Saturday, April 30, 2005

Cubs 3- Astros 2

The Cubs put another loss on the Astros and Roger Clemens last night. Quick Clemens story: In the summer of 2003, I lived in an apartment with three other Cub fans. We all had jobs that had weird hours but gave us about 30 a week. We watched a lot of Cubs games that summer, one of which was Roger Clemens's 300 bid. If you remember that game, Eric Karros hit a big 3 run home run off of Clemens to put the Cubs ahead. Before that happened however, Hideki Matsui had a hit a solo shot off of Kerry Wood who was spectacular that day. Earlier in the pitching sequence, Wood had thrown an obvious strike to Matsui that the umpire missed. Matsui then hit the home run. I proceeded to throw a whiffle ball bat across the room almost hitting one of my poor roommates. Then after Karros hit the homer, my roommate with our megaphone, started screaming out the window, Roger Clemens sucks and all of this stuff. It was super funny, but I guess you had to be there. I miss that summer a lot some times.

I'm glad Burnitz made up for his bad baserunning in the first with a homer in the seventh. Kerry Wood goes tonight.

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Cubs 5- Pirates 2

The Cubs put a nice victory together today to split the 2 game series with the Pirates. No real complaints about the game from me. Oh wait, I do have one. Kerry Wood laid a nice fastball in the 2nd to the 8th hitter with 2 outs. With the pitcher coming up and first base open, I would expect that the ball wouldn't come anywhere near the plate, but it did and Sanchez knocked the only 2 Pirate runs. Great job again by the bullpen in relief, especially Mike Wuertz. Put me on the Wuertz for closer for bandwagon. As for Wood, I wouldn't expect too much to come from his problem today. He said he felt some tightness. It was obviously cold in Chicago. He probably didn't get warmed up enough and that same shoulder kind of tightened up. I would be concerned if he was scratched from the start, but he wasn't. His next start should come Friday in Houston where it will be much warmer. This one doesn't really concern me.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Cubs/ New Recruit

Cubs
I didn't get to see the game today, but only one comment. Why are we still bringing in Remlinger to face left handers? Especially left handers that hit over .400 like Walker was today. Too bad Remlinger is too much old school to tell Baker that he can't get left handers out and needs to face right handers.

New Recruit
According to the Journal-Sentinel we have another recruit coming next year. Dwight Burke, a 6-8 power forward from New Jersey, will be joining Marquette next season. He sounds like a Barro type with a lot of raw talent. More of these can only help and make the team more exciting.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

The Nomar Injury

A great win, but a dissapointing way to get there. The Cubs won 3-1 tonight on the strenght of Carlos Zambrano. This game will be remembered though for the Nomar Garciaparra injury. Nomar's second time to the plate he grounded sharply to second base. Not wanting to ground into a double play and making the slump worse, it looked like he really tried to push out of the box. Unfortunately with the soft infield, I think his spike kind of caught and he tore his adductor muscles. It didn't look very good at all if you looked at the left groin as they carried him off of the field. I would expect that he will be out until July, early June at the earliest. Muscle tears usually take 6 weeks to 3 months to heal all the way. Transaction wise: I would expect him to go to the DL and the Cubs should bring up Ben Grieve for a desperate left handed hitter off the bench. I have totally forgotten that Mike Fontenot is on the team right now. And my only Dusty bickering tonight, was the decision not to pinch hit DuBois for Hollandsworth in the 8th and the bases loaded after bringing King in. You think if the roles were switched, Hollandsworth would be pinch-hitting? Hell yes, I do and that is my number one problem with Dusty Baker.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Mason

First off, an apology to Dusty Baker. Rusch was injured last night and that's why he didn't come back in the 8th. While I didn't agree with everything he said in the article (the Cardinal games not being big this week?), I do agree with keeping him out and letting him rest, especially after the 34 pitches on Saturday.

As for the Mason transfer, I've known about it for a long time. I think the first time it was posted on Ahoya was after the Louisville game. As many have said on the boards tonight, transfers are a 2 way street and I really feel that the street needs to be looking at the coaching staff. The coaches cannot let their relationships with players deteroiate so much, that a 2 year starter is looking to transfer. I have no idea why Mason transferred and he has every right not to let anybody know about it, so I won't speculate on it. Although if you know me, I have some pretty strong opinions on why he is. We absolutely have to improve on this transfer rate. I remember with many transfers, it was who cares, we have so and so coming in to play his spot. Have any of those players really panned out? Bradley was recruited with (Blankson, Howard, and Menard). We have gotten younger again, and that will be our downfall again this year. I hope we can turn it around and count me in the group letting Crean take the time he needs.

One last thing. As many people liked to rip on a certain senior last year, who vastly improved by the end of the season, many others reminded people of his 3 3-pointers that helped beat Wisconsin his sophomore year. Here's to Dameon Mason and his last second shot in the greatest game in my 5 years at MU. He made all of us proud, especially Scott Merritt for making his bold "prediction" come true.

Monday, April 18, 2005

Bad Managerial Decision #2

A dissapointing Cubs loss tonight. I thought they were headed for another blowout like Opening Day against Arizona, but the Reds took their pitcher out and the Cubs stopped hitting. Kerry Wood couldn't hold the lead either, although the Reds were incredibly fortunate to get their 4th and 5th runs. With 2 outs, Rich Aurilla hit a fly ball down the right field line that a fan clearly reached over to interfere with and disallowed Burnitz from even having a chance to catch the ball. Burnitz was running full speed and hyperflexed his glove hand wrist into the wall on the play, which I thought kind of took the attention away from the fan interfering and the umpires missed it. On the very next pitch, I think, Aurilla practically throws his bat at the ball, breaks his bat, and hits a soft ground ball to the left side for a single and 2 RBIs. This was probably the slowest hit ball that I have ever seen get through a major league defense, and I am not joking when I say that. I have no idea how it skidded by both Ramirez and Perez.

Then comes the managerial move that still dumbfounds me. Glendon Rusch pitches a 1,2,3 7th with 2 SO's. He threw 14 pitches that inning. The next inning Dusty pulls the old double switch, bringing in Nomar to bat 9th, the pitchers spot, sending Hairston to LF and Perez to second base. Here's why that doesn't make sense. 1: Why take Rusch out when he threw so well the inning before? He had thrown 34 pitches two nights ago, and 14 the inning before. Run him out there again, if he doesn't get the first guy out, bring somebody else in. 2: Do you really need a double switch at that point anyway? Hairston is not a better LF than Hollandsworth. Perez is not a better 2B than Hairston. And it could be argued that Perez is on par defensively at short than Nomar. The defensive switches really didn't matter when there were only 2 balls hit in the entire inning. I know people want to blame Leicester for this one, but there's no way he should have stayed in the game after walking 2 guys and hitting the next guy.

The ninth inning was a positive. They managed to get the tying run to 3rd with 2 outs. The only AB that I had a problem with was Hairston's, who swung at 2 balls out of the zone after Nomar had walked the batter before that. Hopefully Prior can lead them tommorrow.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Cubs 4- Pirates 2

So after some questionable decision making by Baker the first two nights of the series, the Cubs were able to pull off another victory this afternoon. Both Hollandworth and Burnitz played against the left-handed Mark Redman, while Jason DuBois sat on the bench again (sigh). All Jason did Friday was hit a homer off a pitcher considered one of the best left handers in the National League. I have a feeling that season is just going to be the last two. We, as fans, are never going to be confident going into the last few innings of a game. I have new theory on Hawkins. In Minnesota, after he was demoted from closer he was a set up guy, and a premiere one at that. I don't have the stats, but I'm sure he pitched on many more occasions than when he was the closer. I really feel that he needs to get work in about half of the Cub games this year to be effective and that means Dusty that he comes in non- save situations. He pitched much better this afternoon than last night in my opinion. He also didn't get the pleasure of Macias standing out in left field bobbling balls either. 4 big games coming up this week. I hope they can split them. And if they win both against the Cardinals, even better. By the way, I don't like Edmonds. I thought the off-season would give me sometime. But his face always comes up when I turn on MVP Baseball. And the catch he made today, although great, didn't need the extra dive on the end. Go Cubs.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Cubs Split Doubleheader

Cubs
I hand an oppurtunity to watch the first inning of the first game today, which ended up being the worst of the day for the Cubs. Fortunately, Prior was on fire in the second game and the Cubs split the doubleheader. The worst part of the games today was Neifi Perez was actually in the lineup for both games. It was made even worse when he went 6-9 raising his average to .412. Now, I would like to see Dusty ride this out. The guy deserves a chance, but as soon as he performs to his regular self, Hairston should see the action every game. That is unless he stinks it up and goes Neifi on us and then they're really crappy at second base. We'll just have to see. Always a good Pittsburgh series in there to cheer me up, like this weekend. Good story that the lifetime Cub fan, the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, Michael O. Leavitt was visiting the Cubs today, pushing organ donation. If they wanted an organ donation person, they could have come up to Milwaukee and MU for Trey Schwab, but they didn't. Anyway, this guy is a lifetime Cub fan, but has never been to Wrigley Field. It's kind of ridiculous, seeing that this guy has probably been in politics all of his life and has had many oppurtunities to visit wherever. He could have called up the Cubs and got tickets whenever he wanted, but he didn't. I take offense to his naming himself a "life long Cubs fan." Come to look it up and the dude's from Utah. I'm sure many people from Utah are Cub fans, but this guy, I'm not so sure.

MU News
Turns out Mortensen is coming next year. I don't know how this will affect the team, except maybe clog the 2-3 position even more. I hope he does well though. MU has not done well with recruits outside of the Midwest lately (see Bradley and Christian). And I hope a Mormon can fit in on our campus and our basketball team. I really am excited to see the recruits next year and see how the first Big East season goes.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Cubs 6- Brewers 5

Recap can be found here.

I got to go today on the way back from a crazy weekend. A couple of things to note. The fans in Chicago love Garciaparra. He got the loudest cheers of any Cub, even going 0-5 with a HBP. Hopefully Nomar will return the love by breaking out of his slump. Some interesting managerial decisions today. The first was with the bases loaded and nobody out in the 6th and a RHP (Bottalico maybe?), Dusty decides to bring Perez up to pinch-hit. I didn't post last week how upset I was when Perez pinch hit over both Dubois and Hairston late in Wednesday's game. This one was about as bizarre. Perez did about as well as he could without majorly screwing up by chopping one to the right side for an out and an RBI. An even more bizarre play happened in the bottom the 12th. Burnitz tripled, bringing up Lee and Hollandsworth. I immediately motioned to the official father of Interstate 94, that the walk sign was coming not once, but twice. But Yost, only walked Lee, which was strange because he was the right handed batter with Holly a left hander up next. I didn't see the splits, so I wasn't sure how they worked out. I'm not even sure who was pitching for the Brewers then. Yost again does something bizarre by playing his infielders in. If you want to set up the double play, move your fielders back, which I think he wanted to do by walking Lee. If you walk Holly, then you can play your fielders in and throw home to get the lead runner. Barrett was the next batter and as Al said it best, "Michael Barrett having just about the worst at-bat I've seen a Cub have under Dusty Baker." It reminded me of the Todd Hundley at bat from 2002. Most Cub fans remember him coming up, needing only a run to win, with the bases loaded. Hundley swung at 3 pitches out of the zone to stike out. As my uncle put it, all he had to do was stand up there with the bat and the Cubs win. I digress.

The fans today were harsh on Walker when he didn't make a play up the middle, the one that Nomar tried to stop with his foot. I told them to be quiet, there was no way he was throwing the runner out. Speaking of Walker, he got leg whipped by Carlos Lee. Expect some retaliation for that one. I would be surprised to see an ACL injury. It's more likely he has a PCL sprain or tear. A PCL injury is also characterized with a "dashboard" injury, in a car accident. The tibia is stopped against the dashboard, while the femur continues forward, causing a PCL tear. My favorite moment of the day was when Nomar got hit and everybody booed. I was ecstatic. Nomar wasn't hurt and the best hitter with 2 doubles already was up. Great win for the Cubs today.

Monday, April 04, 2005

Cubs 16- Arizona 6

What a way to start the season. 23 hits. It seriously looked like batting practice for much of the game today for the Cubs. I hope this is how well Javier Vasquez piches all year and the Cubs were on fire, but I don't think that's the case. Lee (my favorite Cub) was 4-6 with a single, 2 2Bs, a HR and SIX RBIs. The game was fun to watch unlike last year a lot of the time. Zambrano got thrown out, but after he was taken out of the game. A lot of guys on Cub Reporter thought they were squeezing the corners on Z. Barrett even said that his ball was moving so much, he couldn't keep track of it. So even that's a positive. I would really like to take 2 out of 3 from these guys before they head home for the home opener and the return of Interstate 94 on Sunday. Go Cubs GO!

Championship Game
I don't have much to say on this one. I think the basketball gods got pissed at Illinois because Bruce Webber was wearing an ugly jacket and because they threw up too many 3-pointers. As I told my roommate though, I was rooting for West Virginia when they were throwing up all of their 3's but at least they were open. But the Illinois loss makes me feel good. Crean can go into Chicago and still say that MU has won a National Championship (granted it was 1977). Illinois has not. And if another Illinois fan comes up to me at the NCAA tournament and asks me where Marquette is (happened to me in Indy in 2003)? I can simply say our national championship banner hangs in the Bradley Center on 4th St. in Milwaukee Wisconsin.

Saturday, April 02, 2005

The Wisdom of Billy Packer

I didn't watch a lot of the games tonight. I missed part of the first one, because I was watching the end of the Cubs game. I didn't see a lot of the second half of the second game because I was watching the second part of the Amazing Race I missed on Tuesday. Best Amazing Race ever, by the way. Anyway, I got 4 pearls of wisdom from Billy tonight.

1. "Ellis Myles has never faced a post who can shoot like Jack Ingram. " Except for Kevin Pittsnogle last week, who played for West Virgnia. Another reason to hate U of I, is this dude who had 9 points against us in 2002, when he played Tulsa. The exact Journal Sentinel quote is this: "Jack Ingram, a 6-foot-10 Tulsa reserve center, hit a few long shots that no one could have expected in the second half."

2. Crap, I can't think of the second one.

By the way, this game should have been titled "Worst Uniform Game of All Time." Illinois Orange is just plain ugly and the Louisville black is made even worse by the fact the trim on the sides of the jerseys and shorts don't match.

3. "Matt Trannon has shot better free throws in the second half of the year, because he has basketball muscles instead of football muscles." As a future physical therapist, I take offense of this misuse of anatomy/physiology/biomechanics. In fact, as a Wide Receiver you need probably the same amount of flexibility as a basketball player, especially in the arm musculature. A better thing to say would have been, "Trannon has spent all fall playing football and has not been shooting. He is finally regaining his shooting touch."

2. I remember the second one. In referring to the West Virginia- Wake Forest game, "that game lasted until about 1 o' clock in the morning." I remember that game lasting until about 10:30, 11:30 on the west coast, an hour and a half until 1 in Cleveland. You aren't a comedian, don't exaggerate.

4. At the end of the UNC-MSU game, he talked about UNC put in TWO guards to handle the ball. Most teams play TWO guards the entire game. I hope he miss spoke and meant point guard. So I'll cut him slack on that one.

As for the game Monday, I think Illinois will win. But since I don't really like them, I hope North Carolina wins. Although it would be funny to see Roy Williams lose again. Remember Roy turned down NC once when Doherty was hired and then took over after Doherty was fired. Doherty was a former assistant. Never made any sense to me.