Closing Fast


Back about two months ago, I exchanged emails with Chuck from Ivy Chat about how to actually compel people to read my blog. Chuck was very helpful with his reply (I still don't have many - or any readers - but that's my own fault since I haven't been able to do too much of what he suggested yet), and he was nice enough to link me to his page and give me an intro on July 12:

Timely Newcomer

One James Hall has started a new Cubs blog called Doormats of the National League. While this title goes more appropriately to the Pirates, we'll give him a gimme on this. He does give homage to the greatest Cubs song ever written.

Welcome, Jim. If you can start your venture now with the Cubs as bad as they are and interest in the team waning...

Man, you're nuts.

After the sweep by the Pirates this week, the Cubs are only 1.5 games away from regaining their rightful title. See Chuck, I knew I picked the right title all along. However, I'm sure my wife would still agree with you.

Race Baiting Part 2

One thing I have always liked about Andy Dolan's Desipio web site is whenever he links to a Jay Mariotti column he labels the link as"Mariotti puts down the doughnut to". Well, surprisingly,to borrow Dolan's phrase and alter it slightly, Jay Mariotti lets Homer Simpson, Chief Wiggum and Jim Hendry steal the last 3 doughnuts in order that he write what may be his best column ever, or at least his best Cub column. I, along with many others, normally don't like Jay Mariotti, but I have to admit he was right on the mark today. Jay hits the mark by calling Dusty Baker out on his use of racism as his excuse for failure as the Cubs manager, and reminds everyone about how Baker has simply been incompetent. I highlighted this part of the article in particular:

But only Dusty opens his mailbag and reads it, perhaps because he can't look in the mirror and acknowledge he has failed. I don't condone the horrible letters, of course, yet I must ask why Baker is perpetuating the same story.

The hardest task for a public figure is to embrace the ordinary world and ignore the random crackpot. Baker hasn't been able to do that, probably because he wasn't prepared for Cubbie angst after a long, warm relationship with San Francisco fans and media. I was subjected to national attention after Ozzie Guillen, the White Sox manager, referred to me as ''a [bleeping] fag'' in late June. My mailbag, so to speak, was a hodgepodge of reaction. There was a fair share of hatred, mostly from Sox fans who defended their maligned manager and weren't sophisticated enough to grasp what Guillen had done wrong. A handful of goofs stooped low and fired homophobic and ethnic slurs. But refreshingly, I found the majority of non-Sox fans to be focusing on Guillen's ignorance -- and questioning why some members of the Chicago media would defend him. If I shared Baker's mind-set, I'd be dwelling on the homophobic slurs. Instead, I'm pleased by the sizable numbers of intelligent people who saw the episode for what it was.

Just as the goofs don't reflect the big picture in the Guillen flap, a few wicked letters don't represent a bigger problem of racism in Cubdom"

"

Good work, Jay Mariotti. Good work, Jay.

Race-Baiting Part 1

I noticed that in the Sunday Sun-Times, Carol Sleazebag, I mean Carol Slezakk, wrote what was probably the second or third article this week in implying that Cub fans were racist, quoting Dusty Baker, Don Baylor, and several African American players about racist mail and phone calls they received. It's interesting that they talk about the bad times, but they never mention all the times the stadium is full of fans wildly cheering when they do well. I wish these idiots would just realize that if they ever actually won a World Series, they will be the revered forever in Chicago. From time to time I look at several Cub message boards, not once have I ever seen any reference referred to Baker,Baylor, or any African American player negatively due to race. raise. I have however, seen more than a few messages posted questioning the masculinity of certain players, who in most cases, were Caucasian. Would that be a form of reverse racial discrimination, or perhaps sexual discrimination? Maybe Carol can write her next column about that, since her columns seem to be centered around either trashing the Cubs, glorifying the White Sox (OK, the first 2 things are easy marks lately, but she has a track record in this regard), or very shrillly griping about how women athletes are getting screwed over. I would think she should be offended about some of the terms used to describe Mark Prior. I have my own opinion of her, but decorum stops me from writing it.

Hoo-ray For Hollywood?

I picked up the National Enquirer issue dated September 4 today at the Jewel. Inside, in the Mike Walker All The Gossip column was an item that Bill Murray needs $240 million to buy the Cubs, so he's pitching the idea to Jim Belushi, Dennis Franz and William Petersen to join in. I'm not sure where Walker got the $240 million figure since that seems low. Unless, Murray already has about $240 million (or knows investors that would have that kind of money) and the $240 he needs would bring his offer to close to $500 million, which would seem to be closer to what the Cubs would be asking for in a sale. For all we know, if this item is to be believed (and surprisingly, Walker is right more often than not... just ask him), maybe Murray tapped someone like Michael Jordan, who in the past has been known to be somewhat of a Cub fan. Anyway, no link, since I couldn't find it on their website. But, if you are interested, you can find it at your checkout stand. Anyone has to be better than the Trib.

Paging Dr. Howard! Dr. Fine! Dr. Howard!

Chuck over at Ivy Chat made me remember that the Cubs doctor diagnosed Aaron Rowand'sbroken ankle as a sprain. His comment:

"Come to the Cubs, make some money for a few years, and have mis-diagnosed injuries cost you $70 million.

Clean this house"

If they do decide to replace their medical staff, I know just the guys for the job:

Fearless Leader
Interesting item from the Daily Herald

"Wag the dog: The Cubs' baseball staff long have maintained that more night
games at Wrigley Field would enable the players to get more pregame work in
on fundamentals.


But for the third straight afternoon, the Cubs held a fan clinic on the
field. It didn't end until about 3:30 p.m.


Dusty Baker gave a sly and knowing smile when asked if these frequent
clinics impede the work of the team. But he didn't want to get into an
interdepartmental squabble.


"Well, I'm not in charge of that department," Baker said"

It sure is nice to see what you get for your $14 million. You get a manager who won't call out veterans for rookie mistakes (but he sure has no problem calling out rookies for them). He won't get off his seat to argue most umpire calls. He apparently doesn't watch most of his own team's games, at least at home, since he admitted he didn't see the Bartman interference play, he has admitted he hasn't seen plays at the plate, he hasn't seen close plays at other bases, and now, apparently, he won't stand up to the marketing department when doing so would benefit the way his team plays. How exactly does he earn that paycheck, and where do I get a job like that where I don't have to do anything?

Buddy, Can You Spare A Dime?

Evidently,the Cubs are claiming poverty in their plans to build the parking garage which was key to their getting approval for adding the bleacher expansion. If they have too much trouble finding the money, there are a few homeless guys near where I work who are good at fundraising - like the guy on Monroe who sits there every day and says "Spare some shainge - looove" to everyone. Maybe they could start a "homeless for Cubs" network.

Dusty-isms

You have to wonder if Dusty Baker purposely says dumb sounding things, or is he just that clueless about how people like me have fun pulling quotes out of context.

"... manager Dusty Baker said. "I don't know what the heck is going on.""

Then, of course, Ryan Theriot provided Dusty with another chance to bag on rookies:

"Monday it was shortstop Ronny Cedeno's ill-advised throw to the plate, which allowed two runs to score. Tuesday, rookie Ryan Theriot attempted to steal third with Aramis Ramirez at the plate and two outs in the seventh, with the Cubs trailing by three runs."That shocked us all," Baker said. "That wasn't a good play."

Theriot was easily gunned down, ending the inning. "

This is why fans are bugged by Dusty. When Theriot does that it's a "young, rookie mistake", but when Neifi Perez ended another loss with a bunt attempt, Baker called it "an agressive play". It's this obvious double standard that pisses fans off about Baker.

Misunderstood

In 1998, the Cubs were having the best season they had in quite some time. Between Kerry Wood's 20 strikeout game, Sammy Sosa's 66 home run season, the 3 game sweep of the White Sox, Brant Brown's streak of Friday walk off home runs, and other exciting games, it was becoming fun to be a Cub fan again. Unfortunately, their pitching faded a bit, and they ended up in a dogfight with the Mets and Giants for the wildcard spot. It came down to the final day of the season. The Mets lost to Atlanta early and were eliminated. The Cubs were locked in an extra inning duel with the Astros who long before had clinched the Central, but were trying their hardest to keep the Cubs out, for the integrity of the game. Finally, in the 12th or 14th inning, something like that, Houston scored the winning run. About 1 minute later, the Giants- Rockies game ended with a walk off homerun. So, if you had the sense to immediately turn on ESPN (or like me, check the AOL scoreboard online), you saw/knew that Neifi Perez was the hero of the moment in Chicago, since his walkoff homer would force a 1 game playoff in Chicago the next night. In what can only be described as a surreal atmosphere, the Cubs won 5-3 and clinched the wildcard spot. A lot of people have disparaged the Cubs '98 season, attributing it to luck, multiple players having career years, etc., but it was still fun. And truthfully, Neify can be credited with "saving the season", while in a Rockies uniform. In 2004, when the Cubs traded for Nomar, after being with the team, he reinjured some leg part. In late August/early September, the Cubs signed Neifi, and he played spectacularly for a week or 2 to cover the gap until Nomar came back. Had they not choked in the last week of the season, the Cubs would have made the playoffs, and Neifi would have "saved" 2004. The Cubs signed him for 2005, and he subbed for Nomar when he tore his groin in April. He started out good, but fell into his career pattern of not walking and too often having 2 or 3 pitch at bats. Hendry re-signed him for 2006, for way too much money for a part time player,and gave him credit for "saving" 2005, which is just plain stupid. Neifi played 2006 the same as 2005 - decent glove, no patience at the plate, lousy OBP/OPS. Dusty compounded the mistakes in 2005 and 06 by overusing Neifi. Today, Hendry rectified the mistake by trading him to Detroit, who needs a backup infielder in the worst way - and they are getting exactly that. Still, give Neifi credit for 1998 and (almost) 2004. He should have been a hero in Chicago, but Dusty favored and overused him to the point where Cub fans reviled him. All I can say now is good luck in Detroit, Neifi. Help the Tigers win the AL Central title.

By The Way......


I wrote this last week

Oh we do, do we? Two weeks from now, this is probably the headline - Prior Shut Down For Rest Of Year, Career In Doubt.

Not that it makes me some kind of Nostradamus, but I was at least half right. Though, I'm sure there were 10,000,000 who figured out the same thing. It is nice to know Prior wants to pitch in the AFL this fall. Way to earn the big bucks Mark.

Phil Rogers Is Just Stupid

I knew someone was going to start this; I'm not really surprised it was Phil:

"It's enough to make you wonder—and I've wondered before—whether getting rid of the well-credentialed Baker would be a step in the right direction. A new manager for 2007 won't fix the organization's greatest institutional failing, which is a lack of stability."

No Phil, you dillhole, they've had the same team president since 1995. There's your stability

"But it indeed does appear that the Cubs will get their fifth new manager since Don Baylor left in 2002 and 22nd (including fill-ins) since Leo Durocher had the job from 1966-72."

How did the Durocher era work out for the Cubs, Phil?

"On Wednesday, I asked general manager Jim Hendry if the Cubs' ability to grind for 5 hours 36 minutes in pursuit of a victory that didn't really help them reflected on their manager.Hendry never mentioned Baker in his reply, praising the mix of veterans and motivated youngsters, "a very good clubhouse" and the professional nature of the players. "

Salary drive?

"The closest thing to an allusion to Baker came when Hendry referenced the 18-40 stretch with Derrek Lee on the disabled list."Before Derrek went down [April 19], it was a fun team to watch," Hendry said. "We had a bad stretch where we didn't do anything particularly well for 40 to 50 games."

And who gets blamed for that? Baker seems certain to be the one who loses his job over it.At times the Cubs have seemed disorganized and poorly motivated."

As he should, since it's up to the manager to keep the team together through adversity.

"But they are refusing to fall apart completely, which usually happens when a supposed lame duck is left in the dugout. Baker has led them to an 18-14 record since the All-Star break, despite the patchwork rotation that has had rookies make 16 of those starts. Ryan O'Malley got the 1-0 victory Wednesday in his big-league debut"

Again, these players want to play somewhere next year, whether here or elsewhere. It is in their best interest to put up the best numbers they can.

I noticed all the bylines for the Astros series were by Rogers instead of Paul Sullivan. Sullivan might be a little annoying at times, but at least he doesn't have the Texas bias that Rogers has. It's too bad that the Trib didn't do to Rogers what the Sun Times did to Mike Kiley, then he could have just stayed in Houston and done what he is probably best qualified for, which is judging Texas barbecues (? - I just figure Texas and barbecue go together).

The worst part is if WGN Radio Cub mascot Dave Kaplan had Rogers on tonight, and I didn't bother listening if he was), he'll kiss Rogers' ass and tell him "Phil, you're our guy". Maybe GN can dump him so he is free to kiss Rogers' and Bobby Knight's asses all he wants,while Rogers' kisses Baker's.

The Rocket Can Dish It Out, But He Can't Take It/Mateo For Carlos Jr. Role

Props to rookie Juan Mateo for doing what the useless veteran Shawn Estes could not do when he tried a few years ago, which is retaliate against Roger Clemens when he was up at bat. After Clemens hit Itchy Jones in the first, Itchy came back his next at-bat and belted a three-run homer. Then when Clemens came up in that the 5th, Mateo hit Roger in the arm. In the 6th, Baker pinch-hit for him with Ryan Theriot, so all Clemens could do was retaliate against Theriot.
Give Baker credit for the line of the day:

"Roger used to be … he threw one behind Jacque early. Roger used to be better at hitting the target.”"

Texas Baseball Massacre (done by us, for a change)

Certainly, I understand the ramifications of the Cubs winning unnecessary games and what it might mean as far as Dusty Baker returning, and that I know that's a bad thing. But, I have to admit this three-game series with Houston certainly was fun to watch or read about. I checked on Tuesday night's game on and off until right before midnight when it was it about the 14th or 15th inning and figured, ah the hell with it, they'll probably lose, and went to bed. I did some reading, and when I went to putthebook by my work stuff, I checked and I think it was in the16th, and Houston had a runner on 2nd with one out and Dempster on the mound, and I figured then, it'll probably be over in a few minutes when Houston wins. When I got up, before I left for work I turned on ESPN to see if I could catch the score, figuring the Cubs probably lost. They showed the Diamondbacks and the Rockies played 18 innings and I thought to myself I wonder if the Cubs game lasted that long; then they showed that both games went to 18 innings and the Cubs won their game 8-6. Then I red that they were calling this O'Malley guy up to pitch today. So I figured Houston would win about 12-0. I checked the score around 3:30 in the afternoon. Who knew this guy would 8 pitch innings of shutout baseball? Or that they'd win 1-0 an sweep? While in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter, sine the Cubs are going nowhere, and it might convince Jim Hendry that the guys are still playing hard for Dusty so he should extend him, still it was kind of fun to see for a change.

The New 3 Stooges

This picture of the 3 Stooges:










And the 2006 remake:










Hard to tell the difference, isn't it? It would be even better if I knew what I was doing with photo editing, but you get the message I'm sure.

Dusty Being His Usual Ass Self

I'm surprised I haven't seen much made of this on some of the message boards I look at:

Perhaps that’s part of the reason Baker struck a somewhat defiant tone
Saturday when asked if it would be fair for general manager Jim Hendry to judge
him based on that, along with star first baseman Derrek Lee being out most of
the season.
“You should have judged me long before we got here to this
point,” Baker said. “You should have been judging my last 13-14 years versus
these last 3-4 months. That’s how I look at it. The complete track record means
something.”

It's good to see that Dusty's so grounded in reality. I know at my job, if I started doing a crappy job for the past 2 years, I'd probably get fired. Lucky for Dusty he works for Jim "the Enabler" Hendry.

“Even though Hendry will decide Baker’s fate, Baker said he judges himself on
his complete career, which includes three Manager of the Year Awards.
“I’m not getting fired … my contract just expires,"

If anyone ever needed to know what's important to Dusty, that statement says it all. He's obviously (or as Hendry would say, obvisly) self-centered enough to only worry about his W-L record ahead of developing players for next year, or about whether or not he gets fired. Well, Dusty, Joe Torre got fired a few times, but he has a few championship rings as a manager. Same for Bob Brenly, Cito Gaston, and no doubt many others.

Let's look at Dusty's last 13-14 years. 14 years a manager, 4 postseasons, 1 pennant, 0 WS championships, a WS big time choke, a NLCS big time choke, the other 2 years were 3 and out and 4 and out. Compare that with his counterpart on the South Side: 2+ years a manager, 1 WS championship, 11-1 postseason, 1 Manager of the Year award, WC leaders currently.

I don't know what Hendry has planned, but he should fire Dusty right now. He won't, so the remaining hope is that he and Dusty agree to disagree come October, and he hire Fredi Gonzalez, Joe Girardi, or anyone but Baker.

Off The Mark

From Bruce Miles' story. As usual, Bruce's article was more illuminating:

"Question: Can you put your finger on anything as far as the inconsistency?
Prior: No. I have some ideas, but I'll keep those private. I'm just not finding the plate, just not being aggressive."

Well, the plate's still in the same spot, Mark. It hasn't moved.

"Question: Health-wise, you're OK, you think?
Prior: Yeah, I mean, it's obviously been a long year. Things haven't beenas great as I would have liked them to be. I've just got to try to keepfiguring things out and just try to get back to the way I know I can throw.Let's try to keep evaluating and move forward."

Actually, things haven't been great at all. Things have flat out sucked.

"Question: Do you think of shutting down for the rest of the year?
Prior: What do you think? You know the answer's no."

Oh we do, do we? Two weeks from now, this is probably the headline - Prior Shut Down For Rest Of Year, Career In Doubt.

I liked this story comment:

"The name of center fielder Felix Pie came up. Pie is playing at Class AAAIowa. Baker seems to have it in his head that the media have been clamoring for Pie."

Maybe Baker is tortured by the voices in his head. We can only hope something is torturing him.

No More Pie For Dusty

Dusty is a blogger's dream:

"Maybe," Baker replied. "But at .270 … you guys have been talking 'Felix, Felix, Felix,' but Felix has to be the Felix you're all talking about if you're going to bring him up. I'd like to see him do a little more. I'd like to see everybody do a little more. I'd like to see everybody get here not only on name, but on merit at the same time."

Like how Rusch, Neifi and Jock play as much as they do based on merit?
Then there's this:

"Baker is perturbed that Florida is lauded for its talented young roster, suggesting everyone forgets that many of the Marlins' kids were top Triple-A prospects in other organizations before being acquired in trades."

Yeah, like Ricky Nolasco before our knuckleheaded GM traded him and 2 other pitchers for Juan 4-3erre?

From After Todays Game

Interesting comment from Fraudschild today:

"Whether there's still weakness [in the shoulder] and that's the reason he's under pitches at times "

Would this be the shoulder that there was no problem with in the spring?

Between A Rock And A Hard Place

As we all know, Dusty Baker is widely known for being the leading manager in having pitchers at the top of the PAP, or Baseball Prospectus Pitcher Abuse Points, but in his defense, Dusty doesn't always get helped out by his starting staff. Look at Big Z last night. He was at the 70 pitch count in the 3rd with no outs and 2 on, He was taken out after 4 2/3 with a count of 109. Back in 2001, when he was touted as a future star in Vineline, Oneri Fleita made a comment about him having a heavy sinker that would be perfect for Wrigley Field since he could get ground outs early and stay in games longer & be fresher later in the game? It seems like he has become more of a power pitching, strikeout type who gives up a lot of walks, who routinely hits 100+ pitches by the 6th inning, instead of lasting longer into the game because of short innings early. So while it is somewhat correct, and kind of fun, to blame Dusty for abusing pitchers, I don't know that that is 100% fair. If Baker took pitchers out when they hit 100 pitches, often that would be sometime in the 5th inning, which would probably upset the starters since they wouldn't qualify for the win, and he'd screw up his bullpen even more than he does now. So, do you blame Z in this case, and the starters in general, Larry Fraudschild for not getting the throw strikes message clearly enough, or both?

Hope for 2007?

For those of you /us who can't wait until Dusty Baker is gone and fear he'll be around for 2 more years, at least there is this to cling to.

Surprise Surprise

It was only the Bucs, but who would have figured the Cubs would win 2 0f 3 after losing Friday, or that Prior and Hillwould actually pitch well enough to get wins?

Got Them By The Balls

A lot of talk lately is about Aramis Ramirez opting out of his contract after this year and either holding the Cubs hostage for more money, or going elsewhere. While he plainly isn't worth more money, based on his lackadasical play most of the season, he has the laws of supply and demand going for him, as there are few 3rd baseman on the market this offseason, and he is putting up big numbers,though they are all in the last month or so. While it would be a shame for him to get paid more than Derrek Lee, and would kind of be like when Toni Kukoc got paid more than Scottie Pippen all those years with the Bulls, the Cubs could easily come up with the money to meet his demands. Between Maddux not coming back and Kerry Wood's option not getting picked up, there is anywhere between 19 to 23 million dollars saved right there. They could save more money by doing the following:
1. Don't re-hire Dusty Baker. Hire someone like Fredi Gonzalez. That should save at least $3 million,, figuring they probably have to pay Fredi about $1million.
2. As I said on this day, they should either cut Prior's salary the full 20% or non-tender him and see if they can sign him at about $1 million. I don't know the rules, but if they can do that, they can save anywhere from $500,000 to almost $3 million.
If they do all that, they ought to have enough to make Aramis happy - if that's what they want. A dimwitted chimp can figure that out. Unfortunately for Cub fans, he's not the GM, Jim Hendry is. I don't think he can.

Way To Go

You have to hand it to the Cubs. They sweep the first place team in their division, the struggle to get a split vs. the D-Backs, then make some local kid who, based on his numbers, just isn't very good, look like Randy Johnson. The really bad thing is they got shout out 6-0 with their ace going for them. The odds went up dramatially on a Pirates sweep this weekend, especially with Mary, queen of the DL, going tomorrow. Drink up me hearties, yo ho! And the Cubs get ever closer to being the Doormats of the National League recordwise, as well as blogwise.

Must Be The Name

With the rainout on Wednesday, I thought I'd "Google" myself for fun. Nowthat's just disgusting, because what I meant was I entered "Doormats of the National League" into Google search and checked the results. I was pleased to see that my Doormats blog was #1, one of my entries was #2, and my CafePress store was #3, out of 245,000 possible entries. I can only hope people search on that phrase, and stop by and read the blog entries, and buy the merchandise. But the purpose of this entry is actually to talk about the #4 entry in the results list, which is actually this website pointing out Pennsylvania historical markers, in this case, the old Baker Bowl. Here is an excerpt from that website:

"And another cloud named William F. Baker hung on the horizon. Haughty and imperious, the former New York City police commissioner became the Phillies’ president in 1913. During his seventeen years at the helm, the Phillies dropped from their position as a consistently competitive club to become a doormat of the National League."

And this :

"The Phillies won their only Baker Bowl pennant in 1915, then played the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. "

Later on, this (which is a bit longer):

"But this shining moment did not last long. Both the team and the ball park deteriorated precipitously on Baker’s penny-pinching watch, which lasted until his death in 1930. Bad teams meant low attendance, and low attendance led to red ink. To meet expenses without spending any of his own money, Baker sold off the Phillies' best players, including two future Hall of Famers. Baker sold Grover Cleveland Alexander to the Chicago Cubs for $60,000, and sent Dave Bancroft packing to the New York Giants for $100,000. To save a little money, Baker had his groundskeeper maintain two ewes and a ram to keep the grass down.
Baker’s disastrous ownership of the team was measured in ways besides the team's poor standings. During a game in 1927, the stands behind first base collapsed when people crowded under the grandstand’s pavilion roof during a rainstorm; killing one and injuring fifty. The city coroner deemed Baker Bowl “the worst constructed place I ever saw,” and ordered it closed for inspection. The press corps dubbed Baker Bowl the “Toilet Bowl,” and the Phillies referred to it sarcastically as “Baker’s Bowels.” Time and technology had clearly passed it by."

I wonder if William F. Baker and Dusty Baker are related? They both have had a similar adverse effect on the teams they ran - William with the Phillies, and Dusty with the Cubs.

Two Months Of This Mess Left

It looks like after the 4 game sweep of the Cards, things are back to nomal. I think if you want to kill a Cub winning streak this year all you have to do is put Mark "Bubble Boy" Prior on the mound. He sure sucked it big time last night, leading the way to the Cubs losing 15-4. If I were the Cubs, I would cut Prior's salary the full 20%, after the way he stole this year's paycheck. It would be hard to imagine any arbitrator ruling against them after Prior's "stellar" numbers this year. He would have had a case with a quality half season, but with this garbage, after taking 2 months to "heal", he definitely appears to be damaged goods, or if he's not, he sure is pitching like the worst pitcher in the bigs, instead of one of the best. It makes you wonder if he was on steroids, like Jack McDowell alleged, or HGH, or some substance that he can't take now because of the testing policy.