Yesterday was my 15th straight Opening Day, and if I recall correctly, the 15th straight year I have frozen my ass off at Wrigley Field for the first game of the year. To be fair, I'm sure there has been a somewhat warm Opening Day among those 15 years, but I sure as hell can't remember when they happened. Yesterday was even halfway decent if you happened to be in the sun and not in direct line with the 25 mph wind that was howling in off the lake, so it turns out it might have actually been worth it to sit in the centerfield bleachers at $100+ per ticket. But enough about my bitching about the weather, there is plenty left for me to bitch about.
Kris and I started our day by meeting up with her cousin and husband at Yak-zies. I have normally avoided Yak-zies ever since they accused me and my friends for not paying for a round of drinks, that we not only did pay for, but we paid for them and tipped the waitress on the full round even though she had forgotten two of our drinks when she originally brought them, but that's where they had set up camp so we headed into the lion's den.
By the time we got there a little before 11:00, it was already a clusterfuck in there with a line to get in. This is why the Ricketts want so desperatley to get some development going around the park that goes into their pockets. There was a line to get into fucking Yak-zies. People will literally go anywhere and pay anything to get their drink on for normal game days, and this was Opening Day, which is basically a holiday on the North Side.
We got in pretty quick (it is still Yak-zies afterall), and made our way over to meet our friends, who had made other friends by now. Everybody was very nice, but clearly already drunker than anyone should probably be at eleven in the morning. While we were there, I engaged in some small talk and tried to gauge what the fans were expecting out of the season. One guy who told me his name was Moe, was very optimistic. He bet me a dollar that Soriano would finish the season batting .300 or better. He also expected Samardzija to suck, so he wasn't just vomiting rainbows. Moe thinks they will win 76 games and he's going to owe me a dollar.
Another guy was happy to see "kids" like LaHair and Mather get chances on the team.
I heard another woman who was glad that Dempster would have a chance to be an ace without Zambrano "in the way."
There was lots of talk about how the Cubs could surprise a lot of people by being competitive in the division. Ah, drunk talk. Sweet Opening Day drunk talk.
We had a couple of drinks (and paid for them) and headed on out to get our hats for the year. We walked down Clark and as we went, you could practically smell the hope emanating throughout Wrigleyville. Hope, as it turns out, smells a bit like puke.
As we reached Clark and Addison, we saw The Noodle in its new spot in the McRickett's parking lot. It had a lot of brown crap all over it, and I thought it was there to keep people from sliding on it. It turns out the brown metal stuff nailed to the noodle is supposed to be bacon. I didn't think there was a way to make bacon sound unappetizing, but peppering metal representations of it onto a giant noodle that drunk people will be climbing all over managed to do the impossible.
Of course, that corner is also the new home of the Rickett's new souvenir shop that was hastily erected over the winter to draw in customers that normally would have shopped at SportsWorld, Wrigleyville Sports, or any of the other multiple souvenir shops scattered around Wrigley. Tell us again how you want to help your fellow Wrigleyville business owners by building more competition to all of their business, Tom.
Of course, I don't really care who gets my money as long as I get a good hat for the year so we went in and checked it out.
It turns out it is pretty nice in there. They had a wide variety of items and the staff was far friendlier than most of the staff that I've encountered in the actual ballpark. I found myself a fitted 1934 replica hat.
Kris found herself a gray-greenish hat with a pink C on the Clearance rack that she liked for $10. So we had our new hats for the year and the Ricketts now have more of our money. You're welcome, Tom.
So now we were ready to go into the ballpark. God help us.
The lines went smoothly, including the bag inspection for Kris (which is a welcome change from situations we have experienced in the past).
We headed on up and decided to partake of the ballpark's food offerings out on the sunny patio before settling into our freezing cold seats. I had boycotted paying for food or beverage in Wrigley almost two years ago when I decided the Ricketts weren't going to get any extra money of mine until they did something other than just follow the Tribune's playbook like nothing had ever changed, so this was actually a fairly momentous occasion for my fandom, though I doubt anybody reading this gives a shit.
I went with a hotdog and a brat, and they were pretty much exactly as I remembered them being. That's not a bad thing, but it isn't a good thing either. Wrigley food will probably never be anything that tantalizes taste buds, but they were hot enough and the buns weren't stale, so they met the minimum requirement I have for stadium food.
Now it was time for the introductions. We missed the Nationals getting introduced and I didn't hear any big crowd noise, so I'm not sure what other people have been talking about that DeRosa got a rousing ovation. He might have, but I didn't hear it so it was quiet enough that it didn't carry out to the upper deck patio area.
Then it was the Cubs' intro time. Most of the players got tepid polite applause. Kerry Wood probably got the biggest ovation. Garza, Dempster, and Castro were the next largest. Soriano actually got cheers, and I didn't hear more than a couple of knuckleheads boo anybody. I'm not sure if what surprised me more, the lack of booing for Soriano or the significantly rousing cheers saved for Jeff Samrdzija. I don't know what he has done to enamor himself with the people of Chicago, but there is a large group of people who really like him. Enjoy it while it lasts, buddy.
(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
As the game started, I set the over/under on Cubs hits for the day off Strasburg at 1. Dempster proceeded to match that number on the first pitch as he gave up a leadoff single. Then we all started getting that sinking feeling as he walked the next batter and had Ryan Zimmerman smoke a ball to center that would have left the atmosphere if the wind hadn't been blowing in with all its might.
Strasburg made quick work of DeJesus and Barney before giving up a weak pop-up to the mound from Castro. The problem was that he didn't seem inclined to catch it himself and none of the other Nationals' fielders could get there in time once they realized he wasn't going to try to catch it. So there was the Cubs' first hit and Sandy Koufax's perfect game in September 1965 remains the last time the Cubs were no-hit for at least another couple of days.
After that, neither offense did much on their own accord. The Nationals loaded the bases on an error and two walks in the third, but Dempster wriggled out of it.
In the fourth, Soriano managed a one-out single and the Nationals helped out with a little creative defense when they messed up a force play on a squib by Ian Stewart. Unfortunately, the Cubs are hellbent and determined to add TOOTBLAN-apalooza to our vocabulary so Soriano was thrown out trying to steal third. Jeff Baker followed with a walk, and Marlon Byrd blooped in a hit to left to score a run and the CUBS HAD THE LEAD! HOLY SHIT!
It stayed that way for awhile. The hitters for both teams seemed like they just wanted to go and get warm, and I wholeheartedly on board with that decision. I was wearing a thermal and two fleece sweatshirts and it was getting pretty unpleasant the longer we stuck it out so we couldn't be more pleased with how the game was rolling along.
Somewhere along the way in about the 6th or 7th inning, Kris noticed the right field video board for the first time all day. Now, she is not one of those girls that goes to the games and doesn't pay attention. She was watching the whole game and had completely forgotten the video board even existed. So I think that should indicate how well the new patio fits in with the rest of the ballpark. Traditionalists can rest easy as it seems the old girl can still make whore's glitter look classy.
By the 8th inning, I was counting outs like it was a playoff game just because I was ready to leave the cold. Unfortunately the Cubs wanted to extend the day a little more. Jeff Baker treated an easily fieldable ball like it was radioactive, and Sveum went to the bullpen.
I can't say I disagreed with the move. Dempster was at 108 pitches and we all remember how well he would do last year when he would convince Quade to leave him in for one more batter. So Dempster got a nice standing ovation and Kerry Wood came in to get the last out of the 8th. This prompted Kris to ask how much of the standing ovation was for Dempster and how much was because Wood was coming in the game. I think most of it was for Dempster, but with Cubs fans, you never know for sure.
Wood proceeded to load the bases with two walks, but the crowd was still with him. He got Jayson Werth down 0-2 and the crowd was standing and chanting "Ker-ry, Ker-ry, Ker-ry!" It would have been a great moment, but Wood instead walked in the tying run. He finally retired the mighty DeRosa, but at that point, the crowd had been pretty well deflated. It's pretty depressing to see Kerry Wood being so damn ordinary. The crowd seemed to agree as a good portion started filing out.
The 8th didn't go well for the Cubs and then Marmol came in and surprsingly didn't walk anyone, but also didn't strike anyone out. He gave up two 2-out hits and suddenly the Cubs were losing. The crowd continued their mass exodus.
Kris and I watched Reed Johnson go down swinging on three strikes to Brad Lidge and decided to head for the exits ourselves. Stewart hit his shot off the wall just as we were reaching the rampand we decided we would still go downstairs, but we'd hang around to see what happened. If they tied it, we'd have a decision to make about hanging out in the cold for extra innings.
It turns out we needn't have worried as Joe Mather was gunned down easily at the plate on a grounder to third from Jeff Baker on the very next pitch. As we reached the bottom of the ramp, we entered the realm of angry Cubs fans. Nobody could understand why Mather had been running on contact. These people are going to have coronaries before the end of the season if they react like this every time the Cubs do something stupid on the bases. I just laughed. I couldn't help it. It was all just so Cub.
We continued down and watched Byrd take a called third strike that I called a strike before the umpire had a chance to and we quickly exited the park.
The fans that were leaving were cold, and they seemed to have the wind knocked out of them. It's hard to take a loss like that when you have actual expectations. That's the peril of having hope on Opening Day, but it happens every year. We never learn.
Maybe next year.
Comments
At least you had…. I was going to say “fun.” “Frostbite,” maybe?
joshQuote Reply
@ josh:
I like my new hat.
Aisle424Quote Reply
(dying laughing)
SkipVBQuote Reply
Wonder what that makes the Hope Monster smell like?
SkipVBQuote Reply
Excellent write-up, Aisley. I could smell the hope-vomit and taste the bratwurst.
Here’s my look back at Opening Day.
It was nice to have real baseball to look forward to. In addition, this wasn’t just a new year, but kind of a new team. A mediocre to bad team, but a new one. We have a brand new president and GM, the best in the business. A new manager who reportedly has the work ethic of a thousand Juan Pierres. And again, it’s real baseball, something we haven’t had in five or six months. So once I remembered it was actually opening day on Thursday, I got a little excited.
It was a great game for several innings but it was a total let down in the end. No, not because they blew the lead. Not because it was “so Cub” or “deja vu”. Well, actually, yes, it was exactly that, but in a different way. The let down to me was that I was looking forward to something fresh. Mediocre to bad, but fresh. However, all the key players in the game on Thursday were the same old same old.
Dempster has been on the team for 9 seasons, Wood since last century, and Marmol was on the team during the Mark Prior era. Old Man Soriano had a key TOOTBLAN. And Byrd, who got the lone RBI, is the personification of the shitty last two years we are supposedly getting a fresh start from.
This is the new mediocre to bad Cubs? Same as the old mediocre to bad Cubs.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
Jered Weaver has an ERA of zero, but his FIP is even lower.
ACTQuote Reply
@ ACT:
I only watched a few innings of that game last night, but he looks awesome already.
mb21Quote Reply
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-0407-bits-cubs-nationals-chicago–20120407,0,5343640.story?track=rss
h/t Bleacher Nation
BerseliusQuote Reply
Yoenis Cespedes hit a HR last night that just landed
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
Core strength.
ACTQuote Reply
Bubbles Breakdown of minors people that matter to him
iowa
Brett Jackson 1-3 3B 1 RBI (3) 1 BB 1 K (3)
Rizzo 2-4 RBI (2) K
Beefy 1-3 2B RBI, BB, K
Vitters 1-3, BB (2) http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1xvmav9rz1r13iiho1_400.gif K
Beliveau 1 IP 1 H 1 BB 2 K
Tennessee
McNutt 3.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB 3K
Cabrera 2 IP 1 h, 2 K
Watkins (2-4)
Ha (0-3) with a BB http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1xvmav9rz1r13iiho1_400.gif
Daytona
Sczzur 0-3 BB, and Run
Torreyes 0-3
Silva 3-4 2 2B
Alcantra 3-4 (HR (1) 4 RBI
Jokish 6 IP 4 H 2 ER (2R) 1 BB 5 K
Harris 1 IP 1BB
Zych 2 IP 1h 1 K
Peoria
Devoss 1-3 with a BB
Hernandez 0-4 2ks
Golden 1-4 K
Easterling 1-4 2 Ks
Francescon (I have never heard of him) 4.2 IP 2 Hits. 9k’s 1ER
Miguel Sano ( Grand slam)
Bubbles minor leaguer of the night
Dylan Bundy 3 IP o h, o bb, o R, 6 K
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
@ Suburban kid:
Part of me is with you on the new Cubs same as the old Cubs, but then I don’t know what else we could have realistically expected. I did want them to get Cespedes and his first few games are giving me pangs of regret they didn’t get him, but that’s about it for this off-season.
I think we’ll see a few more of the “olds” shipped off before the trade deadline and then it might get a little more interesting on the major league level. It’s definitely difficult to not want to see immediate change though.
About Last Night…
Get More: SOUTH
PARKmore…
Aisle424Quote Reply
Pujols —-> Bust
GBTSQuote Reply
Lincecum ———-> didn’t throw a single slider yesterday
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
B, do you know what his velocity on his fastball was? There was talk that his fastball velocity has been down.
MuckerQuote Reply
@ Mucker:
His fastball has been in decline for like three years, no?
GBTSQuote Reply
@ GBTS:
I didn’t know it was three years. I know for sure they said it was last year.
MuckerQuote Reply
The interesting thing to me about the Cain extension is the impact it has on Tiny Tim….
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
@ Mucker:
I heard the velocity was still down but didn’t see any specific numbers. Lincecum was the one who said hte bit about the sliders, after the game
BerseliusQuote Reply
90 mph average for Lincecum, 91.4 max. http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/pfx.php?month=4&day=6&year=2012&game=gid_2012_04_06_sfnmlb_arimlb_1%2F&pitchSel=453311&prevGame=gid_2012_04_06_sfnmlb_arimlb_1%2F&prevDate=46
mb21Quote Reply
Righty-stacked lineup against LHP Gonzalez today
RF Johnson
3B Mather
SS Castro
LF Soriano
1B Baker
C Soto
CF Byrd
2B Barney
P Garza
Maybe we can hope that the Barney high in the order experiment is over already? (dying laughing)
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
GBTSQuote Reply
@ bubblesdachimp:
Over the last 2 years Cain and Lincecum have been equals (both 8.9 fWAR and 8.0 rWAR). If that continues he’ll get about what Cain got (give or take). I expect Cain to be better though.
mb21Quote Reply
It’s interesting, that link MB posted said Lincecum threw 16 sliders but Lincecum said himself he didn’t throw any. Is that site confusing his changeup with a slider at times?
MuckerQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
I hope. Also nice to see Soto move up to 6th. Rather see him 4th or 5th, but I’ll take 6th over 8th.
mb21Quote Reply
@ Mucker:
Harry on the twitters yesterday was saying there was confusion as to whether they were sliders or changeups. I don’t remember what the verdict was.
GBTSQuote Reply
@ mb21:
Of course, it’s too bad that Mather, who isn’t projected to be much better than Barney, is batting second (dying laughing)
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
I was wondering how long it would take for Sveum to succumb to the temptation to bench DeJesus and Stewart against southpaws. Turns out, it didn’t take long at all.
ACTQuote Reply
Sveum sees DeJesus and Stewart as everyday players, not as platoon partners. It’s just a coincidence that they’re both resting on the very first game against a southpaw. They’re just tired from playing two days ago.
ACTQuote Reply
Lopez is up, Cubs are trying to put Valbuena through waivers.
BerseliusQuote Reply
Rodrigo Lopez=====> Cubs
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
Nationals lineup
SS Desmond
2B Espinosa
3B Zimmerman
1B LaRoche
RF Werth
LF Capn Stubble
CF Bernardina
C Ramos
P Gonzalez
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Aisle424:
I’m OK without immediate change. I don’t think anyone here expected change quickly. I know I’ve been arguing for some time it’s going to take 5 years for this team to contend and I think it’s going to be at least that. What somewhat bothers me is that whatever change there were, it was a change back to the 90s Cubs. If you look at the Cubs offseasons in the 80s and 90s we see they picked up nothing but players on the cheap.
I’m actually OK with that too. It’s going to take several years for this team to be competitive and they still need to have 25 guys on their active roster. But it does irritate me. For the first time in my life the odds of the Cubs contending in the near future exist only with the help of some very good luck. I’ve talked about it before, but at least a decade ago we could talk about their stacked farm system when they sucked. Before that we could talk about how adding some pitching an offensive player to compliment Sosa would go a long way toward making the team good. Instead of going after that player they went after Gary Gaeitti and other players like that. It doesn’t seem too different than going after DeJesus (a signing I liked and still like), Ian Stewart (liked that one too even though I don’t expect much) and a mountain of crappy starting pitchers.
I guess what I’m saying is that even though I knew damn well change was going to take a long time, it still irritates me that the only change we’ve seen is going from the 2000 Cubs to the 80s/90s. It’s not rational. I know that. Combine that with some very questionable decisions and I’m probably more irritated than I would be if they hadn’t happened. Even that I knew would happen. Hell, Theo told everybody that if he was doing a bang up job 45% of the decisions made wouldn’t be good ones.
Mostly though, it’s just that I can’t see an end to this. It’s going to take so damn long to turn this organization around. They have a crappy minor league system, only a couple players at the MLB level you could even begin to think would have value down the road and this front office will be forced to spend half as much on the draft and international signings than they did in Boston. They’ll have half as many 1st round and 1-5 round picks. They have no free agents coming up worthy of offering arbitration to except maybe Garza, but he should be traded before it comes to that.
When you think about it, the Cubs have essentially been reduced to the Pirates who have been trying to rebuild their minor league system for the last 15 years. In recent years they’ve spent big money too. If that talent reaches the big leagues the Cubs are obviously in better shape than the Pirates, but you can spend a couple decades trying to rebuild a farm system with little to show for it.
I didn’t realize it at first, but the new CBA really really really really fucks the Cubs. We know for sure that Thoyer can develop talent when they have access to many additional picks and more money to spend, but we have no idea if they can do so on the average budget with the average number of picks. We have no idea if they have superior scouts. All we know is that Boston had a hell of a lot more draft picks.
mb21Quote Reply
I mean batting Reed is at least the correct answer yes? He killed them last year
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
GBTS, do you have the transparent Alvin image?
mb21Quote Reply
I’m happy to see Reed in there vs lefties.
mb21Quote Reply
I’m okay with Reed there too. I don’t think any of the Cubs righty hitters have a particular OBP skill
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ mb21:
I have it as a .psd file.
GBTSQuote Reply
@ mb21:
Yea i am too. I wish we would have kept stewart in there.
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
@ GBTS:
I’m pretty sure gimp opens those files. Could I then convert that to png? Would that keep the image’s transparency?
mb21Quote Reply
AC also has it so nevermind. 424 is wanting it for something and he left it at the OV Headquarters. It’s his desktop background.
mb21Quote Reply
@ bubblesdachimp:
I’m never going to be upset with a manager if he optimizes his lineup, which is what Sveum did here.
mb21Quote Reply
@ mb21:
I agree with you. I just think it is awful early to concede Ian Stewart cant hit lefties
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
@ bubblesdachimp:
It’s not as if the Cubs don’t have information on this in the rest of his career.
BerseliusQuote Reply
Huh, his career splits are .321 vs LHP, .327 vs RHP. Need to regress it of course, but it’s surprising
BerseliusQuote Reply
319 career PA vs LHP, 1103 vs RHP
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ mb21:
Just sent it to your gmail. If it doesn’t work let me know, I’ll see if I can convert it to some other file type that preserves transparency.
GBTSQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
I mean he isnt Ryan Howard out there
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
How much better off would the Cubs system be if they still had Lee and Archer? If the Cubs trade Garza, could they expect an equal package of what they gave up or a better package?
MuckerQuote Reply
@ Mucker:
I’m not sure it would be much better, but I’ve also never been a big fan of Lee or Acher (dying laughing)
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Mucker:
A lotta people love Lee. You would be looking at ayoung positional core of
Baez, Lee, Castro, Rizzo, B jackson. That is a good start
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
Plugging their numbers into the split projections, Stewart is projected to be .297 vs LHP, .296 for Mather
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Mucker:
I feel like if guys like Greinke or Hamels don’t hit the market, they should just extend Garza instead of trading him.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ GBTS:
It works. Thanks a lot.
mb21Quote Reply
@ Berselius:
That’s projected ISO, right?
GBTSQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
But those numbers don’t take into account the transformation of Joe Mather as a hitter, b.
You can calculate true transformed talent level by using this formula: Projection*2.
So his .297 projection is really .594. For pitchers it’s Projections*.5 so a transformed 4.0 FIP pitcher would be 2.0.
mb21Quote Reply
@ GBTS:
ISO + RBI%
BerseliusQuote Reply
(dying laughing)
WTF
GBTSQuote Reply
(dying laughing)
(dying laughing)
GBTSQuote Reply
@ GBTS:
Woah.
[spoiler title=”potentially inappropriate”]I didn’t know the Klan did birthday parties.[/spoiler]
Rice CubeQuote Reply
What is wrong with these parents?
GBTSQuote Reply
The Easter Bunny is awesome
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
Off to participate in forced coworker fun. Berselius out, fuckfaces
BerseliusQuote Reply
Hey fuckfaces, I wasn’t being rational. I was describing FEELINGS. Not that you know what those are.
Yeah yeah, I know. BCB =========================>
Suburban kidQuote Reply
Peter Gammons @pgammo Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
Trevor Bauer and Archie Bradley’s combined opening lines:10 IP, 1 R
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
@ Suburban kid:
I tend to agree with what you wrote, SK.
mb21Quote Reply
game thread up: http://obstructedview.net/games/nationals-at-cubs-game-thread.html
mb21Quote Reply