June 2008
Please Remain Seated and Fasten Seatbelts
When historians look back on this 2008 season, they are unlikely to make much note of this series against Baltimore. In the end, Cubs lose a home series 2-1. It wasn’t a sweep, it wasn’t against a division rival, and it was in June. Not quite that dramatic five-gamer against St. Louis in September of ’03.
But after such incredible success at home, the Orioles series, even the win, is unsettling. The injuries to Johnson and Fukudome on top of Soriano’s hand. Patterson’s boneheaded play on Tuesday that gave Baltimore three runs in what proved to be a two-run game. The eerie silence after that game when we’ve gotten so accustomed to hearing our song. It’s only one game, but it felt so wrong. Even the win Wednesday was marred by a lot of men left on base. While a three-run game is hardly dramatic, it felt like it should have been a blowout and it wasn’t.
Today? It’s not a good sign when the only reason I listened to the entire game was in hope that Lou would let DeRosa pitch the ninth. You get the feeling he would have been better than Marquis. It’s a scary time of the season right now. There’s no indication that the Cubs will crash and burn- St. Louis and Milwaukee have tough interleague opponents and may not gain too much ground, even if the Cubs only go 5-5 or something on the road trip. And Zambrano and Soriano don’t look like they’ll be gone that long. But even if the dream continues and the plane lands safely into October, this kind of turbulence is not fun.
The Four Greatest Words
Since August of last year, the four greatest words for a Cubs fan to hear, besides “Cubs Win! Cubs Win!”
“Now Pitching: Scott Linebrink”
My boss, ardent Brewers fan that he is, refuses to acknowledge that he played for Milwaukee last year.
Cubbie Swagger On The Homefront
Much has been said about Lou’s efforts to instill a “Cubbie swagger” in his team- the notion that the team is here to win ballgames, will play with confidence for nine innings, to be underestimated at your peril. Clearly, he’s done that. It’s hard to make a rational argument that their success is a fluke.
I can’t speak for ‘da locals, but that swagger should extend to Cub fans living in enemy territory as well. Our love for the franchise may be unconditional, but we have the responsiblity to make clear that we expect this kind of winning baseball. Excited as we may be inside, outside we must control ourselves and pretend that these guys are just doing their jobs. Nothing more.
Such an incident came up this afternoon at the office. Early last year, our inventory manager constantly made sure I was aware of the standings, particularly Milwaukee’s place atop it. No swagger there- just all out astonishment that his team was in first and an urge to make sure everyone knew it. We all know what happened. Today, as I was walking by, he casually mentioned “Cubs doing good, huh?” Without even turning to him, I just nodded, said, “Yup,” and moved on. Swagger.
He chuckled to himself, forced to respect a calm, business-like demeanor. He’ll be getting no unbound excitement from me until the magic number is 0. At which point, of course, I’ll let it rip.
Everybody, Try To Stay Calm
At this time I would like to urge calm among the denizens of Wrigleyville and all who dwell within the Cubs Existential Plane. Soriano is on the shelf again, but the most important thing right now is not to panic.
We can survive this. After weeks of being reminded how good Sori can be, let’s not pretend it will be easy. But we can survive this. He was injured earlier this year, and the Cubs responded by discovering the wonderous OBP statistic. Our lineup is better equipped now than it was then- Reed Johnson is still playing well, Jim Edmonds is on-board and has graciously decided to stop sucking, and Micah Hoffpauir could be a big wild card in all of this. Whether Reed, Micah or DeRosa ends up in left and whether Reed, Theriot or Fontenot ends up batting leadoff, this is a storm we can weather. And with heavy rains submerging the bottom third of Wisconsin in water, transforming a dinky little river I cross on my morning commute into the wide Missouri, I know something about weathering storms.
Another point- Albert Pujols is out too. Suddenly, the Cards and Cubs are both dueling with one hand behind their backs, but even so the odds remain the same. In fact, it’s easy to suggest that St. Louis losing Pujols is a worse loss than the Cubs losing Soriano. I’m not going to be the one to suggest that; I’ll leave that up to the SABR guys to give us the cold hard stats about each players’ VORP and such. I will say that after some encouraging stretches by Milwaukee, Brewers fans are likely rubbing their hands in evil glee, thinking the pieces are all in place. I need to see more than one solid homestand before acknowledging that threat. After all, the one blemish during that homestand was one of Atlanta’s rare road wins.
Speaking of Atlanta, we can all say, without hyperbole, that the getaway game against the Braves is big. Just as St. Louis made a statement last night against Cincinnati without Pujols, a win without Sori would be a big confidence booster heading into the tricky interleague trip. Plus, between the hit batters, the near-misses, the lack of closure from last year’s incidents in Atlanta, them taking out Sori with an inside pitch, us taking out their scheduled starter with our clubhouse steps… fireworks are possible.
Which brings us to the most important thing to remember- the one thing to keep in mind no matter how bad it gets without Soriano: at least he didn’t get injured tripping on the clubhouse steps.
Take Down the “Sunday Night” Marquis
Whenever the Cubs are slated for Sunday Night Baseball, can we petition to scratch Jason Marquis if he’s scheduled to start that night? This is the third or fourth time since he signed last year. Every single night, Joe Morgan gushes about how great a hitter Marquis is and every single time, Marquis goes 0-fer and usually fails to get down a bunt. Plus it’s one less start for him and besides, is he really the guy we want representing us on national TV?
If Marquis must start, I move that we pull ourselves from the nightcap in favor of a nice afternoon game on WGN, while introducing Morgan to a fellow by the name of Micah Owings… and in the process, possibly a team named the Arizona Diamondbacks. Not sure if he got the memo about the expansion in ’98.
My Birthday Present
Today is my birthday, so allow me to be self-indulgent for a moment. Last year, the Cubs gave me one of the greatest birthday presents ever. Yes, division championship, epic comeback against Milwaukee, yadda, yadda, yadda… it was how they went about it that made it so special.
On June 2, a year ago yesterday, Lou had his tirade, got ejected, got suspended, thus beginning his great master plan to save the season (everyone pretends it was planned that way, and so do I because it’s so much fun to believe). The official fireworks began on June 3, my birthday, with a big win over Atlanta to salvage the series. The best part about that season was the punditry afterwards talking about the Cubs’ record since June 3. For the rest of the year, it was June 3rd this, June 3rd that and that made the comeback just that much more special for me.
With my golf plans rained out this afternoon, I’m heading up to Appleton to catch Ryne Sandberg lead the Peoria Chiefs against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.
Testing, Testing!
Going into last week, I held the impression that little the Cubs could do on the homestand would silence the naysayers who are still predicting a collapse. The biggest argument thus far is that the back end of the rotation is holding together by a thread and the team doesn’t play well on the road- obviously two red flags come October. A week of feasting on two banged up NL West clubs shouldn’t have told us much. The fact that our third best starter is currently Sean Gallagher doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. Kid’s hanging in there, but from the fourth inning on, seems like every batter could be the one that somehow hangs five runs on him in one swing. At least the Cubs demonstrated their knack for coming from behind and winning the nailbiters. So we got that going for us.
Now comes the tricky part: hosting two NL West clubs may not jump out as mettle-testers, but this road trip, and the following one in Toronto and Tampa Bay (so much for sighing in relief over missing the Yankees), should be a little more revealing. The Cubs are 10-13 on the road and the rest of the league isn’t faring much better. Wise men have said that a good team goes .500 on the road and “protects their house” (said wise men are apparently shilling for Under Armor). If our road record’s at .500 by the time the White Sox come calling, we’re in good shape.
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