SB Nation User Blog: kodypuckett23

Firsthand Observations from Great American Ballpark

kodypuckett23 — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:02:38 -0000

The family and I attended the first two games of this series and overall it was a fairly enjoyable experience. The drive was long (10 hrs) from northern Iowa, but with two Cubs victories to bring home, the drive back was all right. I noticed a few glaring problems while I was there, though.

1 - As most of you know, Dusty Baker's ship has finally sailed. If not now, it sailed 5 years ago. I believe the Reds of all teams would benefit with a change at the helm especially with that very young core of talent. It just seems as though he has done nothing to help them down the stretch. In the first game of the series, he seemed bound and determined to get Harang a complete game even though he was well over 100 pitches after 6 or 7 innings. There were other things I could mention too, but I digress. Dusty Baker needs to go.

2 . Willy Taveras is a poor man's Corey Patterson (or vice versa) at leadoff. Sure, he can be a difference maker on the basepaths at times, but he's got to get there first. Dusty continues to bat him first though, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle.

3. Props to the grounds crew. On Tuesday, it rained HARD from 5 am to 6 pm without letting up. We were all sitting in our hotel room thinking about what the hell to do because there was no way this game was getting played. About 20 minutes after the rains cleared (1 hr before game time) the crew had the field all cleared off ready to play. Game started on time at 7:10 and went off without a hitch. Hell, the Ohio river was flooding into parking lots and was up to the tires of several vehicles, but there was baseball to be played.

4. The Reds have lost their fans. Clearly there was more blue than red in the stands for both games we attended. The biggest highlight of the night for the Reds fans was when the groundskeepers were straddling their rakes while doing the YMCA between innings. Thats not a good sign. It seems like a ball of negativity around those parts when you mention the Reds.

Zambrano article in August edition of Vine Line

kodypuckett23 — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:40:21 -0000

In Bruce Levine's article w/ Zambrano, he talks about getting to understand new teammate Milton Bradley and how he had to adjust to Bradley's quiet, almost too quiet personality in the clubhouse. "For me it was weird to try adn get along with him at first. Sometimes he doesn't say hi, or sometimes he's too quiet. You have to respect that. You have to find positive things about teammates and their personalities."

However, he goes on to mention, "We had a guy who played for us, then went to Atlanta and the Dodgers, who talked too much and was too loud. Even then you look for the good side of your teammate and always respect them."

Who was this loud teammate that Zambrano and maybe the rest of the Cubs didnt necessarily see eye to eye with? I can't think of anyone recently that went to Atlanta then to LA. Although, maybe I'm just thinking too hard.

Seating Input

kodypuckett23 — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:30:03 -0000

I apologize ahead of time for needing to use a fanpost when clearly there are more important things on the Cubs agenda for you all to talk about, however, I have tickets for section 242-2 Row 5 in the right field corner. I obviously know these are going to be quite a ways from the infield and aren't box seats behind the plate, but I would like info about the '-2' after the section 242. Are these decent seats?

"National" broadcasts

kodypuckett23 — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 06:12:20 -0000

i simply cannot comprehend what these big corporations are doing to us common fans who would really love to enjoy a cubs game on a saturday afternoon. It all started in the middle of this year when i would get excited to watch a game on ESPN only to find out after hours of waiting that i got to watch ESPN News with its numerous Brett Favre highlights. I absolutely love it. NOW after having tonights game blacked out due to the big wigs wanting more money, i cant stand it anymore. I looked forward to watching tomorrow's game but guess what? I get to watch the Royals and GIL MECHE pitch in the Metrodome. Awesome. Supposedly FOX picked up the Cubs game and were going to make it a "National" broadcast for tomorrow, but since I get KXLT out of Rochester, MN, i am S.O.L and not happy about it. Seriously, if anyone has any advice as to how i'm supposed to watch tomorrows game without driving two hours in order to get out of the KXLT coverage, i'd really appreciate it. If they had left it alone and not bought out the rights I wouldve been able to drive out to my sisters to catch it on Comcast, but nope. Sorry for the rant but this stuff is getting ridiculous!