Ahhh well, they lost.
I'm sure if I read all the sports pages and blogs people are not happy with Mike Quade for leaving Ryan Dempster in for so long.
And losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates...
Well, it was just the first game and I'm not gonna get all freaked out yet.
I didn't get a shot of Starlin Castro's breathtaking play in the first on a grounder into center where he fielded it, completely spun and threw a one hopper that Pena scooped for the out. You gotta feel good about Pena's glove after this game.
But anyway, here's a bunch of photos...
Cubs royalty before the start.
The teams all lined up with hats off during moment of silence for Japan and Ron Santo.
The Santo scoreboard. This was all pretty emotional stuff, and I wish I could have heard Pat Hughes on the radio.
They had only Ron's flags up in the corners.
Some guy stood up in front of me just as I was taking a shot of Robert Redford's first pitch, and the auto focus focused on that guy. But it's kinda arty so I put it in here.
Early on, the crowd got pretty excited with Carlos Pena coming up to bat with the bases loaded. He hit into a fielder's choice and knocked in one, but no grand slam.
Then the wrong team hit the grand slam. Pirates had guys on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs and we all thought Dempster had struck out Tabata, but the ump didn't see it that way. Bases loaded and Demp goes 3-2 with 2 out. Neil Walker hits it out. Note Ronny Cedeno.
Dempster stayed in.
Darwin Barney looks like he belongs in the Bigs. He was fabulous, going 2 for 4 and scoring one.
Lucky photo of the day. This was in the 7th after Kosuke Fukudome knocked in Barney. Starlin Castro connects with Fukudome on 1st. So it's Castro on 1st and Kosuke on 2nd with Byrd and Aramis coming up, but they both hit fly balls for outs.
Almost the exact same thing happened in the 9th.
Big Z and Reed Johnson were there til the end.
Now, I wish I could leave on a happy note, but after the game I walked West to find a cab, and this is what used to be just a normal city neighborhood block just south of Waveland on Southport.
It's this kind of cheap crap architecture that eats all the character in the city and shits it out like this.
That's like a whole block of banks and grocery store all under one grotesque roof that altogether looks like the suburban corporate headquarters for some crap small business.
I found this more depressing than the loss.
And now, I shall prepare to get ready to head back out to Wrigley.
For all the bashing I give and will continue to give Carlos Zambrano, I can't wait to see him today.
Go Cubs!
