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Lou Piniella was born on August 28, 1943. Thus, when the "Beat Generation" of writers was popular in the late 1950's, Lou was in high school. I have to believe that somewhere, subtly, Lou was influenced by men like Allen Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs.
He had to be. Because his disheveled news conference yesterday read like a Beat poem. In tribute, then, to the late Dennis Hopper, go to this YouTube clip from the 1961 film "Night Tide" (Hopper's first starring role), and let it play while you imagine Lou's spoken words being set to the music (it's all music until about 2:45 into the clip, when there are a few lines of spoken dialogue).
What are you gonna do I don't know, I don't know I don't know, I really don't know... Gonna be honest with you... I wish I had some answers... ... but I just, uh, you would think... sooner or later... this offense would wake up and start scoring a sufficient number of runs... to win baseball games I wish I knew Fellas I wish I knew... That's an option... Yeah That's an option... Plenty of options...
Yes, that is an actual transcript of the news conference. Lou, thanks for the two playoff appearances, but if you really don't know, maybe it's time to go.
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Jeff Karstens has made three starts this year. Two of them were pretty good, and one wasn't. After the third one -- six shutout innings against the Cardinals on May 8 -- he was pulled from the rotation. No, I can't figure that out either. Karstens was acquired by the Pirates in July 2008 (in the trading deadline deal that sent Xavier Nady to the Yankees) and in his first start for them -- against the Cubs on August 1, 2008 at Wrigley Field, he also threw six shutout innings. Since then in three other appearances (two starts) vs. the Cubs, he has an ERA of 8.10. Current Cubs are hitting .325 (13-for-40) against him. In short, who knows what he'll do tonight?
Ted Lilly had an outstanding outing in his last start (against the Dodgers at Wrigley). His record indicates his run support -- he ranks 70th of 77 listed starting pitchers in run support per start (3.0). He was the starter in the only game the Cubs have won from the Pirates so far this year, May 16 at Wrigley Field. Ted threw seven good innings, but left trailing 3-1. The Cubs came back and won. Current Pirates are hitting .252 (35-for-139) against TRL III; Bobby Crosby (a teammate of Ted's on the 2003 Athletics) is 7-for-21 against him with four doubles and a HR.
Lineup via tweet from me:
#Cubs lineup for Tue: Fukudome 9, Castro 6, Nady 3, Colvin 8, Soriano 7, Fontenot 4, Baker 5, Hill 2, Lilly 1. I like this; hope it works!
Today's game is on CSN Chicago and FSN Pittsburgh. Here is the rest of the MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Pirates site Bucs Dugout.
Today's first pitch thread will be up at 6 pm CDT, and the overflows will post at 7, 8 and 8:45 pm CDT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.