Wait Til Next Year
Saturday, 6 October 2007 21:13![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsIt's Not Quite Over Yet, Anything Can Happen
But there is a stink of inevitability hanging over Wrigley Field. This has been the year of the first-team sweeps in the Division Series and the Arizona Diamondbacks got to host the Cubs first.
Let The Second Guessing Begin
Actually, it has already started. I guess Cubs manager Lou Pinella had decided that first game starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano would be limited to just 100 pitches. Then he pulled Zambrano after 85 pitches -- and the new pitcher promptly coughed up the hairball. The next day Lou was angry with the criticism of his move. He merely wanted to make sure that Zambrano was ready to pitch in Game Four on just three days rest. And that he'd faith in his bullpen, which had performed all season.
All true. But the problem that I am sure will be battered all around Chicago is that planning for Game Four is all fine and good -- but you have to GET to Game Four. And that requires you to win at least one game in a best of five series. (grin)
A Bigger Disappointment
The NLDS games with the Cubs seemed detached to me. They were on late from Arizona, but that always happens. No, the real problem is the lack of having WGN coverage. In a world where broadcasters pay enormous amounts for exclusive rights, it's the real fans of the teams playing who get left behind.
Once WGN-TV covered every single Cubs game. When we moved to Michigan's U.P., we didn't see many Cubs games in the beginning, instead seeing a lot of Braves and Expos games on WTBS and Canadian TV. When the cable company expanded channels and added WGN, we bought our first color TV and a VCR, to time shift all those daytime Cubs games.
In more recent years, WGN decided to cover both Cubs and White Sox games, and treat the national superstation version of WGN as a poor bastard cousin. Not so many Cubs games. Oh, we can pick up WGN-AM to some extent on the radio -- and we have done that -- but the signal is sketchy sometimes, and something of a pain.
It's a NLDS post-season game in Wrigley Field, for gosh sakes, which is a pretty rare event. And what happens after the last out of the top of the seventh inning? Right -- you go to commercial. Sigh. Such is the life of a Cubs fan screwed by national broadcasters.
The Curse
Actually, it's not the Cubs' curse, but Dr. Phil's. I just can't root for anyone. And since Northwestern beat MSU in football today, a game I didn't see, of course, which is why they had a chance, then conservation of bad karma had to be achieved, I guess.
Cubs down to their last strike... flied out...
Dr. Phil
But there is a stink of inevitability hanging over Wrigley Field. This has been the year of the first-team sweeps in the Division Series and the Arizona Diamondbacks got to host the Cubs first.
Let The Second Guessing Begin
Actually, it has already started. I guess Cubs manager Lou Pinella had decided that first game starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano would be limited to just 100 pitches. Then he pulled Zambrano after 85 pitches -- and the new pitcher promptly coughed up the hairball. The next day Lou was angry with the criticism of his move. He merely wanted to make sure that Zambrano was ready to pitch in Game Four on just three days rest. And that he'd faith in his bullpen, which had performed all season.
All true. But the problem that I am sure will be battered all around Chicago is that planning for Game Four is all fine and good -- but you have to GET to Game Four. And that requires you to win at least one game in a best of five series. (grin)
A Bigger Disappointment
The NLDS games with the Cubs seemed detached to me. They were on late from Arizona, but that always happens. No, the real problem is the lack of having WGN coverage. In a world where broadcasters pay enormous amounts for exclusive rights, it's the real fans of the teams playing who get left behind.
Once WGN-TV covered every single Cubs game. When we moved to Michigan's U.P., we didn't see many Cubs games in the beginning, instead seeing a lot of Braves and Expos games on WTBS and Canadian TV. When the cable company expanded channels and added WGN, we bought our first color TV and a VCR, to time shift all those daytime Cubs games.
In more recent years, WGN decided to cover both Cubs and White Sox games, and treat the national superstation version of WGN as a poor bastard cousin. Not so many Cubs games. Oh, we can pick up WGN-AM to some extent on the radio -- and we have done that -- but the signal is sketchy sometimes, and something of a pain.
It's a NLDS post-season game in Wrigley Field, for gosh sakes, which is a pretty rare event. And what happens after the last out of the top of the seventh inning? Right -- you go to commercial. Sigh. Such is the life of a Cubs fan screwed by national broadcasters.
The Curse
Actually, it's not the Cubs' curse, but Dr. Phil's. I just can't root for anyone. And since Northwestern beat MSU in football today, a game I didn't see, of course, which is why they had a chance, then conservation of bad karma had to be achieved, I guess.
Cubs down to their last strike... flied out...
Dr. Phil
