Alright, just calm down. Come back in off the ledge. Try to remember that it's only one game. Just as I was not ready to suggest that we replace the Harry Caray statue with one of Michael Barrett after the Cubs got off to a 4 and 1 start, I'm also not ready to trade Glendon Rusch for Bobby Jenks' half-eaten donut. Unless, of course, it's the colossal donut that Homer stole causing an army of advertising mascots to run amok throughout Springfield.
I also will not be advocating the unconditional release of Greg Maddux (and letting the Braves have him for nothing) once the north side recognizes that he has very little left in his tank and really did not pitch that that well last Friday against the Cardinals. We already tried that and look how it turned out (although to General Manager Larry Himes' credit, Jose Guzman was cheaper).
Simply stated...it's a long season. Yes, the Reds hit more home runs in yesterday's game than the Florida Marlins have hit all season. Yes, Bronson Arroyo now has more home runs on the season than Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez, and Paul Konerko combined. Yes, Will Oh-Man! (thanks JEB Fins for the clever nickname) brought back unpleasant memories of Dave Veres. But, it's only one game. Get too upset about a single 9-2 loss to the Cincinnati Red Stockings and you will be hanging with Mike Tyson in a rubber room before you know it.
Now, it will come as no surprise to most of you that I think that yesterday's discouraging loss is more illustrative of the "real" 2006 Chicago Cubs than their three-game sweep against St. Louis. Truth be told, Maddux didn't pitch that well last Friday. Give the man credit for understanding the conditions and for ultimately getting the job done, but the majority of his pitches had little movement and were over the heart of the plate. Come mid-July, the only people who will be fielding last Friday's long fly outs will be the kids and jobless adults who hang out on Waveland Avenue.
In fact, with the wind blowing out to right field today, I'll set the over/under on Reds' home runs at four.
Further, before Sunday night, I was going to suggest that Jacque Jones change his number to 20. I hadn't seen that many bad swings from the left side of the plate since...well...since last year when Corey was flailing wildly at pitch after pitch. And now comes word that he may be out for a while after pulling his hamstring. Any chance Henry Rodriguez is available?
Also injured is Aramis Ramirez, who apparently hurt his butt. Now, I like Aramis as a player. When he is locked in there isn't another player on the team who I would rather have at the plate in a clutch situation (including D Lee), but let me be the first to come out and question his toughness. The seemingly most-innocent mention of a tweak or a twinge and you can bet that Aramis will spend a few days with Henry Blanco on the bench. As soon as they announced his "minor" injury yesterday, you just knew that Ramirez wouldn't be in the lineup today. Of course, given the Cubs' track record, the report of Ramirez's "minor" butt strain could actually mean that his left arm fell off. After all, Mark Prior ought to be back any day now.
Corey-o-Meter: Last night: Pinch ran, stole a base and scored a run in the Orioles' 8-4 win over the Devil Rays. Season: One hit in ten at-bats.
Speaking of oufielders who can steal and occasional base, but can't hit...Scotty Pods entered today's game against the Tigers with the same number of hits as Corey, but in sixteen more at-bats. Looks like the career minor-leaguer's deal with the devil may have only had a three-year term. Hopefully, he got more than a soul donut and won't have to face the Jury of the Damned***
The Yankees announced a promotion with Johnnie Walker Whiskey, under which $100 will be donated to an anti-drunk driving campaign every time a Yankee player draws a walk at Yankee Stadium during the 2006 season. The promotion was originally supposed to run in 2005 but was cancelled after the fine folks at Johnnie Walker discovered that the Cubs pitching staff was scheduled for a three-game series at the House that Ruth Built. Now that they have decided to go ahead with the promotion, they have asked that Commissioner Selig pass a rule that Jerome Williams may not be traded to any American League team.
One cannot deny that, occasionally, it is in a professional sport's franchise's best interest to institute a youth movement. That said, the situation in South Florida with the Marlins is bordering on ridiculous. Last Friday night, the Marlins played a game in New York against the Mets. The entire starting lineup had amassed 534 games of experience in a Florida uniform (including 417 by Miguel Cabrera) in their careers. How bad is that? Well, Mets' starting left-fielder in the game Cliff Floyd had started 637 games for the Marlins.
In other news, Kool-Aid has announced that they will donate $100 to the Children's Museum of Miami every time a Marlins' player learns how to walk.
Speaking of young teams, the Bulls won a huge game last night against the Nets, keeping themselves in good position to make the playoffs. Give the team a ton of credit. Winning a game while short-handed (without Deng, Duhon and Piatkowski) against one of the hottest teams in the league is quite an accomplishment. Of course, lose tonight to the Hawks and all the positives that come out of yesterday's win will be quickly erased.
Despite his 21-point fourth quarter last night, I am still not convinced that the Bulls should not consider trading Ben Gordon. Last week, I mentioned Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce as possible options, but how about Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal, who the Pacers' apparently wish to unload? One player, I would not trade, under almost circumstances, is Andres Nocioni. Gordon will get all the headlines, but I give Nocioni credit for the win. Every time the team needed a big rebound or defensive play, Andres got the job done. He's only going to grow as a player as he becomes more accustomed to the NBA. Dirk Nowitzki he is not. But he ain't Kornel David either.
Finally, I'd like to officially make a plea for the return of SportsVision. Chicago Sports Fans have lived through Sports Channel, Fox Sports Chicago and, now, Comcast Sports Net. Although the others certainly will not be winning any awards for production or content, Comcast Sports Net takes the cake as the worst sports network in history. Rock bottom had to be Saturday, when the network lost its signal during the top of the 9th inning of the Cubs 3-2 win over the Cardinals and were unable to recover the signal until the game was over.
The problems with Comcast reminds me of this one time when I was in college, some buddies and I went to Las Vegas. While drinking at the casino bar in the Mirage, a group of six San Diego Charger cheerleaders, wearing their uniforms, came up to us and asked us if we wanted to attend a private party in their suite. Being the adventurous sorts, we decided to head up with the women. Let's just say that there is no doubt that we made the right choice. Let me provide you with the incredible details. Right after Marissa tied Candy to the bed, Misty began removing her...
and then we left the suite with mightly big smiles on our faces.
***After last week's easy trivia question, I present you with an extremely difficult question. Who did the Jury of the Damned consist of?
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4 comments:
Missed you the past 2 days (yesterday's entry doesn't count). I agree that I may have been a little harsh on Rusch and the Cubs in yesterday's comments. It's hard to be optomistic, though, when you just come from watching that kind of shellacing (did I spell that right?) live. The wind WAS blowing out when the Cubs were at the plate the entire game, not just in the 9th inning. BTW, as of this writing, Barrett has been put in the clean up spot and has 3 RBIs today. He is now tied w/ Andruw Jones for the ML lead at 13. What are the odds Dusty actually leaves him batting 4th?
My favorite names in baseball used to be Milton Bradley and Coco Crisp, but I have a new favorite, Angel Pagan. I know how HE pronounces it, but it's funnier if you read it as Pay-gun.
There is no such thing as a difficult trivia question when you can use Google. In respect to the wife, I won't answer the question, but why the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers?
Your over/under was slightly off.
All I remembered about the episode was that Flanders was the devil- until Jeff C. jogged my memory.
Don't forget Howard Johnson as a favorite baseball name. Aside from MLB, he owned a bunch of motels (or so I thought as a kid).
Comcast is good for one "Heidi" quality meltdown every couple weeks. It happened while I was watching a close Bulls game earlier this year too. Hey guys, have you heard of taping the cables to the ground? That way you won't pull them out when your knuckles trip over them.
Quite frankly, the quality of service is absolutely indicative of the level of attention they give to all customer service oriented issues. Let's offer a customer service phone number where people are left on hold for 30 minutes. Let's start a sports cable channel where people cannot watch sports.
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