Cubby-Blue

8 years ago, Starlin Castro had a cardboard baseball glove?

I don't have a drawing for this, sorry.
But I read the article from Joe Cowley in the Sun Times yesterday, and there was this little sentence:
"As it was for many kids from his country, a milk carton was his first glove when there weren’t enough leather ones to be shared. At age 13, he finally owned his own." 

So 8 years after he got a leather glove, Starlin Castro is an All-Star shortstop for the Chicago Cubs.

HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?
8 years with a real glove?

I know tons of dads who got their kids playing ball at like, 4-5 years old.
With real leather baseball gloves.
Let me look at the roster uh.... nope.
None of those guys are on the All Star team. 

I googled "milk carton baseball glove", and you can find a link to this site.
Look waaay at the bottom, and you'll see a kid there with a "glove" he made out of cardboard.
8 years ago, Starlin Castro was wearing one of those?
Not only have I seen him make some jaw-dropping plays at short, but also: we have the nerve to get angry when he makes an error?

Now, these aren't direct comparisons, because of the afore mentioned E's.
But the 8 years ago thing made me wonder...
How long did it take Tony Stewart to go from a go-kart kid to a real stud race car guy?
Was John Lennon a big famous All-Star Beatle 8 years after he got his first guitar?
Here it says he got his first mail order guitar when he was 15, in 1956. 
So 8 years later was 1964, the Beatles were pretty famous then.
On the other hand...
Why, 8 years ago I started doing these Cubs paintings, and you can find my work in prestigious galleries such as uh, well some are hanging in my house if you want to come over.

Ahhhh anyway, Starlin Castro's story amazes me, and even though this is a crap Cubs year, we're awful lucky to be able to watch the kid.

 

The Chicago Cubs at the All Star break

Well, not so good.
With just a pencil and a look at the standings, here's how the Cubs stack up against the just NL Central.
Vs the Pirates the Cubs are 3-6, and outscored 28-49.
Vs the Astros the Cubs are 2-4, outscored 27-42.
Vs the Cards they're 1-5, outscored 23-33.
Vs the Reds they're 2-6, outscored 24-40.
Vs the Brewers, the Cubs actually have a winning record of 4-3, but still outscored 35-36.
Or, they're 12 and 24, and outscored 137 to 200 even.
Remember, that's me and no machinery so there's probably a mistake, but you get the idea.

Of the 16 teams in the NL, the Cubs lead in only two stats: errors (77) and walks given (349).
So the Cubs give more freebies more often than any other team.
It's like one-armed boxing.
They're 15th in ERA (4.62) and dead last in WHIP (1.47).
They're 2nd in BA (.263), 8th in runs scored (375), and the team OPS is .717, or 7th.

In ALL of baseball, only the Astros have more losses than the 55 from our favorite team.

Lets see... of the starting rotation, Cashner, Wells, Zambrano, and Garza have all been on the DL, and Dempster almost went last week.
Other DLers would be Alfonso Soriano, Darwin Barney, Jeff Baker, Marlon Byrd, Geovanny Soto, Kerry Wood and Marcos Mateo.
Hell man, they even got rid of Brian Schlitter and brought him back so they could put him on the 60 day DL.
The Cubs have called upon retreads Doug Davis (36), Rodrigo Lopez (36), and Ramon Ortiz (38) to start professional baseball games.
They've also started triple A guy Casey Coleman (2-4) and reliever James Russell (1-5).
They sent Tyler Colvin to the minors for getting just 10 hits in 95 at bats, and threw Fernando Perez out of the whole organization for being just plain crappy.

Our lone All Star besides 3rd base coach Mike Quade would be Starlin Castro.
Literally every time I've gone to Wrigley, I've seen him do something astonishing and one day I'll be that 90 year old guys sitting at the end of the bar bragging about how I saw him when he was just a baby. 
Rookie Darwin Barney is hitting .306, he's 5th on the team with 31 RBIs, but a low C .709 OPS.
Still, the guy just seems to make things happen.

Aramis and Pena have started to come around, knocking some balls out.

But overall, the first half of 2011 has been like stepping in the same pile of dog crap over and over and over...

 

ps: my daughter created whatever that thing is that seems to be forever screaming. I just put a Cubs hat on it.

Yesterday was Derek Jeter Day

I'm sure you've seen the replay of Derek Jeter's historic 3,000th hit, a dinger to left off of Tampa Bay's David Price at Yankee Stadium.
I didn't count the pitches, but The Hit came on a 3-2 count and a number of foul balls - just super dramatic.
Actually, he got a hit every time he came up to the plate yesterday, going 5 for 5.

I figure there aren't many Yankee fans who read this blog, but you gotta admit this was pretty cool. 

And speaking of pretty cool, I couldn't help but watch our favorite team actually beat the Pirates. 
Yeah I know, I lied.
I wasn't gonna watch, but there you go.

After seeing him for 3 games this season, the bats finally got to that freaking Pirate Kevin Correia, scoring in each of the first 4 innings.
But had the Cubs let that scoring op in the first go for nothing, I SO would have gone out to pick weeds or something.
With Fukudome on 3rd and Starlin Castro on 2nd after hitting a double, Aramis Ramirez grounds out and Carlos Pena strikes out.
But Marlon Byrd gets a single and then Correia throws a wild pitch so it's 2 to nothin' to start the game.
Then in bottom one, Kosuke Fukudome's perfect throw home and Koyie HIll's nice plate-blockage save Ryan Dempster from disaster.
Mike Quade pulls Demp after the 5th, and they had a nice shot in the dugout of some really rare Dempster Temper as he throws stuff around after Quade delivers the news.
(Demp goes on to get his 100th W as a starter!)
Jeff Samardzija looked actually good for his 2 scoreless innings, then Kerry Wood and Carlos Marmol looked like they're supposed to look and shut 'em down the rest of the way.
Nice.

Be nicer if weird Cub starter Ramon Ortiz can hang around long enough today for a W, and the bats keep it going against Paul Maholm.

Then we can all relax and watch an All-Star game with Starlin Castro and his tough kid bat.
You heard that he may even start since elected SS's Jose Reyes and Troy Tulowitzki are banged up. 

Oh yeah, and 2 more things.
I listened to a bit of the game on the radio, and Keith Moreland did a total Ron Santo thing with Pat, totally cracked me up.
Remember how Ronny used to sometimes be kind of stubborn and point out any mistake Pat would make?
So Pat says something totally meaningless about (something like): "...you can see the boats sailing in the..." and Keith steps on him and says, "They're motorboats."

Also, where was Bob Brenly and who was the guy sitting in for him?
Whoever it was was really pro, and I was shocked when they showed a shot of him because he looked waaaay younger than he sounded, which was vaguely Jon Miller-esque.
Anyway, I hope the Cubs aren't putting out new voices as a sort of test.
I know Brenly has ruffled feathers with his blunt speaking style, and I really like him doing the games.
Do not, Cubs, even think about getting a new guy because he's "nicer".

 

 

Just...anticipating the Pirates series!

 

Tell you what, I'd rather let ants crawl all over my face than watch this series.
While I think it would be AWESOME if Pittsburgh ended up winning the Central (I'm...just assuming the Cubs won't make the turnaround), I can't watch them beat the Cubs.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Who's pitching today?
That Rodrigo Lopez guy?
Well he beat the Sox last time out...
Aramis and Pena are all on fire with the homers... 
But...no.

Fridays should be fun, maybe I'll read a book.

 

Fun goes on the DL for Cub Fans.

This little sign was in a hotel room I was staying in a little bit ago.
I modified it, as you can see.
Why?
Because I'm a Cubs Fan and I'm not having any fuhfuhfuh...
Whoa.
Looks like Fun is having back spasms and is heading for the DL.
We'll call up another word, though, don't worry.
Hey DUNGBEETLE, get in there for Fun!
Uh, as I was saying: because I'm a Cubs Fan and I'm not having any dungbeetle, that's why.

Okay so speaking of not having any dungbeetle, did you see the Jeff Baker throw?
Routine grounder, double play ball, tossed into left field?
So at first I'm all, "DAMMIT TO HELL!", but then in a totally perverse way it seemed fuhfuhfuhfuh...
Uh oh.
Funny just blew out his elbow.
That could be 60 days, too.
Oh well, hey LATTICEWORK, go play for Funny!
Wow, any more of these injuries and this post starts to look a little latticework.
So what I didn't say was this: it's SUPER BUSY, so (personally) it's a perfect time for the Cubs to suck more than they have in years.
Naturally, I'm a little behind.
I didn't even know that they signed Ramon Ortiz.
I went to the ESPN "scoreboard" page, where you can read about yesterday's game but also click on today to see who's pitching. 
I read "Ortiz" and think well that's latticework, I've never even heard of this guy.
So I click on his name (it's dungbeetle - you can do this too) and up pops a little information bubble about him.
He's a relief pitcher for the Dodgers?
At least he was before he put on a Cubs uniform yesterday. 
Another retread?
No wonder the Cubs can't wuhwuhwuh, resulting in a summer completely lacking in juhjuhjuhjuh.
DAMMIT, Win has a blister and Joy pulled a hammy.
To the DL, both of you.
FARMNUGGET and BOLSTER, get in there.
So Ortiz starts off the game giving up 3 singles, and you can't farmnugget if you pitch like that.
I'm thinkin' maybe they'll go to the pen already, but of course they can't call on Marcos Mateo because he's on the DL making room for Ortiz. And people are calling for Mike Quade's head because they think he lacks mahmahmahmah skills when it comes to pitching.
Okay, that does it.
Management just got hit in the head.
DL time.
Hmmm... 
It would give me great bolster if you all could come up with something dungbeetle for the word we call up for Management.
Something really latticework.

And lets hope the Cubs get a farmnugget tonight!

Go Cubs!