Now back home after personally witnessing that disaster tonight in Dodger Stadium that some call the 2007 Chicago Cubs baseball team, please excuse me as I pour myself a shot or two or three Sauza tequillas. Hmmm, a lot better; now where do I begin?

The flat, lifeless play of the first five innings where Derek Lowe mastered the Cubs bats?

The baserunning error by DLee in the middle of the 7th inning rally that would ultimately prove critical?

The seven run rally in the seventh?

But let me start at the beginning of the end, or rather in the middle of the 8th inning when the right field bullpen door opened and out popped a relief pitcher who jogged towards the mound.  Oh sh*t, I thought to myself at the time, why is Piniella taking out Wuertz? Wuertz had relieved Marmol in the 7th inning and had taken down all three Dodgers even though Kent had flown out deep in left center field for the third out. Maybe it was that deep flyball that spooked Piniella, I don't know, but damnit, I hope some press guy asked him after the game. Training my binoculars on the new guy, I immediately recognized Howry - I was actually relieved at first, glad Ohman wasn't coming in.  But as I stared as his face - tense, very drawn, exuding no confidence, no strength - I became nervous myself.  I turned to my wife and told her, well, if the Cubs are going to blow it, this is where it happens. Since I failed to hex the Dodgers with that comment, of course, it came true.

When Lou came out three batters later with the bases loaded to yank Howry out of the game, I was watching the two intently - there was very little said between them and Lou had that serious-puzzled-pissed off look of his. As Howry walked off the field he seemed to me a broken man and it was very unsettling to witness that. I think that guy has some serious mental toughness confidence issues he has to deal with, but in the meantime this set of relief pitchers are losing some games that should be put away, folks.

Is this was Lou was thinking next? Hmmm, let's see bases loaded no outs, Ethier is up next and he bats left - ah, I get it, I need my lefty, hey, let's get Ohman in!  Ohman jogs in and faces...Omedo Saenz, a righty, pinch hitting for Ethier - who hits a single, drives the first run in, and eventually scores the winning 4th run of the inning thereby securing our own Mr. Ohman with the loss. Of course, Ethier was 0 for 3 tonight - does he have killer stats against Howry?

But it would be Angel Guzman who was awarded the Blown Save award of the night with a wild pitch, a walk, a single, and a sacrifice fly thereby scoring 3 runs on his watch.

Meanwhile, all the Dodger fans around us were going crazy and telling us how much the Cubs sucked, immediately forgetting that one inning ago it was their crappy relief pitching that had blown their 5-1 lead. Mercifully, it was a quick end in the ninth inning with a true closer, Saito, on the mound.

So I came away from this game tonight embittered like many other Cubs fans have so far this season, seeing firsthand for myself the poor play that plagues this club:

A costly baserunning plunder.
Poor relief pitching.
A blown lead in the late innings.
A one-run loss.
Weird RP management.

On the bright side, though, I saw an exciting 7 run rally in the seventh, where the Cubs could do no wrong. Lilly picked JuanP off, even after throwing to first several times (to the boos and heckles of the locols) before finally getting him.  I also witnessed a rare Jacque Jones hit off a lefthanded pitcher (Beimel) and had to blink twice and pinch myself to believe it actually happened.  And the Cubs fan density is still healthy in this part of the world.  Best of all, it took me only 5 minutes from the freeway to roll into my parking spot in that parking lot there.

One more tequilla, some sleep, and then I will be ready for Zambrano tomorrow (today).

When the Dodgers opened the season this year on April 9th the mayhem caused by the new parking lot system caused quite a bit of angst here in LA. You may remember it was documented here by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man.

According to Bill Plaschke in the LA Times today, it took him 6 minutes to drive from the freeway to the parking lot this past Tuesday at 6:42 in the evening. My Dodgers season ticket holder friends at work also confirm that getting into and out of the parking lot has eased considerably since that time.  

So if you're in LA this weekend, don't let a fear of high gas prices, LA traffic, an onerous parking fee ($15), or parking lot chaos keep you from the series.  My wife and I will be in Loge section 159, row L this weekend - hope to see you there!

Lou announced this afternoon after the Seattle game that Wood is suffering some soreness in his triceps and will be out of the ST rotation for a few days.

Read all about it here:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/specials/spring_training/2007/03/15/wood.setback/ index.html

As a Greg Maddux fan I read with interest this morning in the LA Times that there are questions surrounding what many thought was a done deal with the Dodgers for next season.

Clearly, he was a great deal for the Dodgers last season and was an important part in their August turnaround that propelled them into the playoffs.

But now he is asking for a multi-year contract at his usual $8Mil/year salary and the Dodgers may not want to pony up those bucks when they are eyeing guys like Zito in the free agent market.

Of course, this certainly leaves the possibility of a return to the Cubs if Hendry fails to sign a FA starter.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/dodgers/la-sp-dodgers4nov04,1,393586.story?coll=la-headli nes-sports&ctrack=1&cset=true

Continue reading this post »

The Dodger fans out here in Los Angeles love Greg Maddux so much they are writing poems about him!  (Which is probably easy to do after his performance Friday against the Padres.)

This appeared in today's LA Daily News.

http://dailynews.com/ci_4345206

There is also an interesting article accompanying the poem about Vin Scully & Maddog as well.  

Read it and weep, fellow Cubs fans...

This item caught my eye this morning...

"Wade Miller will make his next rehab start Friday for Double-A West Tenn."

I may be a tad cynical but here we are in mid August, 7 weeks of baseball left, and this guy is still a wreck in motion.  Obviously the season is lost but will the Cubs still bring him up?  And for what reason - trade bait or a spot on the 2007 rotation?

For those of you still weeping in your Old Styles, Hamms, Pabsts or Falstaffs, I thought I would inform you that Los Angeles is abuzz today about Maddux's first start as Los Angeles Dodger tonight against the Rockies.

In today's paper Greg reminisced about his first MLB he attended at Dodger Stadium.  Here are a few selected quotes:

"I was 5 or 6 years", Maddux said.  "I sat out there by the left-field foul pole and one of the (Cincinnatti) Reds threw me a ball in batting practice"

"I always loved playing here as a visiting player," Maddux said Monday.  Maddux, a Las Vegas native, spent time at Dodger Stadium in his youth because his father was stationed at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County.

Talking about the trade to LA Maddux said, "To me (the trade) was like spring training all over again, or like Opening Day.  Things weren't going as well as we would have liked in Chicago, but one plane ride and you're back in it."

This article appeared in the business section of today's (6/21/2006) LA Times (parent company TribCo) and repeats many of the financial information, ownership details and sales rumors we have heard ad nauseum by now.

Still, I wonder why the LA Times published this now?

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cubs21jun21,0,1218636.story?coll=la-home-business

There has been much discussion, speculation and outright calls for managerial change due to the dismal performance of the club during the month of May.  I myself wonder how many more losses the Cubs can endure before the front office acts and finally fires Dusty.  It is clear that unless things change this team is on track for a 90+ loss season.  I wondered, what happened to previous Cubs managers whose teams suffered 90 or more losses in a season?  Did they survive and come back to manage the following year? Were they fired and replaced?  How does Dusty compare?  

Thanks to baseball-reference.com and "The Chicago Cubs an Illustrated History" by Donald Honig,  I pieced together the following information in a spreadsheet summarized below. The final season W/L, percentage, and games managed and W/L, percentage are presented for those managers who did not finish the season (i.e., were fired).  It is interesting to compare the current teams record to those of previous teams at the time in the season when management finally decided they had enough.

Please excuse the formatting (or lack of).

                                        Season             Manager Stats
Year    Manager           W      L    Pct        Games   W     L     Pct

2002    Don Baylor     67      95  0.4136    83      34    49    0.4096
Fired and replaced by Rene Lachemann (1 game) & Bruce Kimm (78 games).

2000    Don Baylor       65     97  0.4012
Survived first year to manage 2001 team.

1999    Jim Riggleman    67     95  0.4136
Fired at end of season and replaced by Don Baylor for 2000 season.

1997    Jim Riggleman  68    94   0.4198
Managed 1998 team.

1986    Jim Frey       70    90   0.4375     56       23      33     0.4107
Fired on June 12, 1986 and replaced by John Vukovich (2 games) & Gene Michael (102 games).

1983    Lee Elia       71     91   0.4383    123    54       69     0.4390
Fired on August 22, 1983 and replaced by front office executive Charlie Fox (39 games).

1980   Preston Gomez    64    98    0.3951   90      39       51      0.4333
Fired on July 25, 1980 and replaced by Joey Amalfitano (72 games).

1974   Whitey Lockman   66    96    0.4074   93      41       52        0.4409
Became Cubs Director of Player Development and replaced by 3rd base coach Jim Marshall (69 games).

1966   Leo Durocher      59    103   0.3642
First year on the job and survived to manage until 1972 when he was replaced by Whitey Lockman.

1965   Bob Kennedy      72    90     0.4444   58      26        32     0.4483
Became Cubs VP and replaced by Lou Klein (106 games).

1962    El Tappe(20), Lou Klein(30), Charlie Metro (112)    59  103   0.3642
"College of Coaches"  Bob Kennedy became manager of the 1963 team after this experiment ended.

1961    Vedie Himsl, Harry Craft, El Tappe & Lou Klein    64  90    0.4156
The first year of rotating managers was a disaster.

1960   Charlie Grimm     60    94     0.3896    17     6             11      0.3529
Resigned due to health reasons and replaced by Lou Boudreau (139 games) who was a better broadcaster than manager - this was his only year as Cubs manager.

1957   Bob Scheffing      62    92     0.4026
Survived first year on the job and managed until 1959.

1956   Stan Hack            60    94      0.3896
Fired at end of season and replaced by Bob Scheffing from Cubs farm system for 1957 season.

1954   Stan Hack             64   90     0.4156
First year on the job and managed the Cubs for two more years.

1951   Frankie Frisch       62   92     0.4026   81     36      45            0.4444
Fired on July 21, 1951 and replaced by player/manager Phil Cavarretta (74 games).

1949   Charlie Grimm      61   93     0.3961   50     19      31         0.3800
Became Cubs VP and replaced by Frankie Frisch (104 games).

1948   Charlie Grimm      64   90     0.4156
Cubs manager 1944 - 1949.

2006   Dusty Baker    18  28     0.3913

Excluding the 1960-61 "College of Coaches" debacle, 11 managers were fired, either during the season or at the end for teams that suffered at least 90 losses.  Six other managers somehow survived to the next year.  Three of those managers (Hack, Scheffing & Durocher) were in the first year of their contract and management seemed to be more understanding in their cases.  Note that Dusty's current W/L pct is LOWER than EIGHT of the previous managers who were fired.  And of course, he is not in the first year of his contract.

This preliminary review did not look at all manager dismissals in Cubs history or examine if changing a manager during the season "turned" things around for the club.  The numbers here indicate that changing the manager during the season had little or a negative impact on the team performance.

I conclude that unless things change:

Dusty will be fired, it's only a question of when.

Changing managers during the season will not suddenly change things and actually might make them worse.  But is that a bad or good thing?
 

Has anyone noticed that the lines at the beer vendors are shorter?

You can thank TurboTap!

"I've been looking for something like this forever," says Curt Radle, director of concession operations at Wrigley Field, where the Chicago Cubs play. Though he declines to say how much beer pours every season at Wrigley, Mr. Radle says the ballpark has one of the sports world's busiest beer-concession businesses. Since he installed TurboTap, he says, beer costs have fallen between 3% and 5%. In about half a season, the devices have already paid for themselves, he says."

For the moment, he's running the taps at about half their top speed. He says he might gradually ratchet up the speed by adjusting the pressure of the carbon dioxide, but he's in no hurry.

"People get their beer here fast enough," he says, adding that it was the increased yield per keg that persuaded him to install TurboTap, not the promise of a faster pour. Stadium vendors say they're getting six to eight additional cups out of each keg -- or $30 to $40 in added revenue -- since TurboTaps were added.

With a beer in each hand, the 22-year-old Cubs fan Ernest Walther stood in the centerfield bleachers on a hot summer night and said he was impressed with how quickly the beer had been flowing. "My sister's been getting them," Mr. Walther said, nodding at his cups, "and I noticed she's been fast as hell."

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB112130747570985459-Ihjf4NklaV4opyvaHmHb6mFm4,00.html