What a SoCal trip! - the last post.

Just got back to L.A. after a two-game trip to San Diego. These last two years in San Diego have been good ones. Last year we left L.A. after watching Kerry Wood get knocked around and then out of the game to be put on the DL for an extended period. We had low expectations for the Cubs in San Diego after that, but got to watch Mitre pitch well and the Cubs sweep the Padres in three.  This year we saw the Cubs take the series against the Padres 3 out of 4 with some good offensive rhythm and luck.  I say luck because the Padres have been awesome at home this year, but this weekend they were struck by a clubhouse infection that kept Peavy, Klesko, Loretta, and Blum out of the series, and as the San Diego Union Tribune reported this morning, Giles had a 101 fever hours before yesterday's Cubs win. Regardless, every team has to have some luck on their side to be a playoff contender.

If you've never been to Petco Park, I highly recommend it. After putting up with Jack Murphy/Qualcomm Stadium for eight years, which was never set up well for baseball in my opinion, Petco is a beautiful park with many amenities and great sight lines.  If you ever get to San Diego for baseball be sure to try a fish taco or two (trust me, if you like fish and Mexican food at all, they're worth a try) or if you want to be more traditional, Randy Jones barbeque behind the bleachers has a ½ pound hot dog he invented because he was sick of hearing about the "big" Dodger dogs all the years he was in San Diego.

It was an over cast cool day today, what they call "June Gloom" here in Southern California, which is a thick marine layer that hangs out on the coast. However, that didn't stop the Cubs fans who were in full force again today and the Padres fan behind us said to his friend on the phone "There are more Cubs fans here than white on rice" (not the best choice of comparisons in my opinion, but you get the picture).  It made me wonder what it's like to be a fan in his or her home ballpark only to find the visiting team is as predominant as the Cubs fans are.  Having always been a Cubs fan I can only imagine it's got to be frustrating, especially when the home team loses.

As Al noted, Zambrano labored through the first inning walking the first three batters.  Things did not look good, but then he faced the minimum in the second, fourth, fifth, and seventh, and only four batters in the third and five in the sixth.  In the first, we got worried Zambrano would have a signature meltdown, but he kept his composure and ended up with a seven inning shutout outing.  Woody Williams, having come off the DL to fill in for a sick Peavy had a good outing as well.  The Padres couldn't have asked for much more than his four hit, one run, four innings, Especially after Bruce Bochy announced before the game that Woody would only go 80 pitches (he finished with 88). Also, his leaving the game wasn't a doorway to a weak set of relievers as it is with so many other teams, the Padres bench has been very strong this year.  Therefore, we can only conclude that although it wasn't the prettiest outing, the Cubs got it done with relatively solid pitching and offense.

Walker still seems to be having trouble finding his groove, going 0 for 5, but Neifi (3 for 5) and Lee (3 for 5) and Burnitz (2 for 3) continued to click. After all my years going to Padres games (10) and seeing Trevor Hoffman come in to incredibly loud AC/DC and crowd exuberance, it was almost sad to see him come in without any fanfare and end up getting knocked around a bit for 2 hits and a run in 1 inning.  However, that ping of pity turned into a great day when Ryan Dempster's one mistake (a fastball hanging over the plate to Phil Nevin for a base hit) turned into a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.  Three of 4 in San Diego and 6 of 7 on this west coast trip felt really good and all of the Cubs fans walked out of Petco Park with a smile on their faces.

This is my last set of Southern California Cubs games as a resident and I really enjoyed sharing my experiences here.  I'm moving back to weather with seasons and if anyone knows of Cubs fans in or visits Fargo, North Dakota, please let me know. I'd love to have a fan base in my new home.

Thanks Al for a marvelous web site that has and will continue to keep me close to Wrigley when I'm not there.  And thanks to all of you for putting up with my clumsy blogs telling of my west coast experiences at the ballparks this year.

Go Cubs! See you at Wrigley the end of this month!

Clay