Clark & Addison Blog - CubHub.net

A number of people associated with the Chicago Cubs baseball team have endorsement and appearance deals with the automobile industry.  We’ve all heard the “drive what Ron Santo drives” radio commercials for Chevy. Mark DeRosa did an autograph signing at the Avenue Chevrolet dealership in Batavia, IL on the Cubs’ Monday off day this week. But it is interesting to note the players parking area at Wrigley is chock full of Mercedes, Lexus, and BMW luxury cars and SUVs with a few Cadillacs (GM-family) with no Chevys in sight. For example:

• Aramis Ramirez has a sleek white Maserati
• Carlos Zambrano has a black Mercedes S-Class sedan
• Kosuke Fukudome has a giant white Escalade
• Pat Hughes has a small Mercedes SUV
• Ron Santo takes a chauffeur-driven Lincoln Town Car

In talking with the parking lot attendant, it seems Kosuke had been driving a Pontiac as of last week.  But this homestand he has the largest Cadillac Escalade.  Peer pressure must have got the best of him?

With much curiosity but no ceremony, the newest Cubs, Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin arrived at Wrigley Field late yesterday afternoon to join their new team. With their gear in Oakland Athletics duffle bags, they arrived via giant SUV in time for Tuesday night’s game against the Reds of Cincinnati.

Photo of Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin arriving at Wrigley Field 7/9/08:

With Harden and Gaudin come high expectations and cautious hope.  Still, many Cub fans seem reluctant to express outwardly their secret, perhaps even desperate hopes for the club’s first successful post-season in 100 years.  By “successful” of course I mean to define success as bringing a World Championship to the North side of Chicago.

I was saying to a friend the other day that I want ‘the Cubs to go all the way this year, baby!’  He chided me - seriously - for saying such a thing out loud. He said that really isn’t a good idea, even not cool. Now he is a die hard fan like I am, but he feared somehow upsetting the baseball Gods, or squandering whatever karmic collateral the Cubs have built up could have an effect on the season.  Sometimes its just hard to hope - out loud.

I think it would be a mistake to assign too much responsibility to Rich Harden.  There has been talk the Cubs will go easy on him, letting him go an extra day this week so his Cubs debut will be Saturday.  Then he will reportedly get the fourth start after the All Star Break which would put him at eight days rest.  This is the right thing to do, go easy on him, keep the pressure down, cut him tons of slack… because we will need him in the playoffs, baby!

Photo of his first ever throw as a Cub, playing long toss with Larry Rothschild prior to Tuesday’s game:

The Milwaukee Brewers’ acquisition of CC Sabathia is being rejoiced widely in Cheeseland. Not unlike the day the Cubs acquired Nomar Garciaparra in a trade deadline deal, the Brewers fandom is now making plans for the ticker tape parade down Suds Boulevard come the end of October.  ‘Schlemiel, Schlimazel, Hasenpfeffer incorporated’, indeed.

But in reality, I don’t know how many games the brew-crew will pick up due to the Hefty Lefty. If you’re trading up your fifth starter for Sabathia, you are probably trading a guy who might go 5-10 for a beefy guy who might get you 10-5.  That’s just a five game pickup.  So if CC Rider is truly the difference maker, you would have had to have the Cubs winning the division by less than 6 games over the Brewers.  Sure, it puts some heat on the Northsiders, and there’s a lot of PR collateral generated by a small market team landing a big (really big) fish.  But Cub fans should just hold on tight and realize - all else being equal - that the Cubs will likely win the division by fewer games as a result of Milwaukee getting Sabathia.

Of course, had Jim Hendry landed CC for the Cubs, that would have been a deal-killer for the rest of the NL Central.  But instead we will likely have a race to the finish line.  The Cubs are presently on pace for 98 win season, which should put away the Brewers & Cardinals by plenty. Anything can happen down the stretch, but I for one am not hanging my head with the news that Prince Fielder now has a running mate at the post-game buffet.

In their past 5 games, the Cubs have left 34 runners on base, leading to losing 4 of those last 5 games. In the game they won, the stranded 4 base runners; in the losses they stranded 30.  A team can’t leave that many runners on base and expect to win very many games.

After Derrek Lee grounded into two key double plays yesterday, he redeemed himself today by going 5 for 5 with 2 doubles and 3 RBIs. Still, in the 9th inning today against a mortal looking Bobby Jenks, Lee represented the tying run at 3rd base with 1 out and we couldn’t find a way to get him home.  A decent sac-fly from Ramirez, a bloop single from Edmonds… nope, the clutch hitting just wasn’t there. 

The team is a little banged up, but we have to find a way to get runners in once they reach base if we want to get back on track. 

On the national broadcast of Sunday night’s Cubs-Sox game on ESPN, Joe Morgan did it again. It’s well discussed that he frequently makes inaccurate statements, passed off as historical truth or informed analysis, but I doubt most of them are intentional, they are simply mistakes. I know, I know, Harry Caray often called the wrong player’s name or thought he saw a routine warning track out land in the bleachers for a home run. That is different than Morgan’s tendency to fabricate elaborate stories (as he did Sunday night) that are pure fantasy.

Seems like Morgan’s Cub hating was likely born of his days with the Big Red Machine when they routinely whomped the lowly Cubs in the mid 1970’s.  But in looking it up, I was surprised (impressed?) the Cubs actually fought the Reds pretty hard in the 70’s, and with some very bad Cubs teams.  Their overall record against Cincinnati in the 1970s was 59-61, just 2 games under .500.  My memory was that it was much more lopsided and I would be correct in looking at the 1975 Cubs who were 1-11 vs the Reds.  Take that season away and the Cubs have a solid winning record against what some view as one of the better teams in baseball history, Sparky Anderson’s Cincinnati Reds.

So maybe Morgan holds a grudge because some pretty bad Cubs teams held their own against his mighty Big Red Machine.  Whatever the cause, it is indisputable the Joe Morgan despises the Chicago Cubs organization and seldom passes an opportunity to disrespect any aspect of this storied franchise. 

On Sunday night, he entertained the national TV audience with a fanciful, imaginary tale of how the basket on the top of the Wrigley outfield wall was called “Banks’ Boulevard” because Ernie hit so many of his home runs there.  Wha???  I have never in all my years heard the term “Banks’ Boulevard” and seemingly from the callers and hosts on Chicago sports radio today, no one else has either.

In fact, the record will show that PK Wrigley installed the famous basket as a deterrent to Bleacher Bums who used to hang their legs over the wall to be tempted to jump down on the field. Furthermore, the basket was installed in 1970 - after our beloved Mr. Cub had already hit 497 of his 512 career home runs!  What planet is Joe Morgan from anyway??

What are the odds Joe Morgan will “man-up” and correct his absolute fabrication of history on this week’s Sunday night national game on ESPN at US Cellular?  I would guess similar to the odds of Joe Morgan showing up to Ryne Sandberg’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2005.  As Vice Chairman of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Mr. Joe Morgan cited a “previous commitment” preventing him from attending the annual induction ceremony of the best Second Baseman in NL history, Ryne Sandberg.  Tell me how the 2nd highest ranking HOF official, the Vice Chairman, makes a “previous commitment” on the one day a year when the nation’s attention is focused on the Hall of Fame?  I contend he boycotted because he couldn’t handle - even for just one day - his own accomplishments being over-shadowed by a Cubbie.

Joe Morgan is a putz. And he is a mean-spirited, small-minded coward if he doesn’t set the record straight for the National TV audience this coming Sunday. I challenge you Mr. Joe Morgan to tell the country you lied to disparage Ernie Banks, the Cubs fans, and the Cubs organization.

“They kick our butt.” - Ozzie Guillen, field manager of the Chicago White Sox following a series sweep by the Cubs 6/22/2008.

The Cubs win today in dramatic fashion over the Sox with an Aramis Ramirez walk-off homer.  This is a great win, in spite of a tired team that arrived back in Chicago from Florida after getting swept by the Rays at 1am, just 12 hours before the scheduled first pitch. My feeling is the electric atmosphere of rockin’ Wrigley Field propelled the Cubs to step up and beat the Sox at their own game - the long ball. How sweet it is to win in walk-off fashion but to do it over the crosstown rivals is extra good.

But this is one game, with two more sure to be draining games coming tomorrow afternoon and Sunday night. And its just one win in a 162 game season.  Long way to go, but these are the games you have to win.  They were just swept on the road by a pesky young Tampa Bay team. They got in late, there was no batting practice due to weather, they were facing the Sox, admittedly second-class citizens in this town and obviously envious of the attention paid to the Northsiders. The Sox came in hot after just sweeping the Pirates at home, hitting 10 HRs out of their 44 hits in that series. But the Cubs stepped up and made it happen. Bottom of the ninth muscle from A-Ram, his second dinger of the day to win in come from behind fashion.  This is a big, big game, but as Lou likes to say: let’s not get too giggly here. But enjoy the win nonetheless.

With the diagnosis today of Carlos Zambrano having a minor strain of the shoulder, Cubs fans can breathe a sigh of relief. No torn labrums, no Tommy John, no rotator cuff…probably just some rest and some strength building exercises for Big Z.

Here is a comment from read Gregg, followed by my reply: