Monday, August 30, 2010

MLB Ball Park Review - U.S. Cellular Field (Chicago)

This was our fourth ball park review of the year.  We did take several days "off" between our third and fourth games as our annual baseball trip took us to the west coast this year - specifically, San Francisco, Oakland and Seattle. This fourth game was "local" for our family as we live in the Chicago area. My dad's company had an outing at "The Cell" this past Friday night against the NY Yankees, a.k.a. The Evil Empire and we decided to take advantage and use this game as our 17th ball park visit.

We knew the trek to get to "The Cell" would be rough on a Friday evening as rush hour definitely peaks right when we had to be on our way AND on a Friday during summer, you can add in all the people heading all over town for the weekend. The fact the Sox were taking on the Yankees which is #1 in road team for attendance made things a little touchy even as we arrived near the ball park. For those that don't know, the south-side White Sox ball park is not in the best neighborhood in the city so you try to park close. Unlike the north-side Cubs, the Sox do have several parking lots and even allow and encourage tail-gating. We were hoping to get to the park early enough to partake in some tail-gating, but that was out the window shortly after we hit the road. We were down there about an hour before the scheduled first pitch and were feeling pretty decent about that...that is until we tried to get to the parking lot. Apparently all the cash lots near the ball park were full already and with very little assistance and really weak signage, we did finally make our way to a lot on the other side of the expressway (NOT desired!) and paid the same price they charge for the lots near the park - $23! You couldn't even see the park from where we were so now, we're off to a bit of a bad start. We were still in our seats well before the first pitch and even got to see the big trophy presentation...for the first time ever, the Lombardi Trophy (Bears '85), NBA Championship Trophy (Bulls '98), World Series Trophy (Sox '05), and the Stanley Cup (Blackhawks '10) were all together...that was pretty cool!

This was our 17th ball park visit in the last 4 years and I've been to 4-5 other parks over the years on top of that...well, I felt like I've never been to a baseball game they way the entrances are setup at The Cell. Instead of walking directly into the park from street level, you go up an escalator and then walk across a bridge to enter the ballpark...weird and awkward. As we didn't arrive very early for the game and due to the size of the crowd (reportedly 38,596 - 8th largest crowd of the year), I didn't get a chance to walk around much. There was the one big thing I've seen in these newer parks...the wider concourses allow you to move around fairly easily. I had the jumbo grilled hot dog with grilled onions and that was quite tasty...most comparable to the Wrigley Field hot dog prepared the same way. I know The Cell is infamous for some of their more unique cuisine, but I didn't partake in any of that so I cannot comment.

Following the initial run the Yanks scored in the top of the 1st, the Sox led the whole game yet I got the feeling that the Sox fans were just sitting around waiting for their team to implode. Sox starter Freddy Garcia had not been pitching too well lately after starting 8-1 as he took his 6.97 ERA in August into Friday night's game. The best description I can say about the crowd was "cautiously optimistic" as they were pretty quiet most of the night until the Sox put a 4-spot up in the 4th to make it a 9-2 game.

As you know, I am a Cubs fan so we were going to be winners either way on this one...if the White Sox won, that would be good because we would extend our baseball trip winning streak to 4 games and if the White Sox lost, well, the White Sox lost and that would be good too. Well, the White Sox put a hurting on Yankees starter AJ Burnett and won the game 9-4 making us 4-0 on this year's trip and 13-5 overall...just a reminder, we started our first season at 1-4, so we are 12-1 since! It was actually a Cubs win at Wrigley at the end of our first trip that started off that run too.

I''m sure it had a lot to do with where we were sitting (LF bleachers), but we couldn't see much of anything beside the field in front of us. It looked like The Cell was equipped with a pretty nice and info-filled scoreboard, but it's location was quite curious...mounted much too low just above and behind the RF bleachers. Don't think because we had lousy seats that we didn't pay a "pretty penny" for the tickets...when the Yankees come to town, the game is understandably considered a "premium game" which allows the Sox to charge much more for the tickets to this game. We paid $48 per ticket for these seats which was face value which is what I pay for my Cubs seats which are upper deck box seats at Wrigley Field at the ballpark with the MLB's highest average ticket prices. Did you know the White Sox have FIVE different prices for these seats - Mon = $17, Regular = $34, Prime = $38, Premier = $48, and Cubs = $59. We also sat 3 rows behind home plate in Oakland for $48 per ticket and we could see everything from there.

This park had two things going for it though...the opening ceremony with the four different championship trophies was very cool as I mentioned before. In addition following the end of the game, the Sox saved the best for last...the post-game fireworks show. Since the Sox didn't hit any HRs during the game, we had to wait until after the game to see the fireworks. Well, they did NOT disappoint with the fireworks show...VERY COOL and pretty long too as they were able to play 5-6 80s songs (felt like I was back in high school again) during a show that rivaled a pretty good one from the 4th of July. It was really that fireworks show that pushed The Cell up as high as I have it on my list.

As you can see, I didn't really like The Cell as I rated it the lowest out of all the newer ball parks; maybe if we sat somewhere else and were able to see the scoreboards, I might have rated it a little higher. But considering how much we paid for these tickets, I had higher expectations. OK, so here is my updated ball park ranking to date:
1. Comerica Park (Detroit)
2. PNC Park (Pittsburgh)
3. Jacobs Field (Cleveland)
4. Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia)
5. Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City, MO)
6. Safeco Field (Seattle)
7. Fenway Park (Boston)
8. Miller Park (Milwaukee)
9. AT&T Park (San Francisco)
10. Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati)
11. Busch Stadium (St. Louis)
12. Yankee Stadium (NY Yankees – pre-2009)
13. Wrigley Field (Chicago)
14. U.S. Cellular Field (Chicago)
15. Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (Oakland)
16. Metrodome (Minneapolis)
17. Shea Stadium (NY Mets)

Next up is going to have to wait until 2011 as now we are done for 2010. So that will make 17 parks out of 30 leaving us with "only" 13 left...not sure what we're going to do next year either but we'll start talking about it after the start of 2011.


What were you thinking Kenny?
By the way, good thing they picked up Manny on waivers instead of addressing their bullpen issues because they very clearly have issues scoring runs...NOT. How did Kenny let the Twins pick up Fuentes? Even if you don't think you need the guy, don't you have to at least block your rival from getting stronger? Maybe Kenny was at that comedy club a little longer than Ozzie's son reported and he just missed this one. I mean the Twins lost their closer before the season started and in the last month have added two in Matt Capps and Brian Fuentes so that problem is seemingly solved. Of course, the worst news for the Sox is that Justin Morneau is on the comeback trail and could bring his .345 BA, 18 HRs, and 56 RBIs back to their lineup without having to add to their payroll as the Sox did with the addition of Manny.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Good Bye Granpda Lou!

Here I am again for the second straight post saying good bye to another Cub...this time Manager Lou Piniella after he announced his sudden retirement today. Arguably, he's been retired since last July when he gave up on a winnable division, but as of August 22, 2010, it is now official...Grandpa Lou is GONE!

There was a lot of irony or coincidences or as Lou called them, Cubby occurrences with today's festivities. Today was the day the Cubs chose to honor Braves manager Bobby Cox who is making his final appearance as a manager here at Wrigley Field (completely official now with the Cubs NOWHERE near the playoff picture). I don't know when the Cubs announced the fact they would honor Cox (is it weird that an opposing team would be honoring him while still managing against them?), but my guess is that it was quite some time ago when the Cubs had not yet been eliminated from the playoffs (actually, they still probably haven't been officially eliminated). Anyway, so the Cubs chose to honor the opposing team manager on a day when their own manager announced his own retirement due to personal reasons related to his mom's health. Many people, myself included were wondering why Lou didn't just stay down in Florida with his sick mother a couple weeks ago when he took some time off to be with her...why want a couple weeks and hang on watching (OK, maybe managing...) this lousy team? The GM is dumping his players left and right and he's "stuck" with all these rookies, so why come back? He had the perfect excuse with the sick mother...stay home and be done with this!

In a bit of pathetic irony, the Cubs lost today's game (I was there unfortunately) 16-5 to the Braves which gives Lou bookend losses to the same team by the same score to start and end his final season as manager. Some similarities between the two games were LONG bombs hit by Braves rookie Jason Heyward although he actually hit two dead into a 15-20 mph wind today. Heyward also had 4 RBIs in both games. One big difference was the Cubs' starting pitching...in the Opener, former #1 starter Carlos Zambrano gave up 8 ER in 1 1/3 innings while today it was primarily the bullpen giving up the runs (although Wells was charged with the first 2 runs as he started the 7th) as the Braves scored 11 runs in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings. Did Lou really come back to manage a bullpen with guys like Justin Berg, James Russell, Tommy Diamond, and Marcus Mateo? Diamond was the diamond in the rough today only allowing 1 run but at least it was unearned. Berg was the victim of some more HORRIFIC Cubs' defense although somehow all 5 of the runs he gave up were deemed earned. Actually, he was on the mound or responsible for 8 total runs as he inherited bases loaded and allowed all three to score on THE worst defensive play of the season (and that's saying a LOT with this lousy team - more on this later). Mateo finished it off with 2 more runs in the 9th raising his ERA to 11.37. Lou came back to manage these guys?!?

The Braves have seemingly been inspired by knowing this is Bobby Cox' last season as they've pretty much come from nowhere (literally NOBODY picked them to finish higher than 3rd in the NL East) to lead their division right now. I don't think they'll have enough juice to hold onto their current 2 1/2 game lead with the Phillies getting healthy and surging up from behind them. Their big key is their ridiculous 44-17 record at home which leads the entire MLB. The Cubs were in the same boat this year with their manager almost certainly retiring at season's end and look what they've done - today's loss leaves them 21 1/2 games behind the Reds in the NL Central. Want some more irony? How about the fact that the first place Reds are managed by Dusty Baker? The Reds payroll is just a little more than half that of the Cubs. Irony can be so ironic...

Much of the ridiculously large crowd (announced at over 37,000 although take it from someone that was there, NO WAY - lots of no-shows!) seemed to be cheering Lou each time he came out of the dugout to make pitching changes including a fairly surprising double-switch in the 7th. I have to say I was NOT one of the idiots people cheering for Grandpa Lou. WHY would anyone cheer for this guy? His trip to Chicago was a complete and utter failure! I know he said he feels like he raised the bar, but WRONG again Lou...the bar was already raised when you arrived big guy. I know he recently came out and said he didn't really understand what he was getting himself into when he was brought in to manage the Cubs to a World Series win. What did we get instead? We did get a surprise visit to the playoffs in Lou's first year which ended quite unceremoniously with a 3-0 sweep against the D-backs in the first round of the playoffs...not to worry...we weren't even supposed to be in the playoffs in 2007. In 2008, Lou led the Cubs to the best record in the NL with 97 wins..NICE...but another 3-0 sweep ended that season much more abruptly and Lou's managing had a LOT to do with that sweep. How does Fukudome start game 1? How does Ted Lilly (a.k.a. Bulldog for his tenaciousness) NOT get a start in that series? How does Z get a start? Other than what proved to be a total fluke with a no-hitter on 9/14, Z had given up 5, 8, 3, 6, 5, and 9 runs in 6 of his final 8 starts heading into the playoffs...not exactly the run you were hoping for although he kept it "going" by giving up 7 to the Dodgers in game 2. Harden pitched well in LA, but no O finished off the Cubs. The team played very tight - Dempster walked 7 in less than 5 innings in game 1, the 4 errors by the entire infield in game 2, and 0 RBIs by their 3-4 hitters in Lee and Ramirez. Unfortunately, the 97 wins in 2008 was Lou's best "moment" as Cubs manager as he couldn't even helped the Cubs earn a single playoff game win, let alone series win or World Series ring. Lou's record as Cubs manager finished up at 316-292 which is above .500, but we were past that point weren't we? I thought so, but apparently Grandpa Lou didn't.

So now, the dreaded interim manager tag goes to Mike Quade. He has never managed in the bigs before, but he did manage well over 2000 games in the minors including 4 seasons at AAA Iowa. What happened to Alan Trammell? Hendry said he "made a decision in the process moving forward that Alan would not be considered for the managerial job after this year." Yikes! As I have mentioned before, NOBODY else "gets it" and it will take an ex-Cub to get this thing turned around. That leaves just Joe Girardi and Ryne Sandberg as I'm not aware of any other ex-Cub candidates. Bob Brenley won a World Series with the D-backs a few years ago and he would seem to know what he was getting himself into having been the Cubs television broadcaster for the last several years. I like what he has to say on TV and maybe out of any of the other candidates, he might actually "get it" so I'd throw him in there as the #3 candidate. As I've also said before, we've gone the "experienced" route with the last two disappointments...Girardi has some experience including a World Series ring as a manager and 3 more as a player ('96, '98, and '99 Yankees). He won the manager of the year award in 2006 while managing basically an entire minor league Florida Marlins team to a near .500 record and is now in his 3rd year as Yankees manager so he has proven he can coach young kids AND also handle big name, big money guys too...sounds PERFECT as that's just what the Cubs will have next year.

So the hope for me starts with Tom Ricketts firing EVERYONE ($145 million payroll is on pace for 96 losses and STILL nobody has been fired!) including Crane Kenney, Jim Hendry, and ALL the coaches. Then I hope the Yankees hold on to win the toughest division in baseball but fail to win the AL pennant again...then the Yankees don't renew Girardi's contract and the Cubs jump on that opportunity...he brings in Ryno, Mark Grace, and Greg Maddux to help him take this fairly young (all of a sudden!) team to the "promised land". Grace and Sandberg should certainly be able to work with this HORRIBLE defense (do you think Grace could help Colvin become a pretty good 1B?). Do you think Maddux could show Marmol how to throw strikes? What about teaching Samardzija a second or third pitch? What about Zambrano? The Cubs have him for at least 2 more seasons so lets try to make the best of a poor situation and it definitely starts with the coaching and atmosphere in the clubhouse.


What a TOTAL DEBACLE today at the "friendly confines"! Did it get off on the wrong foot by honoring a manager whose team has pretty much tormented the Cubs during his 25 years as Braves manager? Maybe...shouldn't knowing today's game was officially the end of Lou's tenure have made up for that though? If it did, it certainly wasn't obvious...Cubs starter Randy Wells gave up a lead-off HR to Omar Infante who would touch 'em all twice for his 5th and 6th bombs of the season (i.e. not exactly a power hitter folks). Wells was charged with 7 runs, but didn't get a lot of help. His defense was atrocious and the relievers did little to relieve anything as I mentioned above. I haven't seen worse 3B play than Aramis displayed since attending an Iowa Cubs game last summer and watched Bobby Scales look more like a matador than a 3B. Aramis was only issued with 1 error on a terrible throw on an easy DP ball right to him where he stepped on 3rd and threw a one-hopper to Xavier Nady at 1B. Another hard hit ground ball that went right at him was called a hit (nice for Aramis; not so nice for the pitching staff) but helped lead to 4 runs in the 7th for the Braves which broke open a 5-3 game. He also played matador when his old buddy D-Lee hit a ball to his right that he failed to get a glove on for a bases clearing 3-run double (Lee's first RBIs and first "hit" as a Brave). I mentioned above that the Cubs made the worst defensive play of the year in the 7th inning. With the bases loaded, Alex Gonzalez hit a flare to short LF...Cubs rookie 20-year old SS Starlin Castro broke back to the ball immediately while Cubs veteran LF Alfonso Soriano must not have because Castro beat him to the spot but neither player got a glove on the ball...it was a flare so it didn't go far, but Soriano overran the ball so Castro had to retrieve the ball...no communication at all on the infield as Gonzalez was frozen between 1st and 2nd while the runner from 1st rounded 3rd...Castro didn't know what to do with the ball and the hesitation cost the Cubs a run that even the scoreboard operator didn't get for a few minutes...they did get Gonzalez out for the 3rd out of the inning, but the runner from 1st scored before they got the out so that run scored too. So for those of you scoring at home...that's a 3-run single with no error!

So GOOD BYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE GRANDPA LOU! I for one will NOT miss you AT ALL. Enjoy your retirement...now you can wear your 1977 Yankees World Series ring all you want!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Good Bye D-Lee

If you have followed my blog, particularly last year, you know that D-Lee was the subject of my ire much of last season; he was a distant #2 to Jim Hendry for putting this mess together in the first place. Well, today I got my wish even if it happened a year late...the Cubs officially traded D-Lee. Surprisingly, they actually received 3 minor leaguers from the Braves in return including their 16th ranked player. With only 40 games left in the season, his last one of his big 5-year contract, it certainly works better that they actually received compensation beyond the the dreaded "bag of balls".

I'm a little concerned with the "cash considerations" phrase I keep hearing and reading tonight as I just don't understand that concept...it's not like the Braves are doing this huge favor, is it? Same thing with the Dodgers and Ted Lilly (now 3-0 with 1.89 ERA for them)...WHY are the Cubs paying ANY of the money owed to these traded players? Apparently, it's part of "the game" I guess as it seems to happen every time one of these trades happen so I know I shouldn't be surprised.

Here's a quick little history of D-Lee with the Cubs:
  • D-Lee made himself right at home here in the NLCS while on his way to winning the World Series with his former team - the Florida Marlins
  • D-Lee was "stolen" from the Marlins in an off-season salary dump trade to the Cubs for Hee-Seop Choi and a minor leaguer before the 2004 season
    • With the addition of D-Lee and Greg Maddux, the Cubs were the overall favorites to win the World Series - didn't even make the playoffs as the folded down the stretch
    • 2003-04 was the first time the Cubs finished about .500 in consecutive seasons since 1972 which was the 6th straight season they finished above .500
  • D-Lee's numbers in 2004 were nearly identical to his 2003 Marlins number, with the exception of post-season numbers obviously
    • The Cubs finished with a better record than 2003, but finished 3rd in the NL Central and watched the Red Sox break the Curse of the Bambino while winning their first World Series in 86 years
      • Cubs non-World Series streak reaches 96 years
  • D-Lee had a HUGE year winning his only batting title to date, nearly winning the MVP (finished 3rd behind Pujols who won and Andruw Jones who finished 2nd), making his first All-Star Game, winning his second Gold Glove and earning his only Silver Slugger (tough to beat out Albert Pujols)
    • The Cubs were not very good finishing 4 games under .500 leaving them in 4th place while watching their cross-town rivals break their streak by winning their first World Series in 88 years
      • Cubs non-World Series streak reaches 97 years
  • D-Lee broke his wrist on a freak play when Rafael Furcal (who the Cubs very nearly signed that off-season) crashed into Lee near 1st base
    • Lee played a career low 50 games which "helped" push the Cubs to 96 losses and led to Dusty Baker being fired
    • Lou Piniella was hired to replace Dusty Baker (should have hired Joe Girardi who was unceremoniously fired by the Florida Marlins even though he won the Manager of the Year)
  • D-Lee came back from the freak wrist injury but was not quite the same player at least from a power standpoint dropping from 46 HRs and 107 RBIs in 2005 to 22 HRs and 82 RBIs in 2007
    • Cubs turned it around in Lou's first season winning the NL Central just as they did for Dusty in 2003
    • This time, no "magic" in the post-season for the Cubs getting swept by the Dodgers in the NLDS
      • D-Lee hit .333 in the series but had zero RBIs
    • Cubs non-World Series streak reaches 99 years
  • D-Lee nearly duplicated 2007 regular season numbers in 2008
    • Cubs won 97 games earning the #1 seed in the NL for the playoffs
      • This was the first time since 1908 that the Cubs made the post-season two seasons in a row
    • Cubs were again swept by the Dodgers in the NLDS
      • D-Lee his .545 in the series but again had zero RBIs
    • Of course, this was the dreaded 100-year anniversary of when the Cubs last won the World Series
  • D-Lee was about the only bright spot from last year's 2009 Cubs team finishing with a career high 111 RBIs while hitting 35 HRs and batting .306
    • The Cubs did finish above .500 for the third straight season, but finished 2nd in the NL Central and missed the playoffs
    • 101 years and counting for the Cubs last World Series title
  • D-Lee REALLY struggled during this 2010 season from start to "finish"; combining with Aramis Ramirez' career worst year completely doomed the Cubs
    • D-Lee finished his nearly 7-year run with the Cubs hitting .251 which was his worst since 1999
      • Before hitting 4 HRs against the Cards last weekend (very timely as far as this trade happening), he was sitting on 12 HRs for the year having hit only 2 in the previous 8 weeks
      • Of course in "typical" D-Lee fashion, all 4 HRs this past weekend were solo shots
        • Actually, 10 of his 16 HRs this year were solo leading to a pathetic RBI total of 56 through 120 games
During his exit press conference, he said his "experience was nothing but positive" referring to his nearly 7 years in Chicago and that he "grew as a player, grew as a person" but he "didn't achieve the ultimate goal". D-Lee was a very respected player and considered a clubhouse leader...in that sense, he will certainly be missed. His anti-clutchness will not be missed...at least not by me. I don't know a way to figure out how to come up with the following stat, but I'd like to see where he falls in regard to RBIs per HR...his career 162-game average is 90 RBIs and 28 HR. While 28 HRs is a very respectable total (no, he is definitely NOT Albert Pujols - there's only ONE of those guys!) but barely exceeding 3 RBIs per HR just doesn't seem like a lot to me. Out of his 309 career HRs, 191 of them have been solo shots (62%) so it isn't like this year's performance (62.5%) is an aberration. I looked up a few other guys and this is what I found:
     Aramis Ramirez - 281 total HRs, 143 solo (51%)
     Sammy Sosa - 609, 326 solo (53.5%)
     Paul Konerko - 356, 212 solo (59.5%)
     David Ortiz - 343, 204 solo (59.5%)
     Carlos Lee - 322, 173 solo (54%)
     Adam Dun - 347, 196 solo (56.5%)
     Adrian Gonzalez - 159, 89 solo (56%)
     Alfonso Soriano - 309, 197 solo (64%)

I swear this is every single player I thought of and didn't leave anyone off the list that didn't help make my point. Paul Konerko has been brought up quite a bit lately as being non-clutch so I threw him in there. I find it interesting that Soriano is the only one with a higher percentage and was the closest to D-Lee's percentage since he was a lead-off hitter for so long.

Similar to how Mike Fontenot (not that there is any other comparison with these two guys) who was traded to the Giants while the Cubs were in San Francisco; D-Lee is traded to the Braves as they come to town this weekend. The Braves are hosting the Washington Nats right now with a game on Thu afternoon (get-away day!), but I doubt they'll have D-Lee fly out there just to turn back around and head back to Chicago right after that game.

So will the Cubs miss D-Lee? Most definitely; particularly rookie Starlin Castro and Aramis Ramirez who take the most advantage of D-Lee's Gold Glove ability to save them several throwing errors. The rest of the team will miss his clubhouse presence (except Carlos Zambrano maybe) and his quiet leadership. To me, it seems like he along with Aramis and Lou have all thrown in the towel already so I'd rather see him move on before passing on those thoughts to the rest of his young teammates.

So who replaces D-Lee at 1B for the next 41 games? I'd LOVE to see Tyler Colvin get a shot as I just don't think the Cubs really have anyone in the minors ready to step in (and don't say "what about Micah Hoffpauir?" because he's had his chance - he hit .239 in 105 games last year and is 0-for-7 with 4 Ks this year). The outfield remains set without Colvin as far as big contracts for 2011 - Soriano ($72 million for 4 more years) in LF, newly signed Marlon Byrd ($12 million for 2 more years) in CF, and Fukudome ($13.5 million for 2011) in RF. Fukudome may eventually be traded next year as he'll be in the last year of his contract, but it will take some time and you'd hate to have that much money sitting on the bench. BUT I have ZERO confidence the Cubs management "brain trust" will think even slightly out of the box so we'll probably see Xavier Nady over there instead...or maybe a combo with Hoffpauir. Now that Lee is gone, will the Cubs pull off the biggest coup EVER and nab The Machine who is a potential free agent and seemingly nearly unsignable by the Cards? If not, what about grabbing Adrian Gonzalez from the cash-stricken Padres?

After Lou ripped the rookie pitchers following Mon's loss, he basically apologized following Tue's loss. If you watched today (Wed) and you were paying attention, you saw 10 rookies play today including 6 pitchers and 4 starters against the NL's best team. What?!? Holy cow! Speaking of Lou, what was the point of Lou wearing his 1977 Yankees World Series ring? His Cubs are now 21 games under .500 and in 5th place in the NL Central 19 1/2 games behind Dusty Baker's Cincinnati Reds. They've already raised the white flag with the Lilly/Theriot trade at the deadline and the rumors were swirling about a potential Lee trade on top of that. So was the 1977 ring a "nah, nah, na-nah, nah - you'll never have one of these" things or what? Just like everything else Lou since last summer, I just don't get it.

Anyway, Good Bye D-Lee...regardless of everything, I wish you well and I'll see you on Sunday as I'm heading back to the Friendly Confines for the 8th time this season (yuck!). I'll be pulling for your Braves in the NL during Bobby Cox' last season but hope the Rangers win it all (I guess not if they have to face the Rays in the playoffs - yikes!).

GO BULLS!!!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

WOW - Are They Bad!

The Cubbies suffered yet another 1-run loss - this time 1-0 in just another pathetic offensive display.  That makes them a staggering 14-30 in 1-run games...that's just insane!  The opposing Padres scored the lone run of the game on yet another questionable defensive play and I'm not even talking about the two errors the MLB's worst defensive team made tonight. With the bases loaded and one out, a grounder was hit to Xavier Nady who double-clutched and ended up feeding Randy Wells to get a force out at first allowing the only run of the game to score.  OK - so you're probably thinking, well, one run isn't going to win this game and while you'd be wrong in this case, that certainly isn't all that strange as you definitely want to be sure not to give up a big inning at that point of the game.  BUT, my problem is more with the total indecision by Nady...he didn't seem to know whether he wanted to go home, try to turn a DP, or take the play himself at 1st base. What exactly do these guys practice? The defense has been, well, indefensible ALL season long so what are the Cubs doing about it? Just like with everything else, they just stand pat and do nothing! Have they fired a single coach? Hired anyone else to help out with the D? Nope! They just stand by and watch as this season that started with such promise with a new owner (one of us;.an actual Cub fan!) continues to simply unravel right before our eyes.

The Cubs remain on pace to surpass 3 million idiots fans (myself included several times - splitting partial season tickets) passing through the turnstiles at the quite friendly (at least to the out-of-town visiting teams) confines - the Cubs are now 27-34 at home this season. Add that to their even worse 23-36 road record and they are now incredibly 20 games under .500 at 50-70. There are only 5 teams in the entire MLB that have worse records and Cleveland is just 1/2 game behind the Cubs. I mean, we're talking about perennial doormats that don't spend any money like the Orioles and Pirates, but the Cubs' record is even worse than other doormats like the Nats and Royals this year so they've really outdone themselves this time and with no key injuries to blame like they did last year with Aramis missing significant time. Nope, this year is all about underachieving despite what Lou is saying about the rookies being given the "opportunity of a lifetime" and "none of them want to step up". I know he is really calling out his GM for the lousy pitching staff he was given to manage this year, but really...this is the way to handle that...by calling out some kids that shouldn't be here anyway? What a total JERK!

It isn't even that the Cubs stink or the way they are losing some of these games (although they have been quite imaginative in that arena) that bothers me most of all...it's actually the way the organization (and I use that term very loosely as organized they are not!) is handling it. They're in the midst of going 4-15 over their last 19 games and what do they do? They serve caviar for the pregame meal just because they took 2-of-3 from the hated Cardinals. Now I'm always happy to beat the Cardinals, but caviar?!? Are you serious?!? What's next - $1000 bonuses for taking a walk? I guess we know where at least some of the revenue from the highest ticket prices in MLB are going, huh?

Again, no firings at all of any of the management! They sent Aramis down to Iowa for a few days with his "injury" (otherwise known as horrific slump) and they sent Zambrano to anger management...but what about the knuckleheads supposedly in charge of this mess? Managers are getting fired left and right; GMs too! How low do the Cubs have to go before ANYONE gets fired? I harp on this a lot and I'm sorry, but I just don't get it...how does a guy spending $145 million for a team in 5th place 20 games below .500 NOT get fired? What about the manager? Lou was asked today after his guys went 0-for-7 with RISP if they were a little anxious...picture the typical Lou grimace and then "Hmmm...I don't know...maybe". Were you there watching the game Lou? Jon Garland is just like Ryan Dempster...a lot of soft stuff and hardly any real strikes...he counts on the hitters' impatience to swing at the change-up or slider in the dirt to get guys out...he did that to perfection against a terrible team struggling to do anything right. You would think the prized pitching coach Rudy Jamarillo would whisper into someone's ear in the dugout - "hey, let's take a couple pitches in your next AB and see how that works". Nope - guys were up there free swinging like usual all the way to the end. Garland's line says 7 IP, 4 hits, 0 runs, 3 Ks, and 3 BBs on only 91 pitches. That's a line Dempster would be very proud of...too bad Garland was in the other dugout tonight.

Not that the guy on the mound for the Cubs was the problem tonight.  His line was very similar - 7 IP, 3 hits, 1 run, 6 Ks, 3 BBs but on 122 pitches. How does one guy need 30 more pitches to allow 3 fewer hits with the same number of walks? Patience...working the count...oh ya, and 3 DPs (the Cubs turned one). Had Nady been more decisive (heck, I tell my 8-year olds on my daughter's team to "know what you're going to do with the ball if it is hit to you") back in the first inning, it could have been a DP and extra innings in a scoreless tie. The defense continues to hurt the Cubs!

Let's get back to the rookies and this supposed awesome pitching coach the Cubs have had seemingly forever. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it seems that when rookies come in, they seem to start like gangbusters and then start to fall-off the longer they're here. Is that the Cubs pitching coach? That is, the longer he works with these kids, the worse they get? Just for another example, lets look at Jeff Samardzija...he was nearly lights out when he first came up:
2008 - 26 games, 2.28 ERA (debut on 7/25/08)
2009 - 20 games, 7.53 ERA (first game 4/23/09)
2010 - 4 games, 18.90 ERA (first game 4/5/10) but 10-2 for AAA Iowa Cubs

Message to Tom Ricketts:
IT IS TIME TO START OVER! 
Lou Piniella is gone (he can go at any time as far as I'm concerned), Larry Rothschild, Jim Hendry and Crane Kenney MUST be next. Feel free to start wielding the ax anytime!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

1995-96 Bulls vs. 2010-11 Heat (part 2)

Corrections 
I messed up a few things in my post last night (I guess that's what happens when you're up typing at 1am) so I'll start with those and then finish up some other thoughts I have on this.

Point Guard comparison should be Ron Harper vs. Mike Miller
These guys are the starters as opposed to the guys I compared in last night's post (oops!) who all get added to their team's bench. Even though Steve Kerr actually played more minutes than Ron Harper, Harper was the starter for 80 of 82 games and Kerr never started. This is an interesting match-up as Mike Miller is a pretty decent offensive player although his numbers the last two seasons weren't as good as they were earlier in his career and Ron Harper is a pretty good defensive player. Maybe it is simply a matter of aging but that makes the match-up even more interesting as Ron Harper was also aging by the time the 1995-96 season rolled around. Just strictly looking at the numbers makes them nearly identical - 11.3/10.9 ppg, 4.0/3.9 apg, and 4.1/6.2 rpg (the difference here is probably because Miller plays more SF that Harper). I would argue Harper was a much better defender but Miller is a much better shooter. As I really don't think Miami is going to use Miller much for offense (Harper actually scored a little more than Miller anyway) with The Three Am-EGOS handling the ball 95% of the time, I'm going to call this a wash.
Edge Even

Heat Game Schedule
Since the Heat and Bulls are NOT in the same division, they only face off 3 times instead of the 4 I mentioned yesterday although 2 of the 3 are in the United Center (i.e. tougher road games for Heat). They still play the Bucks 4 times although the Bucks are in the same division as the Bulls. Interestingly, the Bulls are the only Central Division team not to play the Heat four times which does make it a little easier for the Heat overall as they get to play two pretty bad teams in Detroit and decimated Cleveland 4 times each. That means they "only" have to go 16-9 in those tough games I mentioned yesterday but 57-0 in the rest in order outdo the 1995-96 Bulls...I still think they will NOT be able to do it.

NBA Expansion
The Bulls also had the advantage of facing a somewhat weaker NBA in 1995-96 as expansion added two teams north of the border in Vancouver (Grizzlies - now in Memphis) and Toronto (Raptors). When teams are added, they do start from scratch, but not totally...there was an expansion draft where the new teams could draft players from other NBA teams. The Raptors picked 14 players while the Grizzlies picked 13 from current NBA teams. It's not like the new teams could pick the top players from the current teams as the teams were allowed to protect a certain number of players, but what an expansion draft tends to do is weaken the benches of all the teams. Ironically, the first player selected in that expansion draft was BJ Armstrong from the Bulls which certainly hurt their depth a bit, but apparently not too much as they went on to decimate the league to the tune of 72-10 during the regular season. With no expansion happening this year, that further hurts the Heat from exceeding that 72-win total as predicted by Jeff Van Gundy.
Edge Bulls


====================================================



I meant to also discuss coaching as well as bench comparisons...

Phil Jackson vs. Erik Spoelstra or Pat Riley
This isn't much of a contest, but that's why I want to bring it up...Let's just count rings to start with - Phil has 11, Erik has ZERO (should work well combined with LeBron and Bosh also with ZERO), and Riley has 5 plus both Phil and Riley each won a ring as NBA players as well (Phil - Knicks and Riley - Lakers and they beat each other in the Finals back-to-back years). I'm not sure how long Erik will last as head coach which is why I added Pat Riley to this discussion as most everyone believes he will be coaching this team before the end of the season. So let's just play it Phil vs. Riley...they have faced off against each other in the playoffs on several occasions. Riley's Knicks "beat" Phil's Bulls in 1994 on the infamous phantom foul call on Scottie Pippen that sent Hubert Davis to the foul line in Game 5 of that series. Other than that, Phil has gotten the better of Riley each of the other times they faced each other in the playoffs - 1991 Finals (Bulls beat Lakers 4-1), 1992 EC Second Round (Bulls beat Knicks 4-3), 1993 EC Finals (Bulls beat Knicks 4-2), and 1996 EC First Round (Bulls beat Heat 3-0), 1997 EC Finals (Bulls beat Heat 4-1). That makes Phil 5-1 against Riley in the playoffs. Of course, Riley would LOVE to change that this year by taking over the Heat and keeping Phil from achieving his unbelievable 4th threepeat (more irony...I believe Riley is the one that coined the term threepeat although NONE of his teams have ever achieved it).
Edge Bulls

Bulls Bench vs. Heat Bench
This may be the biggest difference in the two teams. The Bulls bench featured the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year in Toni Kukoc along with several important role players. The Heat bench features Udonis Haslem and whoever isn't starting from my previous post. Kukoc alone is enough to give the Bulls the edge here, but let's talk a bit more on the rest of the bench. The Bulls had defensive players like Randy Brown and John Salley as well as a few other role players that would run through a wall for this team like Jud Buechler and Bill Wennington. But in addition to Kukoc, the Bulls also had sharp-shooting Steve Kerr on the bench. The Heat have Jamaal Magloire who hasn't done much of anything since leaving the Bucks following the 2005-06 season (that's 5 years ago!), Juwan Howard who is on his 9th team and also hasn't done much in 5 years, Carlos Arroyo, Eddie House, and Mario Chalmers who I discussed in yesterday's post. This one just isn't close folks...

Edge Bulls


It's the age old story...wouldn't it be cool to see how this team from this era would fair against this other team in this other era? As much as I'd love to see how these Bulls would stack up against that 1971-72 Lakers team, I'd REALLY love to see how they match-up with this year's Heat! Heck, I can't wait to see how this year's Bulls match-up with this year's Heat! At least I know that match-up IS going to happen (although not until Jan 15th) where the others will most certainly NOT happen without a time machine and I'm still working out the kinks there.


GO BULLS!!!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

1995-96 Bulls vs. 2010-11 Heat

I rarely even refer to the team from South Beach by their actual team name, but since I want to compare the entire team rosters between the 72-10 Bulls and this year's Heat, I had to use their team name.

Jeff Van Gundy recently came out stating that the Heat had a real chance to surpass the record of the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls which was 72-10. He also said that they could even break the 1971-72 Lakers record of 33 straight games. Personally, I don't think either are real possibilities, but let's take a look, shall we? I don't know enough about the 71-72 Lakers to compare them but will concede that they were one of if not THE best teams ever with Hall of Famers like Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Gail Goodrich, and NBA Logo Jerry West; not to mention Pat Riley (ironic, huh?) who was a pretty good player as well.

The 95-96 Bulls have their second player being inducted into the Hall of Fame this weekend in Scottie Pippen. Michael Jordan (THE BEST EVER) was inducted last year. Will Dennis Rodman ever get in? He was a rebounding and defensive machine, but that was pretty much his whole game so I doubt it.

Anyway, let's layout the starters first:
Bulls:
  1. Steve Kerr
  2. Michael Jordan
  3. Scottie Pippen
  4. Dennis Rodman
  5. Luc Longley
Heat:
  1. Carlos Arroyo
  2. Dwyane Wade
  3. LeBron James
  4. Chris Bosh
  5. Joel Anthony
Michael Jordan vs. Dwyane Wade
Do I really need to go into this match-up? This really just isn't close folks. Wade is a very good basketball player, but he is NOT, let me repeat, he is NOT Michael Jordan. Michael averaged over 30ppg with NO HAND CHECK rules like they have today! Can you imagine how many points he'd be averaging today? Wade averaged 26.6ppg last year and shot a respectable 48% from the field and 76% from the stripe. Michael shot 50% from the field and 83% from the stripe. Wade shot nearly 50 more FTs than Michael (think the hand check rules helped him at all?). Michael was All-NBA first team as well as All-NBA Defensive first team as well while Wade was All-NBA first team but was second team for D. Does anyone think the shorter Wade would be able to guard Michael in the post? Didn't think so...
Edge Bulls

Scottie Pippen vs. LeBron James
Funny how now people are starting to refer to LeBron as Scottie Pippen referring to his new "second fiddle" status on Wade's team. Both of these guys are fabulous basketball players; no question about it and this would be an AWESOME match-up to watch. Would anyone be better at guarding LeBron than Scottie Pippen? I mean EVER in the NBA? Yes, LeBron is stronger than Scottie ever was, but with ZERO post-game (maybe in his 8th year in the NBA, it might just be time to expand the game a bit), I truly believe Scottie's length and quickness would severely offset LeBron's offensive game. The question then becomes how well would LeBron be able to guard Scottie? I think this would be a virtual stalemate...
Edge Even

Now that the Bulls have negated the best two players from South Beach, where does that leave the match-ups?

Dennis Rodman vs. Chris Bosh
Most people agree that Chris Bosh is a very soft player with limited interest in playing any type of defense. Well Chris, let me introduce you to Mr. Rodman...his job is defense and he LOVES to do nothing more than stop the other team's PF or even C. Did you get a chance to watch any tape of the Bulls vs. Jazz in 1996-97 or 97-98? Rodman drove Karl Malone (NBA's 2nd all-time leading scorer - i.e. MUCH better than you will EVER be!) nuts in those series. What do you think he'll do to you when all he has to do is focus on your offensive game?
Edge Bulls

Steve Kerr vs. Carlos Arroyo or Eddie House or Mario Chalmers
Neither of these guys are big impact guys. Kerr's job on the Bulls was to spread the floor and provide Michael and Scottie an option out at the arc for the "drive and kick". Kerr led the NBA in 3-pt FG% a couple of times including 1994-95 which was the season before. He "slumped" in 1995-96 making "only" 51.5% of his 3s to finish 2nd in the NBA. I'm not exactly sure what Arroyo's job will be on this team because he's a career 31.5% 3-pt shooter so he won't exactly put a lot of fear in defenses. Maybe Arroyo won't be the starter and Eddie House will be the PG instead. I've read articles calling Eddie a "sharpshooter" but let's look at his career numbers and see how well the 6'1" guard shoots before we just agree with that assessment. Eddie's a career 39% 3-pt shooter (Kerr shot 45.4%) and shoots 41% overall (Kerr shot 47.9%) so "sharpshooter" may be a little strong. What about Mario Chalmers? After two years in the league, he's shooting 34.6% from the arc and 41.2% overall - both numbers were down last year compared to his rookie season.
Edge Bulls

Luc Longley vs. Joel Anthony or Zydrunas Ilgauskas
I was never much of a fan of Luc but he was definitely the best offensive center Michael and Scottie played with together on the Bulls. Ilgauskas hasn't played more than 70 games since 2007-08 playing only 64 games last year; starting only 6. He averaged a career low 7.4ppg and his overall production has gone down steadily over the last 3 years. This team needs a defensive minded center and Z is NOT it. Joel Anthony sure is making some money (5-year $18 million) with the Heat, but for what? Just a warm body? He hasn't averaged more than 3.5 ppg and that was his rookie year. He's not exactly a big rebounder either maxing out at 3.9 rpg also during his rookie season. Again, Luc was no stud, but come on...he was better than both of these guys averaging 9.1 ppg and 5.1 rpg during the year. Luc wasn't much on D, but he won't have to do much against the Heat's tandem up front.
Edge Bulls

Here are a few other items:
- the Bulls were rated #1 in the NBA in both offense and defense (http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CHI/1996_games.html)
- the Bulls were #1 in scoring with 105.2 ppg and #3 in points allowed giving up a mere 92.9 ppg
- the Bulls finished the season 18-3 in their final 21 games losing all 3 games by one point each
- Michael Jordan played all 82 games in each season of their second 3-peat including the 95-96 season; sorry LeBron, no games off at the end of the season if you want to win 70+
- Michael, Scottie and Dennis Rodman each made the All-Defensive First Team while Michael and Scottie also added All-NBA First Team
- LeBron made the All-Defensive First Team last year, Wade made All-Defensive Second Team, and both made All-NBA First Team; Bosh wasn't on any of these lists

I think I've made my point - the 1995-96 Bulls team would beat the 2009-10 Heat, but again I know this really wasn't the question and doesn't really argue Jeff Van Gundy's point that this year's Heat can win more than 72 games in this year's NBA. Here's what I do know...the Heat have to play the Bulls 4 times, the Lakers twice, OKC twice, the Celtics 4 times, a well-coached Jazz team twice, and Orlando 4 times. Scott Skiles' Milwaukee Bucks won't exactly back down and neither will Joe Johnson's Atlanta Hawks and the Heat play them 4 times each too. So let's assume they lose only 9 games out of this bunch and win all the rest of their games; that's what they would need to do in order to outdo the Bulls giving them a 73-9 record...what does that mean their record has to be? Well, adding up all those games comes to 26 games which means they would need to go 17-9 against the rest of the best teams in the league and 56-0 against the rest and "the rest" includes San Antonio, Portland and Dallas with 2 games each against the Heat.

I just don't see it...these guys have ONE championship TOTAL between them over 21 combined seasons! They never won anything at the college level either...do they even know how to win the big game? Are they going to deal well with the pressure? History says NO! LeBron's teams have gone backwards - since getting swept in the Finals by San Antonio, LeBron's teams have not only still not won a championship, but haven't even made it back to the Finals. I already mentioned Bosh's 3-8 overall playoff record in 7 seasons so I don't need to further elaborate there as this "star" can't even get his team TO the playoffs, let alone win in the playoffs. What has Wade done? He won the championship with Shaq in 2005-06 but were swept in the first round by the Bulls in 06-07, won all of 15 games (Wade was hurt, but still played in 51 games) in 07-08 (many people believe they were sand-bagging to get the top pick - so sorry, you get #2 instead and end up with Michael Beasley who they gave away this off-season instead of Derrick Rose - sort of a "cheaters proof"), and then lost in the first round each of the last two years...not exactly inspiring.

And what about LeBron's comments about his "mental notes of everyone taking shots at me". It was the "me" part of the comment that caught my attention most...while a lot of attention has been focused specifically on LeBron, I think it would have been MUCH better for him to address his comments on the shots taken at his new team rather than focus solely on himself...again, this just confirms my The Three Am-EGOS name. Of course, the fact that this knucklehead is doing anything "mental" is laughable anyway. This guy has NO CLUE and really should just focus on basketball rather than worry about doing anything "mental". For example, who's brainiac idea was it for LeBron to head to Cedar Point just over an hour outside of Cleveland a month after he tore the hearts out of everyone from his hometown? Keep your "talent" in South Beach LeBron!

The way I see it, the team from South Beach makes a pretty good fantasy team, but these guys are NOT winners and don't play much D and they don't have enough of a bench regardless of Jeff Van Gundy's comments - "they have put together a much better roster than anyone could ever have expected". Look, Jeff works for ABC who also owns ESPN which obviously has a vested interest in maintaining the hype of this team after "The Decision" fiasco. Jeff's also an emotional guy (remember the picture of him holding onto Alonzo Mourning during the Heat (more irony) vs. Knicks brawl way back when?); maybe he's got a fantasy basketball team too. There's a LOT of intangibles that go into an ultra-special season he's predicting for these guys. What if ANY of these three guys get hurt for any length of time? In 7 NBA seasons, Dwyane Wade has played 471 regular season games which works out to just over 67 games per season which means he's averaging missing 15 games per season. If Wade misses 15 games next season, they may lose ALL of those games with their total lack of depth. Who steps in for Wade during those 15 games? They'll need to start two of the three guys I listed above as PGs (Chalmers, Arroyo, or Eddie House) which would NOT be too good for them. Bosh has never played a full 82-game season averaging 72.7 games. LeBron is the best of the three, but sill has never played all 82 games either averaging 78 games.

And then, what's the goal this season? Is it to win a ring or beat the Bulls record? I'm not sure that these goals will work together. Again, look at what the C's did this year...they were struggling down the stretch but they were laying low and resting up for a deep playoff run. Granted these three guys are young and maybe they can make it through a full 82-game season without letting up AND maintain their intensity and focus throughout to minimize the number of losses AND handle all the ridiculous pressure and microscope that will be on them all season AND be able to deal with each team's best effort with the giant target they put on their own backs with that ridiculous "coming out" party they through for themselves...NAH...don't think so; not these guys.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Would You Let This Guy Manage Your 8-year Old's Savings Account?

Well, I just can't sit here any longer without blowing my top about this lousy team and the lousy GM that put it together and has done ZERO to do anything about it. How can you get through the trade deadline with all the injuries around the league without doing ANYTHING to alleviate the payroll problem going into next year and beyond. The big move at the deadline was to dump arguably your best starting pitcher in Ted Lilly and starting 2B in Ryan Theriot along with $2.5 million of the $4.3 million owed to Lilly to the Dodgers for Blake DeWitt and a couple minor leaguers. Blake DeWitt does hit left-handed and is nearly 6 years younger than Theriot and the move probably did save the Cubs about $2 million, but the Cubs desperately needed something more than that.

Let's start with the fact that this team is AWFUL - NO OFFENSE, so-so starting pitching, shaky defense at best, and a similar shaky bullpen; the manager retired last August and is just adding to his retirement fund at this point yet no move there either from Jim Hendry. The O's are 6-1 since hiring Buck Showalter; had the Cubs made a move a month or so ago when Lou made it clear he wasn't coming back, maybe Ryne Sandberg could have lit a fire under this team that has not existed since early last year.

Yes, the team has tremendous payroll problems with $140 million in payroll and a 5th place club that is 18 games under .500 with ZERO injuries to blame but lets start with the manager situation. It would seem to me that if Ryne Sandberg were the lock to replace Lou for going into 2011, the Cubs would call him up now at a minimum to sit on the bench and see the team up close rather than starting blind come Spring Training. Alan Trammel is already on the bench; why not send Lou home and give him a shot at managing the team for the next month and a half to see what you may have there even though the way this team is playing may not really be indicative to how either will do in 2011? Since the Cubs haven't done either, it might be because they're doing their typical holding pat and never thinking outside the box or maybe they are holding out for Joe Girardi. Incidentally, I was begging them to pick up Girardi INSTEAD of Grandpa Lou 4 years ago who recently came out saying he really didn't know what he was getting himself into with this job. Joe Torre is in the same position Lou was before coming to Chicago...he's DONE so he's of no interest to me either. I REALLY think it is going to take an ex-Cub to turn this thing around as the rest of the world just doesn't get it. So to me, that leaves Girardi or Sandberg and I think that's the order. If the Yankees do resign Girardi, the Cubs should go with Sandberg in my opinion...they NEED some new, younger blood at the helm of this team...they've tried the experienced guy the last two times with Dusty Baker and Lou Piniella or three times if you throw in Don Baylor; it's time to go in a different direction.

Of course, most everything is going to come down to what the Cubs new ownership does with the GM...will they allow this knucklehead to continue to dump ridiculous amounts of money on middling teams or replace Hendry with some new blood and try to go in a different and fresher direction. Personally, I wouldn't let Jim Hendry manage my 8-year old's savings account let alone $140 million MLB payroll for my $850 million investment. Let's go back to the trade deadline from a couple weeks ago...what the heck happened there Jim? I know D-Lee said he wouldn't go to the Angels, but why not work some magic and do something with Fukudome, Zambrano, Ramirez, Dempster, Soriano, or Silva? There were so many moves to make and the one he did do made ZERO sense to help this team this year or in the future. I just don't get it Jim! Maybe he's on the same retirement plan as Lou started last summer. There's a good young group of players here now, but they can't keep hanging around with this bunch of losers for too long.

But everything you hear and read from Tom Ricketts indicates that Hendry will be back...my question remains WHY?!? What has he done to earn this respect and yet ANOTHER chance? He has been given TONS of money by the Trib and his team has NOTHING to show for it...just one playoff series win in his 9-year tenure and only 3 playoff appearances in a middle market division with a major market payroll. It's time for Jim to go! The sooner the better! Maybe that's why they haven't made a manager move...allowing the new GM to make that decision...hey, a guy can dream can't he???

By the way nothing to do with the Cubs, but I've got two names for Darrelle Revis - Al Harris and Todd Bell. Both of these guys were on the Chicago Bears and held out in 1985 following Pro Bowl seasons and BOTH missed the chance to play for one of the best teams in NFL history and went on to win Super Bowl XX that year. Harris and Bell both came back to the Bears in 1986 but lost their starting spots and the Bears didn't make it back to the Super Bowl for 21 years and obviously neither of those guys were on that team. Do the Jets have the talent without Revis to win the Super Bowl this year? I don't know, but I'd hate to be Revis and find out they are! Plus how do you skip a year in your short NFL career?

Sunday, August 8, 2010

MLB Ball Park Review - Safeco Field (Seattle)

Well, it was drizzling outside this morning and I wasn't too sure what the Mariners were going to do with the retractable roof. Of course as I've mentioned before, I am a big fan of day baseball, but I really didn't want to be sitting out there in a steady rain with my family either. Well, the Mariners and the weather cooperated quite nicely. The retractable roof was closed when we arrived for "batting" practice. That's in quotes because the Mariners must have either done their BP early or skipped it altogether and the Royals (second time this trip we've seen them - yippee) hit about 3 HRs combined with all of their mostly left-handed hitters which was strange considering the Mariners starter was a lefty but I guess that's how you end up in last place. What I didn't know about Safeco was that while they do have the retractable roof, it is still considered an open air stadium meaning the sides are not enclosed at all. If you remember from my Miller Park post, it was drizzling in Milwaukee that day so they closed the roof, but they kept the windows closed and it was stifling inside. Well, not at all so with Safeco...the air temperature outside was a very comfortable 65-70 degrees which meant the "inside" temperature was the same.

Right before the game started (actually during the National Anthem which was sung quite well by a local fireman), they opened the roof. It takes between 10-20 minutes to do so depending on wind conditions. Humorously, they play "I Can See Clearly Now" as the roof opens (of course, they waited a bit after the anthem to start up that song) and it looked like it might be a "sun shiny day" after all...not so, remember we are in Seattle, but it didn't rain again which is all that really matters.

I REALLY liked the combo of having a retractable roof AND still maintain the "open air stadium" effect so that really help push Safeco up my list. I also enjoyed the foot-long hot dog with grilled onions although you can put grilled onions (or bacon for that matter) on anything and I'll probably like it. My wife had the grilled brat with the same grilled onions and didn't like it too much...we're from Chicago and to me, the only place to get a good brat is in Wisconsin (Johnsonville baby!) so I hardly ever venture out on other brats...kind of like pizza outside Chicago...it just is NOT the same thing. This was the third straight stadium offering garlic fries and although I only had 4-5 (dropped them off too early with the wife and two kids apparently), these were the best and actually the cheapest at $6 for a very generous portion so I'd say the food was pretty good. The crowd of just over 24,000 was pretty subdued, but I guess when you're team is as bad as the M's, that's to be expected (although the Cubs crowd always seems to be pretty lively).

There also wasn't much to cheer about either as both teams had only 8 hits and scored a combined 5 runs. I thought the M's managing was a bit suspect feeling like they should have been running earlier in the game and instead hit into an inning killing DP when they were trying to get on the board first in the bottom of the 4th. Chone Figgins (struggling in his first season with the M's) led off with a walk; a 1-2 pitch to Casey Kotchman was the pitch to run on and it bounced well in front of Jason Kendall behind the plate for the Royals for ball 2; and on the next pitch Kotchman grounded into a DP. My thoughts were confirmed when in a similar position, the M's DID run and that led to 2 runs in the 6th. Ichiro went the other way with a 1-out single to LF and on a 1-2 pitch Ichiro was running and Figgins hit a hard grounder through the vacated spot at SS to put runners at the corners with 1 out. While Kotchman worked the count, Figgins stole 2nd to get two runners in scoring position and on a 2-2 pitch lined a single up the middle scoring both of the M's fastest base runners to take a 2-1 lead that the M's would not relinquish. Another questionable decision by the M's manager came in the very next inning with the M's on the verge of serving up a knock-out punch to the fairly punchless offense of the Royals...for whatever reason the Royals left in their starter Kyle Davies to start the 7th even after a 33-pitch 6th inning which put him well over 100 pitches for the game; he gave up a lead-off single to Franklin Gutierrez and THEN was replaced by Texeira who promptly gave up another single to Jose Lopez...so here's where the questionable strategy comes into play...Josh Bard lays down a really nice sac bunt (sounds OK so far, right?) to bring up Ryan Langerhans. Ryan was 0-2 and had struck out twice on 6 pitches total indicating to me that he just wasn't seeing the ball all that well today. Maybe he'll put in a pinch-hitter here in a tight spot...nope...suicide squeeze! Guess what? Didn't work...the Royals must have seen it coming because they called a pitch out leaving Gutierrez hanging out to dry turning 2nd and 3rd with one out into runner at 3rd and two outs. Langerhans promptly struck out on the next pitch going 0-3 with 3 Ks on 9 total pitches...doesn't get much worse than that...mercifully for him, that was his last AB of the game. The M's did get a much needed unearned insurance run in the 8th when Ichiro led off with an infield hit and advanced to 2nd when the throw from Royals SS Mike Aviles ended up in the stands. Ichiro then scored when Figgins singled to LF to make it 3-1. Royals pinch-hitter Alex Gordon hit a LONG homerun to CF in the top of the 9th to make it 3-2 of former Cub and current M's closer David Aardsma but couldn't get another base runner so the final was 3-2 Mariners over the Royals and another W for us! With today's W, we completed another undefeated vacation going 3-0 and improving our overall record to 12-5. Since that awful 1-4 start, we've gone 11-1 since...that's pretty impressive!

As you can see, I really liked Safeco as it moved in front of my favorite of the old ball parks (Fenway Park) on my list. OK, so here is my updated ball park ranking to date:
1. Comerica Park (Detroit)
2. PNC Park (Pittsburgh)
3. Jacobs Field (Cleveland)
4. Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia)
5. Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City, MO)
6. Safeco Field (Seattle)
7. Fenway Park (Boston)
8. Miller Park (Milwaukee)
9. AT&T Park (San Francisco)
10. Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati)
11. Busch Stadium (St. Louis)
12. Yankee Stadium (NY Yankees – pre-2009)
13. Wrigley Field (Chicago)
14. Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (Oakland)
15. Metrodome (Minneapolis)
16. Shea Stadium (NY Mets)

Well, that's 16 ball parks down and 14 more to go! I can't believe we're more than halfway through our journey.

Next up is the White Sox vs. Yankees at U.S. Cellular Field (Chicago) at the end of August. That's not part of this trip but since we live in Chicago, we can see this game without being part of the baseball trip...this one is through my dad's company and several family members will join us but I'll still report on it as I have done each of the other parks the last two years. So that will make 17 parks out of 30 leaving us with "only" 13 left...not sure what we're going to do next year either but we'll start talking about it after the start of 2011.

Since we're nearing the end of our trip, I just want to use this last little part here to AGAIN thank my wife for setting this up and really outdoing herself with a great trip plan. This was one of our longest baseball vacations to date and there were only 3 baseball games meaning there was LOTS of time to fill with other activities and boy did she ever fill that extra time. We still have one more day left in Seattle tomorrow before we head home and I've had a great time so far sweetie…THANK YOU!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

MLB Ball Park Review - Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (Oakland)

I didn't have a lot of hope for this park coming into this game having seen some games there and reading a bit about the park before we arrived. Yes, "Mount Davis" as they call the "bribe" the city/county paid for to entice Al Davis to stay in Oakland is an ugly monstrosity that turns the stadium into more of a football stadium. And yes, the upper decks are completely closed off with Oakland A's tarps, but the park itself was better than I expected. No, it still doesn't outrank any of the other new parks, but it wasn't that bad either.

We sat right behind home plate in the MVP section which was the recommendation for best value. The seats were NICE - a little wider than I am used to and we had a really nice view from there as well. Of course, there were plenty of "oooooos" when ANY type of fly ball happened. I've been to enough games to know you have to watch the outfielders, not the ball from that spot.

The fans were totally into it too even though there was only about 22,000 in attendance. That was MUCH higher than I would have thought considering it was a Wed afternoon game against the last place Royals. What's "funny" is that we were thinking we were going to be watching two lousy teams but then I checked the standings and found out the A's are actually in 2nd place and 1 game over .500 while the Royals were well below .500 but still better winning percentage than the Cubs. Anyway, the fans were similar to those in Wrigley such that they boo the fans that fail to catch foul balls...I like that!

The A's started out slowly and I mean really slowly...starter Brett Anderson walked the Royals lead-off hitter (former White Sox Chris Getz) on 4 pitches. Then on a perfectly executed hit and run (hear that Lou?!?), the #2 hitting Mike Aviles hit a grounder right through the newly vacated 2B position for a base hit to put runners at 1st and 3rd. Aviles stole 2nd and advanced to 3rd on Billy Butler's sac fly that scored Getz. Aviles later scored on a grounder to 3B although the A's tried to get that second out at home. The A's escaped with no further damage but didn't do any of their own damage until the 6th inning when they plated 4 runs with the help of some poor fielding by the Royals. The big knock of the inning was a 2-run double off the right-center field wall by Kevin Kouzmanoff. A solo shot by Royals' SS Betancourt was the final tally of the game and the A's won the game 4-3. That W brings our record to a pretty impressive 11-5 and 10-1 in our last 11 after a bit of a slow start.

The field was in nice condition (they have those built-in "chalk" foul lines that the grounds crew only needs to sweep) and the weather was MUCH nicer than the weather in San Francisco so those were both pluses in the ranking. It was $1 hot dog day and Root Beer Float day too with the money from the celebrity-made root beer floats going to Ron Santo's favorite charity - JDRF. The hot dogs were rated #1 in MLB by the guys that wrote the book we've been reading. I'm from Chicago and like to think I know hot dogs...these were pretty good but the grilled dogs at Wrigley are THE BEST in the majors. The vendor area underneath the stands was pretty newish in that there were LOTS of places down there and a decent amount of room to make your way through. They did have Wrigley Field style troughs in the mens' bathroom which made me feel right at home (still the most efficient way to allow lots of guys to do their thing quickly). They had a nice enough out-of-town AL (left field corner) and NL (right field corner) scoreboard but the rest of the amenities you see at the newer ball parks were not present here in Oakland like a jumbo-tron (I'm sure the pair they have used to be considered huge back in the day, but not by today's standards).

So the Coliseum didn't surpass any of the newer parks but rose to the top of the list of older parks besides "the big three" - Fenway, "old" Yankee, and Wrigley. OK, so here is my updated ball park ranking to date:
1. Comerica Park (Detroit)
2. PNC Park (Pittsburgh)
3. Jacobs Field (Cleveland)
4. Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia)
5. Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City, MO)
6. Fenway Park (Boston)
7. Miller Park (Milwaukee)
8. AT&T Park (San Francisco)
9. Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati)
10. Busch Stadium (St. Louis)
11. Yankee Stadium (NY Yankees – pre-2009)
12. Wrigley Field (Chicago)
13. Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (Oakland)
14. Metrodome (Minneapolis)
15. Shea Stadium (NY Mets)

Next up is Safeco in Seattle where we get to see the Royals play again, this time against the Mariners. It is another day game which will be good too as I really do enjoy day baseball much more than night baseball.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

MLB Ball Park Review - AT&T Park (San Francisco)

Well, we have officially started our 4th annual baseball vacation! Our first stop was in San Francisco to see the Giants take on their arch-rival LA Dodgers. We walked around the outside of the entire park starting behind home plate located on 24 Willie Mays Plaza. The outfield walls are bordered by a sidewalk that allows visitors of the park to walk around near the bay and local marina storing LOTS of sailboats.

From the outside, the ballpark is quite impressive with lots of outdoor area for fans to mingle before/after games. You can also see the backs of some of the park's amenities including the large Coca-Cola bottle and old-fashioned baseball glove. There are a couple of statues that we saw; the first was of Orlando Cepeda but the best one was of Willie Mays near the 3B entrance. There was a mural of Giants' accomplishments painted on high up on a wall near the RF entrance which was perfect as this was where we were planning to enter the park since our seats were in the famous "arcade" area. There were several impressive facts displayed on the wall including all the pennants and division titles the team has won throughout the many years of their existence. One interesting note was that the Giants have gone 0-for-California as far as World Series titles as their last title came in 1954 which was 4 years before they left NY for the west coast.

The Giants beat their hated in-state rival LA Dodgers in front of a capacity crowd of over 42,000 people including many using standing room which I just don't get. There was not much offense by either team as the Giants scored 2 runs on a 2-out triple by Edgar Renteria. Some minor "controversy" on this play as the Dodgers' CF Matt Kemp clearly lost the ball in the sun that in another couple minutes would have been hidden completely behind the stands. I don't believe Kemp would have caught the ball but he may have limited Renteria to a double and kept one of the runs from scoring. I think the ball was going to the wall regardless though and while you never know what might have happened had one thing changed, the Dodgers still scored ZERO and you can't win a baseball game with no runs.

The crowd was definitely into it...reminded me of a Cubs vs. Cardinals game. There were quite a few brave Dodger fans but they were pretty quiet throughout the game as their team didn't give them much to cheer about other than the pitching of Kershaw who was stuck with the loss. I was quietly cheering for one new Dodger - former Cub Ryan Theriot had just been traded to the Dodgers the day before along with LH starter Ted Lilly (Lilly was the main piece of the trade, but wasn't pitching, plus The-Riot used to be my favorite Cub). Theriot went 0-4 with 2 Ks but played some solid D at 2B for his new club.

The park itself was pretty nice; MUCH better than Candlestick for baseball or so I'm told as I've never been there. As I mentioned at the beginning, we sat in the Arcade area which consists of only 3 rows of seats followed by some standing room (filled to capacity!) and a walkway before you're looking at a railing and then the sidewalk and bay outside the stadium. We were there pretty early so we saw both teams take BP (the Dodgers even looked pathetic during BP). While my wife and daughters went to tour the park, my son and I hung around. One ball screamed over us (no chance unfortunately to catch that one) and several went into the bay but we never had a real chance to catch a ball. My son, however worked himself into getting a ball thrown up to him which he caught and kept as a proud souvenir so that was a nice highlight. The scoreboard was very large, but didn't show as many replays as I would have liked; the in-park announcer was a female with a piercing voice that had my youngest flinching nearly every time; and the unique angles particularly in RF made the park somewhat unique. The Stalag 13 security attitude was a bit disturbing as we had to present our tickets on return to our seats following a run for the famous garlic fries (a little too greasy even for me) and then again once we were seated. With so many people in attendance, this seemed a bit excessive to me as anyone that may have been sitting in the wrong seat certainly would have been quickly discovered by the real seat holder pretty early on as there seemed to be very few empties. The weather was a factor and although it was a sunny afternoon, it was hardly a comfortable "shorts day" even in the bleachers...remember this is early August! The Coca-Cola bottle and baseball glove were unique but the park really just didn't knock me out. As such, I have ranked AT&T ranked 8th on my list so far. I doubt it is in any danger of moving down following our next game in Oakland, but it certainly could get pushed even further down the list.

With Sunday’s win by the Giants, we have started up a new winning streak at 1 and are now 10-5 overall. There are only 14 ball parks listed below because we actually saw a double-header which my youngest was very nervous about during our first trip but was happy to learn that a double-header means two games, not two heads.

OK, so here is my updated ball park ranking to date:
1. Comerica Park (Detroit)
2. PNC Park (Pittsburgh)
3. Jacobs Field (Cleveland)
4. Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia)
5. Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City, MO)
6. Fenway Park (Boston)
7. Miller Park (Milwaukee)
8. AT&T Park (San Francisco)

9. Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati)
10. Busch Stadium (St. Louis)
11. Yankee Stadium (NY Yankees – pre-2009)
12. Wrigley Field (Chicago)
13. Metrodome (Minneapolis)
14. Shea Stadium (NY Mets)

Next up is Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, CA on Wednesday when the A's will host the KC Royals. Both teams are not very good, but who am I to say since I am a stupid Cubs' fan. Is it worse to have a team you're not spending $140 million on losing badly night after night or a team you're not spending much money on losing night after night...maybe it's a wash for us fans. Anyway not exactly expecting a big crowd for a Wed afternoon game in Oakland with these two teams facing off, but we'll see.