Cubby-Blue

Hat Head

So, repeat after me…”It’s EARLY.”
Not so good the last couple days.
The day of the opener I got up and my daughter Emily suggested we walk the dogs.
We opened the front door and…snow.
Of course!
It’s the opener!
Met Sutter (Instead of saying who everybody is in here, I’m going to make a “cast” list on the right sometime soon. “Sutter” is Bob Sutter, the guy who had the good sense to suggest getting season tix in ’04) at the corner of Clark and Addison, then went into Sluggers cause every other place had lines out the door. There was Ronny Woo dancing with a tall blonde woman. Don Berardini (so it’s me, Sutter and Don with the seats) walked in and introduced us to the owner.
Guy knows everybody.
We walked into the park, it was actually not bad for an opener – no real wind, temp not bad.
Game not so good.
But when Soriano tied the game by scoring from second on a grounder…man.
That guy’s gonna make other teams crazy the way he runs the bases.
Plus, always happy to see Biggio make an error.
As for young Matt Murton, he didn’t start, but when the teams were all lined up down the first and third base lines for their introductions, I don’t know why but I thought about the hair.
I didn't see it, but I imagine the cameras were doing the pans across the faces, right?
Hat head.
On national tv.

Carlos strikes out Geoff Jenkins

I know.
It's early.
But you can't help feeling pretty good about this team.
Except for Carlos' opener, the entire rotation had very strong starts.
And the hitting.
That first inning Friday vs. the Brewers?
Sure, Bill Hall and the Brewer's boob-ish play helped, but the Cubs were smackin' the ball.
One more victory for the sweep today and the Big Swede (college room-mate, Brewer fan) owes me money.

Whispers Follow Sammy

I wish he wouldn't have come back, but I don't suppose you can have an ego like that and not.
There was a time when Sammy was just...the best.
But now...
One time I walked into a bar with a bunch of people, and there was this semi-loud folk singer guy who'd just started to sing "Let it be".
And I thought about it, and made us all leave.
Becuase I knew it would end badly (with some god awful "Naaah naaaah naaaah nanananaaaaaaa"s).
I have the same feeling here, and I'd rather not watch.

But it was awesome seeing Ted Lilly last night.
He just took that game over.
Plus there's someting cool about the way he moves around with all that energy.
And how about Lou's march to the mound to "speak" to Dempster?
Got my attention.
Dempster's too.
I didn't think to myself, "I wonder what they're talking about out there."
Sort of got the gist of the conversation immediately.
It worked.
Victory.

4am catfight on my chest

I’m not making this up.
We have an old cat, Loathing (used to have Fear too, but she died).
Son Wyatt just got a new cat, Roo.
Old cat hates new cat.
Old cat has been sleeping on our bed since 1994.
New cat has been sleeping with Wyatt since we got her.
Wyatt has sleep-over, new cat has nowhere to sleep.
So about 4 a.m., new cat jumps on our bed.
Old cat angry.
I wake up with a spitting, hissing catfight on my chest.
Little paws with claws are literally dancing on my chest.
You don’t wake up from a dead sleep with a catfight on your chest and merely think, “Hey, what the hell?”
You wake up and scream like a little girl, which is what I did.
Heroic wife Kim broke it up.

I look for signs all the time.
Say I drop the coffee spoon, bend down to pick it up, stand up and dent my head on the open cabinet door (I've done this many times)…doesn’t bode well for any meeting I may have later.
So this was a bad sign.
In the office, I turned on Emily's radio at 1:05, just in time to hear the National Anthem.
Soriano with the tap out to the pitcher, a Murton strike out, Lee thrown out trying to steal.
Zambrano walks the first Red on 4 pitches.
Then Adam Dunn hits one out.
Meeting.
Meeting.
Then Pat Hughes: "Adam Dunn with a monstrous home run to right center and the Reds lead three to nothing."
Meeting.
Meeting.
Meeting.
I find out Cubs lose 1-5.
I see Lou on tv, he's not happy - Zambrano was wild.
Oh well, we won the last 4 openers and that didn't help.
But I'm sooooo glad the season's finally here.
And soooo gonna keep the door closed tonight.

2007 Cubs head to Cincinnati

Man, I've been waiting so long for this.
Last season combined with this winter seems like years, plus the anticipation of this expensive new team.
I drew a bus here, but with the cash the Cubs spent it should have been a really long Caddy Stretch.
Never in my entire Cub Fan life have I felt like such a first-class citizen.
And it's about time.
I glanced at the sports, and it looks like there are lots of big names starting off the year on the DL.
My biggest hope for the whole season is that the injury playing field level out.
Just when I thought we'd get out of Spring Training with nothing more than the Kerry Wood shoulder thing, last Wednesday my son Wyatt took a tumble down the basement steps.
A late night trip to Children's Memorial (that place is AWESOME for, you know, bad stuff), and we came home with a fractured wrist.
So, not so good.
One Cub Fan on the DL already - how you gonna carry your hot dog and Sierra Mist?
Yesterday was his birthday, though, which made up for it a little.