It was hardly worth the trip to Tucson today -- the Cubs lost to the Rockies 6-2, and no one did much. They managed only four singles and two doubles. Of course, only two of the projected starting eight (Matt Murton and Jacque Jones) played today. Jerome Williams got pounded. That's not good news.

The other interesting thing about today's game was the attendance -- only 3,734, less than half capacity at Hi Corbett Field. When I went to Tucson last March, the game drew a sellout of 8,587. Yes, that was on a weekend, and the Tucson weather (63 and cloudy) wasn't so great today. But I do believe this shows that attendance is down in general for the Cubs in the Cactus League.

Also, Mark Prior faced hitters today and is still in line to start a Cactus League game next week.

Now, what you have been clamoring for -- new photos of the bleacher construction project! You'll note some significant changes in the last week, including a staircase at the western edge of the LF bleachers (last photo in 2nd row). And the reason there wasn't an extra update last weekend was -- David has been sick, and couldn't get his photos to me. He promised to send me some this weekend.

The timeline has also been updated. (If you looked last week, it wasn't -- I forgot! But it is now updated with both last week's and today's photos.)

Top: walkway behind CF & top of new elevator; view of what will be entranceway (note: no work has been done on lower level restrooms yet); wall on Waveland (in background, the restaurant); scoreboard & walkway in LF. This photo is significant because of the clock -- for several months it was stuck on 7:55, but 10:28 is the time this photo was taken, and the clock did move while I was there. This indicates that power has been restored to at least part of the bleachers.

Middle: photo taken from Kenmore at the request of one of the Waveland ballhawks. Note that although the new structure is large, it isn't all that tall. I doubt it will make much difference at all in the number of balls reaching the street, either in BP or during games; LF walkway showing new green/white paint job; this stairway in LF has gone up in the last week. Not sure where it is going to lead to; concrete work on Sheffield

Bottom: more wall work on Sheffield; wide view of entire RF structure; the "knothole" (this view is likely to vanish soon as they complete the wall); the far south end of the structure on Sheffield

Photos by Al

Cubs win!

And so what, really. The Cubs beat the A's 8-7 today. That's meaningless, because the seven runs (and three HR) were off Bryan Corey, who has absolutely zero chance of making the major league squad. And even the winning run was generated by people (Dopirak, Pagan, Reyes) who won't be in the majors this year.

Mike Wuertz threw a scoreless ninth for the win. That's good. Felix Pie hit a triple. That's good. Carlos Zambrano threw two scoreless innings and now heads off to the WBC. Attendance was 7,717 -- rather small by Ho Ho Kam standards over the last few years.

And I wasn't listening during the seven-run A's fifth inning. This goes along with what I wrote three years ago about me not listening to spring training games on the radio, resulting in wins. We'll see if tomorrow's game is different, as there is no WGN broadcast.

About the bleachers, they will open five weeks from tomorrow... I sure hope they're done!

Actually, given some nice weather the next few weeks, they should be done, although the entranceway hasn't been started, the sidewalk areas are still mud, and as you can see in the last photo, there are no benches in yet.

For a different perspective, I decided it was worth $1.75 to go up to the Addison L stop to take a photo... you can't see much from there, but you can see that there have not yet been any benches installed.

Top: workman placing plastic sheeting over new wall; back fences behind both seats and walkway; closeup of wall on Waveland; another view of wall on Waveland

Middle: closeup of gap in wall in photo above; this is where the entrance will be; wall on Sheffield; work on Sheffield wall (location: south of previous photo)

Bottom: another view of work on Sheffield wall; wider view of entire structure; view behind CF to where "private box" will be; view of construction from Addison L stop (note: LF padding still not replaced)

Photos by Al

Before I tell you about David's latest set of photos, taken yesterday in and around the first day of ticket sales (he had a very good wristband number!), here's some more fun with numbers, and a good lesson in why number-crunching doesn't tell you everything about winning baseball.

Hat tip to both The Cub Reporter and my SB Nation colleague Larry at Viva El Birdos for pointing me to this fun little device, Steve's Lineup Toy. You can plug in numbers there from 2003 to 2005 to see how many runs a specific lineup would generate (at least in theory).

There's another version located here where you can use two different 2006 projections to come up with predicted runs scored totals for this year. Projections, of course, are just that, projections -- so I ran a number of different ones just for grins.

Using this actual 2005 lineup from June 29 vs. Milwaukee, a lineup most of us cringed when we saw it: Patterson, cf; Perez, ss; Lee, 1b, Burnitz, rf; Ramirez, 3b; Walker, 2b; Hollandsworth, lf; Barrett, c; Wood, p -- the toy says it would generate 5.0 runs per 27 outs. (I had to use another hitter in place of Wood since he wasn't listed, so I chose Greg Maddux).

The toy, of course, didn't make the lineup the way Dusty did; it ordered it Walker, Barrett, Lee, Ramirez, Burnitz, Perez, Hollandsworth, Patterson, Maddux.

Entering the proposed 2006 starters for Opening Day gives this "best" batting order: Cedeno, ss; Murton, lf; Lee, 1b; Ramirez, 3b; Barrett, c; Walker, 2b; Zambrano, p (!); Jones, rf; Pierre, cf

Sure, Z's a good hitter, but seventh? And that lineup generates 6.5 runs per 27 outs, pretty darn good and FAR better than last year's. Now, of course Z isn't going to bat seventh, and the toy doesn't let you put in your own lineup. Incidentally, replacing Cedeno with Miguel Tejada generates 6.7 runs per 27 outs, while still having Pierre bat ninth.

OK, what about putting these players into the 2006 projection toy? Problem 1: no pitchers are listed there, so you have to choose a "poor" hitter (TCR suggests Neifi, but I put in Jose Macias, who -- I presume -- would generate pitcherlike numbers, and does indeed get the #9 slot). That lineup reads: Pierre, cf; Murton, lf; Lee, 1b; Ramirez, 3b; Barrett, c; Jones, rf; Walker, 2b; Cedeno, ss; pitcher.

That lineup generates, by projection, 5.7 runs per 27 outs, still far higher than 2005's rotten lineups. Swapping Tejada for Cedeno raises it to 5.9. Actually, that above lineup wouldn't be a bad one at all.

Will Dusty use it? Ever? Doubt it. The lineup toy works in this way:

Anyway, fun little diversion on a Saturday.

Speaking of lineups, I learned from this Arizona Republic article that in spring training games, NL teams can use the DH in their home park if they get permission from the opposing team. The Reds did this last year with Ken Griffey, Jr., and the Giants are apparently going to do it with Barry Bonds. According to the article:

Also, I got mine over at Humbug for stealing his anagram idea the other day. Hey, I even admitted I stole it. All in good fun, right?

Finally, here's another photo update. The first few photos are of the ticket sale; the rest are updates of the construction. You'll actually be amazed at how much was done in just the 24 hours since I took pictures on Thursday. The timeline has also been updated.

Top: line at ticket windows; staging area for wristband winners before they go to the windows; more ticket windows (note White Sox flag on construction truck parked on Clark); more construction trucks and ticket buyers

Middle: crane loading equipment onto RF structure; brick wall on Sheffield; LF, with view of brick wall and back fence; closeup of wall in left-center (Waveland)

Bottom: CF restaurant under construction; closeup of Sheffield wall; wider view of Sheffield wall; this is where the wall will end and the new bleacher entrance will begin

Photos by David Sameshima

As of 10:30 am, once again (as you can see in the last photo in the sequence), there was absolutely no line for wristbands. This is far different from the past two years, and likely means that far fewer wristbands will be handed out. For those of you who have one or are planning on getting one before 10 pm tonight, that gives you a better shot at tickets tomorrow. Also tomorrow, I will post the winning wristband number and begin a thread where all of you can post your ticket successes, failures and nightmares -- so don't go posting a dozen diaries on this subject, let's try to consolidate everything in one place.

The construction project continues -- as you can see, the brick walls are nearly done on the Waveland side, and there was quite a bit of activity today; there were cranes around, though they moved out before I could take photos of them.

I also, based on this Phillies blog entry a couple of days ago (which I found thanks to this Hardball Times article), played around with Google Earth and did some admittedly unscientific measurements of Wrigley Field based on that.

Turns out the measurements at the ballpark are pretty darn accurate. I got 353.18 feet to LF; 398.29 to dead CF (which is NOT the deepest part of the part - that measured 401.95 feet); 351.16 feet to the RF corner and 367.37 feet to the left-center power alley, 368.63 feet to the right-center power alley. All of these are within variances that could be explained by me not quite using my mouse properly.

What do come up as very different numbers are several famous home run distances. The HR that Sammy Sosa smacked onto Kenmore Avenue on June 24, 2003, that at the time was said to be 540 feet, measured 510.54 feet. Glenallen Hill's famous rooftop HR (you know, this is one date that stumps me), estimated at over 500 feet, showed up as 471.68 feet.

And the so-called longest HR ever at Wrigley Field, the one Dave Kingman hit as a member of the Mets on April 14, 1976, that landed in front of the fourth house on the east side of Kenmore Avenue, said to be 600 feet, wasn't that -- though close, it was 574.09 feet.

Go have fun with Google Earth yourself!

Top: workman topping off the brick wall on Waveland; wider view of Waveland wall; peek at wall through plastic sheeting; behind CF

Middle: looking east down Waveland; more Waveland-side walls; back fence behind LF bleachers; the "knothole"

Bottom: beginnings of another section of wall on Sheffield; another view of RF side looking north on Sheffield; closer view of Sheffield wall work; the entrance to the wristband distribution point at 10:30 am (note the ad for Premium Ticket Services right under the wristband sign) -- no line whatsoever

Photos by Al

In these photos David took on Sunday afternoon, the biggest difference from my set taken Friday, is the appearance of a "back fence" on the left-field side, which will be behind the last row of seats. There still isn't anything more than a construction "fence" (two wires) on the back of the walkway yet.

This week, I'm not sure when the updates will be taken. On Thursday, my normal photo day, there will be long lines of people around the ballpark waiting for ticket wristbands. So we'll see.

The timeline has also been updated.

Top: looking north on Sheffield; looking east on Waveland; back fence pieces being assembled in LF; more back fence pieces being assembled

Middle: Good view of new wall on Waveland; behind CF, showing elevator shaft; another view of elevator shaft; wider view of CF area showing top of elevator

Bottom: New wall under construction on Sheffield side; underneath RF walkway; the "knothole"; full view of RF structure

Photos by David Sameshima

It's COLD today!

Actually, for mid-February, it's not bad -- 30 degrees. But compared to the last six weeks, and particularly yesterday which seemed like a spring day with thunderstorms, it seems quite cold.

Not as cold as it's going to be tomorrow, though -- temperatures in the teens. And so, I thought today would be a good day to make another photo update. You'll see some significant changes since last weekend.

The timeline has also been updated.

Top: new CF elevator; closer view of elevator and elevator shaft (sorry it's tilted, I had just stepped on some ice that I thought was solid, but it cracked!); RF seats near my old section; underside of walkway in RF corner

Middle: the "knothole" (doesn't the field look great?); underneath right-center with new wall section being built; another view of elevator; wall section on Waveland just west of CF

Bottom: detail section of wall on Waveland (note the top pieces, identical to the old ones, as well as the 'layering' effect of the brick, quite nice looking); LF showing height of top row in left-center; looking east on Waveland showing height of walkway in corner in relation to top row of seats; box of "corner" and "ender" pieces for the top of the brick wall (taken at old car wash on Waveland; there are about 100 of these boxes there)

Photos by Al

David sent me some photos taken during the 2005 season, so you can remember the bleachers the way they were for 68 years, from 1937 through 2005.

Looking at these, and knowing what's being built there now, they already seem like ancient history.

Thursday has been a usual day for me to run by the ballpark for photos -- I had to work today, so I may do that later, but right now it's raining pretty hard, with the threat of thunderstorms later this afternoon, followed by snow and wind and cold tonight.

Brrr. Enjoy these summertime photos.

Also today, ESPN.com posted their first power rankings of 2006. The Cubs rank just behind the Astros -- but both rank well behind Milwaukee.

Top: Two views outside Wrigley Field, 7/16/2005; two views of entrance ramps, 7/2/2005

Bottom: Another view of ramp, 7/2/2005; beer shack on ramp, 7/2/2005 (note sign: ATM Machine, which would stand for "Automatic Teller Machine Machine")

Photos by David Sameshima

I happened to be driving by the ballpark Saturday afternoon about 3:15.

No, really. I was on my way to pick up Mark at a friend's house, and the ballpark just happened to be in between my house and the friend's.

Who do I see standing on the east side of Sheffield, in the snow, with his camera? Why, it was David, intrepid photographer. There was too much traffic to stop and say hi, but he sent me these twelve photos from a snowy Saturday afternoon.

The timeline has also been updated.

Top: top of the new left-center field section; New brick wall being built, on the left field side; New "batter's eye" restaurant area, viewed from Waveland; Left field, looking west.

Middle: New brick wall, in left field; New brick wall, in right field; Right field, view looking south; View of new "batter's eye" restaurant, from Sheffield

Bottom: New "batter's eye" restaurant, viewed from Sheffield; Right field area, between the original stands and the new "bleacher box" section; Closeup of the "knothole" gate, in the right field corner; The "knothole" gate area, in the right field corner

Photos by David Sameshima, taken Saturday, February 11