Cubby-Blue

The Cubs seem to like the small stage.

The Cubs sure seem to be getting better as their stage gets smaller.
Okay, not better better, but better than earlier this season.
Before the 16 Ws in August, the Cubs had won 12 in April, 11 in May, 11 in June and 9 in July.

I just read this: "The Cubs lead the NL with 39 homers in August."
It's like it's been pouring rain for 4 months and you finally decide to put up the umbrella.
But they're sure wrecking the fun that was supposed to be happening in San Francisco.
Randy Wells, for the first time in his life, throws a complete game and beats Tim Lincecum?
Alfonso Soriano hit one of the longest homers ever at AT&T Park and gets 2 RBIs as the Cubs beat the defending World Champion Giants for the second day in a row?
Tyler Colvin hits a double and brings his average up to .150?
Thats crayzee, man.

And it's raining in Wisconsin this morning, and given my musky-catching average, it's a good day to stay inside and drink hot coffee.
Remember, you only get a musky strike (that means it just hits your lure - it doesn't even mean you hooked it) every 10,000 casts.
At least that's what I've been told.
So since the last strike, I'm probably only up to about 2,000.

But here's a shot of yesterday's sunrise, and one of the reasons for my continued optimism:

How can you not catch a musky on such an incredible morning?
Well, I guess you just do what I did and not catch one.

Okay, quick story about stage fright, which this group of Cubs seems to have a bad case of.
My mom used to be active in the social world of the officer's club on each Air Force Base we were stationed at when I was a kid.
And she was helping put on a play of some kind.
This woman who's name I can't remember, she had a small part in it.
Her line was, "Hark, I heard a pistol shot!"
That's it.
Hark I heard a pistol shot.
So finally it's the night of the play and her moment of glory comes.
"Hark, I heard a shistol pot!" she spouts.

I keep thinking about that woman and this year's Cubs.
It's been, "Hark, I heard a shistol pot!" for 4 months.

It's so good to know that change is just around the corner. 

 

Lets taste some Furthermore Knotstock! And...Cubs swept.

You guys know I'm a Bud guy, right?
In the fridge all the time, but it's good to taste around too.
So, they have these grocery stores up here called Trigs, and the thing that's SO cool about Trig's (compared to say, Jewel) is that THEY HAVE A REALLY REALLY AWESOME BEER SELECTION!
I bought this beer, "Knotstock" by the Furthermore brewery, by accident.
Actually, I bought it because of the cool graphics on the six-pack, and never noticed the "beer brewed with black pepper" on the label til after I tasted one. 
Kinda shocking when you first taste it just expecting beer taste.
But I SWEAR this is such an amazing, refreshing, different beer experience I had to do a painting.
Apparently you can only get it in Wisconsin, so if you're ever up here you have to give it a try.
Luckily, I couldn't get the Cubs game on the radio because I read this morning that they got swept.
Casey Coleman must have done okay with 6 strikeouts, 3 walks, and 3 runs (remember, the Brewers are just ridiculously hot right now so those are pretty darn good numbers).
And I see Aramis Ramirez cooled off for the day, not surprising against Zach Grienke.
Losing just 2-3, at least it was a game, eh?

Meanwhile, on the musky trail I got nothin' but a nice sunrise.


Caught one bass, tho.

And last night we met some friends at this restaurant called "Renee's Back Bay Cove".
They have amazing little places to eat around here out in the middle of nowhere, and I had a NY strip that was Ditka's-worthy, only about $40 less.

I don't even know who the Cubs play next, but I am looking forward to September Callups.
Think they'll bring up Brett Jackson?

Lastly, in case you can't tell from the painting, here's what Knot Stock actually looks like.




 

Balls to the Cubs, lets go fishing.

It's that time for me again.
Left the house with house sitters and now...
Musky time.
When I do things like actually hook one, get it next to the boat, and then realize my net isn't big enough to get over it's huge angry musky head.

Not that I haven't tried to follow the Cubs...
But apparently the Brewers, even though they may be the hottest team in baseball, are still second banana to Green Bay Packers in Wisconsin.
I tried to listen to the Cubs/Brewers game a couple days ago, twisted the dial through all the radio stations, and each one had the Packer pre-season game on instead.
Anyway, here's what it looked like at about 5 something this morning:

Pretty nice, right?
So...I spent hours and hours of fabulous morning quality time not catching a musky!
But I did see a beaver swim by:
 
That's me whistling - thought I could make it slap it's tail. 

And then I saw an eagle.
It landed across the way, but I couldn't find it.
Suddenly it flew out of a tree right next to me and all the alarms in my blood went off because the eagle had no head.
It was like the The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - A HEADLESS HORSE-EAGLE JUST FLEW BY!
I spilled all my coffee.
Maybe it's some horrible omen: the beaver will attack or I'm about to catch some giant musky lure treble hooks in my neck.  

Then I realized it was a big old owl.
Everything back to normal, still not catching any musky.

So anyway, that's what I'm doing.
Excuse me for not talking about the latest Cubs loss to the Brewers.
Man, can those guys play.

When I got back from my fishing excursion this morning, there were a couple guys just getting in their boat to go out.
One of them shouts, "Have any luck?"  
"Of course not, assholes!" is what I thought.
But instead I said, "No, but it sure is a nice morning! Have a good one!" 

Just wait til I nail that musky. 

Cubs 2 Brewers 5. Errors dog Cubs.

Error is a pretty bad word when it comes to the Cubs.

Right now the Chicago Cubs are leading the NL with 110, which is 12 ahead of the Houston Astros' 98.
We knew we'd get an extra dose with kids Starlin Castro and Darwin Barney manning the middle of the Cubs infield.
And for the most part, so what.
But Barney's couple of E's yesterday was pretty painful, especially the one that allowed 2 runs to score.
Ouchee.

Ah, even though none of these games matter, it would just be nice to beat the Brewers.
Give 'em a little pause in the way they think of themselves, because they've got to be thinking, "Damn we're good."
Where these games do matter, though, is who's gonna play where next year.
What's the team going to look like?
Who knows, but as much as I love Darwin Barney for his winning past and attitude, if the Cubs were really good then he'd be the backup guy and they'd have somebody who hits with more power starting at 2nd. 
I also still think Castro's the shortstop.
Texas has a shortstop named Elvis Andrus with 25 E's, otherwise Starlin would lead shortstops in all baseball with his 22.
But I hope they keep him there and he "matures". 

I see they've got Andrew Cashner throwing in the minors with the hopes of getting back up to the Bigs this year to (I'm quoting the Trib here) "hoping he can pitch a few big league bullpen innings after rosters can expand Sept. 1 so he can spend the winter with a clear mind."
A clear mind?
How's about a healthy shoulder?
I don't get that at all - I'd be treating him with kid gloves and keeping him away from Chicago til next year.
If he comes up here and dings his shoulder again?
Disaster. 

Okay, Dempster/Gallardo tonight, should be good.

 

 

Cubs 3 Braves 2. What fixed Randy Wells?

Wait.
So Randy Wells went 6.2 innings and gave up only 2 hits and one run?
To the Atlanta Braves?
The Braves who had won 15 of their previous 20?
Wow.
For Randy to kick it up a notch at this point in the season, you'd think the Cubs had fired their General Manager and Randy realized that holy crap! He'd better get it in gear or the next GM might toss him out or something.
But that would be crazy, right?
Besides, what really happened was this (from Cubs.com):
"It took a good kick in the butt from a teammate to finally get the right mindset to go out there and pitch and make things happen," Wells said. "Ever since that day, I felt like I've thrown the ball very well."

I got to listen sporadically, and I'd hear breathless things from Pat Hughes or Keith Moreland like, "That was the best change I've seen him throw in a long time." or "Struck him out." - weird things I hadn't heard about Randy forever.

What I did pay attention to was when Commissioner Bud Selig took a moment or 20 to chat with Pat and Keith.
I can't quote him exactly, but he's very proud of the wild card system he brought to baseball.
He gushed all over himself, in fact.
And since that worked so well, well, why the hell not get a couple more wildcard teams in the playoffs?
Conveniently, this year baseball doesn't have alot of good teams.
There aren't any races, really, except maybe Arizona/San Francisco.
So it would be great if they could add a couple more teams that really aren't any good to the playoff mix and see what happens.
Because seriously, how can you figure out who the best teams are if they only play 162 games in the regular season?
Maybe it was one of those bad ones!

Maybe some day they'll get smart and do a fan voting thing like they do for the All-Star Game so like, even if the Cubs are 23 games out we could still vote them in.

Uh, okay got that off my chest.

What else...Carlos Pena got claimed off waivers by the Yankees but the Cubs took him back.
Soriano hit a homer, Darwin Barney made a circus catch, Marmol got a save, and maybe Randy Wells made himself look better in the eyes of the next GM.

 

Remember when Barry Bonds flipped into the stands at AT&T Park?

This is from 2006, when Barry Bonds was trying to tie Babe Ruth's homer record.
The Cubs were in the middle of a May when they would win just 7 games.
But I remember this play - left fielder Bonds moved like a 90 year old, shuffling over as he tried to catch a foul ball.
He gets over next to the wall and flips over like a top-heavy boiled sausage in slow motion.

Super busy, guys.
If I can't get to the current action I'll post something from way back when.

Speaking of, what is up with Aramis?
He obviously knows he's the only top tier 3rd baseman with a contract running out, so he wants to be attractive to other teams, right?
Guy is on fire.
Think the Cubs should try to keep him?
This from Rob G. over at The Cub Reporter: "apparently Aramis Ramirez 2012 option is a mutual option. Technically, if the Cubs exercise the $16M option, he can void it and forfeit the $2M buyout, and his agent suggests that with Hendry gone, that's looking more likely now.

I'm not sure if that's good or bad news yet. $16M for one season is a bit expensive for Ramirez, but there's not a lot out there to play the hot corner either."

Maybe they won't even have the option - maybe it'll be up to the New Guy at General Manager.

Whatever happens with the Cubs front office... it's just a pretty crucial and interesting time in Cub history.