Cubs win! Cubs win!
I think they took this picture of Bell right before he went out to pitch in the bottom of the ninth today...
"Oh God, I just know I'm going to give up the winning hit against the Cubs today, I just know it!!!"
Go Derrek Lee, in the at-bat of the year... fouling off 5 straight pitches with a full count, just waiting for the pitch he wanted! That is how major league hitting is done!
posted by Hyposquasher @ 5:20 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Seriously.... Lee fought for that at-bat, as I think he was dying to have a crack at the bases-loaded in the 9th... he waited until the 10th and saved Dempster's ass...
I just don't get it, regarding closing the game out. From innings 3-8, Prior/Ohman allowed 1 hit and effectively no action on the bases. Come the 9th, everyone's getting a hit (only 2 Mets had hit safely all game), everyone's on base, everyone's safe etc. etc. etc.
It was a nutty game to watch, Prior's bad 2nd inning to Zambrano's even worse 2nd inning, back and forth, and you knew it was going to come down to something like this to break the game open. Nice one Lee, 2-game winning streak is on the table.
yeah man... good game to watch, i bet. the job of closing close games out has gotten in the heads of every pitcher on this team, and any pitcher who will come to this team in the near future. dempster's was lucky that his shaky ninth inning only resulted in one run. luckily, that one run only tied the game keeping the cubs alive, and he pitched a perfect 10th inning, as he was no longer in a position to "close the game."
derrek lee's final at-bat should be put on a posterboard and thumb-tacked to the locker-room wall. it is a perfect example of how almost every at-bat should be approached. he took balls when they were obviously not strikes and early in the count when he had room to. after he had two strikes, he defended himself amazingly, fouling off every single pitch that wasn't the pitch he wanted. he must have had a very clear idea of what he was looking for, and every time he didn't see it, he fouled the pitch away. finally he got what he was looking for and punished heath bell for throwing it. amazing.
Uh, it was Wrigley. Probably one out of three games at The Friendly Confines can be weird this way.
This is the ballpark where the Cubs beat the Phillies 26-23, on Aug. 25, 1922. The park was known as "Cubs Park" back then.
The Phillies got their revenge in 1976, when Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt hit four home runs at Wrigley, in an 18-16 victory over the Cubs. Another Hall of Famer, Steve Carlton, started that game for the Phillies. He lasted 1.2 innings, during which he gave up 7 runs to a less than stellar Cubs' team.
The Cubs turned it around on the Phillies on opening day at Wrigley in 1989, when with a lead of three runs going into the ninth, the Cubbies brought in newly acquired reliever, Mitch Williams, to face the bottom of the order.
Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams promptly walked the bases loaded and then struck out the next three batters, including Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt. Turn about is fair play, as my grandaddy said.
Thanks for the history lesson, Paps. Why don't you tell us about the year when the pitchers had to pitch to the location the batters called for? Or maybe when the mound was lowered? Or when players had to walk ten miles to the ballpark, barefoot, in the snow, uphill, backwards...
Do you ever have interesting commentary on modern baseball?
I know I'm not the only one when I say I enjoy some historical background on the Cubbies.
absolutely JT... i rather enjoyed the historical notes by jim...
did you already know those facts? if so, then good for you... you post some more recent stuff instead. if not, let the rest of us enjoy some new info.
Post a Comment
<< Home