May, 2008
May 30th, 2008
I Am A Colossal Idiot
I never leave baseball games early. Ever. I just don’t do it. You never know what’s going to happen. Can you guess where this post is going?
A friend called me yesterday to suggest we go to the Cubs game last night. I already had plans, so I suggested we go on Friday. He had to leave town Friday afternoon, but today we decided we’d go and that he would just leave early.
We headed to Wrigley Field and there was a light drizzle, with severe thunderstorms projected at some point today. A scalper wanted $20 each for two single tickets. I laughed at him. He asked what I’d pay and I told him $15 for two tickets. Without hesitating, he agreed. The day was starting off well.
We went and found some decent seats in the infield, but back under the upper deck so we wouldn’t get wet. Things were still going well. Then the game started. The Rockies scored 4 runs in the 1st inning and 3 more in the 3rd. The Cubs hadn’t scored. The Cubs looked lifeless and the Rockies were taking full advantage of the wind that was blowing out.
In the 4th inning each team scored a run and we were rapidly approaching 3:00 when my friend had to go. We left in the middle of the 5th inning – exactly halfway through the game. The Cubs had absolutely no chance of winning.
Lou Piniella agreed the game was over. Aramis Ramirez wasn’t playing and right after I left, he took out Derrek Lee and Geovany Soto to give them a rest. That means it was 9-1 and the Cubs best three offensive players were out of the lineup.
I never leave early. Ever. But I have some work that needs to be done today before I leave town tomorrow and I didn’t want to stay up too late. I had already been to the games on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. And the game was over. It was done. They weren’t hitting. They made one error and had two other horrible defensive plays. There was no way this team was coming back.
Well, obviously the Cubs won the game. This team is unbelievable. And everyone contributed, even Jackass Jim Edmonds.
The Cubs have the best record in baseball. This is the best Cubs team of my lifetime. That makes me happy. I left early so I missed the most exciting few innings so far this year. That makes me sad. The Cubs are showing that they cannot be counted out. Each of the last four games, they have been losing entering the bottom of the seventh and won the game. This team is better than I thought. That makes me happy.
But it doesn’t change the fact that I’m a dumbass.
UPDATE: Someone just reminded me that the last time I left a game early was when I left a White Sox game last year because I had to get to the Bears game. The only reason I was at the Sox game was to see Jim Thome hit his 500th career home run. I left after Thome batted in the 7th inning. The sox were getting crushed and there was little chance he would bat again. And besides, he was in a huge slump. So I left. Needless to say, Thome hit a walk-off home run in the ninth inning.
May 29th, 2008
A New Kind of Cuddling
Who would have thought that having a 55 pound dog sleep on my chest and shoulder could be so comfortable?
May 27th, 2008
More Than 40 Degrees Colder, Same Warm Result
At yesterday’s Cubs game, I had seats in the sun and soaked in 83 degree weather with over 70% humidity. It was so hot and wet that the Cubs starting pitcher changed his t-shirt under his uniform in between every single inning.
Tonight, I was in the next to last row of the upper deck and the temperature was 42 degrees and the wind was blowing in as hard as 20 MPH. For the first time in about a year and a half, I wore long underwear. I also wore my winter coat. Not that I’m complaining – I almost never complain about the weather. I complain about everything else, but the weather doesn’t usually faze me and tonight was no exception.
Perhaps more important than the Cubs win, tonight was Kosuke Fukudome bobblehead doll night! My friend got us tickets for this game when Cubs tickets went on sail earlier this season. Unfortunately, he bought etickets. I hate etickets. I like real, hard ticket stubs, not some pdf people can print out at home. Knowing I was stuck with an eticket has been bothering me for months. Two weeks ago, I finally decided to go buy a second ticket to the game so I’d have a satisfactory stub, figuring I’d just sell the extra bobblehead doll on eBay.
My first ticket to tonight’s game was about $25. My second ticket was $20. I put the bobblehead doll on eBay with a Buy-It-Now price of $49.99. I think I may have picked too low of a price since it sold 13 minutes after I listed it. Still, I went to the game for free and I got a Kosuke Fukudome bobblehead doll out of the deal. Not a bad evening at all.
Apparently, I’m not the only Fukudome fan out there. The guy has been embraced by Cubs fans like no new player since Fred McGriff. Of course, Fred McGriff turned out to be a failure while Fukudome has excelled. But as popular as the Fukudome bobbleheads may be, they’ve got nothing on the Larry Craig bobblefoot doll that was handed out at St. Paul Saints games over the weekend.
Jim Edmonds played again tonight. He still sucks.
May 26th, 2008
Jim Edmonds Still Sucks and So Does Theriot
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my upcoming dilemma should the rumor be true that the Cubs were going to sign Jim Edmonds. A couple of days after writing that entry, I though that I had come to terms with Edmonds joining the Cubs. Even as I’ve watched on TV as he’s sucked his way to a .118 (2/17) batting average since joining the team, I thought I was okay with it.
But this afternoon I went to the Cubs game for the first time Edmonds was signed and I realized that I have not come to terms with it. I still recognize that it’s irrational, but I still want to see violence done unto that man. I want him off the team immediately; I want him to beg his agent to try to find him a position with any team; and I want him to cry when he realizes that no team wants him around. If he didn’t suck, I might feel different. Fortunately, that’s not the case.
The good news is that his being on the Cubs has not hurt the team yet. The Cubs are now tied for having the best record in the National League. They are leading the Major Leagues in runs scored and have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. This is the best Cubs team of my lifetime. Good things could be happening.
What has me even more optimistic about the Cubs is that there is still room for the team to improve without having to resort to trading prospects for a rental player at the trading deadline. The Cubs can actually improve from within. First, Rich Hill, who was recently sent down to the minor leagues, should get his head together at some point and rejoin the Cubs rotation as the effective starter that he was last year. Second, at some point, I have to think that Lou Piniella will start Ronny Cedeno and put Ryan Theriot on the bench.
Theriot is a poor defensive player. Throughout his professional career he has been an average or worse offensive player. He’s 28. MAjor League baseball players typically peak at 29. Ronny Cedeno is 23, is a very good defensive player, and was a very good hitter in the minor leagues. Cedeno was made the Cubs starting shortstop two years ago and struggled. A lot. But he was 21. Theriot was the principle starting shortstop last year and was incredibly streaky offensively. Because he didn’t do poorly enough to lose the job, he remained the starter this year. And, I admit, despite his defensive shortcomings, he has played well this year. But, in limited time, Cedeno has played better.
I don’t think Piniella’s insistence on sticking with Theriot would bother me nearly as much were it not for the unacceptable amount of love that Theriot gets from so many white Cubs fans. If you ask any of these dingleberries why they like Theriot so much, they will not and cannot say because he is a great player; he’s obviously not. Instead those people will say things like, “he’s scrappy” or “he plays the game the right way” or “he gives 110%.”
These are compliments that are rarely ascribed to non-white baseball players and are usually used to describe white players who do not appear to athletic (at least as compared to their peers). What I think is happening is that some idiot fans (the same type who think they know these players as people) feel they can identify with Theriot – they think that that’s how they would play if they were in the Major Leagues. As a result of this particular form of hero worship, they lose sight of the fact that Theriot and his ilk belong on the bench.
In fairness, there are a few exceptions to the rule that such praise is only heaped on white players. The best example of this is Derek Jeter, a great player who is nowhere near as good as most Yankees fans believe. Joe Posnaski of the Kansas City Star recently explained the Jeter phenomenon very well.
On a barely related note, my older sister and her husband cannot be described as Cubs fans. In fact, if baseball ceased to exist, I don’t think that either one of them would particularly care. That said, they are clearly doing a good job so far with my nephew:
May 26th, 2008
Who’s an Athlete?
Though I suspect not a single person who reads this blog cares, the Indianapolis 500 was this weekend. Also this weekend came work that Big Brown, the horse that won a couple of races and is going for a third in two weeks, has a hoof problem.
But here’s my question: why do people talk about race car drivers like they are athletes, but when discussing horse racing, the only discussion is about the horse rather than the jockey who rode it? How is driving a race car more athletic than riding a horse? Seems to me that the jockeys have a much harder job.