By Jim Coffman
Baseball is just too good right now to spend much time on the Olympics. Besides, the swimming is over and track and field is tape-delayed and drug-riddled (and it certainly didn’t help that the Americans managed all of one bronze medal in the men’s and women’s 100-meter dashes). We might get back to the Olympics next week because the USA men’s and women’s teams in everything from basketball to water polo to volleyball had strong first weeks. There could be a whole bunch of red, white and blue squads going for team golds later this week. But today it is baseball, baseball, baseball, and more baseball.
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The White Sox have had more trouble with the Oakland A’s than any other opponent – including the Twinkies – the last half dozen years. And essentially starting with the oh-so-special 2003 National League Championship, the Cubs have almost never known what to do with the Marlins during the same time. So the fact that the local squads simultaneously stuck it to those homestanding teams over the weekend would have to qualify as what, the 1,000th sign that this is the year of Chicago baseball?
Yes, I know that Oakland is something like 5-23 since the Rich Harden deal and that if anyone actually cared about the A’s, general manager Billy Beane would have been flogged 10 times as hard as Jerry Reinsdorf was for the White Flag deal in 1997 for Beane’s giving up on this season though his team was in contention for a playoff spot. Of course, we won’t know just how bad this trade was for Oakland for another couple seasons, but it’s hard to believe that it won’t go down in history as a big ol’ steal for Jim Hendry. Heck, if the deal had just been reliever Chad Gaudin for starter Sean Gallagher – the only guy in the deal who will be any kind of a consistent contributor for Oakland unless catching prospect Josh Donaldson eventually makes it big – that would be looking pretty good right now. Throwing in Harden definitely makes it seem like the Cubs won this one by a bit more than a smidge.
For those who don’t remember, the White Flag deal involved trading away established pitchers Wilson Alvarez, Danny Darwin and Roberto Hernandez for six Giants prospects (the most prominent of which were Bobby Howry and Keith Foulke) with the Sox still in the hunt at the end of July. Many fans argued the White Sox were throwing away a shot at the playoffs but, shockingly enough, Chairman Reinsdorf did not agree. Anyway, yes, I know the team is horrible but the Sox pounding Oakland is still a sign, man . . . just like that time the Virgin Mary appeared on the Kennedy underpass at Fullerton.
The Other Sox
I was in Boston over the weekend and on Sunday had a chance to scout the team that leads the American League wild-card race (although maybe not for long – after a 15-4 loss, the Red Sox’s lead over whichever currently tied team doesn’t win the AL Central was down to a half game). The home team looked lousy. The Sawx used about seven pitchers, starting with ace Josh Beckett and working their way through big-time prospects Clay Buchholz and Justin Masterson and most of the bullpen and eventually finishing with closer Jonathan Papelbon. And they all gave up runs except for Papelbon. After giving up eight earned, Beckett’s ERA crested the 4.00 mark for the season. And even Papelbon has been less than 100 percent of late. He apparently suffers from migraines. As for the Red Sox lineup, well, wonderboy leadoff hitter Jacoby Ellsbury may have 50-plus stolen bases but he’s barely hitting .260, and so is David Ortiz. Ortiz, by the way, is another one of those hitters facing the radical infield shift that teams also deploy against Jim Thome.
I vote for Ortiz, and Thome for that matter, to lay down a few bunts against the alignment that puts three infielders on the right side, leaving the third baseman all by his lonesome over on the left. Even with no speed, Ortiz and Thome could bunt for doubles if they pushed the ball with little bit of pace into the wide swath of diamond between the third-baseman and the third-base line. But back to the issue at hand – how are the Red Sox doing? The answer? Scuffling.
At the same time I was assessing the home team’s chances, I was also absorbing Fenway Park for the second time in my life. This is the place, after all, that dubs itself “America’s most beloved ballpark.” If that is the case, and of course it probably isn’t, it’s not because Fenway is actually worthy of that love. Wrigley has better sightlines and much better bleacher and upper-deck seats. Many of the aisles at Fenway are unbelievably narrow and it’s just much easier to get around (and into and out of) Wrigley both inside the park and back in the concourses.
The food ain’t great at either place but there is more variety at Fenway, including a Legal Seafood Clam Chowder vending station near my seat. The neighborhoods surrounding both ballparks sometimes seem a bit much, but hey, it’s hard to argue with areas featuring many cool places to toss back a beverage or four.
Other observations from Fenway:
* “Sweet Caroline” sounds pretty stupid (the Red Sox play it and a whole bunch of fans sing along to it in the middle of the eighth inning) when your team is down double-digit runs. Us Cub fans can give ourselves an itty-bitty pat on the back by only singing “Go Cubs Go” when we win. Of course, shouldn’t something be done about the chorus if we’re going to continue to sing this little ditty after victories? I’m sure Mr. Steve Goodman wouldn’t mind too terribly much if we changed his lyrics to “Go Cubs Go, Go Cubs Go, Hey Chicago, whaddya say, the Cubs have won again today” instead of “the Cubs are gonna win today.”
The goofballs working in the hand-operated portion of the Fenway scoreboard (there are also electric screens situated high above right-center and center fields) struggle mightily to maintain anything even remotely resembling an up-to-date accounting of scores around the league. As opposed to Wrigley, much of the Fenway scoreboard must be adjusted on the ouside instead of replacing panels from the inside of the Green Monster. My wife was keeping track on her Blackberry Sunday and with the Cubs game heading into the top of the seventh, the Fenway scoreboard still said the Marlins led 1-0 in the fourth. When the Cubs rallied in the bottom of that inning, one of the scoreboard guys rushed out between innings and changed the score to Cubs 5, Marlins 2 in the 7th. Of course, still in the seventh, the Cubs scored three more runs about a minute later. But the scoreboard did not change the rest of the game. Oh, and Fenway does not display more up-to-date scores on one of the electric scoreboard like Wrigley does. Lame.
I noticed a woman about three rows ahead of me had a small tattoo just above the neckline of her white-with-pink-trim Ortiz jersey. The tattoo read “Manny.” I’m thinking she wasn’t overjoyed when the Red Sox traded Manny Ramirez at the deadline but hey, perhaps a valuable lesson was learned. The only thing dumber than inking the name of your actor boyfriend onto your skin these days is substituting the name of a favorite ballplayer.
There isn’t a whole lot of heckling going on when the home team falls behind by six before anyone even settles into their seat. But there was a little. My favorite, belted out as Toronto outfielder Alex Rios took a bit too long settling into the batters box: “Get in there, Princess!”
Ah the sublime charms of the pastime.
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Jim Coffman appears in this space every Monday with the best sports wrap-up in the city. You can write to him personally! Please include a real name if you would like your comments to be considered for publication.
Posted on August 18, 2008