Cubby-Blue

Kevin Gregg in the headline is never good. Cubs 1 Padres 4.

I work.

I gotta get up in the morning.

I can't be staying up all night to watch a game on a school night.

I wanted to see Ted Lilly come back - I figured by the time he's done in ohhh, the 5th or 6th this thing'll be alll done.

The Padres suck, right?

Terrible Ted looks pretty much like himself, which is awesome.

But the Cub bats are doing their normal nothing (Mike Fontenot left seven guys on base all by himself).

So then I say to myself, soon as the Cubs get a run I'm hitting the sack.

8th inning, D. Lee hits that absolutely gorgeous triple.

Nobody out.

Aramis knocks him in, Cubs 1 Padres nothin.

Click.

I sleep.

I wake up.

I make coffee.

I pour coffee.

I get the paper and that son of a bitch Kevin Gregg ruined another ballgame.

He got all the way to 2 outs and lets the tying run score.

Then he gives up a 3 run homer to the fearsome Kyle Blanks.

Kyle's got 46 games under his belt, 131 at-bats, and 33 hits.

There is a detonator that leads to the bomb that is this Cubs' 2009 season.

Kyle Blank's 33rd hit pushed it an inch closer.

I am SO glad I went to bed.

If there's a silver lining in this loss, it's that Gregg lost his job.

Last weekend I tried to cross Irving Park where there was no crosswalk.

I got halfway out and had to wait for some cars coming from the right.

Then the light changed and 50 cars came from the left, going behind me.

Standing on that double yellow with cars going by both ways, that's what it feels like watching Kevin Gregg pitch.

We'll see who takes his spot tonight, perhaps.

But Jesus Christ, it's the Padres.

You would think a blowout, right?

Welcome Back Ted Lilly!

Nice way to start a 7 game West Coast road trip, getting Ted Lilly back.

He'll start against the Padres tomorrow night (9:05 our time, folks), which hopefully will be not unlike a start at triple A.

Get your feet wet again, Ted

Make sure you're feeling alright.

Because before you come home, you'll also get to start a game against the Dodgers.

It wasn't quite Walter Payton not getting a td in the '85 Superbowl, but Ted not getting a start against the Dodgers in last year's playoffs was pretty criminal.

You can't help but wonder if the Cubs had won just one stupid game, what game 4 might have been with him on the mound.

But... I'm getting both behind and ahead of myself here.

It's 2009, and the Cubs seem to have very little in the way of the killer 'tude.

That's why seeing Ted's photo under the words, "Next Game 8/17" makes me feel so much better.

The rainout yesterday means the Cubs either have a double-header or another cancelled day off somewhere down the September stretch.

I can understand why they made everyone hang around like they did.

That day off was maybe Harden getting spelled a little, or a bullpen rest.

Lastly, just so we're clear, the memory of Steve Garvey still gives me gas.

Go Cubs.

This illustration was in the last issue of Vine Line.

 

Cubs: I'm holding out hope.

I'm holding out hope.

I'm holding it out a window about 40 stories up, ready to drop at any moment.

Some might call this a lack of confidence.

Some will think it's just stupid - that there's just no way.

Why I have any hope at all is simply... I'm a Cub fan.

And that's what they do.

Aramis Ramirez, I wish they'd let his shoulder just sit until the Dodger series, but he's supposed to be back today.

Terrible Ted comes back Monday from knee surgery and a shoulder rest, Carlos Zambrano's scheduled to start next Saturday vs. the Dodgers, and Reed Johnson is just a rumor, but I bet he comes back in the next couple weeks.

Those are a couple reasons for hope.

The other is just foolhardy and primitive.

It's the same thinking behind, "Alfonso is due."

Or like yesterday when Tom Gorzelanny came up to bat.

He's probably not gonna hit anything, but if he can just get it in play...

Then anything can happen.

Like a run scores.

It was a pretty unexciting game yesterday with the Cubs against Josh Fogg, who I figure is about the best player on the Pirates right now.

But it was a 3-1 win.

In order for me not to drop hope 300 feet, the Cubs need to do get Double-yous out of these next 4 patsy games - today vs. Pittsburgh and the 3-gamer in San Diego.

Then see if "anything can happen" in LA.

Probably, I'm just a dope.

But as the enormously popular Milton Bradley once said, "Sue me."

Runs Come Cheap. Cubs 17 Pirates 2.

Well, pretty nice change of pace for the Cubs, but these Pirates are just a mess.

A mess of minor leaguers.

How much would you have paid for 17 runs against the Phillies?

Lou?

I was in a meeting at work, DB texted me.

10 runs in the second!

I guffawed.

This 2009 Cub team - they don't really run hot and cold based on themselves.

They just... run hot against bad pitching.

Yesterday it was some guy named Charlie Morton, who's career record is 6 and 14.

He gave up 10.

Then, Chris Bootcheck, who had a 10.13 ERA with the Angels.

In his first performance for the Pirates, he gave up 7 earned runs and gets to have the numbers "24.75" after the letters "ERA" on the box score.

Ouch.

But I shouldn't be like this, all bitter and cynical.

At least the Cubs hit these guys, got the win, stay 4.5 back of the Cards.

Ted Lilly is on his way back. 

Big Z too.

Now if Aramis and Reed J. showed up, why we'd have the whole band back together!

We're going today, and it looks like another beautiful day.

Gorzelanny against his old team.

See you at Wrigley.

Guy who threw beer at Victorino: you idiot.

It wasn't really that long ago that security in the bleachers was a bunch of guys with no absolutely no sense of humor.

You could get tossed for lookin' at them the wrong way.

A buddy of mine's petite and pretty girlfriend almost got tossed by an enormous bleacher security man for bringing in a tiny water spray bottle when it was a hundred degrees out, and this was years before 9/11.

I'm not sure when it changed.

But in my experience nowadays, those security people are mostly pretty human.

They don't let you break rules, but they're not assholes about it either.

So jag-boy tosses a beer on Victorino, and now there has to be meetings and announcements.

Is there enough security?

Should they stop serving beer?

The guy I painted in this post was from a couple years ago.

He was hilarious.

WOOOO! I'm having so much fun running around on the fieUUUUH!

Tackled.

Handcuffed.

And then the ride to jail.

My next door neighbor is a horse cop, we talk alot.

Believe me, you do not want to go to jail because you were an idiot at Wrigley Field.

Anyway, if you happen to be at Wrigley and somebody IS being an idiot: let security know.

And there is no honor in acting stupid with security if the guy in front of you is the culprit - turn the idiots in.

Lets keep it friendly and idiot free in there, or we fans will be the only ones to blame.

Okay.

Pretty sure you saw thru this post.

I just don't want to talk about what's happening on the field right now.

Are you happy that we don't have to worry about getting swept in the first round of the playoffs?

Actually, it's too early to even have that as a comfort thought.

Terrible Ted and Big Z should be back.

There are 6 should-be creampuff games in a row with the Pirates and Padres, so the Cubs might hang around for another week, make us all feel like they're still in it.

I was looking at that Brewers-Cardinals-Brewers September Freakout (14th thru 23rd) as the deciding point of the summer.

But maybe it's already happened with this wretched sweep by the Phils.

In reality, at this moment in time, the Cubs... 

That saying "They don't even belong on the same field." - it was so appallingly apparent vs. the Phils that I could vomit cheese steak.

My favorite team is getting the snot beat out of them in every facet of every game.

Feels pretty crappy.