With the Sweep of the Pirates yesterday (actually with the win the day before) the Cubs finished another series win, the eigth in a row.
The last time that a Cubs team won 8 Series in a row (of at least 2 games) was 1907.
1907 was also the first time that the Cubs won the World Series. They would win it again the next season (1908).
The Cubs are on pace for 100 wins this year (the 100th season since 1908) and currently have the best record in baseball.
All signs point to the Cubs winning their first world series in 100 years (and probably repeating next year).
After all, think about it. Who should they be scared of? The Diamond Backs (who swept the Cubs out of the playoffs last year) are barely over .500 in baseball's worst division. The Mets and Phillies each have glaring weaknesses (the Mets utter lack of a bullpen, the Phillies utter lack of a consistent offense). The Brewers are the 2nd best team in the National League and when it mattered the Cubs took 4 straight from them... in Milwaukee.
Clearly they are the class of the NL and I would be shocked if they didn't at least make the World Series.
(Which, incidently, is what the curse is about, making the World Series, it has nothing to do with winning it. If they simply make the World Series, then the Billy Goat Curse is broken, anything that happened in the World Series would be strictly baseball, no curse involved.)
Over in the AL, the top two teams are the Angels and the Rays. The Angels have great pitching and defense, but no offense, and the Cubs would match up very well against them. The Rays lack of experience is sure to catch up with them eventually. The Red Sox are really the only team that would scare me, but they would have to get healthy first. At the moment they are mearly good, not great, and therefore not much of a threat. However, if they do get healthy, a Cubs/Red Sox world series could be one for the ages.
Let's go Cubbies.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
BACK ON TOP!
First off, congrats to the Cubbies for having the Best Record In Baseball yet again on the 19th of August! Tied with the Rays (and who saw that coming? I guess they should have dropped the "Devil" years ago) and a half game ahead of the Angels who for quite some time have had the best record in baseball.
Meanwhile, the Brewers have fallen to a full 6 games back (although very soon it might be back to 5 and a half as the Astros are getting beat by them again.)
It definitely is time to invest fully in this Cubs team if you haven't already.
Anyway, I'm watching Japan vs USA in Olympic Baseball and I want to comment on a few things happening in Beijing.
The game was scoreless through 10 innings, and in Olympic Baseball rules when it gets to the 11th inning, you start with runners at 1st and 2nd and nobody out and can start your lineup wherever you want.
Obviously I have some problems with this, mainly the idea that you can start your lineup wherever you want. Your lineup is where it is, that shouldn't change. I actually don't have as much of a problem with the runners on 1st and 2nd.
Now, this doesn't mean that I want the same thing to happen in MLB (either regular season or playoffs), but you've got a time constraint happening here at the Olympics.
At least this is still the game of baseball. It's a situation (minus the setting your lineup however you like) that could have conceivably occurred in the next inning. Unlike in playoff soccer or regular season hockey when games are decided by shoot-outs, or even in football when it's sudden death often times denying the other team a chance to try and match the team that gets the ball first because of the flip of a coin.
Again, there is no time constraint in regular baseball, so this isn't something that MLB should ever consider for regular season or playoffs, but it actually wouldn't be that bad in the All Star Game.
This season we saw a 15 inning game that might have seen Mets 3rd Baseman David Wright in to pitch in the 16th if it had reached that point. That's a little ridiculous for what is essentially an exhibition game. It would be one thing if the managers weren't trying to get everyone into the game before the end of the 9th the way that they always do. That really limits your ability to manage in extra innings. If, however, you started the, let's say 12th inning, with the first two batters up on 1st and 2nd, and whoever was due up 3rd would be up just as if the first two batters got on to start the inning. It's a situation that could concievably have occured and baseball is still what will decide the game.
So I don't have too much of a problem with it in the Olympics, other then the fact that you can set your lineup however you want.
The fact that this is the last year baseball will be in the Olympics, however, really makes the whole point fairly moot. It is how it is. Not really worth getting too upset over.
No one told the announcers that, however, as the color man got very upset about how this system works. When attempting to explain how clearly wrong it was, he said...
Um, other then this statement not really making any sense (This is how what goes down exactly? The Cubs winning the World Series, losing the World Series, kept from the World Series, to get to the World Series? I'm really not following you here), the Cubs aren't in the Olympics and this system really has absolutely nothing to do with them. At all. Did you just want to point out it's been a hundred years since we've won the World Series? Because we're aware. Thank you.
At any rate, the play by play guy called him out on it and reminded him that this system has nothing to do with Major League Baseball.
So, at least there's that.
Go Cubs.
Meanwhile, the Brewers have fallen to a full 6 games back (although very soon it might be back to 5 and a half as the Astros are getting beat by them again.)
It definitely is time to invest fully in this Cubs team if you haven't already.
Anyway, I'm watching Japan vs USA in Olympic Baseball and I want to comment on a few things happening in Beijing.
The game was scoreless through 10 innings, and in Olympic Baseball rules when it gets to the 11th inning, you start with runners at 1st and 2nd and nobody out and can start your lineup wherever you want.
Obviously I have some problems with this, mainly the idea that you can start your lineup wherever you want. Your lineup is where it is, that shouldn't change. I actually don't have as much of a problem with the runners on 1st and 2nd.
Now, this doesn't mean that I want the same thing to happen in MLB (either regular season or playoffs), but you've got a time constraint happening here at the Olympics.
At least this is still the game of baseball. It's a situation (minus the setting your lineup however you like) that could have conceivably occurred in the next inning. Unlike in playoff soccer or regular season hockey when games are decided by shoot-outs, or even in football when it's sudden death often times denying the other team a chance to try and match the team that gets the ball first because of the flip of a coin.
Again, there is no time constraint in regular baseball, so this isn't something that MLB should ever consider for regular season or playoffs, but it actually wouldn't be that bad in the All Star Game.
This season we saw a 15 inning game that might have seen Mets 3rd Baseman David Wright in to pitch in the 16th if it had reached that point. That's a little ridiculous for what is essentially an exhibition game. It would be one thing if the managers weren't trying to get everyone into the game before the end of the 9th the way that they always do. That really limits your ability to manage in extra innings. If, however, you started the, let's say 12th inning, with the first two batters up on 1st and 2nd, and whoever was due up 3rd would be up just as if the first two batters got on to start the inning. It's a situation that could concievably have occured and baseball is still what will decide the game.
So I don't have too much of a problem with it in the Olympics, other then the fact that you can set your lineup however you want.
The fact that this is the last year baseball will be in the Olympics, however, really makes the whole point fairly moot. It is how it is. Not really worth getting too upset over.
No one told the announcers that, however, as the color man got very upset about how this system works. When attempting to explain how clearly wrong it was, he said...
"Imagine if you have the Cubs, who haven't won the World Series in a century, and this is how it goes down."
Um, other then this statement not really making any sense (This is how what goes down exactly? The Cubs winning the World Series, losing the World Series, kept from the World Series, to get to the World Series? I'm really not following you here), the Cubs aren't in the Olympics and this system really has absolutely nothing to do with them. At all. Did you just want to point out it's been a hundred years since we've won the World Series? Because we're aware. Thank you.
At any rate, the play by play guy called him out on it and reminded him that this system has nothing to do with Major League Baseball.
So, at least there's that.
Go Cubs.
Friday, August 8, 2008
8-8-88 or Opening Night
20 years ago today, Wrigley Field got Lights
On 8-8-88 or more commonly known as Opening Night
No more would there be games called due to dark
Now only when Berkman is scared of Thunder's bark
An All-Star game and even the playoffs can now occur
But for today let's remember the feelings that were stirred
When the 91 year old man said "Let there be Light"
And even though the game didn't finish, I'll always remember...
Opening Night
Congrats Wrigley!
On 8-8-88 or more commonly known as Opening Night
No more would there be games called due to dark
Now only when Berkman is scared of Thunder's bark
An All-Star game and even the playoffs can now occur
But for today let's remember the feelings that were stirred
When the 91 year old man said "Let there be Light"
And even though the game didn't finish, I'll always remember...
Opening Night
Congrats Wrigley!
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