Writing About the Chicago Cubs and Looking at the Team’s Past
[powered by WordPress.]
May 10, 1908 at West Side Park
Cubs 6, Pirates 2 (13-4)
The location was different but the result and opponent were the same as the Cubs dispatched the Pirates in the first game of their doubleheader. Three Finger Brown had another exception outing and he picked up a win his second straight start. He gave up just two runs on five hits and three walks.
Harry Steinfeldt had a big day at the plate. He went three for three with a walk and two doubles. Jimmy Sheckard singled and scored twice in the contest.
May 10, 1908 at West Side Park
Pirates 1, Cubs 0 (13-5)
A fantastic start by Jack Pfiester went to waste as the Cubs were shut out in the second game of their doubleheader with the Pirates. Johnny Evers and Pfiester singled and that was all the Cubs offense could muster.
Pfiester one bad inning was the seventh. He gave up a leadoff triple and while that baserunner was eventually taken care of on a botched squeeze play, a two out RBI single by Abby gave the Pirates the only run for either side in the game.
The Cubs started their longest home stand of the season (10 games) Friday afternoon and it didn’t take long for them to get comfy.
After Arizona’s Chris Young went yard off Ted Lilly, again, to give the D-Backs a 1-0 lead, the lefty starter was lights out and Chicago went on to win 3-1.
May 9, 1908 at Exposition Park
Cubs 1, Pirates 0 (12-4)
The Cubs continued their impressive start the season with a nice win behind a solid pitching performance by Chick Fraser. Fraser gave up just two hits, a single and a double, and he walked two and struck out three.
The Cubs scored their lone run in the top of the first inning. Frank Chance drove in Frank Schulte with a double off the left field wall. Jimmy Sheckard had a nice day at the plate with three singles in four at bats.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Alfonso Soriano has the second-worst on-base percentage of any playing leading off in the National League. On the Cubs alone, Soriano has the third worst percentage. But that means nothing to GM Jim Hendry.
On Wednesday he publicly defended Lou Piniella’s decision to keep Soriano in the lead off spot:
Welcome back to the starting rotation Jon Leiber. You’ve been missed by fans and Major League hitters alike.
Lieber probably needed a hug after giving up four home runs in the first inning to the Reds. Even if that hug came from a giant flesh-eating wild animal.
But give him credit. He lasted one more inning than most of us would have had we given up four home runs in one inning. Unfortunately after Lieber’s two innings of ”work” (five runs off seven hits), the Reds continued to pound the Cubs en route to a 9-0 drubbing. The next two pitchers weren’t much better.
Cubs manager Lou Piniella finally heard my calls for change and started Ronny Cedeno at second base Tuesday night. Sure, Cedeno committed an error, even though he is suppposed to be much better at second base than Mark Fontenot. But not to worry Cubs nation. Cedeno is the better option at second base.
Firstly, he’s hitting the crap out of the ball right now and Piniella needs to keep him in the line up. He’s done enough to earn a starting spot and he should stay there until his defense or bat completely fail him.
Secondly he’s not a bad fielder. He’s not the best fielder the Cubs have, but my god he’s hitting .373!
Ten years to the day Kerry Wood struck out 20 batters in a game, Carlos Zambrano was just as dominant.
Striking out three.
Zambrano came up huge for the Cubs, providing a spark that has been lacking the last couple of weeks with the exception of Zambrano starts. Big Z scattered three hits over eight innings and shut out the Reds en route to a 3-0 Chicago win. Wood fittingly closed the game with back-to-back strike outs for his fifth save of the season.
This is actually a sad story, so I’m not going to make any jokes here.
I found this via Deadspin. A woman in New Hampshire killed a man when she sped her car into a large group of people. The impetus for such rage? Yankees-Red Sox.
May 6, 1908 at Exposition Park
Pirates 5, Cubs 2 (11-4)
Carl Lundgren gave up his share of hits and gave up his share of free passes as the Cubs lost to the Pirates 5-2. Lundgren gave up five runs on eight hits and seven walks.
The Cubs managed just six hits in the contest. Heinie Zimmerman had the only extra base hit with a double and he scored on of the Cubs two runs.
Mike Fontenot looks like he’s about 16. And high. Which probably explains his decision to try and score from third base in the ninth inning with one out and the Cubs trailing 5-3.
The ball didn’t get as far away from the catcher as he thought and Fontenot was easily thrown out at home, leaving it up to Mark DeRosa and Derreck Lee to save his behind and end Chicago’s funk. Not the best way to make up for a first inning error that cost your team three runs. But baseball is a team game and the Cubs’ 5-3 loss to the Reds was a team effort.
Rich Hill we hardly knew thee. No, seriously, we hardly do know thee.
Last year Hill went 11-8 and struck out 183 batters (a team best) during his first ful season with the club. To begin this season Hill has an ERA over four and has walked 18 guys in 19-2/3 innings. So, which pitcher is he?
I’m hoping the former becuase it would be a shame to see a former Michigan ball player fall from the ranks of Major League Baseball. Being a brand-spanking new Michigan alum, I kind of have a bias for Hill.
Lou Piniella, however, doesn’t. The straw that broke the camel’s back for Hill was the four walks he issued to the first six batters in the first inning of Friday night’s game against St. Louis. Piniella had enough and yanked Hill. Then he was optioned to Triple-A Iowa.
Now Hill must try to regain his form in the obscurity of corn fields and long bus rides. It’s worked for Hill before and it could work again. I sure hope so because I’m already depressed over the poor performance of another former Michigan ball player; J.J. Putz.
Ronny Cedeno will not be ignored.
After hitting .383 with a .473 on-base percentage in 22 games, manager Lou Piniella has to come up with a way to get Cedeno’s bat in the lineup.
Jason Marquis, with a chance to salvage the series and stick it to his former employer, was as effective as anger management courses for Lou Piniella during the Cubs’ 5-3 loss to St. Louis Sunday night. He allowed five runs and notched five walks over 5-1/3 innings. Fittingly, his ERA is now over five. And if he continues to pitch this poorly he may no longer be one of the Cubs five starters.
His teammates didn’t do much to help. With the bases loaded and no outs in the seventh, the vaunted-Chicago lineup managed to score just one run — a sacrifice fly from Kosuke Fukudome.
The Cubs have now lost three series in a row and went 2-4 against their chief competition for the National League Central Division title.
May 3, 1908 at West Side Park
Cubs 4, Cardinals 2 (10-3)
The Cubs won their third straight in the front end of a doubleheader with the Cardinals. Johnny Evers was the hitting star and he went three for four with a run.
Three Finger Brown made his first start of the season and it was a good one. He gave up just two runs on six hits with four strikeouts in the win.
May 3, 1908 at West Side Park
Cubs 3, Cardinals 2 (11-3)
The Cubs made it four straight as they finished a sweep of both their four game series and their doubleheader with the Cardinals. The Cubs did it by storming back and they scored all three of their runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Joe Tinker reached base twice with a single and walk and he scored one of the Cubs runs.
Ed Reuhlbach picked up the win with a nice start. He gave up two runs on four hits and three walks with one strikeout.
May 2, 1908 at West Side Park
Cubs 3, Cardinals 2 (9-3)
Orval Overall had a problem with his control with seven walks given up to the Cardinals but he gave up just two hits in the contest and that was the difference as the Cubs edged the Cardinals. Overall was also helped by five strikeouts and the win pushed his record to a perfect 4-0.
The Cubs managed just four hits of their own. One of those was a double by Frank Schulte, who also walked and scored a run.
The above picture was taken just moments before Kerry Wood threw the first pitch of the ninth inning during Thursday afternoon’s game. I bet you can guess what happened next.
No, Craig Counsell didn’t line one back up the middle, sending Wood’s glove, hat and clothing flying in all different directions. But he might as well.
Wood drilled Counsell with the first pitch of the inning. Gabe Kapler hit a double. Then, Jason Kendall drove in Counsell. And faster than Charlie Brown could yell “AAUGH!” the Cubs were down 4-3 and Wood had blown his third save this season.
It’s tough to think of Kosuke Fukudome as a rookie, what with the nine seasons of Japanese professional baseball under his belt and all, but the reality is that Mr. Fukudome is a rookie by Major League standards.
And what a rookie he is.
In my previous post I came to the defense of Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. For those of you who didn’t catch the game last night, Cuban was sitting in the Tribune Co.’s primo seating for the game. Cuban has publicly expressed interest in owning the Cubs and as luck would have it the Tribune Co. is publicly interested in selling the team.
Now I know there are quite a few people who are rolling their eyes. Cuban’s excentric egomania doesn’t seem to mesh well with the humble, down-to-earth perception of baseball. But the reality is that baseball needs Mark Cuban. OK, maybe need is a strong word, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt the sport to have Cuban owning one of the league’s iconic franchises.
Alfonso Soriano is kind of like Mariah Carey: you either love him or you hate him. I’ve done both.
But regardless of how you feel about him, you have to admit that Soriano is important to this Cubs lineup. Well, Mike Downey agrees with you. And he also tries to insult the intelligence of any competent sports fan.
Ten years ago I was just 12, smoking was banned in all California bars and restaurants, Bill Clinton emphatically promised the nation he did not have sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky and Google was founded.
It was also ten years ago that Kerry Wood exploded onto the baseball scene with his 20K performance against the Houston Astros.
Fourteen players came up to the plate, 12 of them got base hits and nine of those fellows drove in a run during the Cubs’ 19-5 whipping of Milwaukee. So how does Felix Pie manage not to get a single hit last night?
Regardless, Chicago made up for Tuesday’s lost opportunity by taking every single opportunity it had Wednesday night and then some. Geovany Soto, who struck out in eight straight at bats over the weekend, jacked two three-run home runs; Aramis Ramirez and Ronny Cedeno each drove in three RBI and Mark DeRosa went 2-for-3 with two RBI and three walks. Oh and I think there was a partridge in a pear tree somewhere in there.
[powered by WordPress.]
17 queries. 1.032 seconds