Cubs | The Baseball Zealot

How Cubs fans can spend their hard earned money

What better way to honor your visit to Wrigley Field than to… throw a football??

The Friendly Confines will be transformed into a football field for the first time since 1970 when the Northwestern University Wildcats host the University of Illinois Fighting Illini for a special college game in a unique setting. The Cubs are opening the ballpark the following day, Sunday, November 21, for fans to play catch on the football field-all for Chicago Cubs Charities.

I’ll wait till next year’s Dunking Contest at the Friendly Confines.

A better way to spend your money perhaps is the Chicago Cubs Convention. Since the tickets went on sale today for the January 14-16 affair your luck in getting them through the normal channels may be thin. But there’s always Ebay and other popular web auction and reseller sites. I’ve had luck doing that in the past.

Finally, if that money is still burning a hole in your wallet of yours, you could always buy a Cubs cookbook. No, the image to the right is not a joke. I wish it was. At least the proceeds go to a good cause… the Dempster Family Foundation.

I wonder if it includes goat stew… or humble pie.

Bullpen catcher Miller caught with 8.4 lbs of doobie

What is it with Cubs catchers and pot?

Cubs bullpen catcher Corey Miller was busted with 8.4 pounds of marijuana in the state of Nebraska. They frown on that kind of thing there. Even if you are a member of the Cubs organization… which will pretty much be in doubt at this point.

Miller’s conveniently contract expires tomorrow

Weekend roundup

-There is some baseball happening in the south that doesn’t involve the Rangers. The Arizona Fall League season has started.

-Speaking of the Rangers, there’s no doubt they got the most bang for their buck in 2010.

-I guess we aren’t ready to forget the Cubs’ collapse in the 2003 postseason… but our remembrance might be delayed. Steve Bartman: Catching Hell, the documentary on the unfortunate affair, will be postponed till next year. Could they possibly wait till after the Cubs win a World Series (that way, we might not see it)?

-No surprise here: The columnists at the Sun-Times and Tribune respectively have differing opinions on Mike Quade’s hiring. Post-Trib (owned by ST) column headline: “Sandberg got Sandbagged”. The Trib column claims that Quade is a “good fit”.

Old habits die hard.

-Finally, some Chicago tattoo artists apparently aren’t Sox fans.

Sammy’s corked bat up for bid in online auction

If anyone is interested in plopping down $10,000, you could own parts of Sammy Sosa’s corked bat that he used in the game he caught using it. The auction at Schulte Auctions is still going on and the bid at the moment is $9.840. Hurry, Hurry though! The auction ends October 31.

The current owner of the bat? Former reliever from the Cubs (and pretty much every other NL team) Mike Remlinger, who won the game that night against Tampa Bay. He had the foresight to pick up the barrel of the bat (MLB confiscated the rest of the bat.

The Cardboard Connection has a good write-up on the story.

Quade- the right answer for the Cubs

What to think about the hiring of Mike Quade?? Well, let’s start with the details… He’s getting a two-year contract from the Cubs with an option for 2013. At this point, no money considerations have been discussed.

I like the deal. I’ve been struggling to evaluate the move on its merits alone. As a natural born cynic, I’ve tried to distance myself from my perceptions of the Cubs’ potential motives of hiring Ryne Sandberg (should they have done so). Let’s face it, Ryno has proven himself as manager in minors the last few years. Hiring him would have been more than just a public relations move as I’ve insinuated to my friends. Honestly, Sandberg wouldn’t have been a bad choice at all.

But when it came down to it, I favored hiring Mike Quade as manager of the Cubs and now that the deal is done, I still like it. Forget the 24-13 record he posted at the end of 2010, the 53-year old Evanston, IL native has the goods without it. Quade has experience. He’s managed a prolific 2,378 games in the minors. But more importantly, he has a reputation of possessing strong leadership skills and being a good on-the-field manager, all which comes with experience.

Earlier, I said forget Quade’s 24-13 run with the Cubs in 2010. But maybe don’t dismiss it completely. The Cub players responded quite well to Quade’s leadership and even said so to the press. The cynics among us have said that perhaps it was more the lack of Piniella that players were responding to and that is a point well taken. Yet, no one can dismiss the support that he got both implicitly and explicitly.

What does Cub Nation think about the Quade hiring?? If you take Bleed Cubbie Blue’s vast readership as any indication, you can check out its poll on the hiring of Quade. BCB readers support it… kinda. A whopping 38% supported the hiring of Quade while 19% didn’t (41% didn’t really have an opinion. An indecisive bunch, these Cub fans).

A few questions remain:

How much of a leash does Quade have with a rebuilding 2011 Cubs team?
For that matter (and this is relevant, of course), what of Jim Hendry? Is he on the hot seat?
Will Cub fans learn to embrace Mike Quade when he won’t be able to replicate his 24-13 success in 2011 (let’s face it, the biggest Quade fans out there know he can’t do that)?
What happens to Ryne Sandberg? There have been rumors you might see him on the coaching staff of the Cubs.

At any rate, I wish Mike Quade well. He’s (officially) stepping into some big shoes and doesn’t have an easy row to hoe in 2011.

Saturday night tidbits

Seamheads breaks down the AL MVP candidates
Bye bye Joe Torre.
Not only is Cubs manager Mike Quade 24-12 as manager but with tonight’s win, Carlos Zambrano is 8-0 in his last 10 starts. I haven’t gotten the memo yet. Are we supposed to start liking him again?
I know the media is drooling over the idea of a “wacky” three-way tie but let’s keep it simple. Maybe the Giants will win on Sunday.
oh and bye bye Mike Lowell, too.

Lou Piniella, lame duck

Some quick thoughts on Lou Piniella’s retirement and a few questions.

To start, Rob Neyer examines Lou’s HOF potential and thinks he comes out pretty well. More on that later.

Piniella came to the Cubs with the rep as hot-tempered, base-throwing skipper. What we got was a grandfather-type who usually didn’t sweat the details. Usually.

Many have lauded Piniella for what he’s done as a Cub manager. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve liked him just fine but much of his success came from a team that he inherited and he rode that wagon as long as he could. It seemed evident when he took over that this would be his “sunset” team considering his age and stage in his career.

My take on Piniella for the first part of his reign of the Cubs is this: His managing ability to get the Cubs to the postseason was fine. Once they got there, they stalled. Does Piniella share some of the responsibility of not inspiring his team when the going got tough? Maybe.

My questions…

Was his retirement a surprise?

Not to me. This is Lou’s last year of his contract. With grumblings already about his performance, I just didn’t see him re-upping.

Is Piniella really retiring?

Yeah probably. Piniella deserves some retirement and I mean that in a nice way. I just don’t see another team picking him in the future. Look to see him as an analyst behind an ESPN desk soon.

What’s next for the Cubs?

Fortunately, the Cubs have time to think about this. I’m not as pro-Sandberg as some might think. If I had my druthers, I’d like to see them pry Joe Giardi away from the Yankees (yeah, dream on) or give Alan Trammell a shot.

While we’re changing leadership, is Jim Hendry’s job safe?

Yes. There are a lot of fans calling for Hendry’s head at any given time. That said, for any bad move he’s made (and there have been some), he’s made some quiet deals that have kept the team afloat.

Piniella in the Hall of Fame? Really?

I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it. Between his above average performance as a player plus his seven postseason appearances as a manager, he has a shot. He ranks 14th all-time in wins which isn’t too shabby. I wouldn’t count it out.

Interesting addendum: Gene Mauch is the only non-active manager with more wins than Piniella who is not in the Hall of Fame. He has 1902 wins.

Perhaps the fact that Mauch has only two playoff appearances (and no World Series ring) in 26 years has something to with it. That and his losing record (.483).

Mark looking for a Prior commitment

After four years (has it really been that long?), Mark Prior wants to prove to MLB teams that he can pitch in the bigs again. He’s pitching at USC this week where plenty of teams will be scouting him.

Wouldn’t it be hysterical if the Cubs took a flyer on him?

Answer: Most certainly, but not in a funny way. I got off the Prior bandwagon pretty early in his career and never regretted it.

Zambrano placed on restricted list… NOW?

So the Cubs will place Carlos Zambrano on the restricted list so he can receive “treatment”? Pardon me for seeming a little cynical but why now?

Why not all those years before when it seems like he could have used it (read: the Barrett incident etc)? Maybe his 3-6 record and 5.66 ERA has something to do with it.

I don’t know why but it reminds me of the Crash Davis quote from Bull Durham:

Your shower shoes have fungus on them. You’ll never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy, you’ll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back and the press’ll think you’re colorful. Until you win 20 in the show, however, it means you are a slob.

…only sort of in reverse and this has to do with attitude.

The Cubs and let’s face it, MLB in general, were willing to put up with Zambrano’s antics and eccentrics as long as he was the #1 starter and winning 10+ games. Once he stopped doing that, I guess the oddity lost it’s allure.

Have a nice break, Carlos.

Skip the first inning, Randy Wells

Can we just have a “reverse reliever” in those games that Cubs’ starter Randy Wells pitches? A pitcher to start the game and get through that first inning? Seems that Wells is having trouble with that recently. Today, he got rocked for five runs by the Chicago White Sox with two of them coming in the first frame.

For the season, Wells has a 10.64 ERA in he first inning. After the third inning, it dips below 4.50.

Split	G	IP	ERA
1st inning	12	11.0	10.64
Innings 1-3	12	32.0	5.34
Innings 4-6	10	28.1	4.45
Innings 7-9	6	6.1	4.26

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2010.

Soriano did get his tenth homer of the year and his 300th of his career. He passes Tim Salmon on the all-time list and joins Chuck Klein and teammate Derrek Lee (who hit his 300th on Wednesday) for #125 on the list.

The Sox won 10-5.