The Chris Moeller Archives

Well-meaning advice

Things are not going great for the Cubs these days. They're 23 up, 34 down (losing tonight also), trailing even the Pirates by 4 1/2 games, banged up, criticizing each other, and if the LA Times can be believed, one of nine teams currently in violation of league policy in respect to the debt vs. earnings ratio. They were swept by the Cardinals this weekend, who were aided by the Great Pujols of Mound City becoming the first Major Leaguer in 16 years to win consecutive games with walk-off home runs.

On a drive half-way across Iowa yesterday, I listened to the post-game torment of a dozen Cubs fans during a WGN Radio call-in program. They lit up Cubs manager Mike Quade for challenging Pujols in the same hitting situation in back-to-back days while one of the hosts of the show made some bizarre comparisons to decisions he once made as a high-school baseball coach. (Chicago radio, really? You're better than that.) As a Cardinals fan, I wanted to defend the Cubs manager. First of all, Pujols was having an extraordinary weekend, but he was batting only .257 when the week began, with an OPS of just .722. In the Cards' lineup, he had been intentionally walked this year fewer times than the club's most-of-the-time 8th place hitter Daniel Descalso. Nearly every team has pitched to Pujols at all times, and few have regretted it. You simply do not walk this player with two out and nobody on at this point in the season, particularly on Sunday when Pujols was 0-for-15 lifetime against the 10th inning pitcher in question.

It's only natural that Cubs fans would be calling for Ryne Sandberg to manage the club, and they were doing that yesterday. The fan favorite and Hall-of-Fame second baseman wanted desperately to manage the club in 2011, but was passed over by the new ownership during the off-season in favor of an interim manager that had posted a healthy winning percentage over the last two months of 2010. I had a different perspective than the callers and the hosts. I've watched a number of Cubs games this year, and as is the case with almost every team in the history of the sport, the success or failure of the club has not hinged ultimately on the actions or inactions of the manager. This club would likely be within a game or two of their current mark even if John McGraw was managing them. (Whitey Herzog, maybe.) That's just baseball.

Sandberg fans should be grateful he was not chosen for this time and place. One of the most popular men ever to wear the Cubs' uniform would be having to shoulder the blame for this fiasco if he had. There's a reason that only a few Hall-of-Fame-caliber players even attempt to become managers-- it's because 95% of all managerial tenures end with a firing and at least a little animosity. A Hall-of-Famer's legacy is already secure, especially in the town where he posted his many triumphs. Why try to tamper with it? Ryno has dodged a bullet thus far, but something tells me he still wouldn't turn down the offer if he got it, and that offer may even be forthcoming in the next year if the Cubs' owner Tom Ricketts listens to the irrational pleas of some of their fans.

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Baseball anecdote of the day: From today's StL Post-Dispatch, one they'll still tell years from now, "Tony La Russa doesn't tell this story often, but he thought it was worth repeating late Sunday afternoon in his office. After Albert Pujols had won a second consecutive extra-inning game against the Chicago Cubs with, in this case, a high-stepping, walk-off home run, the Cardinals' manager hearkened to the night in Phoenix in October 2001, when his team was eliminated in the last inning of the last game of a playoff series by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The team had gathered at a steakhouse for a party sponsored by Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr., and, at one point during the night and early morning of commiseration and celebration, Pujols, then a rookie, asked La Russa to sign a photo of the two of them. La Russa said he "wanted to do right by it" and said he would give it to Pujols on the plane ride home the next morning.

When La Russa presented Pujols the photo, he had inscribed, "To Albert. The best player I've ever managed."

And this was after one season.

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Non-baseball anecdote of the day: Evolved from Chris Hitchen's musings today upon the admitted-sexual creativity of Congressman Anthony Weiner. Included is some good advice for the next time you find yourself publicly-nude at the wrong time-- In my time at Oxford, there still persisted a quaint survival from the Victorian era. A special part of the river bank set among the willows was reserved for nude male bathing, with membership restricted to dons and clergymen. Prominent signs and barriers prevented boats and punts containing females from approaching this discreet stretch. On one fateful Sunday afternoon, however, a recent flood had washed away the signs and weakened the barriers. A group of ladies was swept past the rows of recumbent and undressed gentlemen. Shrieks of embarrassment from the boat, while on the shore—consternation. Pairs of hands darted down to cover the midsection. All but one, the hedonist and classicist Sir Maurice Bowra, whose palms went up to conceal his craggy visage. As the squeals were borne downstream, and the sheepish company surveyed itself, Bowra growled, "I don't know about you chaps, but I'm known by my face around here."

posted by CM @ 8:30 PM