the rumor you caught the HR ball as well but I knew it wasn't true since it went left center. Sorry you had to experience the tough start in person. The good news is I'm not the bad luck becuase I wasn't at this game. Thats a relief. I'm glad Lou is making some sort of move. He needs to get this club fired up. If moving Soriano in the line can produce a spark then I'm all for it.

that had drank the preseason kool-aid had better realize that there is nothing that ever comes easy for our Cubs. Once the players realize this, they will be better off as I'm sure they knew of their lofty expectations. The underdog Brewers got us twice and hopefully we will awaken tomorrow to mash them.

Repeat to yourselves, "It never comes easy, It never comes easy."

that Lou gave this all of two games to see if it would work. Why has there never been a suggestion of Soriano batting 3rd? If he needs fastballs to succeed, wouldn't putting him behind two guys getting on base and in front of Ramirez and Lee get him those? The other spot suggested for Soriano was 5th, but that doesn't make any sense either as teams would just walk Ramirez, then throw 3 sliders to Soriano and we'd move on to the next inning. Couldn't do that with hitters behind him. And Lee wouldn't care where he hits, as he's a team guy.

Soriano
Fukudome
Lee
Ramirez
Soto
DeRosa
Pie
Theriot

And some of these guys need to calm down, or get a life. 2 freaking games. I still think this team will win 90+.

message about an hour ago in the game thread

and I somewhat agree. I think Soto is going to be more of a threat than DeRosa down the line .. but the smarter idea might be to put DeRosa 5th.

By the way, what the hell was Lou thinking by double switching so early . Why would you take DeRosa's bat out of the lineup? Stupid, IMO.

100%

I have a feeling the Cubs will need Lieber more tomorrow than they did today. I see Dempster's start being a walk-fest disaster.

were they trying a hit and run? That really killed that inning, but I can't say that I disagree with the decision to try it, with a guy who hadn't produced an out this season at the plate.

And also:

When Ted Lilly -- who at least didn't slam his glove down

So. True.

you are so lucky to sit in the bleachers... It was so cold when out of the sun.. And it was so windy under the grandstand...

I said to my family this spring, put Soriano in the leadoff, and leave him there. He has there 95% of his playing career, thats where he wants to be, put him there.
No panic here, lets see where the Cubs are at after 40 games, the first quarter.
IMO, if Cubs continue to have that lack of spark, not getting runners in, look for that player who we can not name in a Cub uniform, just a hunch.
Get them tomorrow, wonder if Lou will give Cedeno a start tomorrow?

I'd almost think most of these people have never heard of Cubs baseball.

Slow down, take it easy. 2 games. A marathon, remember? Stop listening to sports radio, it just makes things worse.

I'm not mad at the team. I'm not worried. I've been a Cub fan for 25 years. Two losses doesn't bug me. What bugs me is losing to the Brewers at home. rrggggggggggg

It does kinda look like Al, even though I have never met him...

What say you, BCB'ers?

A) Al indeed has a twin brother
B) Al is lying to us and went over to mack on some hot chick.

n/t

my first game as a tot in 1959, and was a teen in 1969.
This ain't nothin...

I was by the old YumYum building, heading towards Waveland when I heard the call from Pat & Ron about Weeks depositing the first pitch onto Waveland. Damn! Why did I have to eat that last sandwich... ;-)

My sources tell me the ball cleared Waveland, landed on the brick sidewalk area, bounced up against the yellow brick building and back onto the ground. Not too many people around yet, so one of the part-time ballhawks, Nick, was able to snag it. I was also informed that had I been in my usual spot, it would have been an easy grab for me.

Oh well... I got my consolation prize several innings later when Aramis crushed a very long, but very foul ball that I chased down to add to my collection. Braun also hit a foul ball out of the park that a passer by grabbed. Combined with the Fielder & Pie foul balls from Monday's game, that's 5 balls out of the bark already. Sucks that we're 0-2, but I'm liking the street action.

Playing "semi-must " win games in the third game of the season does'nt bode well for decent night sleep.... No panic but.......

Does anyone believe he's less likely to fail in the clutch because of his spot in the lineup? If it IS true, than he really is Sammy Lite.

My brother is older than I. He used to CLEAN UP Wrigley Field as a kid. Free Labor. My family grew up in Bucktown. He'd bike to the park, get let in free in the 8th inning, and all kids who helped clean up would get a ticket to the next game.

To this day, I cannot believe that, but that's what life in the early 1950's was like at Wrigley.

So, he's had a bad couple of days... you can say the same for our entire team.

Moving him back to the top, just caters to his ego. Force him to adjust to a new spot in the order, and over time, he'll get comfortable and realize it's not much different. He'll still see fastballs hitting in front of DLee, or Aram, or Fukudome, or wherever he hits. But for god sake, don't bat the man at leadoff!

Nothing about his play exhibits that of a leadoff man. He's not going to be patient and make the pitcher work... so the pitchcount goes up, and his teammates can get a good look... and, he's not going to run on his bad quad.

And when he does hit his 30+ HRs, wouldn't it be be nice if someone was on base for them?

but I do think he's a headcase-I think he might actually have convinced himself that he can only hit lead-off. he looks truly cluelss up there and, with Lee and ramirez following him, there's no reason why he still wouldn't be seeing his share of fastballs. Btw-it's nice to think we're paying 18m for a guy who's afriad of the curve.
At least Lou's making some moves though-

....yuk.

Glad to hear a change was made and made quickly. I hope this is the tonic that gets this thing going.

by the comments posted at BrewCrewBall? I just went over there for the first time since mid-season last year. Honestly, a fifth of their comments isn't about the Cubs, it's about us.

I finally had to comment about it.

I bet they recognize my comment first by me linking it here, as opposed to just finding it by reading through their own game thread.

Just watched the Reds get a 3 run walk off homer (which takes Arroyo off the hook in my fantasy league, about the only good thing) and I just noticed Rick Ankiel is 3-3 with a HR. Nuts

Soriano
Theriot
Lee
Fukudome
Ramirez
DeRosa
Soto
Pie

Yes? No? Maybe So?

I am completely fed up with Alfonso Soriano. His defenders can say what they want, but the guy is garbage. I've talked to several of my diehard friends and they concur...we all wince everytime Soriano is at bat. He is rapidly becoming an albatross.

Where do you put the $136 million man in the lineup?!?! Step back for a moment and think how insane it is to even have to raise this question !

Here's what I would do.

1. DeRosa
2. Fukudome
3. Lee
4. Ramirez
5. Soto
6. Soriano
7. Pie
8. Theriot

You can quibble with this all you'd like. And I really don't give a rat's keester whether Soriano will be upset about demotion to the 6 hole. Let Soto bat fifth and benefit from theoretical lineup protection in the form of Soriano hitting after him. Likewise, let Pie bat seventh and let him benefit from the theoretical advantage of Soriano hitting in front of him AND the fact that he isn't subjected to how pitchers pitch the # 8 hitter.

Can someone restart the rumors just to give me some hope of having someone get on base. . . I am okay with the idea of never having him, I just like the idea that it could happen. Is that pathetic?

Any hope that Theriot will bat 9th? Or is Lou too old school.

we should all know by now what we have with the package that is Alfonso Soriano. He's a player that's gonna frustrate fans (especially with his bling bling) every year. The man strikes out a lot, doesn't perform particularly as strong in cold weather, blah blah blah. But the bottom line is in the long run his influence is gonna win you more games then he loses. Everywhere the guy has played there have been the naysayers for the same reasons. That being said, I'd still LOVE to see Fuku leading off but I prefer this Fonz over The Riot cause, let's be honest, he's not ready to be a major league leadoff hitter at the moment. Let's turn this bi@#% around tomorrow.

I get the feeling Soriano was under-performing so he could lead off again. I just hope I'm wrong but I'm too cynical. Conspiracy! (lol)

I'm still hopeful the team will play better. I won't form an opinion based on just the first couple of games of the season. However, it's true that a good team tries to avoid losing two in a row to a division rival.

Thanks for ruining my morning after reading this post's headline. (lol) I think I'll wear it off by doing my morning walk right now.

Well Al and I had a breif encounter because I had to get over to my seats.

Just so you all know (along with Lees homer) I new Sori and Theriot were going to flip flop/ As goofy as it is to have Sori hitting 1 its worse with him batting two. UGGGH, that game was really irritating.

And to the Brewer fans trolling DONT EVER CALL IT MILLER PARK SOUTH, you know why.....Because there really were not that many of you.

Lastly, my girlfriend was adament about Lee taking that 2-0 pitch because we were behind and I said no he isnt and she said why and I said because he is going to hit a bomb. I usually call about 10 homers a game its nice to get some right.

...it was somewhat improved but still not what I'd call "highly functional" -- at least not for me.

I was able to "z" through comments and post comments a little more easily. But there were still points during the game -- especially late in the game and whenever something big happened (e.g., DLee's home run) -- where my browser (again, IE 7.0) basically froze up and my entire computer got really, really slow and confused.

I appreciate the tech guys' efforts to improve things, but I hope they don't consider the problem fixed. If only the game thread was really slow, I might be able to live with it. But the fact that my entire computer seems to go into vapor lock has me considering simply not logging on to BCB during games, which would be a damn shame.

I'm still wondering whether a live chat function would cure the game thread problem once and for all. Unlike threads such as this one, live chats are designed to field multiple, quick real-time posts. Granted you lose the ability to have "subthreads" within the thread. But at least we'd all be able to converse (or commiserate, at the moment) without massive problems.

Having said all this, I'm not a tech guy, so I have no idea what demands a live chat function would put on the site, so I would, of course, understand if it's not possible.

other celebrities have been seen in the area, courtesy of google:

http://maps.google.com/maphp?ie=UTF8&ll=41.950027,-87.653496&spn=0.01023,0.019269&z=16&layer=c&cbll=41.946702,-87.656063&cbp=1,59.26822691026359,,1,21.015685839174928

You'll have to cut and paste it.

Link actually from the "other" BCB

Best line of the day yesterday said by me
"The brat stop called and youre late for work" well I thought it was funny, but not funny enough to yell.