Giants @ Dodgers (9:10 cst): Kirk Rueter, LHP (8-12, 4.81) vs. Jeff Weaver, RHP (13-12, 4.01) Rueter vs. LA in 2004: 0-2, 3.44 in 3 starts Weaver vs. SF in 2004: 2-2, 5.10 in 5 starts Braves @ Cubs (2:20 cst) Mike Hampton, LHP (12-9, 4.38) vs. Kerry Wood, RHP (8-8, 3.58) Hampton vs. Cubs in 2004: No Record Wood vs. Braves in 2004: 1- 0, 1.29 in 1 start
WGN said it still had 2 more games on their station during the last game. So I would think this one would be on their channel.
Curse of the Billy Goat. I'll be in a meeting during most of the game, so I wanted to get that in. somebody else can take over keeping it on every page of the thread.
& i wouldnt worry about the Giants to much because Gagne and the Dodgers are pumped. I saw this on www.mlb.com and here the link for the artical http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/n...content_id=877583&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp. "I want them to see us clinch," Gagne said of the Giants, who arrive Friday for a season-ending series. "The good thing is they're going to see us clinch against them. It's going to be amazing and a lot of fun, especially for the fans. They'll be able to see us do it against the hated Giants."
More meyhem in cubbieland, as expected. Steve Stone get in some quality shots: Cubs broadcaster Steve Stone lambasted the Cubs in an interview with WGN-AM radio after Thursday's 12-inning loss, painting the club as chronic complainers. Stone told interviewers David Kaplan and Tom Waddle that the Cubs reminded him of a Jack Nicholson line from the film, "A Few Good Men." "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth," Stone said. "Let me tell you something, guys, the truth of this situation is [this is] an extremely talented bunch of guys who want to look at all directions except where they should really look, and kind of make excuses for what happened. "At the end of the day, boys, you don't tell me how rough the water is, you bring in the ship. The best eight [teams] go on, the other teams go home. This team should have won the wild-card [playoff berth] by six, seven games. No doubt about it. They have the talent to do that. They're life-and-death right now." Stone said the "defining moment" of the Cubs' collapse was their 15-7 loss to Houston on Aug. 27 at Wrigley Field when they could have extended their wild-card lead over the Astros to eight games. That game featured a confrontation between Michael Barrett and Roy Oswalt. It also included the press box phone call from Kent Mercker to complain about Stone and Chip Caray and Mercker's taunting of umpire C.B. Bucknor that netted him a suspension. "The one game that defined this season, that allowed a team that was dead to get back in was one of the days that started a lot of problems for my partner and I, one of the best partners in the game," Stone said. "That is the Roy Oswalt game, when Kent Mercker hit him in the sixth inning. That illuminated the Houston Astros. "They were left for dead. The Cubs beat them the first game in a three-game series, they knocked Kerry Wood out in the fifth inning, they hit four home runs [off Wood], Oswalt pitched eight innings on a day the heat factor being 95 degrees. They won 15-7, took the next two games against the Cubs. "Instead of being buried, they got back in the race. And guess what? They're up by one game now. The Cubs had a chance to put their foot on their throat, and good teams do that. When you have a chance to eliminate a team, you don't take a personal vendetta out until that team is dead. Kill them, then you have plenty of time for personal vendettas. The Cubs didn't do that and it's coming back to haunt them." Stone also predicted the Cubs would make some "blockbuster" moves this off-season, implying some trades would be directly tied to the team's ongoing battles with the broadcasters. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune...sstone,1,3811686.story?coll=cs-home-headlines And there's good ol' cubbiehater Jay "What we have here is a choke in progress" Mariotti in the Sun-Times: As fast as his cane would allow, Ron Santo limped out of the booth and went home. The fans removed their rally caps, the front office cranked up the shredder for those embarrassing playoff-ticket leaflets, and America once again purged the romantic notion that two tortured franchises could play this autumn in a World Series. In the most agonizing meltdown yet of a Cubbie lifetime, welcome to 1969 + 1984 + 2003. Who needs Steve Bartman when a so-called leadoff hitter can't lay down a critical bunt, when a two-time batting champion bunts instead of swinging away, when 22 runners are stranded over two games, when the Cubs manage one run and seven hits in a dozen innings on a day when Mark Prior rediscovers his greatness and whiffs 16 batters? There's only one thing left to say when a club with a $100 million payroll and monstrous expectations drops three straight to the also-ran Reds after losing twice to the also-ran New York Mets and three times in previous weeks to the soon-to-be Washington Generals. The Cubs don't deserve to make the playoffs. They are flawed, dysfunctional and unworthy of October. They can't execute fundamentals, can't win one-run games and really don't know how to play ball. A billy goat is laughing his tail off. ''I think we all know where we're at right now,'' Prior said. On life support, if not dead. Unless he wants to write and direct ''Cursebusters,'' Harold Ramis can please stop singing ''Take Me Out to the Ball Game.'' The tragic number at Wrigley Field is one, meaning the Cubs must sweep the playoff-bound Atlanta Braves while hoping the wild-card-leading Houston Astros lose once at home -- where they have won 15 straight -- against the terrible Colorado Rockies. And even if that unlikely scenario develops, the possibility then exists the Cubs would face Roger Clemens in a play-in game. In other words, organist Gary Pressy could have played ''Taps'' on Thursday after 3 hours and 26 minutes of futility concluded with a crushing 2-1 loss, which capped a maddening six months of hell that cost Cubbie diehards their fingernails, their livers and considerable chunks of their already battered hearts. You couldn't help but laugh when an elderly lady held a sign that said, ''Steve Stone For Manager.'' While Dusty Baker isn't responsible for personnel decisions that included the signing of LaTroy Hawkins and the glaring absence of table-setters atop the batting order, he is accountable for not coaxing his men to play smarter baseball. This might be the dumbest high-profile club I've ever watched. And how appropriate to see so many idiotic tendencies converge on the most important day of the year, when it became apparent early that a lineup of acclaimed hitters would respond like choking dogs while Prior dazzled. Take the fourth, for instance, when the Cubs had runners on first and second with none out. Don't you try a bunt there, Dusty? Nope. Todd Walker swung away and popped out, as did Derrek Lee. It was an omen of stupidity to come. No major-league team in the last 30 years has been more dependent on homers for run production than the Cubs, who lead the National League in longballs but rank 11th in on-base percentage and 14th in walks. The convoluted disparity was in full, stinking bloom on this day, when the Cubs waited for a home run, got a solo shot from Strugglin' Sammy Sosa in the sixth, then didn't score again against the ordinary likes of Aaron Harang, John Riedling, Gabe White, Jose Acevedo and Juan Padilla. A season of inefficiency came to a head in the 12th, when Jose Macias led off with a single and, of course, didn't score. He didn't because Corey Patterson can't bunt. If Kenny Lofton was the September team MVP last year, Patterson is a Least Valuable Player candidate down this stretch. Continuing to fancy himself as a five-tool player and No. 3 hitter, he has driven Baker crazy with his strikeouts and free-swinging ways. If nothing else, he should have been able to bunt Macias to second. But he failed twice -- and was hammered by boos. The only thing more aggravating than his technical flaw was his blase attitude afterward. Was he upset with himself? ''Maybe at times, you can kick yourself or whatever. But it's over with,'' Patterson said nonchalantly. ''You can't dwell on it. You move on from there and get ready to play tomorrow.'' Even when there is no tomorrow. After Patterson whiffed to more boos, up to the plate came Nomar Garciaparra, who was acquired because of his slashing line drives and power. With one out, Garciaparra should have been swinging, not worrying about grounding into a double play. No one gave him the bunt sign, obviously, yet strangely, he decided to bunt anyway, successfully moving Macias to second base but reducing the Cubs' margin of error to one out. Please explain, superstar. ''The guy was playing back,'' Garciaparra said of third baseman Felipe Lopez. ''We needed baserunners at the time, especially with the guys coming up behind me. In the worst-case scenario, we do get a guy in scoring position. He made a great play.'' Someone asked him if he was trying to be cute. Translation: Why would an offensive force who once hit .372, who had 35 home runs and 122 RBI in a single season, choose this strange moment to move over a runner? Suddenly, Garciaparra was having a Boston flashback. The media were badgering him. Did it ever occur to him that he's The Curse, the link between the Red Sox and Cubs? ''I don't know why that would be cute,'' he said of the sacrifice. ''Did you expect me to bunt? I thought it was a great idea to put a guy in scoring position. I don't think anything was shocking there. It doesn't matter what kind of hitter I am in that situation. It matters what kind of team you have.'' The Cubs are not much of a team, as we learned many months ago. They are choke artists and babies, with one of the biggest whiners, Moises Alou, fittingly ending this latest dark episode in franchise infamy with a lazy fly out. ''We work on [bunting] all the time,'' an exhausted Baker said. ''We just came up short today.'' And Garciaparra's decision? ''He did that on his own,'' Baker confirmed. It was noble, if pathetic, to hear Prior try to blame himself. ''One run should have been enough with the stuff I had today,'' he said. ''I gave up one too many.'' No, the problem is much bigger, something to do with the uniform he wears. Never, ever forget a perpetual fact of sporting life. The Cubs always will be the Cubs. This year's slogan: Where there are hopes, there are dopes http://www.suntimes.com/output/mariotti/cst-spt-jay01.html
That is good news ... On the Dodgers radio station yesterday, they said they were not sure if Gagne was going to be able to play in the series with the Giants ... Too bad Milton Bradley had to blow up because that really hurts the Dodgers
Cubs are about to get underway. I'm going to be glued to WGN just so i can listen to Stone/Carey as they witness the final nail being hammered into the coffin.
Man, I am so excited! I am so loving it! Man, I love how the Scrubs are being torn apart by the media and their own fans. THis rules! Perfect week! (just need the finishing touch)
I wonder if Bagwell and Biggio gave Hampton a call last night to make sure he's on his game again. Let's hope he pitches (and hits) like the Hampton that was on the Astros
Incase you didn't get a glance at the chronicle this morning, check out this picture of pithers Mike Gallo and Chad Qualls when the Reds beat the Scrubs.
