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Gone With the Wind?
Is it just me or has the number of good old fashioned slugfests at Wrigley Field dwindled in recent years? Even throwing out the fact that this year's Cubs couldn't hold up their end of one, my sense is that there are lots less of the 10-9, 11-7, 14-10 type scores that used to tax the old green abacus on a regular basis once the summer wind started to blow out of the south.
Who else listened to or saw the Cub-Phillie classic that I think was 8-7 after one and ended 23-22? I remember moaning that the Cubs were the only team that could put up 22 and still get beat.
There's a site called Ballpark Factor that's up under the auspices of The Worldwide Leader in Sports. It lists an index that rates the MLB venues in terms of hitter friendliness year by year for the last decade. Wrigley Field ranges from a high of #2 in 2007 to a low of #25 in 2001. This year it stands at #11 so far. The average ranking over that span is 10.6.
Has the intersection of Clark & Addison gotten caught in the crosswinds of Nino & Nina? Has the slugfest fallen victim to global warming? Am I just imagining things?
All I know is that losing despite homers from Williams, Santo & Banks was more entertaining than dropping two out of three while mustering a not so grand total of four runs to a team that blew into town on the heels of a 17 game road losing streak.
The Cub hitters are vagrants scavenging at a dumpster. Maybe the new regime could install a gigantic fan behind the home plate screen and turn it on when the home team hits, sort of in the spirit of tailoring the groundskeeping to suit your strengths and weaknesses. I'd love to see Theriot crank one off the Toyota sign [which I saw in person for the first time Monday night and kind of like, by the way]. Of course that would require the removal of at least a few seats; ones that there are still people sitting in at every game.
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