Mark DeRosa gets it:"I stayed at home the other night and watched that "Cubs Forever" show," he said. "Every once in a while teams should be forced to watch stuff like that and realize how much it means to the city and to the ex-players that have been here, and how lucky we are to get a chance to put on the uniform and play in front of these people.
"I just got a kick out of how much it would mean to the former players if we were able to do it. Sometimes during the course of the year you hit the dog days and lose sight of the overall goal of what you're playing for.
"Every once in a while, to pop a tape in like that would fire you up. I was watching that thinking, 'Man, it's pretty special playing here.' "
Jon Lieber is about to become the answer to a trivia question:Which player experienced one team's 10,000th loss and another team's 10,000th victory in back-to-back seasons?Lieber, of course, was a Phillie last year when they lost for the 10,000th time in franchise history. The Phillies are the only team with 10,000 losses. Tonight, the Cubs could become the second (after the Giants) with 10,000 franchise wins.
A big thank you to the Rockies for moving game time back to 6:35 Mountain time, which makes the start earlier in Chicago. I still remember when most night games in the Midwest started at 8:00 local time instead of 7:00. But those were the days when most games didn't last more than two hours, either.
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There's a pretty good chance, actually, that this game could drag on for a while. Rich Hill is exactly the type of pitcher who pitches poorly in Colorado -- someone who relies on a big breaking curveball, which doesn't break in the thin air of Denver. Hill is 0-2, 11.32 at Coors Field in his career, the only starts he's made against the Rox.
Franklin Morales (he doesn't look too happy in that picture, does he?) hasn't been a paragon of control this season (11 walks in 15 innings), and the Cubs have been patient hitters this year, so perhaps they can get the bases clogged up with runners tonight. Morales is making his first career start against the Cubs.
Check out our SBN Rockies site, Purple Row, for the Rox fan view of this short series.
And unlike yesterday, I have remembered to schedule an overflow thread; it will post at 9 pm CT.
Today's game is on CSN Plus. That's CLTV in Chicago, and different channels on digital cable and satellite, and also at the MLB.com Mediacenter.
MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)
MLB.com Gameday (2008 version)
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Discuss amongst yourselves.