A Cubs Fan Eulogy For Carlos Marmol

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the loss of a dear member of our Cubs family, reliever Carlos Marmol.  We all knew this day would come, and some of you would have liked to have seen Marmol's departure 3 years ago, myself included.  But the inevitable has happened.  Carlos is no more a Cub.  Through the booing, as Al Yellon of BCB puts it, for "just being put in the game", we all knew your days were numbered with this team.  And in many respects, it was us fans that kicked you off this team.  We made it a truly impossible for you to perform under pressure.  We booed ball one for Crissakes!   Even if you were one of the fans, like me, who doesn't boo such things, as soon as they announced your name, I would turn to whoever was next to me and say, "here we go again".  I'm sure 10,000 people at Wrigley were saying something to that effect.  We had no faith in you, and you knew it.  You could feel us wanting you to fail, to feel justified on our feelings that you, well, suck.  You were in a sense the Cubs' "Scapegoat" this year.  Your dramatically poor performances at the end of games,  fueled our collective Cubs fires.  And even though you are in the last year of an expensive contract, we were gonna get all the years frustration, Wrigley renovation wrangling, new ownership changes, and the high cost of Old Style, out on you Carlos.  So we booed you out of town, you aren't the first and you won't be the last.  We just wanted our moneys worth, and now you're gone.

With the scapegoat off the team, it's time to reflect on what we have.  Was it really all Carlos Marmol's fault, who we lay to rest in the hallowed halls of Cubdom today?  We will find out as soon as we see the performance of whoever takes his innings.  It may not be pretty.  I'm sure many an hilarious fan will continue to scream "Bring in Marmol!"  I think we'll miss him more than we think.  Maybe not.

Now being an ex-Cub not only gets Carlos paid for the rest of the year, but it will allow him to follow in the great traditions of Ex-cub pitchers like Dennis Eckersly and Greg Maddux.  I truly hope Marmol finds his greatness again....in the American League.  For he was once a mighty Cub, with trade value, and now, he is no more.  Let me leave you with this memory.

In 2007 and 2008, I was living in NYC, and not only did the Cubs make the playoffs both years, but these were the happiest years of my now defunct marriage.  As I walked my 3 dogs around Inwood hill park, in the evenings listening to Pat and Ron on my Iphone, as soon as I would hear Carlos Marmol was being put on the mound, I would rush home, and turn on the computer to watch Marmol pitch.  I would say to my ex-wife....wow, look at that slider!!! They can't hit it! Of course Marmol was always good for walking the bases loaded, and then striking out the side.  Or forcing some similarly nail biting, stomach churning situation.  And my wife feigned interest while watching Project Runway, similarly trying to get me to appreciate fashion. Those were great years, for my marriage and Marmol.  But who could have forseen the eventual 5 year slide to what we have now.  A pending divorce, and Marmol, designated for assignment.  But I'll always love them both because his slider was amazing, unhittable magic.  And my wife could cook her face off and tear the face off anyone who crossed her.  And for those memories....  I'll always have a soft place in my Cubbie Heart for Carlos Marmol.  God Speed good Carlos....into nothing....

Hangover Cured with Extra Inning Cubs Win!

Not only was I hungover from my sisters Kegerator, and a late night Hawks game, but I should have known it would be a long day at Wrigley when I showed up and saw this....

New Cubs Slogan?

The baseball gods were certainly with the Cubs yesterday, as beating the Reds is nothing short of a miracle!  Praise Jeebus!

Sitting up against the fence in my favorite terrace reserved sun seats, I paid for one game and saw a game and a half, as the Cubs pulled out a squeaker in 14 innings of, "god, I hope I didn't sit here like a bum all day for nothing" baseball.  It took 5 hours and 7 minutes, but a Julio Borbon, pinch hit single plated Starlin Castro, and the Cubs walked off with a 6-5 "sweep avoiding" victory in front of about 10% of the announced 28,986 people who bought tickets for yesterdays marathon ball game.

And I took this in the 10th!

I've been to a ton of long ball games, I saw Andre Dawson beat the Braves in 16 innings in 1987.  I was at a 13 inning Cubs Phillies game where the Phils walked off on a homer.  I believe, I was in the stadium parking lot by the time the ball hit the ground. I wasn't about to stick around and be harassed in my Cubs gear by the notoriously obnoxious Philadelphia fans.  And then there was yesterday's Cubs walk off win.  Which, though it doesn't mean much as far as this lost season goes,  it was good to see  the Cubs finally show a little life out there.  

With 15 hits yesterday, including 3 by the struggling Starlin Castro, the Cubs beat their total of 15 hits for the first 3 games of this entire series.  It was also the second series in a row that they narrowly avoided a sweep by winning at the last minute.  The Cubs also avoided being swept in Cincy a few weeks ago by winning on get away day in another extra inning nail biter.  Which is when I took this hilarious picture!

Say no to crack and brooms!!!

With a little last minute life in this team, also known on Twitter as #fakerally, the Cubs showed yesterday that they can at least compete with these Reds.  The streak of most consecutive wins by a road team at Wrigley Field had just been broken the day before and now stands at 12, but the bleeding was stopped.  Thank God the bleeding was stopped.  Oh please stop the bleeding!!!

My main complaint about yesterdays win is that we had chances to win this game in 9 innings.  A dropped fly ball resulted in a Reds run, a bad base running play, where Soriano thought it was 2006, and tried to stretch an obvious single into a double.  He couldn't.  And a Starlin Castro, near miss, walk off homer, that he stood and admired and then bounced off the ivy.  C'mon Starlin!  You don't trot until the ball's in the bleachers!  I don't know if he would have ended up at third or not instead of second had he run hard out of the box, but the fact is if you do run hard, you put pressure on the other team and you can force a mistake.  A bobbled ball, or a missed cut off man, can result in an extra base.  

I almost forgot, because it was so long ago, but Jeff Smkjfbrwbrbvirb started this game, and looked pretty shaky.  5 runs, 10 hits, 4 walks in 6 innings.  But the bullpen shined!  Wait, did I really just say that about the Cubs bullpen?  Wow.... Carlos V, James Russel, Goggles Gregg, Carlos Marmol (yes THAT Carlos Marmol), Blake Parker, and Hector Rondon combined for 8 innings of shut out baseball, including 13 strikeouts and 1 walk.  Wow!  Seriously, I had just been writing that morning about how most of you guys suck.  Well, I'm sorry.  Keep up the good work!

Other awesome things that happen during a 14 inning game?  Well, a teenage girl fan got pooped on by an ornery seagull.

Or was it you, hungry pigeon.....

We got to sing the seventh inning stretch twice!

And apparently, the game ended up being so long that Ronnie Woo Woo's back on the sauce.  

I sobered up from the night before through the first half of this game.  What really helped was a Stanley Burger from the farthest concessions in Right field.  Delicious hangover cure.  Had I been drinking, I never would have made it through 14 innings, after they stopped serving beer in the 8th.  I would a been right next to Woo Woo.... 

So, it's off to NYC, my old home of 18 years, where we take on a Mets team that scores even less than the Cubs do.  They did, however, beat us 2 out of 3 at Wrigley last month, so we shall see.  The good news is we don't have to see Matt Harvey, their Ace.  Tonight it's Edwin Jackson 2-8, 5.76 vs. Shaun Marcum 0-7, 4.96.  Should be a real crap fest!  

In the meansville....

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