The Cubs will open their home season on Tuesday. Actor Chris O’Donnell gets to throw out the first pitch. He’s from the Chicago area and has been to Wrigley Field many times, so he knows the routine. Report to the mound in the stretch position.
At 0-6, the Cubs already are being called a lousy ballclub. I say, they’re just trying not to peak too soon. Anybody can win games in April. The trick is lay low, then sneak up on the rest of the league when it counts.
Even while cleverly hiding their strengths during the first week on the road, the Cubs have proven they’re not one-dimensional, which is healthy. They have lost day games, night games, late-afternoon games and suspended games. They lost one game that began on Saturday and ended on Sunday, then lost their next game in 1 hour 47 minutes.
During their opener in Miami, where the playing surface is considered among the best, the Cubs lost a few ground balls in the sun and complained the infield was too hard. So in Atlanta, cradle of Southern hospitality, the Cubs went into a new stadium where the sprinklers were turned on during the game. But that didn’t help either. The Cubs lost anyway.
The Cubs haven’t been too big on quality starts thus far, or quality finishes. But their most annoying habit is an inability to catch the ball. They have made 11 errors and could have been charged with more. What’s that old joke? What do the Cubs and Michael Jackson have in common? They all wear a glove for no apparent reason?
Terry Mulholland pitched well Sunday, but we’re seeing the real reason why the Cubs bought him. He has a great move to first base. Perhaps, he can teach some of his fellow pitchers a move to third. Better yet, they should all work on a better move to the plate. Is it against the law to throw inside on batters digging in like they’re playing T-ball?
You have to feel for Cubs pitchers, though. Historically, they have had problems getting three outs an inning. Now they have to get four or five and they haven’t even played a full nine-inning game yet, at least until Tuesday. Maybe that’s why the Cubs, who don’t have enough pitchers, knew that 12 wouldn’t be carrying too many. Do I hear 15 by May?
What’s really vexing, though, is that the only thing the Cubs are picking up cleanly is where they left off last season. Recall that in mid-September, they were above .500, only five games shy of first place in the division.
But the Cubs never did catch up with St. Louis, and it’s as though they have yet to recover. They won just three of their last 18 games in 1996, which means they enter Tuesday in a 3-21 free fall, a pace too chilly even to qualify for the NHL playoffs.
Then again, if you discard this April and last September, the Cubs are doing OK lately. Of course this franchise has not won a pennant since 1945, so you also could say that if you ignore the rest of the 1940s, the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’90s, the Cubs aren’t having a bad century.
This year’s best TV game was one the Cubs played 13 years ago. During the weather delay Saturday night, WGN-Ch. 9 showed a tape of the division-clincher in 1984. That gives fans two reasons to pray for rain, live and Memorex.
Anyway, it’s those cocky Marlins again, followed by the Braves, and that big showoff, Greg Maddux. I guess that’s the reward for having the two largest payrolls in the league. You get to play early and often against the Cubs, who spent a fortune on a guy to protect leads they never have.
That’s who should throw out the first pitch Tuesday. Mel Rojas. He needs the work.
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