Cubs Swept in Pittsburgh; But I Won!

Well, at least I won 42$ at video roulette at Rivers Casino after the ballgame.  But unfortunately, I seem to be the only entity associated with the Cubs, who has anything to do with the word "win".  It was a stormy Thursday afternoon in Pittsburgh, and with Edwin Jackson showing early in the game that he didn't have his best stuff, getting tagged for 2 runs in each of the first two innings, the rains came as a Cub rally killer with 2 outs, 1 in and 2 on in the 4th.  Ending both Jackson's day and my afternoon sobriety.  Even though I said I wasn't going to drink at this one, a two hour rain delay in a stadium where you can't smoke has a way of changing these self made promises.  The game continued, and our bullpen was lights out!  Unfortunately, the lights were also out on the Cubs bats.  Millionaire Cubs such as Anthony "Fo Shizzo" Rizzo went 0-13 in the series, Soriano 3-12, Castro 3-13, and overall the Cubs  failed to score runs.  So either the Pirates are really good, or the Cubs are terrible.  You pick.

The best thing about yesterday's game was sitting in the left field, where I had a great view of Soriano's butt.  I like Soriano, he engages the hecklers in aloof and confusing ways, he dances to the opposing batters walk up music, and he likes to watch the replays of him and his fellow teammates on the video screen in left field.  Here he is getting ready for nothing to happen.

After the rain delay, I correctly predicted that people were going to be inebriated at the resumption of the game.  I was right.  A Pirate fan who looked like actor Paul Giamatti when he played "Pig Vomit" in the Howard Stern movie, began to heckle Soriano as soon as he took the field in the 5th.  This man was  not as funny as he thought he was, and was told repeatedly by the staff to sit down and be quiet.  I  retaliated Son Ranto style and heckled Pig Vomit by yelling to Soriano in spanish.  "Los fanaticos son gordos y pelados!"  Translated, "the fans are fat and bald".  Which they are.  I include myself in this as well.  The Pirates are very serious about their fans conduct, and lay out rules before the game about swearing and fighting, as to socially engineer their fans into acting respectfully.  Judging by the mustachioed gentlemen spitting his Skoal laden chaw onto the floor as he topped the escalator, I would say these rule reminders  are probably justified around these parts.  But overall, everyone was very nice to me.  Mostly because I'm a Cub fan and they feel bad for me.  But the long suffering Pirate fans deserve a decent ball club after over 20 seasons of losing baseball.  I hope Pig Vomit and Skoal man get their championship.  They deserve it before they die of some horrible disease in 5 or 6 years.  

Speaking of dying of a horrible disease!  When entering the ballpark yesterday, I saw paramedics wheeling a wheezing man, clutching his chest.  He was apparently dying of a heart attack, but there didn't seem to be much urgency in the step of the paramedics.  Judging by the food options at the stadium, this is probably just a work a day event for these guys.  Note to self, don't have a heart attack at PNC park.   It probably wasn't the best idea to eat this pulled pork pierogi sandwich.  In fact, the invention of a pulled pork pierogi sandwich was also not the best idea.  

It's as delicious as it looks.  Whatever that means to you....

All in all, Pittsburghs a great town!  There are lots of gays.  IE good food, and cool shops.  My cousin took me to her friend Stu's Zombie store, House of the Dead.  Check it out if your in Pitt.  Stu's awesome and knows a ton about the history of Zombies in Pittsburgh. We saw an Oompah band playing 80's songs and danced on the tables.  The Casino is walking distance to the ballpark and you can park there for free.  Did I mention I won 42$?! I went to Banjo night at the Elks lodge and drank 6$ pitchers of beer AND I could smoke in my hotel room!  Something that never happens anymore.  Ever.  So, thanks Pittsburgh! I had a great time even though the Cubs didnt......

Off to Cincinnati now.  Lets hope we don't get swept again.  But I have a bad feeling.  Tonight, we've got Scott Feldman against the Reds Bronson Arroyo.  We shall see.  Go Cubbies!

Support Son Ranto's suicide by baseball by using the Amazon Search Bar at http://www.sonranto.com

Oh!  And look at these purty picthahs!

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!

In the meantime, check out the new podcast!

And buy us tickets and beer by using the Amazon Search bar at http://www.sonranto.com

Go Cubbies!  

Cubs Win Road Series! Rizzo a Cub til 2020.

The Cubs stopped the streaking Nationals, who had won 7 of their last 8 games, to win the series, taking 2 of 3, in Washington DC.  Amazingly, they did it against some of the best pitchers in the National league, Steven Strasburg and Geo Gonzales.  And while the bats might have been somewhat silenced in yesterday's 2-1 nail biter, the Cubbies managed to win, playing small ball, and scratching out a run, instead of waiting for a huge timely hit, that so far this year has been an elusive event for the Cubs' hitters.

Yesterday's ballgame was won, when with 1 out in the 9th, and Soriano and Borbon on 2nd and 1st respectively, the runners began to double steal with Welington Castillo at the plate.  Kurt Suzuki, the Washington Catcher snapped up to try and throw out Soriano at third base, but Suzuki threw the ball directly into Castillo's bat, and the ball sailed into left field.  Soriano came in to score.  Cubs go up 2-1, where the score remained, as Kevin Gregg snagged his 6 save with a perfect bottom of the 9th, including 2 strikeouts.

The play involving Suzuki throwing into the bat is an interesting one, because Castillo doesn't have to move from his spot in the batters box to get out of the way.  If he had been in the way of a throw to second however, he would be called out for interference.  My favorite thing about this surprise double steal, was that the Cubs' base running aggressiveness is what caused Suzuki's error.  The Nationals are making a run at the Cubs for the worst fielding team in the majors with a total of 30 errors against Chicago's 31, and Sveum, our fearless manager figured, "Hey, let's let them make a mistake here.".  The Cubs played aggressively earlier in the inning too.  After Soriano's leadoff single, Julio Borbon came to the plate in what was obviously a bunt situation, but Borbon swung away and singled as well.  Aggressive=Win.  Ryan Sweeney came to the plate in an even more appropriate bunt situation, as he lacks the speed of Borbon to beat out a double play, and ended up striking out. Aggressive=Lose.  I was listening to this game on the radio in my car, and at this point was cursing the name of Sveum out loud!  Yes, I was that man in the Volkswagon Beetle on I94 yesterday yelling to himself around 3 pm.  But Sveum kept coming at the Nats, and on the first pitch called for the double steal.  Suzuki throws the ball into Castillo's bat and the Cubs capitalize on the error.  These are the kinds of errors the Cubs have been making all year, costing us numerous ball games.  It was nice to see it happening to someone else.  The Cubs and Nats have as many errors as the top 3 fielding teams combined.  However, the Nats are in second place, 1 game behind the Braves, while the Cubs languish in last.  As exciting and beneficial to the Cubs win yesterday as this play was, I'd rather see Sweeney bunt than strike out.  Hell, I'd rather see Borbon bunt too.  I'll give Sveum credit for pulling surprise plays like this, but it's not necessarily the smartest baseball.  Check out my new Sveum Video!


In other not necessarily the smartest baseball new, but we will see.....the Cubs locked up Anthony Rizzo, our unproven future star, until the year 2020.  He's going to be paid 41 million with 2 club options worth 19 million, and he could make as much as 73 million all told.  There is no "no trade clause" in the contract as well.  So Rizzo will make between about 6 and 10 million a year, depending on his performance.  Usually this means making the All Star team, winning batting Championships, hitting over a certain amount of homeruns, etc etc....Compare this to other major league ball clubs, and this contract doesn't even break the top 10 in terms of cost.  In fact, Rizzo's contract is half as much as the top 5 first basemen in the majors, which includes such names as Mark Texiera at 23.125 million, and Prince Fielder at 23 million.  Texiera's currently injured and on the 60 day DL.  He is also 33 years old and was injured some of last year as well, depressing his numbers.  Prince Fielder is 4 years younger than Texiera, and has actually comparable numbers to Rizzo. They both have 9 homeruns this year.  Fielder is slightly better in all other hitting stat categories, but Rizzo has yet to play a full year in the majors and is 5 years younger than Fielder.  If Anthony Rizzo turns out to be a top tier hitter, then I'd say we got a real bargain here.  But that's a big "IF".  I like what I see for the most part.  Rizzo started out painfully slow this year, but made adjustments and has been tearing the cover off the ball for a few weeks now.  The Cubs future is securely in place, centered aroung Rizzo and Starlin Castro.  Will it work?  Time will tell....

So what's up next?  A new podcast for starters....you can subscribe here....

And...I'll be on a rooftop tonight watching the Cubs take on the Rockies.  The Rockies will pitch Juan Nicasio, who is 3-0 with a 4.72 era, while the Cubs will throw lefty Travis Wood, who is 3-2 with a 2.33 era.  On paper, we win tonight.  But we will see which way the ball bounces!

In the meantime http://www.sonranto.com for all things Cubs....

Go Cubbies!

Cubs Blowout Rangers!

I almost forgot what it was like to sit in Wrigley Field high fiving strangers, cheering with delight, and being proud of my Chicago Cubs.  The Cubs blew out the Rangers 9-2 for a sweep of their one game series makeup game, by putting up a 5 spot in the 4th inning.  Of course there were murmors in the crowd that the lead was not enough once our bullpen got in there.  Chinstrap Feldman pitched amazingly again by following up his complete game 3 hitter with a 2 hit 7 inning appearance.  I wasn't sure about this Feldman guy at first.  He has three errors and couldn't cover first base for shit.  But those kinks seem to be worked out at this point and the guys on a roll.  Chinstrap even knocked in and scored a run in the 5 run 4th.  I was at the game with my friend Scotty, who's Jewish, so he was particularly thrilled to see who he assumed to be a fellow Jew playing so well.  He said, there's not a lot of us in baseball, so we gotta cheer for the guys we got!  I think I'm going to start doing that for players of mixed European descent instead of wasting my cheers on other races....Sheeessh!

Other positives.... The Cubs drew 7 walks last night!  Two of which were drawn by Darwin Barney, who really isn't getting on base any other way. The Cubs also rallyed with 2 outs! Yes.  You heard that right.  All 5 runs came with 2 outs.   Castro came through in the clutch.  Rizzo homered.  Luis "Ian Stewart Who?" Valbuena went 3-4, and the Cubs generally looked like a dominant baseball team.  This, after such an abysmal weekend of losing to the Reds.  It was nice to see, and the fans responded with the most intense fanatical cheering I've seen at the ballpark this year.  The best thing about last night?  We put up 9 runs against the Rangers, a team with the lowest ERA of any major league club.  At least they were until last night!  They got knocked down a notch because of us!!  And a Huge positive from yesterday.....Son Ranto and the Lovable Lou Sears's new podcast is ready for consumption!

Some negatives from the game.  Soriano went 0-4, lowering his average to .267, however he did draw a walk to force in a run.  Also, our Misser, ummm, I mean Catcher, Castillo, committed a throwing error.  But the most negative event of the night was not getting to the ballpark in time to get my free winter hat!  It would have gone so perfectly with my texting gloves from the second game of the season too!

Now I mentioned the Rangers were knocked out of 1st in ERA, but guess who is first now?  That's right.  The St. Louis Cardinals, and they're here in Chicago for a 2 game set.  Tonight, Lance Lynn who is 5-0 with a 2.75 ERA goes up against Travis "I'm not kerry" Wood, who is 2-2 with a 2.50 ERA.  If you go on runs alone, we will best their starter by .25 runs.  And here is the key to winning these games.  We gotta get to their bullpen.  I know this is hard to believe when you consider the Cubs are 12-20 and the Cards are 20-11 and in first place.  But the Cardinals bullpen is dead last in team ERA with a 5.45 compared to the Cubs pen of 4.60.  So Dale Sveum....if you read this blog....please tell the team to take some damn pitches tonight and get to the Cards pen.  It truly is our only chance at winning.  Patience.  Patience.  Patience.  Let's take another 7 walks eh?  Tomorrow, Jake Westbrook who is 2-1 with a 1.07 ERA goes agains The Mustache, Carlos Villanueva who is 1-2 with a 2.85 ERA.  Both of these games have all the makings of pitchers duels....well....at least until the bullpens are tapped....then it might get ugly....

Let's do what we did last night!  Keep the rally going!

See more at http://www.sonranto.com

Go Cubbies!

We Got Marmoled!

We were Marmoled once again yesterday at the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field.  What can you say about a pitcher who gives up 2 walks, hits a batter, and doesn't record a single out?  The Cubs were leading 4-2, when Marmol strode to the mound in his former inning of glory, the 8th.  He then proceded to singlehandedly lose the game for the Cubs with a performance that can only be described as horrific.  Now, I admit I am a boo-er, but I reserve my booing for opposing teams, umpires, and lack of effort on behalf of the Cubs.  I never saw the point in booing your own player who is obviously not sucking on purpose.  We want him to perform well the next time right?  What if a bunch of people came to your job and booed you as you tried to organize a spread sheet?  What if when you walked to work in the morning, people yelled "You Suck!".  I doubt any of us have the capacity to perform well under these circumstances,  So why do we expect it from our ballplayers?  I'm familiar with the counter argument.  "Hey!  These guys get paid millions of dollars to play a kids game, they can handle a little booing."  I certainly don't know what it's like to be a millionaire, but I do know that having more or less money doesn't make you any less human.  So fans, as much as I'd like to boo Marmol, we shouldn't, because unless the Cubs find someone stupid enough to take him, he's our guy.  Now Dale Sveum on the other hand should be booed, and booed heartily.

Since taking the helm in Chicago, Mr Sveum has presided over talented players that have performed incredibly poorly.  This is a young Cubs team with a relatively young and inexperienced manager in Sveum.  Mr. Sveum has had success as a coach for other teams, winning it all with the Red Sox in 2004, and taking the Brewers to the playoffs as interim manager in 2008.  However, his only full year as manager was last year, 2012, and the Cubs lost 101 games for one of the worst finishes in team history.  The Cubs lost 103 games in 1962 and 1966.  So please tell me Wonderboy Epstein, and Mr. "My Family is named after a disease" Ricketts, what sense does it make to have an inexperienced manager, training inexperienced players?  Oh yeah, maybe because we have an inexperienced owner, and a one hit wonder from Boston running the show!  Theo did win a World Championship for the Red Sox 2 years after taking the helm, but he's not magic!  That team was already built for the most part when he took the helm.  That Red Sox team was about the right mix of guys and chemistry.  The superstars were already there.  Pedro Martinez.  Manny Ramirez.  Johnny Damon.  As far as I can tell, David Ortiz was probably Theo's best signing ever, and that was 10 years ago! But Big Papi and Theo didn't win the World Series.  The Red Sox did, with a mix of young blood, future Hall of Famers, and wily veterans.  Can you name one Chicago Cub today who you imagine will be in the Hall of Fame someday?  We can hope for guys like Rizzo and Castro to keep hitting, but they are by no means dominant players at this point in their career.  So the Red Sox get Big Papi and who do we get?  Scott Fucking Hairston who's batting .108 and pretty much only plays against leftys.  What else has the boy genius Epstein done?   DeJesus?  Edwin 0-4 Jackson?  Who?!?  Nobody.  That's who.  The Chicago Cubs have no great players.  None.  Who do you blame?

How about Tom Ricketts?  The typical rich fuck who thinks he can just hire some sniveling, privileged, silver spoon sucking wonderkid, and put together a championship.  Did anyone see Spiderman on Broadway?  It sucks.  U2 Wrote the music, Julie Taymore, a Tony Award winning director, conceived of the script, and It became a case of the Emporer wears no clothes.  All these talented, famous people couldn't bring themselves to tell each other that their ideas were not cohesive, and they had no real plot for their characters to live through.   They just assumed it was going to work because of their past successes.  So the producers threw millions of dollars at the production which was quite spectacular with the Green Goblin and Spiderman performing aerial stunts over the audience.  But it was all just bells and whistles.  The music sounded like U2's B sides, and was completely untheatrical.  While the conceived plot was virtually non existant and difficult to follow.  The producers kept throwing good money after bad, until Taymore was finally canned.  I see Tommy Ricketts doing the same thing.  Throwing money around on scoreboards to advertise at us, and hotels so his family can remain in the top 1 percent of the 1 percent and basically live off the Cubs forever.  I agree with most of the changes he's proposed,  But when are we going to see a fucking team on the field capable of winning?  I for one am frustrated as hell about it.  Ricketts is like one of those spiderman producers who just bought a bunch of nothing and keeps trying to sell it to us.  Hell.  I keep buying it.  I've only missed 3 home games this year.  But that also gives me the right to complain about it!

So where does the blame lie?  Booooooooo!  Tom Ricketts!  Boooooooooo! Theo Epstein!!!  Boooooooooo!  Dale Sveum!!!!!

But leave poor Carlos Marmol alone.  He can't help that he sucks now.

Well...I gotta go....game time in an hour, and I'll be there....ready to Booooooooooooooo........

It's a Beautiful Day For Cubs Baseball!

Too bad the Cubs are playing tonight under the lights.

The Cubbies come home from a road trip that saw them swept 0-3 in Milwaukee, 1-2 against the Reds, and 3-1 against the Marlins.  So we went 4-6.  Not terrible, but it could have gone better of course.  We lost 3 of the games by one run, and 2 of the games by 2 runs.  So we were in almost all the games.  We also haven't had any laughers, win or lose.  Haven't been blown out, or blown anybody out.  It's nice to not feel like turning off the game after the third inning because we are already losing by 7 runs.  Something I did all too often last year.  Still on the fence as to whether or not I should feel positive about how we are in all of these games.  It's tough to see the forest for the trees in situations where you get beaten by good teams by a run, and beat bad teams by a run.  Does that just mean you're average?

Some good news from the trip.... Anthony Rizzo returns home with a batting average over .200, and a total of 8 Homers.  We can only hope that as the weather heats up, so will his bat.  He was visiting his hometown during the Miami series, and had lots of family and friends at the park cheering him on.  Maybe some of us in Chicago could become his surrogate family so he feels more comfortable in the friendly confines.  Someone should invite him to their family dinner.  Or maybe adopt him as your son?!  He's got money!!  Also The surprise return of 2009's closer, Kevin "Goggles" Gregg has also proved to be an asset to the Cubs.  He has yet to allow a run this year.  Which is important of course for a team like the Cubs, who are dead last in the majors with runners in scoring position with a paltry average of .151.

Other than that, my takeaway is that we play all teams pretty tough, and if it wasn't for a few costly errors and lack of clutch hitting, we could have won at least half of the games we lost.  You've got to wonder when the Cubs' luck will turn around?  We are competitive in all of these games, against pretty good teams too, except the loser Marlins.  My hope is that we can click, and start to build a team, or core of players that you can trust into the future.  Are Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo players we can trust with this ball club for the next 5 years and beyond?  2 things have to happen.  Castro needs to get better at shortstop, or be moved to 3rd base, and Rizzo needs to start hitting for average.  The whole team needs to cut out on strikeouts and unproductive outs as well.  The lack of fundamental baseball play the Cubs have shown thus far this season, is disconcerting.  Passed balls and Wild pitches.  Lots of costly errors.  And especially, a lack of clutch hitting, and situational hitting.  I understand all players will make mistakes from time to time.  But our errors are not for a lack of talent, but rather for a lack of mental awareness.  We're just not playing smart baseball.

Luckily, the San Diego Padres are in town!  And they suck.  Well, at least as bad as we do.  We are both 9-15.  In my estimation we have a better chance at winning tonight.  I'll be cheering from the bleachers with the Lovable Lou Sears at my side.  We should have a new podcast up by game time too.  So be on the lookout.  We've got The Shark going up against Clayton Richard, who is 0-2 with a 7.94 ERA.  So I like our chances.  May even show up early and try and shag some home runs at batting practice.  But I'll probably just do a little pre gaming at home.  

I also wish this game was going on under the sunshine instead of the lights.  I said it as a 13 year old in 1987, and I say it today.  No Lights at Wrigley.  Don't want a scoreboard either.  Ugly ad screaming product  pusher.  It was better the other way and you all know it!

Go Cubbies!
http://www.sonranto.com
https://www.facebook.com/SonRanto?ref=hl

Cubs Almost Win; Lose Anyway

In the Chicago Cub's 2013 effort to lose in new and exciting ways,  the Cubs last night gave up a 2 run lead in the bottom of the 13th to lose to the Reds.  What was the culprit this time?  Defense?  Sappelt's misplayed ball in Right field?  Michael Bowden getting shelled for the loss?  Certainly, these plays directly effected our loss in the 13th.  But the game should not have gotten this far.  The Cubs got 11 hits, 4 walks, and benefited from 3 Red errors, and you're telling me we could only score 2 runs until the 13th inning where we got 2 more?

Well, except for the homeruns by DeJesus (to lead off the game) and Luis "I put arsenic in Ian Stewarts Cheerios" Valbuena, not one of the Cubs other 9 hits were for extra bases.  And many of the singles came with 2 out in the inning, not giving much chance to get the guy in.  Starlin Castro, who's hitting streak is now at 14, also left 4 men on base.  Anthony Rizzo, presumably our best hitter, as he is positioned in the 3 hole went 0-6 with 3 strikeouts.  He is batting .191 as well. Terrible! Speaking of strikeouts....umm...we struck out 16 times last night.  Granted the Reds relief pitchers looked damned good.  Especially fireballer Aroldis Chapman.  But damn!  It's hard to move runners up when you can't make contact.  Some of these swings and misses are just embarassing!  There was actually a moment in Sundays game when Luis Valbuena struck out and looked at his bat as if there must have been a hole in it.  Apparently there are holes in many of the Cubs' bats.  Oh...did I mention that pitcher Travis Wood has a higher batting average than our starting second baseman Darwin Barney, and 2 of the 3 pinch hitters we used last night?  This is getting sad people....

Son Ranto and Lou Sears explain it all in the most recent podcast....

Ok.  You want a bright spot?  A glimmer of hope?  Our starting pitching has been excellent.  Over all, top notch.  I hope it can last, but with our defense kicking the ball around out there, it's a matter of time before exhaustion will set in from all the extra pressure put on by constantly having to get 5 outs an inning.  Stay Positive Ranto!!  Umm....Starlin Castro made a couple of nice plays last night.  It's those routine grounders he can't quite seem to handle... damnit Ranto!!!! Stay Positive!!  Ummm errr...David DeJesus is turning out to be a power lead off man?  He already has 3 homeruns and he only hit 9 last year....and his wife is smoking hot!!   There I got through at least one Cub without both a positive and negative to share.  Whew!!!  David D for MVP!  (of the Cubs anyway).  Although to get excited about 3 homeruns, and someone elses hot wife is pretty pathetic.....Damn!!!!  Can't do it!!!  I have something bad to say about all of them!!!  Except......starting pitching.  It's been great.  Keep up the good work boys, and lets hope these guys behind you can learn how to, score runs, and, well, just not look so terrible.

So what can I say?  Let's get em tonight!  We got 'The Stache' Carlos Villanueva vs.  Reds lefty Tony Cingiani, who I understand mades a killer baked Ziti in the off season.   I think we can win at least 1 of these games in Cincy...right?  Cant we?  I'll be hanging out with the Lovable Lou Sears at Three Aces Bar at 1321 W. Taylor if you want to come by.  We will be the best looking guys in the bar, so you can't miss us!

So listen to the podcast, give us free tickets, and say hi!  sonranto@gmail.com or http://www.sonranto.com

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!!!!

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!!

Its a Great Day for Cubs Baseball! Not!!

It's cold.  Damned cold.  My old ass heater is loud and wakes me up at night.  It's baseball season people.  The taxes are paid.  Why can't I watch a game at Wrigley field without wearing long johns and a parka!?   I blame the lord fighting back against the dark magic of the goat head.

Speaking of goat heads.  Check out the new Podcast here, where the lovable Lou Sears and Son Ranto sing "Goat Heads" to the tune of fish heads.  Classy.... There's also an interview with  Brent "Leprechaun" Lillibridge from Opening Day.  And some "reality radio" from a roof top, where a fan obsessed with the 1984 Cubs says how we can win the World series this year.  It's a drunken mess.

Ok.  So Yesterday, after purchasing 6$ tickets to sit in terrace reserved, I walked through Challenger park in the cold mist towards Wrigley field, feeling confident that the Cubbies could scratch out some runs, and hand a loss to Los Gigantes.  How wrong I was.  Castro boots an easy grounder.  And Chinstrap Feldman can't cover first base (twice).  Result 4 runs.  Boy.  When the wheels come off the bus for the Chicago Cubs, the bus also bursts into flames, under an acid rain cloud, while an earth quake tears the ground on which Mongol warriors slaughter the women and children.  The Cubs crack under pressure.  They cant handle  pressure or adversity, and before you know it, there are 7 runs on the board for the other guys.  As a Cub fan, I know better to be confident, ever.  Winning by 5 runs in the middle of the game does not guarantee a victory.  Especially when you give the World Champion Giants 5 outs in an inning.  But we could have won this one.  Castro fields the grounder and we win.

Further illustrating the Cubs cracking under pressure when the chips are down, are the strikeouts of Clevenger (8th), Rizzo and Castro (9th), with a runner in scoring position.  All it would have taken was for one of these guys to get a base hit, and the games at least tied.  And Rizzo and Castro are our best players!  They just can't deliver when the game is on the line.  And that's just sad.  Theo has emphasized only swinging at pitches you can do something with.  Pitch selection.  But now these guys just stand there with the bat on their shoulder watching called strikes whizz by them.  Listen.  I'm not saying I can do better.  But this new approach seems to result in called third strikes.  No me Gusta!  I have not drunk the Theo Kool Aid as of yet.  This whole "process thing" from the wonder boy from Boston.  Remember where the Red Sox finished after he left?  Last place.  Remember where all those high priced free agents Theo signed are now?  Yeah.  Dodgers.  I'm not going to sit and trust this "process"  when it results in losses.  So, this is a rebuilding year....blah blah blah....what the hell are we building?  Great pitching?  Defense?  Slugging?  Speed? What?!  I don't see it.  Maybe all the future wins are buried in saber metrics.

Speaking of metrics.  I mentioned I only paid 6$ for Terrace reserved yesterday, which of course means 6$ for terrace box (you gotta sneak past the old man ushers if you wanna sit further down).  6$ on Stub Hub.  And if you recall a story from this winter about the Cubs doing a different deal with Stub Hub, the result is you have to buy tickets by 7:20 AM for a 1:20 start.  6 hours before game time. Instead of last years 2 hours.  I waited til 7:19 and bought the tickets.  The price had not changed since the night before.  But the moment I bought the tickets.  The prices shot up to 7$.  Like, just because I'm an idiot who wants to sit in the cold rain, and watch a team that has a good chance at finishing in last place, there must be other idiots like me ready to snatch up tickets.  First of all.  I'm resentful at the Ricketts for the 6 hour cut off time.  It's ridiculous!  Do you want people to come to these games or not?  Do you know what looks terrible on TV?  An empty stadium.  Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.  And with no one there, it looks like a lame scene.  Who is sitting there at home watching this sparse crowd, and saying to themselves..."Hey!  That looks like fun! I'm gonna sit in the freezing rain with nobody and watch the Cubs lose!"  The only excited fans yesterday were school groups.  They should just let kids in for free.  Hell they should let us all in for free.  I spent 34$ on a Stanley Burger (which was quite good), and 3 beers.  So yeah...they should go back to the 2 hour window.  It's just petty, and annoying considering the team they are currently fielding.

So what's on tap?  I gotta work today, and watch some little kids play soccer in the burbs tomorrow.  But I'll be back at the game Sunday!  It's supposed to be nice and warm and sunny!  I'll be singing a different tune by then I hope.  Come on boys.  Lets get em today.

Go Cubbies!

http://www.sonranto.com