Thursday, May 20, 2004
A Baseball Diary:
While a majority of people my age were waking up for Sunday morning church, (Oh who am I kidding most of them were sound asleep, recovering from alcohol-soaked escapades the night before), I was waking up for church for the sports fan -the sacred Cubs-Cards matchup.
You see, if you’re a big baseball fan and if you’re from Illinois or Missouri, Cubs-Cards is the Super Bowl, Tour De France, Wimbledon, Kentucky Derby, and uh..the X-Games all wrapped into two or three weekends.
For me, it probably means even more because I was born and raised in central Illinois but have lived in Missouri the last seven years. For a Cubs fan, this is sort of like Dick Chaney moving to Iraq.
Raising the stakes was the fact that Greg Maddux was going to pitch Monday afternoon for the Cubs. The same Maddux who was my favorite pitcher, the same one that had just returned to the Cubs after over a decade with the Braves. The same Maddux who had been on my fantasy team for the past two years. The same Maddux I had never seen in person.
Sergio Mitre had been scheduled to pitch, but on Saturday, Dusty Baker changed his mind and decided to bring all the big guns for the Cubs-Cards matchup. So Maddux it was.
Yeah, that was the last straw then..I was going to the games no matter what. But it wasn’t easy. Up until late the night before I was undecided on going because of a bad cold that I had caught on Wednesday, and had left me bedridden for most of the weekend.
But in my mind, I figured Busch Stadium would be like my Ganges River and my pilgramage to the banks of the Mississippi would heal my physical woes.
It was possible. But mental and emotional ailments? Less likely.
The Cubs have always found a way to let its fans down. I don’t have to repeat their long, sad history. Heck, even in my lifetime I can remember the disappointments: Tony Gwynn and the Padres in ‘84, the disappearance of Dwight Smith, dishing Maddux after his Cy Young year, Brant Brown’s idiocy in ‘98, and of course, Bartman last year.
I also had seen nine Cubs games in person, five of them in Wrigley. In those games, the Cubs had been 0-9.
I was there in Wrigley in ‘98 down one run to the Brewers in the bottom of the ninth with two men on and Mickey Morandini up, and saw him hit into a game ending lineout.
I’d seen them get pounded on by the Cardinals several times
I saw phenom Mark Prior last year get hammered by Austin Kearns, Wily Mo Pena and the crappy Reds.
But I hadn’t seen them win.
The script then almost seen pre-written on Sunday when I watched the Cubs lose yet again in the most agonizing way possible.
There I was standing up, leaning against a cold railing behind the lower section of seats (we had standing room tickets), coughing and sneezing in the cold Mississippi River breeze in a short-sleeved shirt, while watching Morris and Zambrano duel to a 0-0 tie after 9 innings.
Then in the bottom of the 10th, Kyle Farnsworth starts walking and walking Cards batters. Bases loaded, 1 out and Scott Rolen up. Farnsworth throws 2 balls, and then a strike down the middle that Rolen knocks to the wall.
Game over.
I’m 0-10 now in watching the Cubs. I’m going to cry or throw up.
But the next morning, as we woke up the next day..I felt a slight glimmer of, yes there it was, hope.
If there was going to be one person to help me bust out of my personal Cubs curse, it was Greg Maddux.
So sitting in that seat in upper terrace of the stadium for the noon start, surrounded by Cardinals fans, I felt nervous mixed with a strange sense of calm.
Nervous mostly when Pujols was 12 feet from having 3 homers. Nervous when Maddux hit Ray Lankford in the leg on an 0-2 count. Nervous when he misplayed a fielder’s choice and missed getting an out.
But then he was striking out Edmonds and Reggie Sanders, he pitched out of some jams, he scrapped out an infield hit and STOLE SECOND BASE. Yes stole second. It was crazy.
He left the game in the 7th with a 3-2 lead and 85 mostly quality pitches. I was worried about the one run lead, and so was jumped out of seat and cheered when Derrek Lee hit a huge 2 run homer to deep center, and Sosa blasted another to left.
With a 7-3 lead coming into the bottom of the ninth, I still didn’t feel completely secure. But journeyman Joe Borowski got the last three outs to end the game.
Victory.
Like I said, it meant a lot to me:
-I’d been 0-10 in watching the Cubs
-First time I saw Maddux pitch and he won
-Maddux got 29 points for my fantasy team
-I hadn’t gotten a win from a starting pitcher in almost 2 weeks for my team
-I got to taunt all those punk Cardinals fans with me
I t seems almost destiny now that I will win fantasy baseball this year and the Cubs will win the world series. Suddenly, the coughing and sneezing is going away.
While a majority of people my age were waking up for Sunday morning church, (Oh who am I kidding most of them were sound asleep, recovering from alcohol-soaked escapades the night before), I was waking up for church for the sports fan -the sacred Cubs-Cards matchup.
You see, if you’re a big baseball fan and if you’re from Illinois or Missouri, Cubs-Cards is the Super Bowl, Tour De France, Wimbledon, Kentucky Derby, and uh..the X-Games all wrapped into two or three weekends.
For me, it probably means even more because I was born and raised in central Illinois but have lived in Missouri the last seven years. For a Cubs fan, this is sort of like Dick Chaney moving to Iraq.
Raising the stakes was the fact that Greg Maddux was going to pitch Monday afternoon for the Cubs. The same Maddux who was my favorite pitcher, the same one that had just returned to the Cubs after over a decade with the Braves. The same Maddux who had been on my fantasy team for the past two years. The same Maddux I had never seen in person.
Sergio Mitre had been scheduled to pitch, but on Saturday, Dusty Baker changed his mind and decided to bring all the big guns for the Cubs-Cards matchup. So Maddux it was.
Yeah, that was the last straw then..I was going to the games no matter what. But it wasn’t easy. Up until late the night before I was undecided on going because of a bad cold that I had caught on Wednesday, and had left me bedridden for most of the weekend.
But in my mind, I figured Busch Stadium would be like my Ganges River and my pilgramage to the banks of the Mississippi would heal my physical woes.
It was possible. But mental and emotional ailments? Less likely.
The Cubs have always found a way to let its fans down. I don’t have to repeat their long, sad history. Heck, even in my lifetime I can remember the disappointments: Tony Gwynn and the Padres in ‘84, the disappearance of Dwight Smith, dishing Maddux after his Cy Young year, Brant Brown’s idiocy in ‘98, and of course, Bartman last year.
I also had seen nine Cubs games in person, five of them in Wrigley. In those games, the Cubs had been 0-9.
I was there in Wrigley in ‘98 down one run to the Brewers in the bottom of the ninth with two men on and Mickey Morandini up, and saw him hit into a game ending lineout.
I’d seen them get pounded on by the Cardinals several times
I saw phenom Mark Prior last year get hammered by Austin Kearns, Wily Mo Pena and the crappy Reds.
But I hadn’t seen them win.
The script then almost seen pre-written on Sunday when I watched the Cubs lose yet again in the most agonizing way possible.
There I was standing up, leaning against a cold railing behind the lower section of seats (we had standing room tickets), coughing and sneezing in the cold Mississippi River breeze in a short-sleeved shirt, while watching Morris and Zambrano duel to a 0-0 tie after 9 innings.
Then in the bottom of the 10th, Kyle Farnsworth starts walking and walking Cards batters. Bases loaded, 1 out and Scott Rolen up. Farnsworth throws 2 balls, and then a strike down the middle that Rolen knocks to the wall.
Game over.
I’m 0-10 now in watching the Cubs. I’m going to cry or throw up.
But the next morning, as we woke up the next day..I felt a slight glimmer of, yes there it was, hope.
If there was going to be one person to help me bust out of my personal Cubs curse, it was Greg Maddux.
So sitting in that seat in upper terrace of the stadium for the noon start, surrounded by Cardinals fans, I felt nervous mixed with a strange sense of calm.
Nervous mostly when Pujols was 12 feet from having 3 homers. Nervous when Maddux hit Ray Lankford in the leg on an 0-2 count. Nervous when he misplayed a fielder’s choice and missed getting an out.
But then he was striking out Edmonds and Reggie Sanders, he pitched out of some jams, he scrapped out an infield hit and STOLE SECOND BASE. Yes stole second. It was crazy.
He left the game in the 7th with a 3-2 lead and 85 mostly quality pitches. I was worried about the one run lead, and so was jumped out of seat and cheered when Derrek Lee hit a huge 2 run homer to deep center, and Sosa blasted another to left.
With a 7-3 lead coming into the bottom of the ninth, I still didn’t feel completely secure. But journeyman Joe Borowski got the last three outs to end the game.
Victory.
Like I said, it meant a lot to me:
-I’d been 0-10 in watching the Cubs
-First time I saw Maddux pitch and he won
-Maddux got 29 points for my fantasy team
-I hadn’t gotten a win from a starting pitcher in almost 2 weeks for my team
-I got to taunt all those punk Cardinals fans with me
I t seems almost destiny now that I will win fantasy baseball this year and the Cubs will win the world series. Suddenly, the coughing and sneezing is going away.
