Ugh? Yay? A little of both?
Mixed day in Chicago sports
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Category Archives: Baseball
Wait ’til 2015?
Rosenbloom on the Cubs as they stand with just a handful of games left in 2012:
The current bunch died at the trading deadline. After going 19-10 in July — I believe Cooperstown asked for that calendar page — the Cubs have gone 4-18 in their last 22. They’ve hit a robust .213 in that time. Their pitchers have a 5.12 earned-run average that is the next journey for the NASA rover Curiosity. They have been outscored 114-74 and just got done striking out 37 times in getting swept in Milwaukee.
He’s not wrong on a lot of this stuff, even if I do think he’s a little overly cynical about the team’s chances in the next couple years. Then again maybe just thinking that proves I really am a Cubs fan and therefore am truly a lost cause.
Yeah, that really happened
The most disturbing thing I’ve read on the internet today:
Harrelson is in his 28th season as a Sox broadcaster, serving since 1982 except for 1986 when he was the teams general manager.
via Hawk Harrelson gets an earful from Bud Selig for tirade – Chicago Sun-Times.
<shudder>
He’s right: A pig with a saddle on it *would* be awesome
See his “C”? It stands for “Chicago”
Ryno on The Simpsons?
Steve Sax, who retired three years after “Homer at the Bat” and did time as a financial adviser before becoming a life coach and motivational speaker, acknowledges a sizable debt to the show. (The writing staff’s early preference for second base was Chicago’s Ryne Sandberg.) “Sometimes, fans would yell, ‘Hey, how’s Homer?’” Sax told me. “I know they weren’t talking about me hitting home runs, but it was a lot better than the stuff I used to hear.”
via The Making Of “Homer At The Bat,” The Episode That Conquered Prime Time 20 Years Ago Tonight.
Whatandthehuh? I feel like this changes my developmental years in a real way, not like those people who are *still* complaining about The Phantom Menace.
Quade
I’ve been pulling for Mike Quade to turn the Cubs into contenders. He certainly seemed to inspire the team to play more solid and consistent baseball in the final 30-some games of the 2010 season.
But his approach does not seem to be having the same impact in the first month and a half of 2011 and all the media-driven promises of how he was so good at drilling fundamentals into players seem to have been so much vaporware.
Is it alright that I’m legitimately wondering what the team would have looked like under Sandberg, who was shown the door after operating for years under the assumption the managerial job would one day be his? I have to believe that having someone the older players weren’t so comfortable with and who many of the younger players had previously known as their minor-league manager would have created a situation that would have continued to train rookies, shown veterans you actually have to try and catch fly balls and more. Because Nice Guy Quade doesn’t seem to be getting the job done.
Something to help you get through the last bits of winter
Good call
I like the decision to tap former Cub Keith Moreland as the new color guy for WGN Radio’s Cubs broadcasts. He did well filling in for the late Ron Santo last season and I think he’ll work out very well as the season goes on.
Wood
Very excited to hear that Kerry Wood is coming back to the Cubs. Here’s hoping this one-year deal turns into something long-term. Like Mark Grace and a couple others, Wood was one of a new generation of Cubs that I thought and hoped would make Wrigley their home for their entire career. Looking forward to seeing him back in the blue pinstripes.
