Other positives include back to back homeruns by Rizzo and Soriano, and a 4 hit game by Catcher "Beef" Wellington Castillo who is now batting .425. Given Castillo's hitting prowess, I don't even mind all the wild pitches and passes balls today. All in all, a great game where the Cubs fired on all cylinders. Even Carlos Marmol, save for a couple of out of control pitches was lights out on the mound in the 9th. Great to see him succeed, even if he still doesn't seem to be up to his old form again yet. James Russel was awesome as always and still has not allowed a run this year.
Another cool thing about yesterday is, I went to the game with a french theater director named Valery who had never seen a baseball game before. He drank an Old Style, ate a Chicago Dog, and we had a great time discussing art history between plays. I always love bringing foreigners to ballgames. As I try to explain what happens on the field, I realize the idiosyncrasies of the game, as well as how strange some of our baseball traditions seem to an outsider. For example, when the 7th inning stretch came around, I turned to Valery and said, "OK, now every one stands and sings a song together." He looked incredulous, as if those words could not have possibly just come out of my mouth. It is a rather odd tradition to someone unfamiliar with the custom. He also thought the on deck batter could somehow be involved in the play, just because he was standing on the side swinging a bat. That would be awesome if the on deck hitter could run into the field after the ball is batted and try to disrupt the play. Arena Baseball! Well, at least Valery speaks English. Last time I went to a ball game with a foreigner was when I brought an Argentinian to Yankee Stadium on opening day. Trying to explain the rules of baseball is hard enough, let alone trying to explain it in intermediate level spanish. "Cuando este hombre tira la pelota...." Further confusion and hilarity reigned when I found out that the Spanish word for catch "cojer", is slang for "sex" in Argentina. So when I said "Coje la pelota", in his country it would mean "make love" to the ball. That's a whole new ballgame....
Back to baseball.
So what can you say about a team that's capable of beating the Rangers so solidly? I know it's only one game, but if these young Cubs start to believe in themselves, the sky seems to be the limit. There's no reason we can't go to Wrigley North this weekend in Milwaukee and steal back 4th place from the Brew Crew. We have been competitive in every single game this season. Well....at least we haven't been blown out. And our record would be a lot better than the 5-9 where we currently stand if it wasn't for just a few mental errors and miscues. The Cubs may be bad this year, we may not win the World Series this year, but I think we will look better building towards a brighter tomorrow this year. What I'm saying is, I don't think we will lose embarrassingly, nor do I think we will lose 100 games.
This afternoon, I will be driving up to Milwaukee to watch at least Friday night's game, and do a little gambling at Potawotami Bingo Casino. Send good JUJU my way so I can afford to continue my lifestyle and career as a professional Cubs fan. The new podcast will be out soon too, as soon as the lovable Lou Sear's drunken ass picks up the phone. In the meantime. Take a look at the website....maybe buy some Amazon stuff through our search bar? http://www.sonranto.com
You can help Lou and I in tickets and beer!
Go Cubbies!!!!
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