I am in town for the last six home games, staying downtown.  However, obviously the game at Wrigley North tomorrow (Monday) throws an additional off speed pitch at me that I wasn't expecting.  I have never been there and this seems like a good opportunity, but not sure whether I want to just spend the day in downtown Chicago (since the rest of my trip will probably be in Wrigleyville), or find a way up to Miller Park.

My question is, what's the best advice for getting to Miller Park tomorrow afternoon if I decide to go, given that I didn't rent a car?  Amtrak seems okay.  How hard is it to get to Miller Park from the Milwaukee Amtrak station?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Can someone please explain to me why I am not hearing Kenny Lofton as a possible solution to two of our biggest problems?  He's sitting at home, and he's cheap.  He still had a good ave/obp last year and is still capable in center field.  He can solve both the CF problem and the leadoff problem and we don't even have to give anyone up to get him.

Just put Soriano down in the 7th hole and let him figure it out.  We can deal with his streakiness there, but not in front of the big bats in our lineup.  He's costing us runs on almost a daily basis, and for what?  To wait for his 3 week streak where he hits 7 solo homers?  Give me a break.  Stop putting ego before the team.  Get Kenny Lofton and move Soriano down to 7th in the lineup where he belongs.

I live in San Diego and am a partial-season ticket holder.  I was born and raised in Chicago as a Cubs fan, and have remained to this day.  I do enjoy baseball in general and going to Petco Park is a family endeavor for us, and I have pretty much raised my daughter as a Padres fan and my wife has adopted the team.  I have always said I am 95% Cubs fan and 5% Padres, although after this incident I would put it more like 99% to 1%.

At any rate, I thought it would be fun to lay out exactly what went into this bench-clearing brawl, since I predicted it to my wife on Saturday morning long before the game even started based on some comments made in the San Diego newspaper by a couple of the Padres.  So here is a description of what happened that resulted in two of the most universally liked guys in baseball coming to blows at Wrigley Field.

This all started with Alphonso Soriano's home run in Friday's game.  I would like to just embed the relevant videos here, but any MLB video that ends up on YouTube is almost immediately brought down due to MLB's copyright thugs (but that's another story).  At any rate, if you go to MLB/Cubs' Multimedia Center and click on the 6/15/07 Cubs/Padres Game, and then "Top Plays" and then on the right of the pop-up box "Soriano homers" you can see it there.  Note carefully Soriano's reaction to the home run, which was to take a few steps backward.  I don't like this kind of stuff, and am no fan of what Soriano has brought (or more accurately, not brought) to the Cubs, but it is pretty commonplace in today's game (think of Bonds' strut or Sosa's hops, for example).

Now we move to the San Diego Union Tribune's article entitled Strutting Soriano infuriates Padres, wherein Padres' pitcher Jake Peavy makes the following comment regarding Soriano's backward steps after hitting his home run:

I didn't appreciate that. Just play the game. They pay him $136 million to hit home runs. They don't pay him to be a circus act on the field. If I think a player shows me up like that, I like the next guy to take one in the stinkin' ribs. That way, his teammate will let him know about it, (he) will tell him, 'Hey, you'd better run the bases.'

I was really shocked when I read this.  How do you think the Cubs felt about it on Saturday morning when they read or heard about it?  It's like throwing gasoline on a small spark, there is sure to be an explosion.  It was at this point I immediately turned to my wife and said there would be a bench-clearing brawl at Wrigley today and that I would blame Peavy.  I do think that putting one in the ribs is a part of baseball, but you don't "predict" it, which puts your next pitcher in an awful tough jam if he accidentally comes inside.  

So now we fast forward to Wrigley Field on Saturday afternoon with the Cubs' best hitter and one of the most well-liked and respected guys in baseball, Derek Lee, coming to the plate.  If the Padres' theory is, as Peavy described, that you hit not Soriano but rather another player, Derek Lee is probably the one they are going to hit, since he is the Cubs' best hitter.  Sure enough, Young fires one headed straight for DLee's head.  You can see the pitch and the entire resulting fight by again visiting MLB/Cubs' Multimedia Center.  This time, click on the 6/16/07 game and again click on Top Plays and, if it doesn't come up right away, click on "Benches clear in Chicago" on the right.  

If you notice, DLee was headed toward first base before the fight broke out.  He said something to Young, and Young said something back, and whatever Young said it immediately set DLee off.  I believe from various replays I have seen that Young said something along the lines of "just go to first base."  That doesn't seem to me like something someone says if they didn't intend to hit someone.  Nobody knows but Young and maybe some of the Padres if they had intended to hit someone, but from Young's reaction combined with Peavy's asinine comments I see no way of coming to any other conclusion than that Chris Young threw at Derek Lee's head as a way of "retaliating" for Soriano's few backward steps after hitting a home run.

So, on one side, we have a bit of irritating showboating.  On the other side, we have someone that could literally be messing with one of the most well-liked guys in all of baseball's livelihood.  A ball to someone's head could end their career.

I used to be a big fan of Peavy, but have lost all respect for him.  I have lost respect for Young as well, which is a shame because he seemed like a class act and is a Princeton grad, which is pretty cool.  I could maybe accept it as an accident if not for Peavy's comments and Young's apparent taunting of Derek as Derek walked clearly in the direction of first base.

I imagine MLB suspensions will be coming down later today.  I am sure DLee will get a suspension but I hope the league takes into account his reputation and at least equally punishes Peavy and Young for their roles in this disgusting display.

I am headed to Petco Park on Friday for the Red Sox game, and will proudly wear my Cubs hat and Derek Lee t-shirt.

I don't know if this is okay with Al, but I am a frequent reader of BCB and occasional poster so I thought this might be enjoyed by some around here.  I have a personal blog where I posted my thoughts and pictures from my weekend trip from San Diego to Wrigley to catch the Cubs/Sox series.  I attended all three games, twice in the bleachers and once 4th row behind the Cubs dugout (Saturday!) by a miraculous face-value scalping find just as the game started.  My blog is at http://paulesmith.blogspot.com and here is a the post I wrote shortly before leaving San Diego.

Monday, May 14, 2007
Baseball Binge
Starting Friday I will be going on a baseball binge, attending 7 or 8 games in a 10 day period, starting in Chicago for the 3-game Cubs/Sox series at Wrigley Field. My baseball schedule:

5/18-20: Sox at Cubs
5/22-24: Cubs at Padres
5/25: Brewers at Padres
5/27: Brewers at Padres

The Cubs/Sox series at Wrigley is something I have wanted to do for a couple years as I have not been back to Wrigley since the 2003 Game 7 debacle against the Marlins the day after the Bartman incident (oh the pain!). I will be meeting up with some old high school friends for the Saturday game whom I have seen maybe once or twice since shortly after high school (20 year reunion later this year).

The Cubs/Padres series here in San Diego will be fun as well as I will be with my fellow ridiculously avid Cub fan that lives here in San Diego for two of those games, as well as the girls for the Wednesday night game. For the Sunday Brewers/Padres game at Petco my aunt and uncle will be visiting, so it is always a treat to introduce someone to the new San Diego downtown stadium.

I will be updating with pictures, especially from Chicago. GO CUBS! I am convinced my going to Chicago will be the spark this team needs to take their play to the next level. It worked wonders when I flew to Chicago in 2003 for that Game 7.

I have been scratching my head over this Soriano leadoff thing since we signed him.  I just don't get it, it seems like a horrible waste of potential run production, and leaves us with a weird dynamic for the 2-spot.

I see yesterday Pie went 3-4 with a walk, steal, and 3 runs scored.  Doesn't that sound like the kind of bat you want leading off?  I did not get to see him in spring training, what did you guys think?  

Wouldn't a lineup with Pie leading off (and adding that much improved defense in the outfield), followed by Soriano (I would love him in the 2-spot ala Ryno), DLee, and ARam make much more sense?  Or put a contact guy in the 2-spot and follow with Soriano, DLee, and ARam in the 3, 4, 5.

I hate any mention that Soriano prefers leadoff.  I don't give a crap, it's not about him, it's about the team and winning games.  I don't care if he's richer then Bill Gates, you play where Lou says you play and you shut up and do your best.

It's too early to draw anything other then tentative conclusions, but I just hate seeing Jones or Murton or DeRosa in the 2-spot between Soriano and DLee and ARam, not to mention that for the rest of the game we get to see Soriano hitting behind a friggin' pitcher.

I don't know if Pie is ready, is that the problem?  They just don't think he's ready for that kind of pressure?  It seems these days there is a reluctance to develop a true leadoff hitter with a true leadoff mentality.  Is it the player egos?  They don't want to do things like draw walks, lean over the plate and take one, lay down the nice bunt, etc?

As this season begins, I feel more excitement about baseball in general then I have in probably a decade.  I am playing fantasy baseball, I bought a 20-game package of 4 seats to the Padres (yes, I am "stuck" living in San Diego and thoughts of Garvey vaguely haunt me every time I go to a Padres game), and I have plans to get to Chicago for a couple games at Wrigley this summer, and hopefully to Colorado, San Francisco, and Arizona.  And of course, I am becoming a regular reader of BCB.

This morning, in an effort to lift the fog of discomfort over what I witnessed happen in Cinci yesterday, I did a Google search on Harry Caray and took a trip down memory lane back to a time of warm summer afternoons spent with my grandmother at her lake house in northern Illinois, listening to Harry being Harry and anxiously anticipating the next Ryno at bat.  And, it occurred to me that something about baseball has lost me, despite my efforts to recapture my love for the game this year.

Maybe Harry's death is part of it, and the transition to Skip, and then watching him leave, and Steve leave on bad terms, and now I just feel like I'm listening to two dudes that I share no connection with.  Maybe it's the pain I felt in 2003, when I decided  to jump on a plane at 5:30am the morning of Game 7, was at the airport an hour later, was in Chicago several hours later, and found myself walking around Wrigley to find a ticket, enjoying everything about that day, but also feeling that sense of gloom that shouldn't have been accompanying a Game 7 with Kerry Wood on the mound.  I still wear the t-shirt I bought on the way out of the park that night, "2003 NL Champions, Chicago Cubs."  I refuse to accept what happened.

Maybe it's Sammy, Mac, and the rest of the muscleheads that cheated their way into our hearts.  I was as caught up in Sammy as anyone, actually debating whether he would someday overtake Ryno as my favorite Cub.  Then the cork.  Then the excuses.  Then the denials under oath to Congress.  This stain on the game is something I will never be able to fully forgive.

Maybe it's PriorWood.  It's funny how when we left Floriday in 2003 to come home, we all said "it's ours with Prior and Wood pitching Game 6 and 7!"  Amazingly, we lost both games at home.  Then we left Game 7 saying the future is incredibly bright with these guys anchoring our pitching staff for the next decade.  I sat next to Jerry Prior, yes Mark's Dad, all the way home from Chicago the next day.  I found so much revealing in that long conversation, including multiple references to the Yankees possibly being a home for Mark and Kerry someday.  And of course there was Jerry's comment that he was afraid that Mark would be a "Dan Marino" having lost his only chance to win a championship with the Chicago Cubs.  The downfall of these two has been an incredible drain on this organization over the last few years.

Yesterday put my feelings about baseball these days into a nutshell.  I am spending $20/mo this year to get "premium" access to MLB on my computer.  I do work at home, but love to work at my desk with the game on my second monitor and paying some attention at least to my work on my laptop.  Playing fantasy baseball made "Mosaic" a must-get.  Six games at once, easy switching, fantasy baseball player alerts.  Wow!  Sounds incredible, eh?

So I spent much of my morning trying to get it to work.  The player tracker doesn't work at all.  They couldn't stream games as they had planned for whatever technical reasons.  MLB has all these people shelling out $20/month and many of them couldn't get any games all day.  They have had all offseason to get this thing right, and they couldn't do it.  They ask for patience.  Yeah, well, how about a free month?  Yeah, right.  I watched the Cubs game in hi-def on my Plasma.  Talk about a game you DON'T want to see in hi-def!

And then there was the game yesterday.  Part of why I am so excited about baseball this year was the commitment to winning put out by the Cubs organization this off season.  All the years of "they don't have to get players, Wrigley will sell out anyway" seemed to be behind us for at least a year.  Not only do we have the talent and depth, we have a manager now that will stress fundamentals, make that DEMAND fundamentals.  He will motivate our guys, and make all the right moves.  Um, oops.

Our ace couldn't throw strikes, or at least not ones promptly parked 425 feet away by Adam Dunn.  Our first two innings we didn't get a baserunner.  When we did get baserunners, there was no clutch or situational hitting.  It was the same type of play that lost us 96 games last year.  I was particularly disappointed when Lou didn't us Itzuris to bunt over DeRosa with nobody out and Z and Soriano coming up and down 2-0.  

And then of course there's the sale.  Is this good or bad?  What's the future of Wrigley?  Z's contract?  Does this mean the entire 2007 season will be one with a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the team?

So, I feel hungover this morning with all this weighing on me.  Why do I love this game so much?  Do I love this game?  Or am I forcing myself to love the game, or convincing myself that I do, when there are so many other things I could turn my attention to, and go back to just passively checking the standings here and there unless things get interesting?

I guess this morning I long to get into a time machine and go back to baseball when Harry and Ryno were still around.  When moving the runner over to third with nobody out by poking one to 2nd base was still an art.  When nobody heard of steroids or Bartman.  When everyone thought Prior and Wood would carry the Cubs to the World Series multiple times.  

But, here we are.  As Al says, just an off day.  Tomorrow game 2 of 162.  Somehow, though, I feel like I did walking into Wrigley Field for Game 7 back in 2003.