Lazy Thursday

Having two days off in a row from baseball is not good for you. So I figure we might as well take this time to look at what's coming up next on the radar. Tomorrow's game is against the Reds, a team that we just can't seem to get a handle on this year. Adam Dunn scares me the most, but this crack head kid Hamilton has been heating up too, he just hit his second home run of the year last night. Zambrano is pitching tomorrow, and I'm sure you remember what Adam Dunn did to him in his first game. He already got his first win out of the way though, and that's usually tough for him to do in April so I have high hopes. Rich Hill pitches on Saturday, which I'm very excited for, this kid has some great stuff. Ted Lilly pitches in the game on Sunday, and the jury is still out on him. Those are probably our three best pitchers at the moment, so if we don't take at least 2 out of 3, we have some serious issues. With the days off, Wade Miller has been pushed back as far as humanly possibly. I think we're gonna try and see if we can make it the whole rest of the month without him pitching.

Since I was at the home opener on Monday, I couldn't really hear Devin Hester sing the national anthem. The crowd was too loud, like always. However, I did just watch a video of it that I found at Len and Bob's Baseball Blog. Holy freaking God. Either he was having way too much to drink in Skybox Number 7, or he should never be allowed to touch a microphone again. Unless he's gonna return it for a touchdown.

The fun is just beginning with the football singers. On April 14th we have Bernard Berrian, the 15th is Brady Quinn, and the 22nd will feature Robbie Gould. The entire list through April 24th can be found here. There's also a high school boys football team and a girls basketball team, so those should be entertaining too.

So enjoy your day off. Go outside, run around, have fun. Oh wait, you can't, it feel like Alaska out there. Then I guess you can sit in your cubicle and work all day. Sounds like fun.

Home Opener: We Suck Again!

So I'm at Wrigley Field today for the Home Opener. Everyone's excited and the festivities are in full swing. Lou presents Lovie Smith with a nice little plaque of appreciation for fielding a Chicago sports team that doesn't suck, Devin Hester throws out the first pitch, Navy personnel parachute on the field and one lands in another one's parachute, little children lead the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance, and the ever classy Wayne Messmer sings the National Anthem. Life is good. Then the game started and it all went down the toilet.

Some highlights of the Opening Day experience:

• It was Wrigley Field on Opening Day. That's a highlight in and of itself.
• The parachuters (parachutists?) were cool, though none of them came close to hitting the pink X that was on the field. And one of them went flying into another one's parachute as he landed. Awesome.
  
• The Bears personnel. Lovie and Hester were watching the game in Skybox #7 (at least I think it's called a skybox). How do I know this? Because I was sitting about 30 feet away from said skybox:

• The Bears people walking by constantly meant that every time Lovie or Devin left the box, everyone in the Terrace Reserved section quit paying any attention to the game and just started screaming. I'm pretty sure I got Lovie to turn his head towards me once. Didn't get a picture of that, but I did get a nice hand wave shot from Devin:

• It was cold as [insert cold object with expletive here]. And there were flurries for a bit. And it's April. Something is wrong with this picture.
  
• Saw Ronnie Woo-Woo at the McDonalds after the game. He gave me a pat on the shoulder as he walked by. I touched a celebrity. This shirt is never getting washed.
• Did I mention it was cold?

Overall it was an interesting game, and if it wasn't for the team falling apart it would have been a great day. However in the end this is a baseball game I was at, so we can't just avoid the subject entirely, no matter how much I want to. That being said, here is the required game summary.

Game Summary for April 9th, 2007

• Score: Cubs lose to the Astros, 5-3
  
• Player of the Game: Alfonso Soriano. Tied the game with some very good baserunning and tallied another hit. I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet, but Soriano is on a 7 game hit streak. He has exactly one hit every game so far this season. The man is on pace to break DiMaggio's record with a .219 average. It would really be nice to see a multi-hit game from him though. Please?
  
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Bob Howry. Blew the game tonight, didn't even give Dempster a chance to do it himself. Maybe if he spent more time practicing and less time philandering with women of questionable character this wouldn't have happened.
  
• Comments: Today was a roller coaster of emotions. Most of the game was flat-out depressing, as although Lilly was fairly solid, the Cubs couldn't put together any offense that amounted to anything. When we got those two runs in the sixth inning though, that reminded me why I love this sport so much. And when Soriano scored in the seventh I was confident that we had this. But then Everett got a hold of one of Howry's pitches, and well that was that. Heart of the order came up in the 8th inning and couldn't get anything going. Extremely disappointing game.
  
• Magic Number: 157. Reds did play today. They lost to the Diamondbacks. I am an idiot.

Tomorrow's game has my hopes up. Marquis gets a chance to prove that his first game wasn't a fluke, and maybe Lou will actually leave him in long enough to seal the deal and earn that win. Or maybe the bullpen won't implode again. Either case would be good.