The Cubs Chronicle

In the top of the 4th inning today, Jason Giambi hit a popup in the infield. Due to the sun and the wind, there was some confusion as to who would catch it. Hee Seop Choi and Kerry Wood were the only ones who ended up having a play on the ball. They both went after it and collided. Choi, being the taller of the two, caught the ball and amazingly hung on for the out. But, as replays showed, it appeared that Wood may have hit Choi in the head during the collision with his glove. Even if he didn’t, the collision knocked Choi backward to the ground. The back of his head hit the ground hard, bounced up, and hit the ground again. He was knocked unconscious. An ambulance was called and driven onto the field through the gate in rightfield. Choi was taken away on a stretcher. It appeared that he had regained consciousness by the time he was taken away, as he was responding to questions, though he was clearly still dazed. The crowd gave him a standing ovation as he was taken away. This post will be updated when we have further information on his injury. My prayers are with him.

As for the rest of the game, with the way the Cubs offense has struggled and with Roger Clemens on the mound for the Yankees going, for the third time, for his 300th win, you knew that Kerry Wood was going to have to be near perfect for the Cubs to win.

He wasn’t perfect, but he was very good. For a while, though, it appeared that wouldn’t be enough.

In the top of the 5th, Wood threw a two-out, two-strike pitch to Hideki Matsui that appeared Matsui offered at. The third base umpire ruled Matsui checked his swing. Wood later threw a 2-2 curveball that went right through the strike zone but broke so much that it fooled the home plate umpire, who called it a ball. After Matsui fouled back a fastball, Wood threw a hanging inside curve that Matsui deposited into the rightfield bleachers. 1-0 Yankees.

That’s all Wood would allow. He left in the 8th after loading the bases with two outs. But Mike Remlinger came on and struck out Giambi to end the Yankee threat.

I wrote the paragraph above about Choi’s injury in a notebook while I was watching the game, shortly after the injury occurred. At the time, I thought to myself how great it would be to later write how fitting it was that Choi’s replacement – Eric Karros – turned out to be the hero of the game. That is exactly what I get to write:

Fittingly, Eric Karros, who replaced Choi, was the hero. After Clemens put two on in the bottom of the 7th with 1 out, Joe Torre replaced him with Juan Acevedo. Karros crushed Acevedo’s first pitch to left for a 3-run homer, simultaneously putting the Cubs in the lead and erasing Clemens’s chance for his 300th win.

The Cubs added two more runs in the bottom of the 8th. The Yankees made it interesting against Joe Borowski in the 9th, but the Cubs held on for a 5-2 victory in what was the most electric atmosphere in Wrigley Field since the 1-game playoff against the Giants in 1998.

Be sure to check out Brian Carstens’s diary of the game today.

Finally, I need to say that I’m almost at the point where, if I were Jim Hendry, I’d give up anyone the Marlins wanted for Mike Lowell just so I wouldn’t have to see Dusty Baker give Lenny Harris any more playing time. That’s a bad mentality to have. I’m as frustrated as anyone watching Mark Bellhorn swing and miss so much this year (seemingly) and failing to drive the ball for extra bases. But he’s still better than Harris. And, even with foreknowledge of what Bellhorn would do this year, that was entirely predictable.

UPDATE (4:25pm): According to an AP report filed at 3:41pm CDT, Choi is in “serious condition", whatever that means, at Illinois Masonic Medical Center, though he is awake and talking.

UPDATE II (7:25pm): Unsurprisingly, Choi suffered a concussion. He’s now in fair condition, reports the AP.

UPDATE III (7:30pm): Joe Buck and Tim McCarver noted a couple of times today during the broadcast, without much elaboration, that the home plate umpire – Dan Iassogna – is regularly a Triple-A umpire. And as I was just driving home, a Fox Sports Radio voice (I’m not sure who) was bemoaning the fact that MLB would use a Triple-A umpire to call balls and strikes for such a big game. Perhaps he has a point. But I thought Mr. Iassogna did a real nice job today, despite my criticism above of one missed pitched during the Matsui at-bat. He was consistent and did a great job with the corners (the hardest part of calling balls and strikes, in my opinion).

UPDATE IV (10:45pm): The Chicago Tribune reports that Choi is being kept in the hospital overnight for observation and will be placed on the disabled list Sunday. Another article states that he’ll be out of action for 7-to-10 days. The Cubs are calling up David Kelton to take Choi’s place on the roster.

UPDATE V (11:05pm): The Cub Reporter, Scott Lange, and Dennis Goodman all have thoughts on the game.

UPDATE VI (11:30pm): And from the Yankees perspective, Larry Mahnken has thoughts on the game. He’s not happy about Torre putting Acevedo in. (His archives aren’t working at the moment. You may have to go to the front page and go to the 7:06pm June 7th post.)

UPDATE VII (6/8/2003 2:00pm): According to the Daily Herald, “the only regular-season game with a larger media presence came on Aug. 8, 1988, when 556 media members were on hand for the first scheduled night game, which eventually was washed out by rain.”

UPDATE VIII (6/8/2003 11:05pm): Derek of Let’s Play Two has comments on the game. (If the archives aren’t working, it’s the 6/8/03 1:57pm post.)