98 and we all still wait-a running commentary on the 2006 Chicago Cubs

BITE ME!!!



ber144 at 10:27:35 PM CDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

I'm just poking my head up to say this:

Go White Sox.

I see the Sox just polished off an easy 6-2 win over the Cubs.  Excellent.  Let's hope the score of both games this weekend is 16-2.  I hope the Sox absolutely embarrass the Cubs.

As you can see, nothing much has changed in the last five weeks.  I stopped writing here because my blood pressure was getting ready to spike at 300 over 200.  Five weeks ago, the Cubs sucked, and I was sick of it.

They still suck, and I am sick of it.

Yes, indeed, for the first time in my life, I am openly rooting for the Chicago Cubs to lose.  I get devastated now whenever they win.  What kind of fan am I?

You do not want to be asking me that question right now.

You see, a month ago, the Cubs were putrid, but they still had time to do something, anything, to make it seem like they actually cared about winning.  They haven't.  At the very least they should have fired Dusty Baker.  His team has played horrible baseball this year.  Injuries are no excuse.  Injuuries don't keep players from hitting cutoff men, from throwing to the correct base, from not issuing the most walks in the league.

It has been pathetic.  It has been embarrassing.  It has been disgusting.  And yet, they do nothing.  Nothing.

Why?  Well, simple.  They don't have to.  I should say, they don't want to.  Why should they?  The park continues to sell out.  The lemmings continue to fill up Wrigley Field. 

For the life of me, I don't know what is wrong with you people.  I'm all for going to a game in a beautiful park every once in a while, but I'll be damned if I'm going to do it in a place that couldn't care less about the product that gets placed out there.

The Cubs organization doesn't really care about winning.  All they care about is the money.  And as long as the people who "support" them are dumb enough to keep doing it, nothing will change.

I'm still sick of it.  I've stopped watching, I've stopped listening, and I have stopped caring.  I WANT THEM TO LOSE!  My biggest hope this summer is that the Royals and the Pirates surpass the Cubs.

When all is said and done, I want the 2006 Cubs to have the worst record in the league.  And if that doesn't send a message to the lemmings who fill the stadium, and the front office, then I hope it happens again and again and again.

STOP SUPPORTING CRAPPY BASEBALL!  WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

Some have asked me why I don't just switch sides and root for the Sox.  Hmm, can I start breathing nitrogen now instead too?  You see, switching is not an option.  I am stuck.  I love baseball.  I love the Chicago Cubs.  I don't love who is in control of the Chicago Cubs now, and there is a big difference in that.

I have suffered mightily throughout my days as a fan of this team.  Telling me to just quit would be like telling me to give up my family.  It just can't happen.

I deserve better.

Fire Dusty Baker.

For God sakes, give me some kind of idea that you actually care about baseball,and that it is not all about money.  Start by eating the rest of Baker's deal and bringing in someone who knows the game.

I feel like it is 1975 all over again.  I can't go through thirty more years of this shit.

That's all folks.  I won't come back here until things have changed.


ber144 at 4:57:20 PM CDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

I'm taking a break from this.  My blood pressure can't take watching, or paying attention to, anymore bad baseball.

FIRE DUSTY BAKER

ber144 at 12:10:53 AM CDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

2006 Chicago Cubs:

Born: April 3, 2006

Died: May 22, 2006

I'm calling it-the season is over, done, finished.  The drought goes on.  Year 99 awaits.

I haven't declared a Cubs team dead this early since 1997, which was the year of the infamous 0-14 start.  That team finished 67-95.  I think this team is worse, and will probably exceed the number of losses.

In fact, this might be a true banner year for the South Side: the White Sox will win 100 games (all but guaranteed) and the Cubs will lose 100 (I'd say the chances are 50/50).

People got excited Saturday because Michael Barret smacked AJ Pierzynski, instead of getting rightly riled up due to the fact that the Cubs looked absolutely pathetic in losing the first two games to the Sox by a combined score of 13-1.  And if Paul Konerko manages to lean a few inches to his right Sunday, the Sox would have completed a three game sweep.

Damn you, Paulie.  A sweep would have been a gift sent from Heaven.

As it turns out, the Cubs managed to piss away any and all momentum from yesterday's win tonight in Miami, losing to the Marlins 9-1.  That's 18 losses in the last 23 games for the Cubs, most of them in the fashion of tonight's game: over early.  By the way, the Marlins ended an 8 game losing streak tonight.

Again, it needs to be said: the Cubs are the worst team in baseball, by miles.  Yes, even you, Kansas City, you have a better baseball team.

I was hoping for the Sox to obliterate the Cubs yesterday, I freely admit.  That's the only way ANYTHING is going to change in the front office.  How can they continue to believe that Dusty Baker is the right man to lead this club?  His team is no longer competitive three out of every four games.  Think I'm exaggerating?  Watch the last four games the Cubs have played.  Sunday was the only game they were remotely in, and they won solely because the Sox gift-wrapped the eighth inning for them.

Here's another example of the excuse-making that proliferates the Cubs organization, a classic characteristic of their "Who Me?" leader, Dusty Baker.  After tonight's game, Juan Pierre blamed the Cubs' performance on the "lack of energy" in the stadium, because less than 10,000 fans showed up tonight in South Florida.

Can you believe that?  A professional team blaming their crappy performance on a low turnout, IN AN OPPOSING TEAMS STADIUM?

It's over.  Call me a pessimist if you wish.  I don't care.  The Cubs are done.  Let the lemmings continue to fill Wrigley Field with tickets they bought in February because they just had to be there.  You are all enablers.  If you're lucky, you'll keep track of the great sell-off that occurs at the trading deadline, and you'll be dumb enough to believe the higher-ups when they claim that the salaries they dumped put them in a position to make real runs at quality free agents in the off-season.

Oh, and by the way, to all the Sox fans who have said over and over again that it is pathetic that Cubs fans are happy because they're team managed to win one of the games this past weekend, I leave you with this:

Kiss my ass.  Why you all continue to obsess on the Cubs amazes me.  You might want to worry about Detroit a bit.  Just a suggestion.

Fire Dusty Baker.

 

ber144 at 12:07:57 AM CDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

I'm a glutton for punishment, I suppose, but I've decided to watch as much of this as I can handle:

First inning:

-Hey, look, Juan Pierre got on base.  Think Hairston will bunt? (yes) Think AJ will make an error for the first time in a while?  Is it a coincidence that I just read about his errorless streak this morning?  Couldn't happen to a nicer guy (side note: I love Michael Barret, but any team that wouldn't want a guy like AJ on its team is nuts)

-Todd Walker is the one guy you want up in this situation.  I'll be stunned if he does not get a run home.  And he does.  1-0 Cubs.

-Way to hit the ball to the right side, Barret.  This is what I can't stand about this team lately.  Buerhle throws junk, he can't que it to second?

-Ramirez looks like he is just off.  He doesn't get a decent swing in the whole AB, and I wonder why Buerhle is so careful to him

-Because Murton is on deck, now I know.  Well, at least they took advantage of the error and got a run.  Now it's the Sox turn.

-Nice catch by Ramirez to keep Podsednik off base, but I bet Ramirez is gone by the third inning.

-Maddux vs. Thome is an interesting matchup.  I was highly upset when the Cubs declined to pursue Thome when he was available a few years ago (where is Hee Sop Choi these days?  Pawtucket?) but there'd be no Derrek Lee if the Cubs signed Big Jim, and I'd rather have seven more years of Lee.  Maddux needs to throw strikes.  And check the runner.  Iguchi had that base stolen before he released the ball.

-Whoa.  Where did Thome think that pitch was?  He should have hit that ball 900 miles.  I'm watching the WGN broadcast with Cubs announcers (Comcast is showing the Sox feed)-show more idiot fans, why don't you?  See that banner hanging along the outfield?  The one that says "World Champions 2005"?  You really can't taunt anyone with a Sox jersey on when that thing is around.

-Nice piece of hitting by Konerko.  That was not an easy pitch to hit.  So we are tied.  Maddux needs to get out of this here.  The Sox tend to score bunches with two outs.  They just said that is the first run Maddux has given up in the first inning.  I'm going to make a bold prediction here and say that this game is going to be determined by the bullpens. 

-Two out walks are never a good idea, especially when it brings up a guy who pissed that his AL record fielding streak just ended.  And is 6-11 lifetime against Maddux.  Another liner to Ramirez.  He'll be out by the second inning now. 

-Neither pitcher impresses me so far.

Second inning:

-Ah, that's more like it.  Nothing like the Cubs 7-8-9 hitters to make an inning go by quick.  Looks like Maddux is going to do the same thing, but I say that with only two outs.  And there were three outs.

-Live blogging isn't as much fun as I thought it might be.  Have other stuff to do but will keep the game on in the background and come back.

Third inning:

-When do you suppose was the last time that Juan Pierre was in the weight room?

-Jerry Hairston is a waste of uniform space.  I cannot stress this enough.  He makes me pine for Steve Dillard, Joe Strain, and Ted Sizemore.

-There's no doubt that Buehrle is off a bit, so why is Barret swinging at the first pitch?  This is the kind of stuff that I wonder if Baker is communicating to his team.  Buerhle is throwing a ton of pitches, so why not wait him out?  And a two out walk goes for naught.

-Must vacuum.  Yes, I am domesticated.

-So I'm pretty sure that in the pre-game pitching meeting the #1 topic was "don't walk Scott Podsednik."  If I were the ump, I'd say "take your bases" whenever he walked.

-Iguchi is a stud.  'Nuff said.

-It's interesting to see a 323 game winner get squeezed by a home plate umpire.  Bet Konerko swings at the first pitch . . . that should have been a pop-up, yet he lines it down the left field line.  Great piece of hitting.

-Jermaine Dye thanks Ronny Cedeno for the gift RBI.  Your team cannot score, yet you pass up a chance to nail a guy at the plate? 

-And just like that, it's 5-1.  All starting with the walk to Podsednik.  You don't walk a leadoff man, at least not if you play fundamental baseball.  And you don't pass up a chance to throw out a slow runner at home when you are trailing by two, at least not if you play fundamental baseball.  The bottom of the third is exactly why I want Baker canned.  His team just plays horrible fundamental baseball.

-This game is over.

Fourth inning:

-How many pitches did Buerhle throw?  I typed this sentence in the time it took him to retire the side in order.

-So let the Sox get ten more this inning.  I want a final score of 18-1.

-FIRE DUSTY BAKER

-Mock me about the vacuuming comment all you want, but if you lived with two white cats, you'd vacuum a lot too.

-My wife just came home from work and brought me a sandwich from Jimmy John's.  Reason #716,937 why she is too good for me.

Fifth inning:

-Oh yes, Henry Blanco has warning track power.  Especially when he swings at the first pitch.  Have I mentioned that this game is over?  Oh yeah, FIRE DUSTY BAKER

-The broadcasting team is discussing the fantastic decision by Neifi Perez yesterday, to bunt in the last of the ninth with two outs and the tying runs on base.  It went right back to the pitcher.  Game over.  And they say they liked it.

-They also mention that the Cubs are last in the league with home runs at 27, all the while zooming in on the injured Derrek Lee in the dugout.  Like he'd have 27 himself by now?

-Juan Pierre is to lead-off men what George W. Bush is to integrity.

-FIRE DUSTY BAKER

-Hey look, Iguchi made an out!

-At least Jim Thome is on my fantasy team.  OK, it's 6-1 two outs bottom of the fifth, and I'm done.  Excellent performance by the Boys in Blue so far, a microcosm of the crap performance of Dusty Baker as a manager.  I hope the Sox pile it on for the rest of the weekend.

 

ber144 at 3:19:09 PM CDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

Like hell!

Taking two out of three from the Nationals (Frank Robinson looks like a beaten guy-why isn't this team still named "Expos"?) has not changed my mind: Dusty Baker's time in Chicago is done, and the Cubs should make it official.

They won't, of course, because that would mean actually having to pay him NOT to manage the team.  The Cubs would rather lose 100 games instead and further perpetuate the label of ineptness.

Today happens to be my 39th birthday.  This crap has been going on my entire life.

Back to the present: I don't necessarily believe that Dusty Baker is solely responsible for the train wreck that this season has become.  I also don't think that all of the problems come back to the loss of Derrek Lee.  His injury was huge, definitely, but there are plenty of reasons why the Cubs are now the worst team in the major leagues (yeah, they may not have the worst record, but no one has been worse the last three weeks).  There are plenty of reasons why this season has sunk quicker than a frozen Jack Dawson.  Getting rid of Baker would just be a start.

Ah, Dusty.  He's in the last year of a four year deal.  He came oh-so close to the World Series his first year, and it has been progressively worse since.  If you don't think that he already had his bags packed and is looking for a home out west (most likely Phoenix-his former agent is the Diamondbacks GM now), well, you're a lot more trusting soul than I am.  Baker has been in "It's not my fault we can't win here" mode since the 2004 end of the season implosion and recently has amped it up full throttle.  Last week he made a statement that if he gets blamed too much for what has happened this year, then he deserves to receive more credit for what happened in 2003.  I find it interesting that he is apparently keeping score, and I'm sure any successful major league manager avoids living in the past.

Some other classic Baker moments as of late:

-He's been amazingly laid back while his team has lost 15 of it last 19 games, and in many of these games, his team has demonstrated a complete lack of playing fundamental baseball.  It's been excruciating to watch.  Yet Baker has shown almost no emotion (except for wanting more respect for something that happened three years ago).  Meanwhile, when his team lost three out of four games during the second week of the season, new Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland let his team have it, publicly calling them out as not hustling and not being prepared to play.  Leyland blamed himself as well.  It was a classic wake up call, and lo and behold, who has the best record in the game today?  The Detroit Tigers.  Meanwhile, when Baker was recently asked why he hasn't shown  much emotion about the team lately, he went off on a bizarre tangent recounting how Eddie Matthews went nuts once and dumped the post game meal table.  Baker mentioned that the rest of the team "picked the hot dogs off the floor, washed them and ate them."  OK.

-When it was pointed out that the Cubs bat less than .200 against left-handed pitching, Baker said it was due to the fact that the team does not have a left-handed batting practice pitcher.  No one makes excuses like Dusty Baker.  Again, so we are clear, nothing is his fault.

-During a recent stretch where the team lost eight in a row, and twelve of thirteen, it took Baker nine games to "shake up" his lineup.  Derrek Lee's absence has left an abyss in the batting order, yet Baker has yet to tinker much with it.  Well, he has moved Todd Walker to first base, allowing the stellar tandem of Neifi Perez and Jerry Hairston to take over second base.

I'll say it again-Baker knows that he is not coming back.  He doesn't care what happens this year, because he knows that he is done.  And when he leaves, wherever he ends up next year, he will have a million excuses for why he couldn't win in Chicago, and none of it will be his fault.

The Cubs will not fire Baker because they don't have to.  The Cubs will not eat his contract because they have no one that they have to impress.  The season is pretty much sold out, and has been since February, so what would be the point of firing the manager?  More than ever, I understand the way that the front office of the Chicago Cubs operate: it's a business first, and a business second, third, and last.  What's the incentive to win 99 games and a World Series when you maximize profit with 70 wins? Or 65?  It doesn't matter.

Firing Dusty Baker for the poor job he has done this year managing, and for his overall arrogant attitude towards responsibility (not to mention fundamental baseball) would show that the front office expects to win.  Instead, we will linger througha summer of constant reminders that injuries took the teams two best pitchers and best offensive threat.

At Clark and Addison, it is never anyone's fault.  Except maybe Steve Bartman's. 

(And a note to Conan O'Brien: your drive through the city from your desk routine the last show when you were here last week, when you ran over Bartman twice and then beat him senseless with a bat?  Classy, man.  By Friday I didn't think it was possible to make the citizens of Chicago look any dumber, but you pulled it off.)

See, it doesn't matter that someone like me, who has been following the Cubs since he was five, decides that he has had it, and is no going anywhere near Wrigley Field for the foreseeable future because he doesn't want to contribute any money to the farce that is going on there, because for every person like me, there are ten, maybe a hundred, who want in but can't because the place is sold out.  There are hordes of people begging to give the Cubs their money.  And until something happens to smack them out of their senses, it will always be that way.

Championships are nice.  I'm sure the White Sox make more money now than they ever did.  I'm sure that the Chicago Bulls are worth a lot more money now than they were in 1990, before they won six in eight years.  But if your bottom line already says that you've won, what's the point of going further?  Good players cost money, and there are no more seats left to fill.

Ending this allegiance isn't an option.  I'm hooked, I'm in it for life.  And it absolutely sucks sometimes, but what can I do?  The Cubs are as much a constant as anything in my life, except maybe my family.  Comment on that as you might, but when something is a part of you for 35 years, you can't just get rid of it.  You can refuse to enable it, and that is what I have chosen to do.

I even have gone so far as to look at this weekend's series with the White Sox at US Cellular Field and think that perhaps the best thing that could happen would be a Sox sweep.  Let them win, and win big, three times.  Then let them come to Wrigley next month and do the same thing.  Maybe that will get someone's attention. 

When someone is in trouble, sometimes the best thing for you to do is let them hit rock bottom, let them humiliate themselves, and then let them realize how pathetic they have let their life become.

So if the Cubs are not going to rid themselves of Dusty Baker, if they are not going to actively try to shake up and salvage what is left of this season (I do not believe that this team is as bad as they have been lately.  I don't expect playoffs but there is no reason why this team should not win 80 games), then let them hit rock bottom.  Let them lose 105 games, let the folks who live and die with them wonder if this what it feels like to live in Tampa or Kansas City.

I'm completely serious.  I'm tired of this garbage.  What is it going to take to get seven million other people to feel the same way?

 

ber144 at 1:08:32 PM CDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

It's time.

More later, much more; I promise that I have good reason to call for the end of the Baker era NOW.

ber144 at 4:46:20 PM CDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

(Yes, this is off-topic.  Sue me)

Hello boys,

Been watching a bit of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on your little cable network recently.  Have to admit that I wasn't aware you existed until then.

Great game tonight between Edmonton and San Jose huh?  I love when a playoff game in the NHL goes deep into overtime.  This one went three before the Oilers pulled out a 3-2 win.

Three OT's-that almost the equivalent of two full games.  And sometimes, you end up watching for a long time, only to miss a moment that flashes by, when a team scores the game-winning goal.  I did tonight.  Looked away for a second, and BANG! Edmonton wins.

And you wrapped up your broadcast in ten seconds.  Would it have killed you to show a freakin' REPLAY of the GAME WINNING GOAL?

Were there a lot of people burning up your switchboard at 2 AM, demanding to know why log rolling wasn't on?  Because given how fast you went to it, I'd think there was an angry mob of lumberjacks bearing down on your headquarters.

ber144 at 2:48:36 AM CDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

The worst thing about west coast road trips are the night games that stretch into morning here in the Midwest.  If it's a particularly bad game, as has been the case this week, it's just that much worse.

The absence of Derrek Lee seems to have taken its full strangle hold on the Cubs, who have absolutely stopped hitting.  They have scored three runs in their last six games (one which they managed to win).  In their last seven games, they have been outscored 46-5.

I have seen some unbelievably poor offensive stretches in my time.  I've never seen anything like this.

And it's infectious to other parts of the game.  The Cubs have been the worst team in the league the last week on run production alone, but when you examine how they perform at fundamentals, you see that right now, they're executing at a Double A level.  Maybe.

One thing that has always driven me nuts about Dusty Baker is his short circle of "role players" that he plays over and over even after they have proven that they don't belong in the game.  For the first three seasons of his tenure here, these were the guys like Jose Macias and Ramon Martinez.

The leader of the club this year is Jerry Hairston Jr. 

This is why I am still up writing this now at this time instead of being asleep: Hairston is awful.  Tonight, with his team desperately needing a win, he proved twice that he can't come through on the most basic of fundamental plays.

First: Top of the tenth, scoreless game.  Jacque Jones leads off with a single.  Hairston is up next, and everyone in the state of California knows what he will be doing-laying down a sacrifice bunt.  He gets three pitches from Trevor Hoffman, all not difficult to bunt.

Hairston bunts all three foul, and the Cubs don't score.  Of course, even if he does bunt the man over, there's no guarantee that they score.  But no major league baseball "role player" (read that as anyone who can't hit over .250 or drive in more than 60 runs) can't not be able to get a bunt down.

Second, and this burns me so, so much more than the tenth inning: Scott Williamson issues a lead off walk to Khalil Greene in the bottom of the eleventh (which is another thing that drives me nuts, but this is a savage of Hairston, let's not forget).  Adrain Gonzalez, a recent graduate of the Jerry Hairston Academy of Bunting, flies out after he can't get a bunt down. 

Josh Barfield's the batter, and Greene tries to steal second.  Michael Barret's throw arrives well ahead of Greene, who should be thrown out.

Except that Jerry Hairston is covering the bag, and for some reason, he is three steps in front of the base, so that when he catches the throw, he is nowhere near Greene.  Hairston misses him completely.

On the very next pitch, Barfield singles up the middle, and Greene scores.  Game over.

Is Hairston the reason the Cubs lost tonight?  Hardly.  The line of culprits is a mile long.  No one is hitting.  Aramis Ramirez is driving me insane trying to pull everything.  Juan Pierre can't hit the ball out of the outfield.  Jacque Jones has me pining for Jeromy Burnitz.  Why is Neifi Perez still on a major league roster?

But Hairston is the guy who screwed up two basic fundamental plays.  He gets the poster tonight.  I hate being negative about this team, but they stink right now, and there's no excuse for it.  It's like everyone decided that, oh well, we lost our best player and we're just going to not care anymore.

The record is 14-14, hardly a lost cause, but if the team doesn't respond to one of the more embarrassing weeklong stretches in its history (and man, is THAT saying something.  I have to stop and take a breath here) then it is indeed going to be a brutal summer on the north side.

Things might need to be shaken up.

And Lou Pinella is just sitting at home, doing nothing, collecting paychecks from the Devil Rays.

I'm just saying . . . 

ber144 at 2:24:58 AM CDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

So did you see what happened at Wrigley Field last night?  Cubs vs. Marlins on a chilly Chicago evening.  One pitcher dominats the other team's lineup, holding them to one hit ove the first seven innings.  Heading into the 8th inning, the score is 3-0.  With one out and the team trailing at bat, the team ahead is five outs from victory. 

And then it all falls apart.  The team trailing has a monster inning and wins the game.

Of course, last night the Marlins were five outs away from improving their record to 6-11, while we all know what the Cubs were five outs from on October 14, 2003.  I'm not even suggesting that this is an avenging for what happened during Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS.  It's April, and the Marlins suck.

But it was odd watching this game, seeing the similarities play out, seeing the opposite happen, and knowing that this was a game in freakin' April.  And clearly, though I may think otherwise, the memories of 10/14/03 are never going to fully go away, are they?  Of course not.

 

ber144 at 2:34:56 PM CDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own