Cubs Beat Rockies; No Wave at Wrigley!

You may find this hard to believe, but the Cubs are actually a .500 ball club in May.  It was law enforcement appreciation night at Wrigley, and Shark Samardzija was enforcing the laws of pitching, giving up 2 runs over 8 innings for his second win of the year.  No meltdowns, no extra pressure put on himself, causing stupid mistakes, just good solid pitching.  Shark even hit a 2 run homer to help his own cause.  Yes, the Cubs were firing on all cylinders last night, and are a much better team than their 17-23 record illustrates.  As far as the hitting went, Rizzo, Castro and DeJesus all had 2 hit games,  and DeJesus hit a homerun to lead off the Cubs 1st. The Cubs scored 6 runs, and won the game 6-3, and it was  especially helpful to have the extra run padding, as Kevin "goggles" Gregg gave up a run in the 9th on 2 hits, and also committed an error.  So the game ended with the tying run at the plate.  Never a good thing when you're a Cubs fan.

The only thing I didn't like to see, besides two bad base running plays by Rizzo and Valbuena, was the throngs of morons doing the damned wave at Wrigley.  I sat down on my bleacher seat every time the damned wave came around.  Don't you out of town, non game watching bro's and ho's, understand that at Wrigley Field, we don't do the wave.  I know this may come as a surprise to some of you strapping Iowa farm boys who grew up in a town where ears of corn outnumber the people 999999999999999999999999 to 1, but we don't do the wave at Wrigley Field.  If you don't believe me, just start typing into Google, "No Wave at...." and automatically, it completes as "Wrigley".  Why is this you ask?  You think the Wave is fun?  Well.  You're an idiot.  Fun is drinking beer and watching baseball.  Not standing up and down in order.  For a little history about why we don't do the wave, I can pretty much pinpoint it to 1984, when the wave was just getting going as a phenomena.  The Cubs won the first two games at Wrigley, and then went to San Diego and lost the next 3, all the while, the Insipid Padres fans did the wave.  True story.  If you don't believe me.  Next time you're at Wrigley ask an old lady.  She'll tell ya.  No Wave.  The Wave is reserved for domed stadiums and astroturf.  Not to mention, how do you think people in wheelchairs feel when the wave comes around?  You insensitive fools....

I'm sure Lou Sears and I will talk about it on the next podcast.  There is also a great interview with a Wrigley first timer  from the improv olympics, and a hilarious exchange from last night's game, when I ask a girl who's 27th birthday was being held in my section of the left field bleachers if she knew what the score was....she didn't...and last night, being law enforcement appreciation night, there was a a dude with a gun sitting in the bleachers, who was asked to see his permit....such excitement....

Now let's talk about those bad base running plays.  Rizzo was standing on second, when a ball was hit to 3rd.  Rizzo holds up, and the third baseman fakes a throw to first, and Rizzo takes off for 3rd and is easily tagged out.  I like that the Cubs are aggressive on the base paths, but seriously, wait until he throws the ball next time Rizz?  Also, Luis Valbuena who started stealing second, but thought the batter at the plate, Navarro had walked was thrown out at second in a strike em out, throw em out double play.  Not cute Luis.  First of all, why are you looking to see what happened.  Just run to second and slide.  That's your freaking job.  Valbuena looked in at home plate as if to say..."but I thought he walked!".  Well, he didn't and you looked foolish.

Alright!  What's on tap?  My second favorite team comes to town...the New York Mets!  And unfortunately on Friday our very own Edwin Jackson 1-6, 6.02 will face their ace pitcher Matt Harvey 4-0, 1.44.  The Mets are a worse team than the Cubs 14-23, but I don't have a lot of hope for Friday's game.  Hey!  Maybe Harvey's due for a clunky start!  Let's hope!  Either way, I'll be there, with some family....and Lou Sears and I will be at the game Saturday.....

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Here are some pics from this series!

Bad News Bears Give Birth to Cubs

The folly of men dressed in Cub's uniforms, attempting to play a game called baseball, continued Saturday night to a sell out crowd in Milwaukee.  Giving up 5 runs (only one of which was earned), on only 6 hits and 3 walks.  Three errors were the cause of the other 4 earned runs, by Soriano, Castro, and the pitcher Jackson himself.  In fact, the Cubs have committed  a major league leading 15 errors this season and given up 11 unearned runs.  Put these unearned runs up against our 3rd to last runs scored statistic, and you have a 2013 Cubs Ballclub that is 5-11, and well, just looks kind of crappy.  The most craptastic thing about these errors is that they are being committed by the young "stars" the Cubs are currently building their team around.  Well, maybe not Soriano.  He will be laying in a hammock listening to the game from his estate in the Dominican Republic, and playing with his grandchildren by the time the Cubs win the World series (I hope).  But Castro?  This is 3 years now we've basically watched this kid barely get better in the field.  Certainly, he has great range, and gets to a lot of balls.  But those damn easy one hoppers?  Can't quite seem to handle the routine plays.  And it's killing us.
Rizzo too looks shaky.  His error on the first batter of the game Friday night resulted in a 4 run 1st inning for the Brewers.  And last night, he bobbled a ball badly trying to step on first base.  And Edwin Jackson?  Our 52 million dollar man?  Why he chucked a ball 15 feet over second base on what could have been an inning ending double play last night.  You're just giving away the game with these stupid errors.  It's disheartening as hell.  If the errors were all being committed by Luis Valbuena, it wouldn't be as awful because he's not a building bock of the future (I hope), but rather by our stars.  I think these guys need an exorcism.  They've got the Yips as a team.  Goat head?

And our poor pitchers!  Having to make all these extra pitches, face extra batters.  It's got to be disheartening when you have little to no confidence in who is fielding behind you.  It makes you feel as if you have to strike out every batter and be damn near perfect because you have no run support anyway.  The Cubs are 3rd to last in runs scored, and walks taken, and 5th to last in hits.  The Cubs are of course first place in Wild Pitches, with 13 (5 coming in one inning), and second in passed balls.  That's a ton of runners moving around the bases, many of which shouldn't have been on base to begin with!  This team needs a serious shake up!  If things don't change, and change soon.  This season will not only be forgettable, but will leave us with a terrible taste in our mouths all winter long.  Young teams are supposed to get better little by little.  And right now, even though we have not been blown out as of yet, we look worse than last year.  Or did I just forget how bad we were?

But enough about baseball....let's talk about how drunk Milwaukee Brewers fans are...

I went to the game on Friday night up in Brew Town, checked into the local Ramada, which was jam packed with Harley Davidson fanatics from all over the world.  Apparently, they are having some biker convention.  Boy, how times have changed since "The Wild Ones"  when it comes to bikers and biker gangs.  First of all these guys are all old, fat and grizzled, and instead of dealing drugs and rough necking it, hard drinking, and loose women, the bikers now hold charity events and raise money for cancer research.  Basically, they are really good people now, and I'm the asshole that wishes they were still dangerous outlaws scaring up the straights in small town USA.  Those days seem to be long gone.
 
So, we get to the game, and a severely drunken, likely underage, girl comes stumbling up the stairs with her friends.  I mean this girl can barely stand up.  She sits down in the aisle and kind of blankly stares at a stranger as if to say, "where the fuck am I?  What is going on?"  So I see this girl needs a little help, not from me, but one of her more sober friends who got her this drunk in the first place  So I tap her friend on the shoulder and say, hey, your friend needs help.  You gotta get her outta here.  Especially with all the Bro's sitting around us who looked basically like date rapers eyeing her as a possible conquest from afar.  But instead the friend proceeds to take shit loads of pictures of herself with the same dums ass smile with all here more sober friends, she of course stylized them with some instagram filter, and posted them to facebook, and basically ignored her friend who looked as if she was gonna hurl at any second.  A sad scene.  Then this red haired girl comes up who instead of helping her basically admonishes her for her behavior.  But that doesn't help at all, yelling at the person while they're drunk.  Just ask my ex wife.  So, We left our seats to go smoke a ciggy, and when we came back an inning or 2 later, she was surrounded by cops.  So at least she was in better hands?  Who knows?  Either way....kinda ugly scene...she showed up in the first inning like that....

I also witnessed a Brewer fan homoerotically pantomime face fucking his Cub Fan friend after the Brewers scored a run. He was one of the "date rapers" I tracked earlier.  And while at the Brewers little patio bar, a Black eyed Broham elbowed my friend in the back, and instead of apologizing for it, tried to start a fight with us.  I redirected his sloppy ire and diffused the situation, and I wish I had this on tape, but he was describing himself, and the evening he was having, and he said something to the effect of..."My friends, they were like, lets go out, and we can do something, and I'm like, yeah man, I don't really care, whatever".  I just said, well, you sound like a man who knows what he wants out of life.  And quickly left the conversation and the area.

All in all, and I've been twice now, Miller Park is tolerable on a sunny day with the roof open, and a dark chasm of drunken date rapers on a Friday night.  Hey, at least they let you smoke.

After that we went to the Casino.  BTW.  They have free shuttles all around Miller Park that can get you close to where you're going.  I won a little money on a slot, my friend lost, so we left.  All in all, meh, I prefer the Indiana boats.  Potawotami Casino is trying to be Vegas, and they totally forgot that they are in shitty ass Milwaukee and a bunch of cheesers.  Hey Milwaukee, you're not cool and you look stupid trying.

So, what do we have to look forward to today?  Little Chinstrap "I don't know how to cover first base" Feldman vs.  Wily Peralta.  Ugh...I just don't have a good feeling about this....not at all....

But...
Go Cubbies!!!!

Sitting at Wrigley with a French Guy

Yesterday was awesome.  Not only did I get to send the Cubbies off to Milwaukee with a little "Go Cubs Go" from my 6$ terrace reserved seats, but the rain held off long enough to watch Carlos "The Stache" Villanueva to provide the Cubs with his 3rd strong outing of the season.  Allowing only 4 hits, two runs (on solo homers), and striking out 6,  Car-ville is what every manager in the MLB would LOVE out of a 5th starter.  My only regret is that he didn't come out of the game in the middle of an inning so as to give him a standing ovation while he left the field.  Hopefully, his great performances continue, and he will inspire legions of fans to sport his old tyme moustache look.  Check it out!

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!!!!