Here's a clue for Dusty: Cubs stink
BY JEFF GORDON
Post-Dispatch Online Sports Columnist08/10/2005
BY JEFF GORDON
Post-Dispatch Online Sports Columnist
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=155 align=left border=0 VALIGN="top"><TBODY><TR><TD>
Columnist Jeff Gordon
(E-mail a "Letter to Gordo")
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left background=http://images.stltoday.com/stltoday/pixels/336699.gif height=1>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
The Cardinals are finally in Chicago for a summer weekend series against the Cubs . . . and the Small Bears are hopelessly out of the playoff race.
So much for the big August showdown. So much for high-stakes baseball against the dreaded arch-rival.
The Cubs are so downtrodden than not even the sight of Cardinal red can fire them up any more. What a difference 13 months make.
“At this point the Cardinals are no different than any other team,” Cubs second baseman Todd Walker told the Chicago Sun-Times. “If we were two games behind them, that would make a difference.<SCRIPT language=javascript><!-- // beginDisplayAds("Frame1","","");// --></SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=JavaScript1.1 src="http://OAS-Central.RealMedia.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/www.stltoday.com/sports/columnists/gordo/1527525011@Frame1" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT>
But the Cubs are 19 games behind the Cards coming into this series. Nineteen!
“Now it doesn't matter if it's the Mets, Cardinals or whoever,” Walker said.
There won’t be much electricity at Wrigley Field this weekend, other than what’s needed to keep the beer cold. The baseball itself will mean nothing.
Getting into the games shouldn’t be difficult for fans that drove up to Chicago without tickets, since brokers will flood the streets with ducats. Why would Cubs fans show up for these games if their team is just going to mail it in?
(Thank goodness for the gorgeous lakefront and all the world-class restaurants and nightspots. At least the Cardinals and their fans can have a big time away from the ballpark).
Even by Cubs standards this season has been a catastrophe on the North Side, a team failure of epic proportions. They aren’t lovable losers -– they are just losers, which is why a steady chorus of boos has droned through Wrigley Field in recent weeks.
The Cubs can’t blame this fiasco on television analyst Steve Stone, who left his gig under duress. Nor is play-by-play man Chip Caray to blame; he’s down in Atlanta now, calling Braves games.
Sammy Sosa is long gone, along with his boom box and his music collection. He no longer serves as the franchise’s lightning rod for criticism.
Familiar scapegoat LaTroy Hawkins is gone, too, leaving other relievers to fail in his absence.
Now manager Dusty Baker has no one and nothing else to blame for his team’s egregious failure. He has burned up his once-formidable pitching rotation, leaving Mark Prior, Carlos Zambrano and Kerry Wood on the mound for large pitch counts.
All three of those would-be aces have battled injuries this season. All three have missed time -– and there is no telling if or when Wood will return to the rotation.
Baker’s team is miserable defensively. The Cubs are, in fact, sloppy in every aspect of the game. They are inventing new and imaginative ways to lose.
There have been some dreadful managerial jobs in recent seasons, but Baker ought to get some sort of prize for orchestrating this total collapse. The Cubs have had injuries, true, but they have shown about 1/100th the resilience of the battered Cards.
Tony La Russa just rolled out David Eckstein, John Rodriguez, So Taguchi, Jim Edmonds, Hector Luna, Abraham Nunez, Scott Seabol and Einar Diaz and won at Milwaukee. So injuries are no excuse for the Cubs playing THIS poorly.
Even MVP candidate Derrek Lee has been in the tank lately, batting just .206 with one RBI in August.
“I'm probably more bewildered than I am embarrassed,” Baker said after Wednesday’s loss to Cincinnati, which dropped the team six games under .500. “We're just trying to figure this thing out.”
Pay attention Dusty, because here comes a clue: Your team stinks.
Columnist Jeff Gordon
(E-mail a "Letter to Gordo")
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left background=http://images.stltoday.com/stltoday/pixels/336699.gif height=1>
The Cardinals are finally in Chicago for a summer weekend series against the Cubs . . . and the Small Bears are hopelessly out of the playoff race.
So much for the big August showdown. So much for high-stakes baseball against the dreaded arch-rival.
The Cubs are so downtrodden than not even the sight of Cardinal red can fire them up any more. What a difference 13 months make.
“At this point the Cardinals are no different than any other team,” Cubs second baseman Todd Walker told the Chicago Sun-Times. “If we were two games behind them, that would make a difference.<SCRIPT language=javascript><!-- // beginDisplayAds("Frame1","","");// --></SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=JavaScript1.1 src="http://OAS-Central.RealMedia.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/www.stltoday.com/sports/columnists/gordo/1527525011@Frame1" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT>
But the Cubs are 19 games behind the Cards coming into this series. Nineteen!
“Now it doesn't matter if it's the Mets, Cardinals or whoever,” Walker said.
There won’t be much electricity at Wrigley Field this weekend, other than what’s needed to keep the beer cold. The baseball itself will mean nothing.
Getting into the games shouldn’t be difficult for fans that drove up to Chicago without tickets, since brokers will flood the streets with ducats. Why would Cubs fans show up for these games if their team is just going to mail it in?
(Thank goodness for the gorgeous lakefront and all the world-class restaurants and nightspots. At least the Cardinals and their fans can have a big time away from the ballpark).
Even by Cubs standards this season has been a catastrophe on the North Side, a team failure of epic proportions. They aren’t lovable losers -– they are just losers, which is why a steady chorus of boos has droned through Wrigley Field in recent weeks.
The Cubs can’t blame this fiasco on television analyst Steve Stone, who left his gig under duress. Nor is play-by-play man Chip Caray to blame; he’s down in Atlanta now, calling Braves games.
Sammy Sosa is long gone, along with his boom box and his music collection. He no longer serves as the franchise’s lightning rod for criticism.
Familiar scapegoat LaTroy Hawkins is gone, too, leaving other relievers to fail in his absence.
Now manager Dusty Baker has no one and nothing else to blame for his team’s egregious failure. He has burned up his once-formidable pitching rotation, leaving Mark Prior, Carlos Zambrano and Kerry Wood on the mound for large pitch counts.
All three of those would-be aces have battled injuries this season. All three have missed time -– and there is no telling if or when Wood will return to the rotation.
Baker’s team is miserable defensively. The Cubs are, in fact, sloppy in every aspect of the game. They are inventing new and imaginative ways to lose.
There have been some dreadful managerial jobs in recent seasons, but Baker ought to get some sort of prize for orchestrating this total collapse. The Cubs have had injuries, true, but they have shown about 1/100th the resilience of the battered Cards.
Tony La Russa just rolled out David Eckstein, John Rodriguez, So Taguchi, Jim Edmonds, Hector Luna, Abraham Nunez, Scott Seabol and Einar Diaz and won at Milwaukee. So injuries are no excuse for the Cubs playing THIS poorly.
Even MVP candidate Derrek Lee has been in the tank lately, batting just .206 with one RBI in August.
“I'm probably more bewildered than I am embarrassed,” Baker said after Wednesday’s loss to Cincinnati, which dropped the team six games under .500. “We're just trying to figure this thing out.”
Pay attention Dusty, because here comes a clue: Your team stinks.
uppy:
