This is an excerpt from an email I sent a friend last night. It was late and I was tired. But I had just finished watching the Cubs loose to the Braves late in the game and I had to get some thoughts about them down on paper.
The email picks up in the middle. I’m talking about a trip I took to Wrigley while I was in Chicago.
One thing I did get to do was go to a Cubs game with my dad. Which was amazing. It was the first one I’d been to in two years. So, fuck yeah. I saw Zambrano pitch against the Pirates but loose the game after Z exited. Which was pretty typical at the time. Lately has been a different story though.
The past week has been pretty encouraging. They lost late to the Braves tonight after Dempster’s wild pitch, but they’ve still won 4 of 6 or 5 of 7. I want to get excited about them but it’s tough because, let’s face it, they’re still the Cubs. Although, Rich Hill was filthy the other night and Soriano is starting to rake. If Derek Lee snaps out of his mini slump tomorrow, things will get interesting. If Soriano and Lee carry the team for the next 5 or 6 days — until A-Ram feels better — I’ll buy in because Ramirez will hit like he always does. You can just see it. The guy has the chance to be Manny Ramirez-like. It looks like he doesn’t have a thought in his head, but once he gets going he just doesn’t know how to stop. I’d bet 100 bucks he’ll still end up with 30+ homers and between 90 and 100 RBIs. With the three of them hitting the ball, the Cubs are going to put 4 or 5 runs up a day.
The pitching just needs to synch up. Hill, Lily and Marquis threw out of their minds for the first two months. Then Hill and Lily went cold back to back. Marquis was amazing for a couple more starts, but he came back to earth. Zambrano has been a mystery all season but it looks like he’s getting his shit straight. Part of me wonders if his mom saw what happened and bitched him out. Imagine that scene:
Carlos: Hi Ma.
MamaCarlos: What did you do tonight?
Carlos: (shuffling feet) N-Nothing.
MamaCarlos: You hit that poor white boy right in the face! What did I tell you about picking on people smaller…and stupider than you?
Carlos: Carlos was hungry. Besides, he told everyone I like to wear women’s underwear.
MamaCarlos: If I ever see you do that again I swear to Ozzie Guillen I will… Did you say women’s underwear?
Carlos: No?
MamaCarlos: Are you ever going to do that again?
Carlos: No. In fact, I will forget that anything before this day has happened! From now on I will devote my life to hunting down the man who killed my father: Ugeth Urbina!
PapaCarlos: Hi.
Anyway, if we can keep two pitchers hot and one guy decent while the other two struggle, we’ll win games. If the bullpen can hold on to leads and be reliable, we’ll win the division. But that’s a lot of ifs.
Ted says hello.
