98navigator

nm

Pie threw to the wrong base :evil:

Add Joe Buck and Dan Plesac and it'll be a freaking party! Don't forget Tim McCarver and Joe Morgan!

He means against the Sox. Blanco played against them with the Twins too.

Like nails on a chalk board. Shut up! :lol:

Oh, God, Kenny Williams talking means I need to mute the tv again

MATTY!

Nice inning by Gooz

play ball!

Me too! I just heard on the radio that the Sox are going with all their starters except Toby Hall at catcher.

Yeah, daylight savings time being 3 weeks earlier than normal pushed things back an hour.

The mistakes definitely began on the Cubs end but the coverage has largely become a running joke. Why can't the Cubs be forgiven for their admitted past transgressions? The unbalanced reporting is unnecessary and all it does is feed into the "paranoia" you spoke of... I have family members who are Sox fans. I grew up on the South Side of Chicago... Sox fans complain that the Cubs get more press (which they probably do) but that doesn't mean that what is being said or written is true or positive. There is a Pro White Sox angle in Chicago media reporting. Spend a day listening to Sports radio here and you'll understand. The Score 670, the number one sports talk station in town, is now the flagship for the Sox. A number of the hosts were Sox fans to begin with now they have license to speak openly against the Cubs. A lot of the beat writers and columnists in town are influenced by the tone on sports radio. Teddy Greenstein, of the Tribune, is often reporting on something that was said on the radio and Paul Sullivan was on The Score, in the last few days, laughing along with Laurence Holmes as they took jabs at the Cubs... You'd think the Tribune guys would be pro Cubs (or preferably neutral) but they, seemingly, go out of their way to prove that they aren't following the company line. Similarly, the Suntimes reporters love to point out Cubs flaws because, they feel, it is exposing ineptitude at Tribune company... Seriously, there is a noticable difference in the way Bruce Miles writes compared to the biased approach Whittenmyer, De Luca, Van Dyck, Sullivan et al. take. On the national level, the Cubs are viewed as inept because they haven't won but they are still "lovable." That is not always the case locally.

No kidding. Does 2006 ring any bells? A quick google search comes up with this mea culpa from Sullivan, of all people. Do you consider Hendry's assessment that Wood will be out a few days a "firm timetable?" I don't. I do think that Hendry has been burned enough times by spinning things positively that he should avoid doing so. I don't think it's a case of "they're LYYYING." I do think there have been consistent PR failures (whether that was due to less-than-stellar medical reports early on before those trainers were dismissed, I couldn't say) which contribute to people suspecting the worst from the organization. The story in Chicago has always been "the Cubs are lying" to the public. I think Hendry had relied heavily on the word from the trainers. He was misinformed. Sure, you can say that they had some PR problems but some of that is related to falsehoods created through the media (the other part of it was releasing info too quickly that turned out to be inaccurate). My frustration is that I hear, on an almost daily basis, nonsense about the Cubs lying about injuries. There is no benefit for them to do so. Locally, a lot of it continues to be fueled by people with a White Sox/anti Cubs agenda. The national media also grabs a hold of these stories and turns them into much more than they are or need to be.

There's a big difference between being wrong and lying.

Talk about blowing something out of proportion... Why? The article makes a solid point that the organization usually under reports these injuries. Until they prove otherwise, its not bad form to speculate the worst. It has never been proven that the Cubs under report any more than other organizations (they don't have to give the information at all). It's the Chicago media that has called them liars. Which is strange because in all the previous incidents, the athlete was coming out and saying he wasn't hurt as well... In either case, it's a huge jump from "day to day" to "Wood seems unlikely to be ready for Opening Day." Just because the athlete is going with the organization and lying about things doesn't mean the organization isn't lying as well. How else do you explain when Prior goes from "just being taken along slowly" to "oops, hes hurt, cya in July"? How about when Dusty says that Carlos Zambrano left the game because he was injured and then when Carlos is asked about it, he has no clue what the media is talking about? I have no proof that the Cubs lie/don't lie more then other organizations, but I do know they are one of the only organizations that gets heat for it, so that's gotta tell you something. The only thing it tells me is that much of the Chicago media is on a witch hunt against the Cubs (with respect to injuries). The national media is merely following their lead... If an athlete says he's "OK" and the team finds out later that he is injured, it's very possible that no one is to blame. It could be that the severity of the problem could not be determined immediately. Which is why most teams like to wait before releasing injury information. The Cubs are damned if they do and damned if they don't. There were times when the team revealed injury information too soon-- before the problem could be fully analyzed; the media said they were "changing their story." Perhaps, they were updating the story based on new information... When Prior had a fractured arm the Cubs, understandably, didn't want to release the information until they did a full battery of tests (and even though the wait time was only 36-48 hours the rampant speculation was that the team was trying to cover something up). It's a classic case of the media helping to foster public perception . On a very similar note, at this time last year, we were all led to believe, by media accounts, that Alfonso Soriano was a primadona. As it turned out, the incident with him "refusing" to play LF was a misunderstanding. He said at the time (and in today's paper) that he was told he wouldn't be in the lineup...

Talk about blowing something out of proportion... Why? The article makes a solid point that the organization usually under reports these injuries. Until they prove otherwise, its not bad form to speculate the worst. It has never been proven that the Cubs under report any more than other organizations (they don't have to give the information at all). It's the Chicago media that has called them liars. Which is strange because in all the previous incidents, the athlete was coming out and saying he wasn't hurt as well... In either case, it's a huge jump from "day to day" to "Wood seems unlikely to be ready for Opening Day."

No, they just missed snack time. I knew it was something like that. :lol:

Mike Baum/Cubs.com has a positive piece about the Cubs chances going into the 2007 season. It's mostly fluff but still nice to read:

I'm with you, I want to see the real Cubs on tv. The Cubs can play with the DH tomorrow so we may see a line up very similar to today's (if not the same lineup).

Bolderdash. I like that word and it fits. The baseball diamond is an oasis where those things matter least. I disagree. There are players that allow outside distractions to effect on field play. It wouldn't be as big of a concern if Tejada had played in a large sports market previously; I don't consider Oakland or Baltimore in that class... In a way, it's like Dusty Baker managing in San Francisco and never being scrutinized only to find his every word (rightly or wrongly) analyzed in Chicago. Or ARod going from Seattle and Texas to NYC. While his overall numbers are impressive he seems unnerved by the off-the-field talk. It's hard to believe, but ARod may actually be more productive if he played in a different environment. The scrutiny in Chicago has everything to do with production. Jacque Jones didn't like it here his first month in Wrigley because he wasn't producing. Sammy Sosa has been in the midst of steroid allegations along with guys like Tejada, Palmeiro, McGwire, etc...infinity. The distractions for Sammy in Chicago weren't steroid related. They were his boom box, leaving early, not making adjustments at the plate that made him an easy out on the outside corner (ie, significant drop in production). Heck, Cubs fans didn't even make a big fuss about the corked bat. The rest of the baseball world did, but Cubs fans didn't. There is a level of loyalty to a guy who produces in a big way. Miguel Tejada might not produce like Sammy in his hey day, but a shortstop that hits like Tejada would be a warm welcome after Izturis, Cedeno, Neifi, Gonzalez, Ordonez, etc... infinity. The likelihood these guys (Tejada, Giambi, Sosa, etc..) ever get busted for using steroids is very slim. The harsh treatment I'm talking about is mostly media driven. In the case of Jones, it was certainly the fans that gave him a hard time, for his poor play, but I think the media helped to fuel the fire as well. His blunders were repeated fodder for local sports talk radio as well as being immortalized on the back pages of the newspapers. The amount of media attention was curious when you consider how marginal a player he has been in his career. A high profile player like Miguel Tejada would be under a greater microscope with the Cubs. In addition, he would be grilled about his purported link to steroids and connection to guys who have used steroids (especially when the inevitable story breaks about player X's use). Whether or not the guys are caught is immaterial. The suspicion of enhancement drugs is enough to cause problems. Mark Prior was forced to deny steroid rumors, brought on in-part because of Jack McDowell, in a press conference. The speculation continues; I heard Dan Bernstein say on the radio yesterday that he thinks that either Prior is secretly hurt or he has used steroids... Prior's name has never even surfaced in any steroid scandal yet his integrity is questioned. The innuendo would be much more magnified for an everyday player like Tejada who has been linked to a number of steroid rumors in both Oakland and Baltimore (Canseco & Palmerio). By the way, the Chicago media did make a BIG deal out of the corked bat incident (they still talk about it). If the Cubs hadn't been winning in 2003 it would have been an even bigger story. At the time, Sosa was already the subject of ridicule because he was mired in a slump (and some speculate that he used the corked bat on purpose for this reason)... Even though there had been whispers all along, the strong innuendo of steroid usage did not start with Sosa until late 2004/2005 (and by the time he testified before Congress he was no longer a Cubs player). On the issue of general criticism, don't forget that Sosa was being booed routinely in mid-late 2004. He was also getting really bad press. Whether or not those things had a direct effect on his decreased production is up for debate... Given a choice, I wouldn't want Miguel Tejada because he comes with baggage. I would be very concerned about his production (or lack thereof) when the heat is on. In Baltimore he is revered. He's never played in a big sports market under the kind of microscope that players face with the Cubs. It concerns me that his suspected steroid usage would become a distraction. Heck, many people think Wood and Prior are distractions and they are pitchers. Imagine how bad it could get if an everyday player had an ongoing issue with the media? I'm not interested in finding out.

Foxsports Talk about blowing something out of proportion...

I see... He will learn!

Teams don't have to release any injury information. It's done as a courtesy to the public. I'm sure the Chicago media would have been sniffing around about Wood, but they could have kept quiet if it's only going to be a few more days. Releasing the info probably causes more of an issue than the actual incident warrants.

Is that pitch count accurate? If so, that is outstanding. It's not accurate. It records every BB as a 4-pitch AB, every K as a 3-pitch AB and every other batter as a one-pitch AB. cubs.com

Cubs.com He should have called out the grounds crew! :evil: