Hooray for Hollywood
The Cubs are in Hollywood, where dreams come true, or something like that. Strange things happen whenever the Cubs go out to Southern California. In the 1930s, the Cubs trained in Catalina Island. Des Moines radio station WHO sent a young radio reporter to spring training two years in a row to report on the Cubs. The second time he went, 1937, he took a screen test and stayed in California to pursue an acting career. He later became the president of the Screen Writer’s Guild, a little bit of a local political activist, California governor, and then 40th President of the United States. Whatever you think of him, the Cubs’ trip west certainly changed the world.
In 1965, the Cubs traveled west and were victimized by Sandy Koufax’s perfect game. That was the last time the Cubs were no-hit, and it capped a year so dismal that Phil Wrigley brought in Leo Durocher to manage the team.
In 1976, the Cubs played a game at Dodger Stadium, during which a couple people went into the outfield with an American flag, lighter fluid and matches. Cubs centerfielder Rick Monday saw what they were doing, and ran out to save the flag from being burned on the field. The Dodger Stadium crowd became so enamored with Monday that when he had a contract dispute with Wrigley that winter, the Dodgers didn’t hesitate to acquire him, sending Bill Buckner and Ivan DeJesus to the Cubs. DeJesus was the chip Dallas Green converted into Ryne Sandberg and Larry Bowa. Buckner was a fan favorite through the rest of the 1970s and early 1980s, before the Cubs spun him to Boston for Dennis Eckersley. Sandberg, Bowa and Eckersley were part of the 1984 Cubs that changed Cubs’ fans expectations and fueled Lakeview’s resurgence. Buckner went on to have a couple great seasons in Boston before committing one of the most overhyped errors in history. Eckersley’s career as a starter sputtered with the Cubs, prompting a trade to Oakland, where he became one of the game’s best closers ever — and the victim of Kirk Gibson’s 1988 World Series home run. (Monday, for his part, was the hero in the 1981 NLCS.)
The 1976 visit to Dodger Stadium changed the baseball world — and Chicago — forever.
I could go on and on with more strange occurrences during Cubs’ trips to Southern California, but I won’t because it would require that I rehash 1984, and I’d rather not. Instead, I just want to give you something to look forward to tonight.
Bad Kermit already gave you a little touch of optimisim yesterday. Andy Dolan added some as well. If you want more optimism, witness the bitterness coming from Chuck and Al Yellon. If they agree, you know the opposite is true.
There’s baseball to watch. And I want you to enjoy it.
Tonight, Rich Harden takes the Dodger Stadium mound for the first time ever, and will attempt to do something the Cubs have never done in six prior attempts:
Win a playoff game in California.
That’s right. Three games at the Murph. Three games at the Stick. Bob Verdi even rolled out his “0-for-California” line last week in his Sunday column.
But this is 2008, 19 years after Will Clark lined a go-ahead single off of Mitch Williams in the eighth inning of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. The only player still around from either team is Greg Maddux, the former Cubs ace who failed to pitch five innings in either 1989 playoff start. Today, he happens to pitch for the Dodgers (and is apparently relegated to mop-up duty). Maddux has some experience being on teams that lose three straight playoff games.
But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s instead just enjoy this Cubs team playing another meaningful game — and winning. Getting a win tonight eliminates the stigma of a sweep. It relieves the depression caused by such incredibly rancid play.
Without thinking of tomorrow, how would a crisply-played, satisfying 5-1 Cubs victory feel tonight? Let Harden go seven and strike out nine before giving way to Marmol, who’ll be his electric self, and Kerry Wood, whose save opportunity will be ruined by a ninth inning two-run double by Mark DeRosa.
A win makes this playoff stint a little less embarrassing. A win spares us the insufferable behavior of White Sox fans, who seem to be enjoying the 2008 playoffs more than the 2005 playoffs.
And it gives the “Number Four” starter, Ted Lilly, a chance to pitch tomorrow. I don’t know which Lilly will show up. It could be the player who has gone 16-5 with a 3.67 ERA since the start of May, or it could be the Ted Lilly who slammed his glove to the ground during a bad start in Phoenix last October. Or it could be the Lilly who was dominant in his final four starts (4-0, 1.93 ERA, .386 OPS against).
If the Lilly of September or the Lilly of post-April shows up, there will be a Game 5, and Joe Torre will have to go to Chicago with his suddenly mortal team attempting to prevent a Torre-managed club from losing three straight playoff games for the sixth time in his managerial career.
Again, that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s just enjoy tonight as the Cubs snap an eight-game playoff losing streak, dating back to the night Josh Beckett faced Carlos Zambrano in 2003. Let’s enjoy watching the Cubs win their first playoff game in the Pacific Time Zone. (They’re 0-8 out west).
Just one win. Is it too much to ask for just one win tonight?
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Comments
mark Looks like everyone is going to get swept out of the first round. Cubs shouldn’t feel so bad in that respect. The Angels collapse is just as painful to watch.
Quite honestly, the Cubs have the best chance of any other playoff team out there of turning this thing around. Guess we will see what happens in 90 minutes.
CT
bocaj
BigFlax
StPatrick
TDubbs
BELIEVE