It's Valentine's Day.
So I was thinking about romantic stuff, which went from bad poetry and hearts and stuff to... music.
And I was trying to think of a way to tie it to the Cubs when I remembered Chris Bosio is the new (well, at least we haven't talked about him here yet) Cubs' pitching coach.
Ah HAH!
Chin music.
I googled "Chris Bosio chin music" and found some interesting stuff.
Did you know he used to pitch for a guy named Lou Piniella in Seattle?
Here's what it says from this Seattle Times Article:
"In the first inning Saturday night, Yankee pitcher Scott Kamieniecki dropped Joey Cora with a high note of chin music.
On the Seattle bench, an angry Lou Piniella stood and stomped to where pitcher Chris Bosio sat. He said something unheard outside the dugout, but unmistakable.
As he went back to his own seat, Piniella looked over at his old team and yelled, "You're going down and when you do, remember, I ordered it!"
It was the last time one of Piniella's players was knocked down with a pitch that night. Maybe it was the warnings umpires gave both teams. Maybe it was the five minutes the umpires spent with Piniella and then with Bosio, a big believer in defending one's mates."
And I found this from Tony Kornheiser on the Houston Chronicle Archives:
"We can talk about beanballs and dusters and brushbacks -- whatever you want to call them -- if you like, and whether they have any place in baseball. Just don't insult my intelligence. Don't tell me Chris Bosio didn't deliberately throw behind Mark McLemore and Harold Reynolds. And don't tell me Mike Mussina didn't deliberately plunk Bill Haselman in retaliation. Because:
1. Nobody who throws a no-hitter, as Bosio did last month, throws the ball eight feet off the plate to two hitters in exactly the same spot by accident.
2. Nobody whose stuff is so good and so exact that he gets mentioned as the best pitcher in the American League, as Mussina has, would come up and in to a hitter and tattoo him on the shoulder if he didn't want to."
That's pretty old school stuff from our new pitching coach.
And I find it kinda cool that Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer are all Bloomberg Informational Management Systemed up, and they got Bosio as the pitching coach.
I also find comfort in the idea that the Cubs' pitching staff is sort of young and supposedly all back of the rotation guys, and their leader has this kind of history.
I'm not a beanball guy, but these stories sort of lead me to thinking he'll be teaching the art of owning the inside of the plate, which might help this group.
When I look for toughness on the 2012 Chicago Cubs, it seems to come from Dale Sveum and Bosio.
Given our unique set of circumstances, I like that.
Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day.
Here's some good old Bosio chin music to get you in the mood for...baseball.
What else?
Yoenis Cespedes is going to Oakland?
You never know what to believe with the rumors around baseball - I didn't even know they were in the conversation.
And now the Cubs are supposedly focused on Other Cuban dude Jorge Soler.
An outfielder.
Hmmm.
