Cubby-Blue

Cubs in Prague

Hi Guys.

I'm in Prague. It's crazy busy and I've got stories already but I don't have time just yet.

Anyway, I'm walking thru the city here, and there are all kinds of souvenir places.

I walk in one, and they've got these Russian dolls (I think they're called) - the ones that fit inside one another? And this shop had all the pro teams of every sport on the planet - every soccer team, rugby team, everything. Olson's out here and he said he' d seen the Cubs but I didn't believe him. The store guy says, "Wheech team?" I go, "Chicago Cubs?" He goes, "Follow." And sure enough, there they are.

 

If you can't read it, it's D. Lee, A. Soriano, Kosuke Fukudome, Ryan Theriot, and the tiniest one is Fontenot.

 

I don't know why, but I bought the thing for 590 crown, which you divide by 18 to figure out the rough US money translation. 

Okay, on another plane in the morning. Thanks for keeping up with the comments and I'll be back in awhile.

Here are more shots of Prague.

This place is super beautiful!

    

Crazy Cub Replay

 

This is from a 2007 Cubs/Sox game where Angel Pagan ran into Juan Uribe. It was a crazy play...

After the play that started with the DeRosa hit to right, had the Pagan/Uribe bump, the outs, the umpire conference, all the Cubs being put back on base, the Ozzie argument, and the Ozzie toss, I went in the kitchen to get a Bud.

My wife Kim was in there.
“What happened on that play?” she asks.
I’d just gotten done watching it.
And I’m a man.
SMART MAN would have said, “You know dear, I’m really not sure. But all the Cubs were safe and the guys on tv are acting like it makes sense, and it was entertaining as hell.”
STUPID MAN would have done what I did, for I am mostly STUPID MAN.
I explained it to her without really knowing what I was talking about.
Sometimes, STUPID MAN can do this and not get called on it.
Other times, STUPID MAN does get called on it and turns into ANGRY MAN.
In this case, ANGRY MAN ended the conversation with something like, “…ALL I WANTED WAS A STUPID BEER.”

Next – did you see the Cubs blow the giant lead over the Rockies in the top of the 9th last night? Where Scott Eyre came in and couldn’t stop the hits, and then Bob Howry, his arm taxed by the workload from the Sox series, comes in and gives up the lead?
Normally, I’d try to break the tv with the force of my pushing the “off” button.
But I was happily doing the painting I’ve posted here.
So when the absolutely improbable happened and the Cubs (Soriano!) got two runs back to win (in the bottom of the 9th!), it was just too late to do the painting for that game.
And you’re lucky.
I was going to paint myself throwing up my own heart and then happily eating it again.
Because that’s exactly what that game felt like.
Okay, 4 games in a row.
What weirdness can happen today?

 I'm on an extended business trip, so I'm putting up some of my fav older posts while I'm gone. Please keep comments coming as I'm gonna depend on you for what's REALLY going on, and I'll do my best to answer.

The embarrassment of "Premature Jack-Elation"

I noticed this at Wrigley one time when I stood up and screamed for a long Aramis Ramirez fly ball.
And don't tell me it hasn't happened to you.

Say some Cub is up, he makes good contact, the ball sails up into the blue and you...can't...help it...
You jump up.
You hold that "I'm about to clap" pose for a second, mouth hanging open.
Is it gone?
You think it's GONE.
You look at the outfielder and he's still running back.
You want to be part of what's about to happen, the magical home run.
So you let it out - that special-ecstasy home run noise you make.
aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH
The ball reaches it's apex and...falls limply into the left fielder's glove.
It didn't even reach the warning track, did it?
What you've just experienced is called "Premature Jack-Elation".

I don't know why this is embarrassing, but it is.
It's like when you hail a cab, but there's somebody in back, and then for some reason you scratch your head like you were never hailing anything in the first place?
Only there's no scratching your head here, my friend.
Because now you have to sit back down and not make eye contact with anyone for a minute, maybe pretend there's something interesting floating on the surface of your beer.
The people around you - the ones with...better control - they stood up maybe, but they didn't go full monty with the moan and everything.
They didn't get naked like you just did.

One more thing.
Premature Jack-Elation isn't relegated to just fans.
If you're a professional baseball player, and you hit a long fly ball but instead of running to first you stand there and admire it, or worse... celebrate a little?

And if that ball clangs off the wall and you only get a single out of it why, that's the worst kind of Premature Jack-Elation imaginable.

Hey if you get a chance, the guys who ran Thunder Matt's Saloon have teamed up with the guys from Wasting Away In Wrigleyville and Ginger Russ from College of Idiots to form a new blog I'm sure is going to reward you with laughs when you go visit. Click on "Exile on Clark Street" on the sidebar there and go have some fun.

 I'm on an extended business trip, so I'm putting up some of my fav older posts while I'm gone. Please keep comments coming as I'm gonna depend on you for what's REALLY going on, and I'll do my best to answer. 

This one time the Cubs lost to the Sox...

When I did this painting, I crossed some kind of normal-parent line and it seemed pretty funny. So it was good that my daughter did too or we wouldn't make each other laugh so much. And by the way, she crossed the normal-daughter line a looong time ago. So far, I still think it's funny...

Anyway, this was another one of those damn losses to the Sox in '03.

Just put you in a mood, you know? 

 I'm on an extended business trip, so I'm putting up some of my fav older posts while I'm gone. Please keep comments coming as I'm gonna depend on you for what's REALLY going on, and I'll do my best to answer.

 

The day Kerry Wood denied Roger Clemens his 300th W.

This was such an awesome day for Wood, and since I can't stand Roger Clemens, an awesome day for me. But a bad day and the beginning of the end for Hee Seop Choi.

 I'm on an extended business trip, so I'm putting up some of my fav older posts while I'm gone. Please keep comments coming as I'm gonna depend on you for what's REALLY going on, and I'll do my best to answer.