WGN Radio isn’t full of dumb guys. Sure, they foist Kathy and Judy at their listeners every day, and Dean Richards has been voted “man” most likely to lose a pillow fight to a girl scout for nine straight years, but they market the hell out of a radio station full of mediocre talent and get boffo ratings.
And yes, I just wanted an excuse to use the word boffo in a sentence.
Well, last night, they screwed up, big time.
They reminded us what it’s like to listen to a really good radio broadcast of a Cubs’ game.
They replayed the June 23, 1984 broadcast of that classic “Sandberg Game”. I remember it better than most games from 1984, not just because of the heroics involved, but because I was nearly there.
My mom and dad and I had left on a vacation to Washington DC. My brother and sister are older and successfully avoided having to sit in a car with their parents and 11 year old brother for a week. But on our way out east, we stopped by Wrigley Field.
We forget now, because we’re used to the scarcity of tickets, but in those days, a Cubs home sellout wasn’t all that frequent. Dad knew there was a good chance it would be sold out because the Cardinals were in town, and he was right. But he could have bought standing room only tickets for the game. He thought about it, and figured to scrap it. Besides, the Rockford Public Library was running a summer-long promotion where for every five books you read you got two Cubs’ tickets. Think about that. I was checking out books like a madman and we went to six games that summer, courtesy of the Rockford Public Library. And don’t tell them, but I probably only read about six or seven of the 30 books I checked out.
So we hopped in the car and headed into and through Indiana as the game was being played. It was kind of like last night, but instead of being distracted by putting together a new book case, and playing NCAA Football 2006, I was in the back of a Chrysler New Yorker listening to Harry Caray, Vince Lloyd, Lou Boudreau and Milo Hamilton.
This is the reason I think WGN screwed up. That broadcast was so much better than the stuff we’re subjected to now.
I think Pat Hughes is great, don’t get me wrong. He is a worthy successor in the long line of Cubs’ radio play-by-play guys (his immediate predecessor, tHom–wasn’t). And like all Cubs fans, I have a special admiration for Ron Santo.
But let’s not kid ourselves, as a baseball analyst, Ron Santo stinks on ice. He gives no insight. He just groans and wails and reads faxes at inopportune times. That doesn’t mean we don’t love him, it just means we’ve gotten used to him being a personality, not an analyst.
Here’s the scary thing, I think Ron’s going to get voted into the Hall of Fame one of these years for his radio work. He finished third in the balloting this year. –Shudder–
But anyway, some things jumped out about the broadcast.
First, of course, was Harry. This wasn’t vintage Harry, but it was close. He was just starting to lose his fastball, but only in giving us the play-by-play. He was still a tour de force in the booth, ripping players and Jim Frey’s decisions and all the while leaving no doubt as to who he wanted to see win the game.
Lou Boudreau was tremendous as the lead analyst. People get all misty eyed thinking about how Steve Stone could predict pitches and strategy, but Boudreau was at least as good, maybe better. This was a guy who was a player-manager at 24, and a Hall of Famer. He knew some stuff.
Vince Lloyd was along for the ride. With Harry free from TV duty because the game was on NBC that day, Vince, who had to share airtime with Milo Hamilton and three innings of Harry, anyway, was just kind of stuck. But there he was, chiming in with facts and insight that reminded us just how good he really was and how he shone when Milo got fed up and left for Houston. Milo, as always, was a pain in the ass.
The other thing that struck you, was how different the tone of the broadcast was. There was almost a desperation in the air. When players botched plays, or made questionable decisions in the field, Harry and the boys let them have it. They were mad. It was great to hear. They broadcasted the game the way we watch it at the park or at home. You give up your time and your attention to these guys, you deserve a chance to get mad at them from time to time, because when they do something right, you’re going to let them know, then, too.
What we have to remember is that in June of 1984 it had been a long time since the Cubs had won anything. Thirty nine years since their last postseason game. We think we’ve had it rough, but at least we have three division titles and a wild card appearance to look back on. In June of ’84, we had squat. Cubs fans had the ’68-72 teams to wax nostalgic about and they didn’t win a damned thing.
The Cubs had played well to that point, but were showing signs of cracking. While they’d won seven of the first ten games that year against St. Louis (Dave Owen made it eight of 11 later that day), they had lost six of eight overall and Dallas Green’s big trade for Rick Sutcliffe hadn’t paid off yet. And Dallas couldn’t shake the criticism that he was merely fielding the Phillies’ “B” team.
And these were THE Cardinals. They’d just won the World Series in ’82 and were at their prime during the Herzog years. Their annoying fans flocked to Wrigley and were even more irritating then, than they are now. If that is possible.
Add in that Harry loved sticking it to St. Louis whenever possible and you had an atmosphere for that game unlike any other for a June baseball game.
And what a game it was.
The Cubs were down 7-1 before they knew what hit them. In the bottom of the first in a 1-1 game, Ozzie Smith made a diving stop of Jody Davis grounder that should have been a two RBI single. Harry was so impressed he yelled, “You will never see a better play than that in your life!”
The Cubs kept coming back. The thing I noticed was the way they played. That was a great team. They had speed all over that lineup and ran teams to death. Scotty Podsednik couldn’t carry Bobby Dernier’s jock. Leon Durham made the biggest play of the final inning when he walked, stole second and advanced to third on a wild throw to second by Darrell Porter. That forced Whitey to walk the next two batters to get to Dave Owen who had to pinch hit for Lee Smith.
Sandberg, of course, was the story. He batted six times, he had five hits, the only out he made was an RBI grounder to Ozzie. He handled nine chances in the field, drove in seven runs and probably helped Yosh Kawano do the laundry after the game.
Dernier was almost as good. Bobby D was 3-5 with a walk a stolen base and scored four times.
And Willie McGee? All he did was hit for the cycle, and his homer, double and triple were the only extra base hits the Cardinals had in the entire game. Three extra base hits in a game where they had 13 hits and scored 11 runs. Wow.
Harry was up to the task in the three truly huge moments in the game. When Sandberg homered to lead off the ninth against Sutter Harry and Wrigley went nuts. Then Matthews singled and stole second and advanced to third with two outs and stood there watching Gary Woods ground out to end the inning.
In the tenth, Harry and Lou got all over Larry Bowa for not trying to nail Willie McGee who took off for third on a grounder right at Larry. McGee had just doubled in Ozzie one batter before and both Harry and Lou were bemoaning how big it would have been to have kept McGee off third because it was already going to be tough enough to score once off Sutter again, much less twice. Lou claimed Larry was “intimidated” by McGee’s speed. It got worse when the next batter grounded to Durham and Leon didn’t try to get Willie at home. Lou complained that three times in the game, McGee had taken a base anyway, even though the Cubs had their infield in to stop him.
In the bottom of the tenth, Harry conceded defeat to the Cardinals, going on about the blown chance to score Matthews to win it in the ninth and allowing McGee to score that second run in the tenth.
Bowa and Richie Hebner both grounded out to start the tenth. You could hear the Cardinals fans starting to whoop it up with two outs, a two run lead and Bruce Sutter. Harry had warned us early in the game that if you let St. Louis get a lead, Sutter would shut the door on you. And now they’d given him a second chance. No way, was Bruce going to blow this.
But he walked Dernier. A huge play. Boudreau was predicting the pitches all through Dernier’s at bat, and unless Harry was lying to us, Lou was right every time. Sandberg came to the plate and the crowd noise changed. Cubs fans had joined in the clamor. It was 21 years ago and last night as I listened to it, I could see where I was the first time I heard Harry and the gang describe it to us. I was back in the Chrysler heading for Ohio.
Lou mentioned that the McGee run was “really big now” because it would have been easy for Dernier to steal second off Sutter and Porter and that would have allowed Ryne to tie the game with a single.
Harry took us through the pitches to Sandberg and all of a sudden all you could hear was a deafening roar from the crowd and Harry’s trademark call, “It could be, it might be…it is! A home run! He did it again! He did it again!” Lou and Vince were yelling in the background and then they stopped, Harry yelled, “Listen to the crowd!” something we heard hundreds of times during his years with the Cubs, but this might have been the first time he said it when the crowd was worth listening to.
It was the perfect marriage of a moment and two men. Ryne Sandberg made it happen and Harry made it come alive to everybody who couldn’t see it happen with their own eyes. Twenty-one years and several hundred miles removed from where I was the first time, I had goose bumps that couldn’t have been any different.
The best part was the aftermath. Harry, Lou and Vince not just talking about what a fine player Ryne was, but what a great “kid” he was. Lou even said, “He’s a great player and a great American.” Whatever that meant. Lee Arthur got the Cubs through the top of the eleventh and Leon Durham made it happen in the bottom. Bull walked, stole second, went to third on the throw and Whitey was forced to walk Keith Moreland and Jody Davis to load the bases. Dave Owen slapped a single through the infield and all Harry said was, “Here’s a smash…Cubs win! Cubs win! Cubs win! Cubs win!”
Why does that game mean so much to so many? I can’t speak for anybody but me. I was 11 and 1984 just happened, by coincidence to be the year I decided baseball was a big deal. I had no clue just how deep the tradition of losing was with the Cubs. My dad was a Cubs fan, and so, so was I. I’ve cursed him many times in the intervening years for saddling me with this, but I never really meant it. The ’84 Cubs aren’t memorable just for what they couldn’t do (win an October game in San Diego), they’re memorable for everything they did do. It’s hard to argue that it didn’t all come together on that day, June 23. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Cubs baseball changed forever. Sandberg’s homers allowed the Cubs to win a game they NEVER won, against a team they would have NEVER come back on in the past. From that moment on, no deficit was too steep, no team was too good to beat.
It’s taken a long time for Cubs’ fans to grow into what we are now. We’re harder, more impatient and we expect better than we get. Dusty Baker can complain about it all he wants and he can look back to game six in 2003 and wonder if that’s when it all changed, but we know the truth. Steve Bartman and Pudge Rodriguez didn’t change Cubs fans, Ryne Sandberg did. Sandberg proved the Cubs didn’t have to be losers, and that we shouldn’t accept it if they were.
He made the Hall of Fame for so many different reasons, but of all the incomprensible feats he pulled off, that is his greatest. He made you expect the Cubs to win. And while we wait, it’s good that we get reminded from time to time, of what is possible.
Listen to the crowd?
They’d be better off if they did.
Another thing I noticed while listening–
During Dernier’s at-bat you could hear, in the background “Na Na Hey Hey!”. I couldn’t believe my ears. I didn’t even hate the Cardinals and their fans back then, but hearing that yesterday, I was able to go back in time and find MORE reasons to loathe them.
How sweet that the Cubs shoved it up those hillbillies’ asses after chanting that stupid White Sox mantra before the game was even over. Good times
Thank you for your kind words. Really, this is too much.
Dudes wore me a lot back in ’84. Cards fans still do.
This may be flameworthy, but back in ’84, I considered the Mets a much more hateable team and a bigger rival than the Cards. The Mets were the competition that year, and they had ruined the Cubs only other legitimate playoff contending team.
I listened to that game last night and what was remarkable was the high level of play by Sandberg, Dernier, Ozzie Smith, and Willie McGee. It was fun to hear announcers call out a guy like they did to Bowa and Trout. Great game, great broadcast, solid dose.
As I was driving home from a meeting last night, I had that replay cranked on the car stereo. I called a friend in SW Iowa to tell him, and he said he was going to get into his car and drive around to listen to it. It brought back good memories of Vince and the Good Kid, and of course Harry. It doesn’t seem likely that 20 years from now today’s teen-agers will be listening with the same nostalgia that a lot of us did. It’s too bad they won’t “Listen to the crowd!”.
2 things
1 Tune in to the Boerrs and Bernstein show, and listen to Bernstein whine about cancer balls or something. THey really have a great show.
2 telling the fat lady sitting close to or in front of you to SHUT HER FAT FACE WHEN SHE IS EATING HER POPCORN when at the movie theater can get you in trouble, also,mentioning anything about HER GREASY FAT AFRO THAT ISNT REALLY AN AFRO BUT JUST REALLY NAPPY HAIR OMG LADY YOU SMELL LIKE SHIT
Nice piece, Andy. I was at the corner of 132 and 45 in Round Lake selling sparklers and smoke bombs from the parking lot of a gas station. We were listening on my 80’s era boom box. I remember that like it was yesterday. God, I miss Harry and those guys.
Driving home that night I stopped at my uncle’s house for pizza. I asked him if he saw the game. He looked disgusted and said he turned it off in the 3rd inning. Needles to say…
WOT I SAY CHUCK, YOU TALKIN SMACK?
I’m going to sit here and pretend Chuck didn’t just compliment my piece.
Oh, he meant the column.
Phew. That was going to be awkward, otherwise.
That’s funny, Chuck. I missed the game, too. When it was 7-1 and Ozzie was pulling all kinds of plays out of his ass, a buddy of mine asked me if I wanted to go to Woodfield and watch “Ghostbusters”.
Good movie.
Better game.
Dolan, hah, that’s Nalod backwards!
Holy Cow!
Hey Steve, pass the nalod dressing!
Did anybody do this for the broadcast?
Andy:
I admire your Glock. Or was it your Tec9?
At lunch yesterday I saw a dude I work with hop out of a Jeep with a rusty, Indiana plate on the front that said, “Cubs 85.” I asked him what that was about and he said it was his mom’s jeep and that she’s big Cubs fan, always had been. So she has this Cubs 85 plate on her car even now. This guy said he didn’t know anything about baseball so I had to explain to him that the Cubs of 85 were one of the most sickening displays of pulled hamstrings and washed-up has beens ever assembled. It was an absolute fucking nightmare, I told him. How could his mom carry that thing around like a badge of honor? He said he thought it was something about waiting patiently for one more win that she knows the baseball gods owe to her. Or something.
It took me back to my own humble beginnings as ’84 was also the first year I decided baseball mattered. We started going to games as a family, all five of us and we gathered around the VCR every day to watch while we ate dinner. Just like a real family instead of all of us going our separate ways. ’85 was my first year of little league and the first year I started collecting baseball cards. I just knew that the Cubs had one more win in them. When I saw Rick Sutcliffe crumple to the ground at Wrigley clutching that hamstring, I knew finally what it meant to be a Cubs fan. It meant a swift kick to the balls every day for the rest of your life.
That Chuck. He’s a real Glock sucker, that guy.
Did anybody else catch the update early in the game when Harry said, “In National League action last night, the Expos beat that young phenom 2-1. Gooden struck out 11, but Andre Dawson hit a homer off him for the Expos”…?
Sometimes I try to imagine the 1984 Cubs with Dawson in right instead of Moreland. When I imagine that, the Cubs go 154-8. I don’t know how they lose eight.
Chuck, our intersection is in Gurnee; maybe Lindenhurst. We are most definitely not in Round Lake.
Ah, we should have traded Moreland that year, and kept Mel Hall.
Mapquest says I’m in Lake Villa.
Apex, my plates are CUBS 23 and I still get dumbasses asking me “Who’s 23?”.
That’s wonderful Dave, would you like some of my salad?
Why do I exist?
I contain the intersection of Grand Ave. (132) and US 45, although you can spit into Grayslake, Third Lake, Gurnee and Lindenhurst.
Don’t make me break dance all over this place.
What am I?
A colombian from Sonoma California.
great dose today Andy, I was watching the game again as you were describing it. I remembered those uniforms, the blue (away games) and the white with blue stripes (home games). I remembered they didn’t have buttons and had a “v” neck…I still have one of those and still wear it proudly. Thanks for the memories.
that was probably the best article I have ever read on this site and perfectly nailed down why I am a Cubs fan. While a lot of people like to jump teams and root for whoever is hot, Ryno and Harry and WGN created Cubs fans all over the country in 84 that stayed Cubs fans for the rest of thier lives. I also turned 11 in 84 and I spent every afternoon watching channel 9. I had already liked the Cubs but that season turned me into a fan. Thank you Andy for summing it up so perfectly.
Chicago is a racist town!
Dusty is a great manager!
I heart Latroy Hawkins!
You’re a racist, Dolan. Can’t you see that Dusty is just like Bobby Cox?
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/050802
I am the most racist writer alive.
Dusty, I worked with Bobby Cox, I know Bobby Cox…and you are no Bobby Cox.
Did you see how I brought the word “Lynch” into it. I have no journalistic integrity. I need to be fired. Everyone here needs to express their displeasure to espn.
I meant me dammit.
If I had used the word “lynch” in a column that wasn’t about awful Cubs general managers, I’d be fired, yesterday.
How many of us turned 11 in ’84?
I watched the Comcast rebroadcast and thought of a few things I had forgotten about
–that Torco sign with the sparkley border was one of the coolest things I ever remember seeing on TV (I am simpleminded)
–the Cards’ blue uniforms were ASS
–Willie McGee was, by far, the ugliest man in baseball
–All the players looked so lanky. My wife, who is not a baseball fan at all, remarked that the players back then looked scrawny compared to today’s players.
–And had forgotten how much fear a guy like Sutter brought to the game, because 99% of the time he’d be lights out for 2 or 3 innings at a time, none of this 1 inning crap.
heh heh heh.
Do you ever think about when you’re outta here?
Wooden chewstick and wristbands outta here!
Four-million dollar contract outta here!
No doubt Johnnie B. is old school and he aint goin’ out!
Hey Scoop, I thought the Cubs were “five” outs away when Bartman interfered?
Hey Scoop, I thought the signs were “In Dusty We Trusty”?
Hey Scoop, do you think a deciple of Billy “Moneyball” Beane will want to hire Dusty “Walks just clog up the bases” Baker?
Hey Scoop, what the hell does Jim Fregosi have to do with anything? Do you mean Jim Riggleman? Or Jim Lefebvre?
Hey Scoop, what does “The media sets the agenda for how the public responds to nonobjective matters and to how the audience often forms an opinion on certain issues. In sports, in this town, those opinions are often — if not always — set by columnists. Sports columnists, not sports reporters. Reporters are nonobjective in this matter, although the editors do have ‘angle control’ over copy. Columnists, they are the ones who shape public opinion.” mean? Do you think people really care what Jay Mariotti or Rick Telander think?
Hey, I went to a World Series, just like Dusty! And I took a much less talented team six games against the Blue Jays.
I was bounced from Page 2 for stating that a Jewish movie producer should be sensitive to violence in movies, given the atrocities of the Holocaust. Yet the deceased Ralph Wiley, and now Scoop Jackson, both of whom are not as smart as I am, are given free reign to spout crackpot racial conspiracy theories. Guess I should have used the words “dog”, “brotha”, and “a’ight” more.
Gregg is more intelligent than me. He must be so proud.
Scoop, in all his profound wisdom, failed to mention that the Cubs are one of the most talent rich teams in the bigs, and that being just over .500 and still in sight of the wild-card is a huge disappointment, not a tremendous accomplishment, as Scoop would have you believe.
Cub fans want Dusty’s head because we are tired of seeing guys on third with less than two outs and getting nothing out of it. A good manager (Cox, Piniella, Torre) would rattle some cages if their teams had the same miserable production with runners in scoring position. Not Dusty, he just sits there and chews his goddamn toothpick contemplating his next double switch.
Hey Scoop,
Did you Sox fans run me out of town because you’re racist?
I sell stereo equipment at the mall in Ridgemont. And I’m 26.
Why Don’t I count Scoop? What does a brother need to do to get love? Do I need to stop being boring as paint? Do I need to stop spouting Cub Hatred every five minutes?
Holy crap, how am I employed?
Skip Johnson’s right. I had it easy in Chicago and it was only because I’m white. If I were black, THEN people would have ripped me for going to the ‘pen with nobody warmed up, for not knowing what the hell I was arguing with Lou Pinella about (“Lou was saying “fair” and I was saying “foul” and then we were both saying “foul”….”) but, because I’m white, I got a pass.
Similarly, when Dusty Baker double switches his best hitters out of games, or when he goes six solid weeks inserting the two worst OBP guys on his roster at the top of the order in front of two of top hitters in the National League, well, if he were a cracker like me, nobody would say anything, just like nobody said anything bad about my dumbass managing simply because I was white.
Scooter’s right–y’all are racist.
When we get rattled, the sac flies come in bunches! Why, just look at all the runs Sweet Lou’s boys are throwin’ up on the board in St. Pete! Tell ’em Crash!
You all are a bunch of lollygaggers!
who am I?
why would I, or something I say, matter?
Ah hell, F the dude who posted that Scoop Jackson article. I would have never read it if he hadn’t. Now I want to punch Scoop Jackson in his left tit. Not because I disagree with his article IT’S BECAUSE HE HELPED ME REALIZE I AM RACIST!
this guy scoop throws out the hook and everybody goes biting like little fish, leave the guy alone, it’s all “blah blah blah “the struggle” yadda yadda yadda “poor me” zzzzzzzzz” stuff.
Shut up #51, you can’t make me not be racist now that I know that I am. homo
Damn, what a great piece of writing. You took me back to my beginnings as a Cubs’ fan as I jumped on the bandwagon about the same time you did, maybe a few years earlier, but 1984 was when it all seemed to come together. Little did we know that it was just a tease, a la 2003.
Scoop Jackson needs to be “introduced” to me.
Repeatedly.
Jayson Stark’s “book” is worth me.
Any way you cut it, I am not a good manager. Black, White, Peruvian…it just don’t matter dudes.
Since when does bringing the Cubs a glimpse of success earn job security. On our first signs of weakness our asses were booted.
Signed,
Jim Frey, Don Zimmer, Jim Riggleman, Don Baylor
I didn’t sign #57s post from the grave, but shit, count me in as well.
Was there ever a more hated field boss in the history of our fair city than me? How soon they forgot my playoff win over the Vikes.
Oops, I meant “your” unfair city you bunch of no-brain, rascist dopes!
You are a $#$#&//&/(%$#$”%$”$
SHUT THE #$%$%%$/%%(%&%)()=(& up
You piece of &%%$%$%#($#$%&”$
And if you had been black, Dave, you would have been fired after you got blown out in San Francisco the nextweek.
Actually, #40, I called Jews greedy for making violent movies, and that they should know better after experiencing the holocaust. Not quite as benign as you make it out to be.
In response to #62,
We now wish that Wanny was black. It would of saved us a lot of time
So when I was run out of town for sucking and people lauded Bill Cartwright, it was because Chicago was racist?
who am I?
why would I, or something I say, matter?
Well man, you ain’t been matterin to me dizawg, look at how down I be ya’ll. I got ya’ll so pissed, I is gonna go pop some Cris. I’m out B, just ya’ll bitches try and fire me. Sizamn…this writing shit be easy, yo.
I might be Pat Kennedy-lite, but DePaul alums are actually mourning my departure.
I know what you mean Dave Leitao. We coached Northwestern from 1982 through 1991 (Green the first stretch, Peay the last several years), and everyone thought we were GRRRRReat! Fran, like his brother Austin, even was good for an occassional upset win over U of I. And when each of us were fired, people bitched since we all know no one could turn NU into a Rose Bowl team!
Damn Scoop, that’s brilliant, we’ll get it up right away. “I’m out B”…ha, you really do have your finger on the pulse.
One thing you gotta say, these Cubs just keep getting blacker. They trade Dubois for Gerut and flip him for Lawton, who may be the darkest player in all of baseball. Now that’s what I call progress.
If I wasn’t black, I wouldn’t have been missed so much in Chicago or have gotten so many chances in Boulder.
I’m what? Really?
I know you’re out…..stay there….and don’t come back.
“Straight outta Sudan, a brother named Lawtan”
who’s pitching tonight?
Oonga Bunga…I pitch, no I keel tonite!
Matt Lawton has me.
“Teddy G says Big Ten schools don’t schedule good non-conference teams. Well, Michigan plays my alma mater and my almost mater, so that has to be something, right?”
Illinois just scheduled Central Michigan for a game in 2006…
The sad thing about that is that CM might be the favorite for that game.
The actual tone is called “Blurple.”
None of our conferances schedule tough non-conferance games anymore.
My Boilers don’t play Michigan or Ohio State this year and return damn near the entire team save for Orton. We’re ranked in several Top 10 preseason rankings. Fear us.
That’s okay, Joe, you’ll find a way to screw the pooch anyway.
Gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whiteys I see
Gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whiteys I see
When I kill all the whiteys I see, then whitey – he won’t bother me
Gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whiteys I see
This hot weather is taking a toll on my fat body.
You should care, about me, and what I say. Screw my brother.
I just signed a deal that pays me per season $500,000 more than Kobe.
hahahahahahaha
who said I was done? hahahahahahaha
I am the king.
Brother Frank,
My articles are just as long as your judicial opinions, plus they have pictures of hot NFL cheerleaders. Screw you.
Derrek, with me you win RBI title, and then we go to Iowa and we kick KPat in the mouth.
Ryno didn’t mention me……bummer.
Or me.
#48 – Piniella is a very good manager who takes no crap from his players. He just doesn’t have any talent to deal with. The fact that he manages a AAAA team is not his fault. It’s like managing a team full of Maciases.
Cox and Torre are two great examples of teams dripping with talent, that have gone through rough spots, but rather than sit back and be a “players manager”, they have corrected the problems and moved on, and now they are in positions to make the playoffs. And Cox is even doing it with a team of minor leaguers.
My point is that Dusty does nothing to correct the glaring fundamental weaknesses that have plagued the Cubs all year. Bunting, situational hitting, smart pitching and late game strategy has been non-existent under Dusty’s reign. Piniella doesn’t stand for that, which is why I think he would look great at the helm on the North Side very, very soon…
#91, good point. I’m just afraid that Pinella is now completely insane after managing down there in TB. If that management group has driven him to this just think of what the Tribune Co. could do?
Piniella is completely insane. But a hard-nosed manager who doesn’t get along with the suits in the ivory Tribune tower is just what the Cubs need. Or at least what the Cub fans need. He would be this town’s next Ditka.
If we were the secret to championship baseball, Larry Bowa would be working on his 5th straight NL East title.
I banged Jennifer Jason Leigh in a dugout.
On the Baseball Show on ESPN Radio this past weekend Larry Bowa was on with Gary Miller and was talking about how the 1984 Cubs were the best sign stealers he was ever on.
Bowa said that they had guys on the bench who could steal the other team’s signs by the end of the second inning most games. Then they had this elaborate relay system they could use when they had a runner on any base who could tell the hitter what pitch was coming next. Bowa told the story of a night in Pittsburgh when Sandberg told Dernier before one of Bobby’s at bats, “Get on and get to second, I NEED those signs!”
Bowa also joked about Dernier and Sandberg got to take the most advantage of it because the two best sign stealers and relayers were Larry and Jody and they hit seventh and eighth. He said, “Anybody batting behind Sarge was screwed.” Nice to know on the best sign stealing team of all time the only guy the Cubs have as a coach, was the one guy who couldn’t do it.
Maybe Larry and the gang taught me the tricks of the trade too? Or not.
I could be convinced that Sandberg might make a good manager.
That would make me in agreement with BC.
Time to suck a loaded Glock.
Its amazing somebody would publish that racist pile of crap from Scoop Jackson. He just publishes those lies so he can stir the pile. No wonder he writes for readerless publication.
…is what it would take for me to be convinced that Sandberg might make a good manager.
And a first-rate Graffix Bong.
That Chris Speier as a nifty little ballplayer, I tell you. According to Baseball-Reference.com, these are the ten players with careers most similar to mine:
1. Frank White
2. Leo Cardenas
3. Bill Russell
4. Chris Speier
5. Jim Fregosi
6. Tony Taylor
7. Phil Garner
8. Terry Pendleton
9. Garry Templeton
10. Toby Harrah
See, there’s your boy Speier right near the top of the players most comparable to me offensively. Now anybody who wants to argue my HOF credentials need only look at the hall of famer right there at No. 3. He’s only like the best rebounder in the history of the game. He kicked Wilt Chamberlain’s ass so bad he had to console himself between the legs of some 10,000 women.
Yeah, I hit a homerun in the 1960 World Series to beat the Yanks so I’m considered one of the greatest players of all time. That kind of shit doesn’t go as far as it used to though. Joe Carter won’t get a sniff of the Hall but he’s got twice the numbers either I or Brooks Robinson put up. I know, I know, it’s all about the position you play. Brooks himself was considered the best Defensive 3rd baseman of all time, what with those diving plays in the World Series. Offensively though, you could put Brooks and I together and we wouldn’t be able to hold a even a tiny little piece of Ron Santo’s jock.
But we’re in the Hall and he’s not. Don’t you just love it?
Why am I not in the Hall of Fame. I was the “King of New York.” Don’t lie to me man just tell me why?
Screw you Frank. I am the one and only Whitey.
The Sandberg induction into the HOF has brought me back into the limelight!
wooohoooo everybody has a story to tell about me!!
I don’t bobby, GOD IM SO HOT IM SWEATING
Did anyone hear me?! Please, someone give me a towel or something. Please, god, unfat me!
Is the ball going through Leon’s legs in Game 5 of the ’84 NLCS…. I wasn’t quite three, but I swear to god I remember it like yesterday.
After reading today’s dose, I really, really wish it were the Sandberg game. I also wish I still lived in the WGN radio ara, so I could have heard that last night. It would’ve made the pain of growing up in a Cardinals household a lot easier if I could’ve constantly held that one game over their heads as something that I remembered and hung on to.
But thanks for today’s dose especially Andy. Right when you talked about getting goose bumps, I had gotten them a paragraph before. Great narrative – thanks for making such a big game come alive for me.
#107
Goose bumps are good and all, but if you don’t end up with me, it’s just a mediocre Dose at best.
I’m not sure how Andy feels about his readers actually getting aroused from his writing. Maybe he’s in the wrong line of work.
Why don’t we just trade Dusty to Tampa for Sweet Lou? We can send them some cash to pay for Dusty, and heck, I’ll even throw in Korey if it means we can get Dusty out of here.
Dum dum dum dum oops dumb dumb dee dee dumb dumb
dudes, there you go again with the fire dusty, trade dusty inuendos dudes
Look, get used to it, I’m not going anywhere, at least until the end of the season, so let’s unite and win this thing. dudes.
As your skipper dudes I gave you yesterday a brief plan on how we’ll reach the playoffs.
I will post it again in case you were in a meeting and didn’t have chance to see it:
Now: 53-52
against STL & HOU: 10-11
against CIN,PIT,MIL: 10-4
against SF,PHI,NYM,FLA,COL,ATL,LAD: 14-8
End of Season: 87-75
Give dustiny a chance and if it doesn’t work out, well then you can trade me, fire me, do whatever you want.
Whoa! whoa! whoa! Can’t we wait until all the facts are in before we determine that Raffy is guilty? After all, Porn-stache’s fantasy story is good enough for our president and commander in chief!
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/baseball/mlb/stories/080205dnspobushpalmeiro.300f6095.html
112: “Give Dusty a chance and if it doesn’t work out…”
?
It hasn’t worked out. Besides underachieving constantly, may I remind you that since Dusty took over his overuse of our starters has led to Prior and Wood’s careers being sidetracked or effectively finished due to injuries, plus Corey Patterson, who was a promising young player before Dusty is suddenly at a crossroads of his career and might be run out of town, and it’s not just youngsters who’s career he destroy’s, go ask Chad Fox if pitching in blowouts and back to back to back games with his elbow was a good idea, then ask yourself how long Scott Williamson will last with this moron at the helm.
sorry 114 but if Fox’s elbow and Korey’s career are done and the Cubs make the playoffs, it was well worth it.
I am a Cubs fan, above any player.
I’ll chip in with praise for Dolan. I was a full 1 year old in 1984, but I felt like I was in the car alongside listening as I read that. No wait, no I didn’t. That’s just fucking creepy.
Good words, Mr. Dolan.
“the name on the front is more important than the name on the back”.
If Ryno were playing for the Indians would he have said, “just remember, the caricature of a Native American is more important than the name on the back”?
yes, the Indian organization is more important than any Geruts, Lawtons or any other player they will ultimately dump on the Cubs.
Whoops, he he…ugh…
how you like them apples dudes?
M. Lawton lf
J. Hairston Jr. cf
D. Lee 1b
J. Burnitz rf
A. Ramirez 3b
T. Walker 2b
N. Perez ss
M. Barrett c
C. Zambrano p
And when Nomar arrives dudes, he’ll bat 2nd and the lesser will move to 7th.
Everybody will be happy in October.
later, dudes.
Cubs trade for a leadoff hitter from the Pirates whose last name begins with “L”. Both make their debuts against the phillies. Cubs are chasing the Astros for a playoff spot. Cubs make the playoffs.(I hope)
man, how things change, in tonight’s lineup I’m the only non-pitcher left from the 2003 NLCS team.
Great dose, Andy. Even though It was way before my time, I had goosebumps reading this.
I was the bomb in 1984!
No, you was the bizomb, and only cus yous white, BOYEE!!!
Maybe Scoop can write his next piece of crap in ebonics.
If Ron Artest was white, he woulda’ been cheered for rampaging into the crowd.
word…
I played on two world championship teams and another pennant winner. That makes three more WS appearances than Santo. I hit .303 in nine playoff series. Of the ten hitters I’M most similar to, two are in the HOF (Robin Yount and Tony Perez) and a third is named Graig Nettles, even though I played in the most pitcher-friendly era EVER (so bad the AL had to introduce the DH and lower the mound). None of the ten players Santo is most similar to are in the HOF. I was the best 3B of my era (sorry Ron), perhaps the best defensive 3B ever. My FP was .971 (Santo’s just .954) and I had over 1600 more assists. Those stops I made in the WS? I made ’em ALL THE TIME. Santo was a nine-time All Star, which is pretty good. Just not as good as me, since I made it 15 years in a row. I won the MVP in 64, and I was top 10 six other times; Santo was top 10 4 times. Santo was a very, very good player, no question, but he was no me. In fact, the fact that people use career totals alone to make HOF cases show how asinine the discussionhas become, because if you actually saw us play, you would NEVER consider Santo in my class. Just like you would NEVER consider Rafael “The Devil Made Me Do It” Palemiro on the level of Andre Dawson.
Um, great, but no one gives a shit.
Damn straight Scoop, Chicago is full of racist cocksuckers, fight the power boyeee.
Hey Brooks, did you have a film like me made about you? No. Obviously you don’t need one either. I am simply an advertisement for Ronnie’s HOF votes.
“Everybody will be happy in October.”
why? are you getting fired then, dusty dude?
So how did Wild Bill walk 2100 miles and still have a beer gut?
Easy, there’s lots of road kill between AZ and Wrigley.
I’m a little freaked out that I graduated from the University of Chicago Law School (where Frank Easterbrook is a lecturer) six years ago and am just learning tonight, on Desipio that Gregg Easterbrook his is brother.
Yes, Desipio is the place for all things Cub *and* gossip about public intellectuals.
Regarding Scoop Jackson’s drivel….Remember how ESPN canned Rush Limbaugh for the high crime of daring to point out the media’s biases regarding certain things, and yet this moran writing the most asinine racial conspiracy garbage is just fine with them? Aren’t PC Police double standards just wonderful?
Everyone enjoy the Mitch Williams/Rod Beck impersonation?
MMM, this bench is so comfy…no need to see about ole’ Demp.
Senor Ryan is a berry, berry lucky mang. I woulda keeled him with my own tightened forearm.
I have been in hiding in Philly ever since game 6 of the 93 series where I gave up 3 run homer to joe carter in a save situation. I finally came out tonight to teach the dumpster how to pitch
#133 you’re right..maybe I will get fired in october, and deservedly so but…. let’s wait till october….in the meantime enjoy this victory courtesy of yours truly, I managed an excellent game tonight, dudes.
And don’t start tomorrow with “we won but zambrano went 100+”…look dudes, we’re fighting for a playoff spot here and if you have to ride one of your 3 best guys you do it, dudes.
Enjoy the win, at the end of the day we’ll only be 3 back dudes.
I am dellusional.
Look at our roster. Now look at our record. Then, I want you to look across the country at Atlanta’s roster. And then their record. Jealous…yeah, we thought so. Isn’t it funny how these teams go on prolonged streaks and have a shot every year(without bitching), while the Cubs and their huge payroll hover around mediocraty? Wouldn’t it be nice if the entire Cubs coaching staff got fired? There is no excuse for this team being only 2 games over this late in the season…none whatsoever.
The most worthless part of my whole article is when I said that Dusty lost Prior and Wood, the “two best pitchers in the league”. Prior can be argued for, but Wood isnt even the 2nd best pitcher on his team and nowhere close to Pedro, Clemens, or Oswalt.
Last night my worthless, drunk, pathetic ass said, and I quote “Albert Pujols…Gold Glove?…YOU BET.” It is because of cocksucking rednecks like me, that one of the worst defensive 1st basemen in the NL, will probably win a Gold Glove. Fuck Me. Lee, Helton, Johnson, Snow, Mientkiewicz aren’t as good as Albie. Proof that all that matters to us “analysts” anymore is offense.
I am a fucking fool, anyone have a game they need blown? No?, what about a hamstring?
0-4 at West Tenn? Nothing like picking up where you left off.
The difference is Rush said it live on an NFL pregame show and Jackson’s drivel is buried with the “List of World’s Worst Bowling Movies of the 70’s”.
Am I the only one who just plain never liked Harry?
Wanna bet Krusty screws up Wood as a reliever by the weekend?