Sizzling

Submitted by John Hill on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 5:06pm
GAME 52 PREVIEW CHICAGO CUBS (27-24) at SAN DIEGO PADRES (33-20) PETCO Park, 9.05pm CT, TV: ESPN, Chan4
SP Tim Stauffer SP *Glendon Rusch
SS #Neifi Perez CF Dave Roberts
2B Todd Walker 3B Geoff Blum
1B Derrek Lee LF Ryan Klesko
RF *Jeromy Burnitz 1B Phil Nevin
3B Aramis Ramirez C Ramon Hernandez
CF *Corey Patterson RF Miguel Ojeda
LF T Jason Dubois SS Khalil Greene
C Michael Barrett 2B Damian Jackson
Pitcher's spot Pitcher's spot
The Cubs have won their last 6, and 9 of their last 11. The Padres though put us in the shade - they've won 22 of their last 28. Yikes! They did lose last night though, to the Brewers, and they're probably due a losing streak right about now given the sensational May they've had! Speaking of sensational, how about Derrek Lee? After April (.419/.490/.767), for which Derrek won the NL Player of the Month award, I implored him to keep it up. Sadly, he did tail off a bit, only hitting .313/.424/.646 in May. You're not going to win NL Player of the Month awards hitting like that (and indeed, Abreu took the honours). Obviously hugely disappointed with his slumping, Lee last night reminded us he's still alive, going 5-for-5 to start June, four singles with a three-run homer to cap it off. Should we be surprised at his present 1.000/1.000/1.600 line in June? No, of course not, Lee usually improves a lot when the summer months roll around! Keep on rolling, Cubbies, roll on. I hate these West Coast night games, starting as they do at gone 3am in the morning here, but as long as we keep winning them, I shan't complain too much!
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Submitted by mannytrillo  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 7:10pm  
I posted this in a dying thread, but if anyone is interested in going to next Tuesday's game vs. Toronto Blue Jays at 7:05, I will not be using my seasons (Sect. 233, Row 10, aisle seats). They are good seats. All I am looking for is face value...$44 total. This email address is my real one, so sent me an email or post a message on this thread. Thanks!

Submitted by mannytrillo  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 7:18pm  
Also, John Hill was suppose to post a thread about this, but it has been discussed to have a TCR day at Wrigley. I have some bleacher seats for games later this summer. Let me know if you would be interested in going. After I get all the people interested i will send out the dates I have for games and we can decide what is best for teh majority. Let me know...

Submitted by Robert A . Booey  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 7:23pm  
my god, dan kolb sucks

Submitted by carmenfanzone  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 7:45pm  
The Ballad of Corey Patterson: "Three nights in a row a man on third and nothin' to show. I struck out, couldn't make contact I'm a home run hitter and thats a fact. I hope Dusty don't lose no faith cause I don't have a very high on base!

Submitted by Cubsnerd  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 7:47pm  
Man the Cubs are playing some inspired baseball these days. What a play by Lee and Rusch!

Submitted by Kissman  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 7:57pm  
You look a lot of times for "signs" of a good team. How about Prior gets hurt..adding to the pitching and injury woes....and what happens? They fold? NO !! They are playin as good in every aspect of the game as any team in baseball since. I applaud my team. Shows a LOT of class and heart!

Submitted by Transmission  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 8:04pm  
Man, the Padres are just a fluff-team. (Parachat says Hi)

Submitted by daniel  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 8:13pm  
i'm worried it guys. it appears the same aliens who kidnapped kurt warner and temporarily replaced him with one of the best quarterbacks of all time have stolen away the 2005 cubs and replaced them with robots. woe unto us when they trade them back...

Submitted by Z  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 8:31pm  
I am going to name my first born Glendon.

Submitted by daniel  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 8:34pm  
what an un-friggin-believable game from rusch. seriously, he may have been the most important player for the cubs during the last two seasons. for all my frustrations with the management of the team talk about a textbook reclaimation project.

Submitted by Chris  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 8:36pm  
Without Rusch, last year's team (and this year's) would be about 10 wins worse. He's done everything asked of him, shuttling from the bullpen to the rotation and back. Nice to see him turn his career around...certainly not what the statistics would have predicted.

Submitted by Kissman  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 8:47pm  
Does anyone agree with this............Dempster started to begin the season and was rocky to start but got in a grrove and was doing good when switched to relief....upon which he was shaky the 1st couple times...and now is in a groove. NOW Rusch...after settling into the rotation and not flipping back and forth between relief and starting is doing FANTASTIC....pay attention Dusty!! Put them in a spot..and leave them the hell alone!!

Submitted by BJ  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 8:48pm  
Winning sure beats losing, eh?

Submitted by jared  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 9:00pm  
amen brother BJ!

Submitted by nohit  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 9:10pm  
D-freaking-Lee! That is all.

Submitted by Brian (Vegas)  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 9:32pm  
After all that has happened both here and at 1060 W. Addison this year, I just want to say I love you guys. Winning breeds happiness. Hopefully, this team can continue to play. It's nice to see Ramirez's average approach .270 I am happy to see we have gotten rid of the dead arms in the pen and replaced them with some live ones. I can only hope we do that with some position players as time goes by. Since the new Cubs players no longer want "Jump" as their song, let's go with "Alive & Kicking" (just as old, by the way) for now. The Cubbies are coming tra la la la. The Cubbies are coming tra la la la.......

Submitted by Transmission  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 9:40pm  
They no longer want "Jump"??? A small part of me just died, inside.

Submitted by Adam  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 9:55pm  
man oh man this is fun to watch. I really think the whole key to this remarkable turnaround can be summed up by something that happened in the first inning, that nobody will read about in the box score. Cubs batters looked at (aka did not swing at) 17 pitches in the first inning. When the Cubs were pressing a couple short weeks ago, we'd probably get to the 5th inning before we left our bats on the shoulder for 17 pitches. Sure enough, they had to burn through 4 innings of bullpen, while we needed none. Patience at the plate is invaluable. Noww if only Patterson would figure that out. I hope this team continues to prove me wrong.

Submitted by John Hill  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 11:07pm  
Manny-- "Also, John Hill was suppose to post a thread about this, but..." That is true. But the first of the games is mid-July, Manny, and it's now the first week of June. Most people probably don't know whether they'll be able to make it on a specific day right now. I'll put it up a bit nearer the date. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten.

Submitted by Chad  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 11:09pm  
I watched Neifi Perez leg out an 0 2 count slap bouncer to third. Why can't Corey do that? I hate him so much. BTW, anyone still think that Choi for DLee was a bad trade?

Submitted by Reder  on Thu, 06/02/2005 - 11:29pm  
Adam - That's amazing. I'm sure that has a HUGE effect on our recent success. I think the coaching staff has finally understood this and taught our players the importance of being selective. We're starting to take pitches, get walks, and come up with timely hits. This can't be just a string of luck. I hate to say it, but Dusty is being a good manager right now. Of course Jim Hendry had to go and trade his boy so he'd stop using him, but this is still good!

Submitted by superdave  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 12:20am  
Just got back from Petco and a late night coffee run. Great game by Rusch and of course DLee. I am beginning to hate Corey Patterson. Not because he lacks tools, but because he's a pretty horrible situational hitter. Ridiculous. Random thoughts: - Petco is by far the quietest ball park I have ever sat in. No leatherlungs to speak of anywhere. There were probably 30% Cub fans tonight. They attempted to start the wave but gladly it fizzled out. - Racial profiling? I wonder who chooses the 'theme songs' for the Padre players. I am assuming its someone in the front office and NOT the players. Reason being.. if its a black guy is hip-hop or rap. Latino... its salsa or merengue. White dude gets rock and country. The ONLY EXCEPTION was Xavier Nady getting DMX's 'X Gonna Give it To YA' which was in reference to his name Xavier. We all had a good laugh about it - $7 beer - Wienerschnitzel hotdogs everywhere (similar to Anaheim stadium). Those are some crappy hotdogs and I'm sure those who live out West can attest to it. Thankfully there was a Hebrew NAtional HD Stand which saved me from suffering through the former option - I realize Dubious, though a rook, is older than Patterson. I also realized I'd rather have Dubois up in a contact situation than Patterson (though i'm sure he has a much worse K/9 ratio) - Glendon Rusch has been pretty dang valuable to this franchise over the past 2 years - The neighborhood outside of Petco is pretty seedy. I wasn't expecting this from San Diego (admittedly I've only visited 4 times and stayed mostly in La Jolla).. but there were dregs of homeless and the area was pretty poor. Surprising - Neifi turned 32. I'm glad he's on the Cubs. Safe to say that he has far exceeded any of our expectations of him

Submitted by Chad  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 12:30am  
SuperDave, please allow me to retort: 1. The music in those situations, I would bet top dollar, is selected by the player. The Dodgers USED to do that (And now batting, Shawn Green, cue Blur's overplayed and now annoying "Woo Hoo") 2. Glad to see you're seeing Patterson in my eyes now. I have always said that he doesn't know how to hit. 3. Great score with the Hebrew Nationals. BTW, when did Wrigley switch to Armour from David Berg? (That was a question to all) 4. DuBois would strike out the same as Patterson. In fact it happend two nights ago vs. Gagne. 5. You must be from the suburbs cause Petco is far from a bad neighbor hood. It is a few blocks from the Gas Lamp District. BTW, Big Z was chillin at Hooters there last year after the games.

Submitted by superdave  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 12:50am  
Wassup Chad. Yeah, I'm from the burbs in that I live about 1 hr NW of SD. Actually I've only been in SoCal for about 3 weeks now. Before then it was Chicago my whole life and most recently Bucktown for 4 years. Still learning it all I guess As for the music, that would make sense. At least I would hope it so. Otherwise, it would just be a stereotypical lame usage of the ballpark speakers. My friend and I had a good laugh about it and kept saying '[cueing music] in case you missed it [insert player name here] is black/white/latino...' I realize that it was probably a funnier thing at the ballpark, kind of a hard thing to communicate on a msg board I will say that Hebrew National HDs at Wrigley have gone down the tube. The quality control isn't there. It used to be a couple stands in the entire place that gave a good char to the dog, put it on a soft bun, with nicely grilled onions. This season, I was greatly dissapointed to see that there were like 10+ HD stands that served it. Except for the fact they didn't give a good char, the buns were rock hard.. perhaps steamed poorly, and the onions were skimpy. The stands are called 'Chicago Dogs' now. Eh. I am not a stat crunching fan like most of you, nor am I really a baseball diehard... so the price of beer and the quality of the hotdog are uber-important to me. Sorry to waste anyones time with my constant striving to find the tastiest ballpark dog. As for Petco, I would definitely go back. Maybe nextime I'll grab some Hooters wings afterwards too.

Submitted by Irishguy  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 5:01am  
Can the folks here at TCR add a link next to the "Vote Neifi!" button? I think there should be a "Vote Glendon!" button, too. I doubt he'll get any love, but damn that boy can pitch! On ESPN Radio yesterday, Mike and Mike were complaining that Nomar was the leading vote getter for shortstop for the AllStar game. Just think if all those votes had gone to Neifi.

Submitted by tbone  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 5:13am  
And Eckstein is second at short. Nine errors on Memeorial Day and you're second in the All-Star balloting? I think not, sir.

Submitted by Mr. Whipple  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 5:37am  
Anyone else look at Mitre v. Eaton today and get a little worried about our streak? I wnat Dusty to put together the best, hardest hitting lineup to back him up--no Holly, no Blanco, no Macias, no Wilson, no Hairston. I'd be satisfied with a duplicate of yesterday's lineup (or mix and match as you please within): Perez Walker Lee Burnitz Ramirez Patterson Dubois Barrett P Anything else is asking for trouble with Mitre on the mound. Mitre can get us there if he can hold them to 3 or 4 runs over 5 innings and our bullpen stays strong. This new spate of small ball needs to keep going in Petco. Long ball isn't going to get us the series win in the park designed to stymie Barry Bonds. Lastly, anyone know what the longest streak of getting on base is for any player? How close is Lee? 8/8 with 2 walks? He's possesed!

Submitted by jacos  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 5:44am  
Whip- Any more worried than Koronka vs Lowe? I believe Ted Williams has the record of reaching base 18 straight times. I know I can look it up on the net, but I'm lazy.

Submitted by Bleeding Blue  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 5:53am  
Superdave, I'd guess you saw so many homeless people because they knew there would be a ton of foot traffic walking around by the stadium. I haven't been to SD since Petco opened, but when it was being built I parked my car next to the construction site for two days and didn't worry about it at all. I imagine there are seedy parts of SD, but I never got the impression that this was one of them. BTW, how was the parking at the game? I remember thinking when the stadium was going up that parking spaces would be few and far between.

Submitted by Jedi Knight  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 5:53am  
Ted Williams does indeed hold that record with 16 straight times. The NL record is 15 set by Barry Bonds and John Olerud both in the 98 season.

Submitted by Scott de B.  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 6:12am  
What's the record for consecutive ABs with a hit? William's streak included something like 9 walks and a HBP, so Lee has already equalled Ted's mark.

Submitted by Jedi Knight  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 6:17am  
Walt Dropo has the most consecutive hits at 12. The NL record has 3 guys tied at 10. I'm not sure if that's 12 straight at-bats (without walking) or 12 straight official at-bats. I used baseball-almanac as my reference and it's a little vague in defining that record.

Submitted by Jedi Knight  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 6:19am  
Just checked on another site. Walking is included in that so a nice 4-4 performance tonight would tie the record.

Submitted by 433  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 6:42am  
Are the Cubs nearing the end with CP? FRom Cubs.com... "His attention comes and goes, and it's time for him to figure it out himself," Cubs hitting coach Gene Clines said of Patterson. "You can only do so much. "You see good spurts. You think he's on his way, and then you see a backslide, and, 'What do I do next?' Everything has been said, it's been shown to you, and now it's time for you to do it."

Submitted by Dave in Pittsburgh  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 7:35am  
From Paul Sullivan at the Trib today: What woke up the Cubs? Barrett credits the back-to-back ninth-inning comebacks in Pittsburgh on May 17-18. Going into Thursday, the Cubs were 11-4 since the start of the Pirates series. . . . Thank you, thank you (taking a bow) thank you very much. I'll plan on attending all future Cubs dates here at PNC, and keep on sprinkling the Holy Water on the dugout.

Submitted by DC Tom  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 8:21am  
Eaton's a nice pitcher, but key Cubs have done well against him historically. Derek Lee's career stats against Adam Eaton: 3-for-9, 2 home runs, no walks. I'd say Lee has a good chance to continue the streak. Burnitz has hit Eaton fairly well also -- 8-for-20 with four doubles. And we might see Holly -- 9-for-18 against Eaton, 2 home runs and 3 walks. Walker is 8-for-17 against Eaton. Even Neif! has gone yard on Eaton! So I'm feeling pretty good about our chances tonight...

Submitted by Adam  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 9:33am  
The area where Petco was built was a dying/dead area of downtown where a lot of factories and businesses had closed down. Part of the reason Petco was built there (besides land being easily available) was to help revitilize that area. I don't think it's off the mark at all to call it "seedy". It's not like South Central LA or areas of the South and West Side of Chicago...but it's also not the Gaslamp district either. While gaslamp is close geographically, it's completely isolated from the Petco area. There is no reason for the mass yuppie crowds in the gaslamp area and the downtown hotel areas to be over by Petco. While the area is being built up, and tons of new condos and businesses are going in, there is still a lot of empty buildings and not many people in the area at night outside of game days...providing a good place for homeless people to stay.

Submitted by cubswinthepennant  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 11:39am  
"- The neighborhood outside of Petco is pretty seedy. I wasn't expecting this from San Diego (admittedly I've only visited 4 times and stayed mostly in La Jolla).. but there were dregs of homeless and the area was pretty poor. Surprising" Actually the whole downtown used to be a dump. And you can still find short sections of that uptown. It's enjoying an unprecedented renaissance these days. Petco is the big part of the reason. Rebuilding and restoring and renovating what used to be blighted.

Submitted by DC Tom  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 11:59am  
San Diego was and is a Navy Town, with North Island NAS and several other Naval facilities around. Not a surprise that downtown would be, well, "colorful". But the Gaslamp District has made a nice turnaround, first with the convention center and now the stadium.

Submitted by Luke  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 1:01pm  
I haven't enjoyed a Cubs game as much as last night's all season. Rusch was outstanding - continually spotting his pitches and letting loose more than a few nasty breaking balls. Choosing him as an all-star is a no-brainer at this point - he is 7th in the NL in VORP and that is only in 55 innings of work! If he can keep the home run ball in his pocket like he has so far this season, I think he is pitching well enough to keep up this type of effectiveness. BTW, the Rusch to Lee play was one of the finest defensive plays I can remember seeing. Absolutely beautiful.

Submitted by 433  on Fri, 06/03/2005 - 1:51pm  
Luke -- agreed, the Rusch to Lee play was stellar! The best part is that Rusch stabbed the grounder backhanded (with his right) while moving to his left, then shoveled it with a forehand flip. In other words, he had to reorient his glove without losing the ball, sort of lacrosse-style. That probably caused the somewhat errant flip, but of course Lee was there to save the day as usual.

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  • Arizona Phil 40 min 32 sec ago (view)

    Today's pitchers, most of them the same guys who threw last Tuesday: 

    Alec Mills:
    FB: 89-91 
    SL: 81 
    CH: 81-82 
    CV: 67-70 
    COMMENT: This just in: Mills heater now sitting at 91!!!!... had two easy innings and looked very good... threw only a handful of his "Bugs Bunny curves" but they are fun to watch because hitters don't know how to deal with it... ... 

    Craig Kimbrel: 
    FB: 93-96 
    CT: 87-88 
    SL: 82-84 

     
  • Arizona Phil 1 hour 14 min ago (view)

    DJL: Jason Adam sustained a right elbow fracture a few years ago and missed two full seasons, and when he returned to action he started using a "short-arm" delivery. 

     
  • crunch 1 hour 15 min ago (view)

    baez "soft tissue injury"...no biggie...it's spring.  he'll be back in a day or 2.

     
  • crunch 3 hours 24 min ago (view)

    kimbrel...K, single, HBP, 3 more hits...inning called due to pitch count.  4 earned.

    also, baez removed after being HBP on the hand.

    neat.

     
  • First.Pitch.120 9 hours 36 min ago (view)

    Cotton McKnight: In 23 years of broadcasting I thought I'd seen it all, folks. But it looks like Peter La Fleur has actually blindfolded himself.

    Pepper Brooks: He will not be able to see very well, Cotton. 

     
  • First.Pitch.120 9 hours 38 min ago (view)

    Yes! Exactly... I'd love to be able to watch coverages in football or just key-in on a great WR to watch them work.

     
  • First.Pitch.120 9 hours 41 min ago (view)

    Wow... this is the most engagement I have ever received on any topic on social media platform. Please stay tuned for my opinions on the Oxford Comma, the APA Style Manual for Academic Writing, and the auto-correct on my iPhone.  

    I am an awesome guy at parties.... 

     
  • bradsbeard 20 hours 5 min ago (view)

    I watched some of the Puerto Rican Winter League games that Miguel Amaya played in this winter. At least one broadcast had a super wide shot for balls in play that let you see the OF and the baserunners at the same time. It was awesome. 

     
  • Wrigley Rat 23 hours 11 min ago (view)

    3 dots on this evening's Cubs-Dodgers game - makes sense & they do color in the 3rd dot as they're going to commericals (Spectrum Sportsnet).

     
  • crunch 1 day 1 hour ago (view)

    3 dot crew represent.  i didn't have an opinion, but now i'm 100% on board.

     
  • Charlie 1 day 1 hour ago (view)

    I agree on most of this, but I especially support three fillable dots for the outs--and fill in the third before cutting to a commercial!

    Not doing homework on the players in a Spring Training broadcast is pretty forgiveable, but ESPN is really bad about it pretty much all year. It would be nice if they made a habit of picking up a local color commentator and sort of interviewing them throughout games.

     
  • George Altman 1 day 5 hours ago (view)

    The single thing I want in a sports broadcast is to become smarter about the sport,  to learn something from the broadcast crew.

    Stone does that, Romo does that, Eddie O on hockey, and that's about it. I watch sporting events with the sound down very low or off. I forgot more about baseball than most broadcasters will ever know, and I'm always shocked when I see something in a football game that the crew doesn't,  and I know about NOTHING about football. 

     
  • First.Pitch.120 1 day 7 hours ago (view)

    Also... what is with only having 2 dots as the outs counter? I know that you don't really need the 3rd dot, but I find it counter-intuitive. If the dots fill in, then only having 2 throws me off b/c it's natural to subitize "3" associated with outs. You quickly see 0/3, 1/3, 2/3.  If the graphic does not have fill-in dots, then just put the #.  eg - OUTS: 1  It's minimalism for the sake of minimalism, not graphic design for effective communication.

     
  • crunch 1 day 8 hours ago (view)

    tight shots + insane amount of screen real estate being taken up with graphics is a bit of a plague...especially the ones with a non-stop bottom news ticker.

     
  • First.Pitch.120 1 day 8 hours ago (view)

    General comment on baseball broadcasting... I think that the color comentator (CC) needs to talk about 30% more & the PBP about 30% less. I would love a more stream of consciousness from the CC outlining what they would be looking for in a given situation. To that end, why not have 2 CC for national broadcasts - one a pitcher & one a position player. Would love for them to banter back & forth on micro strategy from their perspectives. I think this would turn the game's pauses between action into more of an asset.

     
  • crunch 1 day 10 hours ago (view)

    brews sign j.bradley 2/24m...decent deal for a quality CF'r.  he can opt out of the 2nd year.

     
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