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Return Of The Prodigals: Cubs vs. Indians Preview, Friday 6/19, 1:20 CT

This weekend, a former Cub will step onto the field at Wrigley Field, have his name announced, and despite performing well in his time in blue pinstripes, will be completely ignored.

That's right, many people in the crowd assembled at Wrigley today might not even realize that Luis Vizcaino made four appearances in a Cub uniform this past April without allowing a run, before being released and picked up by the Tribe, where he has issued 11 walks in 11 innings of work. Let's hope he keeps up that style of performance if he appears in a game this weekend.

As far as the "other" ex-Cubs on the Cleveland roster, I presume they will get warm and loud ovations on first appearance. Think back to last year when Jim Edmonds made his first appearance in St. Louis as a Cub -- and consider that Cardinal fans were cheering for a player wearing the uniform of their most hated rival. Edmonds received a standing ovation, then it was back to business. I would expect nothing less for Mark DeRosa. He should be cheered when announced, as an acknowledgement of the contributions he made to the Cubs while he was here -- and then I hope he goes 0-for-12 this weekend. He can resume hitting Tuesday when the Indians face the Pirates.

And if Kerry Wood gets into a game this weekend, I hope it will be for the purpose of giving him work because the Indians don't have any situations for him to close.

Now, about acquiring players to help the Cubs' floundering offense, Gordon Wittenmyer says Jim Hendry's still working his cellphone on high speed:

Either way, general manager Jim Hendry is working the prospective trade markets as hard as he does every year and is said to be itching to pull off a deal to help the team, given the opportunity.

Meantime, he says he's not even certain what he'll need come July, depending on how well and quickly third baseman Aramis Ramirez comes back from his shoulder injury and whether Thursday's late offensive fireworks are a sign of good things to come.

"For me to say either way in the middle of June makes no sense," Hendry said. "We could be in the market for a player we never even dreamed of a month from now if somebody else got hurt or somebody really went into a tailspin. You just kind of stay on top of it every day and react to what you may need or may help.

"Some of the deals we've made were not on the radar screen a week before we made them."

I assume that last sentence refers, in part, to the Rich Harden deal made last July -- that one seemed to come out of nowhere. And maybe he doesn't have to go any farther this weekend than the visiting clubhouse to make a deal. Just sayin'.

Oh, and for a change, there's a forecast of rain this afternoon, and there could be severe storms.

Today's Starting Pitchers
Rich Harden
Rich Harden
Cubs
vs. Cliff Lee
Cliff Lee
Indians
4-3 W-L 4-6
4.53 ERA 2.88
62 SO 69
23 BB 20
9 HR 5
vs. Cle -- vs. Cubs

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2009 - Rich Harden 4-3 10 9 0 0 0 0 49.2 44 26 25 9 23 62 4.53 1.35


W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2009 - Cliff Lee 4-6 14 14 1 1 0 0 97.0 109 31 31 5 20 69 2.88 1.33

Cliff Lee faced the Cubs the last time these teams met in interleague play, in Cleveland on June 20, 2006. (Boxscore provided for amusement purposes. Check out the Cub lineup.) Against current Cubs he has done pretty well; he has allowed homers to Milton Bradley and Alfonso Soriano but otherwise handled those players. He's coming off a near no-hitter against the Cardinals in his last start last Sunday, but often pitchers who are doing that, or coming off no-hitters, don't do well in their next outing. Just ask Carlos Zambrano about that.

Rich Harden posted a 1-0, 3.27 record in five appearances (four starts) vs. the Indians during his time in the American League. The last time he faced them was June 25, 2007, and a lot of those players are either gone from the Tribe or won't play today. Only Travis Hafner has had success vs. Harden among active members of the Indians, and that's a small-sample-size 2-for-4 (a double, a HR, 5 RBI and 4 walks), and Hafner, who hasn't played the field in two years, likely will only pinch-hit in this series.

Today's game is on cable only -- CSN Chicago and STO (Sports Time Ohio). One thing I don't like about STO is that they don't keep the scorebox up all the time. Both feeds should be available on EI today. For other games today see the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Overflow comment threads will post today at 2:15 pm, 3:15 pm and 4 pm CDT.

Please visit our SBN Indians site at Let's Go Tribe.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

0 recs  |  250 comments

Comments

There ARE severe storms indeed

It’s really bad downtown. There’s some flooding on the corner of Orleans and Huron. The firemen are on the scene. My satellite uplink for work is down. However, the radar shows this’ll pass and the next round is moving north of the city.

It's still raining really, really hard on the north side.

The radar I see shows moderate to heavy rain all the way back to west of Rockford — probably at least three more hours of this.

The Weather Channel

Seems to thing that the storms will be tapering off right around game time, and a new bunch will show up around 5. Hope they’re right.

Radars show...

… clearing behind the line at Rockford. Might clear out by early afternoon and give them a window to play.

We don't KNOW that Vizcaino will be announced today

But after the way he pitched on Monday, I hope he is.

I did say "this weekend"
-1 to me

I still hope they knock Cliff Lee out early

On that, we agree 100%
Can I get a "HAIL Yeah" for the Cubs today?

Yep, getting some pebble-sized hail up here near Wrigley…

The Hail up by my place was golf ball size
If we play, then we play

If its rained out, there is a good shot at getting another Aramis game. WIn,win

Unless we lose today.

As I posted in the other thread about this...

… if today’s game is rained out, I think we’re looking at a doubleheader tomorrow. The Cubs and Indians have ONE common off day — September 10.

Playing on 9/10 would require the Cubs to play 34 days in a row, since they are already giving up their 9/3 off day to play Tuesday’s rainout. There’s no way anyone would approve playing that many days in a row.

They’ll try to get this one in, but it looks like we have at least 3 hours more of heavy rain coming through.

If we're rained out AGAIN....

we may need to just do another Cleveland Spiders game. I can’t take another crappy day with no game.

Go right ahead!

Have fun with it.

A double header could be fun

Seems like the Cubs have been very against that this season with rainouts, though that could just be in my own head.

Day night doubleheader Al, or a REAL doubleheader?
A real DH.

There’s no way they could schedule a day-night DH on this short notice.

Hmm. Miht be worth driving in from Michigan for and seeing if we could pick up tickets!
Miht=Might
I miss those

I understand all the reasons against them, but as a fan, every once in a while, it’s fun.

So do they stop beer sales after the 7th inning of Game 1

And resume them again after the first game concludes?

hendry

“we would have traded for dero after the series for wells and miles. woulda gotten some nice prospects in return. if only it hadn’t rained and we lost the gate for friday’s game.”

Sweet

I’m going to the game tomorrow.

Let’s play 2!

As much as I'd like to have a game today

With tickets for tomorrow, I won’t be too disappointed in a DH tomorrow.

+1

What a lucky break if true considering I only go to 5 games a year.

im going to the game tomorrow so would i get to see todays game if it is a dh?
Our family came to a game last year and it POURED about three hours before gametime...

The dugout flooded and we thought there was NO WAY the game would ever be played. We were staying at the Majestic Hotel (about a half mile east of the ballpark) and the hotel owner and I were standing under the front awning watching the deluge. As we saw water pour down the street, a rat ran out of the lower level of the hotel and scurried away to dry land. Foreboding?

Despite all that, the game was played that night…

Let's start some rotation speculation

It’s boring we have to do something. If the rain forces a DH tomorrow the Cubs need a 6th starter, they can obviously give Marshall the start but that makes him unavalailable out of the BP for 8 days or more ( had to rest before and after) or you can bring up Shark, Atkins etc for the start which probablky means sending Waddell down for 10 days. Not sure what I prefer.

Has Shark developed another pitch?

I didn’t think he was ready for anything but pullpen use at this point.

I know you meant bullpen

but with only one and a half pitches he could be a grenade. :-)

Heh

Yep, can’t type

Since Waddell is on the DL

you’ll have to pick someone else to send down. I would say just cut Miles, that’ll open a roster spot.

OOPs Guess they better use Marshall

Need position players but then no lefty in BP. Would hate to send Ascanio down.

Well, cutting Miles should happen whether or not the Cubs call anyone up...
Quick Question

Al – this is a great blog. I read a lot of the sportsnation blogs and this is one of the best. Congrats.

I have a question for you Cubs fans – is there anyway to find out if the wind is blowing out or in today?

See the attached weather link

Don’t believe it’s accurate right now, but a prediction for gametime.

Weather Nerd Link

www.weather.com works, too
That's what it be Mr. Badger.
Whoops!
so if the wind is blowing out to right would that lead you to believe that there will be more homeruns

or is it a higher scoring game if the wind is blowing out to left?

It really depends on the lineup

Usually, there are more RH’s in lineups, so LF would tend to make sense. But guys can hit them to RF, like Lee did yesterday.

I like

Wunderground.com better.

I like this

Cub World Camera

That tells you the wind?
I guess a camera would if it showed the flags.
Looks better than it did about an hour ago...

Less green skies and more gray…

http://www.cubworld.com/category/a_cubworld_cam/

Looking at the radar and the movement in the last 2 hours

I think there’s a decent chance they start by 2, if not actually on time.

I'm actually on site...

There’s thunderstorms rolling past, but it’s much better than 30 minutes ago.

Anyone else besides me NOT want DeRosa back?
I don't have to have DeRosa, but

want a quality player to play third and back up corner outfield spots and first.

calling Not Bruce Fremming.....
I will ask. Why NOT DeRosa?
I'd rather

the Cubs get Freddy Sanchez or Aubrey Huff, if they’re going to get anybody.

Understood, but I'd rather is not NOT

wanting him back, but preferring someone else.

I just think that he's extremely overrated by many here.

Yes, he’s having another above average season. Not great, but above average. But lets remember one thing: in this lineup, he would probably have about half the run production totals he currently does in Cleveland. And also, remember that we got three young, good pitching prospects in the trade. We didn’t simply throw him away for nothing. Yes, he would be helpful right now with the loss of Ramirez. But you’re telling me there’s nobody else that wouldn’t be just as helpful, probably better defensively, and wouldn’t be a guy we just traded away? Not to mention the fact that we would probably have to give up more than they did for him.

You say...

“You’re telling me there’s nobody else that wouldn’t be just as helpful, probably better defensively”

So who? Who else can we get that doesn’t have a bloated contract, is on the market, and could be had without sacrificing our already depleted farm or current roster?

Forget that he ever played for the Cubs, what he has to offer now is exactly what we need.

"Half the run production totals"?

On what do you base that statement?

His math may be off, but the lack of baserunners in front would

reduce the RBI count by mucho.

He'd be second on the team in HR.
True, just more would be solos.
Well, RBI's are pretty easy to base that on.

look at the rest of this offense, and it’s easy to see the DeRosa wouldn’t be anywhere near his RBI totals. Half was probably an overstatement, I concede.

It's futile, ARob1

I’ve never seen anything like this in the 40 years I’ve been a Cubs fan. And totally out of proportion to boot.

I liked DeRosa, too, and thought he played well here. But enough is enough.

The only one blowing it out of proportion is you.
Oh, come off it, Al

You’re one of the ones stoking the fire almost nonstop on this site. It’s your site, you can do what you want. But I think if you go back and look, I haven’t started ONE DeRosa thread, or fanpost, or conversation. Not a one.

Quit being so disingenuous. If DeRo were getting a parade today, you’d be the grand marshal.

You don't start it, but you blow it out of proportion

You react like someone is saying Voldemort every time the name is mentioned.

It's like the U.S. blasting heavy metal

at Noriega until he finally cracked. You can only take so much.

I can never get enough metal!
Forget DeRo

I miss ’80s hair bands.

I'll take some 80s Metalica or Megadeath anyday
Solid stuff

Was just listening to “Cryptic Writings” by Metallica the other day (I know it’s not from the ’80s, but …). Good stuff.

Dero sells, but whos buying?
Now this

almost made me fall out of my chair with laughter. Well played.

Maybe we can kick Miles out

with an early wakeup call and a bus ticket.

I assume you meant

megadeth?

Yes, Megadeth

Thanks for the correction. Dave Mustaine might strangle me if he ever found out. :)

Yeah, because no reasonable person could be expected to

- read through a comment and reply based on it’s content
- ignore ones they don’t like
- turn the computer off

Well, you can say that

about at least half the people on BCB.

While I don't disagree

That’s analogous to, “Billy gets to go”, or, “She started it”

Oh, I'm not saying it's ideal

But such a[[ears tp be the law of the jungle on the Interwebs, I’m afraid.

That's "appears"

my touch-typing isn’t all that good anymore.

Truth be told, I think the sentiment does get over the top about a lot of Cubs

But I don’t think it’s as bad here as you make it out to be.

Anyway, he’s gone and I don’t think he’s coming back — but they could use someone with versatility, and Miles isn’t the guy.

EXELLLIARMUS!

The problem is, that since DeRosa was traded earlier this year, people view other people wanting him back as emotional, rather than logical.

Personally, he was one of my favorite Cubs. I’d be happy to see him back. I’d be happy to see someone else with his production back.

I don’t know who that person is, other than him.

But I don’t see it actually happening…

Don't forget, Drew,

the cemeteries are full of people who can’t be replaced.

huh?

what does THAT have to do with anything? Look, I tend to agree with your base argument — that DeRosa isn’t coming back — but really, this is becoming your windmill.

If DeRosa could be gotten without giving up too much, that would be fine. Doesn’t matter if he’d played for the Cubs last year or not, just like it didn’t matter that Edmonds had played for the Cardinals. All that matters is his production, and if he can maintain it.

It means there are

other fish in the sea. It’s not DeRo or nothing.

No one's saying that....

… not even me. I was the first to say, get Freddy Sanchez. Aubrey Huff is an interesting option.

But IN MY OPINION, DeRosa is the best fit.

that's fine.

If there’s someone better, then get him. I’m not entirely sure there’s someone better.

The only difference between this and the Brian Roberts / Jake Peavy stuff

…is that you’re the one who’s constantly bringing it up Al.

You posted countless times annoyed that people kept mentioning those names. Now you’re getting mad when people are doing the same to you.

The biggest difference between those situations and now, ironically, is that the Cubs were actually actively trying to bring those players to Chicago.

Exactly correct

I posted the same sentiment earlier in the thread.

More than once, Al has tried to bait me into a DeRo argument. Of course, I took it hook, line and sinker (idiot that I am).

If he’s trying to generate interest and posts, more power to him. But at least be honest about it.

His contract is up, he's getting old,

and he was liked and liked playing here. All add up to a possible guy to add to this roster.

That's the thing, I liked him too.

I was pleasantly surprised by his high level of play while he was here. I just wish all these BCBers would get over it.

Watch out

Half the population of this site will be down your throat in an instant if you keep preaching that heresy.

People have given their reasons for why...

They DO want him back. Why don’t you want him back? Do you feel we are fine with Fontenot at 3rd and Miles/Blanco at 2nd?

Drom Carrie Muskat

Jake Fox is in the starting lineup at third base for the Cubs. It’ll be LF Soriano, SS Theriot, RF Bradley, 1B Lee, C Soto, 3B Fox, CF Johnson, 2B Blanco and P Harden.

“The young man swings the bat and we have to find a place for him,” Lou Piniella said of Fox, who has made one start this season and that was in right field.

And Mark DeRosa is in the Indians lineup, batting second and starting in left field.

— Carrie Muskat

That's a little harsh; I mean she's not a good writer, but droming her?

;-)

you want dromed too?
Perhaps she stores water in her hump?

and Blanco at second! Well, that means the right side of the infield is well protected…

Yep.

And both the front and back of the infield should be soft. No trampolines today!

Starting to see a line of blue sky over Woodstock

that seems to be headed in the right direction for a game.

What time does Hendrix play the anthem?
Woodstock, IL

We are the home of the movie Groundhog Day.

I know, but the combination of a storm passing and the sun starting to

peek through in Woodstock made me smile.

just figured I should explain

for those who don’t live in the Chgo area

Good news!

And radars show rain should be out of here in about an hour. They may be able to start by 2 or so.

Will the stadium still be at 1060 W.

or will it have drifted in the flooding.

I'll give you a report from the deck of the ark.
That's a big ark... holds about 41,000
Well, it's only 20,500 pairs, two-by-two...
does it have

green alligators and long-necked geese, some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees?

Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you're born...
you're not going to see a unicorn
Hopefully later today in the game threads...
And that's why you won't see Matt Murton in LF

to this very day….

Have fun in the LF Bleachers

Cleveland’s Lineup:
1. Carroll, 2B
2. DeRosa, LF
3. Martinez, 1B
4. Choo, RF
5. Peralta, 3B
6. Shoppach, C
7. Valbuena, SS
8. Francisco, CF
9. Lee, P

VMart is playing 1B?

Anybody with Indians knowledge can tell me why? Thank you.

Could be because Garko got hurt Wednesday night.
I believe he was playing 1B

before the Garko injury. I thought it was because of Shoppach “breakout” season last year, 21 HR.

Because of that, too.

I think it’s more about sharing time between Garko and Shoppach, truthfully. The Garko injury just happens to be incidental to this.

plus Martinez had an injury-filled year last season so less time behind the plate means less wear and tear
He's been playing 1B about half the time this year.
And regularly there since 2006.

He’s one of their franchise players, gotta preserve those knees.

Kelly Shoppach always catches Cliff Lee,

and Victor Martinez almost always plays 1B. (He occasionally DHs, but he obviously can’t do that today.)

34 games at 1b, 32 games at C, 2 at DH
I hope DeRosa makes a key error, and goes 0-4 with 4 K's.

And everyone here would probably try to claim he did it on purpose to help the Cubs. He’s just that mighty.

Wow, that was a well-reasoned, intelligent argument.

You’re going to make a lot of friends here.

Man Shanghai Badger.

And I so badly wanted to be your friend!

here we go ...
I'm not trying to troll or anything.

I made a somewhat snarky comment, I admit that. I just think the idea of making friends on a message board is stupid.

cool

After yesterday, I’m hoping things calm down around here. I for one have decided to hold my tongue a bit more often.

What happened yesterday? I wasn't in the gamethreads.
a lot of nastiness

before the Cubs rallied.

not surprising

glad i missed it.

I read through some of it

To put it into perspective, there was no Jump link posted in OT1, and there was even a reverse Jump link posted in OT2.

I’ve seen worse, though.

agreed

But it was bad enough.

a reverse Jump?

frakking hybrids…

nice!

Kara Thrace is the harbinger of death.

The reverse jump only happens when the machines become self-aware.

You’ve been warned.

You guys are all my best friends.
BFF...

or is it BFD? I can never get those two straight…

SWL & Ballhawk BFF

Pujols: Now, calm down, little buddy.
Miles: [shivers]

Aren't you glad you use Dial?

Don’t you wish everybody did?

Were you the one who's mom was assaulted by DrCrawdad's

WS ring?

I don't know...

she never made it back from his house last night.

I can't believe Al doesn't ban that guy for making comments like that.

Saying your mom was a hooker who he pimpslapped?

I made the hooker comment...he alluded that it was my mom...

we’re both old enough to know better. I’m over it.

2 weeks on the site

Already pondering who you think should be banned. LOL

After 2+ years I don’t state who I think should… maybe I should start.

I'm just surprised Al is against namecalling,

but ok with someone talking about using a world series ring to slap another man’s hooker mother.

Al, how's that IGNORE feature coming?
Progress is slow

They keep ignoring it

Are you calling SWL's mom a hooker?

Maybe you should be bannnnnnnnnt

/sarcasm

I think this user was banned and re-joined

Seems to know too much about oldtimers.

he's said

he was a two-year reader.

Could it be ARAM returned?

I wouldn't make that claim.

But I do hope he goes 0-for-12 in the series.

Well, at least we can agree on that.
OT: Question

Do they ever announce Wrigley as “sold out”

I heard some stat about Fenway selling out for the umpteenth time and it made me realize I never hear about Wrigley being sold out.
Does it not sell out (hard to believe) or do they just not track it?

Not sure.

For most games they have some single seats unsold.

I think Pat likes to say

“Capacity crowd here tonight, Ronnie!”

Ronnie: "Yeah".

Silence.

Haha...

Because it’s so true.

I still love him though...
heck

that’s WHY I love him. He’s not the best color man in the league for nothing, folks!

excited to see what J. Fox does today

Also, is anyone else hoping that the game gets delayed about four hours — so we can watch it after work?

No!

I want to listen to it on the train today.

ha -- fair enough
No

My husband is going. We are leaving for vacation when he gets home so I hope it is sooner rather than later.

did your other name get banned or something?
That's not the person you are thinking of.

kerrysotherwife is NOT “Kowlady”.

Oh, ok. Just a coincidence then I guess.
For just joining in June of this year

you seem to know a lot about some of the older users. Were you banned and re-incarnated as ARob1?

Or am I missing something?

I've been reading the site for a while, never joined.
that's the story you're sticking to, huh?
Well, you obviously have it all figured out, Sherlock, so why

don’t you tell me the rest of the story?

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.
Thanks for clarifying Al

Should I change my name? I wasn’t around for this KOW thing, but whoever it was doesn’t sound like they were very well liked. I hate to have people think that has something to do with me.

It might not hurt.

Email me if you want to discuss.

And with this

I’m off for the weekend. :-)

Train to South Bend, carpool to Indy, hanging out with my godparents for the next couple days.

Go Cubs!

Have a great trip!

Hope there are a few more wins waiting for you upon your return.

Have a good trip

My uncle was a train buff, and we’d sometimes take the South Shore Line to South Bend. It was pretty cool back in the day.

It's still a nice ride...

Unfortunately the line ends at the South Bend Airport, which is a pretty useless spot unless you have to catch a plane.

Really?

Didn’t it use to end in downtown SB? I seem to remember the train tracks going down the middle of the street. Or maybe that was in Michigan City.

From what I understand...

…it did used to end in downtown SB, but that was long before I was born. The tracks still run down the street in Michigan City, though.

He trained in the buff? Ouch!
Yeah, well,

my uncle was the odd duck of the family (hard to believe, considering I’m in the family, too).

Our building on Lake and Michigan

was instructed to stay away from the windows earlier this morning. Gusts of up to 70 MPH and softball size hail warnings…

I really want to watch a game!

Channel 7 reported that there was a microburst on the North Side this morning

I can just imagine…

Ron: “Pat, do those flags look like they’re blowing in or our to you?”
Pat: “Well Ronnie, I’d say they’re blowing… um… downwards.”

Zambrano sliding on infield tarp this morning

Anyone see that pic?

Don’t have a link, but go to the Trib website and click on the “Storm Pics”. First one is Z doing a belly flop on the tarp.

Thought Cubs mangement frowned on that sort of thing.

They should frown on it.

Knew a guy who was paralyzed while tarp sliding in college.

Really?

That is some bad luck.

Oh, that's real smart.
Especially since he's only paid to PITCH.
And HIT.
but not slide?

SLIDING IS FUNDAMENTAL BASEBALL!

Except for Ted Lilly.

Ted Lilly doesn't slide.

The earth moves beneath him.

Ted Lilly: I ain't got time to slide
It's a perfect day for this song:

Rush’s “Jacob’s Ladder.”

It's always a perfect day

for anything by the greatest power trio of all time.

Damnit, forgot to set my DVR.

Went home for lunch and completely forgot to.

Can you do it online?

Worse comes to worst, you can always watch the archived game at MLB.TV.

DirectTV allows you to set DVR online
Weather question...

I’m coming up for the Brewers series July 2-4… should I worry about the rain? It’s been so much this year. Although its currently 101 in Tallahassee so I would love to see rain.

On to today… is the tarp still on? I’ve been trying to find the webcam of Wrigley.

It's impossible to say this far out what the weather will be

But considering how spring/summer has been so far in Chicago, rain wouldn’t be out of the question.

Don't know if this has been discussed

but did anyone else notice Lee only saw four pitches in four ABs yesterday? That’s gotta be rather rare.

On the Cubs? not rare.

However, having a successful day in 4 pitches is very rare.

From the Trib's baseball blog

While no official announcements have been made, you can be assured the Cubs game against the Indians at Wrigley Field will not start on time.
Schedule start is 1:20 p.m. and it is still raining just before 1 p.m. A good gauge to determine start time is one half-hour after it stops raining. That’s the time grounds crews need to ready the field.

I’m sure you can find the link and understand that I have a moral problem with linking to them.

huh?

you’ll read it, you’ll copy it, you’ll post it but you won’t link to it?

Yeah

I get these things through the AP wire. Thusly, I seldom have to click on the Trib’s site. For the sake of credibility, here it is.

moral problem?
He most likely works for the sun times?
am i dreaming or is Jake Fox playing third base?
Al? AL??? Yoo Hoo!!!

Radio just said the game probably won't start till 2:30
I noticed that...

the Cubs MLB homepage had an article up talking about Lilly starting today, with the fancy title picture and all. They’ve since fixed it I guess.

It had me perplexed for a while and wondering if my Yahoo Fantasy page was lying to me…

(I realize that was a rivoting story. Sorry. I’m bored :))

I would say

“If a Ted Lilly picture pops up where it shouldn’t be you’ll receive good fortune” but, quite honestly, there’s no place where Ted Lilly’s picture shouldn’t be.

That's an excellent point.

:) I think I’ll go buy a lottery ticket.

Judd Sirott continues to annoy the crud out of me

What professional journalist begins every question of a player with “How much did X help you going forward?”, including (today), asking Milton Bradley how much he was helped going forward by having thrown the ball into the stands with only 2 outs?

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

OT - Any help appreciated

Just graduated from Navy Boot Camp today and need 4 tickets for the game tomorrow (6/20). Looking for best tickets available Please help! adamgoetz@gmail.com I am in Gurnee today and will be downtown tomorrow. Thanks everyone!

Posted at Ticket Exchange page as well.

Tarp is being pulled off the field...

Per Sirott.

Did Z get off it first?
I hope so.

I’d rather not see Z pull a Vince Coleman out there.

a Zurrito

get it?

You know what that means in Spanish?!

I spat my Coke reading it! Kudos!

please fill us in
A play on the word "zurrar"

which can mean to beat up, or, alternatively, to defecate in a violent, loud and obnoxious manner.

I believe this is specific to Mexico
Did everyone else see this?

Speaking of pulling tarp of the field, this is AWESOME!

http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2009/06/18/cincinnati-reds-ground-crew-worker-is-a-disturbingly-hazardous/

Our groundscrew can kick their groundcrew's ass!
I'm about a mile west of Wrigley

The rain has stopped and the sky is getting lighter

God loves day baseball at Wrigley.
Let's play two!
We sure got enough to make up...
Eh, maybe not today.

Once things clear up it’ll be sunny, 90-ish degrees with a dewpoint in the mid-to-high 70s. I’d rather not have any Cubs getting a heat stroke, thanks.

Tarps off. Squeegees at work...
Slightly early for the actual first pitch

But the FPT is up. Jump! (if you wanna)

Jake Fox starting at 3B... our management is killin me.

They call him up, Trammell works with him to play 3B, and all he isn’t ready, so they just give him pinch-hut duties. Then, they send him back down to AAA, and instead of playing 3B, he plays 1B and DH for 4 games. Now, they bring him back up, and he’s starting at 3B today.

Is it possible to jerk this guy around anymore than what they’re doing?

Technically yes, but is see what your getting at.

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