Baseball Journal 6-9-13

The Chicago Chamber of Commerce is clearly in charge of the weather this weekend. The blimp refuses to the leave the city and continues to orbit over sporting events. Today, it was the Cubs playing the Pirates. Len and JD spent the early innings talking about New Hampshire baseball players and Edwin Jackson’s new shoes. They were wondering how long a pair of shoes lasts for a major leaguer these days. I’d say given the amount of time most players spend on the DL, probably an entire season. There was a fight in the stands between two little kids, older brother and younger brother. It seemed to end with both of them being annoyed at one another.

The other early game highlight was the commercials. There was an unexpected part two to a chip commercial from the previous day. I wonder where this is going? I already want to try the chips. Then there was an extremely glamorous Kia commercial. Great looking car (not to mention to the model driving it), but I’m standoffish on the name, Cadenza. Sounds like a piece of furniture, a piece of furniture which I will likely never own.

Around the 5th inning, the guys noticed that Pirate pitcher, Jeff Locke, had a no-hitter going. It was easy to miss that, since he’d also walked seven and was around 100 pitches, just about evenly divided between balls and strikes. In the 6th, he gave up a run without surrendering a hit. Dioneer Navarro came up with a single later in the inning and put a graceful, merciful end to Locke’s outing, as he was taken out immediately afterward.

Ah, happy totals from Toronto, as the Rangers win 6-4. None the worse for wear from yesterday’s ordeal, other than they had to put a couple more starting pitchers on the Disabled List. I listened to a couple of innings before going to watch the Cubs game. It was a little funny listening to players being announced as going 3 for 8 yesterday.

Back in Chicago, Cody Ransom went from being the goat for getting picked off Second early in the game, to taking an extra base and scoring later and then hitting a three-run homer. Nice recovery. Cubs win 4-1. Edwin Jackson’s new shoes paid off. I got to hear the victory song for what seems like the first time this season. And yet another gorgeous girl in the stands between home plate and the Cubs’ dugout. No wonder I keep thinking Cubs’ fans are better looking than White Sox fans.

The Dodgers were on the radio when I returned home. They were getting the hell beat out of them by the Braves, 8-1 final. JD was mentioning during the Cubs broadcast about the Dodgers having about $150M in payroll on the DL. The Dodgers announcers were doing the same. Unlike the Angels, I’m actually feeling somewhat sorry for the Dodgers. Even the otherwise solid, Adrian Gonzalez, is having a sub-par year at First Base. About the only good thing about the Dodgers this season has been the bumper music the broadcasts use between innings.

But that’s all changed this week. The Dodgers didn’t need to add hundreds of millions to their payroll, they just needed a rookie Cuban defector, Yasiel Puig. In addition to his video game-like accomplishments this week (supersonic speed, great fielding, hitting .464, four home runs with a grand slam), he went 3 for 5 today (batting about .445) in an otherwise futile effort by the team. If this kid’s going to be a star, the first mandatory thing that must happen is, he’s got to get a nickname. “Puiggggg!” is just not a great rallying cry. However the name thing goes, we’ll keep an eye on him.