Filed under: Cubs | Tags: Cubs, Diamondbacks, Indians, Juan Rincon, Kerry Wood, Nolan Ryan, Rangers, White Sox
According to reports, Kerry Wood is expected to sign a contract with the Cleveland Indians as long as he passes his physical Thursday. When I say knock on wood, I mean it. Kerry has a long history of injuries and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him fail the physical and lose the contract offer. With that said, I hope that doesn’t happen.
In my previous blog I briefly speculated where the long-time Cub would land. I had mentioned Texas since he idolized Nolan Ryan. Guess I was wrong there, but I did know he lives in Arizona so part of me had hoped he would sign with the Diamondbacks. Then I could actually cheer for the hometown team and look forward to seeing him pitch just as much as usual. But I couldn’t have been more thrilled to hear my second favorite team in baseball signed Woody. My mom was born in Ohio and I view it as my second-city for sports teams.
The 97′ Cleveland Indians remains one of my favorite groups of guys ever assembled. I remember always picking them when I played All-Star Baseball 1998, one of the best baseball games of all time may I add. Now besides him playing for my second-city, my Dad brought up a point I hadn’t even considered; He’ll be playing in the same division as the White Sox! Kerry now has several opportunity to close out the South Siders and make them look silly which gives me great satisfaction.
Still the though of him being on any team but the Cubs still sounds wrong to me. And picturing him wearing another jersey is so impossible, I customized an Indians jersey just to see what his jersey would look like (That is if the legendary Juan Rincon gives up his number for the legend.) Nothing compared to the blue pinstripes, but I’ll take it.
Filed under: Cubs | Tags: Alfonso Soriano, C.C. Sabathia, Cubs, Curt Schilling, Diamondbacks, Lou Piniella, next year, Randy Johnson, sweep
Well this blog sure got depressing quick now didn’t it? In what was at least a closer game, the Cubs were eliminated and swept from the playoffs for the second straight year with a 3-1 loss. And now I can officially say, “There’s always next year.” I hate the thought of that phrase while the Cubs are still in it, but once they are done, there really isn’t much else to look forward to. The fact of the matter is the Cubs couldn’t hit, couldn’t pitch, couldn’t play defense and couldn’t keep it together. Therefore, it really shouldn’t be a surprise they were swept. Our coach, Lou Piniella, said it best.
(Phil Velasquez, Chicago Tribune)
“But let me tell you this, you could play postseason between now and another 100 years, and if you score six runs in a three-game series, it’s going to be another 100 years before you win here.”
Let’s hope the Cubs score some runs next time because I don’t know if I can make it another 100 years. Although I gotta say, if anyone is going to be the guinea pigs of working out the kinks of cryogenic freezing, it would be a Cubs fan. We would do anything to see them win one. Just unfreeze us when they are about to win it.
To every good point made, there is an ignorant one. For that, I would like to pull a quote from our 136 million dollar outfielder who “earned” his money batting an astounding .071 batting average for the series.
“We’re a very good team for [162] games, but we don’t do nothing after that,” he said. “That’s the difference. We’re not put together for [a short series].”
http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/photo/2005/12/08/PH2005120800041.jpg">http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/photo/2005/12/08/PH2005120800041.jpg
Built for a marathon and not a sprint Alfonso? I’m sorry but some teams are lucky to have one ace on their team. The best teams have 2 great starting pitchers like the Diamondbacks did when they won the World Series in 2001 with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. The Cubs had three this year. Granted not a single one of them got a win, but only Dempster didn’t have his stuff. The other two pitchers just didn’t get support from their teammates whether that be with their bats or gloves. So where some teams would have to overwork their best pitcher and tire him out to the point that he is no longer effective like the Brewers did with C.C. Sabathia, the Cubs could put a stud out on the mound each game and keep the starters fresh at the same time. I don’t want to hear that baloney from Soriano, I want to hear him say I’m donating half my salary back to the Cubs because I’m not living up to it. If there was any scapegoat to this series it was Alfonso Soriano. Knowing that, I would have sang a different tune if I was him.
Filed under: Cubs | Tags: 100 years, Carlos Zambrano, Cubs, curse, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, error, grand slam, Mark DeRosa, next year, playoffs, Ryan Dempster, sweep
The post season started off promising. The fans were believers. The Cubs knew what not to do after flopping last year in the post season in a first round sweep to the Diamondbacks. Heck, even though most personnel within the organization don’t believe in curses, they had Rev. Father James L. Greanias spread holy water in the Cubs dugout anyways several hours before Game 1. No curse, no lack of playoff experience and no lack of faith from Cub faithful. Then the game actually started.
(AP Photo/Kelvin Ma, Pool - ESPN.com)
I almost lost my voice after our second baseman, Mark DeRosa, hit a 2-run blast early in the second inning. But then I really lost my voice yelling and cursing after I watched our starting pitcher, Ryan Dempster, walk 7 guys and give up a grand slam before exiting in the 5th inning. It didn’t take long before this game was out of reach and over with a final score of 7-2. As upset as I was, TBS was kind enough to inform me that 85 percent of the teams that win Game 1 of the NLDS have gone on to win the series. It’s not like we didn’t have 100 years of losing as another number to squash. So thanks.
(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh - ESPN.com)
Enter Game 2. Our ace, Carlos Zambrano, looked passionate and it appeared his energy was rubbing off on the fans and the team. Everyone seemed to be louder and more encouraging for this game. However, this was before I learned that the entire Cubs infield was playing with gloves with holes in them. I don’t even care to tell you about the details of the errors committed because I refuse to type a post in all capital letters to display how angry I am. Plus when I was little I got terms of service violation upsetting my parents from AOL for using caps in a chat room. Apparently I was coming off as yelling at someone. Go figure. Anyways, all you need to know is our first baseman, our second baseman, our shortstop and our third baseman all committed costly errors on plays that even I could make. If you read my about me page, I do not have large hands, so now put that last statement in perspective. The Cubs ended up losing game 2 by a final score of 10-3 and I still have a migraine from getting so upset. The Cubs need to win the next 3 games to advance on in this best of five series. Let’s just say I’m dreading using the words “next year.”
Filed under: Cubs | Tags: 100 years, Bears, Bulls, Cubs, curse, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Eddie Vedder, Ernie Banks, Mets, White Sox, World Series
since this is the first blog, i wanna take a second to explain what this blog will be all about. i was born and raised in chicago and am a die-hard chicago sports fan. well everyone in chicago except the white sox. reason being…i’m from the north side. if from you’re from the north, you’re a cubs a fan. if you’re from the south, you’re a sox fan. and if you like both, you’re really not a sports fan because that’s a sin. so each time i blog i’m gonna discuss some aspect of chicago sports and my biased feelings. for now till the end of october when i believe the cubs will win the world series, i’m gonna focus on my beloved cubbies. but look for a lot of mentions of da bears and da bulls after that time period. oh “da” is “the” in chicago talk just like everyone’s dad’s name is bob in chicago.
so anyways, my cubbies only have a few games left in the season and are guarenteed to finish the best team in the national league. the lovable losers actually are the best not only in my heart but in the standings for once. it’s been 100 years since they lost won the world series, and like a true cubs fan… i believe this is the year. i still don’t know who the cubs are scheduled to face yet but it will be either the mets or the dodgers. we have history with the mets so it would be nice to play them and get revenge on them for the cursed season of 1969 but i really don’t care who we play. i know we’re better than both of them. but i’m only gonna take this one series at a time. last year we got swept in the first round by the freakin dbacks, so i’m just gonna try my best to stay level-headed. for now i’ll leave you with a new popular song sung by pearl jam’s eddier vedder. former cub great ernie banks urged him to write a song for the cubs since vedder is a huge fan. i just heard it the other day and it’s stuck in my head. so here’s the youtube video for eddie vedder “all the way.”
