Cubby Broom Time in NYC!

What kind of broom should we sweep the Mets with today?  

This Old Tymey one?  Or This Broom would be fun to sweep with!  Not!!

But I'm partial to sweeping the Mets with Orlando Broom.

Whichever broom we pick, it'll be nice to finally sweep a 3 game road series.  

Now about yesterdays game....Cubs Win!  5-2!!  But...and this is a huuuuge but, the Cubs, individually speaking, left 35 men on base.  35!!!!  Starlin Castro left 9 on himself!  Though he did drive in two with a bases loaded double in the 8th.  He also struck out 3 times, thus the 9 left on base.  Wouldn't it be great if it was exciting to see Castro come up with the bases loaded?  Like it was when Aramis Ramirez or Derek Lee?  Ahh... the many faces of Starlin Castro's Strikeouts....

"The Pout"

"The Bat Break Fake Out"

"The Mic Drop"

Oh, Starlin...will you ever hit again?

The Cubs were 3-18 with runners in scoring position, so basically the final score should have been 12-2.  So great, Cubs win!  But it just didn't quite feel right.  Good thing Scott Feldman was killing it yesterday, 7 innings, 2 hits, 1 run.  The thing that gets me, is as soon as a guy is doing really well, everyone on Twitter wants to trade him for some prospects.  Do you know how many prospects end up being busts?  At least 50% of them.  Probably more.  Also, don't factor out the intangible element of playing together as a team, and just simply knowing one another over a period of time.  If you have constant roster shakeups, and trade away all your players that are having decent years, you're ensuring a lot more losses after August, and a furthering of the Cubs losing culture.  So, don't trade Feldman, or Garza.  We have a great pitching staff, and you know that at least one of them is going to get injured  and be out for the rest of the year.  Y'all ready for Brooks Raley again?  

This game also saw a crazy play in the 9th, where the Cubs almost got triple played, except for the Mets ineptitude at turning it.  The centerfielder Lagares caught the ball, but it was ruled a trap.

The Cubs runners froze, Lagares then threw to second. The umpire ruled "Safe", but there was a force out from first, so the umpire was wrong.  Again. 

 The force is now off at third and home because of the out at second.  They threw home, thought there was an out there.  There wasn't.  Then threw to third where David Wright thought he had another force out.  He didn't.  Wellington Castillo was stupidly standing off the bag at third, so if Wright tags him, it's another out, but David Price whispered in his ear to get back on the base, which he did in the nick of time.  

Why in the hell would you be standing off a base?  Ever?  Just dumb.  

So, bases loaded, no outs, and the Cubs don't score.  I saw that happen in Pittsburgh in a 1-0 loss.  That also was terrible.  I hate it.  

However, Castillo did upend Jordany Valdespin, who has a great fashion designer name if the baseball thing doesn't work out. 

Good hard clean baseball!

Let the sweeping commence!  Matt Garza pitches today, and hopefully it goes better than last time when he got shelled by the Reds for 9, count em 9 runs!

And the Cubs hitters are up against Jeremy Hefner, who is 1-6 with a 4.11 ERA.  This idiot went to Oral Roberts University, so I think I probably hate him.  I hope the Cubbies send him to kingdom come!  Which this moron probably believes he's going to when he dies.  The fool!  At least he's a righty, so we don't have to watch Scott Hairston try and hit in Dale's crappy lefty lineup.  He's been better, but still pretty awful

Tomorrow, I head to St. Louis to watch the Cubbies in enemy territory!  I'm scared.  Won't you please use the amazon search bar at http://www.sonranto.com to help me with tickets, pepper spray, gas and beer?

Also, check out my article on Bleed Cubbie Blue!

Really appreciate it!  Go Cubbies!!

Foggy Wrigley Clouds Cubs Loss

Yes, there's a game out there somewhere....

From my favorite fence leaning seats in right field, I took this picture in the 2nd inning of yesterday's 6-2 loss to the Reds.  Why the umpires let this game start on time is beyond me, as the first few innings made for some treacherous plays.  Including this one....

Luis Valbuena will drop this popup, yet was not charged with an error.  I mean, there's no way he could have even seen this ball.  None of them can!  The Cubs are pretty darn bad defensively, and they don't need any help sucking at fielding by some pea soup fog!   Ri-freaking-diculous!

Scott Feldman, pitched OK, except for the part where he gave up a grand slam. in the 3rd inning  Can't blame the fog for that though.  Feldman gave up 7 hits, and 5 runs over 6 innings.  The main problem was the Cubs offense, again.  They collected only 6 hits, 2 by Schierholtz, (boy I'm gonna miss him when they trade him to a contender for a player to be named later), and 1 by the pitcher Feldman.  It's great that the Cubs pitchers can swing the bat, but it sure would be nice if the position players could do the same.  Yesterday, the Cubs were 2-11 with men in scoring position.  Rizzo went 0-3, and Soriano struck out three times.  Nope.  Not gonna win any ball games with that kind of performance.  Starlin Castro finally did get a hit, a double in the 9th, that actually plated a run, during the Cubs fake rally in the 9th.  Castro wears his heart on his sleeve after this double.  Look at the relief in his eyes.  I don't think he's ever struggled like this in his 23 years on earth.  He's batting .243.  Ouch.

This fake rally that the Cubs are so fond of staging late in the game, actually could have gotten us somewhere ,if not for 2 defensive gems by the Reds, especially Brandon Phillips, who unlike Darwin Barney, can hit too.  It's not just that the Reds have 27 errors to our 42, but it's that they make the big play when the games on the line.  Diving sliding catches, over the shoulder grabs.  You know, stuff the Cubs usually don't do, like robbing teams of doubles and base hits.  I wish the Cubs would do that.  Now here's a thing the Cubs should NEVER do.... Send Dioner Navarro on contact from third base.  Unless he's running towards a Chinese Buffet, you're not going to get much juice outta this guy.

Umm, yeah, you've been out for a while now Dioner.  I wish he woulda run over the catcher Pete Rose style.  

Well, that was game one of a 4 game set.  Tonight, Tony Cingriani, 2-0, 3.27, goes up against Matt Garza 1-0, 4.03.  Hopefully the Cubs memory of last night will be as foggy as the first few innings of yesterday's game.  My memory of last evening is a bit foggy too, but I think that's the Old Style.

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I wanna hang with these dudes!

Cubs Avoid Sweep? Not Bloody Likely....

I have been traveling, watching baseball games, gambling, smoking, drinking beer and eating crappy ballpark food, and the single activity that makes me feel as if I've been run over by a Sherman tank are the baseball games.  The Cubs are about to be swept on this road series, and I can't bear to look anymore.  Take a look at these happy Reds fans hugging a giant baseball headed man.

This is what fans of teams look like when they're happy and playing winning baseball.  Now, take a look at what I look like this morning as I write this blog post after watching the Cubs 6 game losing streak in person.

Yes, it's come to this.  Coffee, Cigarette and blogging.  I made a deal with the Cubs yesterday, I would buy a ticket to todays, Sunday's, game if and only if the Cubs won yesterday.  They didn't win, losing 5-2 in what can be characterized as an anemic display of ineptitude and a lack of basic talent.  So, I'm not going today even though the beach boys are giving a free post game concert. Wait...I hate the Beach Boys... Anyway,  In both of these games in Cincinnati, the Cubs took an early lead, only to have it eviscerated in a big run producing inning by the Reds.  Besides the general lack of run production by the Cubs, there just seems to be a general lack of confidence on this team.  Players like Starlin Castro, and Alfonso Soriano just seem as though they'd rather be anywhere else than on a baseball field in a Chicago Cubs uniform.  The Cubs were 1-5 yesterday and 2-9 Friday with runners in scoring position, scoring a total of 6 runs and leaving 31 men on base in the 2 games thus far.  Ugh.  Take a look at this Scoreboard pic of our lineup from yesterday.

Yes, that's right, our pitcher, Travis Wood has a higher batting average than half the starting position players.  No wonder we've left 31 men on base in the last 2 days.  And on Friday, 2 of the 4 runs the Cubs scored were because of a homerun by the pitcher, Scott Feldman.  Which is awesome, but also pathetic.  

In fact, The only good thing that happened during yesterday's game was not baseball related at all.  I saw Carrie Muskat in the elevator, the Cubs team blogger.  She had a giant plate of fries, and I tweeted about the experience.  She made sure I knew she didn't eat them all herself.  I didn't say she did.  All I said was enjoy your fries!  So now, I've got this image of Carrie, Gordon Wittenmyer and Phil Rogers all chowing down on a big plate of fries.  I got to get myself a seat in that pressbox, and get me some fries, but alas, I'm in the stands and have to resort to other measures.  For example...

   As Reds closer Aroldis Chapman finished off Scott Hairston who came in as an offensive substitute for Julio Borbon in the 9th inning, (hahahaha....Scott Hairstons a substitute for a real baseball player and the only thing offensive is his lack of hitting and giant head) Anyway, the Red's fans around me were chanting "Pizza Pizza Pizza".  I asked what all the hub bub was about and some guy told me that if the Reds pitchers strike out the visitors 11 times, everyone wins a free Pizza if you go show your ticket at LaRosa's pizza.  So, I look up at the scoreboard, see there are 2 outs, and Scott Hairston at the plate, and I turned right around and started chanting "Pizza Pizza Pizza!".  When Scott Hairston was indeed caught looking at a called third strike, I cheered and yelled "pizza!" and gave High 5's to the Red's fans.  Hell at least I won a Pizza, which is more than I can say for the Chicago Cubs.

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Here are a couple pics from my trip....but I'm going back to Chicago ASAP.....

Raise Your "T" Flag Proudly!!

I can't wait until all the games are on TV!  Then I can watch my beloved Cubbies on any number of bar TV's all over Chicagoland.  There's nothing like ponying up to the bar with my best buddy, the lovable Lou Sears, and watching the game with a cold one or 6.  But alas, it's spring, and only the Royals TV televised what proved to be a wild "Tale of Two Ballgames."

The first half was all Royals.  Scoring 7 runs in the first 4 innings, while socking 4 home runs, including back to backers against Cub newcomer Scott Feldman.  The Royals scored 2 runs before Feldman even recorded an out! Yeah....Feldman was bad, really bad.  Let's just hope he's working on a new grip for his sinker ball.  Not that he out and out sucks.  I mean he was 6-11 with the Rangers last year with a 5.09 ERA.  That kinda sucks right?  I just hope Dale only starts him when the winds blowing in.  So, while I sat at the Carol's bar in Uptown with the lovable Lou Sears last night, checking the score on our iPhones, I figured I was gonna have to write a repeat of yesterdays post.  When the Cubbies got spanked and spanked hard!  But this was a tale of two ballgames.

Things really kicked off for the Cubbies when they put up a 5 run 8th, pulling within 1 run.  I love the extra base hits too!  DeJesus tripled, Valbuena doubled, as did Navarro.  BTW.  I really wish I could have seen Navarro running to second, because he hit that ball way into the right field corner, and any faster player would be standing on third.  (Tony Campana would have scored most likely with an inside the parker), if he could hit the ball that far.  I kid Navarro...I kid!  But He's fat and slow.  

 Zach Putnam (minor league Cub) gave up a run to the Royals in the bottom of the frame.  But the Cubs came back in the 9th to tie it.  Where the game stayed knotted through a scoreless 10th.  So raise your "T" flag!  We tied the Cactus League Champion Royals!

What I liked most about this game is the battling back of the Cubbies.  Losing by 6 in the 8th is usually a pretty good indication of how things are gonna end up.  But not this team.  These Cubs are young.  And it truly feels like they believe in themselves.  And 5 run innings were certainly hard to come by last year.  It would be nice to see a few more of them.  This is why I never leave a ball game early.  Hell, if they can score 9 runs.  We can do it too!  That's the attitude I like to see!

Another thing I liked seeing, was Dionner  Navarro running down the first base line still holding his bat on a clean single.  As if he was going to beat down the first base man when he got there.  I have a feeling Navarro will be a huge source of hilarity over this next year.  I like his style.  

So...we've almost made it!!  A 2 O' clock Start against Seattle today, and then two in Houston.  That's it.  3 more games.  3!!!  Let's get this party started!!

Today it's Villanueva v. Iwakuma.  And it's the last game at Ho Ho Kam.  I have a feeling there will be a lot of teary old white men in Mesa today wearing weird Indian lapel pins.  Personally, I went this Spring for the first, and last time, and the joint is a shit hole.  I'm glad it's going away in favor of something nicer like the Giants have.  (I saw the Cubs there too).  

3 more games!!!!

Go Cubbies!