Bullpen Implosion

Here's the Brewers batting record after Prior left in the 7th.

7th Inning
Walk, Strike Out, Single, Walk, Line Out, Single, Line Out

8th Inning
Double, Strike Out, Single, Sacrafice Bunt, Fly Out, Fly Out

9th Inning
Walk, Ground Out (Bad Call), Pickoff Error, Intentional Walk, Strike Out, Single

Just for kicks here's the ball strike count for the Cubs relief pitchers
Wuertz 5 Balls 3 Strikes
Ohman 1 Ball 2 Strikes
Novoa 12 Balls 17 Strikes
Mitre 6 Balls 7 Strikes
Van Buren 9 Balls 2 Strikes
Dempster 4 Balls 6 Strikes

So ends my Cubs season, 2-4. The Cubs will also probably finish below .500.

Typical

I got a chance to watch the Cubs in person last night and about the only thing I can say towards the game itself, was it was a typical Cubs loss. Let's go inning by inning.

Brewers 1st
JJ Hardy pops up behind first behind which Lee and Walker both can't get to/ are afraid of running into each other. I thought it was Walker's ball and it was okay that they couldn't get to it. But at least Walker could have thrown a strike to Neifi at second to get Clark, who was obviously tagging. Nope, Walker three bounces and Clark scores a batter later on a sacrifice fly by Carlos Lee.

Brewers 5th
Clark lines a pitch to right, to which Jeromy Burnitz looks like he catches cleanly. The ball pops out of his glove, I think as he tried to stand up. Tim Maclellan (a great umpire) I think ruled that since he wasn't taking the ball out of his glove, it doesn't count as a catch. So the Brewers got an extra out there. Then with Clark on third, Lee again flies to centerfield. Corey Patterson waits under it and fires a one-hopper to home plate, to which Michael Barrett cannot field cleanly and Clark scores. Two defensive miscues cost the Cubs a run in that inning.

Cubs 7th
This was probably the worst/weirdest inning for the Cubs in a long time. Patterson led off with a double, after he tried to bunt his way on. Barrett walked. Dusty brought in Ryan Theriot to pinch hit/ bunt. He tried to bunt but failed to twice. But he did something that the veteran players on the Cubs never do. He came back and actually walked as well, I think from 0-2. When else has that happened this season? Neifi comes up with bases loaded and predictably swings at the first pitch and fouls it off. The last two guys had walked and Neifi hacks at the first pitch. Neifi grounds out, which I thought at the time was a poor play by Bill Hall. He had a chance to get two outs and let in a run and he also guranteed that Derrek Lee would bat that inning, unless a double play. But predictably Todd Walker popped out and then Lee struck out for the fourth time to end the inning.

Brewers 7th
Michael Wuertz came in and got the first two outs with Overbay up. Ohman was warming up, I'm not for sure he was warm or not, but Overbay hit a home run, putting the game out of reach. After Wuertz got Lee to end the 7th, Ohman came in for ONE batter, Jenkins, who struck out. If there is one guy you bring the LOOGY for, it's the number 3 batter, not the number 5 batter. I don't know their splits, but that makes more sense to me.

Cubs 9th
Barrett led off and struck out. Ben Grieve WAS on deck, until Dusty brought him down for who else, Jose Macias and his sub .300 on base percentage. Again, predictably Macias struck out on 3 pitches.

Brewers 5- Cubs 3. 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position. I'm convinced that managerial decisions mean a heck of lot more in late inning situations and the Brewers clearly have a better manager. I was watching the White Sox situation closely this week. They reminded me of the 2004 Cubs, a team supposed to roll into the playoffs and suddenly sputtering in September. The White Sox had to come back from leads both nights and won last night. Their manager is not afraid to put pitchers back into situations that they failed in the night before, like Jenks last night. And that's why they will be in the playoffs this season and the Cubs didn't make it last year: the leadership of the manager.

Please

I knew a weekend couldn't go by without me criticizing Dusty Baker. I didn't get to see much of the game today, because I was watching the Bears smoke the Lions, 38-6. I did see the 2nd inning when the Cubs got 4 runs and saw the bizarre play when Baker got into an argument with Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter. I read on cubs.com tonight what happened. Let's have Dusty tell us: "I had talked to one of their players the last time when we were leaving St. Louis and he took exception to one of [the Cubs] pitchers looking at him, kind of staring him down after he got a hit," Baker said. "Carpenter was doing the same thing to Nomar after he got that hit and punched out Murton. So I asked him, 'What are you looking at? Why are you staring at the guys?'
"When [Carpenter] went to back up home plate, he came over to the dugout and said, 'If you've got something to say to me, then come to the mound,'" Baker said. "That's when I got a little [ticked] off and that's when I cursed. Maybe I shouldn't have cursed.
So basically our manager got into argument with an opposing player about staring at each other. I would hope that our manager would be mature enough to focus on other things than stuff like this. Certainly Murton didn't care when he hit a 450 foot HR to give the Cubs the lead. Let's please try and focus on playing baseball next season.

Sports Health Coverage
I have been biting my tongue on this all summer. ESPN has had certain segments they have heard on mechanics and injuries by athletes who really have no idea what they were talking about. This summer Jeff Brantley gave a talk on back injuries which included a basic Mackensie exercise. He did not all mention strengthening abdominal musculature which is just as important. Last week Steve Young, gave a throwing mechanics lecture. Steve is a wrist thrower, which made me believe that he flicks his wrist and the ball flies down the field, leaving his elbow and shoulder in the same position. Trust me you can't throw a ball without having good strength and motion in your shoulder. I would just like these commentators to stick to things they did to keep themselves healthy and how they made their backs/arms strong. Please do not mention mechanics. There are experts out in the real world (sports mechanics) who watch thousands and thousands of athletes that know so much more than you. Stop, you are giving the wrong information to the public, please.

Today, I watched the Outside the Lines special before church on the use of echocardiograms on athletes and prevention. I thought the view was a little one sided and made it sound like echocardiograms could save everyone if every athlete received one before the season. I am NOT a cardiologist. I do feel that team physicians always have the best idea of what their players need and want. An echocardiogram could not have detected my arrthymia that landed me in the hospital five and a half years ago. What upsets me is that ESPN has totally ignored the so called "white elephant" in the room. You have 300+ pound athletes, many of whom are African American (a higher risk for cardiovascular disease) playing a sport everyday that puts stress on your whole cardiovascular system. Something needs to be done about the health of players before an echocardiogram can be called a "lifesaver."

St. Louis 6- Cubs 1

As I am writing this, the Cubs are in a rain delay in the 9th inning. But predictably with Jose Macias up, they will lose 6-1 when the game is restarted. See Dusty took out Matt Murton in another infamous double switch. The same Matt Murton who is outslugging every other NL rookie (that includes Ryan Howard), except for Jeff Francoeur. Oh well, this is one of those season's that you can't wait for the post-season to get here to figure out who is going to be a part of the debacle next season. I think Michael Barrett should take at least the next week off as he recovers from being nailed in the head. I have not personally performed any concussion checks or have checked out Barrett, but with nothing really to gain from him being in there, he should stay out at least until his head clears. Check that, he can hit tonight for Macias, if this game every gets started again.

Murderball

This post has a double meaning. First, I got to see "Murderball" the movie tonight. If you haven't seen it, it is about the wheelchair sport "Quad Rugby." It's old name was Murderball, the name given before wheelchair rugby wanted sponsors. The premise of the movie was followling around a couple of the players, especially Captain Mark Zupan. Zupan was actually on campus tonight to speak after the movie showing. What comes across in the movie and during the speech, how regular a person Zupan is. I don't want to offend anyone, but he wasn't that great of a speaker. He did hold the attention of the audience which was the best part. Zupan seemed, as the cliche goes "one of us." He's someone you could easily see at one of the campus bars. I think that his personality goes further for his "disability" than any testimony about overcoming odds or anything like that. This movie is also a terrific sports movie. The two scenes in the championships when Canada plays the US are emotional and nerve-wracking (sp?). A great, great movie for anybody, especially those who are wanting to find out more about spinal cord injured individuals.

Cubs
Part 2, belongs to Dusty Baker and his use of Jose Macias. Somehow, Macias pinch hit for Zambrano last night, even though most statistics show Zambrano out hitting Macias in every category this year. Tonight Macias was somehow brought into the game again, as a defensive replacement, I think. This article pretty much sums up my opinion and should Dusty's.

8-2 Road Trip

The Cubs won again this afternoon to finish off their 8-2 road trip. It is kind of amazing because before that the Cubs were 3-6 on a homestand. Ryan Dempster saved seven of the eight games on the trip if I am correct. Dempster has been THE brightspot in the Cubs bullpen this season. After the Hawkins experiement part II, failed again, Dempster was moved to the closer spot and has flourished there. One can even argue that his two blown saves this season created two of the most exciting Cub victories this season (Lee walk-off and the Neifi grandslam). Next year he deserves to come back in the same role and have some form of a raise. He is striking out about 8 per nine innings while walking 5. Any pitcher would like to have that strikeout total and the walk total is okay for a closer. His personality seems to fit well with the Cubs and all of the "pressure" that is on them. Face it, Kerry Wood is coming back to start next year, and I believe he should. Dempster is the best option right now for closer for 2006, something that the Cubs have lacked going into the season in a long time.

Bears
I didn't get to see much of the game today. If the defense can continue to allow 9-17 points a game, I think the Bears have the potential to make the playoffs. Orton and Benson will get better with more playing time and will face less dangerous defenses, than Washington's was today. The key thing is to take care of business at home. That starts next week with Detroit.

Cubs Win, College Football Starts

School, my last semester of classes, is back in session so I have less time to do things like waste time writing here. Also the move back to Milwaukee, means less Cubs without Comcast Sports Net. But I am excited to see the rookies playing, i.e. Cedeno, Murton, and Van Buren. I think a good goal for this team would be to get back to .500 by the end of the season and have a 3rd straight season of .500 ball. I did get to see the Ryne Sandberg number retirement and the Cubs fans amazed me again. Besides Sandberg, the second biggest cheers of course came for Ron Santo. The third biggest cheers went for Yosh Kowano, the clubhouse manager, not Williams or Banks, who were both at the ceremony. Andy Macphail got booed by played it off by bowing to the crowd. The Hall of Fame guy could hardly get a word in, as the Cubs fans chanted Santo, Santo. It seemed like most of the fan sentiment was for Santo to get into the hall, not to honor Ryno. Oh well, 4 weeks left and they can still help eliminate Houston, boo yah.

College Football
I had the oppurtunity to watch a bunch of different games today, not feeling well. Here's my impression of a couple of teams.
Ohio State- Not that great. Their starting quarterback was out, but they still didn't run the ball very well, which they need to do to compete against Michigan or Texas.
Wisconsin- Awesome running game. I think it will keep them in a lot of games this year, even if their defense is terrible like they were today.
Notre Dame- A great performance tonight in the debut of Charlie Weis. The offense looked unstoppable at many points during the game. I'm sure some of that had to do with the Pitt defense, but ND looked good either way. Hopefully they can keep it up against Michigan next week.

The Hurricane
I know this has been all over the news this week, so I thought I would comment on it. I have been to New Orleans a couple of times when I was a little kid. I actually recognize more places in Biloxi/ Gulfport where I spent 3 or 4 spring breaks from when I was seven to 10 years old. I was reading through many articles when I found this: "Fun Time USA left with only bumper boats, pool and go-cart track." Fun Time USA was the miniture golf course that my family always went to on Spring Break. My cousin at one point was so frustrated that he hit a ball as hard as he could that bounced across a car on US-90 and onto the beach, the same beach and US-90 that was destroyed this week. This week was one that was very surreal and at the same time depressing. As always, there will be lessons learned so if something happens in the future, people will be more prepared.