COOPERSTOWN, New York -- This will be a different sort of game thread; our data provider has not given us any direct information, so there's no "complete coverage" box at the top of this post, and since so far there's no information available on who will be the starting pitchers, I can't post a pitcher box or stats for the minor leaguers who will participate. The list of Cub minor leaguers who will be in Cooperstown today is as follows:
Junior Lake, Cesar Salazar, Bryan Jost, John Contreras, Robinson Chirinos, George Matheus, Alvaro Sosa, Dwayne Kemp, and Kevin Soto, and pitchers Yohan Gonzales, Julio Pena, Rogelio Carmona, Miguel Sierra, Jeff Antigua, Luke Sommer, and Carlos Rojas.
As noted in one of the threads yesterday, most of these guys will have to buy a ticket to ever get into the Hall of Fame. The only one I've ever seen play before is Chirinos, who has been in a couple of spring training games I've seen. Meanwhile, the Padres don't have a list of players called up on their website, but they did call up their top prospect, Chase Headley; he'll be activated for the Padres/Yankees series beginning tomorrow, and will also play today.
Anyway, this is for general discussion today -- try to be nice about this game. I am well aware that the story told of the creation of baseball in Cooperstown in 1839 by Abner Doubleday is a myth, created more than 100 years ago to provide the pastoral background to the game that people seemed to want at the time. As myths go, it's pretty harmless. If baseball wanted to honor its actual past, the Hall of Fame would be in Hoboken, New Jersey, where on June 19, 1846 the first game with set rules was played.
But it's not, and I'm here, and so are the Cubs and Padres, and today is about fun, honoring the past, and having an enjoyable afternoon. Here's some history of this game from the HoF website.
The biggest problem today may be the weather:
Today: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after noon. Some of the storms could be severe, with damaging winds. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 75. Southwest wind between 8 and 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Today's game is on WGN; for the rest of the very abbreviated MLB schedule see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
MLB.com Gameday (2007 version; I'm not 100% sure this one will work for this game, but am posting it anyway)
MLB.com Gameday (2008 version - this one definitely works, as it has a preview up already)
Today's overflow comment threads will post at 2:15 pm and 3:15 pm CT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.