Since Piniella made the well-spun ‘voluntary/good of the team’ Zambrano move to the bullpen last week, the Cubs’ bats woke up in the third game of the series against the Mets, swept the NL Central rival Milwaukee Brewers and are riding a four game winning streak. I was at the game against the Mets at Citi Field when the club finally managed to win a game against the also struggling Mets (who have since also seemed to figure some of their issues out). It felt good to finally sit amongst Cubs fans after a game at Citi with the Cubs on top in the final score, providing the opportunity to sing Go Cubs Go on the way out of the stadium!
Here are some photos from that Cubs victory at Citi Field:
When I showed up to Citi Field it was raining pretty hard. The rest of the day was beautiful and then of course one hour before game time…POURING!
Which gave the baseball fans coming off the subway nothing better to do than hang out under cover and get into a yelling match…Let’s Go Cubbies…Let’s Go Mets…(repeat)
Eventually the cops came and show was over. Mets fan got in, Cubs fan didn’t. After I got inside I was greeted by a giant tarp mocking the fans hoping for a quick start time. The game eventually started at 7:45pm (not bad)
So I waited it out in the upper level, under cover in a seat that wasn’t mine (self photography sometimes comes out blurry, what can I say)
And after sneaking by a security guard, I eventually enjoyed watching the game from the FIELD LEVEL (another seat that wasn’t mine) and had a great view to see the Cubs blow out the Mets! Good times had by almost all..just not the Mets fans.
And now back to our regularly scheduled blog about how please Lou must be with himself regarding all the quality decisions he’s made recently:
Ted Lilly returned from the DL to the starting rotation prompting the Z move and the team went on a tear against the BrewCrew. The Cubs team we all had the opportunity to watch decimate Milwaukee over the weekend very well may be the result of Lou’s decision to mix things up a bit. To shake up the entire clubhouse by making ONE major decision. Take your opening day ace and put him in the bullpen. Strengthen the bullpen, make room for what was arguably last year’s ace in the starting rotation, keep Silva’s dynamic 2010 rolling and meanwhile, mix young talent in with vets to light a fire under the overpaid ‘stars’ and push the whole ‘let’s just have fun’ mentality on the team in a pep talk that seems to have had an impact for about a week already! I don’t think any rational Cubs fan actually thought the season was over a week ago, but MAN…we certainly didn’t look good, that’s for sure!
Soriano seems to have found his swing and his legs. Ramirez seems to have decided the best thing for him is to not swing at all, leading to last night’s game winning walk-off walk. Derrek Lee is still blasting the ball so hard only mother nature can keep him in the park. Marlon Byrd shows that even husky centerfielders who look like they would be better fitted to lead block for the Bears offense can man the outfield and produce at the plate, with new lineups even featuring his hot bat in the clean up spot! Marmol has been placing his pitches extremely well, shaping up to be one of the game’s great closers and proving that the job should have been his two years ago (when I said it should have)! All the while, it seems like the right guy are getting playing time despite the way their paycheck reads and the appropriate selections are being made when deciding who to send down to the farm teams.
Lou Piniella has had a hand in all of it. The pep talks, the decisions, the private meetings, the line ups. He’s pulling the strings and manning the man behind the curtain position extremely well right now and I hope he continues to do so. He has a reputation of one of the great managerial minds in baseball, even if every now and then he throws a three year old style tantrum and should lay off the ballpark snacks more than he usually does. Does his belly look like a profile causing some children to wonder if that guy is the manager or the mascot? Perhaps. Is he perfect? NO! But is he doing a great job right now? Yes. Do I think his moves are enough to win us the most pathetic prize in professional sports: the BP Crosstown Cup? Sure. Do I think he’s giving us a shot at the big prize of the World Series trophy if he keeps this kind of performance up? Absolutely.
Tune into a Cubs game and find them up five or six runs half way through the game with the starter reeling away at opposing batters and our late inning duo of Zambrano and Marmol waiting to squash any thoughts of late game rallies and zoom in real close to Lou Piniella’s head. Is he still thinking strategies to win the game he’s in with the big picture on his mind? I’m sure he is. Is he probably feeling pretty good about the way these decisions he’s made of late have been turning out? More than likely, if we could see inside his head, it may look a little something like this:
Keep it up guys and keep it up Lou! Gotta give you credit while we pile up the W’s because you know how the fingers are pointed at you when the other flag gets hung up as well! Go Cubs Go!
Prose and Ivy 