Andy

Honestly, I was never more embarressed to be a Cubs fan than that moment. Ditto. I'm not sure what to say in response to people who honestly think that booing Sammy freaking Sosa was less embarrassing than booing LaTroy Hawkins who caused us so much misery in just over one season. Booing is different from the whole stadium chanting "Hawkins sucks!" Maybe they should have been chanting Dusty sucks since he is the one that kept putting LaTroy in a situation where he had failed multiple times in the past. Understood...although you can't expect all Cubs fans to realize that anymore than you could expect any other fanbase to generally know that much. All most Cubs fans saw was a closer who was bad, they didn't see that Dusty should've gone a different route.

Honestly, I was never more embarressed to be a Cubs fan than that moment. Ditto. I'm not sure what to say in response to people who honestly think that booing Sammy freaking Sosa was less embarrassing than booing LaTroy Hawkins who caused us so much misery in just over one season.

I actually agree with CubDad. I rarely pay much attention to minor league numbers, I look at what the kids do in their big league auditions. And Dubois, over his many different looks, never seemed to me to be anymore than Sosa with much less power. The kid couldn't hit an off-speed pitch to save his life. As worried as I am that Dusty won't play kids sometimes, I've honestly only been impressed with Murton and Cedeno out of the young prospects I've seen in recent years. (Patterson too, but we all know how that turned out.)

Last year at the Brewers series, my friends and I spent 3 different days betting a Brewers reliever named Crawford that he was going to get in the game, and he said he wouldn't. My friend jokingly tried to drop 10 bucks into the outfield in game 2 to pay up when he didn't get in Game 1 and Crawford waved it off. Also, we asked Carlos Lee where his steroids were and he jokingly told us to shush, then pretended to inject himself. Good times all around.

Has Prior had any prolonged stretch (like more than a month) where he pitched like he did in 03? Prior before he got hurt(aka, hit with a line drive) at the end of May last year: 9 GS, 58.1 IP, 2.93 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 9.57 K/9, 3.44 K/BB Those are great numbers but still a little below what he did in 03. Holy crap, I was about to rebuke you, but I had no idea that Prior had a 2.43 ERA in 2003. Now it's even more of a joke that he didn't win the Cy that year in my eyes. While those numbers weren't 03-caliber, Prior hit his stride in the summer of 03, and he never got a chance to do that in 2005. Besides, it's unrealistic to expect a pitcher to post 2.40 ERAs year in and year out, no matter how good they are.

I've gotta say, as much as I loved watching DLee last year, the SF series last year where Hawkins gave up game-tying runs in the late innings of 3 consecutive games at Wrigley to a chorus of "Hawkins sucks!" chants was not just one of my favorite moments of 2005, it was among my favorite moments of all time. I'm not usually a bitter man, but LaTroy straight-up choked the 2004 season away, so I felt I had an excuse.

He's injury-prone. :roll:

Re: Cusack - You can find a picture of Cusack in a White Sox hat in one of the playoff threads from 2005 - I think it's the ALCS one but I can't be sure. Re: Caray tape - They tried this when he was sidelined by a stroke in 1987. From what I have read, it wasn't very popular. I would rather celebrities do it, although I think it should be only celebrity Cubs fans, legendary broadcasters or former players, or popular Chicago-area figures of the day doing it (with a ban on anyone that's a Sox fan).

Ndistops has just shown his age...there are no roving beer saleman in the bleachers. You have to get up and go to the vending locations for beer. As to where those locations will be in the new bleachers...it's anybody's guess. The hot dog guys come around regularly, though. Huh...I could've sworn there was an Old Style guy wandering around last year. Then again, I was paying attention to Z and Wood's pitching masterpieces so I could've been distracted. :)

Welcome DTown - As a denizen of the bleachers for three games last year, I can tell you that there is no place in America better to watch a game than from the Wrigley Field bleachers. There's camaraderie everywhere and odds are you make a new friend or two before the game is over. The fans in the bleachers also tend to be pretty knowledgeable about baseball (contrary to popular belief) in terms of knowing when to applaud for a pitcher who has a 2-strike count or knowing that it's a big deal when we get a K/popout with a man on third and less than 2 out. Cubs fans also tend to be very welcoming to opponent fans, so expect some good-natured ribbing and good-luck handshakes. Vendors come around usually about once an inning rotating between hotdogs, beers, waters, etc. I'd advise getting there at least two hours before the game to ensure a good seat, because bleacher tickets are general admission, find your own seat. Hope all this helped, and good luck to your Tigers in the June series - but not too much :wink:

Then its only fair you get irritated at Lee, too. He does a Hop after he hits a HR to, granted, not as dramatic, but a distinct hop none-the-less. I have no problem with players hopping or doing something of the sort when they homer. Some of the most memorable Homers wouldnt be as memorable if it wasnt for the players reaction. Edmonds crap in the outfield does make me mad though. I dont care if he watches his homers, I care that he dives at a ball that he could just as easily walk to. Anyways, this thread is WAY off topic. A Z-delivered fastball is the preferred method of capitol punishment in 38 states. Being a soccer fan, I do not mind at all a bit of celebration and personality after a HR. Some I don't mind (such as Lee's), although I don't particularly like it either. If I had my druthers everyone would react to HRs Michael Barrett style, that is head down and quickly trot around the bases. However, if somebody happens to hit a game changing/winning HR I like to see some emotion. My favorite recent reactions to Cub homers were DLee's reaction to his game tying homer vs Cincy in April and ARam's throwing the bat aside after he hit the game tying homer vs Washington in July. Sometimes, less is more. :)

Not me. I usually know who they are playing, what time and what network for a week after the current day anyway. Yes, I'm obsessed.

Welcome JimBouton! It's interesting to note that Kenny Williams has led his team to as many playoff berths as Jim Hendry has as GM, but in two more seasons, and while Williams is being lauded, many of the people here want Hendry's head. Obviously, the teams' respective results in those playoffs as well as results in non-playoff years are factors in our opinions, but it's an interesting footnote to all of this. I'm really hoping the Sox players all come back to earth, and in a big way, this year. This "a World Series trophy gives us a license to run our mouth" thing is becoming really annoying.

I took part in 3 fantasy drafts with 10 teams each and got Barrett in the 15th round or later in all of them despite Michael being the best hitting catcher in the NL. He's very underrated.

Carlos Zambrano's "tennis elbow" was not in fact caused by excessive e-mailing. It was in fact merely his only injury sustained in his battle to the death with Chuck Norris. The media covers this up because they are too scared to call Norris dead for fear of reincarnation.

They need to get something in the 7th inning. Whether it is audio of harry doing it, or ex-players... but the celebrities don't work. Granted, it is part of the experience of going to a game there, and it should always continue. I like Santo doing more of it. Jeff Gordon and Ozzie have no place in that ballpark. I would like them to stay with ex-cubs, prominent chicago figures, or celebrity cubs fans (for the love of god, jim beluschi is not a cubs fan... however billy corgan is a good example of a celebrity who should be allowed to sing once a year). Irishoshea21, I don't know where you get your info, but everywhere I read/heard, Jim Belushi is VERY much a BIG Cubs fans. So again, I don't know where you get your info, but you are clearly wrong. So because he sits in the bleachers when they are on ESPN, and ESPN interviews him (has nothign to do with the fact that he has a show on ABC) means that he is a cubs fan? Where the hell was he pre 2003? He was never around. Magically the team wins, and he jumps on the bandwagon. When he is interviewed, he makes the same old general phrases, "boy i like derrek lee, man aramis is good" that any basic fan has. Boy, what a true fan. Because you see him on TV talking about the cubs, doesn't make him a real fan. If he was a real fan, we would have known about him pre-2003. I completely agree. I refuse to endorse any celebrity as a "true Cub fan" until they take a notebook into the booth with them and talk about Michael Wuertz's really good BAA, as well as John Mabry's oddly large BABIP. Until then, they're just another moron who likes to watch Derrek and Aramis.

Toledo 81, Ball State 54. Someone please put us out of our misery and fire Tim Buckley.

I LOVE the stretch, and as long as they get all the words right and don't say root for the other team, I say any celebrity/figure should be able to do it. I'm still annoyed that I never got to see Willingham or Brey do it, though. I missed both those games. Not sure if Weis has done it or if he will.

If Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves had shown up for the Olympics, we would have won the damn thing. Pretty impressive showing on our part considering two of our best bets crapped out.

It says a lot about a team's season when they lose by 8 and you're just happy they didn't keep you in suspense about it this time. (Marquette 80, ND 72, Irish need to win out if they want a shot at the Big East Tourney.)

LOL at the fat dude wearing a replica Hinrich Stags jersey.

My friend says his uncle spent all of Friday at the computer and he got a whole bunch of tickets, some of which he could sell to us at face value. How sweet would it be if he sold us some Cards or Sox tickets? :D

Fun Fact: WGN moved from channel 5 to channel 95 in my cable for no apparent reason. That made sense. Malik Allen may be, if not THE solution at the big man slot, a very serviceable alternative.

I agree with 1908. This game was night-and-day different from the other two Bulls-Pistons meetings this year, and I think it showed how far the team has come since the beginning of the year. Now the key becomes beating Philly tonight. We'll need all the help we can get with the upcoming tough schedule. In the 10 day period between March 2-11, the Bulls will play 7 games, 3 back-to-backs (all of which will have the 2nd game on the road) and the teams they're facing won't be cupcakes either, with two games with Cleveland, a trip to Detroit and a visit from the Clippers and Nets are in that period. It will be all-important for the Bulls to win the three games that they should in that period, plus steal one that they shouldn't.

You're right...I forgot about that. Yeah, John seems to get in a little trouble once in awhile. How is the school academically? When SI did their "academic" college basketball preview a few years back, Memphis's grad rate was a whopping 0 percent, and I'm guessing it hasn't improved.