American baseball

[CURVE]

Originally posted by The Hippie


As a Braves man, Devo, I hope they can too, but they need to start hitting better. Their pitching is a good as any, just can't score enough runs. Watched the game today on ESPN, they had chances in the 4th and 5th innings, 2 on and none out both innings and could only get one run in, that won't win enough games to win a Series. And they are going to have to win their division to make the playoffs, I don't think they can make it as a wildcard.

Have you noticed the similarties between the Braves and North, Devo? They have both been struggling clubs for years and then had a great run of success at about the same time. That's when I started following them, when they went from last to first and made the playoffs, could see the parallels with the Roos and it's still happening. If the Braves don't make the playoffs, it will be the first time in about 10 years, so there is a lot of similarity.

You mean the Roos are owned by a super rich media magnate, who was (is?) married to one of the sex goddess of the sixties.

Sorry I'm being a bastard.

They haven't been scoring of late, but a couple of weeks ago, everything was looking pretty rosey. After a pretty slow start to the season they seemed to be rocketing away with the division, but something happened. Not sure what, but there scoring has dried up.

 

[Sydneyfan]

I've got no one favourite team but five teams I like and follow:

Chicago Cubs (i like their culture and the fact that they're still striving to win another World Series pennant)
Chicago White Sox (the black sox, the bad boys from Chicago)
New York Yankees (a great team)
Pittsburgh Pirates (mainly because of the colours)
Cleveland Indians (mainly because of the Major League movies!)

 

[The Hippie]

Know where you're coming from, Devo. I'm trying to find something to take the mind off the Roos not being in the finals this year. At least we still have The Eels alive.

 

[Chicago1]

Originally posted by Sydneyfan
I've got no one favourite team but five teams I like and follow:

Chicago Cubs (i like their culture and the fact that they're still striving to win another World Series pennant)
Chicago White Sox (the black sox, the bad boys from Chicago)

Good choice for the first..... BUT the White Sox suck!

Cubs and Sox fans get along as well as Collingwood and Carlton supporters do. We hate each others guts. It's the North versus the South here in Chicago..... and we all remember which side won THAT war!

The Cubs beat the Brewers 16-3 today. On Friday I'll be at the lovely confines of beautiful Wrigley Field watching the Cubbies smash them AWFUL Cardinals and that wimp, Mark McGwire.

 

[Sydneyfan]

Originally posted by Chicago1


Good choice for the first..... BUT the White Sox suck!

Cubs and Sox fans get along as well as Collingwood and Carlton supporters do. We hate each others guts. It's the North versus the South here in Chicago..... and we all remember which side won THAT war!

Yeah, I've heard that Cubs and White Sox fans don't get on with each other, it seems like Cubs supporters go for the Cubs and any team playing the White Sox, and vice versa

Do the White Sox still have a bad reputation? It seems like they've never shrugged off 1919 (i think that was the year) with the betting scandal being named the 'Black' Sox.

 

[Chicago1]

Originally posted by Sydneyfan


Yeah, I've heard that Cubs and White Sox fans don't get on with each other, it seems like Cubs supporters go for the Cubs and any team playing the White Sox, and vice versa

Do the White Sox still have a bad reputation? It seems like they've never shrugged off 1919 (i think that was the year) with the betting scandal being named the 'Black' Sox.

Right on the first point, Syd. I'm a Cubs fan from a Sox family. I never really understood why my family are Sox fans, since when we lived in Chicago itself, we lived on the northside. I enjoyed it immensly to see the Sox lose to Seattle last year in the playoffs. And I'm feeling oh, so sorry for them this year! LOL

That 'Black Sox' thing doesn't mean anything now. The Cubs are the bastion of the great traditions of baseball e.g. an old fashioned home ground with ivy covered walls and NO advertising, no lights until 1991, more day games than most teams, a loyal fan base that goes to games if we're winning or losing, etc. The Sox follow the 'flavor of the day' trends e.g. a lifeless "modern' park, trendy marketing schemes that don't work, a 'fan' base which many Chicagoans were worried wouldn't fill their park for the playoffs, an 'exploding scoreboard' , the use of a DH (and we all know what those initials mean in Australia!), etc.

When cable TV started here in the states, the local Chicago TV station, WGN 9, which broadcast almost all of the Cubs games, signed up and was broadcast around the nation. Many people in states which didn't have their own baseball team started following the Cubs and we've built a huge following around the US considering our lack of success - hey, even the Bulldogs won a championship in MY lifetime. My father, who's 77, wasn't even born when the Cubs last won the World Series! We're the team that most Americans would like to see win it all, along with the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians. Hopefully it will be the Cubs' year, because it certainly isn't the Western Bulldogs' year!

 

[Chicago1]

I'm off in ten minutes to see the Cubs play the Cards at Wrigley. Will post my game review later tonight.

GO CUBBIES!!!!!

GAME REVIEW :

Cubs lost 10-8. End of review. We had great seats, though. We were eight rows from the front about two feet toward first base from home plate. Could hear the ball vividly as it entered the catcher's mitt.

 

[The Hippie]

Been watching your Cubbies on ESPN, Chicago. Won 5-1. Bere pitched a complete game, 3 hitter. Was close, 1-1, up until the Cubs broke it open in the 8th inning and scored 4. You'll be there or thereabouts at the end of the year.

 

[Same Old's]

I watched that game too, Hippie. But the Cubs have to keep on winning if they're gonna have chance. Their last 7 games are against Houston and they are very critical.

 

[The Hippie]

Well, they've all gotta keep winning to have a chance. I havent looked at the NL wildcard that closely, but it's definitely the tighter race. There would be half a dozen teams still in it.

 

[Chicago1]

Deo gratias!

Finally in my third game I was able to see the Cubs WIN!!!!!

Final score : Cubs 5 Florida Marlins 4

Highlights :
1.) A triple by Fred McGriff which resulted in a run when the ball was thrown into the eighth row of the stand instead of to the Marlin thirdbaseman!
2.) A three run Home Run by Fred McGriff to tie the gme at 4-4 in the 7th.
3.) A game winning Home Run by Bill Mueller in the bottom of the ninth.

I did not wear my Western Bulldogs shirt, hat or socks today to the game! Hmmmm..... something in that?

My nephew and I sat in the cheapie seats - $10- in the Upper Deck and had a fantastic view of the field. With hot dogs and Pepsi at $2.25 and public transport at $10 for commuter train and CTA train combined, it really was a cheap day at 'the friendly confines' of Wrigley Field. Now, with beer at $4.75 it could have been a LOT more expensive, if I were a drinker! I might become one when we win the World Series!

 

[The Hippie]

Watched most of this mornings game on ESPN Yankees V Red Sox, turned into one of the most gripping games I've seen on the box in yonks. Nil all up until the top of the 9th inning when the Yanks scored a run after an error, then Mike Mussina pitched the ninth for the Yankees, going fo a perfect game. Struck out one, second was a flyout (might have the order wrong), last batter down to his last strike, and Carl Everitt hits a single to centre field to break it up.
Mussina got the last out and got the complete game, but how must he have felt. Perfect games don't grow on tree's. I think the commentators said the last one was David Cone for the Yankees in '99, so they are very rare.

And didn't the Red Sox fans love the single hit, they'ed have been spewing if a Yankee player pitched a perfect game in their ballpark, given the history between the 2 clubs.

 

[The Hippie]

And a night after that effort, Bud Smith, a rookie with the Cardinals, throws a no-hitter against San Diego. Score 4-0.
You wouldn't see that too often on following nights.