn off, and the Duke's, UNC's and Illinois' will have finished their warmup games and thinned out the herd. Most of the teams seeded below 5th will have gone home to watch the Finals, much like the rest of us. But for 4 days in March, college basketball's stage belongs to the understudies.

Deja Vu

2005-03-15T06:43:00.000-08:00

Well, this all seems familier. The Cubs announced yesterday that Mark Prior would be shut down indefinitely due to an ulnar nerve problem in his pitching arm. This means Prior will basically have to start spring training all over, and there's pretty much no way he'll be ready to pitch by the start of the season. To add to the worries, both Ryan Dempster and Glendon Rusch got rocked in a spring training game yesterday, giving up 6 home runs combined. This doesn't worry me that much though, as both guys are still trying to stretch out their arms, and Rusch had such a bad spring last year that the Rangers released him outright. My main concern is Prior. To be honest, with a guy like Kerry Wood, I expect injuries, because his mechanics are horrible and his arm was abused during his early years (I believe the story goes that the day after the Cubs drafted him, the brass went to see him play, and Wood's high school coach started him in both games of double header). But Prior was supposed to be different. He was in a bubble since he was a kid, his pitches and innings watched closely, his supposedly perfect motion constantly monitored by Tom House and his giant calfs providing the drive behind his pitches and taking the stress off his arm. And yet, he's had two arm injuries in two years. So why is it that this perfect pitcher can't stay healthy, while a guy like Zambrano (who has piled up the most pitcher abuse points-whatever those are-in the last two years) can seemingly throw as hard and as often as he wants with no ill effects? Could it be that we really don't know anymore about how pitching affects the human arm than we did back in the 1960's?

Out of Left Field

2005-03-13T11:13:00.000-08:00

The focus on the Cubs this spring has been on two main stories so far, one, who will be the closer (which in itself includes the story of Joe Borowski's comeback) and now no. 2, does Kerry Wood have mild bursitis, a torn rotator cuff, rickets or inoperable shoulder cancer (caused no doubt, by his bad mechanics)? All this has overshadowed another potentially big story: Jason DuBois is hitting the hell out of the ball this spring. While Jim Hendry indicated that DuBois would get consideration as a starter, while Dusty Baker had him as the supporting player in a left field platoon starring Todd Hollandsworth, most of us felt that DuBois would have to have a huge spring to get consideration as anything more than a 4th outfielder. Well, DuBois is taking advantage of his opportunity by hitting .400 with 3 homers this spring. And while the SABR heads among us scream "SAMPLE SIZE!" and the old school Cub fans warn of a new Gary Scott, let's remember that this isn't a huge surprise from DuBois. He's hit at every level of the minors, and now he's hitting in spring training (under the pressure of playing for a roster spot), so there's a pretty good chance that Jason can make the leap to the major leagues. Nothing against Todd Hollandsworth, but the best thing for this team is to have DuBois be able to start in the outfield. It strengthens our bench, as Holly is an excellent pinch hitter a very good fill in player, who's never proved durable over a full season. And it also means that Jim Hendry won't have to go shopping in the trade market for another outfielder, who would undoubtably cost more than DuBois, thus leaving open some payroll room to trade for more bullpen help if necessary.

BURSITIS!?!

2005-03-10T19:45:00.000-08:00

That's the initial diagnosis that Cubs are giving to Kerry Wood's latest ouchy. Wood was flown back to Chicago today to see the Cubs team doctor, following an MRI. The Cubs say that he'll miss one spring training start, at most. I'm not sure why the Cubs bothered to say that, because after what happened with Prior last year, I doubt anyone believes them. Not to mention the fact that after Wood left the game on Wednesday, the team said he would NOT have an MRI. I don't know why the Cubs are always giving these rosey predictions with injuries. Maybe it's just to soothe their jittery fanbase, but I would much rather have them say "we don't know what the injury is, and we're not going to make any further announcement until we have more thoroughly evaluated the situation". So Wood will "officially" only be missing one start in spring training. I've got him penciled in to make his first start in May.

In other baseball news, the Cardinal pitching staff was dealt a blow when Rick Ankiel finally gave up on pitching and decided to become an outfielder. Ankiel is another in a long line of baseball players who just one day seemed to "lose it". Nobody's really sure what "it" is, because the problem Ankiel has is mostly mental. He can't throw strikes. I feel bad for Ankiel (who by all accounts is a good guy) but I'm not going to weep for him like Peter Gammons and so many others, either. The guy made some good money, got to play baseball a lot longer than most of ever will and now he's likely done. He'll be okay.

I'm not so sure about the Cardinals though. I said earlier that I thought the Cards biggest problem this year was the downgrade in their bullpen, and this just hurts it more. I know that The Genius is trying to spin it as though Ankiel would be the last pitcher on the squad, but that's not true. The Card's let two quality left handed pitchers go in the offseason in Steve Kline and Danny Haren, so it seems obvious to me that they were expecting Ankiel to share the load with Ray King. This will limit what Tony LaRussa can do with his bullpen, especially since he had a penchant for playing match ups by bringing in his righty-lefty relievers to pitch to just one batter each per inning. On the plus side for St. Louis fans, they won't have to sit through any more two hour 7th innings.

Whose Line is it anyway?

2005-03-09T08:54:00.000-08:00

In other news, Jerry Angelo signed the Bears a shiny new right tackle this week. Fred Miller, a 9 year veteran of the Rams and Titans will be on the right side next year, with Jonathon Tait moving over to the left tackle spot. Let's hope that the injury that Tait had that limited him in no other way other than not allowing him to play left tackle has been fully healed. By a psychiatrist. Let's also hope that Miller will be better with the Bears this year, than he was against them last year, when the Tennessee offensive line actually made the Bears DE's look like they knew what they were doing, giving up several sacks in that game, including a game ending safety in overtime.

Next up for Halas Hall, Jay Fielder pays a visit. I'm sure he'd taken into account the Bears success in developing Jewish quarterbacks before he planned his visit.

I feel safer already...

2005-03-09T06:46:00.000-08:00

Well, it looks like Congress is going to go through with it's plan to protect America's youth from millionares who stab each other in the ass with needles. Word out of Baltimore is that players are going to be subpeonaed before the House Committee on something or other, including: Sammy Sosa, Jason Giambi, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Frank Thomas and Curt Schilling. For some reason, Mr. Bonds is notably absent from the list. This is a real coup for Canseco, I mean how many people get to go on TV and promote their book in front of Congress?

Semi-Regular Joe

2005-03-07T19:59:00.000-08:00

There's good news from the Cactus League today, as Joe Borowski saw his first action in some time and acquitted himself quite well against the Texas Rangers. Borowski, threw a 9 pitch inning, with one walk, one strikeout, a double play and no hits or runs allowed. The only down side was Borowski's velocity was 88 MPH, which is better than the 83 or so he topped out at last year, but still not up to the 93 MPH his fastball was popping at in 2003. I don't know much about arm injuries, so I'm not sure if Joe just needs to get his arm some work to get his velocity all the way back up, or if that 5 MPH is gone for good. Here's hoping it's the former and that Joe is 100% when the season starts. Borowski can solve a lot of problems if he can be an effective closer again, as our bullpen could actually look legitimate, especially if the younger guys like Leicester, Wellemeyer and Wuertz can pitch well. Borowski can also help the Cubs out in another less tangible way. The 2004 Cubs were widely considered "unlikeable" by their own fans and Regular Joe is one of the most likeable men in the major leagues.

Ya win some...

2005-03-07T19:47:00.000-08:00

Well, it was a tough weekend for Illini fans. The boys in orange and blue had one game left in to achieve a perfect season, and they managed to lose to Ohio State despite holding a double digit lead at halftime. I will say, they deserved to lose. They played a terrible second half, and seemed to be trying to kill the clock during the last 5 minutes instead of taking it to the Buckeyes offensively. Ohio State also got a "once in a lifetime" type game from Sylvester. I'm not one of those people who's panicking in the streets over this one. Illinois assumed that Ohio State would recognize their superiority and surrender in the 2nd half. The Buckeyes didn't, and reminded the Illini that they better bring their game for the full 40 minutes, as they've done almost every time this year. Hopefully, the Illinois players are pissed off. This team has a lot of pride, and I'd hate to be the winner of the Michigan/Northwestern game on Thursday. That said, I also hope Ohio State makes it far enough for rematch in the Big 10 Tournament. I think we'll see different game.

Keeping us safe...

2005-03-05T11:41:00.000-08:00

It's good to see that some people have perspective. At time when our country is at war, the economy is sluggish, and the insurance, accounting and energy industries are rife with corruption, Congress is considering taking a bold step. That is, they are considering calling various baseball players, including Sammy Sosa, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi and others before them to testify about steroids. This collasal waste of time would be funny, if the American taxpayers weren't footing the bill for it. What the hell is with these guys? They seem so normal when you elect them, then they spend a few years up on Capitol Hill and they lose all sense of reality. Must be something in the water in DC. I already called my congressman's office to let his staff know that if they really want to get the bottom of something, I'd rather they investigated no-bid contracts for Haliburton, or why gas prices have suddenly shot up another 40 cents a gallon (and may be going up another 25), rather than what some idiotic millionare is injecting into his ass.

Bad Days

2005-03-03T17:41:00.000-08:00

It's been a bad couple of days for the Cub faithful. First Ron Santo comes up 8 votes short of being elected to the Hall of Fame. Cap that off with Nomar Garciaparra leaving today's spring training game after being hit in the wrist with a pitch and we're all just a little tired. My main worry is Nomar. The Cubs have taken somewhat of a gamble in that Nomar has a history of injuries, and right now he's the one player on this team that the Cubs cannot afford to lose for an extended period of time. While the starters are important, the team can get by with an injury to one of them (last year we almost made the playoffs with Prior and Wood missing major time), while the bullpen isn't deep, anybody brought in as a replacement wouldn't be a significant downgrade from what's out there already. The outfield is still a question mark, but face it, it's not that hard to trade for a productive outfielder (and I still think that a deal may be in the offing). But the Cubs will simply not be able to find another shortstop who can hit 3rd in the order (unless Tejeda comes back as a PTBNL in the Sosa deal). So, I'm lighting a candle for Nomar tonight.

As for Santo, I can't say that I didn't see this coming. He hadn't gotten into the HOF yet, so I saw no real reason to expect it, especially given the attitude of those on the Veteran's Committee. The interesting thing is that Santo picked up 7 votes from the last time out. How did this happen? Santo hasn't picked up a bat in that time, why did several Committee members suddenly change their minds about him? The whole thing is nuts. I guess there's still hope for Ron to get in, after all he'll have Sandberg's vote next time, and I'd bet that Wade Boggs, who knows how tough it is to play the hot corner, votes for him too. Then all we need are well timed "accidents" to happen to certain Committee members *coughSchmidtcough*. Ronnie's Italian, you'd think he could arrange this. Santo says next time he won't be home waiting by the phone for the Hall to call, that they'll have to find him on the golf course. I don't believe that for a second, but sometimes I wish he'd take Harry Caray's approach and tell those bastards "if you don't put me in while I'm alive, don't bother after I'm dead".

Irregular Joe?

2005-03-02T17:38:00.000-08:00

Well, the Cubs first spring training game is tomorrow and there's already controversy on whether or not Joe Borowski is healthy or not. ESPN 1000 reported on Tuesday that Borowski was throwing in the mid to low 80s. However, there was a report in the Sun-Times yesterday that said Joe's fastball was back up in the low 90s. Which is true? Well, nobody knows, because the Sun-Times article states at the end that no radar guns have been used in camp to this point, so basically all this speed judging is being by reporters standing on the sidelines and guessing, or asking hitters "what do you think Borowski's velocity was today?". I for one am hoping that Borowski is all the way back from his shoulder injury. Last spring his 2003 season was billed as a fluke, and fans couldn't wait to shoehorn shiny new relief pitcher LaTroy Hawkins into the closer's role. We all know what happened then, Borowski lost velocity and tried to gut out his injury and was then shut down for the year. Hawkins became closer and saved a sub-par 72% of his chances, including the spectacular meltdown against the Mets in the final week. I'm one of those people that feels that mental makeup is important for a closer, that it takes more than just good stuff to do the job. Witness Borowski in 2004, pitching with a bad shoulder, was able to save 9 of 11 games on pure guts alone. If Joe's healthy this year, I think he should take back the closer role. That'd give Hawkins his setup gig back and give the Cubs more flexibility with Ryan Dempster. But that's getting a little bit ahead of everything. Tomorrow, they break out the radar guns.

So long David...

2005-03-01T06:21:00.000-08:00

As an addendum to the Mushin Muhammed signing, David Terrell was released by the Bears yesterday. Most people saw this coming, and most people shrugged when it happened. So I was a little surprised when I turned on WSCR last night and there were angry callers on the air yelling about how Terrell never got a chance and it was all the quarterbacks fault and the Bears were going to regret this move. Now, while I'd agree that it would be tough for any receiver to reach his potential playing in the Bears offense the past few years, Terrell was given chances, and he certainly didn't take advantage of them. For one thing, he was known for being lazy in practice, which you can get away with if you can bring it on Sunday, but Terrell did not. He felt he should be handed a starting job, as opposed to earning one, and when he finally did start, he didn't do much with the chance. How many key first down passes did Terrell drop? How many times did we see a wasted offensive play which showed that Terrell did not have the speed to separate from an above average DB, and didn't run his routes well enough to make up for that lack of speed? How on earth does a wide receiver lead the team in penalties, especially in an era in which the rules are so skewed towards offensive players that it's laughable? So if you're one of those people who will miss David Terrell, I'm sorry you feel that way. But I'm not sorry he's gone.

A Real Wideout?

2005-02-26T15:39:00.000-08:00

Well, I wasn't expecting to write about the Bears when I woke up this morning, but word out of Halas Hall is that Mushin Muhammed has signed a six year deal with the J. P. Morgan Chase and Co. Bank One presents Chicago Bears. I guess Jerry Angelo finally came to the conclusion that the forward pass isn't just a fad after all. Muhammed represents a huge upgrade for the Bears, here's his 2004 stats compared to those of the entire Chicago wide receiving corps:

Catches Yards Touchdowns
Muhammed: 93 1,405 16
Bears WRs 111 1,561 3

I can't decide which is more stunning, how good Muhammed was last year, or how terrible the Bears wideouts were. This definitely makes me a little more optimistic about 2005. Everybody was counting on the Bears taking a wideout at 4 in the draft, but now they've given themselves a lot more flexibility in what they can do with that pick. It also means that Angelo will likely bring in a competent veteran QB, in case Rex Grossman isn't fully recovered. I actually prefer Brad Johnson to Kurt Warner, but either one would be an upgrade over last year's situation. The Muhammed signing represents a good start for the Bears this offseason, but it needs to be a start and not just a one shot signing to placate the critics of the offense. All the Pro Bowl receivers in the world won't do this team a bit of good unless they get some offensive linemen who are capable of actual pass blocking.

I-L-L

2005-02-25T19:34:00.000-08:00

Suprisingly enough, this is my first post about the Illini basketball team this year. I'll start by saying I'm an Illinois grad, and while I know we Illini fans can get a little annoying bragging about our basketball team, just remember, we've sat through 3 seasons of the suckiest football known to man, so some of us feel we deserve this. I've watched just about every game this year, and one thing that really stands out to me is the way this team is unafraid of the shot clock. Most college teams try to come down, set up their offense and get up a shot in 25 seconds. If the shot clock runs down to around 10 seconds, however, it's a total panic. Normally at that point, whoever has the ball is going to either attempt to drive the lane and draw a foul, or just jack up a bad shot. As a result, most teams relax their off the ball defense reflexively, as they don't want to give up a bail out foul, and they know it's likely that the man who has the ball will be the shooter, so they try to get into rebounding position. Illinois is able to take advantage of that habit, as they are willing to make 4 passes in 10 seconds to get a wide open shot. They also play great defense from start to finish in every possession. That's what makes this team so special. You can't relax for a second against them, or the next thing you know, they're standing on your neck.

Now, I know this team has flaws (particularly inside) but I think they can more than handle any team they come up against in the tournament. And I feel pretty confident that if they lose a game, it won't be due to a lack of effort. That's why I don't see North Carolina beating them. UNC's probably a more talented team, but they're lazy, and selfish. I see a team like Duke being a bigger threat, because while they're not as talented as Carolina, they know it. The Blue Devils understand that to win, they have to play all out the entire game.

Finally...

2005-02-25T19:32:00.000-08:00

Kerry Wood announced today that he would no longer answer any questions having to do with Sammy Sosa. It's about time somebody did this, and here's hoping the rest of the team follows Woody's lead.

More Sammy

2005-02-24T19:15:00.000-08:00

Sammy Sosa held his big annual spring training press conference yesterday, which was as uninteligible as usual. The gist of it is that Sammy's glad to be on his shiny new team, which is much better than his stupid, old team, which never protected him(who was supposed to protect him, and from what, was never said-maybe Sammy is afraid of the bogey man) and he doesn't miss his old teammates, who are absolutely insane to think that they can win without him. I didn't think it was possible, but Sammy's act is even more annoying to me now that he's gone. Part of the reason Sosa is so annoying is the Chicago's treatment of abscence. I mean, spring training has begun, and I want to hear stories about the current Cubs team. For a team that's being picked by most to compete for a playoff spot, the Cubs have a surprising number of pivotal roles that are going to be sorted out in spring training. I'd like to know if Joe Borowski's hitting 93 on the radar gun, does this team really think that Jerry Hairston can be an everyday player, is Sergio Mitre really going to get a shot at the 5th starter's job and does Jason DuBois have a chance in hell at winning the left field job. Instead, I get articles on whether or not guys think the locker room atmosphere is better without Sammy Sosa's boombox there. That's right, a full article was written on an inanimate object that belongs to a guy who's not on the team anymore. Does anyone care(by the way, I hate to break this to you, but if you do care, you're an idiot)? Another thing we don't need to hear about right now is team chemistry. Team chemistry is somewhat overrated, and even if you think it's the most important thing, you can't judge something like that during the first two weeks of spring training. Besides, remember those happy-go-lucky Astros and their best ever August and September that got them the Wild Card? Well, do you remember that in late July, after the Cubs series at Minute Maid that Jeff Bagwell and Roy Oswalt nearly came to blows over Oswalt's penchant for hitting opposing players, getting ejected, and leaving his teammates to take the payback?

What I learned from Barry Bonds...

2005-02-23T07:10:00.000-08:00

Barry Bonds gave his State of Barry Bonds speech yesterday, and I'm happy to report that Barry is still an asshole. It's good to have one constant in the world. Anyway, Bonds declared the steroid controversy to be history, which I guess it is, in the sense that the war in Iraq is history. Bonds went on to make several bizarre statements, basically saying that the press was persecuting him because he was black and Babe Ruth was white (no mention of Giambi), that Canseco is a liar, that the press lies all the times and thus should have astericks by their names (kind of a weird statement that was sort of an admission that he lied about his own steroid use) and that it's not so much his fault for taking steroids as it is the media's fault for telling everyone that he did it. Seems odd for a guy who hates the press so much to hold a press conference, but I think Barry considers this more like his yearly penance than anything else. He stood up in front of the media, and now he doesn't need to do it for the rest of year. I guess Barry's point was that everyone is a liar so that makes it okay for him to be one too. Jayson Stark noted today on ESPN radio that whenever a reporter asked a tough question, Barry just went on the offensive and ripped the person instead of answering it. It will be interesting to see how Barry's demeanor changes if he has to testify in open court in the BALCO case.

On This Date in History...

2005-02-22T07:24:00.000-08:00

25 years ago, the US Olympic hockey team defeated Russia 4-3 at Lake Placid, NY. I'd like to say I remember the game and how it made me feel, but I was 4 years old at the time, and I'm not even sure I watched it. But I did watch ESPN's rebroadcast of it on Sunday, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who's a sports fan.

More Spring Training...

2005-02-22T07:13:00.000-08:00

Meanwhile, back in Mesa, position players have reported. There was a lot of talk of leadership yesterday, mostly from Nomar (who every reporter wanted to talk to) and Todd Walker (who wanted to talk to every reporter). Walker went on about how there were 25 captains on the team now, while Nomar insisted he's not taking over the Sammy Sosa role on the team, and that he'll lead by example. So who exactly is going to provide the leadership on this team? It's really up to them, who they're going to look to, and as we saw last year, when the players that set the tone were Sammy Sosa (as captain) and Moises Alou(as the unofficial captain) that can be a crucial point. Would the Cubs have won the Wild Card if they hadn't spent the entire year arguing with reporters, umpires, opponents and each other? Nobody knows, but it might have helped. So with great purge of Hendry complete, who will the team look to? Well, I'd like for Dusty Baker to actually, you know, take control of his clubhouse, but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen. So here's hoping that the man who sets the tone for the Cubs in 2005 is Derrek Lee. Why? Well, he's one of the only guys I don't remember bitching all year. He never blamed the umpires, never attacked the press, and played in 161 games. He's a good offensive player and outstanding defensivly. So, maybe instead of a year of hysterics and tantrums, our boys can take a page from Lee and stay on even keel. Let the chemistry experiment begin.

*

2005-02-20T09:36:00.000-08:00

Just when you thought the steroid talk was settling down, now there's a new movement afoot. There are many people who think that steroid use, or suspicion of steroid use is enough to revoke league MVP awards and void single season records. Specifically the awards that belong to McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, Canseco, and Giambi. That's a great idea, in fact, let's throw open all awards to retroactive voting. Especially the Rookie of the Year award, I mean, Bob Hamelin? Should these awards be revoked because of possible cheating? Well, I'm not sure about that, since even if all these guys did use steroids, it's not cheating because they broke no MLB rules at that time. Of course, the main argument to that point is that despite not breaking MLB's rules, these guys may have broken the law. Well, that area's grayer than we think. First of all, it's not illegal to take steroids, only to obtain them through a fraudulent prescription, or to possess them with intent to distribute. Second, some of these guys could very easily have used them legally, most likely Sosa, who spends his offseason in the Dominican Republic, which lacks the strigent prescription drug laws we have in the US.

If any of these guys are caught using steroids this year, go ahead and throw the book at them. They deserve whatever punishment MLB hands out. But you can't go back and rewrite the record books. Because would you stop just with steroids? Do you take away the Cy Young Awards of Gaylord Perry and Whitey Ford, two guys who admitted to doctoring baseballs after their careers ended(but denied it right up to the end)? Granted there's no US laws that deal with scuffed baseball's, but what about Babe Ruth's records then? Should we void Ruth's home run records, and take away his 1923 MVP? After all, there's pretty strong evidence that Ruth used a substance that it was illegal to possess in the United States from 1920-1933: alcohol.

Leading off...

2005-02-18T00:25:00.000-08:00

The Cubs have two major questions that they are expecting to answer in spring training this year. The first is who will close, and the second is what exactly will the starting outfield look like? Right now, we know Patterson and Burnitz have center and right locked up, but the left field issue is murky. Dusty Baker seems to favor a platoon of Todd Hollandsworth and Jason DuBois, with Hollandsworth carrying most of the load. Jim Hendry seems to be hinting in the press that he'd like to see DuBois get a lot of playing time, because he thinks he can make up some of the power lost with Sosa and Alou departing. DuBois will likely get a lot of play in spring training, but he'll have to be outstanding to unseat Hollandsworth. I'm hoping that's the case, as Todd is far more valuable as pinch hitter and substitute than as an everyday guy.

Then there's Jerry Hairston Jr., who further clouds the issue, due to the theory that he could be the Cubs best option in the leadoff position this year. Most point to Hairston's rising OBP from the last two years, topping out at .378 last year. However, most people who tout Hairston's ability to get on base seem to overlook that he did not play in even 90 games in either of the last two years. So Hairston's essentially as unknown as DuBois, which means that his chances of playing are tied tightly to Corey Patterson's success in lead off role. Patterson has already been in camp, practicing bunting and plate patience, and has stated that he wants to be the lead off hitter, and excel at the job. Corey's definitely got the raw tools, but whether he can put it all together this season is another question. I've always thought that Patterson was his own worst enemy. He's been streaky, and one thing I've noticed is that during his hot streaks, as soon as he hits a few homeruns, he nosedives, in part because he becomes overconfident and thinks he can hit any pitch. If he reigns in this tendency, he'll be good enough as a leadoff hitter to keep Hairston on the bench.

Labor Pains

2005-02-17T09:47:00.000-08:00

The NHL officially cancelled their season yesterday. As someone who used to be huge hockey fan, I can't say I'm surprised by the whole thing. The NHL has done this dance before. It's hard to believe that not so long ago, hockey's popularity was actually trending upward. Following the extremely exciting 1994 Stanley Cup Playoffs, which saw the New York Rangers win their first Cup in 44 years, there was reason for optimism. I even remember the Sports Illustrated which came out following the conclusion of the NHL and NBA playoffs, declaring that basketball(which had just begun it's first post-Jordan era) was "out" and hockey was "in". So, the owners decided the best course of action was to take this momentum and flush it down the toilet. The players were locked out of training camp and half the season and the All-Star game were lost before the two sides came to an agreement in which the owners gained nothing (I'd say the highlight of the entire labor dispute was the TV interview in which Chris Chelios speculated that fans could shorten the lockout by killing Commissioner Gary Betteman). The NHL played it's half season, and the New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup by playing the most ponderously boring style of hockey they could. That season was the dagger for the NHL. The league has never again approached the popularity it enjoyed in 1994. Many fans were alienated by the work stoppage and the owners turned to expansion to raise revenue. The influx of new teams along with many coaches copying of the Devils defensive style led to a decline in the quality of play. With more teams in the League to bid on the highly skilled players who were now at a premium, salaries began to escalate. And the owners sat and bided their time, swearing that they wouldn't be so easily beaten the next time. 10 years later, the owners seem to have succeeded, with the Union fractured, the season cancelled and a salary cap imminent. The owners will finally have their hockey utopia. It seems very likely that they'll have no one to share it with but themselves.

That's strange...

2005-02-16T17:54:00.000-08:00

Here's an article on a big stadium brouhah between Kansas City and the Royals.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=knight-stadiumsagadefieslogic&prov=knight&type=lgns

This one's a little different than most. It seems the City wants to build the Royals a new stadium in downtown Kansas City, but the Royals ownership says that Kaufmann Stadium, the Royals current home, is just fine.

I'm trying to confirm the latest rumor that I heard, that officials from Kansas City have met with the mayor of Las Vegas about the possibility of moving their city there.

Pitchers and Catchers Report

2005-02-16T07:44:00.000-08:00

Ah spring, when our minds turn to...screw it. It's not spring here, and real baseball is still 6 weeks away. Today isn't much more than a milestone we pass each year that reassures us that yes, this seemingly interminable winter will eventually end. This year's spring training will be a lot like every other of the last 10 years in 2 respects:

1. Sammy Sosa will not report at the opening of camp.
2. The media will spend a lot of time reporting on Sammy's absence.

Unfortunately, the Cubs just won't let the Sammy issue die. Michael Barrett supposedly gave an interview where he revealed that not only did Sosa leave game 162 early, but he didn't show up until he was summoned to the ballpark by, well somebody. Sammy said he was sick, showed up at the insistence of management (looking healthy by all accounts) then packed up his stuff and left. And while this merely confirms what we thought about Sosa (that he's a jackass), there's just no point to it. Sosa's gone. The quicker everybody accepts this and gets on the with the season the better.

I must also say that I hope the NHL lockout settles today. If only because we'll be treated to 200 stories on the local news about how funny it is that baseball and hockey are holding their training camps at the same time.

The Cubs will come alive in two-oh-five.

The Genius

2005-02-15T06:20:00.000-08:00

Tony LaRussa has weighed in to defend Mark McGwire's honor against that evil Jose Canseco. LaRussa says he knows that McGwire was not on steroids, but I've got a problem with his claim. I mean, if Canseco was taking steroids, LaRussa presumably didn't know about it, in which case, why would we believe that he knew what McGwire was doing? On the flip side, if LaRussa did know what Canseco was doing, he sure didn't do anything to stop him.

My other problem with LaRussa is that he says he believes that McGwire got big through hard work, that Mark loved to work out in the weight room. Apparently, Tony LaRussa (and a lot of other people) are under the impression that steroids somehow provide a shortcut to muscles, that you can just inject yourself, go to sleep and wake up with 40 extra pounds of muscle. Of course, that's not the case at all. The reason athletes take steroids is that it helps their muscles recover faster after working out, so that they can work out again sooner, and thus build strength in their muscles faster. So maybe it's possible that a "workout fiend" like McGwire would want to use something that allowed him to work out more often?

Sweet Release...

2005-02-14T14:19:00.000-08:00

A quick break from baseball, to address some breaking football news. It seems that today the Cleveland Browns released Jeff Garcia, 1 year after signing him to a 4 year deal. I can read your thoughts, Jerry Angelo...don't do it. Just close the paper, turn off the TV, log off the internet and pretend that you never, ever heard that Jeff Garcia was available. Don't call his agent, and for godssake don't do any damn interviews where you try and convince all us Bears fans that answer to our great quarterback drought it Jeff Garcia. Because he's not.

Roid Rage?

2005-02-14T06:16:00.000-08:00

A clearly agitated Peter Gammons appeared on the Mike and Mike show on ESPN Radio this morning to talk about steroids and baseball. During the course of discussing Jose Canseco's book, Gammons may have inadvertently implicated Mark McGwire in the steroid scandal. Gammons said that he doubted that Canseco played a role in getting Giambi to use steroids, because Canseco and McGwire were not close at all during Jose's 2nd stint with the team, and Giambi followed McGwire around like a puppy when they played together. Now, knowing for a fact that Giambi used steroids and HGH, what would you infer from that comments?

House of Cards?

2005-02-12T20:01:00.000-08:00

With spring training almost upon us, it seems like a good time to take a look at the Cubs various Central Division rivals, and what their outlooks are for the season. Seems like the best place to start is the top. The St. Louis Cardinals posted the best record in the league, and held off the Astros for the NL Pennant in '04. The question is, can they repeat? The Cards had a terrific offense last year, and at first glance, they don't appear to have lost too much in that department. The major losses there were Tony Womack (who had a career year) and Edgar Renteria, who will be replaced by David Eckstein and the great Mark G.. Both are fairly steady players, who should do well in St. Louis, as they'll slide into a powerful lineup where they won't be expected to do too much other than get on base. The other major change for the position players is Yad Molina taking over for Mike Matheny behind the plate. Some would say this is a major question mark and talk about Matheny's steadying influence behind the plate. As someone who thinks that Matheny is an overrated hack, I'll call it a push, at worst. To me the Cards biggest problem in the field will be avoiding injuries. While this is an aspect of the game that can't be predicted, here's what we know about the Cardinals: Reggie Sanders has never played more than 140 games in a year; Larry Walker's played an average of 124 games a year throughout his career; Albert Pujols played last year with a bad foot, decided not to have surgery on it, and is already complaining that it hurts (not a good sign in February); despite sitting out several meaningless games at the end of the year, Scott Rolen was still so banged up he was ineffective in the playoffs; and both Eckstien and Grud have missed significant time with injuries the last two years. While the Cards can afford to lose one or two guys from their lineup, their limited finances will prevent them from plugging any further holes that could develop in their lineup.

St. Louis strengthened their pitching staff by aquiring Mark Mulder this offseason (he'll step in for Woody Williams, who's deal with the devil expired during the playoffs), but in doing so, they also may have turned one of their major strengths into a weakness. While the Cardinal's starters were effective in 2004, a good part of their sucess was due to their bullpen. It's a lot easier on a starting pitcher when he knows he only has to get through the 6th inning, and with Tony LaRussa able to employ Steve Kline, Ray King, Kiko Calero, Danny Haren and Jason Isringhausen in the late innings, a huge load was taken off the starting staff. With Haren and Calero traded to Oakland, and Steve Kline sharing a locker room with new buddy Sammy Sosa, the Cardinals' starters are not going to have it as easy this year. I see this weakening of the bullpen as the best thing that could have happened to the Cubs, as in most their games against St. Louis last year, the Cub bullpen faltered down the stretch while the Cardinal bullpen was able to halt Cub rallies and hold them down after the starters had been knocked out.

Final assessment: While the Cardinals still have the major peices intact from their division winning team, they are not as strong as last year. If they can avoid the injury bug again St. Louis should still win the Central, but they won't be sneaking up on anybody this year, like they did in 2004.

More Giambi

2005-02-11T06:16:00.000-08:00

Sorry, this will be the last Giambi post for a while, I promise. But I ran across something in the New York Times today that's I had put up here. Remember when the Giambi testimony leaked, and the Yankees were all serious about voiding his contract? Well, this is from Murray Chass' column today:

"A person with knowledge of the contract said that before they signed off on Giambi's seven-year, $120 million deal, the Yankees acquiesced to his request and removed all references to steroids from the guarantee language routinely included in contracts."

Yet the Yankees had no idea Giambi was using steroids, and they feel totally betrayed by his behavior.

Giambi Speaks...

2005-02-10T13:47:00.000-08:00

I'm not exactly sure why, but this is being covered like it's a big deal, so I figured I would mention it. Jason Giambi held a press conference where he apologized to the Yankees and the fans and to his teammates (who are also the Yankees). He also commented on the allegations in Jose Canseco's book, calling them "delusional". Of course while he was trying to lable Canseco as a liar, Giambi never mentioned the fact that he lied about his steroid use up until his grand jury testimony was leaked to the public.

Rumor has it that Jim Hendry is about to follow up the Kyle Farnsworth trade with a deal with another team for a closer. The consensus is that Octavio Dotel is on Hendry's short list. Dotel converted 80%(36/45) of his saves last year, which makes him better than LaTroy Hawkins and his 73% (25/34), so yes, I'd rather have him as our closer than choosing from our current crop of guys.

Just wondering, does anybody know where the hell Joe Borowski is? Is he coming to spring training? Is he going back on the DL? Am I going to find him flipping fish sandwiches at the local McD's tomorrow?

Housekeeping

2005-02-10T06:41:00.000-08:00

Well, Jim Hendry has continued his purge of the Cubs clubhouse, yesterday sending Kyle Farnsworth to the Tigers for prospects. Farnsworth was a classic example of a player with a million dollar arm and a ten cent head. The highlight of his Cubs career was undoubtedly the fist beating he gave to Paul Wilson in 2003. It appears to me that Hendry has responded to the fans, last year, all we heard were cries of "this team is too unlikable" and that it was full of clubhouse cancers. Well, with the club divesting itself of Farnsworth, Mercker, Sosa and Alou, we'll find out in 2005 if addition by subtraction actually works. The Farnsworth move also makes the closer situation slightly clearer, in that we know one thing: Kyle Farnsworth will not be the Cubs closer this year.

Jose Can You See...

2005-02-09T06:30:00.000-08:00

When I heard that Jose Canseco was going to be releasing a book, I immediatly began sharpening my crayons in anticipation. So I was more than a little surprised to learn that this book would actually contain, you know, words. More specificly, Canseco details his steroid abuse and claims to have used 'roids with or introduced them to several prominent players, among them: Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Pudge Rodriguez, Rafael Palmiero and Juan Gonzalez. While in every case but Giambi's, there's no real proof other than Canseco's word, steroid use would explain a few things, for example, McGwire's massive weight loss since retirement, Gonzalez's constant muscle injuries, Palmiero's inability to sustain an erection without the aid of perscription drugs and Rodriguez's sudden, hormone fueled desire to kiss Ugy Urbina on the lips.

Both players and owners are already going into full spin doctoring mode, calling Canseco any number of names and trying to discredit him, which is odd in itself, since Jose really doesn't have any credibility, and the protests are only helping him, as people are see that Jose has struck a nerve in the baseball establishment. The owners and players really have no one to blame but themselves anyway. Had one side or the other taken a stand against steroids back in the mid-80's and gotten a testing program instituted, it's likely that biggest revelation in Canseco's book would be that he and his twin brother Ozzie are actually the same person.

There's also some discussion over whether McGwire should sue Canseco for libel. I don't see that happening, but what if it did? Remember the Michael Jackson trial (I don't remember which one it was) where the kid was going to testify as to what Jackson's privates looked like? Wouldn't you love to hear Canseco describe in vivid detail the giant boil he noticed on McGwire's ass before he stuck the needle in him? Me neither.

Soldier Field

2005-02-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Super Bowl Sunday, so I thought I'd post something football related. The game is being played in Jacksonville, which just blows my mind every time I think about it. How could the NFL award it's biggest game to a city with 15,000 hotel rooms and almost no taxi cabs or public transportation? Well, that's an easy question to answer, you see Jacksonville built a new stadium, and Paul Tagliabue has stated on several occasions that if you build a stadium, the Super Bowl will come. Which brings me to my major beef with Soldier Field. The Bears and the City of Chicago spent hundreds of millions of dollars tearing it down and rebuilding a new facility on the same spot. Unfortunately, due to two major oversites, it can never host a Super Bowl.

The first is capacity. The NFL requires the Super Bowl stadium to hold 70,000 people. New Soldier Field currently has a seating capacity of 66,000. To me, this is totally idiotic. It means that even if the polar ice caps melt, wiping out the East, West and Southern coasts of the United States and making Chicago a tropical paradise, the NFL would still be playing the Super Bowl in Detroit, or even Green Bay.

The second problem is, the stadium wasn't built with a retractable roof. Now if you read this last sentence, and then threw down your Italian beef sandwich and shouted "BLASPHEMY! The Bears play outside in Bear weather!", please e-mail me, and I will gladly forward you a video tape of the Bears/Texans game from December of this year. However, I will admit, I also like the idea of football outside, but that doesn't mean the roof would be a waste. Soldier Field is usually rated as one of the worst natural surfaces in the NFL by the players. This is because Chicago's fall weather usually turns it into a cow pasture by November. It also results in the field having to be re-sodded at least once or twice during the season. But, if the stadium had a roof, you could just close it 6 days a week and open it on Sunday. And you could host a Super Bowl.

And why am I so hung up on the Super Bowl? After all, if the city actually hosted one, it'd be a real pain in the ass for all the natives. Well, part of it is civic pride. I've lived in and around Chicago for 27 of my 29 years, and there's just no way cities like Jacksonville and Detroit should be hosting and not us. Chicago's got the facilities (media day at McCormick Place, giant parties at Navy Pier), excellent restaurants, and a great bar scene. The public transportation system is very good(and they could probably get the NFL to meet the shortfall in their budget) and there are more than enough cabs. And then there's the fact that when the Soldier Field project was rammed through the state legislature, the money to pay for it was to come from "tourism taxes". This meant extra taxes on hotels, cabs and the like. So why wouldn't you design the stadium so that you could host a Super Bowl, and thus guarantee that the stadium would be able to help pay for itself?

It boggles the mind.

Miscellaneous Signings

2005-02-04T14:24:00.000-08:00

Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Zambrano have both agreed to one year contracts with the Cubs, thus avoiding arbitration. Ramirez is reportedly getting around $9MM, with no number being released on Zambrano yet. That's too bad, I was kind of looking forward to the Cubs having to arbitrate with Big Z. I've got the image of a sweatervested McPhail reading a list of Zambrano's shortcomings, while Z just gets madder and madder, until finally, he grabs Andy by the neck and flings him out of a window. Well, maybe next year.

Oh yeah, Dave Hansen signed a minor league deal with the Cubs. Everybody who knew Dave was still alive, raise your hands...I thought so.

A Burnitz Story...

2005-02-04T14:03:00.000-08:00

With the Hot Stove seeming to have cooled off for now, I've been wracking my brain trying to think of something Cubs related to write about. I guess I'll relate a quick story about the play of our new right fielder. Last year, I was at the May 7th Cubs/Rockies game, which included several notable events, including Shawn Estes triumphant return to Wrigley and Carlos Zambrano throwing a two hit, complete game shut out(his stuff was filthy that day, and both hits were cheapies) out en route to an 11-0 Cubs victory. But in the bottom of the 2nd inning, with two on and two out, Corey Patterson strode to the plate and crushed a ball that was ticketed for the left centerfield gap. Burnitz took off, and running faster than I thought possible (for him) and made what would have been a terrific catch, except that as the ball entered his glove, he smashed face first into the equipment door that's embedded in the wall and dropped the ball, giving Patterson a two run double (he loafed around first as he thought Jeromy made the catch). Burnitz was down, but he ended up staying in the game (he was removed after it got out of hand). So what does this teach us? Burnitz gave it all on that play, and just as he was about to succeed, failure intervened in the most painful way possible. Yet, he got up, and came back for more.

I guess what I'm saying is maybe Jeromy and Cubs fans have something in common besides male pattern baldness.

The Great Communicator

2005-02-03T11:29:00.000-08:00

I have to admit, I've quite known what to make of Dusty Baker. I admired the way he turned around the losing culture of the Cubs in 2003, and I like that he doesn't hide his obvious distaste for Tony LaRussa. But everyone warned us that Dusty wasn't a great in game manager, but that was the price for having a guy who players loved to play for, because he basically let them be "men" and he always talked to them about any change in their role, rather than letting them find out in the press. Of course, in 2004 that meant that the players basically did whatever the hell they wanted, antagonizing opponents, umpires, fans and broadcasters, while a team that was picked to win the NL pennant slumped to a third place finish. Some of the luster came off Dusty after last season, and today's story in the Tribune doesn't help.

In it, Baker says he's eager to clear the air with Sammy Sosa(huh?). And there's this quote: "I'm going to move on, but I'd like to find out what's repairable first," Baker said. "You have to know what's wrong first". It's a little odd that a guy who's supposed to have his finger on the pulse of the modern athlete, had no idea that there was a problem with his highest paid, most visible player. Dusty, do yourself a favor, don't bring up Sosa's name for the rest of the year. He was traded out of town, in part to try and wash the bad taste of 2004 out of our mouths. It's time to let Sammy and the 2004 season rest in peace.

And I wanted to say thanks to Chuck over at Ivy Chat for plugging my site. If you're reading this, it's likely that you came over from there anyway, but if you didn't, I'd recommend that you give it a look.
http://ivychat.blogspot.com/

Meanwhile in Baltimore...

2005-02-02T16:13:00.000-08:00

Heard some of Sosa's press conference introducing him in Baltimore. Sammy was already in "I'm the man" mode. He did manage to catch himself and say "we" a few times when referring to the team. Overall, it sounded like the classic Sammy press conference: dodge all tough questions, suck up to the guys who ask softball questions (he told somebody "that's a very smart question") and tell us how he's going to win over his people, the fans. And I'm sure he'll win the fans over, unless of course, he feels like taking off early one day.

In the meantime, I keep hearing about some football game that's going to be played in some city in south Georgia. I'm not too interested, because I don't really like either team, but I keep hearing the how this is going to be a good game. Nope. Sorry. Don't believe it. The Eagles can't hang with the Patriots. They'll go down in flames:

New England - 42
Philedelphia - 15

*Bruce Levine of ESPN 1000 has reported that the Cubs will still be looking for a closer on the trade market*

So it begins...

2005-02-02T15:59:00.000-08:00

So Jeromy Burnitz is now officially a Cub (and Sammy an Oriole). This gives the Cubs a projected lineup looking something like this:

1. Patterson-CF
2. Walker-2B
3. Nomar-SS
4. Ramirez-3B
5. Burnitz-RF
6. Lee-1B
7. Hollandsworth-LF
8. Barrett-C

Obviously, there's the chance that Hairston will be so good in spring training that he'll win the LF job and bat leadoff, moving Patterson down to 7th. Right now though, I see Hairston either playing the supersub role (and if that means less PT for Macias, good) or possibly being moved with DuBois in a trade for a more established left fielder. Either way, I don't think the offense will be a major problem.

The question is, can one of the 15,000 relief pitchers that we are bringing to camp close games?

First Post

2005-02-02T11:53:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally got off my ass and started a blog, so that I don't have to spray my thoughts all over the net in other people's comments sections. This blog is going to deal mostly with the Cubs, but I'll get into other Chicago sports, and probably some (gasp!) politics.

And so on to the Cubs. It's only a coincidence that this first post goes up the day that the Sammy Sosa trade will be finalized (supposedly around 2pm). Of course, shortly after that announcement, we are expecting the Jeromy Burnitz era to begin. I'm a little torn on the Burnitz signing...on one hand, I don't think Burnitz is all that bad. If he goes for 30 HRs and 90 RBIs, and plays fundamentally sound baseball, he'll be an upgrade over Sammy's last few years. However, I just don't see him being that much better than what we already have, and I don't understand why the Cubs would pay him $5MM. Pittsburgh was rumored to have offered $4MM, and Burnitz made it obvious he preferred Chicago, so why in the hell would they pay MORE than the Pirates offered? Well, I guess Hendry has earned the benefit of the doubt on this one, considering that most of his aquisitions have panned out to date.