Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
Kerry Wood addressed the issue of the possibility of being a Cub again. "Nothing is impossible. We’ll see how things play out.", he said according to the Trib.
I liked Kerry Wood. I still do. Talent and upside aside, he represents Cub mentality even two years after he left the team. Most Cub fans I know think of him fondly. Itâs reported that even Jim Hendry has a soft spot for Wood.
Bring him back, I say.
Sounds like crews are already on the ball and are inspecting the damage of the âsnow thudâ at the Metrodome last Sunday.
This isnât the first time this has happened at the Humpdome.
Commission chairman Roy Terwilliger says it’s the fourth roof collapse since the stadium opened nearly 30 years ago, all caused by heavy snow.
Interesting personal angle with me. The University of Illinois baseball team (who I blog about at Illinois Baseball Report) just came out with their schedule last week and the team is/was scheduled to play at the Metrodome in mid-March at the newly formed Metrodome Tournament.
Gives a new definition to âTournament jittersâ.
When a St Louis Cardinal blog does one of those âWill Mark McGwire get into the Hall of Fame?â polls, I just yawn. Thereâs no point in relying on the data. But when an AL team blog like the Blue Jaysâ Blue Bird Banter does one, I pay a little more attention.
If you trust the Jaysâ fans intuition, Big Mac has a long row to hoe. At this writing, the Nos have it by a 62% to 37% margin. And despite how I feel about the matter, I think theyâre right. The bad publicity and quite honestly the bad choices by McGwire have put him where heâs at and 2011 wonât be a HOF year for him.
My prediction? McGwire will eventually get into Cooperstown but it wonât be for a few years (assuming he maintains his vote minimum). If not, the veterans committee (if it still exists then⌠thatâs another story) will shoo him in when the time comes.
Steve Garvey, former squeaky clean (then not so squeaky clean) LA Dodger firstbaseman, is part of an investment group who is looking into acquiring his former team.
But Frank McCourt, who is still vying for sole ownership, claims:
"There are some great treasures out there that people would love to buy, the Dodgers among them," McCourt spokesman Steve Sugerman said. "But, like the Mona Lisa and the Pacific Ocean, the Dodgers aren’t for sale."
It seems to be a situation that the more one denies the inevitable, the more it may come true. But will it be Garvey and Co who will end up with the goods? None other than Mark Cuban has expressed interest in the Dodgers, as well.
No financial details have been made public.
Currently, Garvey is serving as member of the board of directors of the Baseball Assistance Team and consults for the Dodgers.
If you havenât seen it, check out Joe Posnanskiâs tribute to Ron Santo on SI.com.
For many years, Ron Santoâs identity was wrapped up in being left outside. He was, simply, the greatest player not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. This is not to say that he was a better baseball player than Dick Allen or Minnie Minoso or Bert Blyleven or Ken Boyer or numerous other terrific players who have not yet been elected and inducted. That is a matter opinion. This is not to say he was a more egregious oversight than any of these players or others. That, too, is opinion.
Very well played.
PS here is the AP report on Ronnieâs funeral and wake.
My friend Tyler called me Friday afternoon with the sad news that Cubs broadcaster and former third baseman Ron Santo had died. It had been such a busy day, I hadnât heard the news reports.
Tyler lamented, âI wonder now will they induct him in the Hall?â
I donât think he was insinuating that players should be inducted on the basis of sympathy (although no doubt, others may feel that way). However, it would be a sad irony if he did get his invite to the Hall posthumously. Mr Santo made no secret (though he did it with such humbleness) that he wished to get to Cooperstown.
Iâll be honest⌠Santo was not my favorite broadcaster behind the mike. I donât think Iâm alone in that. He was entering an modern era that was not his. That said, as a representative of the Cubs, a liaison to the public, a go-between from baseball to Joe and Jane Public, there was no one better. He was as real as it gets in this media-phony world of broadcasting. His love for the Cubs was atypically genuine. For that, I will miss him.
If you live in the East Central Illinois area, you might be interested in the 2011 Sports Trivia Championship put on by the Kiwanis Club of Champaign-Urbana.
Details are at the Kiwanisâ Sports Trivia Championship website but hereâs the skinny:
There will be prizes of course, with the winning entrant or team winning $1,000. The Baseball Zealot entered a team in the Sports Trivia Championship last year and quite honestly, fared quite poorly. Well, at least now thereâs room for improvement.
The deadline for registration is January 14th.
I may have come off as a tad grumpy when I insinuated that the Big Ten modifications to Wrigley Field for the Illinois-Northwestern football game were a âjokeâ. Funny what an Illini 48-27 win and a Mikel Leshoure 300+ rushing performance can do to temper oneâs opinion.
Bleed Cubbie Blueâs Al Yellon, who attended the game, had a more positive spin on the whole affair:
But when the Cubs, Northwestern, Illinois and the Big Ten put on a spectacle as entertaining as today’s 48-27 blowout by the Illini over the Wildcats, it shows off Wrigley to a national audience as the terrific place it isâŚ
âŚFor those of you who cried, "travesty", "joke" or "disaster" yesterday when the rule changes were announced, I say: kwitcherbitchin. Playing every offensive series facing the west end zone had absolutely no impact on the flow of the game. The officials seemed briefly confused the very first time they had to reposition the ball, but after that it all went smoothly.
Boy, itâs almost like Alâs talking to me. I will indeed kwitmybitchinâ.
Rumor has it that there was a lot of good-natured Cubs-Sox trash talkinâ going on between the Illini players. No word on which contingent was larger.
Congrats to the Illini who are in line for a bowl bid for the first time since 2007.
Seiler is a Chicago based artist who was commissioned by Major League Baseball to do some art for the 2010 World Series program. Thatâs quite an honor!
On his blog, Itâs Funny Because Itâs True, Seiler writes about his experience but mostly breaks down each piece art (almost literally as he zooms in and shows segments of each piece art).
If youâre a baseball art fanatic, this is definitely worth looking at. For me as the old saying goes, I donât know art but I know what I like. And I kinda like this.
A last minute decision based on safety has turned the Illinois-Northwestern football game at Wrigley Field tomorrow into somewhat of a joke. To put it simply, there will be one end zone and whenever there is a switch in possession, the teams will turn to the opposite direction so the offense will face that said end zone.
The end zone is on the west side of the football field now desecrating Wrigley Field.
Maybe this Wrigley Field idea wasnât such a great idea after all.
Wrigley Field was modified to Big Ten standards. Earlier, Big Ten officials did a walk-through at Wrigley and didnât raise a fuss. Both of those points were raised in a rather terse even passive-aggressive statement issued by the Chicago Cubs organization after the Big Ten decided to make their changes:
âThis game would not have been scheduled if it did not pass the strict and meticulous standards of everyone involved, a process that began more than a year ago. All are in agreement Wrigley Field is a safe venue to host a football game. Other baseball parks, including tomorrow nightâs game in Yankee Stadium, feature similar football field-to-venue grid dimensions and rule changes are not considered for football games played in other baseball parks.
âWe have reached out to the Big Ten to further discuss the playing field. While we are surprised by this morningâs last-minute statement, all agree that tomorrow will be an historic event and a wonderful experience for the fans, the schools and the student-athletes.â
Well, it doesnât bode well to upset your hosts. Play Ball!
oh and Go Illini!