Obviously tired of running hard to try and beat out double plays, Dionner Navarro hit three homers and walked yesterday, to ensure he would have to break into nothing more than a trot throughout Wednesdays blowout 9-3 win over the White Sox. Honestly, in my 39 years on this god forsaken planet, I don't think I've ever seen a back up catcher hit 3 home runs in a game. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I googled it, and though I found a great slideshow from Bleacher Report about unlikely hat trickers of the last decade, not one of them was a back up catcher. Pretty impressive Navarro. Even more impressive, is the the Cubs putting up 16 runs against the sox in the last 2 games, as opposed to the total of 17 they scored in 6 games on the last road trip against Reds and Pirates, where they went 1-5. If you haven't seen my writeup on Bleed Bubbie Blue about my road exploits, check it out here! It's a good read with great pics! So, what is it about Sweet Home Chicago that causes the Cubs to actually play decent baseball? Considering all you hear about how the Club Houses are so terrible at Wrigley, there's no batting cage, or scoreboard, or walk up music, and that's why we lose? I've got to call BS on that. The Cubs are batting .275 at home and .222 on the road. They are 24th in the league in Homers on the road, and 6th at home. As far as wins and losses go, they are only 3 games better at home than on the road, but that has more to do with errors and the bullpen. Hey, maybe the players would enjoy a fancier clubhouse with more amenities, but when they have it in newer stadiums like PNC, and Great American, they stink. Explain.
The Cubs won Monday as well, Jeff Samjenfir3bfrbfrbjrhfi44843 was brilliant, pitching the first complete game shut out of his career. Which in this day and age is a big deal! I wonder what Fergie Jenkins thinks about all this? Between 1965 and 1983, he pitched 267 complete games and 49 shutouts. Plus, he didn't make half as much money as these clowns do today. But Jeff was "dealing" as our announcers like to say these days, giving up only 2 hits, with the final score at the Cell 7-0. In this game, Borbon proved the whole lefty/righty platoon thing can be bad strategy, Going 2-5 with a homer. Castro, Rizzo, and Soriano all had multi hit games, showing that when these guys hit, we win. And when they don't we lose. In other, hitting news, Scott Hairston is now batting over .150. If Hairston's numbers even out, .263 with 20 homers last year with the Mets, we could be in for quite a show as the weather warms up.
On a side note. Does anyone else notice that when Castro strikes out, or is called out at first base, he throws mini temper tantrums? My theory is that it's just a show to demonstrate to the fans that he is really trying hard. It looks put on and fake to me. I understand the emotion, but every time Starlin? It's like he's acting out his character on MLB The Show.
And of course every silver lining has a grey cloud....Kyuji Fujikawa is going to have Tommy John surgery, and well, I guess that means we've seen the last of him. I wonder if Fujikawa even knows who Tommy John is? I'm sure they call it elbow ligament surgery in Japan, but we like to name our surgery's after people who had the surgery. How did his interpreter translate? Fascinating. I wish I knew the answer. This might be a question for Muskat on the inside....I'm emailing now. I do think we should start naming all surgery's after people. How about the "Kenny Rogers" face lift, women can get their breasts "Jolie'd", and of course, double leg amputation........even I don't want to complete this joke...sorry I made you do it yourself....
Ok! Check out the new Podcast! Where Lou Sears and I talk about my treacherous travels around the midwest watching Cubs games in enemy territory.
Today, Jake Peavy takes on Travis Wood at Wrigley. This should be a great game. Wish I could be there, but alas, I am in NYC playing the funny songs festival with my band "Bad Teenage Moustache". Going to the Mets Yankees tonight though. I hate Yankee Stadium. The old and the new. I suppose I would like it more if it weren't full of Yankee fans....but it always is....I always viewed the Cubs as the Anti-Yankees. One team famous for winning 27 World Championships with baseballs most legendary players, and the other team famous for.....you'll have to complete this joke yourself too.
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