The Chicago Cubs defeated the Milwaukee Brewers in a baseball game this afternoon, six to three, in Mesa, Arizona, where the temperature was eighty-seven degrees and the sun shone brightly. (It shone brightly in Chicago, too, where the temperature was fifty-seven degrees, not bad for this first day of March DST, and most of the road salt is even gone from the streets.)
Here are some other occurrences from this afternoon's athletic contest, on a bullet-pointy sort of day:
- Jason Marquis became the first Cub pitcher to throw four innings this spring. They were good innings -- even though he allowed six hits and a walk, only one run scored. This included a nice sequence in which he and Michael Barrett teamed up catching Corey Hart stealing second base.
- Ryan Theriot had another hit and a walk. Isn't it nice to not have to wonder whether this sort of performance is going to get him on the 25-man roster or not? Speaking of walks, the Cubs drew five of them today. Without looking it up, I'll bet they didn't do that five times all last year.
- Kerry Wood threw a scoreless inning, "lowering" his spring ERA to 12.00. I wouldn't worry too much about that number.
- Jake Fox, who will likely be the starting catcher at Iowa this year, slammed a pinch-hit, three-run home run. He may not be the best defensive catcher who ever lived, but the man can hit.
- Bud Selig dropped by the WGN radio booth and hinted that something might be done about Ron Santo's Hall of Fame status. Yes, voting has already occurred -- but the Hall, being a private institution, can modify its rules at any time. If the Board of Directors of the Hall wants to disband the Veterans Committee and induct Ron Santo this year, they are free to do so.
- Santo, for his part, said Rocky Cherry has "a good chance" of making the 25-man roster. Does he know something we don't, or (more likely) is he just reacting to a guy who's had a good spring?
- The Cubs didn't make any errors today and Matt Murton threw Bill Hall out trying to score. To overstate the obvious, this is a good thing.
- The crowd of 12,726, a sellout, was the second-largest of the spring so far.
- Tomorrow's game, which will be televised on CSN Chicago, will feature Carlos Zambrano's third start of the year.
Update [2007-3-11 18:13:49 by Al]: One more bullety point just presented itself -- it was announced late this afternoon that Mark Prior will make a minor league start, scheduled for Thursday at Fitch Park. I will be in Mesa on Thursday -- if this start is in the morning, before the regular game, I'll try to take in some of it.