BCB After Dark: Friday’s child

It’s been a rough week here at BCB After Dark: the coolest club for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in and celebrate with us. Two out of three from those boys up north is always good, so we’re keeping the party going here. Get out of the end-of-the-summer heat. Grab a table while there’s still one available. Bring your own beverage.

BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.

The Cubs beat the Brewers today 3-2. Honestly, I’d like to say more about that game but 1) I’m too tired and 2) Al already has it handled expertly.

Last night, I asked which of the players to have been placed on waivers would you like to see the Cubs pick up. There was a difference of one vote between the top two choices. Both Lucas Giolito and Matt Moore got 35 percent, but Giolito got one more vote.

However, I think it’s pretty unlikely that Giolito makes it past the Diamondbacks and Giants, who both need starting pitching. Matt Moore might not either. But the question was which one you wanted the most.

Here’s the part where I do a (stripped down) look at jazz and movies. You can skip ahead if you’d like.

Here’s the second great Miles Davis Quintet in Germany in 1967 playing “Agitation.” I’ve been so sick that I haven’t been able to watch that new Wayne Shorter documentary that came out on Amazon Prime this past weekend. I’m sure it’s terrific, but I want to be in a good enough mind to be able pay attention to it rather than fading in and out.

Real quick movie stuff today, because that’s all I can handle.

Last week I asked about what we should do as a follow-up to the BCB Winter Noir Classic this upcoming winter. I made a suggestion of doing Westerns, and that got kind of a positive reaction. I’m not committing to Westerns yet (and if you’ve got a better idea I want to hear it) but I’m going down that road.

Before I took ill, I tried to see how many Westerns would be worthy of the competition. Turns out, a lot. I easily came up with 36 films and that was limiting myself to the period of 1939 to 1971. That’s just too many, and I know that a few of you wanted to include Unforgiven as well, which is outside that time frame but, we’re making up the rules as we go along, right?

Anyway, of those 36 films, there are 22 that I think are “must include.” The noir classic only had 26 films, but we started that a bit of a ways into the off-season. We could start the Westerns competition shortly after the World Series ends. But 36 is too many.

But these were the “must include” from 1939 to 1971 that I had. If you’re favorite isn’t on this list, it may be in the next 14. But I do want to know if I’ve forgotten anything.

These are also in no particular order other than the order I thought of them.

1. Red River
2. The Searchers
3. The Ox-Bow Incident
4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
5. Stagecoach
6. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
7. The Wild Bunch
8. Ride the High Country
9. High Noon
10. Rio Bravo
11. Johnny Guitar
12. Forty Guns
13. My Darling Clementine
14. McCabe and Mrs. Miller
15. Shane
16. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
17. A Fistful of Dollars
18. Once Upon A Time in the West
19. 3:10 to Yuma (1957)
20. The Magnificent Seven
21. Winchester ’73
22. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

So anyway, your thoughts are appreciated, even if I may not read them for a while. But i will read them.

Welcome back to everyone who skips the movies and jazz.

Tonight’s question may be answered by the time you see this poll, but that’s the risk I take. It’s “Who should get the other start in Friday’s doubleheader against the Reds?”

Jordan Wicks is starting one game, that’s been decided. The second game is still TBD.

Here are the options as far as I see it. Hayden Wesneski could get the start, although he’s not stretched out at the moment. Giving Wesneski a start could mean a bullpen game.

Or you could just make it a bullpen game. Michael Fulmer is on the injured list, but you could call up Michael Rucker or give the start to Anthony Kay and only expect them to go two innings. But that’s more than a bit dicey in a doubleheader.

There are two players in Iowa who could get the start. One is Caleb Kilian, who has pitched well lately and would be rested and available to start on Friday. Yes, Kilian has not impressed in his few appearances in the majors, but since the start of July he’s posted a 3.05 ERA in nine starts in Iowa.

The other is former All-Star closer Shane Greene. The Cubs signed Greene as a free agent at the end of June and asked him to do something he hadn’t done regularly since 2015—start. Greene has made five starts for Iowa and while that only added up to 16⅔ innings, he posted a 2.16 ERA in that time. And he did go four and five innings in his last two starts.

I suspect that Greene is going to get the start, but I’m asking you who should get the start?

Thank you all for stopping by this evening. It’s been a rough week for me but a good week for the Cubs, and I know which one is more important. Please get home safely. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again next week for more BCB After Dark.