We know that Dusty likes to call the big moments in games at the end of the season “hero time” and on a night set up for one of the Cubs’ mammoth righthanded hitting sluggers to park one onto Waveland and send the masses home happy, the game turned on a diving catch by an outfielder and two late inning homers from another.
If we told you that Sammy Sosa and Corey Patterson were prominently involved, and you believed it, you’d still have the order wrong.
It was Sammy who made a diving catch and scrambled to his feet to double Jason Bay off of first to end the top of the 11th, and then Patterson sent a jolt through Wrigley with his second homer of the night. This time it was to straight away center, and this time he actually ran after he hit it.
Patterson had come through in a huge spot in the eighth. The Cubs, to that point, had been in their “we get shut out at LEAST once every week whether we need to or not mode” and a bad play by Daryle Ward on a should-have-been double play grounder brought Corey up with a runner on. He hit a fly ball to left and with the wind howling out, Jason Bay kept drifting back and drifting back. Replays would show Corey standing at home plate admiring his pop up. It barely found the basket and the Cubs had tied the game. Had it missed the basket and hit the wall, Corey would have had a very long single.
The Cubs pulled out all the stops, theatrically at least.
Moises Alou threw a tantrum after he struck out late in the game and had some nice words for first base umpire Paul Schrieber (whose brother Liev was narrating “Nine Innings From Ground Zero” on HBO at the same time) and flashed two fingers at him as the lip readers in the audience could see him yell, “That’s twice you’ve f@#$ed that up!” You have to admire Moises’ ability to curse out umpires, fluently, in two languages.
Alou would later ground out to the pitcher on his always fun “oops, check swing” move.
E-ramis struck out twice and the first time he looked very much like he was going to pull a Frank Francisco and attack home plate umpire Jerry Meals with a chair. Thankfully one of the bat boys was napping on the chair and disaster was averted.
Sammy was in normal “swing as hard as you can mode” until the late innings when he singled twice, including one in which he slid headfirst into first base and ended up with his helmet covering his eyes.
I will now pause while some of you take a moment to ponder, “Is the head enlargment commonly associated with the use of some illegal “products” reversible? Is that why he wears such a big helmet now? Is it the same helmet only his head is smaller.”
The answer is no. Just ask Jerry Lewis. Once your head puffs up, it’s staying that way. But Solomon Torres broke the comically small helmet Sammy used to wear and so Sammy upgraded. Anyway…
Matt Clement looked very much like he was going to stick with his tried and true gameplan of “if I give up a walk or a hit I’ll pretend I’m hurt so I can get out.” Only, the Cubs, most notably Neifi Perez kept turning double plays and getting him out of jams. Amazingly, though he didn’t pitch very well and hung about a dozen sliders with the wind blowing out at approximately 119 MPH Clement gave up only two runs in six innings. More incredibly, Mike Wuertz (yes, THAT Mike Wuertz), Mike Remlinger, LaTroy and Todd Wellemeyer combined to throw six scoreless innings of relief.
What has gotten into Neifi Perez? The book on him was that he was still good with the glove, but completely clueless at the plate. Granted, any player can have a four or five game hot streak, but even when Neifi makes outs he looks like he knows what he’s doing. He’s been a savior in the field.
The Cubs haven’t had a Major League caliber shortstop, defensively, all season long. Alex Gonzalez missed most of the season with a broken arm and then got traded. Even though he’s normally surehanded (he reminded us yesterday that he’s afraid of the Marlins) he doesn’t have good range. Ramon Martinez has almost no range. Rey Ordonez was a shell of the shortstop he was in his overrated glory days with the Mets, and Nomar has battled Achilles’, groin and Mia problems all year. When Neifi Perez represents a major upgrade…you have a problem.
Hey, if the Red Sox can credit Orlando Cabrera with their surge, we’ll grasp a big Neifi straw, too. Why not?
Neifi, of course, has always hit well at Wrigley, but we saw that movie with Jeff Blauser, so let’s not hang our hat on that.
Steve Stone mentioned it two nights ago. If you make the playoffs, can you put Neifi Perez on the playoff roster. If you can do it, can you afford not to? The answer is yes you can, and yes, you probably should. You can because he was on the Cubs’ 40 man roster in July. It makes him just as available for the roster as anybody else. Steve has a grasp on the idea that you cannot change the make-up of your team. For instance, if your roster on July 31 had 11 pitchers and 14 position players, you have to have 11 pitchers and 14 position players on your playoff roster. So Neifi, or Ben Grieve or Todd Hollandsworth could be put on the postseason roster, but somebody has to go. You can’t just say, “Well, in the playoffs we’ll only need eight pitchers,” and add three position players.
Sometime before the playoffs, the Cubs will have to decide if they want to dump Tom Goodwin and Ramon Martinez for Neifi and Todd Hollandsworth (assuming Hollandsworth can actually run…which is a huge assumption.)
They could also drop Jose Macias, since the Padres won’t be on the playoff schedule. Regardless, these are decisions the Cubs would like to have to worry about.
Quietly, the Cubs have won four of their last five games. Admit it, it doesn’t feel like they’ve won four of five. But they have.
Today it’s The Franchise against Oliver Perez. Perez is a tough lefty, but the Cubs are 14-4 against lefties at Wrigley Field this year. So they’ve got that going for them. Which is nice.
———
An article in today’s Dallas Morning News says that Rangers’ pitcher Frank Francisco’s career is in jeopardy because he went all Geraldo and hit a lady with a chair on Monday night. The reasoning is that if convicted of battery, Francisco could be deported back to the Dominican Republic and not allowed back in the States. So yeah, I suppose that would threaten his career. But just think how much he could dominate the Dominican Winter League with all that rest?
The incident in Oakland is a reminder of the night Chad Kreuter went into the Wrigley stands because some fans stole his hat. You’ll remember the moral outrage that Chip Caray mustered up for that event. Should Cubs fans have made it “Dodger backup catcher cap night”? No. Did Kreuter deserve his pummeling for going into the stands? You bet he did. Just like any of the Rangers who crawled up the bullpen wall deserved to get hit with whatever they got hit by. If a guy is heckling you, it’s his right. If he throws something at you or grabs you, you have security toss him and arrest him if necessary. How hard is that to figure out?
When told of Francisco’s problems, former pitcher David Cone said, “That’s why I always kept my hands to myself in the bullpen.”
—-
David Terrell has vowed to “put the ball on the ground and run back to the huddle like a chicken” after he catches passes from now on. Yeah, this is going to help.
I don’t have a problem with Terrell being happy after a big play. But he just seems to always take everything way too far. Nobody gets that excited…about anything. I think we should all be happy we don’t have to see him orgasm. Or, maybe that’ll be his touchdown celebration this year?
You just get the feeling that if Terrell had a caught a TD pass in the closing seconds on Sunday that after his antics were done that the Bears would have been kicking off from their own end zone.
——–
Dusty says “everybody complains about the homers”…nobody was complaining last night.
Dusty wonders if the injuries will ever stop?
Sammy’s ego has a bigger bruise than his hip.
Brett Favre says his only addiction is “football” and you know, Vicodin. And says that when he was abusing Vicodin, he only crapped “once a week.” Normally on Soldier Field.
Blake Brockermeyer lost his suit against the Bears and their trainer. Jim Miller should sue him for not blocking anybody.
Mariotti puts down the doughnut and wonders why Barry Bonds doesn’t like him. While you’re at it Jay, try and figure out why nobody else does, either.
Moron David Terrell.
Jim Hendry needs only to remember this today, “tails never fails.”
Southern Miss’ coach is mad because Cal announced their Thursday night game in Hattiesburg was cancelled before Southern Miss actually cancelled it. Even though, Southern Miss cancelled it. Whatever.
Sports Guy sort of likes Entourage.
Page 2 with a list of memorable baseball incidents with fans. My favorite was the Randy Myers one where Mark Grace thought Randy was going to kill the fan. The part I liked was that the game before Randy blew a save on “Randy Myers Poster Day” and the fans showered the field with Randy Myers posters.
America’s finest news source says that a Penn State sophomore thinks she would be a pretty good sex columnist. She knows that frottage is the technical term for dry humping, so there’s that.
The Randy Myers Poster Day did happen in ’95, but not the DAY BEFORE he got attacked by that stockbroker (Jon Murray?). It was earlier in the year, during the summer. I was there. My brother and I were two of the first guys to litter the field.
If at this point, you don’t think Sam was on the roids all those years, I’ve got nice dirt nap all prepared for you, ready to go. Sam looks like he’s lost 40 pounds and his chest size is down 8 inches.
Naw, his homer records aren’t tainted….
Wouldn’t the correct metaphor be, "he went all Springer"?
I tell you Andy, that Neifi is a whirling dirvish of a player! And i’m a whirling moran.
I was a bond trader at the CBOT, not a stock broker. And you have to love my wife. She saw the whole thang on TV. The papers quoted her as saying, "But then they said on TV, ‘Some stupid fan ran onto the field,’ and my husband isn’t stupid."
Last night I said that Francisco "allegedly" threw a chair into the stands.
I should either stay Chip or turn into Harry, no middle ground.
Doc. I’ve left you a pass for tonight’s game in Milwaukee when i’m going to hit #700. I’ll Daily Double the Dirt Nap if you think my records aren’t tainted.
I got hit the nose with a chair during an on-set "fight." I think that’s what Andy was referencing.
I also got my ass kicked while protesting a KKK rally in either Freeport, IL or Janesville, WI. I got beat so bad I can’t even remember where it was…
The Sloth took the right angle on Oakland. How long before it’s plexiglass at every stadium?
And is Rollerball far behind?
Wow, do I sound like a whiny bee-ahch today.
That’s "spinning" dervish, Chippy.
I still remember when Geraldo got hit with that chair. I believe he was featuring white supremacists on his show that day. That footage was shown on the news everyday for about a week. I think my parents still have the issue of Newsweek with the huge closeup of Geraldo and his broken nose on the cover.
Did anyone catch my fierce, fiesty comments in last night’s unofficial GameCast?
You really should check it out!
I was cutting it up BIG time with my ironic commentary and wacky amusing anecdotes. Each joke was funnier than the last as I never got tired of stating something good that the Cubs did, and then playing the surprised journalist angle of "Oh, right. We suck!"
It never got old, even after my tenth posting of cheering the Cubs and then waylaying them into Chumpsville (a suburb of Bloomington).
I was able to bring it all back home in the end, with my summation in posts 142 and 143, where I jump back on the bandwagon and credit everyone being "pretty much on their game" and "give credit to the bullpen."
Don’t take my word for it, though. Go check out last night’s GameCast on the back end of Andy’s Dose. It is full of all my witty commentary and fresh sardonic takes on the Cubs.
Guh. Yuck. Sigh. Good?
#14, if you are going to criticize me, at least give me a tad bit of respect and either put up your own alias or at the very least not use my initials. That’s just not right.
At least Mike D. had the ability to put up his name/alias when he called me a "neurotic maniac". Of course I don’t agree, but at least I respect that he put himself on the line and not "pose" as you did, #14.
That’s all for now.
Isn’t it funny that the one time I don’t flip out and scream "THAT BALL IS BELTED!!" the ball actually lands for a home run. Maybe I should try this "not flip out" thing more often.
You know, those hilarious posts that criticize BC never get old either.
Sitting today, I think!
CubsLive?
Starting lineups:
Pirates
Jason Kendall, C
Jack Wilson, SS
Jason Bay, LF
Craig Wilson
Daryle Ward, 1B
Tike Redman, CF
Ty Wigginton, 3B
Jose Castillo, 2B
Oliver Perez, P
Cubs:
Corey Patterson, CF
Neifi Perez, SS
Moises Alou, LF
Derrek Lee, 1B
Sammy Sosa, RF
Michael Barrett, C
Mark Grudzielanek, 2B
Ramon Martinez, 3B
Mark Prior, P
If you’re going to criticize Chip, #16, follow B.C.’s advice and don’t use Chip’s name.
You just can’t talk in the first person here, even if it is for critical purposes.
Please stop.
Yeah, and neither do Olympic HuMoR! cut-and-pastes from the 37th forwarding of that tiresome mail, CT.
That’s the last I am sure I’ll see of that urban legend, so thanks for posting it one final time–it’s really fresssssh!
There, there, Mini-Me.
You know you’re doing it right when they hate you.
Hold on…
All I ask is, if you are going to criticize ME, then give me the reasons you are criticizing me and give out a real alias/name.
If you don’t want to do that, that’s fine, but I’ll ignore the criticism. The only way I can work towards changes you want to see from me is to give me CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.
What #14 was not anywhere close to constructive.
And let’s not even get into the fact most of the criticisms were just silly and incorrect.
Oh, B.C., you just enjoy public flogging, don’t you?
Calling Mike D.’s usage of an alias as worthy of "respect" for "putting himself on the line" is really weak. How does an anonymous poster under the guise of a common first name and last initial get respect? I don’t fault anyone here for using a handle, but really, does it matter what someone’s name is?
This board engages in huge amounts of first person dialog (as Bill in #19 points out) for the purposes of parody and criticism.
Whining that the post in #14 doesn’t have an alias is really sad.
But then the passive aggressive back-door comment you make at the end of #23 is even sadder. You dismiss entire posts as silly and incorrect. I think #14 had a lot right in quoting your writings in last night’s extra inning dose.
If you want criticisms presented in a templatized way, you are in the wrong place and definitely aiming for the wrong profession.
I suck!
Now that’s what I call constructive.
See. You’re getting the hang of it.
Oh, just shut up.
#14, piss off.
Has anyone ever noticed in that one WGN commercial for the Cubs when Chip says "Belted deep left field" or something like that it almost sounds as if he is crying?
What the hell?
Since I can’t use B.C. anymore, I better just be #14. Thankfully, KD crawled out from under his/her rock to chime in. Guess he/she wasn’t able to wait until 2 am to post, as per usual.
Thanks for the constructive criticism, KD. It’s duly noted.
Numero catorce…
Buenos dias!
—–
I need to practice my Spanish, so why not do it here?
Me encantan the Cubs!!!
RE: #24. JH,
My e-mail.
Is that specific enough for your?
Although you’re still correct–I don’t deserve any respect. Regardless, Go Cubs.
…can we collect enough cash to get B.C. his own blog?
Mike D., didn’t really need the e-mail, as I did not mean to impugn you. The point being made was that whether one calls himself Mike D. or CT or JH or Andy Dolan, it doesn’t do much for removing the anonymity of the Internet. Knowing a person’s name, whether real or fake, makes very little difference in the long run. Heaping respect on someone for using what amounts to a C.B. handle is misplaced.
Agreed.
…oh…my…God…
I confess. I once posted using the alias "Cheese Covered Hush Puppies". I no longer remember why. As for Cal and Southern Miss, I guess my team (Cal) is composed of a bunch of wimps for postponing their game in light of Hurricane Ivan, but that is not as bad as Stanford, which defaulted its rugby game against Cal because they were afraid of getting hurt because Cal was so much better.
Cubs win!
Ouch. I have been put in my place.
andy, i have a bone to pick with you…i would never put down the donut to write my column. i wouldn’t put one down for anything.
and the email address will tell you all you need to know how i still have a column
ugh, #40, you heard that rumor, too?
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