Here is a first-hand report from CubHub.net Special Correspondent, Karen G… 

This past weekend was the second of what I hope will be annual trips to Cubs Spring Training Camp in Mesa, AZ. I had such a good time last year when I stopped for a day on the way back from the west coast that I decided to expand my visit to the whole weekend. So who expects it to rain in the Valley of the Sun?

Fortunately, we had one day of merely overcast weather so I got to watch three hours of practice on Saturday.

If you’re not familiar with Fitch Park, it is a wonderfully intimate place to watch the Cubs. There are four ball fields where different groups of players work on different skills. They fan out from a center court where there are small sets of bleachers but most people just stand and watch through the fence and then move from field to field to see what’s going on. It’s a little bit shabby and the Ricketts family has reached an agreement with the city of Mesa to build a new stadium and practice facility but I certainly hope they keep the “up close and personal” that’s here at Fitch Park.

I got there around 9 am and the players were not yet on the field. The ground crew was working, grooming the mound, arranging screens and wheeling out shopping carts filled with baseballs. The players came out at around 9:15 and started running in the outfield while the ground crew finished their work. They were very far away, running and stretching but soon they came in and the practice began.

First up were the infielders fielding grounders. Alan Trammel was hitting ground balls to the infielders who were making double plays and such. I enjoyed the fact that Trammel was working without a pitcher, just throwing balls in the air and hitting them like we used to do as kids when we used to play “bounce or fly.” The infielders looked good. They were mostly minor leaguers since there seems to be kind of a hierarchy of which players come out when.

I walked over to the next field and then it started to get exciting. The pitchers were lined up to throw to the catchers and then running to cover first. This was my first glimpse of name players as Carlos Zambrano, Sean Marshall, Ryan Dempster, Randy Wells, Carlos Marmol and the others waited in line to take their turns. Everyone seemed to be in good shape and Big Z looked great having shed about 40 lbs. In the off season. I, of course was starstruck because I had positioned myself next to the Gatorade bucket and got to see the players close up when they came over for a drink. I snapped a picture of Z with my iPhone and decided to upload it to Facebook. However in doing so, I missed recording the moment when Ryan Dempster came over for a drink and said hi to me.

But back to practice… All of the big names and a lot of the little names participated in what they called “live” batting practice. They called it “live” because they had real pitchers pitching rather than the coaches. Zambrano was up first and he was strong. I think we all had high hopes watching the slimmed-down Zambrano fire pitches past the minor league hitters. Jeff Samardzjia was next (having his cut his hair to a length acceptable to the Ricketts Family) and now the big name hitters were coming up including Derrek Lee who was swinging with gusto and Ryan Theriot. After taking his turn, Theriot came over to the fence where a buddy of his was sitting next to me. That’s the wonderful intimate nature of spring workouts as I was privy to their conversation to meet for pizza later.

I moved from field to field watching different pitcher/batter combinations. Marlon Byrd was looking good and wearing some very stylish sunglasses despite the overcast. Kosuke Fukodome came out followed by about seven Japanese reporters and photographers. Micah Hoffpauir was knocking the ball out of the park as well. But my favorite moment was seeing the new “phenom” Starlin Castro. He looked like such a baby but he took some good swings against Carlos Marmol until Marmol (as he usually does) lost control and beaned him in the back. Lou was out there watching the both of them and I later heard him say to the press that to Castro’s credit, he didn’t duck out of the way, he stood there and took the hit.

Big Z not quite as big in 2010

Another highlight was seeing Greg Maddux who has been brought in as a special advisor to the pitching staff. I was not able to get a good picture of him which was my big disappointment of the day but I think he’ll provide great inspiration for the staff. I saw him late in the morning playing catch with Ted Lilly who did not do any throwing from the mound.

No-shows at batting practice included Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano.

Practice ended after three hours with more running and stretching and then a run for cover before the rain came. I had been looking forward to two days of workout watching but late Saturday the rain started and it was coming down in buckets. Highly unusual for southern Arizona in the spring but it was comparable to April in Chicago. So even though it was a shortened experience I still had a blast and can’t wait for the season to begin.

 Many thanks to Karen for this report! 

Elton John and Billy Joel at Wrigley Field

Entertainment reporter Dean Richards reports Elton John and Billy Joel will not be appearing at Wrigley Field this summer after all. 

In an interview with Richards on WGN-TV and WGN-Radio, Elton says he is heartbroken that the show will not happen in July as rumored. He says the decision is Billy Joel’s, with Billy deciding to take the remainder of the 2010 off following their show together in Albany, NY March 11th.

Elton John is producing the play “Billy Elliott” coming soon to Chicago and cites Chicago as one of his favorite cities in part due to his having become sober here.

This development leaves the Wrigley Field Concert Series with no officially confirmed shows yet this year.

The Cubs have announced the inaugural MasterCard First Chance Ticket Presale for Monday February 15th beginning at 10:00am. For the first time, fans can purchase single-game tickets for Cubs games in a special pre-sale promotion sponsored by Mastercard. There will be a 20% surcharge for tickets in this program, but the inventories available will presumably be the better than when tickets officially go on sale Feb 19. Plus, if purchased with your MasterCard, you will get 5% off – dropping the resulting surcharge from 20% to 15%.

In my view this is a good deal in that the very best games tend to sell out while most people are sitting in virtual waiting rooms online during the official sale. If this presale goes as anticipated, there will be fewer people vying for seats so while you pay a little more, you have a better chance of getting the tickets you want and getting them cheaper than through the resale market via StubHub, TicketNetwork, or other less reputable brokers. We’ll have to see how it goes.

• Special Pre-sale promo:  Monday February 15
• Regular single game tickets on sale: Friday February 19

Dear Season Ticket Waiting List Member,

I am happy to inform you…

My number had come up – the Cubs have Season Ticket packages available! This same mechanism is how I became a Bears season ticket holder in the mid-90’s.  But that email invitation at a good time, where I was glad to pony up the dollars and could make plenty of games. I only had those tickets for a few years becuase I quickly realized freezing my ass off sitting in Soldier Field was not as desirable as sitting on the couch at home and ordering a pizza at halftime.  But I digress.

So apparently there’s been some churn in the season ticket club at Wrigley. Given the economy, I guess that’s not a big surprise. But I will pass and move to the back of the line becuase the time is not right for me to commit to sitting in marginal seats in beautiful, historic Wrigley Field eighty-one times this year. I live in the Western suburbs and of course work a 9-5 job, so there is no way I can manage getting to Wrigley even 40x in a year.

View from upper deck box section 422

The seating areas I was told were available at this time are Upper Deck Reserved (IF & OF), Upper Deck Box Outfield, and Bleachers. I’m not a bleacher guy, plus its four grand per bleacher ticket so that’s out. Upper reserved are ok, but I prefer to pony up for Dugout Box seats a few days a year. Upper Deck Box are actually among my favorite seats (helllooo Aisle424!) when they are within a couple sections of aisle 420 and within the first row or two. So given seating choices, and the dollars involved (see below), I chose to pass.

Chicago Cubs 81-Game Season Ticket Plan

(Bold=2010 Season Ticket Packages Available)

See full Wrigley Field Seating Chart from CubHub.net.

All the betting lines favor the Colts right now by five or six points, but in my book it’s a toss-up. If I were a betting man, I’d take the Saints and the points. But if you do that, don’t blame me if you lose. It’s that close.

In my Super Bowl prediction system there are 12 different indicators, each one taken by itself predicts the Super Bowl winner 56% to 69% of the time. Taken collectively, the indicators have an even better track record. The system favors the team that wins the most indicators and it has predicted 15 of the last 19 Super Bowl winners. This year the prediction system picks the New Orleans Saints to win a Super Bowl in their first appearance in history.

However…

The margin is the slimmest of margins. The system has the Saints winning 7 of the 12 indicators. That goes against the grain given that the Indianapolis Colts are favored in Las Vegas. I like that. The system has a strong track record going against the line. But the prediction system has not performed well when a team wins less than eight of the indicators. Going back 19 years to 1990, the system is only 3-2 on games with less than eight indicators going to the favored team. Going back all-time, the system is 6-7 with less than eight indicators.

Plus, if we had gone to the tiebreaker (when six indicators go to each team), the tiebreaker would favor the Colts. The tiebreaker gives the nod to the team with previous Super Bowl experience. In 17 Super Bowls where one team has been there and the other hasn’t, the experienced team has won 13 times.

For record keeping, if the Saints win, the system will also notch a victory. If the Colts win, the system loses. But I learned my lesson two years ago when the system favored the Patriots with 7 of the 12 indicators and the Giants won. I am calling it a toss-up.

Each indicator is shown here. Interestingly, while the system favors the Saints overall, the three best indicators (the bottom three) each favor the Colts.

There are five defensive indicators, four offensive ones, and three based on overall stats. The strongest indicators overall are the defensive ones.

Used with permission from John Dewan’s Stat of the Week™, http://www.statoftheweek.com/.

On Twitter the other day, I said Jim Hendry sometimes needs to be saved from himself. My comment was in reaction to the signing of Jose Contreras by the Phillies, preventing Hendry from getting him. Of all the players rumored to be interests of the Cubs, few have intrigued me. Jonny Gomes, Xavier Nady, and Ben Sheets, are all interesting to some degree but none really stir the baseball juices. They are all what I call “lightning in a bottle” guys. If the planets align they might have a solid year. But they are each a gamble that could prove costly both in dollars and in a roster spot. I would rather re-sign a known entity as fourth outfielder, such as Reed Johnson. At least you know what to expect from him playing in Wrigley Field.

As far as I can tell, the Cubs are in the same boat as last year at third base too. Brittle Aramis Ramirez has no legitimate backup. Sure you could play Jeff Baker over there for a couple games, but if/when he goes down for a month again, Hendry has nothing to back him up – again.  I think this was strategically one of the big mistakes of the 2009 Cubs roster and a primary reason for the disappointing season. We all know A-Ram will go down at some point, only question is for how long. With that wonky shoulder, he is conceivably one dive away from the DL and possibly surgery on every play. And if you slide Baker over to third, you lose run production in the middle of the lineup and further expose second base with Mike Fontenot.

Given the hole I perceive the Cubs have at second base (I still don’t fully trust Jeff Baker), early off season talk of packaging up Luis Castillo from the Mets sounded good to me IF he can still play. But if the rumors are true the Cubs have been interested in the likes of a Kiko Calero, Jose Contreras, and now 37 year old Chan Ho Park, Hendry is barking up the wrong tree.  And this from a team who is based in the city of Daniel Burnham, famous for the quote “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood…”  C’mon guys, reach higher! Ask Andy MacPhail how making a team merely competitive in their division is a good enough goal.

I heard a Lou soundbite from the Cubs Convention: ‘We have a good team up here in Chicago’ he said. And Lou is absolutley right. The 2010 Cubs appear to be a good – not great – team. They have some good players, if they play up to expectations. But with most of the off-season additions so far having been by subtraction (Bradley, Miles & Gregg all gone), I haven’t seen or heard much to indicate anyone expects to win anything this year.

The "L" flag flies over Wrigley Field

The talk from Ricketts, Crane Kenney, and the overall takeaway message from the Cubs Convention have all been about improving Wrigley, wider concourses, better food selections, bathrooms, moving the weight room, the Triangle Building, and whether to raise the “L” flag when the team loses. I’m not hearing anything about how this team is going to win the division and win the playoffs. Jim Hendry seems to be counting on kid pitchers stepping up, Ted Lilly to come back 100% in May, and Carlos Zambrano to suddenly mature into the “good” Z.

As was typical under the Andy MacPhail regime, this team is built to be competitive, and hopefully catch lightning in a bottle by hitting the jackpot on a rookie and getting career years out of all the veterans.  It all simply can’t come together that way – not all at once as this plan would need to do.  The way things stand now, this team will probably end up over .500 – a mark of a “good” team, but not a winner.

I hope the brass at 1060 W. Addison have a bigger plan in place that just hasn’t revealed itself.

The Doc has provided some bonus codes for new signups, just in time for the football playoff season!  Have fun!

sports interaction bonus code
Justbet promo code
Bookmaker bonus code

I am personally thrilled at the Hawk getting HOF honors. Really, he is a role model – how he played the game, how he conducts himself (except for the game at Wrigley when he was tossed by an umpire and illustrated his frustration by emptying the bat rack onto the field of play – hehehe). Really, couldn’t be happier for Dawson or more proud as a Cubs fan.

But shouldn’t we as fans be a little more excited by the players on the field and the prospects for the new season? Shouldn’t Cubs management supply us with those players and inspire that enthusiasm? Maybe I’m just a little bitter by how unlikeable and unproductive last year’s team was. But it seems to me if the new Cubs ownership’s “one goal” is to bring a World Championship to Chicago, shouldn’t we have more exciting players to cheer for? Just asking.