Mountain Man Wood Lifts Cubs over Men From Mountains!

I sat on a rooftop last night to watch the Cubs clobber the Rockies 9-1.  Living Social offered a 69$ deal for all you can drink and eat, so as I write this, I am most likely drunk, because I still feel good.  Or maybe, I still feel good because the Cubs, who are dwelling the basement of the NL Central have won 3 straight, and at 60 degrees, going up to 82, it actually feels like Spring today in Chicago.

Lefty Travis Wood was brilliant last night, allowing only 2 hits, and 3 walks over 7 innings.  He lowered his ERA to 2.03, and his beard looks awesome too!  No hipster coiffe for him!  No Way!

This mountain man, mowed down the men from the mountains.  Wood quieted the bats of a Rockies team that is top 5-10 in the Major Leagues in almost every hitting category that counts.  RBI's, OPS, Runs scored, Home Runs.  The Rockies couldn't figure out Wood, who was dominant the entire evening.  Travis "Kerry Who?" Wood also went 2-3 at the plate, hitting a single and a double, and knocing in and scoring a run.  So this boy does it all!  That Sean Marshall trade is starting to look pretty good on the north side of Chicago.  I wish they were both on the team though!

Wood received tons of run support as well, with the Cubs pounding out 9 runs on 14 hits.  DeJesus, Castro, Soriano (HR), Schierholz, Castillo, and Wood, all had 2 hits.  The Cubs are still the worst in the majors as far as batting average with runners in scoring position, but at least we are up above the "Mendoza Line" at .204.  Watch your back Diamondbacks!  We coming for you at .214!!

Unfortunately, Anthony Rizzo celebrated his new long contract by going 1-5 and leaving 6 on base.  But he was probably tired from being at the Ferrari dealership all day, and buying houses for his Mom. Darwin Barney went 1-4, which unfortunately raises his batting average slightly to .159.  Travis Wood, the pitcher, is batting .235.  Also, The cubs would have had their first shut out of the year, but you guessed it, Carlos Marmol came in and gave up a solo homerun to Rockies second baseman Josh Rutledge.  At least it was 9-0 when Marmol came in.  Though no lead truly feels safe either with our bullpen.

Regardless, the Cubs won!  I drank a bunch of beer!  and let's get em tonight!!

Tonight, Carlos Villanueva 1-2 3.02 takes on Jeff Francis 1-3 6.90.  On paper we win this one too, though Francis is a lefty, and our lefty platoon pretty much stinks.  Hey! At least we don't have to see Dave Sappelt!  But  Scott Hairston will most likely be out there and he's only batting .136.  Between him and Barney and the pitchers spot, at least I'll have time to visit the Wrigley trough and not miss anything.  Sitting in 6$ terrace reserved tonight!

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Go Cubbies!  

Me and the Cubs Need a Day

Let me tell you a little something about myself.  I'm an addict.  And one of the main substances I'm addicted to is Cubs Baseball.  But me and the boys in blue need a day off.  After this last 4 game series with the Padres, I feel like a junkie coming off a bender.  Got high with a win Monday night, came down hard with a blow out loss on Tuesday with a little whiskey chaser.   Wednesday, woke up feeling surprisingly strong, because at least Tuesday's whiskey helped me sleep, and won the game handily with sheer force of adrenaline.  But Thursday afternoon, I was out of gas, and just needed two days of laying on the couch, and came up short in a sloppy loss where I never got it quite together.  Yes, this was the roller coaster week of your 2013 Chicago Cubs.  A team that's always a brick short of a load, and a dollar short of a dream.  A team that is like an old 1983 Chevy Malibu, where 2 spark plugs have been replaced, but the 4 others are misfiring.  When we have great pitching, we can't hit or field.  When we hit, the bullpen blows it late.

This Chevy is gonna get a new paint job with a renovated stadium, but the interior is full of cigarette burns, and you can't roll down the back window because it's taped up with duck tape.  The damn thing has an 8 track player too, but unfortunately Saturday Night Fever is stuck in there, and if you hear one more falsetto voice singing, you might just drive the damn car off the bridge.  It's definitely time for a new car.  Not a new stadium mind you, but a new attitude from the fans.  We can't sit here and take last place lying down.  Management has to get off their luxury boxed asses, and put a team on the field we can always be proud of.  On the Cubs off years. they should finish no lower than 3rd place.  Period.  End of Story.  It's frustrating to hear all these plans of a scoreboard, hotel, and revenue generating advertising, yet no talk of "WE ARE IN LAST PLACE!" Are you going to buy the best team in the majors with the new money?  Or will you be content to have Cubs Fans come to Wrigley just enjoy the largest bar in Chicago and forget about the baseball team.  Granted, Wrigley needs help, just to preserve   the place for future generations.  But how about the team?

Yesterday's passed ball by Wellington Castillo that tied the game was made worse by a severe lack of hustle.  He said he felt like he lost us the game.  Well.  He did.  I agree.  The Cubs have missers.  Not Catchers.   We lead the league in Wild Pitches, and are 2nd in passed balls.  Some of those wild pitches should have been handled by our Misser.  We must have lost at least 2 games on these extra outs and bases taken.  Other costly errors by Castro must have cost us at least 2 more games.  This is a .500, 3rd place ballcub.  But they don't play the game right, and it's killing us.  That to me says management is the problem.  If Castillo isn't benched today for lack of hustle, I don't know what a benchable offense is.  I don't care if he's hitting over .300.  His job is catcher.  His job is to catch the damn ball, and if he misses it, to at least run after it as quickly as possible.

So management!  Are you listening?  There are gonna be about 4000 people at rain soaked Wrigley this afternoon because the team sucks and it's crappy outside.  I can't even get a Stub Hub ticket for a 1:20 start after 7:20 in the morning, because your greedy asses opted out of Stub Hub and now need a 6 hour window to buy cheap last minute tix for this last place team.  I would have maybe gone too and drank your crappy 8$ beers, but instead, I'll just stay home.  Because the Cubs and I, we need a day away from each other.  It's a long season, and just like any addiction, some days it's just about maintenance at the methadone clinic, and other days, we get the real shit and take the great with the awful.  See you tomorrow Cubbies.  Me and Lou Sears got free box seats!

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!!!!

Cubs Pitchers Break Wild Pitch Record; Lose

As I sat in the freezing shade of the upper deck, during the 6th inning of Sunday's 10-7 loss to the Giants, I had no idea I was witnessing history.  Edwin Jackson and Michael Bowden combined for a record 5 wild pitches in a regular season game during a single inning.  The only time this pathetic feat was matched was during a playoff game when pitcher Rick Ankiel got the yips and couldn't pitch anymore.  He eventually became an outfielder.  The video's pretty awesome if you've never seen it and hate the Cardinals.      But the video of yesterday's 6th inning is not awesome.  I think they need to change the name of the 'catcher' position to 'misser', because that's what's been happening.  The Cubs have combined for 13 wild pitches and 2 passed balls this season in only 12 games.  That passed balls wild pitch number would be higher if there were men on base at all times, luckily there aren't.  Combine  these wild pitches with the 6th worst walk totals in the league (44), and what you got are opposing players getting triples without touching the ball.  We are beating ourselves with these stupid mistakes.  And there is blame to go around for certain.  Castro makes an error, Feldman can't cover first.  Result 4 runs.  Wild pitches and passed balls yesterday resulted in all of the Giants early runs yesterday, and they barely even have to swing.  It's a problem.  I believe Navarro and Castillo could have blocked many of these wild pitches.  They simply don't look good back there,  Like there was a crossup with the pitcher or the wrong pitch called for.  If you you are going to call for a pitch to bounce in front of home plate, you've got to be ready and able to block that pitch.  These errors result in runs, tougher game situations for the pitchers, and unnecessary, frustrating losses.  You leave each game thinking, "If only that one thing didn't happen, we would have won."  That one mistake that opens the flood gates.

So the Giants take 3 of 4.  We had a chance to win all of these games.  Castro's error sunk us thursday. Fujikawa's pitching tried to sink us Friday, but we won in walk off style.  On Saturday, The Cubs don't hit or score when The Shark is pitching.  0-7 with runners in scoring position.  They fail to move lead off doubles to third.  They strike out with bases loaded and no one out.  It's just horrific.  Then yesterday, they are one strike from victory, and the game is tied with a last minute Hunter Pence blast, only to have the go ahead run balked in in the 10th.  Awful.

I'm not totally certain how to feel about all of this.  Should I be excited that we almost beat the World Champion Giants, and even though we lost, at least we played them tough and made all the games close?  Or should I feel that these guys that we are rebuilding the team with are just not very good,  And will always be a day late and a dollar short.  Only time will tell ultimately. I for one am thankful for this Monday off day before we play the Rangers this week.  Maybe these guys can get their heads together to stop making the stupid mistakes.  Giving teams 5 outs an inning along with free bases.  Let's hope.

It's better to get beat fair and square playing a good clean game, than to beat yourselves with mental and physical errors.  Confidence.  Execution.  Team spirit.  All currently lacking.  Is this poor management?  Or just a young team trying to figure it out?  Too early to tell, but the cracks are showing.

Hey.  At least I didn't have to watch Lillibridge suck yesterday....

Enjoy your off day.

Go Cubbies!!