After the Dream Season

I checked off a lot of boxes on my list last year, anyone that has read this blog has done the same.

• World Series Championship!
• Come from what seemed like behind in extra innings of game 7
• Dream appearance of a player just in time -Schwarber

What more can I ask for?
How about this, a dynasty.

I wanted it in the Dusty years when it looked like we would make it at least once, and I want it now when it looks like we are built for the long haul.

Look back through my blog and see my ancient anguish, and know I have seen many demons slain.
Now, let's be the baseball dynasty of this century.

No jinxes.
We have the stacked up talent, let's just run with it.

Rebuilding 2014 - Hard to hang a hat on

Like all of my blogs, this has gone into disrepair, but I may be coming back, if you for some reason subscribed or bookmarked my blog, keep an eye out, this is all reviving.

Welcome to the White Sox Chirpers

Image via Wikipedia

The Cubs don't want any part of the Sox right now.
-heard on WSCR, Mike North, this morning.

And the chirping begins. It's been a while, as the Sox struggled to stay above .500, apparently the line of demarcation is their ascendence to 10 games above the .500 mark. Congrats, Sox Fans, it's rareified air. Why can't you just enjoy it?

I know, because you're a White Sox fan. You get ahead in a bad division, (Yes, the division is bad. Let's all quit being stunned), made worse by injuries to your key rivals, and the first thing you do, take a shot at the Cubs.

To be frank, you would be in Third Place in our division, and you are exactly the type of flawed, puffed up team that we have made meals of this season. How about those Diamondbacks, they were on exactly the kind of roll you are on right now when they came to town, to be swept.

Watching a bare amount of Sox games, the broadcasts are so bad I'm happy each day I don't have to watch, the Sox are a very flawed team. They would lose a game of pickle to a Pony League team, for chrissakes. Let's talk about that Triple Steal the White Sox allowed, or the tirade your manager pulled off last week.

All of these Barbs have been mostly withheld, but do not think I and my fellow Cub fans are incapable of recognizing what is a clearly inferior team on the South Side this year. You are the Brewers, with worse defense and slightly better pitching. The White Sox do not scare me. I truly hope that they make the playoffs, and we can decide who is truly better the right way this year, in the World Series.

Tommy Lasorda, 7th Inning Superstar!

I'm glad they had Tommy Lasorda come up and do the 7th inning at Wrigley Field last night, one fo the few times the ritual didn't irritate me. Even with Fergie Jenkins in the booth, I got irritated because the game was going by below these announcers that seem to forget they are on air when a quasi-celebrity walks through.

Tommy Lasorda is a different story. He could sing every night and sit through tow or three innings if he wanted to in my book. Not because he sang "Root root root for the Dodgers.., " or because the Cubs rallied while he was in the booth. I can forgive the Dodgers reference, this guy bleeds Dodger blue more than even Ron Santo does Cubbie blue.

Tommy did the usual guest's stint in the booth, but as I've said, he was enjoyable, and watching the game. It was refreshing, more so than even having some perennial Cubs fans and 7th Inning conductors like John Cusack, in the booth because of the unique perspective Lasorda has on baseball.

First of all, he doesn't care what anyone thinks, he has done his time, and then some, and then a little more. He is around the game, at 80 years old, because he loves it, and he even ahdd a little bit og softness for the Cubs and the CUbs fans. In the booth in the past, you could hear disdain for tboth, but last night, through the Cubs rally that would ultimately win the game, he was level headed. Only one muffled curse as Ramirez drove in the go ahead run stood as evidence of his Dodger Blue blood and the vaunted Lasorda temper.

Tommy even has a blog, where I got the picture from and where he has an audio clip of his singing. You have to admire this guy, for everything he brought to the game and the way he respected and played the game. One of his best quotes from his guest stint was about today's players.

Paraphrasing: These guys say they're tired these days? I use to tell them, you walk out to the field 9 times, you walk back nine times, you bat four times, one of those times you might get on base, how can you get tired?
-Tommy Lasorda

I wish they could come up with guests like that every night, but they just can't. I'm in favor of making the 7th Inning Guest conductor a special occasion type of thing, not an every night tired old pony.

A Catch Like No Other

I could not be a Cubs fans, or even remotely justify having even a free, lightly developed, Cubs blog, without taking note of this catch, made by Reed Johnson, one of my favorite surprises so far this season, and he just keeps getting better.



This guy, I'd never heard of him before Spring training, late in spring training, when the Blue Jays cut him and we picked him right up. What a pickup. Apparently, the Blue Jays are loaded, or maybe he just needed a change of scenery, but Reed Johnson is the Ryan Theriot of the outfield, with possibly a little more speed, and the same giddyup that is beginning to signify the Lou Piniella era.

I've come to believe that you can tell a coach not by his stars, but by his peripheral players. Rare is the coach that can really change a star player, especially if they are already successful, but it's the players that a coach keeps around to fill in the other spots that tell his ability, and character. I felt the same way when Dusty came in, because his Neifi Perez's actually were a cut above the guys we'd had previously coming off the bench. His unexplained overuse of them, despite performance, is another story.

Lou Piniella plays the hot hitter, period. Want to play some baseball, Mike Fontenot, take advantage of the AB or two you'll get from sitting on Lou's bench and soon you'll be starting, keep it up when you get an extended chance, and you may start sharing time with a regular starter. Conversely, start playing stupid baseball like I've seen the last two outings and you will lose any tan you may be working on sitting back in the dugout shadows. You too, Henry Blanco. There have been some good points, but you need to start acting like the player that signed that nice fat contract.

Reed Johnson knows Lou's game. And he doesn't rest on his laurels, or bitch about his batting postion, or field position, he doesn't bitch, he doesn't even preen for the cameras after making such an outstanding play. One that might have required a five minute semi-pro dance routine anywhere else. He doesn't even bother to put his cap bill back down and he runs away, holding up the ball.

My love affair with baseball, and the Cubs

As long as I can remember, I have been a Cubs fan. Probably before I even realized that baseball was a game, or what a game was, I have been a Cubs fan.
Blame my mom.

As a little boy, before I can even remember now, she took me to Cubs games. I met, well saw and got autographs from, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Ernie Banks, and many others. Those were the days where the players hung around the field and the stands before the game, signing autographs and talking to the fans.

No, shit, talking to the fans.
I remember Billy Williams as being the nicest person outside of my family that I had met at that point of my life. I don't have any specific memories of those early Cubs games, when I was 4 and 5 years old, but they set a pleasant tone for the rest of my life, following the Cubs.


I'm not the biggest Cubs fan in the world, not even close, but I'm in the upper ten percentile. I don't have single baseball card left or the statistics of the 1984 lineup logged into my cranium but I did find a way to watch the last game of that playoff series against the Padres, stationed in Europe, before ESPN globalization. Unfortunately, it was the worst game of the season.

Like many, WGN played a huge role in my being able to take the Cubs with me wherever I went. Still, watching a team that bad year after year can turn things the other way, and set someone rooting for them up for ridicule. I never jumped off the bandwagon, though at times I wasn't exactly waving the Cubby flag.

I watched the Boys of Zimmer from Des Moines, Iowa, amongst a crowd of Cub fans nearly ass pervasive as in my hometown, and the Boys of Dusty, in Arizona, with my buddy, a Cubs fan in the 99th percentile, which I will call the Ernie Banks Percentile. They nearly killed me that summer, because the Cubs were all I had.

Things aren't quite like they were in Arizona, more is good in life for mme and the Cubs have more than blind faith leading them into this season. Lou Piniella is the best manager they have in my lifetime and ownership has opened the purse strings a little to get some free agents. Maybe Alfonso Soriano was over priced, and has some issues as a player, but he was the best available, and they ponied up for him. Bottom line, wherever he hits, he makes the team better.

Every season, Spring comes and I gear up for baseball. I read, watch, listen, and breathe Cubby stats and talk, and listen or watch every game I can. There is very little that preempts a Cubs game for me. I won't give up on them, because in some cosmic sense, I think that it comes back around and the world hasn't given up on me.

Brent Kowalkoski - You Are Now a Sox Fan

I almost forgot about this moron, Brent Kowalkoski, but the update in the tribune about him reminded me again. In fact, it took me 3 times to get his name down into the Google search, so any notoriety is fleeting, if existent. And he didn't get his ass kicked by the pitcher he rushed, like the guy with Randy Myers in the 90's, so nobody will talk about him after this.

Still, you gotta wonder what the guy was thinking, and what this judge was thinking by letting him off with probation. He should have at least done a weekend or two in Cook County. He is also banned from Wrigley for two years, but I don't really see how they are going to enforce him, unless all the employees got a real good look at him and will be on the lookout. As they were saying late in the season last year, even Bartman went to more Cubs games and wasn't recognized, none of which were ever substantiated, but I don't doubt he could have gone if he wished.

Bartman is welcome back in my book. He did what anyone would have done, Alou, Prior, and Gonzales are the ones that lost that game for us, and forethought makes us all realize that the city of Chicago may nearly have ruined a man's life over that. So much so that unprompted, I remember Steve Bartman's name, Breat Kerzollooski, he can go to U.S. Cellular Field with the rest of the degenerates.

Ah Ha! Sam Zell, people are figuring you out

Sam Zell, small percentage owner(reportedly less than 6%) of the White Sox, Real Estate pirate, and current interim owner of the Cubs and Tribune corporation, is trying to figure out just how much he can get away with now, as far as the Cubs and Wrigley Field are concerned.

On the radio, former bleacher-bum( as he touts himself) and sporadic radio personality Mike Murphy, is screaming "Real-Estate baron!" as much as he pushes Brown's chicken, but that shouldn't discount what he's pointing out. Sam Zell IS a real-estate baron, in this whole ordeal only to cut and parcel up one of Chicago's greatest assets, as is his right, but the city of Chicago or the state should not be participating in the process.

This guy is Gordon Gecko, and nobody should be supporting his operation, he will pay for it all himself just fine. Well, you say, what if he sells them off to some sleazy businesses, and we are stuck hearing about the Chicago "Trojan Condom" Cubs at "Club Hedonism" Field? Yeah, won't happen, and if he does that, he is a fool, which he is not. Taking too much advantage of Cub fans loyalty will lead the Cubs down the same trail recently taken by the Blackhawks.

Magic Number is Four

Jason Kendall - Just in Time.

I've been watching Jason Kendall throughout his career, mostly when he was with Pittsburgh and owned the Cubs. More than once he beat us all by himself, and for some reason he was always out of the Cub's grasp.

Now, this season, on what hopefully is a still rising wave, he has come to the Cubs. Like many Cub fans, I am wary of good signs. Maybe I shouldn't be, they really HAVE made the playoffs, and even advanced a round, but when things are going good, we all look for a shoe to drop. This isn't the shoe dropping, this is us getting a very good catcher, probably past his prime, but with serviceable stats over the last month, much better than what we've been getting. AND, he can catch the damn ball.

Jim Hendry made the announcement during the game this evening, that Jason Kendall had been acquired from the Oakland A's for Rob Bowen, the catcher we got for Barrett, and Jerry Blevins, a relief pitcher that has spent this season putting up decent stats for the Cubs' A and AA teams.

Losing Michael Barrett was a good addition to this team, for whatever reason you want to believe, witness the won-loss record since he left, now filling the hole he left behind with Kendall starts to put this team on the roll that will take them into the post-season.

I've been quiet this season thus far, observing, but now I am getting the feeling that this is all going to rally happen. The way Lou has taken over the team, weeded out the players not on his program, nurtured some that needed a shot... this is all working. So many things have happened this season that would never have happened with Dusty. Lou notices everything, and acts on it. He also won't have his managing dictated to him. Dusty spent the last three years he was here marching out the lineup he'd been force fed. He steadily sat hot hitters to rest and kept putting firestarting relievers in the thick of games, then shrugged when asked what went wrong, as if saying, "Whatcha gonna do? These are the players they gave me."

That is the main difference this year. Despite his press conference depictions of an Alzheimer patient, Lou doesn't miss anything. For instance, Jacque Jones has been seeing more playing time lately, out of necessity and because he started having better AB's and playing a decent center field. I watched him strike out tonight swinging at a pitch that bounced off home plate. I bet Lou saw that too.

Is Ted Lilly the son/brother of Bill Murray??

I couldn't help myself the other night, watching the Cubs horrible game against Milwaukee. Was it Ted Lilly pitching like a pitcher that has gone around the league once, and his scouting reports are catching up with him? No.

It wasn't even the terrible fielding and baserunning that has plagued the Cubs all season. It was when they put up Ted Lilly's picture and I saw the resemblance between him and Bill Murray, right down to the smirk on his face. Maybe it's just time to enjoy the season. Baseball is in full stride and if the Cubs can just slightly put it together, they can win their division.

So I'm going to just enjoy this season for a while.

Wade Miller develops a shoulder problem

Anybody that believes this injury to Wade Miller is any worse today than it was Sunday before he could only get through 4.2 innings against the Cardinals...

Well, we all know the deal, and if he was trying to do it hurt, then it's a tough break. The guy has more heart than the other, un-named glory hounds that can't seem to crack a lineup these days and maybe he can still regain his form. Chances are, it's over for Wade Miller, and that's sad. He goes out without the hoopla, or padded paycheck that some others get.

I like that with this move it looks like Lou has won the battle of wills with Hendry about having twelve pitchers, and I like that he is sticking with Pie so far, though the kid HAS to start hitting. I would still rather have him in the line up than continually going to Jones and Floyd, each a rally killer in their own right with differing and varying magnitudes. Jones is streaky, Floyd gives you the idea that he can get hot, but yesterday when the wind was blowing out, he was 0-5.

I also remember liking Rocky Cherry in the spring, and thinking that he deserved a chance and so here it is kid. Maybe they will send Ohman back when it comes time to bring up Guzman for a start.

Tonight I'm hoping to see Carlos return to form and be the horse in the rotation he has been for two years. I'm also wondering if the Brewers are going to do anything about the chip they have on their shoulders from when Carlos said in the press that they weren't as good hitting as Cincinnatti.

Let's go Brew-Crew, what ya got?

Santo and Hughes - Part of It

To be right to the point, I am writing this on the day after a nice win by the Cubs, where Jason Marquis, whom I still fear but less so now, came out and vanquished the Cardinals, the Cubs real rivals and the team which sent him packing last year, not even putting him on their playoff roster and leaving him out for several multi-run drubbings with no relief. They did him nasty and so for a game he repaid them almost as handsomely as the Cubs paid him this off-season. I'll even allow that he toyed with them, allowing them to get on base frequently, to stay there and collect their gloves from team mates as they came out of the dugouts. Then, to add insult to injury, he told Lou to send out our worst pitcher to relieve him, and they were so defeated they couldn't even hit NL batting practice pitcher Will Ohman for two innings, bringing his ERA DOWN to 9.0!

I'm all giddy, and so I will take this time to write about one of my favorite and most rewarding points of being a Cubs fan, Santo and Hughes. Even on days when I am able to watch the game, like yesterday, I will make the point of going somewhere and listening to it on the radio, if just for a few moments, because the world never sounds son right as when presented by Ron and Pat during a winning game. Often, I do it just to make sure that Ron didn't finally jump out of the front of the booth during the previous day's meltdown.

Ron's spirits especially are those I check on, because I believe they mirror my own, this guy truly does Bleed Cubbie Blue.

Felix Pie : A Slice of Optimism

Am I having a Tuffy Rhodes moment?

I don't know for sure, of course it will take a season or more to know, but I am quite happy about what I saw happen for the Cubs yesterday in center field. Felix came in and acquitted himself quite nicely. Though it's been pointed out he batted only .167, those were an important 167 points, helping rally the Cubs to tie. Then, he made a throw from the outfield to home plate that threw out the go ahead run for the Padres and eventually got the Cubs into extra innings.

He didn't throw the Cubs on his back and carry them to victory, but he wasn't overwhelmed. Seeing this kid in uniform, in Wrigley Field, makes me feel all better, and almost able to ignore that our high-priced offensive arsenal went 14 innings without being able to score more than three runs. These are all things that Lou Piniella can and will address, and though I know he can't go over the top about Pie, the performance was not lost on someone as savvy as Lou.

Soriano is out for a week to ten days, and either trying to get back quicker now or preparing to move to left field so the kid can stay. In Spring training Pie gave Soriano fielding tips, so I have to believe there is a good relationship between the two, and though Soriano had before yesterday's game refused an offer from Piniella to move him to make him feel more comfortable, this gives him the excuse he might need to comply. Pie isn't taking Soriano's job, it's going to be Jones, Floyd, or Murton who ultimately step aside for the kid.

Now is as good a time as any to clear the way.

Steve Stone for Cubs (Senior Advisor to the Owner)!!

Throughout this week, after realizing that Mark Cuban owning the Cubs is less than a pipe dream, it took a column in the Sun-Times to make me realize who I was forgetting about that I should want to be in control of the Cubs.

• Who is the voice that I home in on any time he is on a radio program talking baseball? (Well, this might be a negative because I know he definitely won't be doing that as much)
• Who is a deep, Cubbie Blue blooded Cubs fan?
• He would have gone somewhere else after getting run out of the booth if he weren't. You can't tell me there are jobs elsewhere for Andy Maser and not Steve Stone.
• Who has the baseball and Cubs organization knowledge needed to do the job right?

Of course I'm talking about Steve Stone. In the Sun-Times column, Stoney says he has been contacted by several ownership groups in regards to being a consultant for them. He also says that though he has tried in the past to be a part owner of other teams, he is not interested in ownership of the Cubs. Reading between the lines, this is a job for much deeper pockets than Stone has, but he would be happy to be a key adviser. The type of ownership group that would think to call Stone is the type that I hope gets the team, if they simply won't just sign themselves over to me, that is. In fact, if I were to be so lucky, I believe I would be calling Stoney myself.

In less than a week, the people surfacing as front-runners in owning/running the Cubs are Jerry Colangelo and Steve Stone. This is going to make for an even more interesting Summer.

All Hell Breaks Loose on Opening Day, Adam Dunn Loves Us

After all the hype of yesterday, all the new worries with impending new ownership, about Carlos Zambrano's new contract, and everything else new about the Cubs yesterday. Everyone forgot how much Adam Dunn loves to play the Cubs. Channeling a long line of Hall of Famers, Roberto Clemente, Mike Schmidt come to mind first as Cub-killers, Adam Dunn drove two pitches out of the park in two at bats.

The Cubs lost 5-2, but I'm not on the ledge yet. I saw things that I liked, and I also know that it was just one game. Carlos didn't do so hot, neither did most of the hitters, but it will come. Cincinnati always looks like a team of world beaters the first few weeks of the season, then they return to the same team that hasn't done anything since way back when Lou managed them.

Opening Day - New Manager, New team, new OWNER!

Over the last few years, bandied over the airwaves, blogs, and print media, it has been said that the sweetest four words of the year is the phrase, "PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT." I disagree, though it is a step in the right directions.

Spring training is simply that, training, and after more than a few games you quickly realize that he baseball being played there is as meaningless as minor league. It is the true mirage of the Arizona desert, very nice to look at but nothing when you bend to the fountain to drink. Look! I saw Derek Lee, he's leading the cactus league in RBI's... somewhere some very lonely, delusioned man keeps track of those stats, but he is not heard from except for those few weeks that the teams return to the desert, or swamps for the east coasters.

Opening Day, Today, is truly when it is time for celebration. Today, everyone is in first place, even the Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. This is the sport whose season starts with the actual growing cycle of our continent for a reason. First day of baseball, first days of spring. It's like the beginning of the semester, everyone has an "A", everything is new and nice and never stops making me grin.

I can only wish good luck to all of the other teams starting their seasons, except for Cincinnatti of course, and hope that all the changes in the off-season come to fruition. I have a feeling that Lou will get the job done or else. The Cubs even get a new owner today , as I am typing this they are announcing the sale and I am getting details from the Mike North morning show(uh-oh).

Apparently the new owner, Sam Zell, already has interest in the White Sox and is expected to sell the Cubs right away. How's this for a Cub fan spin on the sale, even a Sox fan knows the Cubs are more valuable and liquid than the Sox. Honestly, I hope he has Mark Cuban on his speed dial.

Even more good news, it really looks like the Cubs are going to give Zambrano his money, enough to make him happy and save face in front of the other overpaid pitching free agents. The numbers being put out are 5 years and 80-85 million, ones that I can swallow much easier than those given to Soriano. I can see us starting to sweat in 3 or 4 years about getting his resigned again because I know "Z" will live up to this one. Soriano, well, I see us wondering why we are paying him so much towards the end of hios deal but that is the going rate and he just might make us a great team now.

Wood and Prior - sick and tired

wood and prior

sick and tired

It's almost a Haiku, one that all Cubs fans can relate to. I have tried to write about this before and deleted the entry. It is time to let go. I listened to a podcast from Cubscast this morning, they talked about how nice it would be if later in the season, we just happen to recognize the guy who quietly came out of the bullpen and got us three uneventful outs as Kerry Wood.

Yes, that would be perfect.

And how an Iowa callup to fill in for an injured starter, and we get a rejuvenated Mark Prior.

I don't need to know how they are doing every game. I don't want to know about 'simulated games' or towel throwing sessions, or even actual starts.

Just go get better, let the players that made the team handle any of the star attention . You two are not good enough right now.

Lou Piniella has made his mark already. 'Potential' doesn't keep you on a Lou Piniella team, even if it keeps you in the news.

Every single Cubs fan is rooting for you, but just do it on your own.

Hall of Fame Voting Has Become Bitter Old Men's Dunking Booth for Ron Santo

Lets face it, just like money, having talent doesn't mean you have class, and this whole veteran's committee experiment has only proved that there are a lot of bitter, jealous, S.O.B's that made it into the Hall of Fame.

When given an opportunity to show the country that they have better judgement and bigger hearts than the woeful writer's committee, they decided to hold out to show everyone that they are still better than other baseball players.

What's worse is that this has become a bi-annual dunking booth for Ron Santo where he is trotted out for his appointment and soundly thrashed publicly by the old bitter veteran's committee. I can picture Joe Morgan at home with his tivo, replaying the clip of Ron Santo's heart breaking once again.

I've watched "This Old Cub," just once, and have lived and died with the Cubbies for every baseball season I can remember. I don't remember Ron Santo very well, he was at some games I watched, but I was real young. I often wish he would be quiet during his broadcasts so Pat Hughes can tell me what has happened on the field. I don't think he's a great color commentator but he belongs in that booth and he belongs in the Hall of Fame or the Hall is just a collection of dusty old jerks that want to pat each other on the back and stick their tongues out at the world.

A person once told me that "It's called the Hall of Fam, not the Hall of 'Pretty Good' . " Ironically, this was in a discussion about Ryne Sandberg's chances. I think that even that jaded White Sox fan thinks this is a sham. I'm embarrassed for Ron Santo, that he has gone to the lengths he has and still been rejected. I'm ashamed for the veteran's committee, but they at least in two ways want to make sure to remind everyone that we have nothing in common with them.

Soon, and they will be able to do nothing about it, the stuck up old jerks will be joined by the likes of Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, and the rest of the steroid era. They might manage to keep a few of them out but not all of them, and then these guys will be in the Hall of Fame that Ron Santo supposedly does not belong in.

There is something very wrong with that.