July 2010
And my back hurts!
July 31st.
11 games under .500
Fourth place and 11 games out of first.
They lose 17-2 to the Rockies, including giving up 12 runs
in the 8th.
They are unable to trade Soriano, Zambrano, and Fukudome.
They trade D Lee but he won’t go.
They can trade Lilly to the Dodgers, but LA wants the Cubs
to pay his contract??????? The Dodgers
owner is going thru a divorce and can’t take on salary.
Ugh!!!!!
Andre Dawson and a shutout
With the wind blowing straight out over the center field
scoreboard at 15-20mph, yesterday looked to be a high scoring affair. Luckily
Randy Wells had other thoughts.
Wells pitched a wonderful game yesterday as he held St Louis
to only 5 hits and no runs. Sean Marshall came in and locked down the final two
innings and the Cubs beat the Cardinals 5-0.
The Cubs offense did provide the long ball as Colvin,
Soriano, and Soto all went deep. The Cubs now rank 10th in the major
leagues with 100 home runs. Unfortunately, the homers are not translating into
runs as the Cubs rank 21st overall in that stat category. Clearly
OBP is a problem for the Cubs. They rank 21st in walks and 16th
in average.
As for today, the Cubs once again take on the Cardinals at
Wrigley Field. But that will probably take a back seat in the minds of most Cub
fans as Andre Dawson gets inducted into the Hall of Fame. Like a lot of you,
Andre was one of my favorite players. I was going to write about the Hawk but I
found a quote from my favorite Cub that I thought summed up Dawson perfectly. I’ll
let his words speak for me.
“Andre Dawson, the Hawk. No player in baseball history worked
harder, suffered more or did it better than Andre Dawson. He’s the best I’ve
ever seen. The Hawk. I watched him win MVP for a last-place team in 1987, and
it was the most unbelievable thing I’ve ever seen in baseball. He did it the
right way, the natural way, and he did it in the field and on the bases and in
every way, and I hope he will stand up here someday.”
–Ryne Sandberg during his Baseball Hall of Fame induction
speech in July 2005
Congratulations Andre
Dawson!!!!
******* Update******
Just found out HOF is tomorrow. I guess that gives me time to cover Andre more in my next post.
Ralph Houk
I’ve collected baseball cards since I was a kid. The first
cards I remember buying on my own were 1972 Topps. Of course buying on my own
meant that my dad gave me a dime and I would go over to the drug store to buy a
pack.
One of the cards that always stuck in my mind was Ralph Houk’s
’72 Topps. It’s a picture of him in a
Yankee uniform and cap. It’s a manager card, but for those familiar with the ’72
series the individual’s position was not listed on the front of the card. I had
no knowledge of Houk at the time and for all I knew he was a player. He was 52
years old at the time, but as a 5yo he looked like he was 92. Of course I
eventually came to learn that he was a manager, but I never got over my first impression
of that card and seeing that old man on a baseball card.
Sometime later in the late ninety’s I saw him on TV as part
of some Yankee retrospective. Even though I was then an adult and had an understanding
of age, I was shocked to see that he was alive. In my mind I had always thought
of him as that old man on the card from back when I was a kid. The funny thing
was that he really looked about the same then as he did 25 years earlier.
Then this morning I read that he passed away and I was once
again surprised to find that he was ‘just’ 90 years old. It’s amazing the way
the mind works and how one first impression can dominate your thoughts despite
knowledge to the contrary.
RIP – Ralph
Lou Piniella’s Rookie Card?
Will the real Lou Piniella rookie card please stand up?
In 1962 Lou Piniella was signed as an amateur by the
Cleveland Indians but soon afterward was drafted by the Washington Senators in
the 1962 first year draft.
Here is Lou’s first card. A 1964 Topps.
In the summer of 1964 Lou was traded from Washington to
Baltimore. That fall Lou made his first big league appearance playing 4 games for
the Orioles. He was 0 for 1.
Piniella spent all of 1965 in the minors and then was traded
by Baltimore to Cleveland in March of 1966. Lou was called up to play with the
Indians in September that year. He played in 6 games, getting 6 plate appearances.
He went 0-5 with 1 run scored and 1 rbi from a sac fly. Here is his second
rookie card, a 1968 Topps.
Following the 1968 season an expansion draft was held for
the newly formed Seattle Pilots. Lou was drafted from the Indians with the 28th
pick. Here is his third rookie card, a 1969 Topps.
Notice the same picture was used in both the ’68 and ’69 cards.
On April 1st, 1969, before ever playing a game for the Pilots, Seattle traded Lou to the
Kansas City Royals for John Gelnar and Steve Whitaker. In 1969 Lou played 135
games for the Royals making 539 plate appearances, hitting .282 and winning the
Rookie of the Year award.
So…. Lou has three different rookie cards and none of them
are for the team he wins the Rookie of the Year award for.
Sweet Lou
Well, Lou Piniella was fired I mean asked not to I mean announced his retirement effective season’s end.
come back next year
After leading the Cubs to two straight division titles in ’07 and ’08, the team
has fallen apart finishing third last year and playing 10 games under .500 this
year.
As of this writing the announcement hasn’t seemed to spark
the ballclub as Houston is leading the Cubs 4-0 in the fourth.
If I had to guess right now about whom will take over for
Lou, really only two names go to the top of the list. Ryne Sandberg and Allan
Trammell.
I’ll get into more over the next couple days. But you really
gotta believe that this announcement officially signals the beginning of the
end of the season. I’ve mentioned it a couple times already in previous posts
and now I would expect the Cubs to start dumping as much salary as possible in
the next 11 days.
******* Updated*******
Maybe Lou did spark the team. Final score: Cubs 14-7
Good for the Yankees
Good for the Yankees.
I’m not a big believer in fate, and I don’t think George
Steinbrenner or Bob Sheppard had a “hand” in helping the Yankees win last night
in walk-off fashion against Tampa. But it was nice to see the genuine emotion
and excitement that the players exhibited after Curtis Granderson scored the
winning run from second after a Nick Swisher single to right.
Swisher was jumping around, hugging teammates and really
seemed to be moved by the event.
Good for the players, Good for New York, and Good for people
that have a heart and just want to see a genuine happy ending once in a while.
Swisher picture- NYPost
Two in a row at home.
Nice way to start a 10 game home stand. On Thursday night
the Cubs outslugged the Phillies 12-6 and then came back out this afternoon and
won again 4-3.
On Thursday the Cubs beat 47 year old Jamie Moyer. It was
just over 24 years ago that Moyer made his first Major League appearance when
he beat the Phillies while pitching for the Cubs. On June 16, 1986 Jamie Moyer
threw 6.1 innings in Wrigley Field as the Cubs won 7-5. Since that first win,
Jamie has gone on to win 266 more career games. Amazingly, he has actually won
24 games in the minors since that first big league win giving him a total win
count of 301 after June 16, 1986. He also won 30 games in the minors before
that date.
Today, Aramis Ramirez continued his hot hitting with a 3 for
4 including his eleventh home run and three runs scored. Ted Lilly bounced back
after a shaky outing last week and Carlos Marmol struck out the side in the
ninth to end the game.
The Cubs are still 9 behind the Reds, but it’s nice to see
the offense score some runs and the team put together a couple of wins at home.
What a Lemon!
With a chance to finish off the first half of the season
with a win and a respectable 5-2 west coast road trip, the Cubs instead go into
the break on a sour note after losing to the Dodgers 7-0.
Carlos Silva never got it going on the mound and was ejected
in the second inning after arguing a call at first base. It was a close play
and the runner should have been called out instead of safe. But maybe if Silva
would have covered first base instead of standing there and watching the play
like an umpire the runner would have been out easily.
The Cubs now enter the break at 39-50, 9.5 games out of
first and fourth in the division. Yesterday I said that if the Cubs lost last
night that they would be done and the sales would start. I still think that’s true,
but now that the sun has come up and it’s a new day the never ending eternal optimist
Cub fan in me thinks that maybe, just maybe………………..
Fork in the Road
The Cubs hit primetime tonight to play the last MLB game
before the All-Star break. Tonight’s game is a fork in the road for the Cubs.
If the Cubs win, they will have completed a fairly successful
5-2 road trip. When you couple that with the fact that Cincinnati has lost 4 in
a row, the Cubs would “only” be 8.5 games out of first. Chicago then starts the
second half of the season with a 10 game home stand. No matter how much the
front office may be looking to make deals and dump salary, there is no way that
the Cubs will start making “white flag” trades before July 25th,
which is the end of the home stand. They also have 6 games remaining against
Cinn this year and 12 more against St. Louis.
However if the Cubs lose tonight, all bets are off.
Supposedly both the Mets and Yankees are making a push to get Ted Lilly and I
think the Cubs will make a trade if the right offer comes in. And yes, I know
that it’s only one more loss, but just the impact of losing 3 out of 4 to the
Dodgers and ending the first half on a sour note might just be enough to send
Cub fans off to do other summery type things during the break and not come back
when it’s over.
Not Lucky 7
The Cubs scored seven runs last night. Unfortunately the
Dodgers scored 9. That was the seventeenth time the Cubs had scored 7 or more
runs in a game this season. Seven had been the Cubs lucky number as they had
been 16-0 when scoring that many or more this year. In fact, over the past two
seasons the Cubs are 47-3 when scoring 7 or more.
If the Cubs were showcasing Ted Lilly last night, then the
offers are going to be thin based on that performance. Ted managed to last just
3.2 innings while giving up 7 runs on 7 hits.
On the good side, Aramis Ramirez went 3 for 4 and now has
his head above water at .204 and Marlon Bryd went 4 for 5 with 3 RBI.
WrigleyRegular
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