SB Nation User Blog: Fraggin Judge

Geovany Soto's press conference in San Juan, PR

Fraggin Judge — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:25:35 -0000

Here is a recap of an article in El Nuevo Día (Nov. 11, 2008) about Geovany Soto's press conference last night in San Juan Puerto Rico.

Geovany Soto was interviewed by the local media in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after he became the fifth Puerto Rican baseball player to win the Rookie of the Year award. Fifty years ago, in 1958, Orlando Cepeda was named rookie of the year. Benito Santiago, Santos Alomar, Jr. and Carlos Beltrán, have also won the prize.

The new NL Rookie of the Year will donate the $20,000 cash award to a juvenile diabetes charity, in support of his former minor league coach, Allan Dunn, and the coach’s son, Davis.

Soto expressed his gratitude to his teammate, Henry Blanco, for helping him during the season. After he mentioned his personal idol, Iván Rodríguez, Soto claimed that “Puerto Rico is the cradle of catchers in the United States and we have shown an ability to spawn catchers in the island.” Santiago and Alomar, Jr. were catchers, too. So are active players Yadier, José and Bengie Molina, Jorge Posada, Robinson Cancel, Ramón Castro, Rodríguez and Soto, all born and raised in the island.

The Cubs catcher expressed that his goal for next season is to avoid the “second year jinx”: “No negative thought can cross my mind. Sometimes we put extra pressure on ourselves and the mind is too powerful. I’m getting ready to get better numbers next year, offensively and defensively, and do a better job in October to try to get the Cubs to a World Series…. We have a lot of talent and a lot of new players who can also do the job, but it’s not what you see on paper. We have to execute on the field.”

Geovany Soto wants to play for Puerto Rico in next year’s World Baseball Classic. And if his left hand heals completely, he intends to play in December for the Carolina Gigantes (Giants) in the Puerto Rico Winter League, against the wishes of Cubs management.

The next time someone says that Cubs fans behave badly, quote this.

Fraggin Judge — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:59:22 -0000

The next time someone says that Cubs fans behave badly, quote this.

Monday's Tank McNamara comic strip about the Cubs.

Fraggin Judge — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:45:10 -0000

Monday's Tank McNamara comic strip about the Cubs.

Alfonso Soriano's brutal post-season numbers.

Fraggin Judge — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:26:13 -0000

I was just watching Mike Francesa's show on New York TV. Talking about baseball he showed these numbers about Alfonso Soriano. The following are Soriano's post-season numbers since he hit that epic HR against Curt Schilling in the 2001 World Series:

116 at bats, .181 batting average, 2 Home Runs, 11 RBI, and the tell-all: 5 walks and 38 K.

38 strikeouts!

As Al says, discuss amongst yourselves. To me, that is a very telling number.

Multimedia feature about the Cubs post-season history.

Fraggin Judge — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:58:25 -0000

Multimedia feature about the Cubs post-season history.

Since both New York teams didn't make the playoffs, apparently the Big Apple media decided to adopt the Cubs as their team to watch. This is the 3rd feature about the Cubs in as many days in the New York Times. This one even has links to the paper's articles from the past.

Article in the New York Times about the mood among Chicago baseball fans.

Fraggin Judge — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:46:42 -0000

Article in the New York Times about the mood among Chicago baseball fans.

Excellent article about Ron Santo in today's New York Times.

Fraggin Judge — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:13:28 -0000

Excellent article about Ron Santo in today's New York Times.

Geovany Soto an admittedly big surprise to the Puerto Rican press.

Fraggin Judge — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:58:22 -0000

Geovany Soto an admittedly big surprise to the Puerto Rican press.

Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día publishes an article today praising the work of Geovany Soto, probable Rookie of the Year in the NL. His performance and Carlos Delgado's were the bright spot among Puerto Ricans in the major leagues, according to the article's author, Carlos Rosa.

At last, Soto's hometown press are starting to notice him.

Cubs fan article in a Puerto Rican newspaper.

Fraggin Judge — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:29:38 -0000

The Puerto Rican press has finally noticed the Cubs’ season, Geovany Soto’s presence notwithstanding. The island’s press is very New York oriented and the Mets, with Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltrán, have dominated the pages this season, as usual.

Today, though, daily El Vocero published an article about the Cubs titled “Why the Cubs in 2008,” written by long-time fan and journalist, Juanma García. It’s written in Spanish, so I understand not everyone can read it. Therefore, I translated or summarized the most interesting parts of the article:

The author starts mentioning several phrases familiar to Cubs’ fans everywhere, like “Tinkers to Evers to Chance” and “Let’s play two.” He also mentions that the Cubs haven’t won a championship since 1908.

“But it wasn’t always like that. The Cubs were once baseball’s superfranchise, having won 116 games in 1906 and the World Series champions in 1907 and 1908. But then a 99 year drought ensued. Until today.”

The author then puts the drought in historical perspective: Since 1908, García writes:

“Radio was invented for fans to hear their team lose.
Television was invented and then we could not only hear them lose; we could see them lose, too.
MLB added 14 more teams so we could see and hear the Cubs lose against more teams.
Haley’s Comet passed near Earth twice.
Harry Caray was born and died.
The NBA, the NHL and the NFL were created and other Chicago teams have won championships.
There have been 10 elected governors in Puerto Rico and 17 presidents in the United States.
Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Oklahoma and New Mexico became states. (Note: Actually, Oklahoma entered the Union on November 16, 1907, so García is wrong on that one.)
The Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, Arizona Diamondbacks, Florida Marlins and the neighboring Chicago White Sox have won the World Series.
Finally, the Cubs have played more than 14,900 regular season games, losing most of them.”

García then makes a personal recollection of the Cubs postseason games he’s witnessed. “In my adult life,” he writes, “I have been able to suffer, I mean, follow this team as an avid fan.”

The author then recalls what happened in those games he personally witnessed, like Steve Garvey’s homer and Leon Durham’s error in the 1984 playoffs against the Padres. He also recalls how he was in Chicago in 1989, back from a mission in Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer, and saw Will Clark eliminate the Cubs in the postseason with a hit against Mitch Williams.

In 2003, the author went to Atlanta with his then 12 years old son (a Braves fan). Braves catcher Javy López got them tickets. After the Cubs won the series, García and his son took a train to Chicago and then he recalls the Bartman game. It’s funny how the author recalls the game, hitter by hitter, after the fly to the stands that Moisés Alou couldn’t catch:

“Mark Prior is still in the game. Juan Pierre hits a double. Mark Prior is still in the game; throws a wild pitch. Mark Prior is still in the game. Iván Rodríguez hits an RBI single. Mark Prior is still in the game. Miguel Cabrera grounds a ball to the shortstop but Álex González makes an error. Mark Prior is still in the game. Derrek Lee hits a 2 RBI double. Mark Prior is removed from the game. When the eight inning ends, the Marlins have an 8 to 3 lead. The goat bleated that night and the sixth game was lost in the most absurd way possible (the author wrote seventh game, obviously by mistake because he had earlier identified the game as the sixth of the series). At Clark and Addison that October night, the curse was evident once more.”

Then, the author recalls last year, when after the Cubs won their division, starter Carlos Zambrano was yanked by Manager Lou Piniella in the sixth inning of a tied playoff game and reliever Carlos Mármol allowed a home run to the first batter he faced. The Cubs lost the series against Arizona in three games.

The newspaper article finishes with the following paragraph:

“Ryan Dempster said at the spring training camp that there are not many teams around who have been playing 100 years without winning a championship. I join Dempster’s words: Go Cubs!”

I know this fanpost is very long, but I felt it was needed because not everyone here can read the original article in Spanish. How appropriate that this was published today, Saturday, September 20, 2008, when the Cubs are about to clinch the Central Division.

Almost a week after Ike, the Astros are still whining.

Fraggin Judge — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:59:34 -0000

I can't believe the lack of leadership in the Astros' clubhouse. Instead of making the players focus and play, Manager Cecil Cooper is allowing them to play with a t-shirt under their uniforms that reads: "Bud killed us."

You would have thought that almost a week after Hurricane Ike struck the Houston area, the Astros would have regained their composure and started playing baseball. Yet, they're still lifeless and sulking.

A good manager would have stopped the nonsense and would have forced the team to focus on the playoffs days ago. But I guess Cecil Cooper is bitter himself and is whining along with his players.

It doesn't matter to the Astros owner that by instigating all this whining he buried his team. The only thing that matters to him now is to deflect any blame from himself. And if you listen to the national media, Drayton McLane appears to have succeeded in his effort.

So, I ask the media: Isn't a week long enough to whine about this? Move on, please!