In Defense of Kevin Gregg (Or Why I Hate Yuppies)

It's a little tough for me to defend Kevin Gregg after sitting in Wrigley Field during the 9th inning and watching him blow the game by giving up 4 runs to the cocky Braves, who's racist fans were tomahawk chopping their way to yet another successful year.  Sure, I guess it's Gregg's fault we lost the game yesterday, but he's been infinitely better than any of us would have imagined when we heard he was signed off the scrap heap in April.  He's notched 32 saves and, until yesterday, had a sub 3 ERA.  These stats for a last place team, that often times puts him into the game in "non-save" situations, such as yesterday's tie game.  This year, he's taken the ball professionally, and not only saved half our wins, even though he didn't even join the team until the 3rd week of the season, and he "saved" us from  watching a year of Marmol meltdowns and closer by committee.  

Now to call what Gregg said yesterday a "rant" or a "blast" of Cubs management is overstating the matter considerably.  All he said was that after a conversation with Dale Sveum a few days ago, Gregg felt he was out as closer, and not part of the Cubs' future plans.  Apparently they want to try out Strop in the closers role.  The worst thing Gregg said was "I expected to be treated a little bit better than this. They can treat their players how they want. Unfortunately we are under their control. It is not necessarily how I would have done it, but they have to do things the way they want it."  He said this all calmly and articulately, and seemed only disappointed in managements decision to "move forward" or "go in a different direction".  He wasn't angry or shouting.  This was by no means a rant.  

Anyone that's ever heard the Dale Sveum show with Keith Moreland pre game on WGN, knows that Dale is not the most articulate man on the planet.  He may have a decent baseball brain, (though you'd be hard pressed to find an example demonstrating that over the last two seasons), but listening to Keith and Dale talk reminds me of Hank Hill and his cronies leaning up against a pickup talking about propane in Fox's King of the Hill.  Dale says "ya know", and much as Lou Piniella said "Look" during press conferences.  *On a side note, if I hear Keith say "innersting" one more time, I may just jump out onto the field dressed as Morganna the Kissing bandit at the final home game, having been driven mad by his poor diction.  (sorry, needed to get that off my chest).  

Dale has a knack for stating the obvious, like if Rizzo strikes out with the bases loaded and 1 out, Dale will say something like, "well, we've got to get better in those situations".  Duh!!!  You can barely hear him at his press conferences because he mumbles, and his general Hokey-Do "Aww shucks" demeanor may keep the clubhouse calm, but it certainly doesn't result in an aura of success, or confidence that this is the mastermind who will "win it all" for the long suffering Cubs' fans.  Nor, do I think Dale is a particularly impactful man, given that Robin Yount once mistook him for a duck and shot him in the head.

Given Gregg's post "rant" apology, where Dale and Theo explained the situation more clearly to him, it becomes obvious that the "situation" was not explained to Gregg well in the first place.  In other words, Dale Sveum led Kevin Gregg to believe that he was not a part of the Cubs organization's plans, even though he had a really good comeback year.  This is probably true, and perfectly fine with me, but why this couldn't wait until after the season is beyond me.  When you define a guys job as "closer" and then take it away from him, thus diminishing his value both as a free agent and from a personal human standpoint, well, don't be surprised when there's a bit of blowback.  And it was just a bit.  Imagine your boss coming up to you and saying, listen, you've been great, but you're fired, and only 9 days before vacation!  Add to that, Sveum's mumbling, unmasterful command of the English language, and you've got yourself a misunderstanding!

Now Theo Epstein, who reportedly was hopping mad after learning of Gregg's "tirade", immediately called Gregg and Sveum together for a meeting, at which Gregg was "scared straight" into toeing the company line.  Gregg ran to to the press room and immediately apologized publicly for his comments.  Epstein is young and successful, or at least he was successful until he came to Chicago.  He's the kind of guy I'd probably dislike if I met him because he thinks he's so damned smart.  He just looks like a wall street hot shot who got rich on a penny stock once and now thinks he's Warren Buffet.  My punk rock heritage has carried me into midlife with a healthy skepticism and "Die Yuppie Scum" still lingering on the tip of my tongue, so take what I say with a grain of salt.  

Of course I hope the new "Cubs Way" results in a championship for the Northsiders, but I am not one of the faithful who will drink the Kool-aid until I see results on the field.  No player does or should play this game in order for the front office to get higher draft picks.  And though the Cubs farm system definitely seems juiced after dumping every player anybodies ever heard of by the trade deadline, I need to see at least a .500 season before I can declare the "Boy Wonder" Epstein anything but a guy who happened to catch the timing right in Boston.  "The Cubs Way" has ruined Starlin Castro's natural talent, signed the weak hitting Rizzo until the end of the decade, and called Jeff Samar249ry2ifu their ace, despite an 8-12 record and a 4.42 ERA.  Yes, the core of the "2016 World Champion Chicago Cubs" seems to be lacking in well....a core....

This situation with Kevin Gregg reinforces my perception that Theo is nothing more than a sniveling rich kid who can't be criticized by his underlings with out getting his underpants in a knot.  He wasn't even criticized!  Or at least barely criticized.  Gregg only said he wished the situation had been handled better.  But Theo immediately knee jerked and talked about releasing Gregg, just to prove a point.  What point is that?  Obviously, it's I own you, and if you say anything against me, no matter how trifling, you're out.  Epstein can't even muster the same respect he demands of his players, publicly musing about the fate of Kevin Gregg's job, while Gregg himself must stay quiet and run "tail between legs" back to the press in order to save his own hide.  I find Theo's actions even less professional than Gregg's!   Theo said he'd "sleep on it" as to whether Gregg would face disciplinary action.  So great!  If Gregg IS still on the team this afternoon, and not DFA'd, he will have to do it without any sleep.  Not that he would have slept anyway given his horrible performance yesterday.  But to have this yuppie wonderboy "sleeping on it" (on a 25,000 canopy sleigh bed no doubt) as to whether you have a job tomorrow is indicative as to the cultural stranglehold Epstein hopes to have over this organization.  Who does he think he is?  George Steinbrenner?  In other Epstein news, the press has been a a titter this week about the future of Dale Sveum, which Theo telegraphed at least an indifference to Dale's performance and future as the Cubs' manager, then quickly backtracked in order to instill confidence in the manager who has led us to two basement finishes.  As I see it, Mr Loose Lips Epstein is demanding something of his players he can't even do himself.  That is the definition of poor management.

I don't pretend to know what goes on behind closed doors.  It's easy to forget that these are human beings with real emotions, goals, and dreams.  I'm certain Kevin Gregg felt as if he was being demoted, and it hurt his feelings.  He blamed his performance yesterday on it, and I'm not sure he's wrong.  Team culture is hard to put your finger on, and it seems the best teams have a healthy mix of stars, vets, and hotshot rookies.  The Cubs currently have none of those elements.  The best thing I've seen Theo and company do, besides beef up the minor league teams, is get good production out of a platooned third base position, and successfully pick up "watchable" players off of the Major League scrap heap.  I personally don't think an inexperienced and inarticulate manager is the answer for inexperienced players.  But who am I but a knowledgeable fan at best? If Gregg didn't understand the situation, that's on Sveum.  He's the manager. And as far as Theo goes, practice what you preach.  In sports you're only as good as the last thing you did, and the last thing the Cubs are going to do this year, is play two teams who are going to clinch the playoffs against them.  The Braves, likely today or tomorrow, and The Cardinals in the last series of the season.  It's been a frustrating year for Cubs' fans, to state the obvious, and it's going to to be a long, cold, dark off-season in Chicago.  Unfortunately for Kevin Gregg, the off season might have just gotten a little longer and darker.  

Update: Kevin Gregg on the team until next Sunday.  Guess Scrooge McDuck got the Christmas spirit....

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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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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!