FUCK!  FUCK!  FUUUUUUUUUCK!

6 Pitches

For the second consecutive outing Kerry Wood needed only six pitches to finish the game. Though he didn't get the save tonight I'm thinking he'll take the team victory.

Idiots Abound

This story has been making the rounds the last couple of days, and anyone who knows me can tell you how I feel about this. If you're not sure, please re-read the title of this post.

I'm not sure how it got to the point where someone actually made this shirt. Apparently they're missing the part of the brain that tells normal people when to stop. My guess is whoever created this shirt A) didn't receive much of an education, B) was abandoned by his parents at an early age, C) is one of those Republicans who goes around calling Barack Obama a "Halfrican," or D) is a total whore who will do anything to make money.

I could spend the entire day trying to figure out what kind of moron would think this is OK, but I'll let one of the morons do the talking. Here, without any edits, is one "fan's" thoughts:

"the horry kow!! FUKUDOME IS NOT RAICE THIS T-SHIRT IS FUNNY I FEEL THIS T-SHIRT SHOULD NOT BE BANDED FROM SEELING AROUND THE PARK. I GO TO SOX PARK AND THEY SELL WRIGLEY FIELD'S LARGEST GAY BAR T-SHIRT THERE FOR TWO YEAR'S NOW WHY HAVEN'T THEY BANDED THEM!!!!!!!!!"*

No real Cubs fan would buy this shirt. No real person would buy this shirt. This isn't about being PC, it's about simple respect.

When asked about the shirt Fukudome said, ''I don't know what the creator of the shirt meant this to be, but they should make it right.''

The shirt has been pulled from the stand where they were being sold, and the Sun-Times is taking full credit.

* I relize this might be an ironic joke posted by a sarcastic Cubs fan. I sure the hell hope so.

Hey Marty

So Marty Brennaman has an issue with Cubs fans.

A few things:

1) Welcome to the club.

2) Seriously?

3) Go fuck yourself.

To my first point - a lot of people hate the Cubs because of their fans, they're called southsiders. We don't need (or want) some numbnuts announcer from a hillbilly town telling us that Cubs fans can be obnoxious.

To my second point, apparently Marty has some deep-seated issues about the Cubs. First off, a dozen drunk fans don't make up the entirety of Cubdom. Apparently Marty has problems counting considering that attendance for that game was 40,099. The fact that 40,083 (give or take) of those people didn't do a damn thing to upset him went unnoticed.

Maybe it was the 12-3 drubbing the Cubs were putting on the Reds that bothered him.

Maybe Marty forgot to take his Metamucil that morning.

Maybe it's the fact that the Reds are already 4 games off the pace and going nowhere fast.

Or maybe it's just that Marty is a stupid, humorless jerkoff with nothing better to do than disparage everyone who calls themselves a Cubs fan because a couple of frat boys, gasp, threw baseballs onto a baseball diamond.

Basically he's a bigot.

"You simply root against them. I've said all winter, people talk about this team winning the division, and my comment is they won't win it because at the end of the day, they're still the Chicago Cubs and they will figure out a way to screw this whole thing up."

That's like me saying, hey, a guy wearing a Reds hat started a fight in the bar where I work, thus, all Reds fans are belligerent drunks and as a result the Reds are a bad baseball team and will not with the World Series.

Apparently Marty has forgotten (he's getting old, and you know, all old people forget things) the Cubs are the NL Central defending champs. Where did the Reds finish last year? Oh yeah, 5th place.

Maybe Marty is upset because, by percentage of seats, the Cubs last year had the best home attendance in the National League and were second in the majors behind Boston. (The Reds were 19th.) Maybe it's because. again behind Boston, the Cubs are the second highest selling team when they travel. The Cubs were also the best-selling NL team in 2006, 2002 and 2001, and the best selling team in the majors in 2005, 2004, and 2003.

Yeah, Cubs fans suck.

As to my last point, well, I think it speaks for itself.

Numbers

I came across some interesting stats this morning.

Between 2003-2007 against the Reds Mark DeRosa is hitting an astonishing .463 in 82 at bats with 4 homers and 22 RBIs. Ryan Theriot is at .360 in 89 ABs with 3 HRs and 13 RBIs, Aramis Ramirez is batting .323 in 285 ABs with 18 HRs and 57 RBIs and early MVP candidate Derrek Lee has beat up the Reds staff at a .304 clip in 237 ABS with 22 HRs and 59 runs batted in.

This year these guys (with the exception of Ramirez at .143) have more than picked up where they left off with DeRosa at .429, Theriot at .444, Lee at a red-hot .667 and even Fukudome, obviously facing the Reds for the first time, hitting .571 in 7 ABs.

Today's games should be interesting with the Cubs facing Edinson Volquez who is 1-0 this season with a minuscule 0.87 ERA going against so-far very disappointing (he's absolutely murdering my fantasy staff) Ted Lilly who hasn't won yet and is brandishing a 9.95 ERA.

Sheesh!

Is this how it's gonna be all year?

I don't need to watch my team blow a 7-0 lead, then the next day blow two two-run leads (including one in the 14th inning) only to come back and win. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they won (against one of the saddest teams in the National League), I just wish they would do it in a more traditional fashion. Let's keep the extra inning games to one or two a month, not every day.

Interesting tidbit, the last time that the Cubs won consecutive extra-innings games on the road was June 20 and June 21*, 1989, coincidentally enough, against the Pirates.

*Greg Maddux threw 10 innings of shutout ball and the Cubs won 1-0 in 11 innings. Must have been a great game to watch.

Oh No, AlSo

We're a week into the season and I'm just wondering, what has Alfonso Soriano done with his strike zone?

He's hitting .077 going into today's game.

0. 7. 7.

Here's the thing about leadoff men - they're supposed to get on base. For his career AlSo has a .281 BA and a .326 OBP. For comparison, Derrek Lee has a .282 career BA and an OBP of .368, nearly 50 points higher than Soriano.

Does Soriano have to be a "traditional" leadoff guy? Not at all. But he does have to get a hit more than once every 13 at bats.