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The Cubs announced today that they are having "specials" for bleacher ticket holders starting on various dates in May, and running for the rest of the season.
On Mondays starting May 30, everyone in the bleachers gets a T-shirt. The first one will be the "PASS10N" T-shirt, created to honor Ron Santo. Sounds great.
On Wednesdays starting May 11, Vienna Beef hot dogs will be only $1. Good deal.
On Tuesdays starting May 10, Bud and Bud Light will be on sale for $3.
I can't even begin to say what a terrible idea this is. Does no one in the organization know about the chaos in Cleveland on June 4, 1974, when the Indians hosted Ten Cent Beer Night? $3 is less than half the usual ballpark price and also lower than you'd pay at most of the bars around Wrigley; with half-price tickets available from the Cubs and tickets being dumped for even less than that on StubHub and elsewhere, this is a recipe for disaster. If the Cubs go through with this, they'd better triple the security presence, because the amount of drunken idiot behavior is going to be exponentially larger.
I realize the Cubs are looking to fill the bleachers (and the rest of the ballpark) any way they can. But this is just a really, really, really bad idea.
Oh, yes. There's a ballgame tonight.
Cubs lineup:
Fukudome RF, Barney 2B, Castro SS, Ramirez 3B, Baker 1B, Byrd CF, Soriano LF, Soto C, Zambrano P
Welcome back, Darwin.
Diamondbacks lineup:
Young CF, Johnson 2B, Upton RF, Drew SS, Montero C, Mora 3B, Branyan 1B, Parra LF, Galarraga P
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Due to the vagaries of the schedule, Carlos Zambrano has faced the Diamondbacks only once (excluding the 2007 division series) since 2005 -- almost exactly two years ago, on April 28, 2009 at Chase Field. It was one of his better games; not only did he throw seven solid innings and get a win, but he also homered that night. (FWIW, check out the Cubs' lineup for that game. Or, for that matter, Arizona's.)
Armando Galarraga has defeated the Cubs the last two times he's faced them, once with the Tigers in 2009, and also on April 6 at Wrigley Field. He did give up home runs to Aramis Ramirez (A-Ram's only HR this year so far) and Alfonso Soriano that day. When you see a pitcher who's 3-1 with a 6.00 ERA, the first thing you think of is "run support", and sure enough, Galarraga has the third-highest run support in the NL so far this year, 7.2 runs per start. That can't sustain itself. Hopefully, it will end tonight.
Today's game is on CSN Chicago Plus ("check local listings") and FSN Arizona. Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Diamondbacks site AZ SnakePit.
Today's first pitch thread will be up at 8:30 p.m. CDT and the overflow threads will post at 9:30 pm, 10:30 pm and 11:15 pm CDT. If you need more overflows due to rain delays or extra innings, post them in the fanshot section.
Discuss amongst yourselves.