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October 26, 2003

   Wildcat was yesterday, and I think it was pretty much successful. Considering I was the only person in the control room, I had to spend all day entering stats into the computer, but thanks to my hastily-designed spreadsheets (which put me behind after the first round and it took me until lunch to fully catch up), the stats all look pretty good. I also didn't hear any complaints, except for one second-hand gripe that couldn't have been that bad since it wasn't even voiced to me.
    We did learn that people prefer ladder play, which might have been suspected. There were matches that finished with scores of 505-5 and 480-45, which probably wasn't going to happen in ladder play (at least not as late in the day as those matches were, anyway). Still, one thing people probably hate more than divisions is having two byes - of course, none of the people doing the complaining would have had two if any byes, so that figures. Aurora West and Lincoln-Way Central B, who went winless might have had more chance at wins in the ladder system - they would have gotten to play each other, for one thing - but one of them might have been even worse and had to sit out a couple games, which isn't cool. The intricacies of the ladder system meant that I would have had to guess ahead of time which the worst teams were to have the best chance of avoiding two byes, and even though I was okay, though not perfect, at guessing which the best teams were (which I had to do to try and even up the divisions), it was not a risk I was comfortable with taking.
    I only moderated the final this year, in which New Trier A dominated Rufus King, 410-175. It was odd because they had met in the round robin and Rufus King had won by a score of 345-125. Go figure.
    Anyway, that's over. I've gotta get the trophies out at some point, but I don't have to do that tomorrow or anything. I slept for about 13 hours today (the extra hour was nice too). It might have been even more except that Drew woke me up last night and invited me to come play Taboo with him, Emily, Heather, and Janice. Clues that only Drew could love: Me: "Uh... My dad did this with Ric." Drew: "Golf? No - rollerbladed!" Rollerblade, in fact, being the word to guess. I was given my second wind to go out by finding out that the Yankees had lost. Go National League! More importantly, go anyone not the Yankees.

October 24, 2003

I just carried about 2000 sheets of paper from Norris to NMQ (probably something like four blocks) while attempting to hold an umbrella, and now my biceps hurt like a motherfucker. Woof. Wildcat is such a pain in the ass. I had to buy a new cartridge and paper just because I printed so much stuff (13 NAQT packets is "only" 135 pages). It even kinda hurts to type right now. I think I'll hold off a little bit on packet-stuffing.

What is the thesis of the song "California Girls?" If you listen to the first verse, where he describes all the different girls he likes, it sounds like he wishes they all lived in California. But after that he refers to the girls in California as "the cutest girls in the world," which makes it sound like he means that he wants all the girls in the world to be just like the girls in California (vive la difference, Mike!). Perhaps he's supposed to be changing his mind midway through the song? Post your thoughts (if any) in the forum. (Note: "You are a huge dork" does not count as a thought on this topic.)

October 23, 2003

So, Virginia Tech's loss makes this out of date already... but better late than never. Right? Hey, you try and get Wildcat ready and update this page.

October 18, 2003

I bet on the other team, so we won't be going out for pizza - but we did win Loyola's Trash tournament. Woo!

October 17, 2003

So iTunes has Windows compatibility now. It's a shame our friends at Apple have never heard of something called reverse compatibility. In addition to only working for OS X 10.1.5 and up, it only works on Windows 2000 and XP - fat lot of good that does me and other people who don't feel compelled to buy a new computer or format our hard drives every time Bill Gates decides to fix three more bugs in the Windows software.

October 16, 2003

Now this is a goat. Steve who? Look no further than Grady Little, whose decision to let Pedro talk him into leaving him in the game in the eighth inning singlehandedly cost the Red Sox a trip to the World Series. He should be fired immediately. In a related story, you could not pay me to watch a pitch of the World Series.

Movie review: Mystic River. Good technically, but a lot better if your sense of morality is weak.

October 15, 2003

I'm just glad the eternally loyal, long-tortured fans of the Marlins finally get to see their team go to the World Series. They've really suffered too long, don't you think? Now if the Yankees can just win tomorrow, we'll have a matchup of two teams for whom October success has really been a long time coming. And I think that'll just be a nice story.

October 15, 2003

It's a bit late, but here's this week's Top 20 Poll.

Here's a new movie review, too: Kill Bill: Volume One.

October 14, 2003

Did I really just watch that happen?

    Previous to now, 21 League Championship Series saw one team go up 3-1. In 18 of those, that team won. That stat was passed around plenty prior to Game Five. Well, here's a more timely stat:
    Since the LCS went to seven games, four teams have taken 3-1 leads and seen the trailing team force a seventh game. In only one of those instances did the team that had been ahead 3-1 win Game Seven.
   The 1992 Braves led the Pirates 3-1. The Pirates won Games Five and Six before the Braves finally closed out the series - and even then it took three runs in the ninth (the Braves trailed 2-0 with three outs left before a sac fly followed by Francisco Cabrera's two-out heroics).
    The one positive? In only one of the four instances was the losing team the home team (the '85 Jays, who blew the series to eventual champs Kansas City, had home-field advantage and still lost).

Wood needs to have himself a game tomorrow, because one gets the feeling that "okay" just isn't going to cut it. The only thing I can say for sure regarding tomorrow: if they lose, I think I will cry.

October 14, 2003

It's my sister's birthday today. Happy birthday. She's 17 now, which is almost as weird as the fact that I'm 21. Now, you can actually buy tickets for R-rated movies and not sneak into them! Though as she has looked old-ish for a while now, she's probably been doing so anyway, just not on the straight and narrow.
Let's hope the Cubs manage a present tonight.

October 12, 2003

Fucking Cubs. Beckett did have a good game - much better than the last one, certainly - but the plate discipline just went out the window. Zambrano even had a decent game - only just gave up the two runs - and they couldn't do anything for him.
Maybe it was overconfidence. 3-1 looks really good. Anyway, 3-2 still isn't bad, and with Prior throwing back at Wrigley on Tuesday, you have to like those odds (though he needs to look a little better than he did in Game Two, especially if the Cubs don't score 12 runs again, which they probably won't).

October 11, 2003

   Clement had a good game, Willis had a bad game, the Cubs had another good offensive showing, and suddenly it's 3-1. I don't even know what to say. It's very difficult for Cubs fans to be confident about anything, but consider the following facts:
    * Only three times since the LCS went to seven games in 1985 has a team blown a 3-1 series lead (in 21 previous chances). Two of those were in the first two years, though - Kansas City over Toronto in 1985 and Boston over the Angels in 1986 - and only once, in 1996 when the Braves rebounded to beat the Cardinals, has it happened in the NL. (This last one included the Braves winning Game Five 14-0, and then after slipping by 3-1 in Game Six, winning Game Seven 15-0, a simply unthinkable happening.)
    * The Cubs only lost three straight games twice in the second half, and haven't lost three straight to the same team since being swept by Cincinnati at the end of last season.
    * The Cubs also haven't lost starts by Prior and Wood in the same rotational period since July 4 and 6 to St. Louis. Of course, that loss by Prior was one of three consecutive losing decisions, something he hasn't come close to doing since then.
    As I've said often enough, if there's a team that can figure out a way to screw this up, it's the Cubs. At the very least they're quite capable (via the recent huge sucking that's been Carlos Zambrano) of putting enough of a kink in the World Series rotation as to remove a large part of the pitching edge - if the Cubs win in five, you start the Series with a well-rested Prior and Wood. Huge. If the Marlins win Game Five and the Cubs win in six, the Series starts with Wood, but unless the ALCS goes seven games (and it's sure threatening not to, because the Red Sox suck), Prior probably only gets to pitch once. And if the Marlins can somehow push it to seven and the Cubs still win, Prior and Wood likely can't go until Games Three and Four - Clement could win Game One, but you just never know with that guy.
    Of course, I shouldn't worry about the World Series until the Cubs make it - and quite truthfully, I would be perfectly happy with whatever rotation as long as the Cubs can make the World Series, period. But the Cubs have so far shown themselves to be a better team than the Marlins - why not do what's best for everyone and close this out in five? Yeah, it's not winning at Wrigley, but I'm sure most Cubs fans would be happy with just winning, period.
    At any rate, I am once again nervous for tomorrow's game - far less nervous than I've been, though, I must say. Here's hoping they close it out.

Cubs-unrelated: a review for Out of Time.

October 10, 2003

   Wow. Just wow. Wood looks good for a while, then blows the lead in the seventh because he threw too many pitches right over the plate. The Cubs fire back with Simon's shot in the top of the eighth, then pull Farns for Borowski with two out in the bottom of the inning for no apparent reason, and freaking Todd Hollandsworth, of all people, delivers the tying run. Borowski then proceeds to slam the door for two and a third (though the bases-loaded situation in the ninth scared the shit out of me), allowing the Cubs to get to the eleventh, at which point Kenny Lofton singles and Doug Glanville triples. Then in the bottom of the inning, Luis Castillo reaches on a strikeout because of a wild pitch by Remlinger, aka Your Dad, only to get caught in a rundown between second and third for the final out.
    Ho-ly crap. The craziest thing about this game was how much damage was done by pinch hitters. Tom Goodwin pinch hits in the top of the eighth and triples, and then is brought home on Simon's dinger, Simon having entered the game in a double switch the previous half-inning. Hollandsworth drives in the tying run in the bottom of the eighth, and Glanville drives in the winning run in the top of the eleventh. The irony of the whole thing is that the most successful pinch-hitter of all time, Lenny Harris, grounded out to second in the tenth.
    But this was just such a nerve-wracking game to watch. I swore when the Marlins tied it in the eighth that the Cubs were going to lose. It just seemed like the way they do it. But man, did they come through. Rishi, who lives down the hall, made a good point tonight - why do the announcers keep saying how much "heart" the Marlins have? They've been sucking their dicks all postseason long. Let's face it - the Marlins are not that good a story. "Heart" really means "they clearly don't have the talent to be here," and I don't think that's true of Florida, at least offensively. And besides, who gives a crap about a team that's been around for ten years and already has a world title? Fuck Florida, and fuck the 45,000 fans who couldn't be bothered to attend games until the playoffs started.
    Hmm, that got a bit ranty. Well, anyway. The point is, Marlins and Yankees fans can kiss my ass. Er, no. They can, but that's not the point. The point is that I'm nervous for tomorrow's game. Clement's due for a good one, and he knows what it's like to pitch in Florida. (Did you know that Dontrelle Willis was in the Cubs system and was involved in the Clement deal? It's true.) And the Cubs roughed Willis up the last time they faced him - he wasn't the same pitcher in the second half. Maybe the Cubs can have another offensive explosion. Still, I'm damn nervous. All I know is that if - if - the Cubs win, that's a 3-1 lead. And with the Marlins having to beat Prior and Wood to come back, it would be pretty much over. But the Cubs have to win Game Four first.

October 10, 2003

   The other day I IMed Leah and told her I needed to remember to give her a birthday shoutout. She said, "That's nice, but I think this is your way of saying you're not coming to my party."
    Which I'm not. And I feel bad about it, as I so often feel bad about doing something kind of selfish or not paying enough attention to my friends. In my defense, though, Leah has a birthday every year - to say nothing of the fact that I was seven years old the last time the Cubs were three wins from the World Series.
    Anyway, happy birthday, person who is three years older than me. Have a fun time tonight.

October 8, 2003

   Damn. Where was this offense in the Braves series? That thing could have been over in three! It can't just be the Marlins' pitching struggling, can it? The Cubs pounded Beckett this season, but as I mentioned, they had a very hard time hitting Penny (one run on four hits in eight innings). Not so tonight - oh, very much not so tonight. Seven ER on seven hits in just two innings? Hoo-ah!
    Meanwhile, Prior had a bit of an off game. Eight hits, three runs (two earned), two walks, two homers, and only five Ks - his worst start since September 11, when he gave up three ER on ten hits in just five and two thirds. He was left in too long, maybe, but the bottom line is he didn't have his greatest stuff tonight. This is good for a few reasons: (a) he has an off game and only allows three runs; (b) he didn't need to have his best stuff the way the Cubs were scoring; (c) that he had a game this bad - for him, and if you saw him muttering to himself when Baker took him out you'll know I'm not just casually tossing around the word "bad" - means that he's probably going to be damn ready for the next game, when the Cubs will be more likely to need him to be super on.
    The next game is Wood vs. Redman, at Florida on Friday. Wood, in his career, has absolutely destroyed Florida - in fact, I believe he's never lost against them, though I don't have those stats in front of me. Certainly he tore them up this year. I wouldn't consider this game automatic - I'm too nervous to consider any game automatic - but you have to think the Cubs have a pretty good shot. It would be nice, of course, if the offense just keeps rolling, but I don't think we can seriously expect that. Are they going to "waste their runs," as my dad said? I don't know if I necessarily believe in that, but it seems like something the Cubs do - back in April, the Cubs scored double figures in three straight games vs. Cincinnati (wins of 11-1, 10-4, and 16-3) and then scored six or more in three of the next four games - then they had two well-pitched games by Wood and Clement go for losses of 2-0 and 2-1 against San Diego, of all teams. It's probably just a coincidence, but with Wood and Clement coming up in the rotation... whatever. I have faith in Wood to win on Friday. After that, well, it would be nice to finish in five or six, but winning the pennant is winning the pennant. That they win is more important than how they do it.

October 7, 2003

   What can I say? It's really tough to be on the losing end of a game like that, and hopefully it won't have any psychological effects (at least, any negative ones - "hey, it appears we can hit" is welcomed). Prior, who hasn't faced the Marlins this season, has been a stud for two-plus months now, and he goes tomorrow. Then Wood goes in Game Three on Friday, and he absolutely steamrolled the Marlins this season - two starts, two wins, two complete games, one earned run total, and twenty strikeouts. Neither of these games are automatic, obviously, but you have to like the Cubs' chances. The turning point of the series, I would say, is Game Four. Which Matt Clement is going to show up? The one who shut down the Pirates in the Central-clinching win, or the one who struggled big-time against Atlanta in Game Four of the LDS? And more importantly, will the Cubs get him support off Dontrelle Willis? Will the Cubs get their pitchers support at all? Their only game against Beckett, they roughed him up for six runs on ten hits in six innings. (Tonight's line: six runs on eight hits in six and a third.) So far, as expected, then. Well, tomorrow's starter, Brad Penny, held the Cubs to one run on four hits in eight innings on July 19 - and took the loss only because Wood threw a complete game, two-hit shutout on the other side. Mark Redman, Friday's starter against Wood, held the Cubs to four hits in seven innings in a July 18 game they lost 6-0.
    In other words, the Cubs are sending up their two best pitchers - against two pitchers they have not had much success against this season. Does that mean the Cubs will lose? No, but it suddenly makes one wonder if it might not be possible for Prior or Wood to falter just enough for the Marlins' offense to pick up the runs to beat them, if the Cubs aren't scoring many. Are Prior and Wood more likely to suddenly falter than Penny or Redman? Well, probably not. But the Marlins are probably more likely to exploit mistakes than are the Cubs - unless tonight's display was actually a suggestion that the Cubs' offense is picking up. I'd like to believe that, I really would - but I'll have to see more of it before I'm convinced. So far this postseason the Marlins seem to have taken all of the games in which the pitching matchup didn't massively favor the other team - i.e. all but Game One of the LDS in which the Giants started Jason Schmidt. This means the Cubs cannot afford to lose games in which they are throwing one of their two aces, because the Marlins have proven tough (well, tougher; Schmidt really had to throw a gem to beat them 2-0) to beat in all other cases.
    I'm not too worried. Yet. If the Cubs lose one of the next two, we'll talk.

Oh, and here's the new Top 20 Poll. Sorry for the delay.

October 5, 2003

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

    Looks like no less than another week - and, hopefully, another three weeks or so - of neglecting work as much as possible. So, now it's time to analyze the NLCS.
    The Cubs took four out of six from the Marlins this season, two out of three in each three-game series. In the last meeting between the teams, the Cubs roughed up Dontrelle Willis for six earned runs in two innings and won 16-2. Kerry Wood dominated Florida this season, going 2-0 with an ERA of 0.50 in two starts - both complete games in which he allowed a total of one earned run and struck out 20. Matt Clement went 1-1 against his former team with a 4.38 ERA in two starts. Carlos Zambrano, the likely Game One starter, went 1-0 with an ERA of 0.73 in two starts. Mark Prior did not start against Florida this season.
    Of course, all these meetings were back in July, and the Marlins have been one of the hottest teams in baseball down the stretch. They also have a knack for coming from behind, and the Cubs' bullpen is hardly a strong point. Neither is the offense, as the Atlanta series painfully demonstrated. Most of the time, though, the Cubs were able to hit the Marlins' pitching during the season.
    The rotation will likely be: Zambrano, Prior, Wood, Clement, Zambrano, Prior, Wood. Obviously you have to like your aces going four of the seven games. There is some speculation that Prior will go in Game One - clearly this is bad news, trying to throw him on three days' rest after he threw 130 pitches or so in Game Three on Friday. Obviously it would be nice to put your best foot forward in Game One, and Zambrano has struggled recently - though he would have been passable in Game Two had the Cubs' offense been a little better - but if Prior is started before he's ready and loses, all of a sudden your big advantage is gone, and then you have to throw Zambrano in Game Two anyway.
    Anyway, here's hoping the offense shows up. If the Cubs can combine at least a decent offense with this pitching, one wonders how they could lose. If the offense continues on its fairly anemic path, then there could be major issues. Averaging under four runs a game in a series may not always cut it, even with Prior and Wood getting enough starts to win the series - assuming they never lose of course, which may not be the worst bet, but on the other hand if you can't win without totally dominant pitching performances then you may eventually run into trouble against someone. Whether or not the Marlins are that team remains to be seen. The Braves weren't, but only because Wood and Prior did everything they needed to. If Wood suddenly has a wild game as he sometimes does, or Prior has a bad game (like, say, if he's dragged out on short rest), suddenly the burden falls one of two places - the other two starters, or the offense. The Braves' pitching isn't what it was, but it's probably superior to the Marlins' - so the offense should go up. The Cubs averaged six and a third runs in their games against Florida this year, though that did include the 16-run game. They hit about .275 (56-for-204), which is 16 points higher than their cumulative .259 for the year.
    The Cubs match up at least as well against Florida as they did against Atlanta. There's no reason why they shouldn't match up better. Therefore, though it worries me to express such confidence, I feel like I must predict a Cubs victory. It'll probably take six games - but I think they do it.

October 4, 2003

   Fucking Cubs. Games like this are why my dad is constantly saying they need to blow up Wrigley - Chipper Jones hits a couple pop flies, and they both go high enough for the wind to carry them out (especially the second one, which I was sure was going to be caught). Clement didn't have his best stuff, either. He had an okay game, by which I mean he didn't give up eight runs, but it was obvious from the first inning that he really wasn't all there. The good news, if the Cubs move on, is that current trends dictate that Clement's next start will be lights-out.
    Meanwhile, the Cubs' offense finally showed some signs of life - in the ninth inning, down by three runs. Where was this at any other point in the series? This team has scored fourteen runs in the series so far - i.e. three and a half runs per game. This is not how one wins playoff games. With a shouldn't-have-been-as-effective-as-he-was-in-Game-Two Mike Hampton slated to come to the hill for Game Five (and I doubt Cox will pull out Horacio Ramirez for the deciding game), the offense needs to explode. They're capable of doing so, but they've been pretty lifeless so far. So have the Braves, more or less, but that was against Wood and Prior - against Zambrano, Clement, and the bullpen (particularly Guthrie and Veres), they've exploited mistakes. The Cubs have yet to exploit the mistakes of Atlanta's pitchers (allowing Ortiz to pitch out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in Game One was only the tip of the iceberg), and if they don't do so in Game Five, this is going to be a long winter of what-ifs.
    Oh, and Robert Fick is a goon who needs to get slapped with a fine by the league office. This isn't hockey. Is this hockey? This isn't hockey.
    So, on to Game Five. Obviously, I'm nervous as hell. In their entire history, the Cubs have only played two playoff games that were elimination games for both teams. They lost 9-3 in Game Seven of the '45 Series, and 6-3 - in typical Cubs choke-job fashion by blowing a 3-0 lead, allowing two in the sixth and four more in the seventh - in Game Five of the '84 NLCS. Not that we should judge the Cubs on the past alone, but with their last seriously competitive playoff appearance coming 19 years ago, what else do we have?
    Wood's going to the hill, of course, and you have to like that. If he throws another game like Game One, you have to think - in that guardedly optimistic way of the Cubs fan - that the Cubs offense will have to be just abominable for the Cubs to lose this game. Do I think it's impossible that the Cubs could manage to lose 2-0 or some such? Not really. With Hampton and not, say, Maddux going - plus Hampton is going on three days' rest - you'd like to think that the Cubs could finally hang a few runs out there. But, they're still the Cubs. Hampton, over the last three seasons (bearing in mind that he was in Colorado in 2001 and 2002), has gone 3-0 with an ERA of 4.97 against the Cubs (not including Wednesday's game). If they score five runs tomorrow, I think they win. It's something they haven't done yet this postseason. Time to see just how determined this team is.

October 3, 2003

I'm pretty sure that the old flex plans were all "you can use these meals at Norris." Not so with Block Plans A and B, apparently. So now I have to change meal plans again, because having a bunch of meals to use at SAGA helps me not at all.

    I still feel perfectly justified in having been massively nervous about Game Three. The Cubs' offense still hasn't shown me that much - they've done just enough to get by, by and large, but they've gotten so much help from the Braves, who made another four errors in tonight's game. Yes, Prior was pretty dominant after a shaky first inning, but he still needs run support. Three runs may not do it every time out, especially when the first two are helped along by shoddy Atlanta fielding. Don't get me wrong, this game was great - but how can you not want to see more?
    At any rate, tomorrow is the Cubs' first game in which they could eliminate an opponent since 1984, and their first in Wrigley Field since 1945. I suppose it bears mentioning that the Cubs went 0-3 in elimination games in '84, allowing the Padres to bounce back from 2-0 and take the NLCS in five, as well as 0-1 in 1945 (losing Game Seven to the Tigers). Of course, this season is not those others, but Cubs fans can hardly be cocky, nor can we afford to be. Yes, if Matt Clement brings his A-game, he can be as tough as Wood and Prior, but will he?
    Clement was a roller-coaster ride to finish the season. In his last three decisions - which were also his last three starts, he recorded the following lines: one run, none earned, three hits in seven innings - Cubs defeat Mets 4-1; 6 ER on 6 hits in just three innings - Cubs lose to Pirates 8-2; two runs, one earned, on seven hits in seven and two-thirds - Cubs beat Pirates 7-2 (to clinch division). So, which Matt Clement will show up? We wondered the same thing about Carlos Zambrano, and the better one showed up - and even though it wasn't quite enough, Zambrano kept the Cubs in the game until the Braves scored the winning runs off the bullpen. Each Cubs starter has been at least solid so far (Wood and Prior, it must be said, have been better than that). Certainly a solid Matt Clement would be better than train-wreck Matt Clement. He knew what he had to do on September 27, when he helped clinch the division. He no doubt knows what he has to do now.
    Meanwhile, Atlanta appears ready to throw Russ Ortiz on three days' rest. Interestingly, Ortiz pitched on three days' rest once this season - back on April 7, he blanked Florida for seven innings in a 3-0 Braves win, just four days after giving up three earned in six innings to Montreal in a 4-0 loss. He threw 92 pitches in the first game and 90 in the second; his Game One pitch count was 104. The generally accepted axiom is that pitchers always get pounded on three days' rest. This is oversimplification, of course, though on the other hand one does tend to wonder if Ortiz would be effective on three days' rest at the end of a season, not the beginning - in addition to the fact that he did lose Game One and will have to pitch in what will no doubt be chilly conditions at Wrigley.
    The bottom line, of course, is "wait and see." The one thing that does seem obvious is that if the Cubs keep the choke-hold on the Braves' offense, it will be very difficult for Atlanta to win.

October 2, 2003

Originally, I wrote an open letter to Sox fans for this space, intended to try and understand the Cubs hatred and make peace. But frankly, it's more than you douchebags deserve.

I tried to last at least a quarter on a regular 13-meal plan, but that ended up lasting all of one trip to Allison. Today I officially switched over to a flex plan (now called "block plan," but if we still say SAGA ten years later I'm not likely to budge on this one) and will be dining at Norris for the rest of the year. The stir-fry is not self-service bowl-filling anymore, which is a bit annoying, but it still tastes pretty good. At any rate, I never really liked SAGA, and I don't know what made me think it was going to be no problem going back. That I lasted even a quarter freshman year is testimony to the fact that I didn't really know Norris existed as an alternative.

Prior takes the hill tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

October 1, 2003

   Conversely, not a good day for baseball. Zambrano had a decent outing (at least in terms of runs; he gave up 11 hits, though they were, oddly, all singles), but after the Cubs managed to get a run off Smoltz in the eighth, Veres blew it in the bottom of the inning and Smoltz slammed the door in the ninth. The problem was at least as much the offense, though, which blew plenty of opportunities including loading the bases with no outs in the first and - you guessed it! - scoring no runs as a result. (They had already put two on the board, but obviously it would have been beneficial to put up a few more.)
    Regardless, though it may come back and bite me for saying this, you have to like the Cubs' chances at this point. They've already stolen home-field, and while there are certainly bigger home-field advantages than Wrigley, it's nice that they won't be forced to win the series at Turner as long as they can take care of business at home. Having Prior going - even if it is his first postseason start - is nice, though I'm a bit worried about Maddux. At 16-11 and an ERA of almost four, Maddux is hardly the same guy he once was, and he's always struggled in the postseason. But he also owns the Cubs, going 4-1 with an ERA of 3.00 in the last three seasons. In his last postseason start at Wrigley Field - exactly five years ago Friday - Maddux allowed 2 ER in seven innings to beat the Cubs and sweep them from the playoffs (Kerry Wood, in his only postseason start before Tuesday night's win, took the loss). But take heart, Cubs fans! In Maddux's only other postseason start at Wrigley, he was roughed up for eight earned runs in just four innings! Of course, that was October 4, 1989, and Maddux was losing Game One of the NLCS to the Giants as a member of the Cubs.
    Still, the offense needs to get going. As much as I like the pitching on this team, hoping that three or four runs will always be enough to win is risky and just asking for trouble.
    Oh, one more interesting note. Should the Cubs win Games Three and Four to take the series, not only will it be their first playoff series win since 1908, but it will be the first time ever that they've won a playoff series at Wrigley Field, and also the first time since at least 1900 that they won the final game of one at home. (Both the 1907 and 1908 World Series were clinched at Detroit's Bennett Park, not Chicago's West Side Grounds.)

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This page last updated: Sunday, October 26, 2003 08:56:10 PM