Starlin Castro's Afternoon Delight: Four Hits, But Cubs Lose Another One By One

but then, so is this season.

Just think, if they won HALF of those games……

I will pay you back. Something good should come from this trip.

1 run is a good thing if we have to lose. It means baseball karma will even out next year and we will be winning those games.

the Cubs better get there rotation squared away. Wells, Silva, Gorzo, Shark, are all 5th starters if that. They have Demp which he is a 3. And God knows what is to become of “Z”. We can all shout about getting Dunn, but this team needs starting pitching first and foremost.

so many C++/Python/Java/etc programmers in the Bay Area are used to indexing at zero…well, I’m just trying not to say anything about this latest loss. The Cubs still stink, but at least they’re more entertaining with the youngins’

Torres hit bounced into the stands, untouched by Byrd. Is that not a ground-rule double, regardless of whether it was a game-winning hit or not? Len closed the broadcast by saying it was scored a single, but didn’t explain why.

I understand game is over when winning run scores, but in this case, winning run was probably tagging up on third, right? So he wouldn’t have left for home until ball is caught or (in this case) hits ground. No way he makes it home before ball lands in seats, so again – why isn’t the hit considered a ground-rule double?

If the ball had gone 20 ft. further, i.e. over the fence, it’d be considered a HR, right? And the final would have been 11-7. So if it’s a ground-rule double, shouldn’t the same logic apply and the score would be 9-7.

I spent half of the game walking around the stadium, and taking up temporary positions a couple of times in right field.

There were a couple of young dudes heckling Kosuke – this I was not surprised about. What I was surprised about was one of them was sitting with what appeared to be his dad and his grandpa, who were both yelling out and heckling, too. I was very tempted to lean over and ask how many generations of idiots were represented there. I sensed that the Giants fans around them were tired enough of their act to be supportive. I just wasn’t in a talkative enough mood though, so I let it slide.

In the end, I was glad that they made a game of it, so I got to slap a few fives with the Cub fans in the vicinity. They really did a good job of running up Cain’s pitch count and running him out early. Kosuke had some nice at-bats, including his 10-pitch effort in the first inning. One near-constant in baseball is that most teams’ bullpens make their fans nervous.

I didn’t expect much from the Cubs today, so I would have to say that they exceeded my expectations.

Sorry that I could not manage to meet you, Al. I did not catch the train that I was trying for – no parking spots near the train station in San Jose – so I didn’t get there as early as I expected.

for not dealing castro for granderson

Andrew Cashner is not a reliever at all. I’d rather have him down at triple a working on other pitches/getting stretched out. Can’t believe this organization is screwing up another prospect.

Because it’s Marlon Byrd. He will always give you 100%, no matter when or where.

I don’t remember.

Nice to see Al, too. Caltrain from Sunnyvale worked out real well.

I wondered about the “00” numbering. Must be a West Coast thang.

Even if they lost it in the 9th, I like seeing the offense not give up.

Anyone beside me see the Cubs sailboat? After reviewing my pictures, I just realized one of the guys on the boat had on an SIU shirt.

90 degrees and partly cloudy, 10% chance of rain.

Hopefully not a 100% chance that I will be leaving Busch Stadium with a bag on my head.

Making the game. After getting a late start because of work I thought I would still attempt it but limited and quite expensive parking killed the idea. Would’ve been better than getting to the airport 8 hours before my flight but just wasn’t in the cards. At least they made a game of it! Castro has been fun to watch for sure. I’m kicking myself for not making it to more Smokies games before he was called up (from Knoxville).

“he has to get away from the 12-man-pitching-staff-used-one-reliever-at-a-time theory”

Maybe if we used two relievers at a time we would get better results from our bullpen. Put a lefty and a righty up there and it makes PH decisions a lot tougher. Plus you can play the hidden ball trick

Just the best reason why Trammel was not a good manager. Why he is a bench coach is something beyond my comprehension. I’m sure Lou could try unconvincingly, though.

If the next manager of the Cubs does nothing else, he has to get away from the 12-man-pitching-staff-used-one-reliever-at-a-time theory that has ruined many Cubs games this year.

You can use more than one reliever at a time? Do they alternate pitches?

;)

Hope you had fun in San Fran…beautiful city.

Still has to learn some situational hitting (as does Colvin) but I am looking forward to the C brigade for the next few years (Castro, Colvin, Beef Castillo)

it was one of the best days I have ever had at a ballpark. I took my oldest grandson (almost 8) to his first Cubs’ game (technically his first NL game), it was a beautiful day (the first time SFers have seen the sun in a while), walked around the whole stadium to see the sites (his favorite was the statue of Juan Marichal doing his trademark high leg kick), had hot dogs, showed him how to keep score and saw an entertaining game. Yeah, the Cubs lost but it was a great day.

I wonder if Rothschild will be able to do anything with Cashner.

It’s amazing how this team can keep battling back only to lose by one run.

Starlin Castro’s Afternoon Delight

Woah dude, TMI.

Sam the Clam and Larry the Lobster were best of pals, playing together in a hot band and carousing together after all the shows. One night so late it was morning again, they were finally heading home after last call. As they crossed the street, a double-decker bus comes out of nowhere and kills them dead. Sam the Clam, being a ruffian of the worst sort, finds his soul claimed by the devil, while Larry the Lobster, who had once smiled at a down-and-out little match girl, wound up outside of the pearly gates.

Now Larry the Lobster, feeling loyalty to his buddy, hits up St. Peter for a favor one day. ‘My good pal Sam the Clam must surely be sore that we never jam together anymore, and I hear he’s opened his own club down there in hell… do you think there’s a chance I can get a pass to visit him and play a gig for old times’ sake?’ St. Peter feels for Larry the Lobster, and manages to sneak him a one-night-only pass to take the invisible escalator all the way down to hell and pay his visit. Larry the Lobster is thrilled, but realizes he lost his horn in the accident. He asks the heavenly choir for a loan, but all they have are harps. So, he takes a harp and jumps on the escalator.

He gets to hell and has a fantastic time, jamming and playing all the old tunes all night with Sam the Clam in a packed-out club. When his time is up, he rides the escalator back up to heaven. He runs into St. Peter at the top and thanks him for a grand old time. St. Peter looks Larry the Lobster up and down and asks, ’Aren’t you forgetting something?’ Larry the Lobster thinks for a second, slaps his forehead and says, ‘I left my harp in Sam Clam’s Disco!’

Guy walks into the lobby of a hotel, passing a group of people arguing over who’s better at some game. They stand pointing and yelling and bragging and making a lot of noise.

The guy proceeds to registration and asks the clerk what’s going on. The clerk points to the hotel’s daily events schedule announcing a chess tournament.

“Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer,” he says.

As a service to the community, I have decided to replace your “Existential” questions with questions that are actually existential.

Existential questions cross the mind after the Cubs’ 8-7 loss to the Giants on Thursday afternoon.

* Is it better to get blown out 17-2, 11-4 or 18-1, as the Cubs have been on three occasions in the last two weeks? or to cease to exist at a moment of great joy?

* Is it better to lose three out of four to a contending team play hard and play them well, but lose all three games by one run? without understanding the nature of that contending team? After all, we can only seek to understand their form by first understanding their meaning.

* What about losing six games by one run all sense of awareness of ones’ self since the first of August? Would the Cubs cease to exist, as this awareness is what drives their actions, their essence?

* Do you think Lou Piniella is considering staying in Florida instead of rejoining the team in St. Louis? the notion that freedom of choice is punishment, not a benefit? That life is nothing more than a series of poor alternatives, each choice wrought with negative implications?

For what it’s worth, this place is usually successful at reinforcing the existential idea that hell is other people, so we’re not operating at a total loss here.

The Boston Symphony was performing Beethoven’s Ninth. In the piece, there’s a long passage about 20 minutes during which the bass violinists have nothing to do. Rather than sit around the whole time looking stupid, some bassists decided to sneak offstage and go to the tavern next door for a quick one.

After slamming several beers in quick succession (as bass violinists are prone to do), one of them looked at his watch. “Hey! We need to get back!”

“No need to panic,” said a fellow bassist.

“I thought we might need some extra time, so I tied the last few pages of the conductor’s score together with string. It’ll take him a few minutes to get it untangled.”

A few moments later they staggered back to the concert hall and took their places in the orchestra. About this time, a member of the audience noticed the conductor seemed a bit edgy and said as much to her companion.

“Well, of course,” said her companion. "Don’t you see?

It’s the bottom of the Ninth, the score is tied, and the bassists are loaded."