Laura

Very well done, DJaxx! :D I'm really looking forward to Nomar returning to the Cubs.

...with a bottle of scotch and his dog...

I told Brandon yesterday that NSBB has been "sing"ing his praises. I hope by "NSBB" you mean "me". :lol: Just kidding, I know that Ron and a couple of other people are big fans as well. Hope he can keep up the amazing production of the last 1.5+ years. By the way, what is the DJaxx franchise record in HRs... does he have a reasonable shot at it? Even if he doesn't, he still has a pretty good shot at the league HR title, which would be quite impressive given Pringles Park reputation as a pitchers' haven. I have been a fan of his for a while, despite the fact that I haven't posted in his love thread much. I'm sure Rasin or O_O can vouch for me on that if necessary. :D DJaxx was kind enough to bid successfully on his jersey for me over the weekend. :)

Or what happens? It would seem that tragedy is averted as Gallagher so far has 5 shutout innings (3 hits, 4Ks/0BBs :) ). 9-0 Chiefs. I'm off to a birthday lunch (not mine) and a Muscle Musical involving weightlifters who dance while working out.

That sounds like a more interesting story than the game report would be ... 8)

Go Rich Hill! GO CUBS!

I've felt a few so far! I'm actually female, and she's my sister-in-law (not that there'd be anything wrong with that ...). :D And the drinks ARE good!

Modzilla made me an offer I couldn't refuse. 8-[

Thanks so much for the Q&A on this ... I bought the dvd, so I appreciate the opportunity. :)

Indeed. He must win the ERA title. Gallagher's most recent outing was the disaster in Lansing; the outing before that, he K'd 10 in 6 innings. He hasn't missed a start thus far this season. July starts: July 2: 5IPs, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 1K/2BB July 7: 7IPs, 6H, 3R, 3ER, 3K/1BB July 13: 5 IPs, 2H, 2R, 2ER 4K/3BB July 18: 6 IPs, 6H, 3R, 3ER, 10K/1BB July 24: 1.2 IPs, 5H, 6R, 6ER, 5H, 3K/5BB

I'm guessing Fuld didn't want to give up 5. I thought it was a tribute to Paul Bako. (and Alan Rick is already wearing #24, Blanco's new number) :)

There were a few Cubs prospects mentioned in the 7/29 Chat Wrap

Urgh, looks like only 4 of the Ft. Wayne runs were earned. Granato with 3 errors at 3B. I'd have to check, but I think his last brutal D-game was at 3B as well. And:

Please direct any replies to the linked thread. Thanks! :D

Stinks that it happened to the DJaxx ... but I'd be a *little* happy to see a pro-game no-hitter in person. I never have.

Thanks! I figured they'd want him to pitch as a reliever, since he'll have to get accustomed to that role. Wish I could make one of these celebrity Chiefs games. Wow, now I'm wondering if Kerry will start sitting out on the Wrigley bullpen bench. :P

If you were watching the All-Star game, that's be Koshien Stadium, home of the Tigers. Yes! That was the stadium. We haven't been watching much tv since I arrived here, but Asako found the game a few nights ago while flipping through the channels, so we watched it for a little while. It was fun ... when a player hit a home run, he was immediately interviewed by a gaggle of media types, like the red carpet time at the Oscars. :) The drastic differences in the infields I've seen so far interested me, given that I've heard about field conditions being a consideration when evaluating how a Japanese infielder may adjust to MLB (defensively, anyway). I've visited Japan a couple of times before, but never during baseball season, so I was psyched to get a chance to go on this trip (which isn't really a site-seeing trip). Yep, that's Iwamura. He also uses a bright-red bat, typically. Interesting! What's the significance of red to him?

It's cool to see the packed crowd in the background, too. :)

How do they usually manage a rehab like Wood's? Since the plan is to have him work out of the bullpen, just slot him in for the 8th/9th of the two games? Or have him pitch the first inning of one or both of the Sunday/Tuesday games? Just curious.

I hate to do this, but we now have two competing almost-identical Soriano trade threads, and it would be chaos to merge them, so this one gets locked. Please direct responses to this thread (Premium). If you want to reply to something posted in this thread, just copy and paste it into the other thread to do so. Thanks! edited because I can't spell paste; must have eaten too much in my misspent youth

That's my main beef. I don't know that winning is the priority; if it is, I don't think he's choosing the best path to accomplish that goal.

Cubs.com says that this is Prior's first career start vs the D'Backs, which surprised me ... though I can see how that happened. GO CUBS!

I listened to the post-game and nothing was mentioned. I think it was just that Harvey played both games of the doubleheader yesterday, and the Chiefs were up 7-0 today, so Harvey was given a breather.

I just figured Z turned Murton on to Desipio.

The game was truly a fantastic time. I went with my sister-in-law, Asako, and her sister, Noriko. Asako lived in Chicago -- Wrigleyville -- for about two years when she and my brother first were engaged, so she went to several Cubs games with us in 2002 & 2003. She often remarked on differences between U.S. and Japanese baseball (and U.S. and Japanese baseball fans), so it was great to go with her to a Japanese game. Asako was also a big Bellhorn fan, and was pleased to hear that he did well in the post-season last year. Here's just some random fan impressions. The stadium is in downtown Tokyo in Jingu Stadium, which is considered one of the more classic stadiums. (I'm a little confused about initially being told that it was at the Tokyo Shrine). They don't seem to draw many fans; at any rate, there were many more Carp fans than Swallows fans, and the Carp fans seemed much more enthusiastic. We had decided to root for the Swallows ahead of time (sorry, Carp fans!) because they were the home team and because Asako very much likes the frozen custard drink the team's owner produces. You can bring all kinds of food and beverages into the stadium, so Asako greeted us at the train platform with two enormous, dripping plastic bags full of ice and random cans of beer she selected and had individually gift-wrapped (!) in case they didn't want beer brought in. The stadium is in downtown Tokyo, and the streets are packed with vendors selling all kinds of box-food for baseball fans; we stocked up on dumplings, fried chicken, skewered beef, and sesame noodles. Sixth row seats were actually first row seats by the visitors bullpen mound just beyond 3rd base. There's enormous netting extending along the fan seating from foul pole to foul pole (not over the seating, just between the seats and the field). Fans don't show much interest in foul balls -- I did see an adult male fan with a baseball glove, though -- unless they're hit directly to them. Jingu has artificial turf and I saw a bullpen pitcher bouncing a baseball like a tennis ball off of it. The infield was also turf, including the basepaths (dirt around the bases, but not much -- doesn't seem like a park where you'd want to do a lot of sliding into bases). I had watched a game on tv the other night -- the all-star game? -- and the infield at that park was completely dirt -- no grass/turf at all. Like Wrigley, the bleachers were definitely the place to be. 8) The fans are awesome and hilarious. It's all massively coordinated cheering; it reminded me of Indiana high school basketball or college football games. There are enormous flags for different fan sections, and the guys with the flags wear these huge leather belt-holsters for the flag poles, like something a sportsfisherman would wear to avoid being dragged into the sea. Fans are yelling cheers constantly starting before the game; many "Let's Go __-____" and players' names and calls for homeruns and pleas to play well. They also synchronize jumping up and down (the Carp fans were better than the Swallows fans at this.) Once the game started, the Carp fans in LF would do their cheers for the leadoff hitter, then the Swallows fans would do their cheers when the pitcher got the out...repeated throughout the game. Every Carp strikeout was exciting, because a ticket number would be randomly selected for a prize. The videoboard showed all these NBA-rap style videos of the Swallows players. They'd be looking all tough and intimidating in the video, but then they'd put these little balloon-style English quotes coming out of their mouths like "I will attempt to play to the best of my ability so that my team will emerge victorious!" Sadly, there was a mild earthquake during the game, and that seemed to knock out the videoboard and part of the scoreboard stats display. Vendors wander around selling canned and draft beer and shots of whiskey. The Swallows fans did get to wave their green umbrellas, and the Carp fans all blew up very long balloons with bulges on the end (I guess they were carp-like balloons?) and screamers at the opening, then released them in unison at the beginning of the 6th inning. It sounded like incoming missiles. Noriko asked if they cheered like that at Wrigley, and was shocked when Asako explained that the only coordinated cheering was usually "You Suck!" to opposing players ... and, of course, the 7th inning stretch, if you can count that. Hilarious, Asako told me the same thing yesterday. "They usually don't have a good team, but their fans are very devoted to them." :? In regards to the game ... Swallows win, 6-2! box score We were seated just beyond the 3rd base bag. He didn't have a chance to do much in the field -- I think he had one chance and started a DP. He did have an extremely red-colored glove. There weren't any home runs in the game, but he did hammer a ball down the left-field line that the Carp OFer made a decent running catch on. The pitcher throwing routines must be very different in Japan, because both bullpens had people up and pitching with intensity starting in about the 3rd inning. I can only guess that it was their turn to pitch on the side? But one Carp pitcher -- Takahashi, who ended up eventually coming into the game -- ended up pitching, seriously, about 4 straight innings on the side. And it didn't seem like he was taking it easy or loosening up at all. He would occasionally back off the bullpen mound and long-toss it, but the rest of the time he was pitching fast and furiously. A little old lady sitting near us was a big Takahashi fan and kept shouting to him that she was praying for his success, which Asako and Noriko found hilarious because they thought he looked more and more nervous every time she shouted it. My favorite player was immediately the wiley lefty starting pitcher for the Swallows, Masanori Ishikawa. He was unstoppable! Bases loaded, no outs in the 2nd -- no problem for Ishikawa, who got the clutch K and then a 1-2-3 double play. Mild earthquake in the top of the 5th? Not a problem. 6.1 innings (I was sad when he left the game), 0Rs, 7Ks (7 lucky winners), 1BB; he did give up 8 hits, but all were singles. I was surprised to see today that he has an ERA over 5. ETA: Ishikawa also had a clutch 2-out broken-bat single, which also impressed me. All in all, a good time was had by all. I took a few pictures, but I haven't figured out how to get them online yet. Maybe I never will.