Go Cubs Go!

Congratulations to the 2007 Chicago Cubs, the NL Central champs once again. About 24 hours after I and probably many others were really pissed that they got swept, they played up to their potential and beat Cincinnati, which, after the Padres beat Milwaukee again, was enough for them to clinch. I did not like the Lou Piniella signing when it happened. I am happy to once again say that I was wrong. I compared him to Grampa Simpson at times. At times, he sounded a bit befuddled. But he proved me wrong, and he proved he still has it. One huge step down, 3 to go. And any of you who sit by the wall during the playoffs, remember to punch your neighbor if he is about to do a Bartman and try to catch a foul ball that one of our guys could catch.

Venting

Excus eme while I vent. If the Cubs can't beat a team 20 games under .500 even once, maybe they don't deserve to be in the playoffs. What a disappointing, shitty performance by our "heroes", especially afterthe 3 game sweep of Pittsburgh. I'm really fucking tired of the excuses we're already hearing, like "we couldn't pratice before the game because of the rain". Brenly used that one. Or, "well the Marlins are relaxed and don't have to play with any stress". After 156 fucking games, you guys ought to be ready to win, not get swept. All I know is, if they do end up blowing this, someone has to get fired for this. Hendry, Rothschild, even Sweet Lou, I don't care - someone has to go if they blow it.

This is for the Puds at Dork Side Baseball

This was a great series win for the Cubs, especially after getting their ass beat on Friday. Today's game was a great win, capped by Derrek Lee's 2 run homer with 2 out in the 8th (or only 4 outs left), which put the Cubs ahead by the ultimate final score of 6-5. This all might not have been necessary if Rich Hill didn't crap the mound in the first inning, causing him to only last 5 innings and give up 5 runs during that time. Same thing happened with Sean Marshall on Friday. It is getting very tiresome watching the vaunted starting rotation only go 5 innings over and over, or barely making it into the 6th (even the $91 million man is doing that more often than not). That is why I personally don't mind the Cubs getting Steve Trachsel back. It wasn't the greatest trade ever but it wasn't bad considering what may have been available. The dorky Puds over at north side baseball (well, a lot of them - quite a few anyway) have been complaining about this trade mortgaging the Cubs future for an old man on his last legs. I don't think Scott Moore and Clay Rapada will come back to haunt the Cubs Besides, if 3 of these clowns could get out of the first with less than 20 pitches, make it to the 7th inning regularly (btw, thank you Jason Marquis), and give up only 1 or 2 runs during that time, maybe Hendry wouldn't have tried to get Trachsel, and maybe many of these same people wouldn't be bitching that Carlos Marmol is being overworked. If you were Lou Piniella, what would you do? Final thought today, the Cubs last 4 wins, 5-3,5-4,4-3,6-5. Not too bad for a team that started out 0-10 (or whatever) in 1 and 2 run games.

Secrets of the Cubs success

J Hood on ESPN 1000 was asking fans to call in last night to say if they thought it was the management team of Hendry and Piniella, or the players, that were respnsible for the team success this year. Had to pick one or the other. Of course, he then blathered on and on about nonsense, like he usually does. It's obvious to me the answer - it's neither. The answer is c) Lou Piniella pretty much by himself. It took him awhile to change the team's course, I guess like when a ship turns, it takes awhile to change the ship's course. But now it appears to be full steam ahead. Lou's doing something Dusty never understood as manager. He's giving the young guys a chance when they come up and play, and he doesn't have any doghouses, like he said at the start. Itchy Jones is a perfect example. THankfully for us, he's starting to play good at the right time. If Lou doesn't like a player, he forces Hendry to find a way to get rid of him. So far, Barrett and Izzy got launched. All we need is Scott Eyre gone, and it truly will be full speed ahead.

Barry Bonds

It's pretty obvious that not many people like Barry Bonds, and hate that he's breaking Aaron's record. From what I've seen, it's not his race that's an issue, like with Aaron breaking Ruth's record was at that time. While it's probably the steroids/HGH/whatever thing, that doesn't bother me either. His churlishness doesn't bother me either. For me, I don't like him because of his arrogance when he hits one. Like Thursday, when he hits his first homer, he doesn't just stand there and watch it, he turns, walks about 10 steps while carrying his bat in his right hand, then starts his home run trot. Maybe he thought it might go foul, I don't know. But it didn't look like that was it to me. It's too bad there aren't more old school pitchers that would drill him his next at bat after doing that.

Phil Rogers - Douchebag or Dildo? You Decide

Just what the fuck kind of stupid, lazy hack job did Phil Rogers crap out today? Below is an excerpt from the beginning of this shitfest:

The Cubs factor lives, barely.Until the bottom of the ninth inning, when Dmitri Young's harmless grounder clanked off the heel of Brian Roberts' glove, it appeared the All-Star Game had turned inexorably when Tony La Russa pushed his luck by putting both Alfonso Soriano and Derrek Lee into action.
The National League had the lead, 1-0, when first Soriano and then Lee went into the game as replacements. But before long, the American League was back in control, as always, with a 5-2 lead in the eighth inning.In the ninth inning, as in the fall of 2003, it briefly appeared the Cubs might turn their sad tradition upside down.

If I recall, the AL took the lead 2-1 when Brian Roberts walked, then Ichiro hit the inside-the-park home run. So according to this asshole's logic, it must be Lee's fault that Roberts walked, and it must be Lee and Soriano's fault that Griffey badly misplayed Ichiro's ball off the wall. I guess somehow Derrek Lee gave up a homerun to Carl Crawford, and Soriano gave a 2 run homer to Viotor Martinez. What a fucking jagoff! But this is a microcosm of the problem with the Trib ownership. The "wonks" in the Tower (as Steve Rosenbloom calls them - "wonk" is a perfect word to describe the sound his column makes when it hits the water in my toilet) exploit Cub fan's loyalty and treat them like crap, and bums like Rogers, Downey and Morrissey don't have to waste the limited brain capacity they have, and then can just come up with another cheap, lazy column about how bad the Cubs are and how stupid their fans are. With a plan like this, it's no wonder those arrogant assholes at the Trib are hemorraging money. Anyway, douchebag or dildo? There is no wrong answer. Phil, you should go back to Texas so you can blow Roger Clemens some more.

More Like It
The Cubs not only are winning more and closing the gap, but they're winning the games a contender needs to win, the 4-2 games and the 3-1 games. As much as the statheads like to go on about VORP, OPS and such, often it seems like the top teams are middle of the pack in a lot of the stats. Yes, stats are important, but good teams find ways to win when everything doesn't click.

New quote

I've added a new quote, taken from The Godfather Part 3 (I know - sucky movie). But I thought it was appropriate for the Cubs. This is what made me think of it. A few months ago at a party, two people at the party, a man and a woman were talking near me. The woman happened to ask the man "Do you go to Cubs games at Wrigley?" He said he did. Me, being the smartass that I am, quickly seized the opportunity an asked hime "Ever wonder why?" He said the beer is good. The woman turned to me and said "I suppose you're a Sox fan?" I said, no, I'm a Cub fan, but many times I wonder why I still am. Friday, I was reminded of why, and
this picture on desipio says it all. It's why we watch, and why we go to the games. Wrigley Field is indeed a great place to watch a game, but for me, it's about 1000 times better to go to a game when they're playing well and winning, than it is when they're not. Hell, I can drink beer at home. When I spend the kind of money that the Cubs charge, I want to see a Cubs victory. I didn't see the game Friday but I saw the replay about 100 times. Games like Friday and last Monday are electric when the Cubs win a come from behind walk-off game.
It would have been much better if the Cubs had swept, of course, but they were 1 pitch away from losing the series. The most critical thing about the 2 walk off wins this week is that usually the Cubs lose those kind of games. Nice to see us win those kind. Now as Lou says, we have to keep going.