4/17/09 St Louis Cardinals 7, Chicago Cubs 8

Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL
Game 2 of 4

P.J. Walters makes his MLB debut starting for the Cardinals, and by golly he doesn't do great and he doesn't do poorly either...he throws 97 pitches in 4 innings (striking out 7), only allowing 3 ER and walking 2 batters.

If Carlos Zambrano hadn't helped out by allowing an ER per inning (in the course of 7 innings), then Walters may have been under additional scrutiny.  It's only fair to give some credit to Ryan Ludwick, who broke the 3rd inning wide open with a 3-run shot. 

The good news is, the Cubs have got Zambrano's back, and they manage to chip away at the Cardinals bullpen ever so diligently to eke out a late-inning win.

Ahem.

Go CUBS!

4/16/09 Toronto Blue Jays 9, Minnesota Twins 2

Metrodome, Minneapolis, MN

At last, my chance to catch the Twins on MLB Network and they completely choke. Sorry guys, this seems to happen a lot when I catch Cubs games (the ones I miss, they win)...my wife doesn't like to watch the Bears for similar reasons, they can be up in the game until she flips the set on, then they fall apart.

TOR 9 14 0
MIN 2 9 1

The Twins were only behind by one, nice outing by Liriano just the same...they give the ball to Matt Guerrier and he literally gives the game to the Blue Jays. Ok, give Guerrier the hook and bring in Breslow...not much improvement.

Cuddyer's 2-out HR seemed to indicate an outrageous Twins rally (along with the infamous "Thunderdome Drone" from the fans) but this peetered out quickly.

Kevin Millar's great act as a Blue Jay, the unexpected Grand Salami off of R.A. Dickey (brought in to get Breslow off of the mound, ha ha!)...hope he does the same for the Cubs, maybe even when we're playing the ASStros!

I scored this game on 1/30/10. The game was called on MLBN by Victor Rojas (where's Cookie?) and Dan Plesac.

4/15/09 San Diego Padres 2, New York Mets 7

Citi Field, Flushing, NY

First Mets home win at 'the new Shea Stadium.' 2 nights earlier, Jody Gerut's lead-off HR for the Padres was the first hit, HR, and RBI in Citi Field history.

SD 2 6 1
NYM 7 7 1

First and last time I will try to score a game on Jackie Robinson day. I'm a 'jersey number' guy; no matter what I still have theological issues scoring games on the radio for the same reason, but using position numbers instead of jersey numbers works in that situation. On TV, it's difficult to 'close your eyes' and ignore that not only every player has a "42" on their back, but when their AB starts, ESPN shows their 'real number' and then you have no choice.

Oliver Perez actually pitched a decent 6 innings, Sean Green gives up a HR facing his first batter (Adrian Gonzalez, of course) in the 9th.

I scored this game on 1/25/10. The game was called on ESPN by Dave O'Brien, Rick Sutcliffe, and the ever-annoying Joe "ME" Morgan. He was over-the-top annoying for this game, only guy I know who can effectively take a discussion about JACKIE ROBINSON (whether or not he actually started it) and turn it around into a self-centered dissertation on his career, almost as if he thinks he should be a manager.

ESPN, fire Joe Morgan!!!

4/9/09 Milwaukee Brewers 1, San Fransisco Giants 7

AT&T Park, San Francisco, CA

The Giants totally cleaned up the Brewers in this 3rd game of the series. Manny Parra (MIL P) threw 3 great innings to start, but endured a 2-run burst of offense by the Giants led by Fred Lewis (SF LF, 3-3, BB, R) with a 4th inning lead-off double. The 5th inning increased his troubles, getting replaced by DiFelice after Edgar Renteria (SF SS) reached on an error by Craig Counsell (MIL 3B) and Fred Lewis was walked. The inning closed with 3 additional runs (all charged to Parra). Relief pitcher David Riske allowed 2 more runs in the 7th. Matt Cain (SF P, 7IP 4H, ER, 2BB, 5K) was effective; the bullpen held the Brewers down to 2 scoreless innings.

MIL 1 5 2
SF 7 11 0

The game became unforgettable when SF Relief pitcher Joe Martinez was struck on the side of the head by Mike Cameron’s line drive. The game was paused for a length of time as Martinez’ condition was evaluated (no serious injuries), he has yet to pitch again for the Giants since the accident.

(I scored this game 6/7/09)

4/7/09 Kansas City Royals 2, Chicago White Sox 4

U.S. Cellular Field, Chicago, IL

The Royals looked great all the way through, but Thome threatened equally the entire game hitting 2-3 prior to the 8th inning, when he ripped out his first season HR with 2 runners on base. Meche was sensational, a great start but in retrospect, nobody knew how much Greinke would over shadow his 1.29-or-so ERA during this first game (Farnsworth got the L).

I scored this game late May/early June; here is the first time I started looking at LH vs. RH. I don’t know why, because in this particular game it didn’t really matter – I don’t see any patterns yet. I came up with a way to make up for that when I scored the Pirates @ Cubs game 5/25/09.

KC 2 7 0
CWS 4 11 0

Too awesome: Miguel Olivo (2-4). Teahen was robbed, walked and HBP.

Pitch count pretty much stable by now (6/4/09). I still miss a few but I don’t know if I want to count Pick-off attempts…I am chuckling at the 4/21/09 game I scored in April, at my original confusion on the pitch count. Hoo ha.

4/6/09 Chicago Cubs 4, Houston Astros 2

Opening Day
Minute Maid Park, Houston, TX

A solid opening-of-the-season outing for the Cubs, stinging the Astros on their home turf. There were some pretty solid expectations for Roy Oswalt, but a first-pitch lead-off HR by Soriano in the first sent a HUGE message and set the tone for the rest of the game, as the second opened up with a second-pitch lead-off HR by Aramis Ramirez!

CUBS 4 9 0
ASTROS 2 8 0


The Big Z showed fantastic stuff (6IP, 5H, ER, BB, 6K); as did Soriano (2-5, R, HR), Therior (2-4, RBI) and Fontenot (3-4, 2R). Miquel Tejada (3-4, 2R, K) scored Zambrano’s earned run when Michael Bourn (2-4, RBI) singled as the second batter Aaron Heilman faced. The only other run scored against the Cubs was also by Tejada, from a SAC fly by Hunter Pence (with the old skool left hand glove!). Fukudome was disappointing at 0-4.

3/30/09 Tampa Bay Rays 2, Minnesota Twins 3

Hammond Stadium, Ft. Myers, FL (Spring Training)

I was there!

A GREAT day for Baseball, even if it was 2 AL teams playing! Final week of Spring Training in Ft. Myers, Red Sox tickets were all sold out in January but hey...the Twins are also in town, so who needs the Red Sox anyway?!?

My daighter Kei and I used my birthday gift from Mom & Dad to buy some nice field box tickets smack dab in the peak of the sunshine (with 'baseball burns' afterwards to show for it) - we had a great time (even though the parking staff wouldn't let me park on "Blyleven Boulevard") and Kei even tried scoring the game, her first time. She made it through 4 innings before the heat or the cotton candy stayed her hand for the rest of the game (except her covering two outs for me in the top of the 6th while I took a hygiene break).

Before the game, we walked over to the complex where the second squad and the minor league Twins players were working out...Kei and I saw a fellow in Twinstripes signing a ball through a fence; as we walked by he turned and headed out to the field...it was PAUL MOLITOR, a batting coach for Spring Training, missed him by about 5 minutes. We watched some Pitching/Batting drills, where Joe Mauer (still on DL) was giving some tips to the AAA folks on deck…

I was really hoping to see Bert Blyleven hanging around (as he calls Ft. Myers his home, as does Joe Mauer) but he was already up north getting things ready for opening day.

Some pictures from the game attached, we had great seats. Big event of the day: I CAUGHT A FOUL BALL, my very first time doing so...without a glove also.

It was the top of the 7th, foul tip over the LF net by Rays SS Jason Bartlett off the 2nd pitch of his plate appearance by Twins hurler Brian Duensing (a native of Omaha, NE)...the ball headed for the section next to us (second one of the day), but bounced off of the cement floor in front of a seat, over our heads, then straight off of the back of a seat 4 rows behind us...I was standing by that time, facing the direction of the ball, made a bare-handed catch with my right...YEAH!! Stood up proudly in my Cubbie Blues n stripes to display my trophy to the 5,000 or so in attendance, plus the 5 Twins fans watching on the internet.

I was really hoping to see Bert B hanging around the field somewhere (his home is in Fort Myers these days, as is Joe Mauer's) but I think he was already up north getting things ready for opening day. One humorous note, as the game was starting and it was 86 degrees, light wind, and not enough clouds to mention, the announcer gave us a weather report from 'back home'...winter storm advisory, 30 degrees, 6 inches of snow on the way, etc.

The Twins won 3-2, their game on the following day featured just about their entire second squad, so we were fortunate to see the 'real' starting lineup (except for Joe Mauer on the DL). My father-in-law asked if Bartlett was able to autograph my ball, I told him "he already did"...there's a large black mark on the ball where he signed it WITH HIS BAT.

I shared this story with my Uncle John, who fondly remembered he and my Grandfather listening to Twins games at the Lakes years ago. My Grandpa gave me a Twins T-shirt when I was a kid (I think I still wore it when I was in junior high!!), I sure was thinking about him that day.

Akinori Iwamura on deck! Sugoi desu ne!!


Look, honey! No hands! JASON BARTLETT SIGNED MY BALL!!