First!

sounds exactly like the kind of a trip I would plan to take on a “perfect” vacation. Well done.

And I echo your sentiments about the BHOF. My wife and I went there in the summer of 1990. We stayed in a little B&B and walked to the HOF to spend an evening and the next day there. It was (is) an amazing place, and I too, could have spent longer there.

A must for every baseball fan.

But boy, you sure DO have to want to go there because it’s in one of the most out of the way places I’ve ever seen. Perhaps that’s what makes it even more special- it’s not just a freeway exit opportunity along with gassing up, hitting the bathroom and visiting a Stuckey’s.

...but the fog has cleared a little and I realize how incredible of a play Longoria made. He was playing back to prevent a double (which would have likley scored the go ahead run) and was able to make an incredible bare handed catch and throw to get Johnson. You just have to tip your hat.

We took a very good team to the 9th in thier park against their best pitcher and lost by one. That stuff happens.

In the game thread last night Drewishdrewid summed it up well;

last year, this loss DEVASTATES us. (I’ve spelled that right, right?) We’d see this as a terrible omen for the future. Another bad Cubbie loss.

This year, we’re pissed because we expect to win

Well said, JB. Great post.

I’m a pretty jaded person. Although I’ve wanted to fully embrace the 2008 Cubs and fully believe everyone’s proclamation that “this year is special” and “this club is different”, I’ve stayed skeptical. All those years when it seemed they couldn’t miss – 2004, 2003, 1984, the first halves of 1985/1977/1973/, and of course 1969 – ended in disappointment.

BUT…last night’s loss may have convinced me. It was the first time in years (literally!) that a loss didn’t upset me. They went down fighting, and in defeat they maintained a confidence you see in teams of reckoning. Strategy wise, I was totally on board with the decision to squeeze and it darn well nearly paid off.

God willing, if we get Fonz back and he’s productive, and the rest of the club stays injury-free, and Big Jim can augment the roster at the trade deadline, we just might make it to the promised land of the Fall Classic.

That was a weird, yet fun game. It was exciting with all of the chances the Cubs had. Would have been even more exciting had some of those chances actually materialized into runs. Gotta hand it to the Rays bullpen. Outside of Percival, it sounded like they were throwing nasty stuff all night.

I am still not sure how I feel about the bunt attempt. It certainly caught everyone by surprise and required a perfect play to get Johnson. Unfortunately, Longoria made that perfect play. At the same time, Percival was wild that whole inning and maybe he would have throw another wild pitch, or walked the next two hitter to force in the tying run. One never know. Regardless, let’s get them tonight!!

that would’ve done some major damage in that inning also. Rays’ TV announcers at the end of the game said something to the effect that if the Cubs weren’t aware of the Rays’ defensive skills before the game, now they are….

it took all the pressure of Percival, who just walked Edmonds. Clearly, the pressure was on him to make some good pitches and RJ let him off the hook with one pitch. We’ll never know though. Just another observation.

Like most have said, it was a good play on both ends. It was a great bunt, but a better play in the field. RJ couldn’t have placed it better. I keep thinking in terms of homestands and roadtrips. If we can pull 2 out of Tampa, we go 4-2 on the trip. Pick up one more game than when we left. This team will continue to fight and that is a sign of Lou.

I thought it was a good move. It took two fine plays to get Reed out. Technically it is not a squeeze as members of the media would say (ESPN) squeeze in a sense is giving up an out to get a run. Anyways, his atempt to steal 3rd was a bad move we all know.
Cubs do battle, years past Kasmir goes at least 7, because Cubs are swinging at everything, even though last night they still swung at balls up in the zone.
I questioned Lou on pinch hitting Hoffpauir in that spot, I would have gone with Edmonds, anyone else?
Anyone else notice the knucklehead behind homeplate yelling at DeRosa everytime he was up to bat? I am sure the 4 kids around this guy really appreciated it.

Hey Tampa is good, lets get the next two guys.

Reminded me of the Victoria & Albert Museum - a largely uncurated mishmash of stuff. That said, they had an exhibit that was curated - by Yoko Ono of John Lennon’s works. It contained a shocker at the end … his blood stained eyeglasses and the brown paper bag of his possessions still tagged by the hospital. Took my breath away.

With zero or one out sure, but with two outs NO! Basically Johnson has bunt for a basehit. Piniella has one out left, two runners on, and a pitcher who all of a sudden is having trouble finding his catcher – much less the plate. Johnson should have taken a pitch or two, then swung away. You don’t give up your last out of the game with two runners on and a pitcher who is having command issues.

Best record in baseball, our best pitcher going today….........its one game.

Which hitter should you pinch hit for. Here are their 2008 #s v. RHP
Player A .267/.313/.367
Player B .333/.400/.463
Player C .239/.292/.339

...you mentioned that Barry wasn’t on the active career leaderboard. Did you happen to notice if Sammy was on there, since he also hasn’t announced a retirement yet?

Should have stopped in Canton…

I have always wanted to do the HOF Tour….

that all the negatives in last nights game are highlighted here…..man, we have a great team!!!! Enjoy them, this team is special. Why act like it is the end of the world? Even the ‘27 Yankees lost games…..

that was the number of AL wins vs. NL teams last night…. let’s hope that’s not a sign of things to come. anyone know the full season W-L?

...and, obviously, the Cubs lost. Kazmir came as advertised, filthy and hard throwing, though I was a little surprised to see him walk so many guys. Although it may seem odd to give a team that struck out 12 TIMES (ack!) credit for its patience at the plate, I believe it was those walks, along with the deep counts the Cubs drew early in the game, that kept them in this game. (Yay, foul balls!)

To be honest, going into the fifth inning, I started having no-no nightmares at the hands (i.e., arm) of Kazmir. Fortunately, that didn’t happen but, as mentioned, the Rays bullpen simply outperformed the Cubs’ pen. (And, suddenly, I’m feeling a little less bullish on Neil Cotts.)

I must also give some credit to Uncle Cliffy, who brought his ex-Cub mojo to bear in full force on that home run in the second inning. Nicely done, Cliff! Too bad you couldn’t have done it a little more last year! In all seriousness, DH is the perfect position for Floyd, and I hope he continues to do well there (just not in the next two games).

About RJ’s bunt, my gut reaction was/is to agree with Al. I liked the play at the time—it seemed a bold move with a fair chance at success. Having read some of the comments on this thread, however, I feel a little less comfortable with this position. In Johnson’s defense, though, I would point out that Percival has an insanely low BAA and WHIP: .188 and .70 (respectively, this season) and .185 and 1.08 (respectively, for his career).

Maybe Reed based his decision to bunt on the notion that he wasn’t likely to get a hit off of Percival. Why not roll the dice and lay down a bunt? It’s the scrappy thing to do. Again, I’m not completely sold on the idea that the bunt was the right move, but I understand why he did it and am not particularly bothered by his choice.

In closing, can we just give some props to Dome for that pinch hit double in the ninth? Damn, he’s a smart hitter.

Take a look at the “6/17: RAYS 3, Chicago 2” in the Stories from Around SBN section. Pretty level-headed, with some Cub fan props. According to them, the crowd was about 60% Cub fans (a bigger % than Boston / NYY fans when they visit).

Al – I was in Minneapolis for work last night and went to a pub to watch the Cubs. Larry Vanover came in (after Twins game). We talked for about an hour about various topics. He is actually on the crew that is calling the Cubs/Sox series this weekend. He had an interesting idea for Instant replay. He said it would be cheaper to put 2 umpires in the power alleys that are there only to make a calls on HRs and Fould balls. Other than that, he didn’t like the idea.

Sitting directly behind home plate last night and thought about what I saw—

—Absolutely stupid decision by Johnson trying to steal third in the 7th

—Cedeno looked awful at the plate. Over the past couple of weeks he has reverted to his “old ways,” no plate discipline and looking as though he has no clue what he is doing. What happened to his approach earlier in the season when he took pitches and went to the opposite field?

—Murton looked equally as bad as Cedeno. His time in Iowa did nothing to improve his approach at the plate. No patience and swinging at pitches out of the zone.

—When was the last time that Ramirez whiffed three times in a game? He did not have a good night at the plate. Looked for an off speed pitch in the 5th with the bags loaded and got fooled by a fastball down the middle. Just not his night.

- Neal Cotts is still Neal Cotts. He reminds me of Farnsworth. His command is awful - not necessarily giving up walks but getting behind in counts and having to throw his fastball which does not have a lot of movement. Also—throwing the ball away when he should have held it in the 7th. He’s not the first pitcher to do that and he won’t be the last but that play was just plain dumb.

- Not starting Fukudome - facing Tampa’s best pitcher and a left-hander should not have moved Lou to pencil in Cedeno. If this was the Cedeno from April and early May, sure give it a go. But as stated earlier, Ronnie has looked just awful at the plate over the past few weeks. Kazmir does not have overpowering stuff but knows how to pitch that’s why he is a quality pitcher. Fukudome instead of Cedeno would have been a better move.

Wuertz—what has happened to his slider? Last year he was lights out most of the season. Right now that quality pitch is nowhere to be found.

Howry—he scares me. As Al has mentioned a few times, Howry just does not seem to be the same guy we have seen the past couple of years. His usual April / May inconsistency has drifted into June.

The Trop - have only have been here a few times since moving from Chicago area. The current owners want to build a new park with help from St. Pete and others. Up until this year, the only time you saw any large number of fans was during Red Sox and Yankee games. They want to build the park downtown in St. Pete near the water. What they are not looking at is parking. They are only looking for 5 to 6 thousand spaces.
If they continue to improve and attract more fans, that would cause enormous problems.
There is no public transportation that would move any large amount of people and most of the people drive to the game.
Just take a look at the Washington Nationals situation. They have similarly limited parking but have the Metro to move people.
And in the end, I still wonder if enough people will support the Rays. After being here for almost two years, what the people want and love down here are two things - NASCAR and football.

I’ll be back tonite and tomorrow for two Cub wins. As someone said earlier, a loss last night would have left me tossing and turning and worrying about a possible losing streak. But this team is different than those of the past. I and I am sure most of the Cubs had a good night’s sleep and are ready to continue their winning ways. Winning 2 out of every 3 games is damn good and we will continue to do this.

The time is now and the current Cubs are going to take it all.

does getting 3 hits and 1 run while striking out 7 times register as “beating” someone?

Hinged on about three plays. If the ball doesn’t bounce right back to Navarro on the wild pitch, Dome scores the tying run. If Cotts eats the liner off his leg instead of trying to get a man, (Iwamura), who was already safe- Instead he throws it down the right field line, allowing Iwamura to go to third. If Hoff could have just made contact & hit a long fly to the outfield. All-in-all, it seemed as though the Cubs were pressing last night, not the Rays. Which was the opposite of what I expected. The HR’s from Floyd & Longoria I expected, the run scored by Iwamura, I did not. It’s only one game, the Cubs played ok. I’m sure Lou will have the boys more ready to go tonight. (And we don’t have to face Kazmir- he’s filthy).

Cotts: in that instance was pressing. He lost his confidence when the Sox didn’t want him back after ‘05.

...but that 9th inning was a friggin’ thrill-ride that I really enjoyed. And I liked the bunt attempt too. Can’t win ‘em all.

Track star: Well, yeah, I’ve always hated that official, but I sure didn’t mean for my javelin to go right through his spleen like that!

Announcer: But you’re a sprinter.

RJ threw to the wrong base as Bob pointed out, got thrown out at third and tried a questionable bunt. (I personally liked the attempt)

Dempster kept the Cubs in the game but didn’t go deep. The bullpen wasn’t terrible but wasn’t great and the offense didn’t really hit the ball hard till the ninth.

This all added up to losing by a run to a very solid AL team, not bad. Now let’s hope that Z pitches like he did the last time out.

Sidenote, I don’t like these 6pm starts.

Please let Zambrano bat today. DH for Reed if you want to, put leave Z in.

Love,
northsider