Earlier today, I wrote sort of a goodbye-Shea-Stadium-see-you-in-hell post at The Cub Reporter. Also this evening, the Tribune's Paul Sullivan offers a short history of Cub misery at Shea Stadium, invoking names like Turk Wendell and LaTroy Hawkins.
All of this grisly reminiscence was at odds with what wound up being a pretty satisfying Cub victory tonight. Carlos Zambrano (4 2/3 IP, 5 R, 4 BB, and one grand slam allowed to Carlos Delgado) pitched like a guy who should be grateful to get a starting turn in the playoffs, let alone the Game One assignment, but the Cub bullpen, despite some bumpy going, limited the home team to just one run over the last five innings. The Cub offense recovered from a 5-1 deficit and eventually seized a 6-5 lead. After the Mets tied the game in the eighth inning, then failed to capitalize on a golden scoring opportunity in the bottom of the ninth against Bob Howry, Derrek Lee drove home Ryan Theriot with the game-winner in the top of the tenth and Aramis Ramirez ripped a two-run homer to seal the 9-6 win.
In all, the Mets scored one run despite having a man on third with nobody out in each of the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings.
The Mets remain 1 1/2 games behind the Phillies in the NL East. The Brewers, who beat the Pirates behind C.C. Sabathia on Wednesday night, are now tied with the Mets for the Wild Card.
If the three teams end the season in a tie, the Mets and Phillies will play Monday in Philadelphia to determine the NL East winner. The losing team will then travel to Milwaukee to settle the Wild Card. And the Cubs will be watching all the while.
Nice piece here on New Yorkers who traveled west to take in the Cubs and Mets Tuesday afternoon at Wrigley, then topped off the day by watching the Yankees and White Sox at U.S. Cellular.
...an occasional series wherein I raid my kids' baseball card collection and profile a one-time Chicago Cub.
Today’s guest Paper Cub is a member of the first family of baseball...or at least the first family of baseball in which one of the family members is known for urinating on his hands.
Who: Mel Rojas (nephew of Felipe, Matty and Jesus Alou; cousin of hand-wetter Moises Alou), relief pitcher, 1997
How The Cubs Got Him: Signed him on December 10, 1996 to a 3-year, $13.5MM free agent deal. Just a few months earlier, Rojas had racked up 7 wins and 36 saves for the Expos, the culmination of seven seasons in Montreal, during which Rojas collected 109 saves. Ironically, the man Rojas replaced as Cubs closer, Turk Wendell, had a 2.84 ERA with 18 saves and just 58 hits allowed in 79 1/3 IP in his only season as the Cubs closer–far better numbers that Rojas put together in his short time with the Cubs or in any season after he left Wrigley Field.
What He Did While They Had Him: Withered under the pressure of being a high-priced, high-expectation free agent and lasted about 2 1/2 seasons less in a Chicago Cubs uniform than General Manager Ed Lynch had expected he would.
Between April 3rd, when Rojas made his Cub debut and was tagged for three runs in one inning against the Marlins, and August 7th, when he ended his Cub career by allowing a ninth-inning run to the Giants, Rojas went 0-4, 4.42, with 13 saves, but it was the stumbles in between that invited the wrath of Cub fans and made it attractive for Lynch to find the former Expo a new home.
The worst of Rojas’ failures came in early June, when the Jim Riggelman’s Cubs, already nine games under .500, watched Rojas squander a 3-run, ninth-inning lead against the Phillies in a contest the Cubs eventually lost 9-8 in 10 innings.
Also notable was a game in late July in Atlanta, in which the Cubs, losers of six games in a row at the time, spotted the Braves a 4-0 advantage, then scratched their way to a 5-4 lead, only to see Rojas yield two runs in the last of the ninth and lose the game 6-5.
How The Cubs Got Rid Of Him: Unloaded him on August 9, 1997, along with Wendell and outfielder Brian McRae, in a massive salary dump to the Mets, in exchange for outfielder Lance Johnson, pitcher Mark Clark and infielder Manny Alexander.
Mike Kiley of the Sun-Times clearly reflected the relief of Cubs fans upon announcement of the deal, writing,
“There is unabated, though silent, joy at Clark and Addison today because the Cubs front office believes it is payback time for 1969. Almost 30 years later, the Mets are going to pay dearly by taking $17 million worth of misery off Chicago's hands."Unlike the Cubs, who were terrible throughout 1997 and finished the season 68-94, the Mets were in the thick of the pennant race, sitting in third place, 7 1/2 games behind the Braves in the NL East at the time of the trade.
Also unlike the Cubs, the Mets weren’t looking for Rojas to close games, expecting him only to be the set-up man for their longtime relief ace, John Franco. Rojas didn’t fare very well in that role either, however, finishing the year with a 5.13 ERA over 23 games. (The Mets also struggled on their way to the finish line and ended up 13 games behind division-winning Atlanta.)
Something Positive Someone Once Said About Him: "We feel Mel is durable and successful at getting lefthanders out. He’s also a ground ball pitcher, and that’s a good fit for us." (Cubs GM Ed Lynch, as quoted in The Sporting News, 12/23/96)
Box Score To Remember: ROJAS 1 0 0 0 0 2 (Giants @ Cubs, 5/19/97)
I first became aware of Don Cardwell when he pitched for the Mets in the late ’60s. As a member of the New York rotation that included Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, and Gary Gentry, Cardwell helped pitch the Mets to the 1969 World Championship and helped consign the ’69 Cubs to laughingstock status for time immemorial.
Though Cardwell was only 8-10 that season and nowhere near the star that fellow hurlers Seaver and Koosman were, I hated him and Jerry Grote and Cleon Jones and Cal Koonce and Ed Kranepool and every other member of that Mets team with equal passion.
Eventually I became aware that Cardwell had once been a Cub, pitching a no-hitter in his Chicago debut in 1960, right after the Cubs had acquired him in trade from the Phillies. The WGN-TV tape of the final out in that game—a shoestring catch by Cub leftfielder Moose Moryn—is a classic. I bet I’ve seen it at least 50 times in my life.
Cardwell died Monday morning in North Carolina after prolonged illness. He was 72, and of Cardwell a longtime co-worker said, “I’ve never met a better guy in my whole life.”
I forgive him for ’69.
Outfielder Cliff Floyd, who looked last season like he was clearly in the twilight of his career, is going to a place where twilight guys have historically been most welcome: Tampa Bay.
Floyd, a 15-year Major League veteran, signed a one-year deal for $2.75MM (with incentive bonuses that could earn him another $2MM), plus a team option for 2009. The lefthanded-hitting Floyd will rotate with right-handed hitters Rocco Baldelli and Jonny Gomes in filling the Rays' DH and right field slots.
From espn.com...
While a Gomes-Floyd right field platoon would be subpar defensively, the two players might compensate with their combined production. Gomes has a career .932 on base-slugging percentage against left-handed pitching, while Floyd has an OBP of .859 vs. right-handers.
A graduate of Thornwood High School in South Holland, Floyd, 35, had 9 HRs and 45 RBI in 108 games for the Cubs last season, hitting .284 with a .373 OBP and an OPS+ of 102. Like many of his Cub teammates, Floyd had trouble hitting at Wrigley Field, where he only hit .269 with 3 HRs.
According to Mark Prior's agent, John Boggs, 11 teams have shown interest in signing the rehabbing righthander to a contract. The New York Daily News reports that the Mets and Yankees have both shown "preliminary interest."
As the Daily News points out...
The Yankees drafted Prior in the supplemental round of the 1998 draft as a high schooler, but failed to sign him - he turned down a $1.5 million offer that the team made a few months after the draft, a signing strategy executives rued afterward. Prior went to college instead...and later signed (with the Cubs) for $10.5 million.
I no longer despise the teams at the top of the salary chart the way I used to, mostly because the Cubs have joined them, but also because, as the Yankees have proven now seven seasons in a row, spending the most money doesn't guarantee you'll be hoisting the big trophy at the end of the World Series.
Where I do think the free-spending teams enjoy a distinct advantage, however, is in a case like Prior's, where a big-budget organization can afford to gamble, hope to hit the jackpot, and not be any worse off if the player turns out to be a bust.
According to mlbtraderumors.com, the Astros and Cardinals might also be in the mix for Prior.
