So, yesterdays game against the Giants sucked. We had lots of opportunities to score and win this game, but FAIL. Lillibridge went 0-3, so what's new? I'll tell you what's new. The damned electronic scoreboard the Ricketts want to install at Wrigley field. I hate it. I don't want it. And if it were up to me, they'd tear down the damned lights too, and play all the games at 1:20 or 3:05 like they did when I was a kid. It was better that way, and you all know it.
I know all the arguments for this new damned scoreboard. "It will provide advertising revenue, which we will put back out onto the field." Bullshit. The Rickett's are full fledged dyed in the wool capitalists. If you think they want to do anything but make money for themselves and their friends, then you were not only born at night, you were born LAST NIGHT. This is the 1% we are talking about here. Some of the richest people on earth, and as Mr. Burns says on the Simpsons, "they'd trade it all for a little more". But what it adds up to ultimately is that we will be forced to sit through loud ass commercials for Geico and Lays potato chips. And that's a fact jack. Trust. I've sat in dozens of other major league ballparks, and those damned scoreboards are always telling you what to buy, when and how to clap, how to cheer, and they keep you "entertained" between innings with stupid contests like the 'ball under the hat' game, all while spewing commercials at you. You have to look at giant photographs of the players faces, which are truly only good for making fun of, if a player is ugly or takes a less than flattering shot. Who cares what they look like? Let's watch the game, not the damned scoreboard!
One of the best aspects about Wrigley is that the fans cheer, for the most part, organically. We get each other into the game. We make up our own chants. Remember "Jody Jody Jody" for Jody Davis? That was made up by fans, as was bowing down to Andre Dawson in right field, as was "left field sucks, right field sucks". Now, if there is some scoreboard or now possibly two they are saying, constantly barraging the fans with their capitalist babble, the fans won't have the opportunity to even hear themselves think, let alone come up with new awesome chants. I myself was trying to get the crowd yelling, "Kuji Fuji!" for Kyuji Fujikawa. It hasn't caught on yet because he's new, he kinda sucks, and is now injured, but it could happen people, but not if there's a damned scoreboard yelling at me to clap my hands 17 times in a row on some pre-determined beat.
What do the fans get out of this anyway? They say that the advertising revenue will generate 5 million dollars. Big whoop! That's not even enough to buy a lousy fourth starter these days. So, the Rickett's expect us to sit through all this extra advertising for let's say, Jason Marquis? And how can a damned scoreboard help us win the World Series? The reason the Cubs have not gone to the World Series is because the didn't win the games they needed to win. They were swept the last two times they went to the playoffs under lights, and then there was Bartman. Remember when in the 80's they wanted to put lights in and they blamed the tragedy fiasco of 1984, and how we got screwed out of home field advantage because we had no lights. It's not because we had no lights! It's because major league baseball is greedy, and decided San Diego would get home field advantage because they did have lights! Game 5 was played in the daytime anyway, in San Diego. It was simply a royal screw over. And what did lights get us? NADA. It's been 25 years since lights were put in, and even though the Cubs play the majority of their home games in the daytime, (they play around 30 at night), they still haven't won a pennant. Baseball is better played in the day time, and you all know it. It was better before 1988, and now, "progress" has our feet to the fire once again. Progress.
Let's take a look at our modern life. Screens screens screens everywhere! In our pockets and hands. Everyone staring into their smart phones. Digital Billboards next to high ways. Televisions in every bedroom, along with computers, and ipads, and tvs in taxi cabs. Have you ever counted how many screens, and advertisements you see in one day? And now, the Rickett's want to put 1 or 2 more screens in front of you where there were no screens or need for them. Giant fucking screens, telling you what to buy, and who to be. I resent it. I bought a ticket, now play the damned baseball game. I don't care which hat the ball is under. I don't need to hear the southern players Kenny Chesney walk up music, or the latin players Bachata. I don't need to hear "Enter Sandman" when the closer comes in. Did you know that at Yankee stadium, every time an opposing batter strikes out, you hear an ad? They play a pneumonic whistle which is an ad for PC Richard and Son, a local electronics store. It sucks. and that's where the Chicago Cubs are heading to make a lousy 4th starters salary.
And believe you me. These Ricketts, they love the Cubs for certain. They are spending hundreds millions of their own money to "renovate" Wrigley, but I can guarantee you they would NEVER have bought this team if they weren't looking to turn a profit. Fine. Turn a profit. Spend a few million making sure the roof doesn't cave in, build some new club houses, forget the giant screens, and spend the hundreds of millions on fielding a competitive team. Fans will pay good money to see a competitive Cubbies. It was only a few short years ago we went to the playoffs twice. All the games were sold out, and many times, I had to pay a premium from a reseller, a scalper or Stub hub to see the games I wanted to attend. Why? Because we were winning. The Cubs brass proclaims a scoreboard will help us get to the world series. Well, the Pirates have a relatively new stadium too, AND a giant scoreboard, why do they not go to the World Series? Oh yeah...they're terrible, and so are the Cubs.
So fuck the damned scoreboard, and lets rip down the lights too. Keep it real Chicago. A damned scoreboard will only annoy the crap out of us, and the extra night games only make us have to go to work hung over, instead of day games which demand you knock off work early sometimes, and be sober by the time you get home to the wife and kids. It's a better system.
I'm going to hopefully watch the Cubs split the series with the Giants today, in the daytime, under the sunlight, as the universe intended. Progress isn't progress unless it serves the people it's supposed to be progressing. What does a damned scoreboard get us? Another damned Screen to stare at and more ads. Progress?
It was better before people. You all know I'm right. Fuck the damned scoreboard.
Go cubbies!
