As the day for buying single season tickets draws near, it's time to get serious about this year's LOHO get-together. In the past, we've simply picked a game and had everyone buy bleacher tickets, met up at Murphy's beforehand, and then all gone over to the bleachers to sit together. And sometimes two LOHO readers do the most awesome version of the National Anthem EVER. And sometimes we construct elaborate ball-retrieval systems from chewing gum and hot dog carriers, successfully retrieving a homerun ball from the junipers in center field. And then sometimes we go out afterwards. And sometimes horrible things happen that cause me not to be able to get out of bed the next day. But I digress.
This year, I'm adding another option to the poll: a rooftop game. Rather than paying for a bleacher ticket, beer, food, etc., we would just pick a game and pay one price for admission, food, and drinks. It would probably wind up being cheaper than actually being at Wrigley.
Follow me below the jump to vote.
Why, Colts, why?Since it took two hours to pry my eyes open through my dried tears, today, we'll play headlines as we go!
First up, dear old
Blago got a forum in the Tribune, and managed to say quite a bit. Here he is comparing himself and the Cubs:
Under Hendry and Piniella, the Cubs are a top-tier team. I tried
to make the case that the Cubs were doing so good because I was the
governor. Look at my record as governor, and look at the Cubs, right?
Last year we both got hijacked. I had a worse year than the Cubs.
Why must this Cubs fan in Mesa resort to tree-limb malfeasance to get his hands on a souvenir? Maybe it's the looming surcharge awaiting all ticket-buyers in this year's Cactus League festivities.
Paul Sullivan has been reporting on the
simmering feud between White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and Cubs owner Tom Ricketts (along with the Arizona legislators behind the deal in question) over a proposed surcharge on all Cactus League spring training games this preseason, a tax that would help fund Mesa's new super-fun spring break party center featuring Kevin Millar and the Clubhouse Gang. Reinsdorf isn't the only team bigwig who is not a fan of the league-wide surcharge, as the Phoenix Business Journal reports:
As this NSFW video of
a hammered Freddy Garcia cursing the Cubs exemplifies quite well, Cubs fans and White Sox fans don't exactly love each other to death. And as our good friend Tim sitting over in
Aisle 424 reminds us, it's really better for everyone in Cubdom to
direct their hatred outward than at each other.
All this animosity got me to thinking (I do that twice a year, so I'm glad to get the first one out of the way early) about the image of Cubs fans. As a group, we tend to get annoyed when people call Cub fans stupid. But really, if you were engaged in a rapid-fire word association exercise and the phrase you were given was "Cubs fans," wouldn't stupid be one of your first reactions? It's not the very first one that comes to mind; I'll tell you that later. But it does make me wonder: what word do you associate with the fans of other teams?
Good morning, LOHO campers! Isn't the Cubs blogosphere a GREAT place?
Hey, speaking of great things, there's nothing I like better than watching people who sit behind their keyboards and call professional athletes "lazy" look dumb. Because guess which "lazy" member of the Cubs starting rotation is already in camp, two weeks ahead of schedule?
After spending the offseason in Chicago for the first time in his career, Carlos Zambrano flew down to Arizona last week to get a head start on spring training.
Pitchers and catchers don't have to report to Fitch Park in Mesa until Feb. 17, but Zambrano already is working out, promising to atone for his nine-victory season.
"We did it quietly," general manager Jim Hendry said. "I don't think he wanted any publicity for that. He's going about his business well. I think you're going to get a very well-focused guy who's determined to rectify last year's season."
With Ted Lilly out until May, the onus will be on Zambrano and Ryan Dempster to get off to good starts and stay healthy, keeping the front end of the rotation afloat until Lilly returns. Zambrano stuck to his offseason workout routines, and the Cubs believe he's committed to staying in shape.
"Carlos was a little heavy last year, there's no question," manager Lou Piniella told fans at the Cubs Convention. "He's another player (besides Geovany Soto) we had a nice conversation with toward the end of the year.
I'm sure it was nice. I'm sure it was a lovely conversation. I'll bet Z just loved hearing that he was fat and needed to lose weight.
In case you've missed a day or 40 on the internet, you've probably noticed that there's a movement afoot to get the Cubs to retire Andre Dawson's number 8. That's all well and good, I suppose, but I don't think you should have your number retired just because you happen to make the Hall of Fame. Or when you played your 10 best years with another team.
After all, there are plenty of other accomplishments out there that are AT LEAST as noteworthy as making the Hall of Fame. So if we're going to start giving out retired numbers like cupcakes, I can think of a few other Cubs who should have their numbers retired, for various othe reasons.
Let's explore, shall we? Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments!
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