1)  Anyone thinking that Tommy Rees has the starting QB job sewn up for next year, this game ought to show you different.  A better QB adjusts to that 9 men back defense.

2)  We saw how important Jonas Gray was to our offense.  They went stagnant after he got hurt.  Wood is a good back but nothing more than a change-of-pace back.  We're in trouble next week now.

3)  We had USC alum Pat Haden as our color announcer for years.  Now we've got Mike Mayock (BC alum) as the new guy (he almost couldn't contain himself in the last few minutes).  To add insult to injury, we've got Doug Flutie (BC alum) on the opening show and the halftime show.  What's next, Desmond Howard as the sideline reporter?

The local alumni club just sent an email blast indicating that the game will not be shown in the Denver area.  I have to be somewhere with my wife that evening (she doesn't understand priorities, darn her), and I'm not sure what channel it'll be on, if anywhere here (PPV anyone?).  I'd like to, at least, set my DVR so I can come home and soak it up later in the evening.

Go Irish!

Well, I figure that at least one game a year, I can give BCB readers a report from a Cubs game I got to see here in Denver.  Tonight was my night, I sat in the middle deck, right at the end of the left field line with a great view right down the yellow line marking home run territory running in front of the bleachers into center field.  This view was significant because I could clearly see that DLee's drive at the end of the third inning was a home run if the wind hadn't been blowing hard and in right at that moment.  It was actually blowing quite fiercely, and from the moment he hit it I thought it was gone as long as the wind didn't get it.  I suppose it could have changed the course of the game, but it didn't.

What could have changed the course of the game was changing one stat line.  17 MEN LEFT ON BASE!  What's sad about that is that the Cubs spread the wealth around with that stat.  Aram and Geo (who looked just awful batting in his first game back though he did throw out one base stealer, and I thought he threw out a second, though I didn't have the greatest angle from my seat) each left three (three k's for Geo and one for Aram), and Dome and Fontenot had two each (though Dome had a decent game at the plate going 1 for 2 with 2 BB's).  Three GIDP didn't help, with the first one (off DLee's bat) taking the luster off a 1st and third situation with none out in the top of the first.

Of course, the big story was the scratch of Big Z from the starting lineup.  I watched him go out to center field before the game to warm up and he played catch for about 10-15 throws, shook his head, pointed to his back, and I knew that was it for him.  What interested me is that it was a good ten minutes before they got Sean Marshall out to the bullpen to warmup, and he had to trot out there.  I don't know what took them so long once Z said it wasn't happening.  I wonder if he had enough time to warm up.  Still, they had chances to win this game, and just didn't come through with men on base.

Another interesting storyline was Milton Bradley batting second.  Gameboard's stat line was almost identical to Dome's, i.e., 1 for 2 with 2 BB's (he did strike out with men on base and two out at one point, though I appreciated his passion, because he threw his bat to the ground and followed it with the proverbial bouncing helmet).  In other words, the combination of Dome first and Gameboard second worked like a charm and the table was set for the Cubs' 3,4 and 5 hitters.  And those guys went 0-11, so setting the table didn't matter tonight (though once again, DLee's drive should have been a homer - did I mention that could have been a game changer?)

What's a Cubs/Rockies game in Denver without issues getting into the ballpark?  Last year, we missed the first inning and a half (and a Soto dinger) waiting in line at the "Will Call" window.  Not wanting to repeat that mistake, my wife and I got to the ballpark early, figuring we'd eat a casual dinner there, and relax and enjoy batting practice.  Instead, I got to find out that Coors Field doesn't open its gates (except for the outfield bleachers) until a little over 90 minutes prior to game time.  After all, if you owned the Rockies you wouldn't want to let one of your typically largest crowds of the year in early where they may do stuff like buy concessions and make you money (I remember going to Wrigley as a kid and they opened the gates at 10AM for a game starting around one o'clock).  The Rockies' ownership is not respected here for a variety of reasons, and stuff like this is one of them (for another example, see, '07 World Series ticket fiasco).  In any event, you get the impression they're just not used to large crowds.  A couple of years ago, I drove by the park on my way home from work during the '07 play-in game between the Rockies and the Padres, and there were a number of empty seats visible in the upper deck.  I couldn't imagine that happening at Wrigley.

The one thing we did win all night was, at the singing of the seventh inning stretch, the Cubs' fans outshouted the Rockies fans quite distinctly at the line, "so let's root, root, root for the CUBBIES!"  It did look like the Rockies fans were slightly more numerous than the Cubs fans, but not by much.  And I have to give props to the Cubs fans who dominated the left field bleachers, and were chanting "Let's go Cubbies" in the ninth, only to be drowned out, not by Rockies fans, but by Coors Field's stupid audio system.  I can stomach my ears ringing because either the Rockies or Cubs fans were loud.  But who would know over all that artificial noise they pump in?

Well, my wife and I delayed a trip to the mountains this weekend to make the game tonight, so we'll be watching on TV tomorrow.  Just don't say that I brought them bad luck tonight.  Tonight was the very first time I've seen the Cubs lose in Coors Field (I usually see them once a year, and somehow, I've always picked a winning game).

By the way, I wore my BCB tee shirt tonight with pride.  Didn't see anyone else with one on, though there was plenty of Cubs stuff around.

Get 'em tomorrow.

I just finished reading a blog post by Steve Rosenbloom saying that nothing was acceptable for the Cubs this postseason other than a victory in the World Series.  He said "to publicly declare that anything less is OK is a self-inflicted Cubbie Occurrence."  My apologies to all for my inability to figure out how to get the URL on here (though some of you may appreciate not having to read that drivel).

I'm really ticked off about this.  I have posted a response saying that he isn't going to ruin my season by declaring that all is lost if they don't win the Series.  If the Cubs don't win the Series, Aram's walk-off homer vs. the Sox doesn't go away, the 9-1 comeback vs. the Rockies doesn't go away, the comeback last week against the Brewers with two outs in the ninth doesn't go away, etc.  That's the thing about baseball, the good things stay with you. 

I smile everytime I see the video of Santo's kicking his heels at the end of a Cub victory.  I tingle everytime I see the replay of the Sandberg game in 1984.  I get chills when I think of how it felt to watch Kerry Wood shut down the Braves in the '03 playoffs.  Those things haven't gone away merely because those teams didn't win the World Series.

I have to admit that, in the response I posted, I said that I felt that the Cubs had to, at least, win the National League pennant to avoid having a bitter taste in my mouth.  It is true that I will be severely disappointed if they don't do that.  But, I have started wondering what you guys think. 

So, let's hear it.  What do the Cubs have to do to make this season a good one, or have they done it already?  I think Rosenbloom's attitude is just plain wrong.  And acknowledging the possibility of not winning the Series, or even the NLCS or the NLDS is just plain realistic (the Cubs, who I think won 88 games in '03, beat the Braves, who I think won about 103 games, so that stuff happens). 

Or is even talking about the possibility of less than complete success the "Cubbie Occurrence" that Rosenbloom thinks it is?

I think I would.  The magic number is "7", with about 15 games to play.  It gives us a margin of error, and we need Z at his best for the playoffs.  They've been doing it with Rich Harden a lot.  Steve Phillips, over at ESPN, said tonight that no team in the National League can match up with the 1-2-3 punch of Zambrano, Harden and Dempster.  I'd like to see that trio make it to the playoffs healthy, though they should pitch some before the end of the season.

What do people think?

Great night for Cubs fans.  Great year for Cubs fans.

Go Cubs!

I thought it was curious that Clint Hurdle's initial selection as an All-Star Assistant Coach was Willie Randolph, instead of Lou.  Given Randolph's firing, of course, he did select Lou to fill in.  But should Lou have been a fill-in?  I know that the Manager from last year's pennant winner gets to pick whom he wants, but why Randolph over Lou?  Lou's team won its division last year, and Randolph's choked.

That alone wasn't enough to make me wonder.  But now I see that Hurdle picked Ben Sheets to start the All-Star game, over Big Z.  I'm bummed because it would have been neat to have an all-Cubs battery start the game for the NL.  Rahula Strohl, at ChicagoSports.com has an interesting blog entry where he compares stats for Sheets vs. Big Z, and they are virtually identical.  He wonders why Sheets over Zambrano.

Finally, Hurdle announces his batting order and the two Cubs remaining as position starters, Fukudome and Soto, are batting eighth and ninth, respectively.

Does he have something against the Cubs?  Or is this just coincidence?  Although I'd prefer Marmol got some rest and didn't pitch, will Aramis Ramirez get in?  I suspect Aram is just too good to leave on the bench.  Just ask Albert Pujols!   ;-)

Just something to spice up an off-day.

In Al's article about today's 5-3 win over the Rockies, he mentioned how this season, at least so far, felt a lot like 1969.  Several people (including myself) posted messages in the thread agreeing with him.  One poster said something, though, about how that team had the biggest collapse of all time, and how they didn't want to talk about it.

As we know, it was a heck of a collapse, but it wasn't the biggest.  But that's not the reason for this FanPost.  To twist some classic words, I don't come here to bury the '69 Cubs, but to celebrate them.  That team had four Hall of Famers on it (I include Ron Santo here because he will get elected one day) including Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ferguson Jenkins.  It had what might be the Cubs' best infield since Tinkers to Evers to Chance, i.e., Santo at 3b, Kessinger at SS, Beckert at 2B and Banks at 1B.  It had one of the most awesome starting rotations in Cubs' history, including Fergie Jenkins (21-15, 3.21 era, 23 complete games), Bill Hands (20-14, 2.49 era, 18 complete games), and Ken Holtzman (17-13, 3.58 era, 12 complete games). 

Have you ever noticed the flags that fly in the Cubs' outfield (shown frequently on WGN) of the players whose numbers have been retired?  Three out of four of those players were on the '69 Cubs (Banks, Santo and Williams, with Sandberg being the sole non-'69 Cubs player with a retired number).  The 1969 Cubs were part of a string of six straight plus .500 seasons.  The last time Cubs teams had done that were a string of 13 consecutive plus .500 seasons beginning in 1926 and ending in 1939.

Have you ever noticed on the left field foul pole, the words "Hey! Hey!"?  That's from another '69 Hall of Famer, Jack Brickhouse.  Some of my earliest memories are of listening to Jack Brickhouse announce games that no one cared about except me (and a few other die-hards).  I heard the genuine excitement in his voice, and the sadness, as he went through the 1969 season with me and other die-hard Cubs fans.  God rest his soul.

That song we all sing at the end of Cubs' victories, "Go Cubs Go".  That's a Steve Goodman song, and he lived and died with the '69 Cubs along with all of us as well.  God rest your soul too, Steve.

The '69 Cubs permeate Wrigley Field and everything that happens there.

Regardless of what happened in the past, if the '08 Cubs do it, we'll all celebrate and feel wonderful about it.  But, if the Cubs had never come close since 1945, if they'd never broken .500 and been the doormat of the National League every single year, there would be something missing today. 

Without those glorious years, where we came so close, where we fell in love with other heroes, other than DLee, the Big Z, Aram, Dome and so on, and where we cheered and cried with others who aren't there with us today, that makes today feel so wonderful.  It is the fact that we've reached for it in the past, and failed mightily, rather than with a wimper, that sweetens it all. 

Go Cubs!

Just to fill in for Al and all the others who post stuff about the live games they've attended, let me fill in for one game, tonight's game in Denver.

One thing is that the Rockies apparently still haven't figured out how to handle ticket sales (see, World Series ticket fiasco, October, '07).  We had to pick up our tickets at the "will call" window.  They have multiple windows broken down by alphabet.  Each line had about 60-70 people in line.  We got in line about 20 minutes before gametime, and didn't get into the stadium until the top of 2nd, just in time to see Soto hit his home run.  Get it together, Rockies!

I don't know how he looked on tv, but I thought Rich Hill looked pretty good.  A few Rockies really hit him hard, but that seemed to be confined to one inning only.  A very encouraging sign for us, since he usually doesn't pitch well here.

Soto was a monster tonight.  The one out he made was actually a frozen rope, but it was right at someone.

Tulowitzki's homer was a real Coors Field job, i.e., it just barely cleared the wall, and probably wouldn't have carried that far in thicker air.  I'd have been really bummed if the Cubs had lost because they really hit the ball better than the Rockies overall, and yet had to struggle to pull off the win.

I thought Lou's substitution of Pie as a pinch runner for DLee in the 9th was curious, because DLee is no slouch on the bases (remember the double steal earlier in the game with DLee and The Riot?), and it caused Pie to come up in the 10th, in a spot where I'd have love to see Lee hitting.

You have to love The Riot, getting the game winning hit.  And you also have to love Aram's homer to take a short-lived lead in the 9th.  You have to love Marmol's fire when he took the mound in the bottom of the 10th (did they show him slamming the rosin bag to the ground before he threw his first pitch - he looked pumped).  And finally, you have to love that, as with the two OT games in Pittsburgh, this was a game they'd have lost last year.

All of you guys probably know this just from watching the game.  For some stuff that you couldn't probably tell on TV, I'd say the crowd was probably about 50/50 Cubs/Rockies fans (at least from where I was sitting 10 rows up from the field a little ways down the left field line from 3rd).  I'd say we kept up our end of the bargain, as my voice is as sore as it's been from yelling at a game in years ("Let's go, Cubbies!)  I did tons of high fives with lots of hard-core Cubs fans at the end of the game.

I'll say this for the Cubs/Rockies series here in Denver.  I've been to a lot of the games and I've never had anyone give me a bad time for rooting for the Cubs.  Indeed, people have always been courteous and good fans.  I've gotten into some good discussions with Rockies fans during Cubs games, and we've had a good time rooting against each other.

As I was leaving, a woman with a frown on her face looked up at me (I'm 6'5") and said "congratulations."  The usher at the top of the stairway asked me, with a big smile, if I'm coming back tomorrow (do you think my Cubs jacket and hat gave me away?)  I told him I've got to work, and we patted each other on the back.  I doubt that stuff like that happens at a lot of ballparks.

Oh, me, my jacket and hat witnessed the Cubs' 10,000th win.  How cool.

Thanks to all of you for letting me share my fun with you.  I look forward to hearing from you guys as we root the Cubs on through the season.

Go Cubs!

I always get envious reading everyone's posts about going to see the Cubs at Wrigley.  Living in Denver, I only get see the Cubs in person once a year.  At the last minute today, I got some good tickets for tonight's game, down the left field line, about 10 rows up from the field.  Hopefully, Cubs fans will take over the stadium tonight.  We've certainly done it before.

I am so pumped!!  Go Cubs!

I thought you'd be interested to read George Will's annual editorial on the Cubs.  I won't bring up politics, so don't flame me about what you think about Will's other columns.  Like us, he's been a Cubs fan for years, and that should be enough for us.

Here's the link to his editorial.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/129576

His article is actually a little too cerebral for me (I know it's tongue-in-cheek).  He could have said it all in one sentence: 

"Being a Cubs fan is a higher order of existence."

About sums it up, don't you think?

On page 53 of the February 4th edition of "The Sporting News", they have the following:

"Cubs LF Alfonso Soriano caused concern among North Side fans last week when he said "I don't know how I feel about my leg," in response to a question about the health of his torn quadriceps, which clearly slowed him late last season.  The Cubs got only 19 stolen bases out of him in 2007, and if he is still worried about the leg, they won't get many more this year."

I hadn't heard this.  Does anyone know anything about his health?  It would be a big blow to lose his speed, especially if he's going to lead off again.

What do you guys think?  I actually feel Ted Lilly can get it done for the next few years.  Rich Hill seems like he is on the rise.  But after those two, who have we got that is solid.  Jason Marquis was a Card killer, but that was about it, and he really faded in the second half of the season.  Sean Marshall was inconsistent.

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-071211cubs,1,1236143.story?coll=cs-h ome-headlines

Here is the URL on the Chicago Tribune website.  We all better learn to pronounce his name.

Sad to hear the part in here about the Cubs probably non-tendering Mark Prior.  I have a feeling that may come back to haunt us.

Go Cubs!!!

I wanted to talk about something that is difficult for a Cub fan to talk about in Denver right now (for obvious reasons).  I figured, if anyone would understand, it would be you guys.

I've been a die-hard Cub fan all my life.  I grew up near Chicago, and as my bio on this site says, I have died with the Cubs multiple times over the years, going all the way back to that magical season (that ended poorly) in 1969, with Leo Durocher, Ernie Banks (my hero), Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Ken Holtzman and Jim Hickman.

I've lived in Denver since 1985 (in Colorado since 1981 - life is good here).  I was thrilled when Denver got the new National League franchise, because I knew it would be a chance to see the Cubs every year, and though I have missed a couple of years (this was one of them), I get to see them most years.

I was at the first Rockies home game ever, in the old Mile High Stadium, and it was probably one of my biggest sports thrills in Denver.  I was at the first game in Coors Field (against the Phillies).  When the Cubs aren't playing the Rockies, I've rooted for the Rockies (unless we've needed them to lose for the benefit of the Cubs, which hasn't been often).

I work in downtown Denver, and I frequently drive home right past Coors Field.  The only regular season games that have sold out regularly over the past few years are Opening Day, the 4th of July fireworks game, and any Cubs game.  Indeed, the Rockies even have "premium" (read "jacked-up") prices for these games, and the Cubs are the only regular season games that are "premium" games (this year, when the Yankees came to town, was the only exception).

Until about 10 days before the end of the season, I'd drive by Coors Field during a game and there would be 10 to 15 thousand people max there during a game.  They didn't even sell out the play-in game against the Padres a week ago Monday (they announced it as sold out, but I got out of work late and when I drove by late in the game, I could see that the upper deck had several thousand empty seats)!

I contrast that with Wrigley Field where the stands are packed almost every game, regardless of how the Cubs are doing, and where the fans sing together after Cub wins.  The Rockies fans don't do anything like that.  I have a few friends who have cheered for the Rockies, even when they are twenty games below .500, but most of the people out here are always saying "How bout those Broncos?"

My anguish is this....  How come the Rockies are literally having everything come to them so easy on this postseason run?  Why do their mostly fair-weather fans get this gem of a postseason, and we have to content ourselves with "next year".  Yes, I know it is all about what happens on the field, but there is even a controversy in this series (the NLCS) about how the Rockies have caught all the breaks.  I agree they are outplaying the D-backs, but when is it our turn to have a magical end of the year and postseason run?  Why can't this happen to us, just once?

I know the answers, but I knew that you guys would understand my needing to share my anguish.

Reading the Diaries from the Cub fans in St. Louis (it must be awful for you guys to put up with the Cardinals' crap) and in Indianapolis made me want to find out if there is a place in Denver where Cub fans hang out.  I would love to watch Saturday's game with a bunch of good people dressed in blue.  Is there such a place in the Denver/Boulder area?