SB Nation User Blog: Luigi

Merry Christmas

Luigi — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:20:09 -0000

to all BCB. I've been waiting for someone to post a holiday diary and so far, nothing. I guess I'll have to be the first.

Here's wishing the best of the holiday season to you all.

Al, even though Hanukuh has passed, I wish continued glad tidings to you and yours.

Peace be upon you all.

Elegy

Luigi — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:30:20 -0000

God, I love this city.

My wife and I had some vacation to burn so we decided to head north. She, of course, didn't really consider the playoffs because of the myriad other reason we had for a visit to Chicago. Me? Well, let's just say that I've had my vacation forecasted at work for quite some time and it had a lot to do with the Cubs.

There were other very important reasons to get up there though. My nephew was returning from a year in beautiful downtown Baghdad (He's an infantryman in the Illinois National Guard). We discovered that my late father left a safe deposit box at the bank and as executor of the estate I needed to produce the will so that we could have it drilled open. I was due to visit the graves of my parents too, something that has become an annual ritual for me. I had promised to sit graveside and listen to the Cubs on the radio with my father if ever they actually made it to the World Series. My youngest nephew, a student at Columbia College, was moving into a studio apartment in Wrigleyville. I just needed to get away from work for a while too. As each year brings me closer to retirement I find my attitude decaying at an exponential rate.

Another nephew, the one in between the infantryman and the student, had a line on SRO tickets for Sunday night for $120.00 each. I had to go. There may never be a better time.

My wife thought I was crazy to consider spending $120.00 for standing room, but that's another story for another time. She wasn't wasn't suckled by the streets of Little Italy or Greektown or Bridgport or Lakeview or Garfield Park or Back-of-the-Yards or any of the one-of-a-kind neighborhoods.

Hell, maybe we're all crazy.

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Sound familiar?

I don't know when I'll be at acceptance. My depression deepens.

We went out to Wrigley Thursday evening just to see what was going on. It was a strange mix; several seniors and several Gen-Xers, but all with Clark and Addison in common.

I had the camcorder going strong. I'll get around to uploading the mini DV sometime this week. We ate at Murphy's Bleachers. Something I'd never done before. Ho hum to some of you I guess but a real treat for the likes of me.

My middle nephew is a professional. I guess you'd call him a yuppie. He and his wife have a condo on Augusta, near Western. When I was a kid it was a neighborhood to stay away from; unless you came in force and had weapons. It's in "transition" now. That means that what was once the only place poor immigrant Puerto Ricans could afford is now so overpriced it is ridiculous. In any case, a visit to the condo was my first real foray into the inner city since 1966.

You can take the boy out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the boy.
Standing on the second floor porch of a three story Chicago red brick home, I could see a good part of the downtown skyline. It is spectacular. I feel sorry for those of you who have grown accustomed to its splendor.

Good micro-brewed beer; good wine. Italian beef; Lou Malnatti's delivered fresh. Sirens; Spanish rap from passing '77 Chevrolets. Horns blowing people walking down sidewalks and across streets. One-way streets. What the hell is this business with parking permits?

It's in me. I'll soon be 61 and I can't shake it. I go back to the Gulf Coast and bask in the warmth and play golf in January and grow vegetables in my back yard all year long and hear no sirens. Hear no Spanish rap. Nobody walks here--there's virtually no public transportation and no place to go anyway.

You. You folks who live there. Feel it, thank your creator for it. When the hawk comes off the lake this winter, savor it. You are part of it. It's an organism that exists soley because of you and those around you and the Cubs are one of its vital organs.

God, I love this city and I love the Cubs.

I'll be back and so will the Cubs.

I Need an Intervention

Luigi — Sat, 12 May 2007 02:32:40 -0000

It is mid May. The "June Swoon," if it happens, is still a few weeks away. On paper, the team looks pretty good. The Pythagorean postulated by some of the stat heads tells me we should be competitive within the admittedly weak NL Central. Why then, do I have this feeling of doom?

I've admired and defended Al's often time irrational exuberance because I share his feelings. Yes, as far as the Cubs are concerned I too have been an optimist but I feel myself slowly being sucked into the same whirlpool of despair that so many of the other posters have been in for years. Is it possible or me to forestall being sucked under? The reality of the present day is acting like a giant hand that is pushing me into the abyss. It's like a pair of cement overshoes.

We recently came off a series sweep that had many posters cheering wildly but who did we defeat? The Nationals. The worst team in the National League and we beat them by the skin of our teeth.

To whom did we just loose two-out-of-three? The Pirates: Possibly the second worst team in the National League.

This evening we played a good baseball team and had our butts handed to us.

What does that make us?

Please, please, someone. Throw me a life preserver. Al, I need some words of encouragement. I have been a Cub fan for a long, long time and every time I've gotten my hopes up they have been dashed, crushed, stomped on and flushed right down the toilet. Crap, I still owe people money from 1969.

I don't want to become one of them. You know; the defeatists, the sour pusses, the constant whiners and complainers. It just isn't fun to be that way but the cold hard reality is almost too much to deny. Oh dear God, why hast thou made me a Cub fan?

Thoughts From a Cubs Fan?

Luigi — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 22:48:03 -0000

As Pat and Ron sign off for another season and with the resignation of Andy McPhail and the turmoil that is sure to follow, I am struck by the annual emptiness of the coming winter. Oh sure, the Bears look good, the Irish still have a small shot and the Bulls may find themselves on top once again but it is only mere entertainment. It is only diversion that could easily be supplanted by a round of golf, a good meal, an enthralling novel. It is only a way to pass time until there is no time left. It is not baseball. It is not the Cubs.

In the past, I've tried to put into words just how I feel about the Cubs. I've failed to capture the emotional bond that I feel and I've failed to explain just how much space in the Chicago ethos of my generation, my father's generation, and my grandfather's generation the Cubs occupied. I wish to God that I had the words to say how intricately the Cubs fit into the structure of my life growing up on the West Side, from childhood dreams of playing professional baseball right on through my adolescence and eventual conscription into the armed forces in 1966. I have been unable to describe how important it was to my sanity to be able to follow the Cubs through my first couple of overseas assignments, and how when I met my wife-to-be in far off Asia how much I wanted her to be able to relate to such an inexorable part of my being.

I often wonder how many others share my admittedly irrational attachment to the Cubs. I know it means nothing in the grand scheme of things. I know that some malnourished waif in Darfur has probably never even heard of baseball; that some young soldier in Iraq couldn't care less or that some that mother living a hand-to-mouth existence in the slums of Rio knows nothing of the Cubs. I know that if the Cubs ceased to exist right this instant, the sun would still, most assuredly, rise tomorrow morning. I know all these things and more, yet I still cannot imagine a summer without constant thoughts of the Cubs season or a winter without constant thoughts of the hot stove league and what could be done to make the season to come the best one ever.

I'm not into metrics. I haven't read "Moneyball" nor do I intend to. I feel deeply that I just don't need to deconstruct the institution of Cubs baseball because once begun, some of the luster will be lost forever. I'll leave the heavy lifting to others. I prefer to think there is always hope and even when it becomes clear there is none, I prefer to look for the occasional promise of a young player or the rare game where a star or scrub shines just for that moment because it's a reason for me to keep coming back and hope anew.

I think that those who have posted such acidic tripe here (I'm sure glad they are gone) are just not seeing the forest for the trees. They aren't stopping to think of what a dull, dreary world it would be without the Cubs. I think there is something wrong with these people. I don't think they are fans. They're something else but I don't know what to call them. They have some need to destroy what they purport to love. They (they are, from all appearances, of the male persuasion) probably carry tape measures with them so that when they answer the call of nature they can reassure themselves they haven't become less of a man and once satisfied to that effect, they project their alpha-like domination through blog postings and exhortations to join them or forever be labeled something less than an imbecile. I pity them, for they will never know the joy of Cubs baseball and will, unless they are struck from above by a thunderbolt, forever be ignoramuses with penises. They are symptomatic of the very thought patterns that puree' the brains of our national leadership, whether they realize it or not.

Hope springs eternal. Here's to Dusty Baker. I hope his life after Chicago is full and long. Here's to the front office. May they get a clue. here's to Andy McPhail. May he live long and be successful wherever he lands. Here's to the team, for those who will return and those who won't. May they forever savor the privilege of having played in the big leagues, especially with the Cubs. Here's to Glendon and hopes that he can, once again, play the game he loves (but with another team). Here's to Michael Barrett and hopes his scrotum heals completely. Here's to Derrek's daughter and the things in life that are really important, even if we choose to ignore them at game time. here's to hope. May it spring eternal.

Miscellaneous Ravings I

Luigi — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 02:49:35 -0000

I don't post very often. I'd rather just read many of the well thought out and insightful posts of the rest of the BCB habitués. This season, however, has been enough to make even the most reclusive Cubs fan want to stand on a street corner and rave. As such, I have decided to add my two-cents worth to the mélange of analyses, flames, ravings, and thoughts about who's hot or who's not.

First, I'll establish my credentials. I am a military man. I retired from the U.S.A.F. after 24 years of active duty and I am currently a civilian employee of D.A.F. I put this forth as the foundation of my knowledge of leadership and management, which I feel is extensive and arguably makes me an expert, at least from a military point-of-view and I think these very principles will apply equally to a professional baseball club.

The biggest bone of contention this year is the performance and future of our fearless on-the-field leader, Dusty Baker. My thoughts on the matter are that from all apparent indications, Dusty must go. I'll temper that opinion slightly by emphasizing the phrase "from all apparent indications." We, except for those claiming the inside track (another subject for another time); only know what we are allowed to know through various media.

Consistency: The debate that rages over bringing in a disciplinarian versus a more subdued type is one that bears no merit whatsoever, either way you go. The most important trait a good leader can exhibit is consistency. The team needs to know where they stand and what to expect at all times, with no surprises. Even twenty-something millionaires with bad attitudes need consistency because whatever their views on respect are, they all hinge on knowing where they stand with the boss and whether or not their actions on and off the field fall within established rules and guidelines.

Respect: Respect is a two way street. There is respect inherent in a position, such as the manager of a baseball team, and there is earned respect. Look at the most successful managers today, guys like LaRussa and Cox currently, and in the past guys like Sparky Anderson, Whitey Herzog and Tommy Lasorda, just to name a few. They all have or had earned respect and, they appear to respect their players in return by being consistent in enforcing their rules and programs and working with them from a professional, not a buddy-buddy angle. When a player doesn't tow the line, they sit on the bench or they are disposed of in any of the usual baseball ways.

Motivation: A good leader motivates those over whom he or she is appointed. External motivation serves to fire-up internal motivation. Ultimately, a player must dig deep within himself to be the best he can be. Whether Dusty provided the external motivation to Bonds and Kent is an unknown. There appears to have been a huge, ego based rift between the two that Dusty was unable to deal with, thus the departure of Kent. I believe that, without intending to restart the Bonds debate, Barry was mostly internally motivated and couldn't care less about the team. When he discovered he could reach the zenith of baseball through the use of modern chemistry, his self motivation grew. My point being, Dusty's success in San Francisco had more to do with an enigmatic superstar and a consistently weak division than his ability to motivate his players.

Discipline: A good leader will discipline players for substandard performance or unacceptable behavior but he'll do so privately. Such disciplinary action cannot stay top secret because if it does, it has no effect on the organization as a whole so a certain amount of information must be allowed to flow. When disciplinary actions fail, the player must be disposed of accordingly. This is where the relationship between the field manager and the general manager is crucial. On-the-other-hand, a good leader will praise good performance publicly. This is MGT 101 but it lies at the very foundation of running a successful organization.

Training: Leadership, at any level, requires training to develop sound fundamentals (here we blur the line between leadership and management). In baseball this becomes painfully obvious. The manager must demand that his coaches do things his way. They, in-turn, provide appropriate training to the players on the fundamentals of the game at the big league level. Most of what they were taught at other levels, much of which was good, must be brought to major league levels. Simple things such as not hitting the cutoff man, or sliding into first base are inexcusable in the big leagues and cannot be tollerated. More complex things such as executing a hit-and-run, or bunting need to be practiced, again the duties of the coaches.

Planning: The leader's role as manager demands that each game be thoroughly planned for. Here, scouting reports and metrics must be studied and put to use effectively. George Will hit very hard on this in his discussion of Tony LaRussa in Men At Work. The biggest variable, however, is simple baseball intuition. The manager's gut feelings and his track record regarding those feelings must be considered before he is even hired. Don Zimmer comes to mind as a manager who often went against convention and was, at least part of the time, successful. Dusty often goes against convention but his successes seem much less apparent than others. Balance between numbers and intuition, albeit difficult to measure, is very important.

For any leader to be successful, he has to get his people to want to perform for him. Everyone else is secondary.

I think the general consensus among Cubs fans is overwhelmingly in favor of dismissing Dusty Baker. Although it is nice to think about "fresh blood," managerial candidates fitting this category must have a strong track record insofar as demonstrated leadership skills are concerned. Guys who have previously managed are much easier to size-up. In either case, a strong leader in the position of manager can turn the team around with very few changes of player personnel.

Out of Towners

Luigi — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 16:12:22 -0000

I wonder just how many of the regulars here are not currently living in the greater Chicago area. I'm a Chicago native who visits the city a couple of times a year (I still have a sister and a couple of cousins up there) but currently reside in Biloxi (what's left of it), MS.

Also, upon visiting the Cubs web site looking for tickets that will greatly influence my next trip up north, I find virtually nothing avaiable with the exception of the very corners of the upper deck in left field. Are there every gameday tickets available at the box office and what about bleacher ticket availability?