Usually this sort of thing is the province of blogs like this one, but Daily Herald sportswriter Lindsey Willhite today promotes voting for players who will hurt their league, depending on which Chicago team you're a fan of, and for the right reason -- because this game shouldn't be used to determine home field for the All-Star Game. Acknowledging that it's a "colossal waste of time - yet so much fun to contemplate and complete", he writes:
Let's mess with Major League Baseball's decree, now in its seventh year, to award the homefield advantage in the World Series to the league that wins the All-Star Game.
First, let's acknowledge there already are some partners in this enjoyable crime, such as members of The Sons of Sam Horn, the signature blog for Red Sox Nation. They launched a campaign last month to get Washington outfielder Lastings Milledge voted to the National League's starting lineup.
The joke? Milledge isn't even in the big leagues as he's struggling to hit .250 for Class AAA Syracuse.
Willhite lists players that Cubs fans should vote for, particularly for the White Sox' DeWayne Wise, who has played in eight games this year due to injury (5-for-23, all singles). I'm all for this; let's join in. Here's the online voting link. You can vote 25 times per valid email address. You can get an unlimited supply of valid email addresses here.
The Cubs will pass the million mark in home attendance today; through yesterday total attendance is 987,663, an average of 39,506 for the 25 dates. Both of those numbers rank sixth in MLB (behind the Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies, Angels and Cardinals), but the Cubs have played to 96.1% of capacity, second only to the Red Sox (101.6%).
As reported on yesterday's telecast, the beleaguered, battered Gatorade dispenser in the Cubs dugout will be removed after the homestand is over:
The Pepsi service technician who came out to fix the dispenser twice last week -- after a wayward punch by Ryan Dempster on Monday and Carlos Zambrano's bat-whacking episode on Wednesday -- will be glad to hear the news. He thought he might be on call the rest of the season.
On the other hand, maybe this isn't such a great idea. We hope no Cubs players get angry enough that they feel the need to take a bat to something. But if they do and there's no Gatorade dispenser... well, better put a helmet on Larry Rothschild (who just barely missed getting whacked by Z last Wednesday).
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Eric Milton. Seriously, Eric Milton? The guy who hadn't won a game since 2006 until last week? The guy who has a career ERA of 5.00 in 1567.2 innings with 266 HR allowed? Good. Maybe the Cubs can tee off on him. The last time he pitched in Wrigley Field was September 13, 2005. The Cubs won that game, although Milton threw fairly well. I post that link not for reference -- because there's only one Cub from that starting eight, Derrek Lee, who will play tonight -- but for your amusement at looking at the lineup. I suggested yesterday resting Alfonso Soriano, but he is 6-for-12 lifetime vs. Milton.
Sean Marshall has two career starts vs. LA, both in 2006; here's the last one, from September 12, 2006. Only Brad Ausmus, the Dodgers' backup catcher, has more than six career AB vs. Sean (from his days in Houston, no doubt). Sean did make two decent relief appearances in last year's NLDS vs. the Dodgers, but perhaps that series should be left where it belongs, in the history books.
This is one of the games you'll want to mute your TV, if only so you don't throw a brick through it at Joe Morgan. Most of today's games should be over by now; here is today's MLB.com Mediacenter anyway.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
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Discuss amongst yourselves.