General Cubs Chit-Chat

[Thurman Merman]

who remembers the barrett grand slam vs the cardinals on sunday night baseball from that season

 

I was at that game and it was awweeesssoooommmeeee.

[soccer10k]

who remembers the barrett grand slam vs the cardinals on sunday night baseball from that season

 

Capped off a sweep of the Cards on one of the first couple weekends. I still have the video of that saved on my computer.

[soccer10k]

I just realized this is the 20th anniversary season of the Sammy Sosa/Kerry Wood/Wild Card season.

 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CHC/1998-schedule-scores.shtml

 

This will always be my favorite non-WS winning Cubs team. I was just a little too young to appreciate 1989, so seeing them do the clubhouse celebration when they made the playoffs felt so epic.

 

Those early steroid numbers look so crazy now. Brant freaking Brown put up a .501 SLG in 124 games, or roughly the same as Anthony Rizzo last year. Kevin Tapani almost put up 20 wins and almost put up an ERA over 5 in the same season.

 

Arbitrary cutoff points and all but it's one of only 4 seasons where a pitcher put up an ERA over 4.8 and had 19+ wins. Two were in the 1930's and the other was Mussina in 1996.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Insane to think that we got 450 IP and 13 bwar out of two 22 year olds in 2003

[17 Seconds]

who remembers the barrett grand slam vs the cardinals on sunday night baseball from that season

 

the crowd that night was extraordinarily loud for an april game

 

[David]

bruce levine was saying we should pass on bryce harper because we have enough offense and pitching is what we need to pay for. this annoyed me greatly.

[Clem Fandango]

Levine needs to shut his dumb wet mouth

[Ding Dong Johnson]

bruce levine was saying we should pass on bryce harper because we have enough offense and pitching is what we need to pay for. this annoyed me greatly.

[hawkeyecub]

who remembers the barrett grand slam vs the cardinals on sunday night baseball from that season

 

the crowd that night was extraordinarily loud for an april game

 

 

Probably just my age, but every game felt like such a big deal in that timeframe until it went bad. I was born in '83 so had just vague memories of '89. Grew up loving individuals in the '90's but the teams were never good. '98 was super fun but out of nowhere and ended quickly. '01 was awesome for a while but similar to '98. '03-'04 and into '05 was nuts. You knew all games mattered which was new for Cubs fans but it was also before social media and phone distractions or DVR (for the most part). So many guys in our dorm, then apartments watched all 9 innings damn near every day.

[cubsclapp]

bruce levine was saying we should pass on bryce harper because we have enough offense and pitching is what we need to pay for. this annoyed me greatly.

 

Yeah, passing on 26 year olds that have already had a 9.5 fWAR season and just had a better OPS than a dude that cranked 59 dongs seems like a great idea.

 

Also, the Cubs are likely set at SP for 3 years, next year's FA SP market (assuming Kershaw goes nowhere) doesn't even seem all that good, and they're going to have prospects develop that are going to allow for trades.

[Derwood]

The Warriors shouldn't have traded for Durant since they already had Steph Curry.

[David]

The Warriors shouldn't have traded for Durant since they already had Steph Curry.

 

the warriors didnt trade for durant

[Sammy Sofa]

The Warriors shouldn't have traded for Durant since they already had Steph Curry.

 

the warriors didnt trade for durant

 

The best part is that he took his time to post that.

[Derwood]

The Warriors shouldn't have traded for Durant since they already had Steph Curry.

 

the warriors didnt trade for durant

 

Whatever, you get the point. "We already have good players so we shouldn't try to get the best player" is a dumb, stupid, dumb take

[Sammy Sofa]

Whatever, you get the point.

 

This really should be his new status.

[Bull]

Whatever, you get the point.

 

This really should be his new status.

Or location

[UMFan83]

[tweet]

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Joe you don't need to waffle here. Your first instinct is usually correct especially with something as obvious as this.

[UMFan83]

who remembers the barrett grand slam vs the cardinals on sunday night baseball from that season

 

I was at that game and it was awweeesssoooommmeeee.

 

Same here, in the bleachers. Leaving that game and walking down Sheffield people were jumping up and down high fiving like we just won the pennant.

[Cubswin11]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

 

Joe you don't need to waffle here. Your first instinct is usually correct especially with something as obvious as this.

Waffling, sure but I'm just glad you don't need to read much in to it to see he's clearly on the side so many are on this board that these guns are ridiculous and nobody should really have them. Like you said it's an obvious thing and it would've been nice to see more conviction from him along the lines of Kerr but I get why he played it a bit down the middle while still making his stance on it pretty clear. I wouldn't be surprised if we get a stronger statement/stance from him about it once Rizzo is back. I'll also be interested to see how Rizzo responds as I'd imagine he will get similar questions once he's back in camp.

[Andy]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

 

Joe you don't need to waffle here. Your first instinct is usually correct especially with something as obvious as this.

Waffling, sure but I'm just glad you don't need to read much in to it to see he's clearly on the side so many are on this board that these guns are ridiculous and nobody should really have them. Like you said it's an obvious thing and it would've been nice to see more conviction from him along the lines of Kerr but I get why he played it a bit down the middle while still making his stance on it pretty clear. I wouldn't be surprised if we get a stronger statement/stance from him about it once Rizzo is back. I'll also be interested to see how Rizzo responds as I'd imagine he will get similar questions once he's back in camp.

Rizzo already implied his stance with 'something needs to change' in his symphathy Tweet yesterday, but you're right, I'm looking forward to what he has to say.

[Sammy Sofa]

I'm not.

[David]

do you guys remember when we had hideo nomo

[WrigleyField 22]

do you guys remember when we had hideo nomo

Not at all.

[David]

do you guys remember when we had hideo nomo

Not at all.

 

he was with us in spring training in 99. i was super excited. then we released him bc he didn't want to stay at AAA.

 

 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-04-24/sports/9904240154_1_nomo-agent-general-manager-ed-lynch-hideo-nomo

 

The Cubs gave up on Nomo after the 30-year-old right-hander declined the team's request to make two more starts for their Class AAA farm team in Des Moines so they could evaluate him further. Nomo's contract stipulated the Cubs must bring him up after three starts at Iowa or release him so he could sign elsewhere.

 

 

 

"It was our opinion Hideo Nomo was not ready to join our major-league club," General Manager Ed Lynch said. "I had a conversation with (Nomo agent) Don Nomura today. I asked him if he'd be willing to extend his stay with (the Iowa Cubs). He felt that was not in Hideo Nomo's best interests, so we released him."

 

Nomo was 1-1 in his three starts at Iowa with a 3.71 earned-run average, giving up only 12 hits and striking out 18 in 17 innings. But Lynch and his advisers were unconvinced because Nomo walked 12 batters, including six Thursday night.

 

"The fact that he had difficulty throwing strikes (was the reason)," Lynch said. "We just felt at this time, versus major-league hitters, he would not have the success to warrant us bringing him to our club. That does not mean he won't achieve that command in the future."

 

Now Lynch risks the possibility Nomo will excel for a competing National League club after basically having a rehabilitation stint at the Cubs' expense. Nomo, who has a career record of 49-41 with a 3.66 ERA, would have had a guaranteed salary of $800,000, plus incentives that could have kicked it up to $2.8 million.

 

Most of the Cubs had left the clubhouse by the time the decision was announced, but Sammy Sosa criticized Nomo for not granting the Cubs' request.

 

"(The Cubs) were not asking for the world," Sosa said. "I don't see the reason why he couldn't go one more start. He was not ready yet. We were going to give him another chance."

 

The Cubs beat out three other clubs for Nomo's services in March, and he's expected to be picked up by some team. Nomura did not return calls Friday.

[Sammy Sofa]

Whoa. I have zero memory of that.