Bleed Cubbie Blue

That was what I saw in one of the threads...

… not sure which link that came from.

Best game thread title of the season......

….Go Cubs!

JB 23 - May 8, 2009 reply

if a bit long.

Yeah, I know.

I couldn’t figure out how to shorten it.

scissors!

is it sad

that i laughed at that?

well done, toots!

ty

tyvm…

I’ll be here all weekend

No, it wouldn't.

But this isn’t Twitter!

I agree with one thing in particular from this post.....

enough already with the Chad Fox comebacks. I understand that he’s a good guy (people say he’s one of the nicest guys in the game), it’s a great story, he’s an easy guy to root for, and I’m also well aware that the fact that he was basically throwing BP last night to the Houston hitters may well have been due to simple rust. I get all of that. Great story, great guy, good mushy story, all that. Well and good. And I mean this, no sarcasm intended: I wish him all the best, and he truly has a lot of heart and courage.
Now, having said all that, can we please release the guy? I have nothing against a good story, but I’d rather have a good bullpen. Enough already with the Chad Fox story.

ctcoff99 - May 8, 2009 reply

A question to the encyclopedias here:

What was the name of that kid who was called up from Iowa and pitched a 1-hitter vs. Houston in 2006?

Well, I hope Wells does the same tonight.

Ryan O'Malley.

Thanks Al

I hope Wells pulls an O’Malley tonight.

Wow that brings back memories.

He didn’t last long, unfortunately

O'Malley gave up five hits in eight innings.

The Cubs won 1-0 on a Michael Barrett HR. Boxscore

I just googled him

“Currently a free agent.”

I wanna say he was pitching for the Schaumburg Flyers recently.

But he was let go at the end of last season

He was going to play with the Flyers last season,

but then accepted a deal to play in the White Sox organization in the minor leagues. I think he go hurt.

cubs ftw - May 8, 2009 reply

One of the very few bright spots from 2006.

Without a doubt, the worst year of my life as a Cubs fan. Sox fans beating their chests as defending World Champs. Cardinals get hot at just the right time and win it all with a .500 team. And as icing on the cake, the worst Cubs team of my life. If any season has ever tested my loyalty, that was it.

ctcoff99 - May 8, 2009 reply

I sure didn't see this trade coming

I thought after this morning Gathright was a goner to my town (Des Moines). Can Freel bring anything to the table we want? Anyone out there have more than stats on him?

mrcubsfan - May 8, 2009 reply

He brings a capable glove at third base.

And he’s got pretty strong career OBP numbers. He’s good in center and right field, too. This is all assuming he’s healthy, of course, and not being distracted by the little gnome named Farney that lives in his head.

I was just reading that Freel can be a real pain in the ass for a manager

But I don’t see that being a problem under Sweet Lou and a winning situation in Chicago. Come in here ala Reed Johnson and accept a role. Apparently the addition of Ty Wiggington in Baltimore sent Freel into vapor lock.

Yeah, there's been some talk of his attitude problems.

I’m a little worried about him and Milton in the same clubhouse. We’ll see what we see, though.

That edginess dynamic can sometimes be a good thing...

Yeah, ya figure Big Z, Freel, Bradley, Lou.

We gotta whole lotta crazy in our clubhouse. But that could pay off.

At least it will be entertaining.

so basically

they’re all in teh club house, refusing to take their eyes off one another. “Play me, or I’ll CUTCHA!”

and the response will be

lighten up francis

if we're winning

i’m not worried.

when we go on that inevitable losing 13 of 15 jag though…

Funny how winning solves everything, huh?

yep

its not Freel

its the voices in his head….

reminds me of this show
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman’s_Head

Ryan Freel is a nice acquisition

Freel provides a lot of versatility. He’s had a somewhat checkered last couple of years and didn’t exactly endear himself in either Cincinnati or Baltimore. But hopefully he can come in here and accept his role ala Reed Johnson and be a quality addition to the bench. Injuries have been a big issue, but they are rumored to often be the result of playing with reckless abandon.

I’m still hating every second of the day the presence of Aaron Miles. But I guess you can’t have everything in life.

The man trims a nice goatee, you gotta give him that.

dtpollitt - May 8, 2009 reply

He looks like he belongs in the IT department

With khakis, a polo and a blackberry on his belt.

redward - May 8, 2009 reply

So the bench becomes...

Hill, Miles, Freel, Hoffpauir, Johnson

That's a group that deserves a nickname.

i'm calling them the scrap heap

gotta love the scrap factor.

Oooohh, that's good, I like it!

scrappy!

that’s great lol

Cubsfanatic - May 8, 2009 reply

we need to find a replacement for Freel

whose first names begins with the letter “A” (another aaron maybe)

then we could use their first name intials to spell K-A-R-M-A

no offense but you must really have to much time on your hands to figure that out

LOL

sad but true

not that it's a bad thing.....

that was me last summer :)

speaking of trimmed

this Playoff Beard i am growing (for the Hawks) is a pain in the booty when it is 90+ out

Who's booty? Wait, I don't want to know.

you want me to draw you a picture?

oh wait – that’s your line. Sorry…

ballhawk - May 8, 2009 reply

LMAO toboth of ya

i guess pain in the chin is better?

no cuz TWSS will follow……..

its not something made for when it is hot

nope, that too will be TWSS

I give up

Over under on # of users Al bans during tonight's game...

I hope zero

can't go under on zero

well

unless you want the universe to explode… or is it implode?

hope there is a nearby wormhole.

I thought a wormhole was something you could travel through

Cubsfanatic - May 8, 2009 reply

yep to go to a different universe

in theory anyway

it is....

we’ll use the wormhole to escape the dying universe. :P

if he unbans someone

does that count as -1

any particular reason?

El Borto - May 8, 2009 reply

SWL saw a gaggle of trolls headed this way.

I wasn't in the game threads for the first Mil series, was it ugly

El Borto - May 8, 2009 reply

yes

shockingly ugly.

It's been reasonably fine

Yesterday was just a clusterf$%k

Has Sue sent around an email showing what happened last night?

I’m interested in seeing that, as I missed it and only got on in the ninth inning.

I did and

Tim added to it. I don’t have your email addy.

it was

well, an interesting time, no doubt.

So I gathered,

From a post Drew made in the recap.

once he snapped

every post was nothing but a jab at someone, and nothing kind about it. for the first time, i was flagging a poster

"Dear Penthouse Letters... I never thought this would happen to me..."

I'm glad I missed it

I was working late, and it was an unusually busy night. I only began to catch the game in the ninth inning, about the time of Soriano’s second HR.

Here it is

kreutzer 1984 vt @ yahoo dot com

ok, I'll

send it your way.

Thanks

yw

you should have mail

The proper term for a group of trolls is "rabble"....

ie…SWL saw a rabble of trolls headed this way.

rabble rabble

or a group of hamburglers

chitownhawkeye - May 8, 2009 reply

Randy Wells

has so far pitched 5.1 innings in the majors without allowing a hit. Let’s see him keep that up tonight.

Josh Timmers - May 8, 2009 reply

Now, why did you have to say that.....

Moo...

Gotta stop believin in hexes.

throws salt over his left shoulder

hee hee

Fox

Too early to give up on him. I was surprised he was working 93-94 last night. It is not like he is throwing upper 80’s junk up there. If he can’t throw strikes his next outing or two then fine let him go but you can’t send a guy packing for one bad outing in his first appearance. They obviously wouldn’t have brought him up if reports from Iowa weren’t good.

uwbadger - May 8, 2009 reply

yeah

i think a guy should get more than 17 pitches before we pronounce him as done

Uh oh.

There’s that “speed” argument again. May I remind you that Bob Howry threw consistently 92-93 last year. How’d that work out?

but we gave howry more than one time out before we gave up

and how did that work out for us?

he sucked

i’m not saying chad fox definitely isn’t done… but he might not be.

i just think if you’ve kept him around this long, you give him more than a handful of pitches to see what he’s got before giving up.

As long as Lou only lets him near the mound with a >5 run lead...

I’m ok with him giving it a few more shots. What I do not want to see is Fox making his way to the mound in a tight game with runners on base. At least not until he’s shown the ability to throw pitches in the strike zone that batters don’t destroy.

+1

I completely

agree.

Exactly

I could go for that.

97 wins.

yes....and again...

teams win WITH, BECAUSE and IN SPITE OF their players. In most of the wins Howry was involved in, which of those three do you think best describes the situation.

Well, I guess.

Still, I think we can give Chad Fox ONE MORE shot.

I'm not saying we shouldn't.

ok

all i am saying al

is that you have somewhat of a history of writing people off early or assigning some sort of role or tag to players when they really haven’t done anything to deserve it. Your mind was made up on Fox before he even threw one pitch this year. Give him the benefit of the doubt here. The velocity is there and the Cubs think he still has the stuff or they wouldn’t have him around. Whether or not he will put it together is yet to be decided but I don’t see the need to drag his name through the mud when he hasn’t had time to prove himself yet where we can come to those conclusions.

uwbadger - May 8, 2009 reply

You all aren't seeing the bigger picture. This is the beginning of a whole new era for the Cubs.

Here are a few more deals coming down the pike in the next few weeks:

- Bradley to Toronto for BJ Ryan.
- ARam to Milwaukee for Ryan Braun
- Soriano & DLee to Philly for Ryan Howard & Ryan Madson
- Gregg, Harden & Fontenot to St Louis for Ryan Franklin, Ryan Ludwick & Brendan Ryan
- Dome to Seattle for Ryan Rowland-Smith
- Zambrano to Washington for Ryan Zimmerman
- Soto to Pittsburgh for Ryan Doumit
- Marmol to Colorado for Ryan Spilborghs & Ryan Speier
- Hoffpauir to Cleveland for Ryan Garko
- Johnson to New York for Ryan Church
- Hill to Florida for Ryan Jorgenson
- Heilman & Patton to Detroit for Ryan Perry & Ryan Raburn

Ladies & Gentlemen – your 2009 All Ryan Chicago Cubs:

Ryan Spilborghs – CF
Ryan Theriot – SS
Ryan Braun – LF
Ryan Howard – 1B
Ryan Ludwick – RF
Ryan Zimmerman – 3B
Ryan Doumit – C
Brendan Ryan – 2B

Rotation: Ryan Dempster, Ryan Madson, Ryan Rowland-Smith and Ted Lilly*
Bullpen: B.J. Ryan, Ryan Franklin, Ryan Perry, Ryan Speier
Bench: Ryan Freel, Ryan Church, Ryan Garko, Ryan Jorgenson, Ryan Raburn

* Hendry tried to trade Lilly but all the other teams knew they had nothing of equal value to offer.

Once Ricketts finally becomes owner, he gets into the action and trades Crane Kenney to the Rangers for Nolan Ryan.

At the end of the season, Lou will retire and be replaced with (who else), Ryne Sandberg.

ballhawk - May 8, 2009 reply

Jack Ryan sees what you did there....

Yay! A fellow Clancy fan!

would it be easier

to just have the current Cubs legally change their names to Ryan across the board

Ryan Piniella
Ryan Bradley
Ryan Lee
Ryan Hoffpauir
Ryan Miles

and so on

Nolan Ryan for Pitching Coach?

Hell...

I’d take him as our closer…even at his age.

Hard to argue with that

chitownhawkeye - May 8, 2009 reply

Hope to see some of you up in Winnetka tomorrow...

Now, if only the Web page Al links to would spell my name right…geeze…IGNARSKI…It’s not all that hard. All my life, I have had to deal with people spelling my first name with a “C” instead of a “K”, but I have never had trouble with people spelling Ignarski wrong until this book.

Kasey

kaseyi - May 8, 2009 reply

I can relate.

I’ve spent my whole life with peole putting an H on Sara.

i finally gave up

everyone’s tried to add an e to my name my whole life… so i just decided to do it myself (well that and the fact someone already had Alli without an e. :-P)

At least they got it right on the book itself, right?

I know what you mean

My last name is German, and it’s been mispronounced and misspelled for as long as I can remember.

German ancestry, that is.

really?

“German” seems pretty easy to pronounce and spell.

You are such a smartass.

there is a solution for that....

but it’s nsfmb’s

It's not "German"

It begins with a “K”, and I almost never hear it pronounced correctly on the first try.

He knows that. Don't humor him.

aw.

I want ice-cream!

You'll get nothing and like it!

If you don't eat your meat, you won't get any pudding...

ballhawk - May 8, 2009 reply

Brewers announcers aren't bad

You don’t like Brian Anderson and Schroeder? I’ve never had a problem with them. They aren’t these obnoxious fanboy types that spew venom at the opposing team at every opportunity (ala thom brenneman (sp)). Are they my favorite? No, but they seem fine!

I love listening to Bob Uecker on the radio.

Classic

Uecker is great. Funny dude. But I was responding to what I believe was Al saying the Brewers TV guys are bad.

I don't care for the Brewers TV guys.

Uecker, though, is terrific.

Anything in particular?

Or just find them kinda “meh”? … if that’s the case, I can see that.

Just kinda "meh".

the one good thing is....

they’re not morgan & company

Awww, isn't that always how it goes?!

I manage to come up with a manageable nickname for a useless player, and what does Jim Hendry do? Trade the guy away in order to make the team better.

Damn you Jim!!

Why didn't you ever make a nickname up for Nefi? Thanks a lot!

Before my time here

what about one for Cotts?

hrmm...

How about CottonGin?

My last favorite pitcher....

maybe the nickname can speed along the process.

(I’m giving Fox benefit of doubt after only an inning… he could easily become least fav pitcher)

Yeah, CottonGin

because Reaching in there is a mistake

bubbamike the one and only - May 8, 2009 reply

Aplets and Cottless

It’s a NW joke

GO CUBS GO!!!

KC in OK - May 8, 2009 reply

It's a little early to sing that...

but I like your enthusiasm.

but....

how do you feel about Theriot?

channeling Mike Meyers

Theriot A-go-go baby, yeah!

I don't want to talk about it.

Love these Brewers/Cubs Games

These series are my favorite ones…here’s hoping the Crew is stymied by the new guy! Anyone know anything about Wells’ pitches? Sinkerballer, junkballer, etc? I don’t remember anything about him except that he seemed pretty good at throwing strikes in his brief stint.

There is a fan shot about him.

Gives fair amount of details.

Found it, Thanks

Looks like 4-seamer, sinker, change, slider…topping out at around 90 mph. So he’ll be the type that needs excellent command to get through the innings unscathed.

Here’s to a quality start! A win in front of facing Gallardo would be nice.

kind of sad when things don't work out

And don’t get me wrong I totally agree with this move. Gath didn’t belong on this Cubs club.

But I’m a big proponent of managers using the players that gives them the best chance to succeed. Gathright never had a chance on this club.

But it also has to work both ways, if Lou has to use his bench wisely to get the most of the team as a whole. Then also a player like Gath, who has some mlb time under his belt, has to sign with a team that will at least give him a chance to play.

If your going to feel bad for someone

how about Scales. At least Gath got to play a couple games (and showed why he doesn’t belong on a major league roster)

yeah scales...great story with maybe a bad ending too

The Natural had a sad ending too.

yabbut he got to make more movies after that

not the movie...the book. The movie had a happy ending.

doh!

which is one reason

I really don’t like the movie.

I liked the movie

much better than the book.

katie casey - May 8, 2009 reply

Maybe it's the fact that it's a manufactured rivalry.

Maybe it’s because it was forced on us by Allan Selig.

Maybe it’s because of their ugly-ass uniforms and the stupid mascot who slides down that ridiculous kiddie slide.

But I’ve really developed quite a hatred for the Brewers—visceral, seething, irrational hatred.

Goodie1969 - May 8, 2009 reply

Living in Wisconsin

I’ve always been kinda mey on the Brewers.

But for me hatred has to be built over years. Such as Cards and Mets. Or in football the Vikings.

I grew up in Iowa without a pro sports team

so I cheered for the Cubs (for the obvious connection) and also the Cardinals. I still don’t hate the Cards, mostly because they’re usually pretty good. But something about the Brewers…I don’t know. They’re like that kid on the playground who hits a lucky jumpshot in your face and then lets you hear about it every trip down the court, ad nauseum, until you just want to punch him in the neck.

Goodie1969 - May 8, 2009 reply

Ha!

That’s some pretty sweet angst you’ve got going there!

see thats how I feel about Mets fans

That's how I feel about my ex-wife.

LOL

HAHAHAHAHA

LOL!!

For me, it's the Cardinals.

It may have something to do with a game (at Wrigley) which I went to in July 2006. After the game was over (Cubs actually won), Cardinals fans threw chewing gum at me.

Cardinals/Astros for me

I root for the Brewers when they aren’t playing the Cubs. I hope they get to face off in the playoffs one of these years. They did it wrong last year!