Tough loss last night for the Cubs but the winning streak sure was fun to watch. I liked what Lou Piniella said after the game last night: "We had a nine-game winning streak, we've been playing good baseball...give their team credit for pitching well. Hopefully tomorrow we'll get another good game from [Ryan] Dempster and start a new streak -- a win streak, that is."
Today as part of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft, Major League Baseball will hold a ceremonial selection of players from the Negro Leagues. Participation in the draft is voluntary, but most clubs are expected to take part as baseball continues its efforts to keep alive the history of the Negro Leagues. The Cubs will select Detroit Stars pitcher/first baseman Walt Owens who played in the Negro Leagues from 1953-55 and with the all-white Detroit Pepsi-Cola team when baseball integrated in Detroit in 1957. In doing a bit of research I found what Owens accomplished off the diamond was as impressive as anything he did as a ballplayer. "A teacher for 54 years, with 34 years at Northern Illinois, Owens has been a pioneer in many aspects of his life."
In the spring 2006 I had the opportunity to interview Negro League legend Buck O'Neil for the Boys of Spring documentary, here is a portion of that interview. O'Neil was hired by the Cubs as a scout from the Negro Leagues in 1955. This clip is 2 minutes.
As I write this the Cubs have been playing one of those games that give you pause to think, maybe this is the year. Kerry Wood is coming in for the 9th inning attempting to close this game against the Rockies...a game in which the Cubs were down 9-1 and now lead 10-9, and looking for their 5th straight win. Crap, Wood just walked the leadoff hitter...sweeeeet a double play and then Dome catches the third out! Cubs Win! I'm watching on MLB TV on the computer they are playing "Go Cubs Go" at Wrigley, the fans are all singing along, love it. Best record in baseball and 2 games up on the Cardinals, I can't wait to get up to Wrigley in July.
The video I shot a few springs back of Cubs Pitcher Ryan Dempster doing his Harry Caray impression has been pretty popular on you-tube, over 120,000 views so far. So I thought I would post another Harry Caray impression, I shot this one at Hohokam Stadium as well. The guy is Matt Wagner, at one time he worked at Harry Caray's restaurant in Chicago, maybe still does. You may have seen him impersonate Harry before, he is one of the best in my opinion...see what you think.
Cubs fan and actor Bill Murray's wife has claimed the Wilmette native is a violent alcohol, drug and sex addict in court papers related to the couple's impending divorce. Murray's wife Jennifer Butler Murray claims she has been physically abused, cheated on, and alleges her estranged husband is addicted to marijuana and alcohol. She says that Murray would leave the country frequently without her "where he engages in public and private altercations and sexual liaisons." The complaint also states that Murray physically abused his wife, and last November "hit her in the face and then told her she was 'lucky he didn't kill her.'"
Murray and wife Jeniffer Butler Robyn BECK/AFP/Getty Images
Ouch...you never know what is true in these situations but she signed a pre-nup before they wed and will get $7 mill within 60 days of a final divorce decree. I met Murray during spring training back when Mark Grace was still playing for the Cubs, as a friend of Gracie's you know Murray has some serious elbow bending skills.
Here is a bit of un-Cubs related pop-culture video flying around the Internet, singer Mariah Carey supposedly throwing the worst Ceremonial First Pitch ever at a baseball game in Japan...I'll let you be the judge. I will say in my years as public address announcer for the Cubs at Hohokam I have seen many lousy "first pitches". During spring training we have been known to do up to 5 ceremonial pitches before a single game. I have seen athletic looking men who appear in good health throw some rag arm weak arse crap as bad as this Mariah Carey toss...yes they were deservedly booed by the fans.
A somewhat weird and perhaps disturbing element of this non-story to me was the comments people posted about Carey after watching the video. I had watched it on Yahoo sports then glanced at a few of the posted comments...wow! It was interesting to read the venomous things people were saying, not about the throw but about her personally. These comments were multiplying fast by the hundreds probably thousands by now. Many of them so harsh you would think she had spit in the Pope's face. I'm sure many of these were from kids now on summer vacation, still it left me scratching my head wondering were tolerance and civility has gone. It also made me think how easy it is to hide at home and be a computer bully, no one knows who you are, so you can say practically anything. I'm not a Mariah Carey fan myself but I bet 95 percent of these people if they met her in person wouldn't make a peep...probably would ask for an autograph or photo with her.
It's great to see the Cubs in first place after returning from 2 weeks in Ireland. My access to the Cubs and American sports across the Atlantic was a few occasional and brief Internet spot checks. You can easily see the similarities of the sports fans in other countries and how like us they have a great passion for sports, in Ireland that means Football (aka soccer), Hurling, and Rugby. It felt a bit strange to enter a pub and have the all the plasma screens tuned to Man U (Manchester United) vs Barcelona, after a couple pints of Guinness every sport seems to become a bit more interesting.
This was my first trip to Europe and it was incredible, the Irish people have a zest and vitality along with a welcoming friendliness. While there I was scouting locations for a cable TV project as well as doing some research for a potential magazine article. This meant a two week journey around Ireland, seeing the natural beauty and history of the land as well as observing and enjoying the local culture through food, music, pubs, and people...a wee bit of work mixed with plenty of fun!
American baseball doesn't seem well known or understood over there from talking with some of the locals, much like my understanding of Hurling. When mentioning the Chicago Cubs, it seems the head nodding is more of a recognition of the "Chicago" part of the equation. I was able to extrapolate the Cubs place in America's baseball history(condensed version) to a couple friendly guys at a pub in a village named Dromahair. I must admit this was after some pints of Guinness so I hope I wasn't too long winded, however our jovial bartender Kevin and new acquaintance, teacher/artist Eugene seemed genuinely interested. We enjoyed the Irish "craic" (lively conversation) in the pubs and met many great locals.
We met some tourists from Germany and the U.S., we passed a guy wearing a Cubs hat on the Cliffs of Moher only to run into him with his wife and friends later that evening at a pub. You guessed it he's a huge Cubs fan from Illinois, also that night talked with some great folks from Maine(Red Sox fans) who happen to have family that are also big Cubs fans...go figure.
In a Dublin Pub we met a beautiful young Spanish Au Pair from Madrid, she was working on improving her English...so it was our duty to help. I'll leave it at that and let your imagination work from there. I have plenty more stories to tell of the trip but lack the time to do so right now. Below are a few photos from the trip.
News on The Boys of Spring Documentary coming soon...stay tuned. Go Cubs!
Yes, that's a Cubs jersey...Me and my bro Todd.
Dingle Harbor
We had nothing to do with those empty kegs...Galway City
Kylemore Abbey
We met the big cheese himself, Seamus Sheridan...Galway City. Irish hospitality, Seamus invited us over to his home for a magnificent lunch.
It's been an interesting 7 days for the Cubs since I last blogged...the 12 inning game yesterday was not a work of art but a "W" nonetheless. Three wins in a row and now above .500, the team is moving in the right direction. The weather here in Mesa, AZ has been near perfect since the Cubs left town, and looks to continue for another 4 days before the temps creep up, possibly 90 degrees by the weekend.
Kosuke Fukudome has been a bit of a surprise to me thus far with his bat. I really believe he was working on different aspects of his batting in spring training and hadn't shown us the full "Dome" at the plate until the regular season started. Watching him this spring you could see he played a solid right field and had a strong arm as well as being very disciplined at the plate. At any rate, I think Dome in 7 games has put to rest some of the fears Cubs fans had this spring that he couldn't hit Major League pitching.
It's going to be an intriguing season and hopefully a great one for the Cubs. As mentioned in previous blogs I am headed to Ireland soon. While I will be working on another project there, I still plan to take the pulse of the locals and see what responses the words "Chicago Cubs" elicit on the Emerald Isle. I'm guessing the computer will be my main (possibly only) lifeline to the Cubs while I'm there...so we'll see how that plays out. I will be sure to raise a Guinness and toast to; Cubs success this season. Will also post some photos of the trip while there...Erin Go Bragh!
Yesterday's opening day game was supposed end with a Cubs victory and a Big Z - "W", of course it didn't go that way and now an undefeated season is impossible. 161-1 will have to do...all kidding aside, that Cubs fans feeling of dread hit me right when Kerry Wood plunked Rickie Weeks with the ball in the 9th. At that moment the "Cubs are going to lose this game" neon light lit up in my head, and I hate that frickin light. Dome's heroics brought hope that this game would be different but that sinking feeling inside me hadn't left, it was for the moment pushed aside by a new shining star from Japan. And then it was over, one of those coulda, woulda, shoulda games, and a loss to the Brewers no less. Perhaps like many fans I got a bit swept up in all the "opening Day" hype. Upon reflection of the days events my brain searched and soon found a little comfort. Yes, the ole baseball cliches rose up out of the fog of defeat and 5 months of dormancy to remind me - "It's only one game" and "baseball is a long season"...did I say "found a little comfort" I meant "found little comfort".
As many of you know I don't blog on a regular every day basis after spring training ends, preferring to let those closer to the action cover the Cubs exploits. I will however try to blog at least once a week from now on until next spring. Not all these will be completely Cubs related as some blogs may consist of the goings on in my life...such as my upcoming trip to Ireland. We are sending out the prizes to the winner of the quiz (Daniel J) about my 25 Cubs spring trainings as Hohokam PA Announcer. Some of the prizes included an autographed Ron Santo baseball card and Wrigley Season Ticket 2008. Daniel had the most correct answers (nobody got them all correct), so here are questions and correct answers to the 9 quiz questions my family came up with from last week.
1. The first Cubs player name Tim ever announced was? Ron Cey
2. How many Cubs Managers have their been since Tim started doing the Cubs spring games? 15
3. True or False. When Tim started they did not play music at old Hohokam Park games. True
4. True or False. At old Hohokam, Tim did the Public Address and played the music. True, did both jobs in the old park until it was torn down in 1996.
5. True or False. Harry Caray used to sing the 7th inning stretch using Tim's PA microphone? True, and still have that microphone.
6. True or False. Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins was on the Cubs Roster when Tim started? True he was released by the Cubs March 19th 1984
7. True of False. Tim was paid $20 per game when he first started. False it was $10
8. True or False. Tim's favorite name to announce has been Mark Grace. False it was Sammy Sosa, (only because it was fun to say, not based on how well I liked the players)
9. In Tim's first season of 1984, he announced 3 future Hall of Famers playing in the same game, who were they? Cubs RyneSandberg, Angels Rod Carew, and Reggie Jackson.
It's too bad I can't ship some of this AZ weather up to Chicago for the next couple weeks, our Mesa 10 day forecast is very simple - Sunny with highs between 77 and 82. Since we are just waiting for tomorrow's opener, I thought I would pass along some of the photos I took this spring. Enjoy~
That's what it felt like to me last night at the Fergie & Friends Charity All-Star game at Hohokam; getting a chance to talk with and later announce the introductions for an array of Baseball Hall of Fame members and former MLB stars.
The weather was perfect for the evenings festivities, besides meeting the ballplayers I ran into many friends including a group from the Central Illinois Cubs Booster Club, my favorite vendor - Mark the Beer Guy, and all my Hohokam pals (who all donated their time and effort to last nights event). I also met and talked with Author and Photojournalist Tammy Lechner who had a table selling her book "Our Team - Our Dream: A Cubs Fan's Journey Into Baseball's Greatest Romance", the book has over 300 one of a kind photos and narrates the Cubs fan's journey over a 15 year span. I have only scanned it briefly so far but the photos are fantastic, I'll give you a review once I finish the book.
The game itself was as you would expect very loose and fun, as expected Fergie & Friends beat the AZ All-Stars 10-6 in the 7 inning affair. Jon Warden who pitched briefly for the Detroit Tigers in 1968 before a shoulder injury cut his career short helped add some humor as he had a microphone down on the field. Warden might have had a short MLB career but he may want to try stand-up comedy, some of his jokes were a bit off-color, which of course I enjoyed.
Great to see the former Cubs especially those who played on the 1984 team; my first spring working at old Hohokam. Next year though I don't want to do the announcing, I want to play...even if it is against Fergie and his talented Friends. Guess I could play and do the PA announcing at the same time however I wouldn't want it to take away my concentration, even if the game doesn't "count". The Fergie Jenkins Foundation gave away a lot of checks to deserving causes last night and that was why we were there in the first place, a win win night at Hohokam. I also got to have my photo taken with Fergie and Billy Williams...like I said, kid in a candy store!
By the way the Cactus League set a new attendance record this spring with 1.31 million fans with the Cubs leading the way. Tomorrow I will post the favorite photos I took of the Cubs this spring, can't wait for opening day. Go Cubs!
Hall of Fame members Fergie Jenkins, Billy Williams, and the P.A. Guy. Photo taken by the magnificent Tessa Lee!
