Smile Politely.com / Sports

The AL Central Report #12

2008-05-21T19:00:00Z

Coming into the 2008 season, Curtis Granderson’s Detroit Tigers were the odds-on pick to win the American League Central. With their addition of Miguel Cabrera, Dontrelle Willis, Edgar Renteria and Jacque Jones, the Tigers were expected to pummel opponents into submission with an offense that some commentators predicted would score over 1,000 runs. Granderson was poised to propel that offense from his leadoff spot.

]]> It hasn’t worked out like that at all so far. Granderson broke his finger when he was hit by a pitch during spring training, and he didn’t make his season debut until April 23. By that point, Detroit had recovered from its 2–10 start to improve to 8–13, and Granderson came back with a vengeance. He hit .310 with 3 homers in his first eight games, as the Tigers went 6–2 and improved to 14–15 on May 1. Since then, however, Detroit and Granderson have regressed into a prolonged slump. The Tigers have gone 4–12 since May 1 and Granderson is hitting .177 for the month of May. Detroit finds itself in last place in the Central at 18–27, 6.5 games out of first, and Granderson and his teammates are looking to right the ship.

Granderson spent most of his days before professional baseball in the Chicagoland area. He was born in Blue Island, grew up in Lynwood, went to high school in Lansing, and graduated from the Univeristy of Illinois-Chicago with degrees in business administration and advertising. He was drafted in the third round by the Tigers in 2002, and moved quickly through their system, making his major-league debut in 2004. He spent most of 2005 back in the minors, and earned the starting center field job with the big club in 2006. He had a solid year, showing big-time power potential while hitting for a good average and playing good defense in center field. His biggest weakness was strikeouts, as he led the league with 174 whiffs.

2007 was Granderson’s breakout season. He became the first player since Willie Mays to have at least 20 doubles, triples, home runs, and stolen bases in the same season (Jimmy Rollins of the Philadelphia Phillies also did so later in the year). He finished with a .302 batting average, 23 homers, 74 RBI, 23 triples (the most by any player since 1949) and 26 steals. He also cut down on his strikeouts (141). Granderson finished 10th in the American League MVP voting. It was a truly unique season from a truly unique player.

In addition to his strikeout totals, the only other hole in his game has been his performance against left-handed pitching. Granderson bats from the left side, and he’s struggled with southpaws his entire career, to the point where Tigers manager Jim Leyland will sit him occasionally when they face a tough lefty. Last year, he hit only .160 against lefties, and this year, only 5 of his 91 at bats have been versus southpaws, with only a single to show for it. Some players are able to improve their platoon splits as they mature, and Granderson will need to do so in order to join the truly elite players in the game.

Granderson has already laid the foundation for a career in baseball when his playing days are over. After the 2006 season, he traveled around the world as an ambassador for Major League Baseball. My brother, Tom, who lives outside London and used to work for MLB’s British arm, Baseball/Softball UK, had the opportunity to meet him while he was on the Great Britain leg of his tour. He had the following to say: “Granderson was totally down-to-earth — both respectful and curious (a good way to be as a tourist!). He did a whirlwind tour, hitting London, Italy, and Holland in a week, doing clinics for kids as well as public appearances. He's since done a similar trip to South Africa. The guy is exactly as his title for these trips says — an MLB Ambassador. He's a benefit to the game.”

Last year, he worked for TBS as a studio analyst for their playoff coverage and performed well. He also blogs intermittently for ESPN.com. Granderson is a fantastic player and by all accounts a good guy, and he has the opportunity to continue to improve.

The Gag Rule

2008-05-20T19:00:00Z

Individuals in positions of authority — especially those positions critical to our survival, such as President of the United States and Illinois Men's Basketball coach — are incessantly pestered with irrelevant questions from idiots. For some reason we, the public, allow these interrogatory distractions. Worse, we expect the dummies to get their answers.

But we can't get those answers. Presidential candidates are silenced de facto from speaking honestly, or at length — knowing they will only be ridiculed in the tabloid press. Basketball coaches are prohibited from speaking de jure — specifically, the jure of the NCAA.

]]> There are millions of people who know better than the President of the United States et al candidates for that office. They've been loitering in coffee shops for decades.

There are thousands of people who could coach the Illinois Men's Basketball team better than Bruce Weber. You can find them in chat rooms all over the web. Many of them have offered to do the job for a fraction of Weber's million dollar salary. Why is it, then, that we keep Weber?

Well, maybe the job isn't so easy as everybody thinks.

It's nearly impossible to get a group of people to work together like a well-oiled machine. Even if the people want to work together, precision is hard to come by. Every distraction, relevant or otherwise, impedes the synchronization of the parts. Just you try to get 435 members of congress to put together a coherent energy bill, even during an energy crisis, that threatens all 435 districts. Just you try to get 5 guys to run a fluid motion offense, even if all five want to win a championship.

It's hard enough to oversee the governing of an entire industrialized nation without simultaneously quelling immaterial controversies, rumor campaigns, and the petty outrages of the perpetually dim. It's hard enough to oversee the academic and competitive progress of thirteen young men without quelling the incessant incitements of internet chatter.

But, that's America. And so the already difficult, vitally important jobs of overseeing the proper execution of our laws, and the proper execution of hard-nosed man-to-man defense, are continually sidetracked.

Let's look at the top five crises facing you, right now:

1. Your mortgage will be foreclosed in 8 days
2. Your son was just injured in Iraq
3. Barack Obama does not wear a flag pin
4. Gas costs $4 per gallon
5. Your planet is melting

And if you live in Illinois,

6. Jereme Richmond's commitment to Illini basketball

All these are serious problems, according to people who have the right to vote. Luckily, the media is giving each of them a hearing.

When the formerly well-regarded, now universally maligned Charlie Gibson/George Stephanopoulos team set the flagbaiting trap for Barack Obama, it was necessary to bring in one of the Little Brains, a salt-of-the-earth person — the insular group of Americans who don't understand the complexities of the International Monetary Fund, but have a firm grasp on what really matters to Americans who don't know anything.

Enter dowdy Nash McCabe (pictured), a gruff middle-aged laborer with some understanding of properly conjugated verbs.

"Do you believe in the flag?" She queried.

This non-issue simply will not die. It was a major talking point when George Bush was running for President... against Michael Dukakis. It is, however, a great issue for demonstrating irony. The Little Brains believe they are more patriotic for wanting to eliminate the uniquely American freedom which our flag represents.

According to popular stupidity... err, I mean popular wisdom... there are some things you just can't say in this country. For example, office-seekers are supposedly not allowed to point out that the right to burn the flag is different from the desire to burn the flag, or advocacy of flag burning. No one is allowed to say the flag is merely a symbol (except for the late Senator Paul Simon). You can't remind even the most bible-thumping of voters that graven images and false idols are not the same as the things they represent.

Candidates, knowing their statements on even the most complex issues will be reduced to ten-second sound bites, evade.

These are the people choosing the topics for your national conversation.

But we may be turning a corner on this stubborn problem. Now, even the people who preferred Bush over Kerry for beer-drinking purposes have begun to recognize that electing a fellow Little Brain (or The Intellectually Incurious, if you must) has consequences. They've begun to understand that sitting on a porch and drinking beer, although important, is not among the foremost issues facing the US government.

So, perhaps there will come a day when candidates for President of the United States are allowed to give earnest, forthright, polysyllabic answers — possibly even paragraph-length answers — to complex and stupid questions alike. After all, there is no law that says a candidate can't speak the truth, or give his assessment of it.

That's not true for NCAA basketball coaches like Bruce Weber. His constitutional right to freedom of expression is immaterial, because he's chosen to be part of a self-governing association. And unlike the constitution, the NCAA can and does restrict speech. Specifically, it prohibits Weber from talking about prospective basketball players. I think it's a bad rule.

Contrast this speech prohibition with the NCAA rule most dear to Illini hearts this year — § 13.1.3 Telephone Calls to Prospective Student-Athletes. That's the one which puts limits on the frequency and timing of telephone calls from college coaches to teenagers. It's the rule broken, smashed and obliterated by Cellvin Samsung during his tenure as Head Coach at the University of Oklahoma, and then again at Indiana University.

The phone call rule makes sense to me. I can easily recognize its value. Kids need to have time to sleep, study, talk to their families and play basketball — without being incessantly pursued by fawning grown-ups.

The speech rule makes no sense to me. I simply don't understand what good is served by it. It seeks to prevent firestorms of hype, and fails. It does nothing to stop a coach from telling a teenager "You're the missing link to the Final Four." It only stops all the rest of us from finding out that a coach told the player "You're the missing link to the Final Four."

In theory.

Here's an example of how the speech prohibition hurts, in practice:

Last week the internets nearly burned to the ground when an Indiana grad published an interview with Illinois recruit Jereme Richmond, who is old enough to drive.

We learned that Richmond wonders, like a lot of young people, what it would be like to see the world. Seeing the world would be easier if he were flown off, at no personal expense, to various college campuses — for recruiting visits. But he can't do that, because it would create havoc here at the center of the universe. People would think Jereme were wavering in his commitment to us. That's a bit insecure of us, as a fan base. It implies there might be something out there more appealing than the University of Illinois campus, and its Men's Basketball program. (Poppycock!)

Bruce Weber had no reaction to the story, because he's not allowed to have a reaction to the story. So he appears, to the casual observer — who doesn't know about the speech rule — like an evasive politician.

I am all in favor of paid vacations. I think seeing the world is a grand thing. I wish Weber were allowed to tell Jereme "go out there, see the world on their dime. We'll look forward to seeing you when you get back."

We Illini fans have nothing to fear, see. The stable is filling up with thoroughbreds. We're close to home and Jereme's actively involved family. Our team is managed by ethical people who know how to make important decisions, and provide mature guidance.

But still, Weber can't tell Jereme to see the world, because he can't tell everyone else, "it's okay, I told him to go out and see the world." In fact, on the topic of Jereme Richmond and all other recruits, he can't say anything at all.

It's that incapacity — to stifle the media storm, and possible immolation of the interweb — which prevents Jereme from having his cake and eating it too.

It hurts Jereme, the young person ostensibly protected by NCAA censorship. His parents and the Illinois coaching staff regard the situation of public perception as serious, including last week's internet meltdown. Shortly afterwards, the Richmond family once again reassured the press that Jereme is not wavering. But because of the NCAA's anti-P.R. rule, they can't choose to let him go see the sights. That sucks, because vacations are fun, and enlightening. And free vacations are rare.

The stifling of free expression has real consequences. The stifling of free association has real consequences. The stifling of the free exchange of ideas has real consequences. In deeply felt cases, regarding matters close to our hearts — like patriotism, and college basketball — the stiflers often think they're doing the right thing.

They're not.

Soriano Explodes; Cubs Surge Into First

2008-05-19T19:00:00Z

Fun week

This was a really enjoyable week for most baseball fans in C-U. Cardinals held steady despite their closer being put on the DL with a non-pitching “injury.” The Reds won six in a row behind a nasty 7–1 rookie named Volquez, and the White Sox surged back to first with a sweep of the Giants.

Not bad folks.

]]> You’ve got Lance Berkman hitting .399 and still not leading the NL in batting average (see Larry Wayne ‘Chipper’ Jones in Georgia) and how about Manny Ramirez taking time to high-five a fan after a spectacular catch and STILL having enough time to double-off the runner?

Great week…actually one of the best in thirty years. Thirty years? Yes. The Cubbies ended this week and their ten game homestand at 8–2; that’s their best stretch at Wrigley since 1978. Great week (for any fan in C-U not named Bernie Brewer).

Questioning and Second Guessing

I didn’t want to join in the racket about whether or not Soriano should be batting leadoff. When they were talking about it in Spring Training on 670 AM The Score or ESPN 1000, I flipped back to music, when the Comcast SportsNet crew brought it up in mid-April, it only annoyed me. Yet when Soriano was hitting .188 eleven days ago, I caved. Looking for someone or something to blame, I became the sports fan that I hate: the mindless Zombie dialing in from his two and a half hour lunch break, most of which he’d spent on hold, just to say “Soriano sucks! He swings at too many bad pitches!” even though the last twenty callers had barked the same thing. Yes, I blamed Lou for not considering him for the five hole. Maybe it was too many experts (like former Bears WR Tom Waddle!) spouting off about his typically average on-base percentage and his inability to work the count? I’m not sure. In the end, I agreed with the wide world of idiot armchair GM’s that I had a good understanding of Soriano’s psyche and comfort level.

Poor choice.

Piniella knew where he was comfortable. Funny, no one is saying much about Sori now. Such fickle fans we are. But hey, we just want a winner. For the record, as much as I like him, I’ll continue to question Piniella, but not about the Soriano/leadoff issue. It’s a dead horse. He’ll slump again, and it will come right back to the lips of the fans who still think we should trade half of our farm system for .272 Brian Roberts. But I’m out. No more Soriano debates.

Plus / Minus

Minus to: Jim Edmonds

Why? Because he doesn’t belong here. My readers are pretty smart, so I know they read Doug’s column — by now you know that this was just as hard for Cardinal fans to stomach. This guy was one of my least favorite players in the game. Diving in unnecessary situations then rising slowly to his feet, posing for the camera and making sure his hair wasn’t a mess. Ugh. Of course there was the oft-discussed Zambrano/Edmonds showboating/pointing incident in 2004 that earned Edmonds a Z fastball in the ear and Carlos a five game suspension.

But wait you say?

He has 363 career HRs and plays a great centerfield! He also has 1612 career strikeouts and 37-year old legs. I’m just not a fan. All this said, for $275,000, Hendry had to bring him on board. Pie was headed down for more “seasoning” (how much does he need?) anyway. He does offer a decent CF and a LH alternative to Reed Johnson, but I am still not truly sold. Look, I’m not wavering on this: I like Johnson and his grind it out .340 OBP. Edmonds will get some playing time against righties and he should, but hopefully not against every right-hander. As I’ve said a few times, I hope I’m wrong and “Jimmy Ballgame” still has something left in the tank. Maybe I’ll become a fan. But, don’t count on it.

Minus to: Rain

No rain last Tuesday and we sweep all four from the Fathers. Still you gotta like three of four and a win versus Peavy.

Minus to: Zambrano

Of course, as soon as I write about the calmer, mature Z, he tantrums, breaks a bat over his knee and lasts 4 innings in a game that also could have easily been had.

Plus to: Soriano

I wrote about him above, so I won’t labor here. When Piniella compared him to Bobby Bonds in the leadoff spot, critics scoffed. “Bonds was a prototypical three hitter, but was more comfortable in the leadoff spot, look what he did,” Piniella explained a few weeks back. What is comfort? Is it a .571 batting average and seven HR in ten days? That sounds pretty cozy to me. Three out of four games with a leadoff homerun? Raising your average over 100 points in three series? After homering twice Saturday, Soriano reminded the media to not overlook the pitchers psyche too: “When the pitcher looks up and sees the score 1–0, it changes his mindset a little.” I think we’ll leave him at the top. Traditional stats don’t always tell the whole story.

Plus to: Dempster

I haven’t said much about Dempster since the beginning of the season when I proclaimed that our former closer had excellent potential, but seemed far too inconsistent to put together a top notch season. While I’m still concerned that after 3–4 years in the bullpen his stamina will run short in August and September, his return to the starting rotation has been nothing short of spectacular. Opponents are batting .172 off Demps who’s only allowed 35 (!) hits in 57 IP. Thursday he struck out twelve Padres. 5–1 is a much better start than I predicted. Have a 2ON2OUT Plus, good sir.

Plus to: Theriot

Theriot does a lot of little things that go unnoticed. He’s completely unspectacular and rarely will you see him as the centerpiece of any feature on why the Cubs are currently ten games over .500. Yet, how many other teams wish their shortstop had a .410 OBP and played solid D? Lots. Love the guy.

The Cubbies finish the week strong again, this time two up on St. Lou and 2.5 on a fire HOT Astros team. Time to take it head to head. Northsiders off to Houston for three. Should be a great series.

Big Brown Gets No Respect in the Preakness

2008-05-16T19:00:00Z

One thing is for certain about horse racing: there is no such thing as a “sure thing.” Horses are living, breathing creatures with as distinct personalities as pedigrees. A horse is not a car — he gets sick, gets hungry, gets full of himself, gets tired. In short, he is a real athlete in every sense of the word. And just as in the human world, there are those horses who stand out among the rest physically and mentally, being born with a talent that screams to be exercised. There are horses, and then there are horses.

]]> Looking at the field of thirteen going into the Preakness Stakes, the second jewel of the Triple Crown, there is no doubt in my mind that Big Brown should put his contenders to shame. He is, to put it frankly, in a league of his own. We can grasp for flaws, oh, we can pick at the most minute of potential blemishes, but that’s called desperation. Can he pull himself together after only a two-week layoff? He’s also never broken from the middle of the field before, and he has drawn post seven; so we must ask the question of whether or not he could handle getting pinched back, or having dirt thrown in his face. After all, look what happened to the unbeaten champ, War Pass, the first time a race didn’t go his way.

Nevermind these questions. The only thing, I tell you, that will keep Big Brown from winning this race is Big Brown himself. The Preakness is as close to a sure thing as they come.

Still, the Kentucky Derby winner is getting little respect. Twelve other horses dared show up to Pimlico to face him. Some, like the trainer of Kentucky Bear, boast, “He hasn’t beaten us yet.”

I hope Kentucky Bear is prepared for the race of his life once Brownie begins to breathe his fire. No, my guess is Kentucky Bear will just be another domino to fall under the monster’s ground-eating charge to the wire.

The horses I see most likely to dominate everyone but Big Brown are Gayego, Giant Moon, and Icabad Crane. Recapturetheglory came down with a fever (think cold, sweaty dreams in which he’s being chased by a ravaging brown horror), Gayego became the only horse from the Kentucky Derby field to challenge him again. If any contender deserves to be in the Preakness besides Big Brown, it’s Gayego.

Before the Derby field had even swept past the clubhouse turn, Gayego was obviously in turmoil. Slapped in a hole between horses, the dark colt was running up on the heels of Recapturetheglory in front of him, unable to break out of the clutch of horses, and looking like he was in a cavalry charge, head tipped back and eyes bulging. He never had a chance to put in a good run, folding his cards and fading to 17th place by the race’s end. The Derby has a way of swallowing up good horses. Gayego had never finished worse than second before that race, and since he didn’t have the chance to wear himself out, Gayego may have a good store of energy left to blow out in the Preakness’s smaller field. Coming from post twelve is not going to help his efforts, however.

That’s why I point to Giant Moon and Icabad (not Ichabod) Crane, throwing Hey Byrn into the mix for good measure. Any of these horses have proven themselves to at least be potential third-place hopefuls in the shadows of Mr. Big and Gayego, which is more than I can say about the rest of the sorry contenders. But with this unpredictable lot, it’s hard to tell exactly what is going to happen come this Saturday in Baltimore.

Big Brown is mortal. He can be beaten, hypothetically. But I wouldn’t bet on that happening here. It’s too bad the Preakness is only for 3-year-olds, otherwise I’d suggest we bring back last year’s winner, Curlin, into the fray and have a real race. If Mr. Big wants some real competition, he’s going to have to pick on someone his own size. ’Cause let’s face it, Big Brown is beating up on a bunch of babies here, a heavyweight trouncing the lightweights. If they let him race after the Belmont, oh what a reckoning there could be…

Say It Ain’t So Jimmy Ballgame

2008-05-16T15:55:13Z

Back in December, I wrote a long-winded eulogy for Jim Edmonds when his ties were cut with the Cardinals upon being shipped to San Diego. I wanted to remember his loping, upper-cut swing, his shoestring or scaling-the-wall catches, his notoriously lackadaisical appearance on the field, his So. Cal. bleached tips, his uncanny ability to clobber the high fastball and that glorious, walk-off home run he hit off Dan Miceli to keep the Cardinals alive in the 2004 NLCS.

I never published that eulogy. And now, I’m glad I didn’t, because Jim Edmonds isn’t going quietly into the night. Instead, he’s playing for the arch-rival Cubs. Whether Edmonds, who once admitted to treading lightly on Wrigley’s warning track thanks to its vine-covered brick walls, has any gas left in the tank or not is beside the point. He’ll be wearing the C on his chest, and that’s uncomfortable for Redbirds fans. The man who said on many occasions that he wanted to end his career in St. Louis will now likely cap his career in Chicago. That’s tough to stomach.

]]> Edmonds went one-for-four in his Cubs debut yesterday, stranding seven men on base. His batting average now sits at .181 and his OPS is just south of god-awful at .498. Edmonds is going to receive the playing time that could have gone to a talented youngster, Felix Pie, who was optioned to Triple-A to make room for the veteran. Pee-ay hasn’t hit much better than Edmonds this season, but at age 23 he is the future, not Edmonds. The Cubs have a stacked lineup, and when they are getting far above-average offensive production from their catcher and shortstop (and occasionally their pitcher), the team can afford to have a weaker hitter manning center. Pie doesn’t stand to learn much more in the minors; in one-plus seasons at Triple-A he has slugged 24 home runs and hit well north of .300. So as frustrating as youthful inexperience can sometimes be, his demotion doesn’t make much sense.

The irony of the acquisition is that the Cardinals dealt Jimmy Ballgame and his ever-declining skill set to the Padres to make room for a plethora of youth in the outfield, including their own stud center field prospect, Colby Rasmus. The Cubs then acquired Edmonds to block their own youth movement. Stupid personnel decisions aside, the Cubs can probably afford to roll the dice on Edmonds. I can see why they wanted him: In 505 career plate appearances against Chicago, Edmonds has hit 32 home runs, the most he’s hit against any one team. Still, one question remains: Will Big Z be able to resist plunking Edmonds during BP?

IN OTHER NEWS . . .

The Cardinals are in the midst of a suck fest, having lost seven of their past nine games. Three of those losses can be directly attributed to Jason Isringhausen, who all of a sudden looks worse than his injured 2006 self. (And I didn’t think that was possible.) But we can’t blame Izzy for everything.

While the team’s offense has been stranding runners and puttering along at a slightly worse-than-season-average clip, the team’s pitching staff has begun a serious regression. All those close games the Cardinals were winning in April are now ending up losses. Over this nine-game stretch, the team’s ERA is 5.56, nearly two runs worse than its mark in all prior games. The signs of decline have been there: During April the team posted a 3.41 ERA; over the first week of May the ERA ballooned to 4.58. So as the offense has been slipping a bit, the pitching is quickly becoming atrocious.

The fault doesn’t lie solely with Isringhausen, who has actually contributed two scoreless frames in an attempt to balance out his other three appalling appearances. Ronald Thomas Villone Jr.’s ERA has blown up too, from 0.63 at the start of this stretch of games to 4.76 after yesterday’s debacle. Even the starting pitchers have begun to falter, with Adam Wainwright putting forth his poorest performance of the season (but just his second non-quality start). I never thought I’d say this, but where would we be without Todd Wellemeyer? We can bemoan the absence of Chris Carpenter all we want, but Welle has been doing a damn fine impersonation of a power pitcher so far this season: Opposing hitters are reaching base just 28 percent of the time against him, and he’s striking out nearly a batter an inning.

So are the team’s recent troubles a passing bout or a sign of the times? I’d wager a bet that we’re not as bad as we currently look, but that we’re also not as good as we were in April. What that means is we’re probably going to remain competitive among the first tier in the N.L. Central, but we aren’t likely to hang with the Cubs much longer. They have one of the league’s best offenses, which is not a fluke, and one of the league’s best pitching staffs, too. Then again, they also have Jim Edmonds. So, maybe Lou Piniella and company will find a way to botch this whole thing by September after all.

P.S.

Thanks to some fine pitching by the simulated version of Bob Forsch, the 1986 Cardinals have advanced to the World Series to face the Yankees. In case you haven't been following The Sporting News’ simulation of the ’86 season, Deadspin founder, Redbird enthusiast and Mattoon native Will Leitch has skippered the Cardinals to the Fall Classic.

Share The Road, Loud and Clear

2008-05-15T19:00:00Z

What’s big, yellow, and wants you to share the road? If you’ve seen the C-U Mass Transit District’s new Share the Road bus, it’s no mystery. The bus, which travels on various routes throughout the area depending on the day, made its debut a few weeks ago.

]]> The name of the bus comes from the new Illinois law, which took effect on January 1, 2008, requiring motorists to allow a minimum of 3 feet clearance when passing a bicycle. Rick Furr, publicist for Champaign County Bikes (CCB), a local bicycle advocacy organization, sent out a press release when the bus debuted. This press release explained the “Share the Road” concept: “Bicycles are considered vehicles by the Illinois Vehicle Code and have the same rights and responsibilities as cars and need to follow the same rules. Both benefit when everyone follows the rules of the road.”

CCB was the leading force behind getting the buswrap in place, but they were by no means alone. “The cities, CUMTD, CCB, UIUC, and local bike shops teamed with Carle Foundation, The Bike Project, and C-U Safe Routes To School (SRTS) Project to put the wrap together,” said Cynthia Hoyle, CCB member and a Transportation Planning Consultant for CUMTD. “CUMTD provided significant in-kindcontributions with the bus space, Dean's produced the wrap, and Joyce Mast, a member of CCB, did the design.”

Mast, an avid cyclist and graphic designer, took great care in her design. “I felt it is important to show that many different kinds of folks ride bikes and need to share the road with cars,” she said. “I included a wheelchair racer from the U of I, a pregnant lady with a child in a child seat and groceries in her basket, a lady on a 3-wheeled recumbent, a male racer, a tourist with panniers on his bike, a woman with a trailer, and a business man commuting to work. All these folks are typical of bike riders in Champaign Urbana.”

Rick Langlois, CCB chairman, puts this project in perspective of their larger goals. “In two short years we have helped both Champaign and Urbana design and move bicycle plans through the city councils,” he remarked. “In another month we will have 30,000 professionally produced, color maps of the cities with bike routes selected and graded by local riders.”

This is National Bike to Work Week, so whether you are riding yourself or occupying the same roads and streets as bicyclists, look out for each other and respect your fellow commuters.

Stay tuned to Smile Politely. In a few hours, our own Lena Singer will be highlighting the importance of this week.

The AL Central Report #11

2008-05-14T19:00:00Z

Now that we’re nearly at the quarter pole of the regular season, the flukes of April should be fading away to reveal something more concrete in the American League Central. Instead, it’s a muddled race to the middle, with only 4.5 games separating first place from fifth, and no team with a winning percentage over .530 or under .400. Any analysis based on a given team’s spot in this crapshoot could be completely irrelevant by this time next week. But hey, that’s why I’m here.

]]> Minnesota (20–18): After winning three out of four from the Boston Red Sox this weekend — despite only outscoring them 25–22 in the series — the Twins look as solid at this point as they have all season. Here’s a weird schedule fluke for you: as of Tuesday morning, none of the Twins’ opponents from now until June 20 (Arizona) currently have a winning record. That group does include the Yankees, Tigers, Rockies and Indians, but still, everybody is at .500 or below right now. Minnesota probably lost reliever Pat Neshek for the season with a partially torn ligament in his elbow earlier this week; the best-case scenario is that he could return without surgery in September, while the other end of the hopefulness spectrum is brought to you by the letters T and J. Oh, and if you didn’t already see Michael Cuddyer’s Keystone Kops Katch on Monday night, check it out.

Cleveland (20–19): In Monday’s doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays, starting pitchers Fausto Carmona and Cliff Lee combined for 18 shutout innings, but only Carmona claimed a victory. Lee left after nine innings and 117 pitches in a scoreless tie, and Rafael Betancourt quickly gave up 3 runs in the 10th to facilitate a Blue Jays win. Lee lowered his ERA to 0.67, which we already covered last week, while Betancourt’s Joe Borowski impression continued to be a little too spot-on for most Indians fans. Since Borowski went on the DL on April 15, Betancourt has given up at least one run in 4 of his 10 appearances, and has two losses and one blown save. After Monday night’s fiasco, his ERA is 6.89. Despite otherwise excellent pitching (with the exception of C.C. Sabathia’s April), the Indians are scuffling due to their unexpectedly poor offense — they are hitting .236 as a team (last in the AL) and have scored only 4.3 runs per game (11th).

Chicago (18–20): The Sox had dropped six games in a row through last Monday, May 5, a crisis which required blow-up dolls in the clubhouse (insert Ozzie and the Real Doll joke here). Ozzie’s crew responded to that motivational ploy by winning their next two series, against the Twins and Mariners, so who knows what the remedy will be for their next slump. Other than Mark Buehrle (1–5, 5.81 ERA), their rotation has been great, with John Danks, Gavin Floyd, Javier Vazquez and Jose Contreras all sporting ERA’s between 2.74 and 3.66. New left fielder Carlos Quentin has been spearheading the offense, and looks poised for a breakout season if he stays healthy. So why aren’t they winning more games? The most obvious reason is that half their team isn’t hitting: four regulars (Jim Thome, Nick Swisher, Paul Konerko, Orlando Cabrera and Juan Uribe) are hitting .230 or lower. At least Thome (.350 OBP), Swisher (.331), and Konerko (.338) are still getting on base at an acceptable rate while their bats warm up. Chicago, as usual, has the pieces in place to contend, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up stuck around the .500 mark most of the season.

Kansas City (17-21): The Royals’ situation is pretty simple, and not likely to change anytime soon: their pitching and defense are decent, and their offense is bad. On the pitching side, Zack Greinke has been phenomenal so far, charging to a 4–1 start with a 1.93 ERA. In the bullpen, Joakim Soria has been untouchable, saving 9 games while surrendering only 4 hits and no runs in 15–1/3 inning pitched. Brian Bannister has been decent, going 4–4 with a 3.75 ERA. On the offensive side, however, things get ugly in a big hurry. Kansas City has scored only 3.6 runs per game, last in the majors. They have 19 home runs and are on pace to hit 82 homers this season, which is still more than Barry Bonds’ record of 73, but not a very good effort for an entire team. Free agent acquisition Jose Guillen finally raised his batting average over .200 this past week, but he’s still lagging behind the performance of the man he replaced, the none-too-fondly-remembered Emil Brown.

Detroit (16–23): On the other end of the spectrum, the Tigers have achieved strikingly similar results to those of the Royals with the opposite formula: decent offense combined with shoddy pitching and fielding. Other than fill-in Armando Galarraga and his 3.07 ERA in five starts, the only other rotation member with an ERA under 5 is Jeremy Bonderman (a sparkling 4.80 mark to go with his 2–4 record). Heralded acquisitions Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis haven’t contributed much so far. Willis has been hurt, but Cabrera has just been confounding. He’s been moved to first base because of defensive struggles at third, and his patience and production at the plate are far behind his career averages. All season we’ve been waiting for the Tigers to break out of their funk and play like the team they were expected to be. Maybe it will still happen, but they are looking more like a team in disarray than the wrecking ball that was promised.

Cardinals Need To Sharpen Up

2008-05-13T19:00:00Z

Not to seem overly pessimistic, but with high expectations often comes excruciating pain. At the beginning of the year, my hopes for the Cardinals were somewhat optimistic with a certain amount of understandable trepidation. All of a sudden, we start looking pretty good and I assume we should win every damned game we play. It’s easy to complain, much harder to be realistic.

]]> That being said, let’s begin with the complaining. What the piss is going on with Jason Isringhausen? As much as I love kicking a guy when he’s down, it’s almost tough to do this time. This past week he was a freaking Zippo in a fireworks factory. He blew two games in Colorado and one in Milwaukee all by himself.

Granted, these are two teams that seem better than they’ve played and they were bound to break out, but everyone watching those games, including Isringhausen, knew he shouldn’t be out there. He just completely lost it. In the post game interview he looked a little misty and said he was throwing like a second grader. If this wasn’t an insult to every second grader in the country, I might have almost felt sorry for the guy.

I will give him credit though; he ponied up and took responsibility for the fiasco. He said he was lost and that he needed to be replaced in the closer role. Tony Larussa is loyal to a fault with veterans, so Jason’s decree was probably about the only thing that could have stopped the bleeding in the near future. He was replaced by Ryan Franklin, sort of, and hopefully we can hold on to a lead now every so often.

Another big problem is starting to rear its ugly head. We don’t hit much with runners in scoring position. On Sunday, Jeff Suppan was a little careless in the first few innings and gave up some walks. Instead of cashing in, we let him off the hook time and time again. Yeah, yeah, he’s a crafty veteran and all that bullshit, but he was remarkably beatable and he got a victory despite of himself and because of us.

Part of the reason for this was also some poor-assed base running. While it’s sort of hard to criticize the guy, Albert Pujols needs to take his head out of his ass every so often. On Sunday alone, he ran into three outs and ran us out of three rallies. I can give him a break on one of them since he drew a throw and allowed us to score a run without a play at the plate, but the other two were pretty sad. His devil may care base running did help us win a game in Colorado, but that play could have very easily have went the other way also.

Albert is one of the greatest players because he knows how to play the game. He hustles and he’s smart. He stays within himself at the plate and doesn’t get himself out. It seems, however, that he may be reading a little too many of his own press clippings. He’s trying to win every game by himself, expanding the strike zone to try and get a hit and running the bases like a little leaguer who needs some Ritalin. He’s the best there is when he just does his job. He’s not helping anyone trying to everyone else’s job at the same time.

That’s all I have to complain about really. The starting pitching continues to be strong and the middle relief is still hanging tough. We’re just not a good enough team to be able to give away games with poor execution. We need to be sharp every damned day because our margin for error is almost non-existent. It’s too early to worry about the standings and the Cubs. It’ best just to bear down and win as many as you can. A victory now is worth just as much as one in August.

Get Off This Rollercoaster: Cubs Back in First

2008-05-12T19:00:00Z

Biatches

Last Thursday morning my son repeated this lovely word back to me after he heard me refer to my shoes as "biatches." I had been explaining to my wife why I needed to replace them, and my son decided he liked the word and happily shouted it back. It’s probably not the first time my son has heard me spout an expletive; in fact, unfortunately, he probably heard me use similar language the day before to describe the Cubs' lackluster 9–0 loss to an unimpressive Cincinnati ballclub. Returning from vacation is never fun. During my time away from home the Cubs lost two of three in four straight series. After starting 15–6, they had fallen to 19–15, going 4–9 in their last 13 games.

Yes, its quite possible my son heard a few negative words during that stretch, but hearing the word ‘biatches’ from your 17-month old kid kind of gives me a little perspective…

]]> Never bet on baseball

In 1998, it was estimated that $80 to $380 billion per year is wagered illegally on sports. I don’t know how much of that total is bet on baseball, but my guess is it’s not nearly as much as football and basketball. Baseball is simply too unpredictable to bet on, especially on a game by game basis. Too much instability. Look at the past week for our Cubbies: lose two of three to a struggling Reds club, capped by a rubber game where Lieber gives up four HRs in just two innings en route to a 9-0 drubbing.

A day off to think about the game, and then back home to spend the weekend facing the best team in the majors. Would you have wagered on the D-backs series? Did you see a sweep coming? You’re lying.

I didn’t think this club had it in them after five lackluster series in a row, but they did. A sweep of the Snakes and the Cubs are back in first, and percentage points ahead of the Redbirds who dumped their closer after losing four of their last five to the Rockies and Brewers.

So, keep a bookie around if you’d like, venture onto your favorite online site, but, stay away from baseball.

It’s a house game.

Inconsistency

It's not uncommon this early in the season. The Cubs have certainly had their fair share of it. At times their offense has carried them and at others, their starting pitching powered through. At times their defense has been atrocious and other times, the bats have gone silent. Nothing kills a team more than the closer blowing the ninth, and that has not been a strength so far. It has been eased somewhat by the fact that it’s happening all over the NL Central. Take the Cards In St. Louis with "I'm pitching like a 2nd-grader Izzy." In Milwaukee with Gagne where opponents are hitting .382 off of him (compare that to Wood’s .183 avg against hitters).

Despite the wobbly start, finishing week six at 22–15 is quite good. I still can’t believe we swept the D-Backs.

Minus / Plus

Minus to: Leiber

Liebs has been better than advertised this year, but Wednesday’s outing was nearly inexcusable. Everyone has a bad game here and there, but four home runs in one inning? C’mon. Lieber should return to the role where he’s excelled this year: long relief. He’s really best used as a change of pace in innings 4–6. That’s obvious now. I also just read that Piniella will skip his spot in the rotation this week…always a step ahead of me Lou…and looks like the young Sean Gallagher will take a few more turns trying to secure that fifth spot. Exactly what I was going to suggest. I like Gallagher so far: he won’t be an instant success, but he has good stuff and is immediately better than Lieber and Marquis.

Minus to: Walks with the bases loaded

When Piniella brings in a reliever in a jam, I’m sure there are all types of situations they discuss before he departs back to the dugout. In a nutshell, two-thirds of the time Piniella could simply say, “let the defense work” or “you can turn two here if you let them put it in play”. Bottom line, though? Cubs relievers have walked way to many batters in these clutch situations. This happened again yesterday when Chad Fox (why did we bring him back for the third time?) entered the game with the bases loaded and immediately walked in two runs. Poor.

Minus to: Road Games / Plus to: Home Games

In recent years, fans, analysts and critics alike have wondered out loud why the Cubs can’t make Wrigley more of a home field advantage for them. It’s packed every game, there are 38,000 people screaming for the club, even in thirty degree weather on a Tuesday afternoon for God’s sake. Yet, the Cubs often have had home records around the .500 mark. Last year, when they won the NL Central, they had 44 wins at home to 41 wins on the road. In 05, they had three more victories on the road then at home with 38 and 41. 2003? Yep, more of the same. On the way to the NLCS they had only 44 wins at home, with 44 of the wins coming on the road. This year may be different. While I’d like to see the Cubbies play a little better on the road (8–9) their 14–6 home record is their best start at home in a good while — last year on May 12, they were 8–11 at home.

Plus to: Zambrano

Haven’t said much about our ace this year. Time to mention him. He deserves it. A calmer Big Z, relying on movement and art instead of overthrowing and throwing tantrums is 5–1 with a 1.80 ERA. Normally sub-par in April, he’s started strong and seems to be finally primed for a consistently good season. We’ll see, but for now, he gets a solid 2ON2OUT Plus.

Plus to: Ted Lilly

On April 14, my column was entitled “Note to Southpaws, please wake up soon.” While Rich Hill clearly did not read Smile Politely that day, Ted Lilly decided he had had enough of losing. Since April 22, Lilly is 3–1 and has dropped his ERA from 7.30 to 5.24. More importantly, he stepped up big time this weekend, setting the tone for the Arizona sweep by pitching seven strong Friday and fanning ten D-backs in the process. Keep it up Teddy.

This week, it’s four against the Fathers who are nowhere near as poor as their 14–24 record suggests. Z squares off against Wolf tonight. Then it’s three more against the Bucs this weekend. Cubs are 6–0 against Pittsburgh so far, 9–0? Probably not, but 8–1 after next Sunday will do fine.

Open Letter To Mr. Big Brown c/o Rick Dutrow

2008-05-09T19:00:00Z

All right, Mr. Big, you now have my full and undivided attention. Not only did you prove that you deserved the hype before the Kentucky Derby, you’ve succeeded in building an imposing mystique around your huge physique. You won the Derby coming from post 20, which no horse has done since a starting gate amounted to a piece of string; you won the race after staying on the outside of the herd and blowing away to a four and three-quarter length victory; and you’re the first Derby winner to scare off practically all of the other Derby contenders to enter the Preakness since Citation in 1948. Citation, in case you weren’t aware, was America’s eighth Triple Crown winner. One of eleven.

]]> Though your trainer, Rick Dutrow, isn’t happy about racing you in the Preakness Stakes with only a two-week layoff, you’ve got to be feeling pretty good about yourself right now. You’re unbeaten in four starts, something no Derby winner since Regret in 1915 could’ve boasted by this point, and by the looks of how easily you ate up that talented Derby field, you’re a shoe-in for the Triple Crown.

Now, I don’t want to give you a big head or anything (though I hear it’s too late for that), but I just wanted to bring to light that if you’d been on the rail for the whole of the Derby, your margin of victory would probably have been by over ten lengths. I know, that mustn’t feel very significant for you, since before the Derby you were regularly winning by at least five lengths with each race. But in the Kentucky Derby, that’s something very special. You’ve competed against the best assembled contenders possible for this point and time, and you picked them off like appetizers on the way to a bigger feast.

Unless Recapturetheglory suddenly sprouts wings, I can’t see any reason why you shouldn’t win the Preakness Stakes. Every other horse entering Pimlico’s greatest race has been beaten well by those you’ve already put to the test. It will be a field of leftovers: horses who don’t deserve to lick the dirt from your glued-on shoes. Just don’t get boxed in, and please don’t get hurt, and you’ve got it made.

And about the Triple Crown. I know everyone likes to speculate and dream the next Kentucky Derby winner can accomplish this most difficult feat to achieve in all of sports, but kid, you’ve got talent. We, your loyal horseracing public, may not have seen a horse with your raw ability for many a year. The way you scoffed at that field of hopefuls was not only monstrous (you’ve now earned the title of “freak,” I’m sure you must be aware of by now), but soul-enriching for a fan such as myself. Watching you begin to unroll that tremendous stride at the top of the final turn was victory in motion. I had no doubt about it. With that commanding move, you captured our hearts.

You see, we’ve been waiting years for another Triple Crown winner. A Messiah to the sport, if you will. The last Triple Crown was won in 1978 by Affirmed … that’s right, exactly thirty years ago. Now, I’m not trying to pressure you or anything, but that’s a nice round number, don’t you think? After all, the biggest slump between Crowns before this was the twenty-five year gap between Citation and Secretariat. You know, Big Red? The drought has been long, and as I have never witnessed a live Triple Crown winner with my own two eyes, I am edging on disbelief that the feat can ever be accomplished again. It seems my generation is not worthy of such greatness. But I think now more than ever, the public needs somebody pure to believe in. And I know you’re not perfect. You’re healing from quarter cracks in your hoofs, your pedigree completely decries all you’ve already accomplished, and you apparently are an Alpha Male type. Well, that’s all right with me. Because beyond all those things, you’ve got incredible heart.

Go Get’em, Mr. Big,

Jamie

Is This Kid for Real?

2008-05-09T14:30:00Z

The Cardinals’ Rick Ankiel has accomplished more in his six-year major league career than most. He’s won 13 games and sports a 3.90 career ERA. He’s averaged better than a strikeout per inning on the mound. At the plate, he owns a .470 slugging percentage and 67 career RBIs.

Ankiel has also earned enough criticism, empathy, praise and “What if … ?”s in six seasons to last him a lifetime. The role of pitching phenom is never an easy part to play. Just ask Kerry Wood or Mark Prior. But neither of their stories mimic the bizarre tale of Ankiel, which any recent baseball fan knows all too well. His progression has been a memorable one: “the next Sandy Koufax,” Game 1 of the 2000 NLDS, wild pitches, mental blocks, media scrutiny, failed comeback, Single-A ball, injuries, more failure, thoughts of quitting, rebirth as a position player, success in the minors, comparisons to The Natural in the majors, scandal, suspense.

]]> The offensive stats are all anyone cares about these days. With his turbulent pitching career extinguished, Ankiel, who is still just 28 years old, is a month into his first full season as a major league outfielder. Ankiel’s abilities at the plate shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that he was quite a good hitter for a pitcher. In 2000, his rookie season, he clubbed two home runs, a double and a triple. Last season, between Triple-A and the bigs, he tallied 43 long balls as an outfielder. This year, he’s hit six in a month-plus.

What most Cardinals fans want to know is whether Rick Ankiel, major league outfielder, is for real. The answer lies in small sample sizes and is thus murky, but we can still find some valuable observations. On-base percentage is a good predictor of future success, as it often is an example of a patient hitting approach. In 258 minor league games, Ankiel posted a rather pedestrian .328 OBP. Last season in 172 big league at-bats his OBP was identical. However, this year, in just 122 at-bats, his OBP has increased to .371. In his first 18 games this season, he walked just six times while striking out 17 times. Over his last 17 games, he’s lowered his strikeout total (nine) while significantly bumping up his walk total (12). Over that same period, his batting average climbed just ten points, so it’s difficult to dismiss the trend as the byproduct of a hot streak.

Ankiel has also fared extremely well versus left-handed pitching, suggesting that the left-handed batter should not fear a platoon in his future. Against lefties, he holds a .907 career OPS, including a .564 slugging percentage. This season’s results are in line with those averages. Against righties, he has struggled more, posting just a .757 career OPS. This season he has improved that number by 90 points and tightened the pronounced difference in splits.

He is not without his areas of concern at the plate. First and foremost is a rather eye-popping home-road split that oddly favors Busch Stadium, a pitcher’s park. He has also displayed the tendencies of a hitter trying to do too much with runners in scoring position. This season, he has struck out 12 times in 47 plate appearances, or 25.5% of the time, with runners on second or third, compared to just 18.6% of the time in all of his at-bats. In the late innings of close games he has also struggled, reaching base just four times in 20 plate appearances.

In the field, Ankiel has made up for any inadequacies at the plate with stellar play out in center. Despite a few awkward routes to balls, Ankiel has showcased his athleticism as well as the one thing most outfielders lack: a million-dollar arm. This week in a game against the Rockies, Ankiel picked up his first two assists of the season by nailing a pair of runners at third. The second assist was simply astonishing: He threw from the warning track in the deep left-center gap of Coors Field to nail a runner trying to stretch a double into a triple. His throw did not need a cutoff man nor any bounce to complete its trek to third. See for yourself.

It’s hard to believe that a guy that good is going to be displaced to right field when super-prospect Colby Rasmus is called up later in the season. Of course, that may not happen until 2009, as Rasmus has struggled mightily in Triple-A so far (a .641 OPS and .200 batting average). I lobbied for Rasmus’ inclusion on the big league roster coming out of spring training. At the time I couldn’t fathom the Cards’ collection of outfielders performing so well. All, except for Chris Duncan, have exceeded expectations. Yet none of them have made as much of an impact on the upstart Cardinals’ young season as Rick Ankiel.

The AL Central Report #10

2008-05-07T19:00:00Z

Since I completely jinxed last week’s feature subject, Brian Bannister (3 IP, 7 ER, 3 HR allowed in his start last Wednesday, ERA jumped from 2.48 to 4.04), this week we’ll test the extent of my jinxing powers with Cliff Lee, who will be starting tonight for the Cleveland Indians versus the New York Yankees. The game’s on ESPN at 6 p.m., so if you have cable and some free time, check it out.

]]> Despite the fact that he wasn’t even considered a good bet to make the Indians’ opening-day rotation at the beginning of spring training, Lee has been lights-out on the mound so far this year. If the American League Cy Young award was given out at the end of April, Lee would almost certainly be the winner this season. After five starts, he’s 5-0 with a microscopic 0.96 ERA, which leads the league by nearly half a run. Not only that, but he’s struck out 32 batters in 37 and 2/3 innings while walking only two and giving up only one home run. Those are peripheral statistics that point more toward complete dominance rather than early-season fluke.

The only caveat to Lee’s performance has been the quality of the opposing lineups that he’s faced. So far, he’s pitched twice against the Oakland A’s, and once each against the Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins, and Seattle Mariners. Those teams rank 13th, 14th, 10th and 9th, respectively, in the 14-team AL in slugging percentage this season.

The only game of those five that I watched live (which is to say, live on TV) was his matchup with the Twins on April 18 in the Metrodome. Lee gave up only 2 hits in 8 shutout innings while striking out 9. One of the two hits was an infield single, and each batter who reached on a hit was erased by the next batter hitting into a double play. That’s a long way of saying that there was no real hope for this Twins fan on that particular evening. Lee is a tall, lanky lefthander with a low-90’s fastball and a good ability to change speeds. Against the Twins, every pitch, it seemed, was at the knees on either the inside or outside corner, with good movement. Nobody was making solid contact, and this being the Twins, there were many occasions of batters swinging wildly at 57-foot 0–2 curveballs. It looked a lot like what Mark Buehrle would do to Minnesota 3 or 4 years ago.

Last week, the Mariners came as close as anyone has come to battering Lee in this young season. He actually had to work through a couple of jams in the early innings, but he still entered the seventh inning with a shutout (which gave him 27 consecutive scoreless innings to that point). However, after giving up consecutive singles to Jose Vidro and Richie Sexson to open the seventh, Wladimir Balentien hammered a three-run homer, chasing Lee and cutting the Indians’ lead to 8-3. He still got the win, but that was the first time this year that Lee actually looked mortal. Tonight’s game against the Yankees will be the first time this season that Lee faces a better-than-average opponent, and it will be interesting to see how he fares. Has he been pounding the strike zone against punchless opponents who can’t hurt him with the long ball, or is he so locked in that he would have been this dominant against anyone?

Although Cleveland is only two and a half games out of first place in the AL Central, their performance in the first five weeks of the season would have to be described as a disappointment. What’s really scary, though, is thinking about where they would be without Lee, a pitcher who really contributed nothing to their 2007, 96-66 division champion season. The Indians are 5–0 in games that Lee has started, and 10–17 when anyone else starts. Last year, he missed the first month of the season and was ineffective when he returned, going 5–8 with a 6.38 ERA before being sent down to the minors at the end of July. He pulled bullpen duty upon his return, but was left off the postseason roster as the Indians made it within a game of the World Series.

The way Lee is pitching in 2008 indicates that he was hurting last season, rather than washed up, which is great for Indians fans and trouble for the rest of the league. If C.C. Sabathia continues his return to form after a horrible first three weeks, and Fausto Carmona can find the plate again, the top three pitchers in their rotation are downright scary. They may not be the trendy pick at this point, but Cleveland will be right there in September.

Cubs Slide Into Second Place; Piniella Making Moves in the Bullpen

2008-05-06T20:30:00Z

Hello everyone, 2ON2OUT is back from vacation, and don’t think I was slacking. No, I was busy taking in a game at historic Grayson Stadium. This week to get back in the swing of things and to mirror my feelings about the Cubs current 3–8 stretch, we’ll play Minus/Plus short and quick, straight to the players.

]]> Minus (-) Plus (+)

Minus (-) to: The bullpen. Throw some strikes. Piniella’s facial reactions when you guys walk in a run says it all. You’re screwing up good starts. Wuertz? You only have one plus pitch. Use it; a steady diet of sliders is fine for one inning. Hart? You disappoint me; stay in AAA. Wood? Most of us around here don’t want to hear one more word about your 20 strikeout game or how many times you’ve been on the DL. In order for that to happen you have to pitch us some new memories. You could do that in the closers role, so lets close a few, cool?

Minus (-) to: Jason Marquis. Jason, I really don’t like watching you pitch. Offenses are hitting .321 against you. That sucks. In fact, it’s fifth worst in the NL. The Seans are going to take your spot and I hope it’s soon. Big Lefty Sean Marshall is being stretched out and they are skipping your turn in the rotation against Arizona this weekend. It’s the beginning of the end buddy. Ah, did you notice they called up hard-throwing rookie Sean Gallagher? Hendry says, “Gallagher is going to be a starter later, so we have some depth there." Not later, sooner.

Minus (-) to: Piniella. Lou, listen: you’re my favorite manager in all aspects of the game. Why doesn’t this translate to your dealings with Soriano? I know you want him to be comfortable and I realize what he did in August and September last year, but he’s limping around the outfield and he still swings at sliders 4 feet out of the zone. Bat him fifth or sixth and be done with it.

Plus (+) to: Piniella. Thank you for not letting Rich Hill work out his release point/psychological problems at the major league level. Hill has been the biggest disappointment of the year, and I agree, he’ll get it worked out in AAA (where issues like these should be worked out) and bounce back for a good 2008 yet. Thank you for having little to no patience for piss poor pitching out of the bullpen. I love that you make all of our pitchers throw strikes or find a way to ship them to Iowa or skip them in the rotation. It’s not your fault Marquis has a three year contact. By the way, good management telling Hendry to send our top scout to look at Scott Eyre “a little more closely” in AA while he rehabs. Did you tell Hendry to say what he said in the papers today about making sure he’s “really good” before he comes back. Smart move. Did you tell your scout that if he’s still throwing 88 MPH meatballs to lefty that he can stay down in Tennessee? You did? Thanks Lou. You’re my fave.

Plus (+) to: Marmol. Low pressure situations, high pressure situations, it doesn't matter. He performs. Should he close now? I’m starting to think so. I don’t care if Wood can’t pitch more than an inning, that’s why we have 12 (maybe soon to be 13) pitchers on the staff. Give the ball to the kid in the ninth, he’s amazing.

Plus (+) to: Soto. This kid is making me look good. Best catcher in a long time, both offensively (.448 OBP, 24 RBI in 29 G) and defensively (thrown out 40 percent of baserunners).

Now, lets get back on track and take the next two from the Red legs. The fact is, they are at the bottom of the division and you have to win those games. We host the best team in the NL this weekend, so time to end the slump.

Verdell Jones III Chooses Indiana Over Minnesota

2008-05-06T16:00:00Z

Unlike most prep stars, local three-star guard Verdell Jones III chose to wait until after the smoke had cleared to select a school. And it wasn't the school most people were expecting him to choose.

The Champaign Central product will be suiting up for a seriously depleted but newly helmed Indiana squad under the direction of Tom Crean.

Despite the fact that the team faces sanctions and only returns three scholarship players, Jones said it was "the best situation for me. They expect me to come in and make a big contribution." He also noted that part of his decision was looking at how well Crean developed his guards at Marquette, a school long known for its outside-the-arc performers.

]]> Minnesota was considered a front-runner for Jones. He visited the school once on April 23 and then again the following week. This is the second recruit in recent weeks who has decided to go elsewhere in the Midwest rather than Minnesota. Los Angeles-area center Krys Faber chose Depaul over Tubby Smith's Gophers last month.

What this means, among other things, is that a strong rivalry between Big 12 conference foes will have a chance to grow inside of the Big Ten in the next four years. Jones faced off with Purdue-bound Decatur Eisenhower product Lewis Jackson three times this year. Central defeated Eisenhower only one time, their only loss of the season, but it was in the game that mattered the most: in the state tournament at the Mt. Zion regional 65–63.

Champaign Central went on to finish third place in the class 3A state tournament, their best showing since 1969.

The Purdue-Indiana rivalry is considered one of the most intense in the nation.

Be Eeyore

2008-05-05T20:30:00Z

As the Illinois made its run to the Big Ten Tournament Championship this March, the team was focused on British cartoon characters of the early 20th Century.

Before the tournament, coach Bruce Weber sat the team down for a motivational viewing of Randy Pausch's last lecture, which among other things, extolled the virtues of Tigger.

]]> During timeouts, coach Weber challenged the team to be like Tigger. "What does he mean," I wondered. Bouncy?

I watched the whole Pausch lecture, specifically hunting for the Eeyore/Tigger dichotomy — and in a major whack of double secret irony, I learned a lot of other stuff in the process. One thing I learned is that Eeyore and Tigger are mentioned only in passing. (Never lose your childlike enthusiasm and curiosity — that's the lesson we're supposed to take from Tigger.)

I regard myself as a Pooh scholar. I know my Pooh, well. And when it comes to the characters of Alan Alexander Milne, Coach Weber is much more an Eeyore than a Tigger. Maybe he doesn't recognize that. If so, it's because for him — like most Americans — the Milne stories have been supplanted by the stupid Disney versions.

I'll support my analysis with selections from the text

Excerpt from: In Which a House is Built at Pooh Corner, for Eeyore

"Hallo, Eeyore," said Christopher Robin, as he opened the door and came out. "How are you?"

"It's snowing still," said Eeyore gloomily.

"So it is."

"And freezing."

"Is it?"

"Yes," said Eeyore. "However," he said, brightening up a little, "we haven't had an earthquake lately."

"What's the matter, Eeyore?"

"Nothing, Christopher Robin. Nothing important. I suppose you haven't seen a house or what-not anywhere about?"

"What sort of a house?"

"Just a house."

"Who lives there?"

"I do. At least I thought I did. But I suppose I don't. After all, we can't all have houses."

"But, Eeyore, I didn't know — I always thought —"

"I don't know how it is, Christopher Robin, but what with all this snow and one thing and another, not to mention icicles and such-like, it isn't so hot in my field about three o'clock in the morning as some people think it is. It isn't close, if you know what I mean — not so as to be uncomfortable. It isn't stuffy. In fact, Christopher Robin," he went on in a loud whisper, "quite-between-ourselves-and-don't-tell-anybody, it's cold."

"Oh, Eeyore!"

"And I said to myself: The others will be sorry if I'm getting myself all cold. They haven't got brains, any of them, only grey fluff that's blown into their heads by mistake, and they don't think, but if it goes on snowing for another six weeks or so, one of them will begin to say to himself: 'Eeyore can't be so very much too hot about three o'clock in the morning.' And then it will get about. And they'll be sorry."

"Oh, Eeyore!" said Christopher Robin, feeling very sorry already.

"I don't mean you, Christopher Robin. You're different. So what it all comes to is that I built myself a house down by my little wood."

"Did you really? How exciting!"

"The really exciting part," said Eeyore in his most melancholy voice, "is that when I left it this morning it was there, and when I came back it wasn't. Not at all, very natural, and it was only Eeyore's house. But still I just wondered."

Excerpt from: In Which Pooh Invents a New Game, and Eeyore Joins In

"Oh, Eeyore, you are wet!" said Piglet, feeling him.

Eeyore shook himself, and asked somebody to explain to Piglet what happened when you had been inside a river for quite a long time.

"Well done, Pooh," said Rabbit kindly. "That was a good
idea of ours."

"What was?" asked Eeyore.

"Hooshing you to the bank like that."

"Hooshing me?" said Eeyore in surprise. "Hooshing me? You didn't think I was hooshed, did you? I dived. Pooh dropped a large stone on me, and so as not to be struck heavily on the chest, I dived and swam to the bank."

"You didn't really," whispered Piglet to Pooh, so as to comfort him.

"I didn't think I did," said Pooh anxiously.

"It's just Eeyore," said Piglet. "I thought your idea was a very good Idea."

Pooh began to feel a little more comfortable, because when you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you think of things, you find sometimes that a thing which seemed very thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it. And, anyhow, Eeyore was in the river, and now he wasn't, so he hadn't done any harm.

"How did you fall in, Eeyore?" asked Rabbit, as he dried him with Piglet's handkerchief.

"I didn't," said Eeyore.

"But how—"

"I was BOUNCED," said Eeyore.

"Oo," said Roo excitedly, "did somebody push you?"

"Somebody BOUNCED me. I was just thinking by the side of the river--thinking, if any of you know what that means — when I received a loud BOUNCE."

"Oh, Eeyore!" said everybody.

"Are you sure you didn't slip?" asked Rabbit wisely.

"Of course I slipped. If you're standing on the slippery bank of a river, and somebody BOUNCES you loudly from behind, you slip. What did you think I did?"

"But who did it?" asked Roo.

Eeyore didn't answer.

"I expect it was Tigger," said Piglet nervously.

"But, Eeyore," said Pooh, "was it a Joke, or an
accident? I mean—"

"I didn't stop to ask, Pooh. Even at the very bottom of the river I didn't stop to say to myself, 'Is this a Hearty Joke, or is it the Merest Accident?' I just floated to the surface, and said to myself, 'It's wet.' If you know what I mean."

Eeyore is the smart one. And it's a shame that he's been characterized as compulsively depressive — because he maintains a sense of humor throughout — even as the energetic, careening youth in his company persist in driving him nuts.That's Coach Weber to a tee.

Tigger is flippant. Tigger would never make you play defense, and would shoot as soon as he got the ball. But it's not fair to blame him. He's just young. He's undisciplined. He doesn't know any better.

Tigger

- along with Piglet (and more obviously, Roo) is the youngest, least mature of the Milne characters.

- bonds with Roo in an effort to evade responsibilities imposed by his elders

- creates a lot of problems/messes which are left for others to solve.

- likes bouncing.

Eeyore

- along with Kanga, is the most mature, and wisest of the animal characters.

- better perceives reality than any other character (again, excepting Kanga).

- frequently the victim of Tigger's carelessness.

- does not like bouncing.

But whatever. The team caught on. They saw what he wanted. When Coach Weber asked his huddled charges "Okay, now who is going to step up and be Tigger?" it evidently created a spark for Calvin Brock — who is, as I never fail to point out, extremely bouncy.

But the ideal character for any basketball player to emulate is, of course, Christopher Robin. He's young, optimistic, always learning, judicious and can motivate people to work together. That might sound a lot like Jerrance Howard to you. But remember, Jerrance notoriously takes every opportunity to enjoy a little smackerel of something — which makes him an obvious analog for Edward Bear himself.

In truth, there's a little bit of each character in all of us. The important thing is to recognize when you're being Owl (pontificating on a subject of which you know nothing — or as the layman calls it, talking out of your ass) or Rabbit (conspiring against your friends) and to stop it.

It's okay — even important — to have Eeyore moments; it's when you see life for its stark reality and challenges. But try to eclipse the pessimism. Like Eeyore, try to maintain a droll humor about the shortcomings of others.

Being a scholarship basketball player at the University of Illinois provides an excellent opportunity to let one's inner Christopher Robin shine through. All my life, I've heard the rodomontade: College sports puts academics first. And you know what? I believe it. For one thing, it's hard to live on a hugely diverse college campus without noticing, perhaps seeping in, some weird, eye-opening stuff. New ideas bombard the unwary undergrad as if she or he were an accelerated particle.

And if you're playing basketball at the University of Illinois, you're going to have to learn a lot of theory, and then suffer through a grinding regimen of practice. Like Eeyore said "Do you see Pooh? Do you see Piglet? Brains first, and then hard work."