Sports
Last year on this date the Chicago Cubs had a 32-35 record and would go on to a 83-79 record and finished 10 games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central. Right now they have a 41-27 record, are in first place in the NL Central and lead St. Louis by 5 games. The Cubs currently have the second best record in the National League and fourth best in the the MLB.
I don’t understand the definition of a sell out at a Major League Baseball game. My definition would that every seat is occupied, but that can’t be true because the Tigers say the weekend series against the Cubs sold out every game and yet on Friday night I saw entire blocks of empty seats in the upper deck, left field corner. Sure, there are going to be empty seats as people don’t show up, but entire rows? Not to mention the many empty seats right behind home plate. Something doesn’t compute. I know they are talking ticket sales, but with the paperless tickets and scanning it should be able for stadiums to have actual attendance
Yesterday the Cubs got wiped out by the Jack Flaherty and the Tigers 4-0, and my eyes got wiped out by the wind and smoke. Here is a picture of Cubs rookie Cade Horton.
The only thing hotter than the Cubs today was the weather. Chicago beat the Tigers 6-1 on a sunny Saturday in Comerica Park.
It’s Chicago Cubs weekend for me here in Detroit as they are in town for a three game stand and I have tickets for all the games. Last night the Cubs got beat by the best pitcher in baseball and two great plays at the fence by Tiger outfielders. Read the game recap by BleedCubbieBlue.com. My record of seeing the Cubs win in person is not good. Hoping to see a win today.
The Cubs beat the Nationals last night and in the game they hit the team’s 200,000 hit since the National League was formed in 1876. The Cubs are the first NL team to reach that mark.
The bullpen problems the Cubs had in their loss to the Mets yesterday is more of the same of the Hoyer era. Every season the Cubs rebuild their bullpen mostly from pitchers who were let go from other teams. When they do sign a free-agent reliever it is not when that person is at their prime but rather after their prime when they don’t command as high a salary. Hoyer’s plan for building a championship team is predicated largely on luck, but luck is not a strategy. No matter whether the Cubs win the division at the end of the season, Ricketts has only one question to answer and that is, based on his body of work, can Jed Hoyer build a consistently championship level competitive team? I think the evidence since 2017 is clear, he cannot and it is time for a change in direction.
An American Pope? Never expected to see the day. One of my best friends is excited that he is from Chicago and apparently a Cubs fan and they both got their Masters of Divinity from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. I even spent a few nights at CTU the first time I ever traveled to Chicago on my own while my friend was still in school. The real important question though is the new Pope a fan of deep dish or thin crust pizza?
The Cubs have just completed the first series of the season against the Pirates winning two of three games, a disappointing result considering that is a match up between first and last place teams in the division. As I wrote before the series started I wanted to see the Cubs sweep the Pirates or win 2 of three at a minimum. Winning two of three is not playing down to the opponent but they should have won the game last night and completed the sweep today. Next up is a weekend series in Wrigley north against the second place Brewers starting Friday night on Apple TV (sigh). We will learn a little more this weekend by whether or not the Cubs win the series.
By most reports the Chicago Cubs wrapped up their toughest two weeks of the schedule last night and enter the first series against divisional opponent Pittsburgh with a 17-12 overall record and a 1.5 game lead in the N.L. Central. In short, they exceeded expectations. However, for me, the upcoming month against lesser opponents will be more telling. Will the Cubs play down to their competition, which has been a problem in the past, and end May with just a few games above .500 or will they extend their overall record to well above .500 by dominating the lesser opponents? Good teams beat the teams they are supposed to beat, and they are supposed to beat Pittsburgh so I am looking for a sweep or at least win the first two for a chance to sweep.