Milton Bradley Gone for Good?

Cubs’ GM Jim Hendry finally pulled the plug on Milton Bradley Sunday, suspending the disgruntled outfielder for the remainder of the season after Bradley criticized the team in a Daily Herald article.

But it was clear early on that Bradley was a poor fit for the Cubs. He didn’t play well to start the season. He had miscues in the field, was suspended for arguing with an umpire and criticized Chicago fans. And as the season wore on and the Cubs fell further behind in the NL Central, Bradley seemed to get even more restless and critical. Hendry had seen enough and put Bradley on the shelf – possibly for good.

It’s highly unusual for a team to suspend a player for the rest of the season, when there are two weeks remaining. The fact that the Cubs have done this shows how desperate they are to end the Milton Bradley experiment. The Cubs are Bradley’s eighth team in nine years in the big leagues. Doesn’t it make you wonder why he can’t stick with any one team for too long?

In hindsight, maybe the Cubs should have done something sooner with Bradley – suspension or trade or something – to get him out of the clubhouse. But I guess when you have $30 million invested in a player, you want to be patient and give him time to adjust to the team and perhaps come around on his own.

So what next? Do the Cubs take the loss and let him go? Or will they be able to work out a trade? And with all the well-publicized baggage Bradley carries, would any team want him?

There is no doubt in my mind that Bradley will not return to Wrigley Field next season. It’s clear he’s been looking for a way out almost since the day he walked into the clubhouse. And the Cubs should do all they can to give him a one-way ticket out of town.

Cub’s Lee Wins Heart and Hustle Award

Chicago Cubs’ first baseman Derrek Lee has been honored with the Heart and Hustle Award, voted on by players in the Major League Baseball Alumni Association. According to MLB.com, the award is presented to the player who demonstrates “passion for the game of baseball and best embodies the values, spirit and traditions of the game.”

It’s a tremendous honor for Lee, who has been the most consistent player for the Cubs this season. On a team that has suffered a lot of injuries and distractions on and off the field, Lee is very quietly having a solid season, batting .293 with 25 homers and 86 RBIs. If Cubs’ GM Jim Hendry has any brains (and sometimes I question if he does), he should waste no time in extending Lee’s contract, which expires at the end of the 2010 season.

Cubs’ Bradley Says Fans Verbally Abuse Him

Milton Bradley has had a rough season so far with the Cubs since signing a three-year, $30 million contract last winter. The pressure of trying to perform up to the standards of his contract must finally be getting to him. But then again, most of us knew that Bradley is a bit of a loose cannon when he arrived on the team.

This week, the Cubs’ outfielder says he has been the victim of ‘racial abuse’ by fans at Wrigley Field, according to the Chicago Tribune. But when pressed to provide examples, he declined to give specifics. He also added that this behavior has happened before and is quite common, though he gave no anecdotes to support his point.

How can any of us believe Bradley's story if he doesn’t back up his claims? I suspect that whatever Bradley hears from fans is not nearly as bad as he makes them out to be nor are the comments racially motivated. He isn’t the first Cubs player to accuse Chicago fans of racial abuse; Jacques Jones and LaTroy Hawkins also expressed their frustration with fans several years ago. Both were experiencing subpar seasons at the time.

The truth is fans are going to jeer, criticize and make fun of players at the ball park; that’s all part of the game. Most players know that and take the comments in stride.

Perhaps that’s part of Bradley’s problem; he’s paying too much attention to what’s happening in the stands and not enough attention to what’s happening on the field.

Bradley could learn a lesson or two from his teammate Alfonso Soriano, who gets booed as much as any other player and has learned from experience to simply tune out the fans. It’s time Bradley does the same.

ESPN Planning Bartman Documentary

ESPN must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel for programming ideas. The sports network announced that it is planning to do a documentary about Steve Bartman for its '30 for 30' project to commemorate the network’s 30th anniversary. If you recall, Bartman is the unfortunate Cub fan who was in the wrong place at the wrong time during Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS at Wrigley Field. He attempted to catch a ball that was in foul territory at the same time that Cubs’ outfielder Moises Alou reached in to grab it. The ball bounced away instead, and Alou lost his temper. The Cubs subsequently lost the game and the series, and Bartman has been a scapegoat ever since.

I’m not sure why ESPN would want to document this story. It serves no purpose except to prolong the memory of another disappointing Cubs’ postseason. It’s time to put this story to rest for once and for all.

Cubs Commit Error on Banks' Tribute

It seems the Chicago Cubs couldn’t even get a lovely tribute to Ernie Banks right. When the statue of Banks was unveiled on Monday, one small detail was missing. At the base of the statue where Banks’ signature expression was engraved, there was a typo.

What should have read “Let’s Play Two” actually read “Lets Play Two.” The apostrophe was missing from the word “let’s.”

How embarrassing.

As a writer myself, I understand that mistakes like this often can and do happen. I’ve made plenty of them in my career. But if there’s anything I have learned, it’s to have someone proof your work (although that’s not always possible when blogging).

Whose job is it to proof this stuff for the Cubs? How many people looked at it before signing off? How many of them passed fifth grade English?

What is even more troubling is that half the people who paused to admire the statue did not notice that there was a mistake.

To the Cubs’ credit, the error was corrected today. The engraver inserted the apostrophe where it’s supposed to be. But really, what an awkward way to start the season.

Cubs, Sox Release Tentative 2008 Schedules

For the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox, next year is already here. Both teams released their tentative 2008 schedules yesterday, which include several interesting match ups and road trips.

The two Chicago teams will square off in back-to-back weekend series in June. For the past few seasons, the two series have been separated by several weeks.

The White Sox open their 2008 campaign on the road on March 31 against the defending AL Central champion Cleveland Indians. They open at home a week later against the Twins and Tigers. The Sox also finish the season with a series at home against the Indians.

The Cubs open the season at home for the first time in seven years on March 31 against their NL Central rivals Milwaukee Brewers. They will also end the season facing Milwaukee at Miller Park on Sept. 28.

As for Interleague play, there could be some interesting match ups. Mark your calendar for June 13-15 when the Sox host the Colorado Rockies at the Cell while the Cubs travel to Toronto to play the Blue Jays. The Sox also face Pittsburgh at home and the Dodgers and Giants on the road. The Cubs host the Baltimore Orioles and visit Lou Piniella’s former team, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Mind you, these schedules are tentative and may change.

Yankees' Future in Limbo

Would Mariano Rivera Exchange Yankee Pin Stripes for Cubbie Blue?

In the three days since the Cleveland Indians defeated the New York Yankees in the American League divisional series, manager Joe Torre’s career with the Yankees has been in limbo. Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner made it clear during the series that the Yankees needed to win in order to save Torre’s job. Now the world waits for the hammer to fall.

Today, reliever Mariano Rivera told reporters he hoped Torre would stay with the team. Rivera, who becomes a free agent after this season, said his decision to stay with the team hinges on whether Torre also stays. If Torre is fired, Rivera says he may decide to play elsewhere.

If that’s the case, I can think of one team on the north side of Chicago that might consider pursuing Rivera. Granted, the Cubs already have a closer in Ryan Dempster, but he has been adequate at best, but isn’t overpowering or dominant like Rivera. I would think that if a team has the money and the opportunity to bring in arguably the best closer in the game, they should take that chance. Can you imagine Mariano Rivera in blue pin stripes?

Zambrano Must Start Winning to Drive Away Boo Birds

Cubs’ ace Carlos Zambrano apologized to fans and the media yesterday (surely at the urging of Cubs’ coaches and management) after ripping fans at Wrigley Field Monday for booing him as he walked off the field in the fifth inning of an embarrassing 11-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Zambrano can apologize all he wants, but it won’t make fans readily forget the comments he made after Monday’s game in which he said that Wrigley fans “just care about them.” Never mind that Big Z ran through third-base coach Mike Quade’s stop sign and was tagged out at home plate in the bottom of the third inning and allowed eight runs on seven hits and five walks in 4 1/3 innings. His performance Monday, combined with poor outings in his previous four starts, makes you wonder what is going on in his head of late. Clearly, this is not the same pitcher the Cubs signed for $91 million just a few weeks ago.

His post-game remarks were arrogant and disrespectful for sure, but it also showed immaturity. Some fans find his excitable nature rather endearing at times, but how many times have we excused his hot-headedness simply because he is so good on the mound? One wonders if now that he has that nice little contract in his back pocket that Big Z has lost some of his motivation. Someone needs to remind him that the Cubs are in a divisional race, and that he needs to channel his energy to fight the team in the opponents’ dugout, not the people in the stands.

I generally don’t advocate booing teams or players on the field when they are performing poorly. Doing so just seems counterproductive to me. However, in this instance, I can understand Cub fans frustration. They have a right to show their displeasure with Zambrano, not just for how he played on Monday, but how he has performed over the past few weeks. The fans expect big things from their ace, especially while they are in the playoff hunt, and Big Z simply has not lived up to those expectations. It’s time for Zambrano to do more than apologize; it’s time to perform at the level he is capable of. It’s time to start winning some games. That will surely drive the boo birds away.

Sammy Slams Number 600

The sports world is filled with ironies. Wednesday night saw one more as Sammy Sosa hit his 600th career home run against his former team, the Chicago Cubs, in Texas Rangers' 7-3 victory. He is only the fifth player in MLB history to reach that milestone and the first Latino player to do so.

We'll probably never know for sure how many (if any) of Sammy Sosa's homers were a result of taking performance-enhancing drugs. But you can't ignore the fact that he is one of the sport's most charismatic players. Give him credit for reinventing his career this season with Texas after a year away from the game.

Cubs’ Barrett Traded to San Diego

Michael Barrett isn’t having a very good summer. The Cubs’ catcher got into a fight with teammate Carlos Zambrano a few weeks ago in the dugout at Wrigley Field, resulting in a black eye, a fat lip (with stitches) and a fine from Cubs’ management. Several days later he had a heated conversation with another pitcher, Rich Hill. His playing time has been reduced in recent weeks, surely a sign that Barrett is either a) hurting or b) not playing well or c) about to be traded. The correct answer is c. Today, Barrett was traded to the San Diego Padres for catcher Rob Bowen and a minor league player. When things start to go wrong for a player, sometimes the best thing to do is to give him a change of scenery.

With everything that has happened in recent weeks with Barrett, it is obvious that the Cubs management lost faith in their starting catcher. And perhaps the pitchers lost faith in him too. Once a catcher loses the trust of his teammates, the only other place for him to go is out.

Actually, Barrett came out of this pretty well. He’s going to a first-place team with one of the best pitching staffs in the National League. The chances of Barrett heading to the postseason are better with the Padres than they are with the Cubs.

I’m sure Sox fans will be disappointed too. It means there won’t be a rematch of the Barrett-A.J. Pierzinski slugfest when the Cubs face the White Sox this weekend.

Piniella Takes the Heat for Players

MLB may have suspended Cubs' skipper Lou Piniella for an undisclosed amount of time after his tirade during Saturday's game against the Atlanta Braves, but in hindsight, Lou's on-field outburst may have been a semi-intentional ploy to take the pressure off his players. The ploy may have succeeded on two fronts. First, it helped the team refocus their efforts on winning on the field, which the Cubs did in fine fashion today by a score of 10-1.


Second, Piniella took the focus away from Carlos Zambrano and Michael Barrett, who fought in the dugout and in the clubhouse during Friday's game. Funny thing happened since his tirade. The media stopped talking about the fight that broke out in front of 40,000+ fans Friday because Lou Piniella gave them something else to talk about. As any good manager will do, he took the pressure off his players and put it on himself. If Sweet Lou doesn't do something, you can bet the media would still be writing and talking ad nauseum about Friday's fight.

Rivalry May Kindle Sox Bats

The White Sox are a very lucky team. With a 19-17 record going into today’s action, the Sox find themselves only four games out of first place behind the Detroit Tigers in the middle of May. Most of their games have been played on the road, and two home games have been postponed due to inclement weather. Their starters have been nothing short of terrific and have kept them in the division race. Their hitting, well, that’s another story. The team is ranked last in the American League with a batting average of .200. With Paul Konerko, Jermaine Dye and Joe Crede in the lineup, you know the Sox will start hitting one of these days. But when? What will it take to wake up their snoozing bats?

The solution to the White Sox ice-cold hitting may be just around the corner. Round one of the cross-town rivalry between the Sox and the Cubs takes place this weekend at Wrigley Field. If recent memory serves me, the Sox always seem to rise to the occasion when these two teams meet. This weekend’s series against the Cubs could be just the thing to get Sox bats swinging

“No Chance” for Mercy for Reporter

Even before Sunday night’s game between the Cubs and Cardinals was postponed due to the death of Cardinals’ pitcher Josh Hancock, the series had gotten off to a rocky start as early as Friday morning. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch article poked fun at the Cubs’ history of futility and declared that they had “no chance” of ever winning the World Series. Cardinals’ manager Tony LaRussa took exception to the article and refused to answer any questions from the Post-Dispatch reporters during a press briefing later that afternoon. During the war of words that followed, the P-D writer denied any wrongdoing, and instead, put all the blame on his editor. “I don’t assign the stories,” he said. “I’m only doing my job.”

First of all, slamming any team, even if it is meant to be light-hearted fun, is poor judgment. Both the writer and his editor should take responsibility for that. But what bothered me more was the reporter’s snotty and arrogant attitude during the press briefing. I have some words of advice for this guy: As long as your byline appears in the column, you are responsible for everything you write. Wiping your hands clean and putting all the blame on your boss or editor is irresponsible.

Sports reporting is a tough job. So just do what your mom told you to: play nice.

Hancock Death Postpones Cubs-Cardinals Game

It was not a good day for world champions. Not only were the defending NBA champion Heat eliminated from the playoffs, the 2006 World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals had their own tragedy to deal with.

Middle reliever Josh Hancock was killed in a car accident early Sunday morning when his Ford Explorer crashed into a tow truck that had stopped on the side of the road to assist another driver. Sunday’s night game between the Cardinals and Cubs at Busch Stadium was postponed while the Cardinals team deals with the tragedy.

Five years ago, a Cubs-Cardinals game was also postponed when Cardinals’ pitcher Darryl Kyle was found dead in his hotel room here in Chicago. It seems odd that these tragedies would link these two teams, not once, but twice. Add the Sammy Sosa-Mark McGuire homerun chase in 1998, and I begin to wonder if there is some karmic lesson to be learned.

Prior's Surgery Should Have Been Done Sooner

Were you too terribly surprised by the news that the Cubs' Mark Prior would miss the entire 2007 season after having shoulder surgery? I wasn't. Now the big question is, will he ever play baseball again? Certainly, I believe his career with the Cubs is over. Will any other team want to take the chance on a player who has tons of talent but is so injury-prone that he has become more a liability than an asset?

The question I have is -- why wasn't this surgery done sooner? With the exception of an occasional start here and there, Prior has essentially missed the last three seasons, and he has landed on the DL at least once every season since he came up in 2002. I don't know if the decision to forgo surgery so long was Prior's decision or Cubs' management. But I wonder if the Cubs and their fans would be seeing a healthy Mark Prior on the mound this season if he had the surgery sooner.

This is just another example of how the Cubs, their trainers, or team doctors have mismanaged the health of their players. They've also done a fine job with Kerry Wood. As I wrote several weeks ago when the regular season began, it may be time to bid Prior and Wood farewell.

Homecoming Week

It was odd to see former Cubs’ pitcher Greg Maddux in a San Diego Padre uniform at Wrigley Field on Tuesday. Somehow Navy just doesn’t look as good on him as Cubbie blue did.

On the other side of town, the White Sox are hosting the Texas Rangers and Sammy Sosa. It's Sosa's first visit to Chitown since making a disgraceful exit from the Cubs at the end of the 2004 season. The crowd at U.S. Cellular Field booed Sosa each time he came to the plate. Sosa hit
his 591st career home run Tuesday night en route to a 8-1 Texas Rangers’ victory over the Sox.

This isn’t the first time the Sox have made a former player feel so welcome. Last May, Frank Thomas hit two home runs for the Oakland A’s in his first two plate appearances against John Garland.

Games 2 and 3 take place tonight and Thursday.

Cubs for Sale

Do you happen to have a few hundred million dollars lying around your house? The Chicago Cubs will be up for sale after the 2007 season as part of a deal between the Tribune Company and local real estate entrepreneur, Sam Zell. According to the Cubs’ Web site, Zell also has a minority ownership stake in the syndicate that owns the Chicago White Sox and has to choose between that investment or the Cubs.

At the end of the 2006 season, the Cubs were worth more than $600 million. Depending on how the Cubs’ perform this season, their value could really skyrocket. Talk about inflation!

Cubs Should Part Ways with Prior, Wood

The Cubs’ 2007 season begins next week, and neither Kerry Wood nor Mark Prior will be on the team roster on opening day. Wood was placed on the disabled list earlier this week with what is described as shoulder fatigue, and Prior was sent down to Triple A to work out his pitching problems. It is not known how long either of them will be absent, or if they’ll return at all.

This might seem like distressing news for Cub fans who have envisioned these two pitchers to be part of this star-studded cast on the north side. In reality, it might be the best thing for the team. The Cubs’ brass has spent millions in the off season to rebuild the team and is looking for immediate results once the season begins. Fans too expect a lot from this year’s team. A Chicagosports.com poll yesterday found that nearly 41 percent of fans think the Cubs will finish in first place.

With Prior and Wood off the roster, it will be interesting to see how the team fares without them. If the team does well, and I suspect it will, Cubs’ management may decide that the team does not need their two injury-plagued pitchers after all. In fact, it may be time for the Cubs to cut their losses, and let Prior and Wood go – permanently. Sometimes you need to clear away the old in order to bring in the new, like cleaning out closets to make room for new clothes.

There is nothing in the players’ recent history that convinces me that they are able to stay healthy for the long term, pitch consistently and make a meaningful contribution to the team. Hanging onto them may be more of a burden than this team needs. With every pinch or tweak they experience, the media pounces on them as if they are the only Cubs' story worth covering. But to really move forward, the Cubs may have to part with the past, and that means letting go of two players who are taking up too much closet space.

Santo Snubbed Again

I know there are a lot of Cub fans who are terribly disappointed that Ron Santo did not get voted into the baseball Hall of Fame. But after so many failed attempts to get into the Hall, you have to begin to wonder if committee members are seeing something in Santo that the rest of us are not. His lifetime batting average is .277, and hit only 342 home runs. Granted, he had more than 1,300 RBIs and 2,254 base hits and a slugging percentage of .454. While those are solid numbers, there’s nothing in his stats that jumps out at you. Santo was clearly a very good ball player in his day, and very popular in Chicago. But compared to other players who have been elected to the Hall, his numbers fall short.

Let’s face it. If Santo had the numbers the Hall members were looking for, he would have been voted in by now.

Cubs Dragging Their Feet on Zambrano

I'm baffled by the Chicago Cubs. After committing so many millions of dollars on players like Alfonso Soriano, they have failed to extend the contract for pitcher Carlos Zambrano, clearly the ace of their staff. One would think that getting Zambrano settled with a long-term deal would be a bigger priority this offseason. Zambrano has said he will walk if he and the Cubs cannot agree on a deal, and he will not negotiate when the season begins. He is also asking for a Barry Zito-type salary, somewhere around $15-18 million per year. The Cubs have already set a precedent by breaking the bank on Soriano and company, and waiting may only jack up Zambrano's price further. Zambrano is key to the Cubs' pitching staff this season. He is the only starter that can be counted on; everyone else is a question mark until proven otherwise. It seems to me that the Cubs are taking a big risk by not signing Zambrano as soon as they can.