A Loss! A Loss! My Kingdom For A Loss!

No, of course I wouldn't give up stuff for a Cub loss, I just wanted to type that phrase, somehow it popped into my head after reading about the 6-5 loss to the Royals today at Surprise, where the attendance was a rather-small 7,016 -- I guess Cub fans in Mesa didn't want to make what is about an hour's drive to the west side of the Phoenix metro area.

And if they think that's far, wait till the Angels (or some other team) moves to Goodyear, where they are proposing to build yet another complex in the exurbs of the Valley of the Sun.

Yeah, I know. The title of today's post is lame. So sue me. It's a lame kind of day, with lake-effect flurries flying off Lake Michigan, temperatures cooler than yesterday, and me really tapping my foot waiting for nine days from now when I'll be heading out to Arizona myself.

I busied myself today printing out scorecards for the games I'll see there; I created a scorecard form using MS Publisher, and I have team logos saved, and they make really nice cards, considering no one in spring training sells a scorecard, and I really don't want to have to spend $5 a day on a program, and especially when the scoresheet in said programs is on glossy paper. I'll usually pick up one program per ballpark, just for the rosters (which usually aren't too accurate), and just keep bringing it back each day.

Dusty Baker must really be enjoying giving his regulars time off; the only regulars who started today were Aramis Ramirez (who homered, his first of the spring), and Derrek Lee, who had an RBI. Matt Clement pitched poorly for the second straight start, but it's way too early to worry about that, and besides, with the thinner air and low humidity in Arizona, pitching stats really don't mean that much. Maybe Dusty is saving the starting lineup to show off to the home folks; in that case expect a near-Opening Day lineup perhaps on Saturday when the Cubs will host the White Sox in a WGN-TV game.

Calvin Murray, who won't make the team, and Todd Hollandsworth, who will, also homered today. LaTroy Hawkins pitched the eighth and struck out two, and apart from that most of the pitching was done by pitchers who won't make the team, though Jamey Wright made a case for himself by striking out two in his own scoreless inning.

Garth Brooks, the country singer who played outfield for the Padres a few springs ago, is for some inexplicable reason being allowed to do this again for the Royals this year (it's getting silly, really -- he's 42, older than Roger Clemens), and Hawkins walked him. There must be a country song in there somewhere, but I think I'll let Brooks write it.