Hey Jim. I’m a little irritated because I typed a very long reply but somehow Facebook ate it. Actually, I was irritated. Then I waited about 3 hours before trying again. The main point was that the team in particular fed off of the tension of the fans; in other series, it wasn’t there, and in today’s game, the SouthSiders showed us, with Terrible Towels, how it was done. It has definitely (in my opinion) helped the Sox, who define themselves sometimes as being NOT the Cubs to not choke after watching us do it in legendary fashion. It WAS truly remarkable just how somber us fans got, and how quickly. A 9-game post-season losing streak will do that to you.
The first casualty of this, for me, is my Piniella boosterism. At this point, I’m ready to welcome back Dusty, I really am. His achievement with the 2003 team looms large now, it really does. This is a really grim thought, but his decision to ride his horses hard, which may have cost Mark Prior his career, doesn’t look so crazy. Q: if a healthy Mark Prior had been here, (meaning the division series) would it have helped?
The problem with Lou is that I think we all felt Something Wrong after the Loney grand slam, and desperate times call for desperate measures. Torre pushed buttons differently in the post-season - Piniella did not. He actually let Howry pitch, which shouldn’t have happened. Those insurance runs mean more in October; they confer momentum that they don’t confer in July or April. He also should have Done Something about right field; he would have liked to have DeRosa out there and Fontenot at second, but DeRosa wasn’t really able to play right with his calf injury. And this was the kind of series in which that came in to play in the first inning DeRosa was out there in game 3; with Fukudome in right, no way Manny scores from first, nor does he even consider trying. Arugably, it could have been an out with Fukudome in RF. As for game 1, Sometimes, after 6 walks, you have to get a clue and pull your ace. Dempster walked 7; I think that Lou gave him too much slack. I suspect laRussa or Torre would have pulled him before it got way out of control. I also wonder if regular-season Lou wouldn’t have done likewise.
Ron Darling said what I was thinking, that Fukudome got a hit against Kuroda because facing a familiar Japanese pitcher put him back in his comfort zone. Kosuke was visibly uncomfortable - you could see it in his face. His single changed that.
If you look at articles on ESPN and other places, we are more of a laughingstock than the Cubs have ever been before. Last year was a major oopsie, 2003 was a tragic collapse, 1984 was several unlucky incidents in a do-or-die game, 1989 was an ass-kicking by Will Clark, 1998 was a disposal of us by the superior Braves, and 1969 was the only real equivalent. In 2037, will an elderly Derrek Lee go, OH NOOOO!!!! from the broadcast booth when Jules Patel drops an easy fly ball in, say, Columbus? Maybe the new Mr. Cub will be Big Z by then? Or to pick someone like Santo whose career was cut short, Mark Prior?
Sigh. The only thing to do is to come back yet again, in 2009. The Central will still suck other than us. This core group probably can look forward to a three-peat, judging from the rest of the division, as it will be after CC Sabathia leaves.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment