TCR Friday Notes
It be rather slow when it comes to all things Cubs related these days but we've got a few things planned for next week for your enjoyment. In the meantime, notes start walking:
- Cubs.com has a new offer for an online fan club. Your twenty bucks gets you this:
Cubs Club members will receive benefits unavailable to other fans, including your very own 2007 Membership Card, MLB.com's Gameday Audio for the 2007 regular season, exclusive ticket offers, access to the home postgame press conference video archives, the ability to view Wrigley Field 24/7 through our interactive web cameras, and access to our exclusive editorial content and blog provided by the staff of Vine Line.It seems to be just worth the Gameday Audio that usually goes for $14.95 I believe. UPDATE: As always, read the fine print or well just read it thoroughly. It's not such a great offer since the Gameday Audio expires at the end of 2007 and there's about 5-12 games left on the year that matter. You can read the full membership benefits here. - Tickets go on sale November 7th for the Cubs Convention which will be from January 18th-20th. - The same article says the Cubs organizational meetings will be the last week of October. - On the sale front, the FCC is trying to make it easier for Sam Zell to buy the Tribune and sell the Cubs by trying to loosen restrictions on a company owning both newspaper, radio and TV outlets in the same market. - As a Cub fan, you'd be hard not to notice the parallels between Josh Beckett's Game 5 performance last night and the gem he threw in 2003 against us in the exact same situation. I suppose it's inevitable now that he'll come out for Game 7 in relief to shut the door against the Indians and take the Red Sox to the World Series. While I've remained mostly disinterested in the playoffs since the Cubs demise, I've taken a passing interest in the Red Sox/Indians series only because their just two really good teams playing really good baseball and I do enjoy a good baseball game. The series has also affirmed my belief that the five-game series needs to be abolished. If this was the ALDS, the Red Sox would be home by now, instead they take Game 5 and now have Mr. Playoff on the mound at home with a chance to force a game seven. - I also take a bit of solace by my postseason predictions. While my picks reeked of homerism, if I had gone the detached route, I probably would have still picked the Cubs in the first round but most definitely taken the Rockies in the second round. - It's time for a quick guessing game, who do you think wrote this?
Let's start with A-Rod, which obviously is the less complicated proposition. It's a matter only of money, and you can be sure White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf's already done the math and pondered whether A-Rod's worth $300 million over 10 years as he becomes baseball's home run king. That money would come back to the Sox five-fold in ticket sales, TV money, team marketing, jerseys brought, and -- best of all -- winning. Naturally, Reinsdorf also gets to stick it to the Cubs, who can watch Aramis Ramirez turn doubles off the wall into singles for the next five years while A-Rod hustles toward recognition as perhaps the best player in baseball history. So Reinsdorf has plenty of motivation to make it happen.Give it a moment, who recently bashed Aramis and said the Cubs should pursue A-rod? And the answer of course is Barry Rozner. I only bring this up because I came across the blurb at Fox Sports and it attributed the clipping just to the Daily Herald and I immediately thought that it must be Barry Rozner. - The big news this week was of course Dusty Baker reemerging as Reds manager. I mostly could care less although Dusty is always good for a cheap joke. I will say that I'm thrilled to have the Dusty-isms back though:
Reds manager Dusty Baker views both the pitching coach and hitting coach jobs as essential. "My hitting coach is like my offensive coordinator," he said. "My pitching coach is like my defensive coordinator. I rely on those guys."I think the quote got cut off myself...I believe it was "I rely on those guys to take the blame when things aren't working". As I said, always good for a cheap joke. Enjoy the weekend folks....
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