The Cubs Chronicle

I’m sure most of you have seen this, but David Geiser has been guest blogging at The Cub Reporter. He’s got three posts up now – here, here, and here – on what the Cubs need to do in the offseason. Well worth reading.

Season on the Brink: A Study in Managerial Contrasts (Rany Jazayerli, Baseball Prospectus, 10/16/2003)

Now that we’ve had some time to recover, this article by Rany Jazayerli from Baseball Prospectus’s free archives contrasting Dusty Baker’s and Jack McKeon’s performances is well worth reading.

Thank you. I have fun watching you every year. This year, I had a little more fun.

The top of the 8th inning of tonight’s game was the most disappointing half-inning of baseball I have ever watched.

Up 3-2 in the series, 3-0 in the game, with just 5 outs to go before winning a National League pennant, and Mark Prior crusing along, everything seemed just right. Then Juan Pierre doubled to left.

Then came the fan interference – Luis Castillo hit a pop fly down the left field line. Alou reached the wall and jumped for the ball. But a fan went for the ball, too, and the fan’s hands got in the way. Alou’s glove was clearly in a position to make the play, and that would have meant 2 outs with a guy on. Instead, Castillo was given new life and drew a walk, with ball four getting past Paul Bako to put runners in first and third with 1 out.

Thom Brennaman and Steve Lyons told us for the rest of the game that you can’t blame the fan. Well, you can’t blame the fan for the Cubs’ collapse, but you can blame the fan for getting in the way, and making it harder on the Cubs. Thankfully, it sounds like Wrigley Field security did a nice job of safely escorting the fan out. Blaming the fan is one thing. Verbally and physically abusing him is another, and is much, much worse than anything the fan did to interfere with the play. It should also be noted that if that fan had not interfered with the play, there were two other fans ready and willing to do so had the actual interfering fan not been in the way. (Note: There are better pictures of the fan interference play than the one shown, but the one shown does not show the fan’s face. He likely thinks right now that it’s been shown enough.)

After that, an 0-2 curve to Pudge Rodriguez didn’t break a whole lot, and Rodriguez lined it into left to make the score 3-1. Then Alex Gonzalez dropped an easy grounder, loading the bases. Then Derrek Lee doubled to left, scoring 2 to tie the game. Prior was pulled for Kyle Farnsworth. After Farnsworth intentionally walked Mike Lowell, Jeff Conine hit a deep sac fly to right. For some unknown reason, Sammy Sosa threw toward the plate, allowing the runner on first to go to second, removing the force play and putting another runner in scoring position.

Then, after an intentional walk to Todd Hollandsworth, Mike Mordecai nailed a double to left-center. Mike Mordecai. Of course.

Farnsworth exited for Mike Remlinger, who allowed a single to Pierre to score Mordecai.

8-3. Game over.

And then Thom Brennaman starts talking about the goat curse. There’s nothing like listening to an announcer avoid talking real baseball in favor of an irrelevancy after your favorite team has just allowed 8 runs in an inning to lose Game 6 of a league championship series.

Again, the most disappointing half-inning I have ever watched.

If the Cubs come back from this tomorrow, Dusty Baker (and probably Kerry Wood, tomorrow night’s starter) deserves a lot of credit. The Cubs fell apart after the fan interference play. Of course, just because one thing follows another does not mean there is a cause-effect relationship. But it’s possible. And it’s possible it will carry over into tomorrow. The realist in me says that’s silly, that you can’t put that much meaning into one game.

For now, the realist in me has lost out.

My prayers are with Ron Santo as he undergoes surgery later this week to remove tumors in his bladder.

So my three-game sweep prediction wasn’t quite accurate. I’ll take this, though. Just another superb performance by Kerry Wood.

When the game was over tonight, I stared at the TV for a few moments. It wasn’t supposed to happen that way. Sosa’s ball was supposed to go out of the park. So close . . . .

Oh, well. It just means that the Cubs have to travel to Atlanta to finish off the Braves tomorrow night. I have two predictions: 1) Kerry Wood effectively tells Mark Prior – what you can do, I can do better; and 2) Robert Fick, if he’s allowed to play, will get booed. Loudly. And deservedly. And those of us watching on TV will hear it, because Cubs fans, including Cubs Blogger Army member Scott Lange, will be out in full force.

As David Pinto notes, MLB should suspend Fick.

On another note, I agree with David Pinto about something else: Chipper Jones can’t play leftfield. The Cubs got two doubles tonight that a better leftfielder might have caught. Of course, with the two homers Chipper hit, the Braves hardly have reason to care.

Elsewhere, Braves blog No Pepper agrees with both the Fick and Chipper comments as well, and BravesJournal.com also thinks Fick’s move was dirty. The Cub Reporter also has a good rant on Fick.

UPDATE (9:35pm): According to the AP game recap currently posted at the Tribune, here’s what Fick had to say about the play:

“It’s an elimination game and you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” Fick said in a profanity-laced explanation. “I’m not saying I did it on purpose. But it’s … baseball.”

What a classy guy.

The x-rays were negative, but his hand is sore after getting hit by Mark Prior last night. Darren Bragg will get the start in right.

Prior and the Cubs defeated Maddux and the Braves 3-1 in the much anticipated showdown between the past and future (present?) of pitching greatness tonight. Prior only allowed 2 hits in throwing a complete game. And don’t forget – Prior was facing an offense that scored 5.6 runs per game during the regular season; Maddux was facing an offense that scored more than a run per game less than that.

Meanwhile, Bobby Cox has said that he’s leaning toward starting Russ Ortiz on 3 days rest tomorrow. I think it’s a smart move. The alternative – Horacio Ramirez – is a lefty. And the Cubs hit lefties well. That said, the Cubs handled Ortiz – a decent, but not great pitcher pitching for a great offensive team – in Game 1. They can do it again.

Chicago Rules: Are the Cubs having a good century? (Wall Street Journal editorial, 10/3/2003)

Even more than the players, however, Cubs fans stand for steadfastness in the face of adversity. American marriage rates fall; men leave the priesthood; and business executives rob their shareholders. But each summer Cubs fans turn out. Though not everyone takes the team’s losing ways with complete equanimity–a Web site called CubsAnonymous.com features a 12-step program to get people off their Cubs addiction–there’s something about Cubs fans that speaks to the eternal optimism of the game.

That ought to tell you something about why baseball is still the national pastime.

Cubs kind of town: Chicago expects worst, hopes for best (Don Walker, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 10/3/2003)

Mr. Walker contacted me for this story, asking me “what is it, in your opinion, about Cubs fans who expect the worst to happen each and every year?” I emailed him back with a response, but he didn’t use it in the article. I absent-mindedly replied to him at the email address he used to send me the question, rather than his work email as he had asked. So perhaps he didn’t get my response. More likely, there probably just wasn’t anything in there worth using.

But for posterity’s sake, here was my response to him:

I’m no psychologist, but I think the reason Cubs fans tend to expect the worst to happen each and every year is that the worst usually does happen. It’s human nature: when bad things happen a lot, you tend to expect them to happen again. In order to reverse a trend like that, good things have to happen a number of years in a row. Only then does a fan feel safe to have some swagger. But the Cubs, at least for the past 60 years, have only had isolated moments of success. ‘69, ‘84, ‘89, and ‘98. And in none of those years did things work out in the end. In ‘69, they collapsed down the stretch against the Mets. In ‘84, they blew a 2 game lead against the Padres in the NLCS. In ‘89, they went down in 5 games against the Giants. And in ‘98, they went down 3 games to none to Atlanta.

I’ll tell you, though, that I think right now there’s a chance things could change. Now, this might just be another isolated moment of success. But somehow this year feels different. The Cubs might not win the World Series (they’re certainly not the best team in the playoffs), but unlike in previous years in which they made the playoffs, there are people with the Cubs right now who act like they belong here, rather than this being just due to dumb luck. Dusty Baker, Kerry Wood, and Mark Prior inspire confidence in ways that players on previous Cubs teams did not.

Again, though, it will take more than one year of reaching the playoffs for Cubs fans to begin to really feel that confidence, such that they don’t expect the worst to happen. But I do think there’s a chance for that to happen.

(As I side note: If you go through my blog, you’ll see that I have been critical of Baker’s on-field decisions and lineup constructions many times this year. I don’t think he’s a good manager in that regard. What he’s good at, though, is the things that we as fans don’t see so much – the mental aspects of player preparation, etc. And I’ve never seen a Cubs manager with this much optimism. And that really rubs off on the players he manages.)

I hope this answers your question, and good luck with your article.

Sincerely,

Jason Steffens
http://cubs.june24.net

I think Joe Sheehan makes a good point about last night’s game in his column today (sub. req’d):

Baker’s influence on the outcome was felt more directly in the eighth inning when, with an example of what to do right in front of him, he failed to take notice. Rather than bring in his best available right-handed reliever, Joe Borowski, in a tie game, Baker rode Dave Veres and his control problems to a loss. Veres walked Vinny Castilla after having him down 0-2–I understand the Hall of Fame asked for the ball–and then hung a 1-2 splitter to DeRosa that was just crushed into the left-center gap.

Bobby Cox, on the other hand, “who has exactly one good reliever, brought that reliever in in the eighth inning with the game on the line. . . . All Baker had to do was follow Cox’s lead; he didn’t, leaving his fifth-best reliever in to lose what was a very winnable game.”

It’s a Great Time to be a Cubs Fan! (Jonathan Leshanski, At Home Plate, 10/2/2003)

Despite last night’s loss, it is indeed! I agree with the conclusion of the article. Even if the Cubs don’t win the World Series this year (the chances are certainly against them), we fans have a lot to look forward to in coming seasons, if Jim Hendry does a good enough job at improving the offense.