Monday, August 23, 2010

D-Lee

1969. A groundball through Leon Durham’s legs. Greg Maddux signing as a free agent with Atlanta. A lazy flyball down the leftfield line in Game 6 of the NLCS. There have been many dark days in Cubs history and one more took place last week. The rumors of Derrek Lee’s departure finally materialized.

Seven years of gentlemanly excellence ended when the Cubs acquired three pitching prospects for the probably-more-injured-than-reported Lee. (Watching Lee turn on a grooved fastball and see it only land between the left and centerfielder has been painful.) In a heartbeat my Derrek Lee T-Shirt and Authentic Replica Uniform went from fashionable to vintage.

The concern, of course, is can a long distance relationship continue to work? For seven years we have had a wonderful, albeit one-way relationship. Now the 742 miles between Chicago and Atlanta will force us to see if our connection was out of convenience or true affection.

Listening to the fallout of the trade brought some interesting observations. On the radio, there were those that said that Lee was nothing more than Mark Grace with a little more power. Couldn’t be, could it? But on inspection, it’s not far off – at least numerically.

Lee averaged for seven seasons: 25.5 Homeruns, 82 RBI, 82 R, .298 BA, .378 OPA with three Gold Gloves.

Grace averaged for thirteen years: 11 Homeruns, 77 RBI, 81 R, .303 BA, .386 OPA with four Gold Gloves.

Very similar seasonal averages. There were some differences of course. Grace was glib and was an outspoken team leader, Lee more the quiet voice of reason; Grace was more party, Lee more parent. And of course the biggest difference of all. Grace came up through the Cubs minor league system while Lee joined the Cubs . . . in a trade for a young power hitting, minor league system produced firstbaseman . . .in November 2003 . . .just 42 days after Lee’s former team had defeated the Cubs in one of the most painful playoff games in baseball history. A game in which Lee had a two run double in that fateful 8th inning that knocked Mark Prior out of the game.

Yet Lee joined the Cubs in 2004 and immediately became a fan favorite. Even with his slow start that season, he handled the criticism with professionalism and finished the year with 32 homeruns, 98 RBI and a .356 OBP.

Would any other Cub killer have been as embraced? Could Steve Garvey have joined the Cubs in November 1984 and become a fan favorite? Not likely.

Lee was special. He was strong, professional and when Scott Eyre threw that off-balance throw in Los Angeles forcing Lee to stretch into the path of the batter, fracturing his wrist, Lee never once blamed his wrist for lower power numbers the following two years. He just went about his business and admitted it was his responsibility to produce and drive in runs.

You’ll be missed, Derrek. Here’s to a healthy 2011, hopefully – miraculously – in Cubby Pinstripes. It would make our relationship so much easier.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Get Your Pencils And Scorecards Ready!

Whenever (usually) a guy reaches his mid-40’s to early 50’s there is a threat that he could have a Mid Life Crisis. I don’t think this is it. I think this is more of Making a Contribution To Society.

Listening to Cubs games on the radio has become a HUGE chore. Ron Santo can’t explain his way to the corner and when he’s ailing or unable to travel we have the equally inept Dave Otto (or Oh-tto as Pat Hughes says). Not to be morbid but it’s not certain how much longer Ron is going to last, maybe a couple of seasons.

Pat Hughes just signed a contract extension with WGN recently so he’s got a few years left as well. That gives me two to three years to get prepared and I need your help. I fully realize that I cannot simply walk into WGN’s offices and declare my candidacy for Cubs Radio Play-by-Play guy with no practical experience. So I’m ready to head off to Pawtucket to play-by-play the Red Sox games. Or Durham to describe the Bulls. Shoot, maybe the Oaks in Visalia need someone to give verbal representation to their loyal fans. I’m on it – ready to cut my teeth. I just need an opening. If any of you loyal readers have any connection to a baseball team in need of an announcer, let me know.

I cannot promise that I will be the next Vin Scully, Ernie Harwell or even Vince Lloyd. But what I will promise you is that I will love what I do, will broadcast a full nine innings (extra if necessary) and will not talk about my tuna sandwich.

Here is a smattering of what Hughes has related to us recently. The Cubs are playing 21 straight games and that is a long time without a day off. The Cubs played in San Francisco where it was cool in the evening, but they were headed to St. Louis for the weekend where it was unbearable hot, over 100 degrees.

In recent years Hughes has negotiated to (originally) take the top of the fifth inning off and then (most recently) added the bottom of the fifth inning to his time off. He doesn’t do Cubs pre-game (that’s handled by Santo Valet, Judd Sirott) or post-game (that’s done in ‘GNs studio by Dave Kaplan, Jim Memolo or George Ofman). If the game runs over three hours his tone makes it sound like he’s working overtime without getting paid.

When the game heads into extra innings Pat very deliberately says “we’re headed into the 10th” as in “oh my god, could this get any worse?”

I’m actually torn by this because purely as a baseball announcer I think Pat is one of the best. When he doesn’t try to play footsie with Santo (sorry, probably not the best phrase to choose) and he stays on the game, he’s really very good.

But ever since I heard that he negotiated the fifth inning off and had actually complained that it was getting to be too much and needed some time off during the season, all I hear is him whining about having to do more work, or work in less than perfect conditions. It’s kind of like being told not to think about space aliens - - that’s all you’re going to think about.
Give me two years to get the cadence to “line drive – up the middle!” A few seasons to perfect the homerun call. When I hop in the chair you will get a guy relating about what a great day it is at the ballpark and if we go to extra innings SWEET! More baseball, what could be better than that?

Chattanooga Lookout! Here I come!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

A Man and A Milestone

As of today I’ve finally reached the point in my life where I have something in common with Barack Obama and Hank Aaron. Obama – 44th President of the United States; Aaron – Uniform number 44; me – 44 years. Whenever we reach a milestone or simply hit another cycle on the calendar it often causes us to reflect back on simpler times.

Since my only foray into politics was a failed run at Vice-President in sixth grade, most of my reflections incorporate baseball. I was reading an article in Sports Illustrated by Phil Taylor wherein he waxed nostalgic for his youth and recreating the batting stance of his childhood idol Tommy Agee. That threw me back to my adolescence out in the front yard as I grabbed a whiffle bat and ball and proceeded to have the Cubs take on the Pirates, Dodgers, all comers. I would hunch over the plate and do my best windmill swing for Dave Kingman. I would stand in the lefthanded batter’s box with my feet shoulder width apart, bat parallel to the ground, knees flexed and try to nail my best Bill Buckner double to the gap.

With the pitchback set up, I could be Rick Reuschel or Bruce Sutter (without the amazing splitter) and when the ball nestled into the ribbon square I would whip my arm around, creating a wild umpire call, not really reminiscent of Satch Davidson or Doug Harvey or Eric Gregg.

Without cable, PS3, laptops and cellphones, we were forced to use our imagination, listen to the radio and create images in our mind. It was more fun to go outside and physically be responsible for the Cubs winning 24 in a row than sitting on the couch letting our thumbs hit homerun after homerun.

As a marginal little league pitcher, the one thing I was blessed with was accuracy. I can directly attribute that to the hours upon hours I spent throwing the ball at the square on the pitchback, throwing at the first stair of our house in playing makeshift ballgames or hitting the same spot on the garage to get the proper rebound to complete the much needed 6-4-3 doubleplay.

Birthdays, anniversaries and specific times of the season do a wonderful job of throwing us into the time warp of magical days when life was easy (though it may not have seemed so at the time).

A beautiful cool summer day. A whiffle bat and ball. Is it going to be Bill Buckner or new favorite Derrek Lee with the open stance and vertically stretched approach? Maybe a swing from both sides of the plate is necessary today.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Home Is Never Far Away

Even when you plan a family vacation to get some rest and relaxation (if that’s possible with a family of six) sport, and baseball in particular, still has a way of being omnipresent.

The Lady Rebel and I took the crew down to Disney last week. As we were walking through the various parks, everywhere I turned I had sports thrust before me. First we have the Florida weather. It felt like St. Louis on a 4th of July doubleheader when they still had Astroturf. Each day was 98 degrees, 105 heat index and humidity making you feel like you were walking through the ocean.

As people were making their way around the parks there was more allegiance to various sports teams than there was to the host mouse. Since Disney attracts people from across the globe, it wasn’t surprising to see a bunch of soccer jerseys walking around, especially in light of the recent World Cup. A handful of Miami Heat, Dwayne Wade jerseys made their appearance.

By far and away baseball was the leader in jersey/t-shirt/hat representation. Among the entries were the LA Dodgers, a few Yankees, obviously a bunch of Rays and a lot of Chicago Cubs. But the winner going away was the Boston Red Sox.

Perhaps the most dedicated fan though, belonged to the Dallas Cowboys with his Cowboy star tattooed to his upper right arm. Didn’t see any Prowling Bears or Dodger Dogs inked in any visible places.

Even being 1190 miles away from home didn’t allow me to get away from Pat and Ron and the Cubs. Given the massive underachievement of the Cubs, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to leave Chicago and theoretically be out of touch with their antics. But the Cubs are still a National Team. Sunday night while surfing the channels, there they were on ESPN for the Sunday Game of the Week. Sure they lost 4-3, but it concluded a successful weekend series against the Cardinals and they went toe to toe with Chris Carpenter and didn’t blink.

Then WGN-Channel 9 brought us a game or two against the Astros. Even while I was driving around I stumbled across the Ft. Meyers affiliate for WGN-Radio so I continued to hear Pat and Ron do their schtick. But as the vacation was winding down, reality set back in. Friday evening we got back to the room after watching a cool laser/fireworks display at Epcot. After packing our bags for the early flight the next morning the family tucked in and I surfed for something to watch. There they were on the ‘GN superstation playing the Rockies. And then the 8th inning rolled around and after six runs scored, making the tally 11-2 Colorado, I decided “I’ve got to get up in four hours. I’m not watching this garbage.” The next day I found that the Rockies were only halfway through their barrage of 12 eighth inning runs.

Perfect way to end the magic of vacation and get back to the cold reality of everyday life