I wanted to take a minute out of my schedule to say thanks to Al for the coverage he provided for this season. I can't even imagine how hard it would be to recap 90 losses. Base running errors, poor pitching, poor closing, poor managing, poor hitting with RISP and it goes on and on. You should be commended Al for coming up with interesting reads day in and day out.

If the Cubs will cooperate tonight, at least Al can recap a positive end to a dismal season. BCB, let's give Al some great ideas, win or lose, to help his last recap be the best one of the year. It will have to hold us until next season.

Again, thanks Al, BCB makes the baseball season so much more enjoyable because of your undying loyalty to the Chicago Cubs.

I've been busy so I'm a little late in reporting my good fortune and it's a slow day after an off-day so I wanted to get this up.

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May 14-15 we had our "guys" trip to Wrigley Field a little early. In the bleachers by 11:30 for the 1:20 start I sit close to Al and had my usual pregame visit about all things Cubs related. Bleacher fights were the hot topic that week and we talked about the Cubs promoting drinking like the Old Style Drinker of the Game. Al felt an Old Style Fan of the Game made more sense. I returned to my friends and two of us took off though the main concourse looking for food choices about noon.

A young female intern in a dress walks right up to me while walking and says, "Would you like to be the Old Style drinker of the game?" I asked what I had to do and she said go on the field and get your picture taken and you'll get an Old Style jersey. Of course I immediately said yes! She told me to go to section 16 at 12:20 and she would meet me there. My friend and I sat 10 rows off the field at the end of the Cubs dugout. I did tell her I'm not an Old Style drinker!

The intern was a small college basketball player. I had a nice visit with her and she called me down to go on the field. I told her I wanted my friend to come down too so we could both get on the field. She said she would get a picture of both of us and then one of me, and would mail them to me. She didn’t have to do that but it was a nice touch.

So once I'm on the field they post my name on the center field scoreboard and announce me to the crowd. I gave a big wave to the guys in the bleachers who were giving me a standing ovation! Now the best part. Tom Ricketts, owner of the Cubs and the guy who signs checks for purchases such as the Cubs, is standing there and says congratulations and shakes hands with me. He asked where I was from and I told him the Des Moines area. He said he drove through Des Moines many times from Omaha to Chicago. I probably talked with him for 3 or 4 minutes. He was so nice and down to earth and really spent time talking to me, not trying to get away from me! We ended the conversation with another hand shake and I told him to get this team winning that I've been sitting in the bleachers for 30 years and I wanted to sing today! He guaranteed a win but we lost 2 miserable games to the Pirates instead. 

Needless to say I was pretty high after that. Upon my return to some high fives and some teasing I had to tell Al how ironic it was to be chosen for the Old Style Drinker right after we had talked about it. Whether it should happen or not, it made this Cubs fans day pretty special!

This past Saturday while in Minneapolis my friend took me to Target Field for a close up look of the new outdoor home of the Twins. Before you read any further, it’s really nice, but it’s not Wrigley, but I would whole heartedly recommend a trip to visit. It was a sell-out crowd and the field held it easily.

Here’s the good, bad and ugly. First the good, and there are a lot of them. Target Field sits right on top of I-394, literally. Very easy to get to, ample parking at an affordable price (we paid $15 and parked in the shadows of the field). There is also a train that stops right at the entrance if you want to park off site. The food here was tremendous. I recommend a stop at Kramarczak’s stand for either a brat or polish. $7 and they are awesome. My friend said in the middle of games the wait is innings long. When we arrived (it was all of 45 degrees and windy) we headed to one of the sports bars in the stadium called the Town Ball Tavern. Full menu, full TV action and extremely upscale, plus it was warm and by the time we left, packed. There is an enclosed 5 star restaurant overlooking the field that my friend ate in and said it was great. With so many things to do in the park the Twins capture the people early and keep their money inside, something Wrigley will never be able to do.

There is a Budweiser Deck and Captain Morgan deck, both good places to stand and watch the game. The concourses are huge with many different food vendors. You can get your standard ball park food (chili cheese dog for $3.50 which I had toward the end of the game) and specialty foods such as a popular (long line) Cuban sandwich or Italian pasta or pizza. I like the beers of Minnesota stand which was popular. There is a Legends Club on the 2nd level which requires a separate ticket. It’s all enclosed with memorabilia from Twins history, the usher told us it’s a must see for Twins fans.

During the 5th inning we took a lap around the entire park. Although our seats were good, between 3rd base and the left field wall, 22 rows from the field, the lap proved interesting. On the concourse you can stand behind the back rows and watch the game. Many fans took advantage of this because of the heating lamps which were on made it a lot warmer. Another nice point was the observation decks where fans could climb 4 steps and stand on an elevated deck to watch from the concourse, they held about 6 fans. No ushers were pushing people to seats, viewing from the concourse must be encouraged. We stood and watched the game in every part of the park and there are a lot of great seats, right on top of the action. The home run porch in the outfield hung over the field, the outfield baseline seats were awesome. The ball park sits on 7 acres and it is tight and there are so many good places to sit I would never be able to pick a favorite spot. The seating is so compact and tight that the stiff north wind was not felt in most areas.

The bad was in reference to jumbo scoreboards and ribbon displays around the park. I was on a sensory overload much of the game, so much so my eyes were off the action on the field and onto the huge TV in left field. The scoreboard with all MLB scores turns into another replay screen also. It is busy, too busy.

The ugly seemed to be minute. The upper deck outfield seats are way up and extremely steep. They seemed a little unattached from the rest of the seating. Don’t fall, it appeared you’ll go down fast. The vendors are many and up to 4 at a time were in our aisle blocking our view of the field, not sure how you have baseball without vendors but it was annoying.

A comment my friend made comparing the Metrodome to Target: “The fans seem to have more fun here, they were always grumpy in the dome”. Well said because everyone around us reminded me of a game at Wrigley, talkative and enjoying a game of baseball.

Here’s my last observation that I found a little different. The beer vendor of choice sold Miller Lite and Premium Grain Belt, Minneapolis’ own brew. They were popular and before you groan, they are pretty darn good when you buy it fresh at the game. I enjoyed a couple and would do it again. You can find your Bud products too but the Grain Belt was selling fast.

Awesome place to visit, I highly recommend it. Next time I’m in the Cities, I want to go again. If you like to eat and do new things this is your park. It’s so awesome for Minneapolis to have outdoor baseball again. If you like to watch baseball and not be overwhelmed, then I’ll see you at the Cubs game Friday and Saturday, the best place to watch baseball with the greatest fans in the world.

I know you all want to hear that Theodore Lilly lined the field, hit BP grounders, carried the equipment, marked the field and hugged every baby in Des Moines………but all he did was pitch. And he stood out, but probably not how you may think. I happened to notice during the national anthem, at which time a little league team was able to stand on the field with the I-Cub players and Ted’s two young little leaguers  were directed to the flag, slightly distracted standing by the awesome pitcher, a minor league moment but pretty cool for those two kids and cute. He stood out because Ted was the only player without pants at his knees; all the rest were "Reed Johnson style". A little different seeing an entire team going old school.

I just got home from the game and left in the top of the 7th with the  I-Cubs leading 5-2. I had great seats 9 rows from the field behind the dugout. It was 76 degrees at 9:00 pm and the wind had died down; at game time it was howling out to left at 30 mph (more on that later) and it was over 80 degrees.

Ted started his warm-up at 6:10 (6:35 game time in April here). I counted 60 people in line for Sandberg’s autograph during his warm-up and Sandberg made a lot of them happy. On the video board in the background, the “Sandberg Game” homeruns played in the background. (Yes, the I-Cubs are playing his manager position in Des Moines to the hilt….and we like it that way!)

The I-Cubs were facing the Cardinal affiliate Memphis Redbirds. An announced crowd of 5,018 was really around 1,500 in attendance. Surprisingly this was small with the great weather and Mr. Theodore Lilly on the mound. Let’s get right to Ted…………..51 pitches in 4 innings, 1 hit allowed, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts (all swinging). The second batter of the game got a fly ball in the jet stream blowing to deep left field for a homerun onto the Cub Club Restaurant’s air conditioning unit. That was all they got. Hoffpauir tied the game in the bottom of the 1st with an RBI single.

In the bottom of the 2nd Ted grounded back to the pitcher. My friend and I both commented how small he looked with the AAA double ear batting helmet.  The trend was for a lot of 70+ MPH off speed pitches sandwiched around a few low 80’s pitches and some mid 60’s curve balls. We both felt he was holding back and never really cut loose. An example of his pitching was the first batter in the 3rd who walked his pitches were 77-82-75-80 MPH. Changed speeds for sure but the topper was 84 for the night. The batter who walked in the third inning stole 2nd easily, getting six running steps, totally unnoticed by Lilly. He went to third when Lilly faked and caught him off base but Scales (playing third) fell asleep and didn’t see him sprinting toward third until too late. Lilly then struck out the batter swinging with a 79 MPH off speed pitch.

Four times in the game Lilly induced groundouts to 2nd base which tells me the Redbird hitters had trouble picking up the changing speeds. Ted’s night ended with a fly-out to left to end the 4th inning. Jay Jackson relieved starting the 5th. All-in-all, a good, yet easy night in Des Moines. I suspect since he only threw 51 pitches, he may have another minor league start.

Last thing I would like to share with Sandberg’s managerial style. 2 outs, runners at 1st and 2nd Scales at the plate. Both runners were put in motion and Scales hits to 2nd base who fumbled the ball which took away the play at first. Sandberg sent his runner coming from 2nd to home plate, which you could tell froze the 2nd baseman for a bit. That hesitation allowed the run to slip under the tag and put the I-Cubs ahead  2-1. I like this aggressive style of play and hope this is how Sandberg manages.

It was a great night for early April. My favorite Cub and hall of fame manager along with Ted Lilly. And, a great Cub win in Chicago today. Let’s get the sweep tomorrow!

We’ve had a lot of discussion about the ambiguous use of the word chemistry and how it relates to having a good clubhouse. I wrote this article late last summer but decided not to post it. Since this is a pretty dead time for baseball, I thought it could spur some discussion on team failures.

I’ve been involved in high school athletics for over three decades. In the summers I teach graduate classes that deals with playing team sports at an optimum level. While the curriculum is pretty sizeable, I want to share four things that happen on a team and relate them back to our past season.

Many textbook authors (most recently Jeff Janssen) have referred to teams being built in four phases: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. 

The forming stage is when players learn roles and start to develop group bonds.  In MLB this is spring training. A team attitude emerges.

The Storming Phase would be when a starting line-up is first introduced and a struggle ensues. Egos can get in the way of performance; jealousy can occur. I would compare this to spring training or early in the season when a certain player is getting most of the at-bats at a particular position and another player figures they could be left out. Or, another example would be the bullpen and the order at which players are used.

 Norming is the time when things settle down and players begin to accept their roles. Players become comfortable with each other and a trust begins. This probably happens at least by the time a 25-man roster is set and a few games have been played. By the end of April a team is probably “normal”. A veteran team with all members returning from the previous season might attain this early in spring training.

Last of all, the Performing Stage is when all things are going well. Players play their role and the team excels. This is an easy comparison to the 2008 team when it seemed virtually all year the team performed at a high level.

Here’s the problem. At any time a team can revert back to the storming phase. It could be an attitude problem from a player or something that happens in a game. It could be an injury where a team is thrown back into trying to get back into a set line-up with new roles. Some teams may go back and forth from Storming into Norming for long periods. Some teams may never get to the Performing Stage.

I’ve seen personal examples of a player being eliminated from a high school team and the team will run off a win streak. I’ve seen high school teams that suffer injury or disciplinary infractions never recover back to their old form due to players in new roles and fighting to be in a role. Injuries and attitudes were the 2009 Cubs.

This past season, from the outside looking in, had all the signs of failure. Injuries all season, and they were major injuries.  One (or more) players’ attitude may have made everyone uncomfortable.  It’s very hard for a manager or coach to fix or prevent this “storming” phase thing from happening, but the duration could be shortened. In my opinion, it is hard to imagine at the major league level how teams perform at all, when you add booing, media critics and the fans call for change throughout the season. Players have to be so strong as to trust themselves, their teammates and coaches to prevent any of this. Leadership is critical.

 I hope this might shed some light as to what can happen on teams and what could have happened in 2009. When you look at everything, we should probably have not had a winning record. What we could probably expect next season with a few new faces is a longer adjustment period (Forming-Storming-Norming) until we start “Performing” at a high level. We could surmise that if the team has a good April, management did a good job bringing in the right players and the team has good “chemistry”.

There are many factors that relate to chemistry and this is one area. There are certainly other factors.

Have a great holiday season and here’s hoping for a great 2010 Cubs season.

 This is a view from my driveway in the Des Moines area. We received 15 inches of snow and wind gusts up to 50 MPH all day today. Schools, malls, banks, just about everything closed. The drift that went across my driveway was four feet high. Snowplows did not come through until late this afternoon. Main streets are open but side streets are one lane if lucky. The snow was deeper than most snowblowers so the dig out was time consuming.  Most schools in the metro area have announced closings for tomorrow too. It's just plain ugly. I know what you're thinking.... better you than me and yes, I would not wish this on any of you.

I was able to read all the posts on the lack of the Bradley trade today, sandwiched around blowing snow. If you live outside of the snow area, you should feel lucky. This one set some December snow records in Iowa.

While we Iowan's are stuck inside today, let's get Bradely moved so we can get on with the off season. We're dreaming of next summer with Ryne Sandberg and the Iowa Cubs, we don't have anything else to do in Iowa for the next few days!