I don't usually cite Rick Morrissey columns, and especially not ones like today's, where he discusses, you know, that 2003 NLCS incident, but I had to note his swipe at a certain Sun-Times columnist:
And how about an apology from Lord Voldemort over at the Sun-Times, who suggested in a column Wednesday that "the cold war should end" and Bartman should throw out the first pitch at a Cubs game this season.Lord Voldemort. Perfect.
Onward. This got buried in the comments last night, so I thought I'd frontpage it: Paul Sullivan tells us that AC/DC's "Dynamite", played when Kerry Wood came in to the games Monday and Thursday, wasn't Kerry's idea:
"Not my choice," he said, adding he had "no idea" who chose the song.The Cubs marketing department apparently came up with the selection, believing Wood wanted to enter with theme music, as many closers do. After Tribune readers sent more than 400 suggestions for Wood's entrance song last week, Wood said he didn't need to enter to music at Wrigley, where tradition usually trumps fads.
Asked about the choice of "Dynamite," Wood shrugged.
"I'm indifferent, really," he said. "I'm sure it will be changed at some point."
Wood said he would prefer to hear Wrigley organist Gary Pressy "tickling the ivory" rather than music coming over the loudspeakers.And for those of you who like lineup discussions and other conspiracy theories, Bruce Miles gives you some food for thought:Finally, Piniella dropped a hint as to why he wanted to try Soriano second, and it seemed to have everything to do with him thinking or hoping the Cubs would trade for Baltimore second baseman Brian Roberts, a natural leadoff man."Early in the spring, he wasn't running as well," Piniella said of Soriano. "But he's picked it up. There were other reasons I put him in the 2-hole, for God's sake. You know? So we've got him in the 1-hole now. That's where he's going to stay, and we don't have to answer to that anymore."
Brian who? Never heard of him.
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Stats are 2007 season stats
Rich Hill has made five career appearances (three starts) vs. the Astros; he's 2-0 with a 2.95 ERA and handles them pretty well, even Cub nemesis Carlos Lee (2-for 9, one of the hits a HR). Hill didn't have a good spring, so this game is a good test for him.
Derrek Lee is 2-for-3 vs. Sampson with a HR. Aramis Ramirez is 2-for-6. No other Cub has batted more than four times vs. Sampson, whose biggest claim to fame is that in his second major league start on June 7, 2006, an emergency assignment, he threw seven shutout innings against the Cubs. Of course, that was the 2006 Cubs, a really bad team.
Today's game is on CSN Chicago and FSN Houston, on the usual radio stations (thanks to XM for keeping the game on the same channel all week!) and at the MLB.com Mediacenter.
MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)
MLB.com Gameday (2008 version - this link has pitcher stats and splits up)
Also, once again today, an overflow comment thread will automatically post at 2:45 CT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.