Wednesday, October 22, 2003

Thoughts for the day...

#1 I think that if I lived alone I'd never turn the lights on at night, except while reading.

#2 It seems like the older I'm getting, the less sleep I need. Went to bed at 2am last night and up at 8am. How weird is that?
Being a Cub fan is something you are born to, and learn for so many years that failure is a way of life. In some ways, I think it helps you deal with life itself, since so much of life is dealing well with failures. I guess so far, I haven't dealt with this one very well. One day, I think I will, and win or lose, lose, lose, I will remain with my baseball team forever.


That's an excerpt from Al Yellon's blog entry of the day of the disaster. Sums up my feelings perfectly, though Al is a much bigger (and more involved) Cub fan than I.

Needless to say, I thought we'd win this one. Truth be told, the NLCS *was* MY World Series. All I wanted was for the Cubs to win the NLCS. Just *get* to the Series. And if they lose the Series, I'd be sad. But not as sad as I ended up being Tuesday night.

You know the story. Everybody does. Prior was cruising with a 3-0 lead. He wasn't at his best, but he was good enough, and that was good enough. Until the top of 8th. A one-out foul ball to the stands in left decided this game. People don't want to blame the fan, saying it was Alex Gonzalez's (in a Leon Durham/Bill Buckner replay) bobble of an easy DP ball that cost the Cubs this game, but I don't blame Step 2 for this one. I blame Step 1. That fan and the foul ball. His name has been out enough in the media and I won't mention it. I don't wish bad on him. He already has infamy forever, and that's a BIG punishment. But if he had just stayed back from that ball and let Alou catch it, the Cubs would be in the Series right now. With 2 outs and nobody on first Gonzalez wouldn't be thinking DP on that grounder, he'd take the easy out at first. And the Cubs would be 3 outs away from the Series instead of out of it all together.

The jolt from that fan blocking Alou jarred Prior and the team visibly. Prior soon loaded the bases, gave up some runs, and eventually Farnsworth (another possible goat) gave up a 3-run hit to somebody and the game was beyond our grasp. The Cubs couldn't come back from this one and lost 8-3. It was a disaster. Unbelieveable.

I couldn't believe it. I kept yelling that at the TV, along with a few choice words. We almost got a new TV out of this game, since I was VERY close to throwing my glass right into the screen. THIS was the day I lost hope. I knew we had Wood going the next day, but THIS loss was worth than anything that could have happened. (sportswise)

This was one you never forget. You tell your kids about it. My Dad never told me any sports stories or anything, but now I have one for my kids. And I'll never, ever, forget it. I know it's just baseball. That's clear to me. Sports-wise, it is the worst thing I have ever seen, and the worst I have EVER felt. And I think it will ALWAYS will be. Only thing that could have happened worse is career-ending injuries to Prior & Wood during the game. Do I think Baker should have used Juan Cruz or Matt Clement instead of Farnsworth, Veres, Alfonseca, or anybody in the pen but Borowski? Yes. Do I think the Cubs would have won then? I do. But it doesn't matter, and Dusty deserves the benefit of the doubt after getting the Cubs so far in one year.

Thoughts on Wednesday's game 7 to follow.
As I was going to bed last night the cat was on the bed. He hissed at me. I picked him up and threw him out of the room and shut the doors.

To him, that's like getting kicked out of paradise. Oh well.

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

One last thing...

An aquaintance, after telling me they were a HUGE Mets and Yankees fan, proceeded to ask me what time Game 3 was on yesterday.

In just how many ways does this not compute? I lump this person with the newly minted Cubs fans, who feign weeping now that the Cubs are out of the playoffs. Sad for you, but I was weeping/soaring with this team in MAY. And many Mays-Septembers previous.
Yankees are beating the Marlins 6-1 in the 9th.

I'd take this time to mention that the Cubs took 2 out of 3 from the Bronx Bombers during the regular season, if it mattered at all.
By the way, thanks to PTI...

Bear + trampoline = funny!

Enjoy.
Now, for my thoughts on the Cubs...bear in mind, I am STILL reeling from some of these events.

Ok, so my thoughts on each game of the Braves series, and Games 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the NLCS are already summed up in this blog. Now, we come to Game 5. Also known as, THE ONLY CUB PLAYOFF GAME I'VE EVER BEEN TO. (AND IT WASN'T AT WRIGLEY)

So, minutes after the Cubs game-5 win against the Braves, Court and I (Court's idea) were online trying to get tickets to one of the games here in Florida. Game 4 was already sold out, but there were still tickets to game 5. I can only assume that is because at that time Game 5 was still a * if necessary game. We were able to but two tickets in a spot that said 'partially blocked view' or some crap like that. It was in a section not normally sold for Marlin games...as if that matters, since the place NEVER draws any Marlin fans during the regular season. I think their attendance average is <20k. Earlier in the blog you can read my thoughts as to how jazzed I was that I'd have a chance to see the Cubs clinch the NL pennant for the first time in over 50 years. Needless to say, I was ready for magic to happen.

It did...but it was evil, bad, ugly, scary, terrible magic. Voodoo magic. Bad jass. More on that later.

The drive down to Miami was uneventful. We'd packed a lunch so I had a sandwich and pop and some pringles while driving. It's basically 2 minutes on one road, 2 minutes on another, then the other 98% of the journey is on one highway, the FL turnpike. FL is weird because their oasises (is that right?) are at ground level, but still in the middle of the highways, with the road passing to either side. But I digress.

We see a stadium off in the distance, but at this time the net directions were getting a little patchy and we went the wrong way. I guess we were thinking it might have been the stadium where the Dolphins play (it was, duh, me) which I thought was called 'Joe Robbie Stadium' (it used to be, duh, me) and not 'Pro Player Stadium' as our tickets said. They renamed it a few years ago, much to my not caring. And the signs just said 'STADIUM'...not like the name of the stadium attached or anything. Which I guess is ok, since there's only ONE stadium in Miami, which apparently is common knowledge to everyone but me.

We get there around 2 hours early. It's hotter than heck out. Sun is BLAZING. We get in and they're offering those white crap-rag towels they Marlins fans wave. I declined, and I declined Court's on her behalf. I didn't want to jinx the Cubs. Looking back, I should have taken one, if only to use to clean up when the cat horks on the carpet or if there's crap stuck to his ass. That'd be a good use for it.

So, our seats were at the highest tier (third, I think) out in foul territory in DEEP left. The 'abstructed view' thing meant that we were probably missing a few dozen feet of left field. We couldn't see the left fielder because he was in our blind spot. It was too sunny to sit so we walked around the concourse. The stadium is ok, I guess. Totally meant for football, with its cruddy and too-cramped seats. There were a TON of Cub fans there, especially in our section. I was really proud to see them all. Court got a scorecard so she could keep score and I got us some liquids to keep us from drying out. I think I had 3-4 lemonades in all that day, and a few bottled waters too. It was too hot for beer, for me at least.

So, the game begins. Low and behold, Josh Beckett becomes some kind of pitching meta-human, and Zambrano cannot throw strikes. He got out of 2 or 3 sticky bases-loaded situations (if memory serves) and the game was scoreless until I had to get up and go to the bathroom and get some more lemonade. I'm in line, and BAM. Mike Lowell (who I would soon grow to HATE) hits a 2-run shot and the Marlins never looked back. Well, the Cubs got 2 as well...HITS. Beckett was just a madman that day and I didn't blame Zambrano for this loss. The Cubs bats were DEAD. Very sad, especially since they lit-up the Marlins during the Saturday night game that I missed seeing due to dinner.

During the game, the Marlins fans were talking major-league shee-it. It was easy to do, since Lowell was on auto-pilot and the Marlins got 2 more runs off I-Rod and Jeff (old man) Conine (I think) solo shots. There were some rough words exchanged between fans, particularly these two guys a few rows ahead of us, but nothing major. Fact is, the Cubs were anemic the whole game so even though the Cubs fans kept cheering there was really nothing they could say. At the end of the game, with Marlins fans cheering, two Cub fans started cheering "PRI-OR" "PRI-OR", and saying things like "Enjoy this game, it's your last one here this year." and all that. I was inclined to agree with them. Oh, how WRONG I would be.

(I will discuss the debacle tomorrow. Tomorrow's secret word will be: DEVASTATED.)
Messing around with the new laptop from work today. Dell Latitude D600. VERY snazzy. Onboard lan, modem, and apparently bluetooth, though I have no devices to try it, and don't even know anybody WITH anything compatible. Too bad it's not regular 'ole onboard W-lan. That said, old laptop will go out to pasture for a while and W-lan card has been put into the new hotness.

Machine came already put together by the moto-PC-monkeys. That's good news/bad news...fortunately, I already disabled the PITA stuff, like the machine making my password be what it calls 'complex'. I'm sure we all know what THAT means. I really don't want my password to have to be some l33tspeak jamble like 'G0 cu85 2003' or some crap like that. Sorry...if they just assume the regular user can't find the setting to disable that it's not my fault some people have the motts to figure it out.

New Hotness tech specs...XP, 1.59GHz, 1GB RAM, 60GB harddrive space. Very nice.

Monday, October 20, 2003

I haven't meant to drop-off the blog-posting map. (how's THAT for hyphens?)

I will post my thoughts on the Cubs debacle tomorrow.

Tonight, been playing the CSI game I've had for months and just haven't gotten a chance to play. VERY cool, though it seems to be short. That's not such a big deal. Already did a case with Grissom, Sara, and Nick, and all that's left is Warrick and Catherine. 5 cases in the game. Enjoyable so far. Hopefully they make a sequel of some kind. All the characters from the show are involved including the Doc, Brass, and Greg. I think my sister would like this, though I don't think she plays games. I wonder if her machine could run it?

Tuesday, October 14, 2003

I can't even believe this.

Monday, October 13, 2003

Long story short, the Cubs lost yesterday. Josh Beckett pitched like a madman. More details to follow when I'm in the mood.

Saturday, October 11, 2003

Had dinner tonight with Court's cousin Angela & family. Tony Roma's...a good time was had by all. I had to sit out watching tonight's Cub game, but there were TVs there tuned to the game and by checking the score a few times I was able to follow along with tonight's 8-3 victory! Unfortunately, thought I was recording the game at home, it cut out after 3hrs (top of the 8th I think) for some reason even though I thought I had increased the recording time by an hour and a half. Anyway, I was able to go back and see some key hits including the Aramis Ramirez grand-slam (first in Cub post-season history) which started the Cubs off 4 runs up and they never looked back.

Great game fellas! Nice win by Clement! A key victory!

One more WIN puts the Cubs in the Series! We're leaving here for Miami tomorrow around 11am! We hope to see the Cubs clinch the pennant with a W!
I forgot to add Kudos for Borowski, who came in and kept Marlins scoreless for 2 1/3 innings ( I think) and earned the W tonight!

Way to go Joe!

Friday, October 10, 2003

CUBS WIN! After getting 2 runs in the first, losing that lead, then tying it, losing then tying, it, taking the lead in the top of the 11th the Cubs closed out the Marlins in the bottom of the 11th on a great heads-up play by Ramon Martinez! 2 outs, man on second...bouncer to third which Martinez bobbles...man on second got caught in a run-down. Cubs tagged him out to WIN Game 3 of the NLCS by the score of 5-4! GREAT WIN! Big Kudos to Randall Simon for a 2-run shot that tied it at 4. Also, big kudos to Kenny Lofton for getting on base in the top of the 11th and Doug Glanville for tripling him in to take the lead in the top of the 11th.

Great Win fellas! Way to go!

I'm still shaking...this game lasted about 4 and a half hours. I have to use the john now...been holding it for an hour!

GO CUBS GO!

Thursday, October 09, 2003

Got my "Cubs 2003 NL Central Division Champs" sweatshirt today. UPS guy and I chatted up the Cubs for a bit...seems he's a fan too. Weird...lot of Cub fans down here. I s'pose because their spring training used to be down here.

Wednesday, October 08, 2003

Awesome game by Mark Prior tonight! 12-3 Cub victory! Prior pitched an amazing game, only giving up any runs (2 on back to back homers, then one which I think was probably charged to him after leaving with the bags loaded/nobody out and Veres got out of the inning but gave up a run) and that was only after the game was basically in the bag. The Cubs led the whole night after putting up a two-spot in the bottom of the first. Alex Gonzalez (OUR AG, as there's one on the Marlins as well) hit TWO homers, and Sammy hit one straight back that hit the top of the camera shack in the center field bleachers...one of the longest I've ever seen him hit. Stone mentioned a Clemente shot as being the only one he's seen that's longer straight back at Wrigley.

Again...GREAT GAME to Mark Prior & the Cubs! Way to go, fellas!
The Cubs lost today...game 1 of the NLCS at Wrigley. After putting up a 4-spot in the bottom of the first, Zambrano gave up 5 runs shortly thereafter and while the Marlins would take the lead and the Cubs would come back and tie TWICE (A. Gonzalez homer, Sammy Sosa 2-run bottom of the ninth homer), a Mike Lowell homer off Mark Gurthrie to lead off the 11th made it 9-8 and the Cubs didn't score in the bottom half of the inning.

Some BIG offense for the Cubs today, but Zambrano just gave up too many runs, and Borowski (2 runs) and Guthrie (1 run) out of the pen didn't help. It's a shame that they lost with all the runs they put up, but they lost that early lead and were chasing the Marlins ever since.

I can only hope this loss stuns the Cubs into recognizing they have to FIGHT to win each of these NLCS games. The Marlins are not a team that will just roll over. Let's hope Prior (tomorrow) and Wood (Friday) put the Cubs up 2 games to 1.

This loss by the Cubs means that if they win ONE of the next 3 games we will be at the game on Sunday. I hope they win the next three straight and we see them clinch on the pennant! GO CUBS!

Monday, October 06, 2003

Thought of the day: Is it a hallmark of our increasingly violent society that when I build up successful cities in my region playing Sim City 4, all that I can think about is how cool it would be if they could declare war on each other? :)

Sight of the day (3am today): I found the culprit that's been raiding our trash for months. It was NOT, as I originally thought, a cat, and NOT, as I thought last week after spying one, a possum, but at 3am this morning I look out the window to inspect our trash, and after noticing it upset, what did I see? A RACCOON. Court was right all along. When I went out there with a flashlight the thing was in no hurry to get away either. Just kind of walking briskly off. I could have him him with a baseball, had I had one. I straightened the trash TWICE last night and STILL it was a mess this morning. The thing is, he walks RIGHT PAST the neighbor's trash to get to ours. Weird. Makes me think Boots has something to do with this.

In all seriousness, I'm going to start scouring the net for something to keep him away, as the dog/cat (pepper, seems like) repellant spray does nothing to keep this creature away.

I was up so late last night because of sleeping late AND because I was still SOARING from the CUBS VICTORY LAST NIGHT!

Sunday, October 05, 2003

WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

After a loss yesterday after what eventually became a close game, the CUBS WON TODAY 5-1, beating Atlanta and moving on to the NLCS! WOOOO HOOOOO! Got congratulatory calls from Mom and a friend back home...they know I've had my time suffering with the Cubs, just as every Cub fan has. This is GREAT! Kerry Wood went out there today and pitched a fantastic game, giving up only 1 run and that was on a pretty controversial call...Kenny man on first and second and a little liner to center field which Kenny caught (and replays showed it) but was ruled a trap...man on second scored and the Cubs got the forceout at second since even Giles thought it was a catch and didn't run to second.

FANTASTIC GAME by Kerry and the Cubs. GREAT JOB GUYS! The Cubs play the Florida Marlins on Tuesday. Court & I have tickets to game 5 (if neccessary...I hope the Cubs win three straight and make it UNnecessary) so if it does happen I'll get a chance to see the Cubs clinch the pennant!

Again...Great Game to Kerry & the Cubs!

Friday, October 03, 2003

Cubs win! Spectacular 2-hit complete game performance by Mark Prior! Way to go Mark!

Great job, fellas! Go get 'em tomorrow too!

Thursday, October 02, 2003

The Cubs lost last night. Zambrano pitched an OK game, and at one point the Cubs were leading 2-1, but after the Braves made it 3-2 and the Cubs tied THAT up Dave Veres gave up 2 runs in the bottom of the eighth and the Cubs lost 5-3.

Disappointing, but with a Prior start and a Clement start upcoming I still very much believe we'll win this series.

Wednesday, October 01, 2003

Last night, at around (or was it a little after?) midnight, THE CUBS WON GAME ONE! Wooooooo Hoooooooo! 4-2!

They had control of the entire game, basically. They squandered a TON of scoring chances early as Russ Ortiz never really had anything. Bases loaded with no outs and strikeout-strikeout-flyout...then, it happened AGAIN and this time they scored on a KERRY WOOD double! AWESOME!

Wood pitched an AMAZING game. Even made an awesome backhanded catch. What a great day for Kerry and the Cubs! Great job guys!

Game 2 is tonight at 7pm (est)! Good Luck Cubs!