Almost cut my hair
It happened just the other day
It was getting kind of long
I could have said it was in my way -- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
A bit of fun this morning -- we need it, right? Magglio Ordonez of the Tigers -- known for the last few years for flowing curly locks that reached his shoulders -- showed up at Comerica Park last night having cut them all off. He did it for charity -- he's auctioning the hair off to benefit the Imerman Angels, a Chicago-based cancer support group.
If you are interested, here's the eBay auction page. You get a bat autographed by Maggs, too. Bids start at $4,000 (yeah, I know, pricey).
Magglio Ordonez has always been a class act. I wish the Cubs had signed him after the 2004 season when he left the White Sox as a free agent, even with the knee problems he had at the time. The Tigers signed him to a deal that protected them from financial exposure if he had a recurrence of the same issue, and after a "recovery" year in 2005, he had three good years and helped lead them to the World Series in 2006. He'd have looked a lot better in right field the last three years than anyone else the Cubs put out there. He's having a tough year so far in 2009 and was actually benched before coming back to play against the Cubs this week.
Now, let's go beat those Tigers. Ryan Freel (and perhaps even his imaginary friend Farney, too) returns from a rehab assignment today as Reed Johnson heads to the DL.
And Dan McNeil of the Sun-Times trots out the tired old if Lou would just get fired up, that would make all the difference story. So Dan, you think if he yelled at an umpire or threw a base, that would get the Cubs to hit with RISP?
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Armando Galarraga is no relation to former Rockie, Expo and Cardinal Andres Galarraga. Now that we have that out of the way, Armando had a fine rookie year in 2008. This year, he has struggled. The Cubs should be able to take advantage of his 1.64 WHIP to get plenty of baserunners. The issue, of course, is getting them to score. Armando has never faced the Cubs. The only current Cubs who have faced him are Aaron Miles (0-for-3) and Milton Bradley (0-for-2).
Ted Lilly has made nine career appearances (six starts) vs. the Tigers; he is 2-3, 3.96 in those games. The last one was September 27, 2006, when Ted beat a World Series-bound Tigers team in Detroit. Players currently on the Tigers roster are hitting .180 against Ted in 89 total AB.
The Cubs are back on WGN this afternoon. For other games today see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
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Discuss amongst yourselves.