Monday, August 15, 2005

Little Blue Bear's and a Wall of Green Ivy

Many will read this blog title and wonder what I've been smokin' today.

When you find out that today's blog is devoted to my beloved Chicago Cubs you'll really start to wonder what I'm smokin'. Yes, I am one of the millions of baseball fans out there who have given their heart to luckless wonders from the Windy City.

For as long as I have loved baseball (which has been the majority of my 28 years) the Chicago Cubs have been the focus of my passion. Sure I've shared some of that love with other teams like the Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays but never with the same kind of zest that I've bestowed upon the Cubbies.

Recently I've read a few articles about the trials and tribulations of the south-siders. Now that the Red Sox have ended their World Series drought the Cubs have been thrust into the lovable loser spotlight to an even greater degree than ever before. Having gone some 97 years between World Series victories in one of the greatest baseball cities will do that to a franchise.

I'm sure that there are just as many people who have given up on cheering for the Cubs as there are those who still pledge allegiance to the team that has a harder time getting lucky than the 40-year old virgin (which looks like a very funny movie btw).

This season has been no different as it looks like the Cubs will go through another 162 games with virtually nothing to show for it. Barring a major hot streak over the last 7-8 weeks of the regular season the Cubbies chances of earning the wild-card spot seem pretty slim. No way will they catch the St.Louis Cardinals despite taking 3 of 4 games from the rival Cards this weekend.

And yet there is still a sense of hope that perhaps something will click and the Cubs will make a magical run for the last playoff spot and then turn in a Florida Marlins-esque Cinderella run in the playoffs. If that should happen the first thing that should be done is the first 5 rows of seats along either baseline should be taken out so that another Steve Bartman incident doesn't occur.

The pieces are there for the Cubs to compete. Derrick Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Nomar, Prior, Wood, Zambrano and Maddux. Trying to answer the question of why this team can't put it all together is like trying to figure out how they get the caramel inside the Caramilk bar.

Injuries, bad luck, goats, Bartman's, whatever it is, something continues to work against this team.

I continue to hold out hope though that one day Cubs fans everywhere will be rewarded for their patience by an historical run in the playoffs capped off by a deliciously sweet World Series victory. Against who? It doesn't really matter. Although it would be nice to see us beat the Yankees or Red Sox, but it really doesn't matter.

And so continues the plight of a Cubs fan. Forever cursed to walk this earth (ala the Incredible Hulk) wondering when our pain will be eased. Maybe it's not that the Cubs and their fans are unlucky. Maybe it's just that we're all nuts.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

First steps and the All-Concussion Line

Today's blog will be divided between family and sports. I don't write too much about the family stuff so I'll start with the "out of the norm" stuff before diving back into the familiar.

To kick things off I thought I should write a little about the excitement that's been going on around the Benallick house for the past week or so. Our daughter, Jenna (the cutest little girl EVER), started walking this week. Just a couple weeks short of 14 months old which would put her at about the same pace as our son, Carter, was when he started walking.

In the past week we've seen her figure out how to stand up without using the furniture or toys for help and then all of a sudden one day she started taking steps. Really up until that point she's shown no interest in walking. She crawls so stinkin' fast that we figured she had no reason to want to walk. But now she's well on her way and all I can say is look out world!

Jenna possesses an adventurous personality that rivals the great Indiana Jones. She has a desire (and an impressive ability) to get into things that we'd never thought possible. She is the reason that childproof locks and toilet seat clamps were invented.

As tough as it is to always be looking over your shoulder to see what kind of trouble she's getting into, in no way, shape or form do we ever want to crush that spirit or dissuade her from being so inquisitive. I look at her know, all of 14 months old, and I envision a world-travelling reporter, agressively seeking out ground-breaking story after ground-breaking story. It's no wonder her favorite thing on TV is Dora The Explorer- Jenna is the real-life version of Dora (minus the ability to speak Spanish or the talking Monkey for a best-friend- how cool would that be?).

Whatever she grows up to be I sometimes wonder if I'll ever live to see it because at this pace, she's bound to give me a heart attack well before her adult years come along:).
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Moving on from the family arena to the sports arena, I had a good chuckle today when I read the story on TSN.ca about the Leaf's signing the "Big E", Eric Lindros, to a one-year contract.

I'll admit that this could be a real sleeper pick-up for the buds, if- actually, make that IF- Lindros can keep his head up and not suffer any more concussions.

All the Leaf's need to do now is sign Adam Deadmarsh and they will have the All-Concussion line. They'll have to hire runway workers from Pearson Int'l to stand at center ice with glow sticks and direct the trio in the right direction.

I know it's not nice to make fun of other's misfortunes but really, what are these guys doing still playing hockey? Lindros has suffered so many serious concussions that I'm sure his head is like a bowl of jello. It makes me think of Cousin Eddie from "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"- "I had that metal plate removed Clark. Everytime Catherine would turn on the microwave I'd piss my pants and forget who I was for a half-hour."That's the Big E in a few years from now.

Really, Lindros should be sporting the Don Beebee of hockey helmets and wearing something gigantic and padded. Just because the NHL has been off for 15 months doesn't mean the list of guys waiting to deliver the final check on Eric has become any smaller. Going to a hated team like the Leaf's isn't going to shrink that target anymore I'm afraid.

For Eric's sake, and perhaps even for the NHL's sake, I hope he can return to form and perhaps become a dominant player again. Say what you want about ego and what not, the fact remains that the NHL needs its stars and Eric was one of its brightest not so long ago.
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Staying in the sports arena I wanted to comment on Rafael Palmeiro. I won't spend much time because I don't believe the topic is worth much time but here it goes:

1) On whether Raffi should be considered for the Hall.
NO WAY. If Palmeiro gets into the Hall of Fame then I should get into the Hall of Fame because as far as I'm concerned my career stats are the same as his- zero's across the board. The guy's a juicer and therefore everything he's "accomplished" up until this point should be attributed to the juice and not to his God-given talent. The same should go for Giambi and any other steroid user in baseball. Giambi's career stats should start with this season- probably his first season as a "clean ballplayer". If you've ever been to Cooperstown, NY to visit the hall of fame you've felt what a pure and awe-inspiring place it is. Cheaters like Palmeiro don't deserve to be enshrined in there with the baseball icons who played the game hard and played the game clean.
2) The Viagra endorsements make a lot more sense now.

That's all for today.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Swung on and missed . . .

Well, amidst great hopes and aspirations of a first-round upset, the boys from Remax came up a little short in our first-ever playoff series against the Bugsy's Canadians. After taking 2 out of the first 3 games we only needed to win one more game to pull off the upset and advance to the league finals.

Game 4 took place last Friday night and we didn't amount to much in that game, losing by a score that I can't even remember at this point in time- I think it was 9-2 or something like that.

Game 5 went last night and your's truly was out of the lineup due to the arrival of a rather painful migraine that is still somewhat bothering me today. I heard on the radio this morning though that our boys lost 10-1 in the decisive game 5 to end our season.

I'm not sure that we can be disappointed about this. Sure we had them on the ropes and were unable to deliver the knock-out blow but the fact remains that we were never expected to be in this fight to begin with. I think we can take a lot out the fact that we put a real good scare into them. I know what you're thinking, spoken like a true loser. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic but I'm okay with that.

I'm proud of our team and the way we competed. I'm proud that we never gave up and showed that we are capable of competing at a high level. I'm proud of the fact that, in spite of losing the series, we were still the better team- you'd have had to have been at the games to know what I mean by that.

It was a fun season and while I'm sad to see it end (mainly because I know that means summer is also coming to an end), I'm looking forward to even more improvements next year.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Can you say 2-1 series lead?

That's right sports fans, the boys from Remax have now taken a 2-1 series lead in our opening round playoff series in the the Moose Jaw Men's Fastball League.

The past two games have been the best we've played all year and it has been a lot of fun to be a part of it. Our pitcher has been nails for the last two games, throwing a 3-hitter in game 2 and following that up with a 4-hitter last night.

I was somewhat happy with my own contribution last night as well. I was playing CF and hitting in the nine-spot so that was a surprise because I wasn't expecting to swing the bat last night. My first time up I hit a 2-2 fastball into the right-center field gap and legged it out for a triple. When I hit the ball I thought for sure it was gone so, like an idiot, I jogged slow and watched it for a bit but still got to third without a play. I scored a few batters later to give us a 2-1 lead. The Canadians tied it up an inning later but that was it for scoring for them. We went on to score 5 unanswered runs- highlighted by back-to-back bombs in the top of the 7th by our catcher and pitcher- and took the game 7-2.

Game 4 goes tonight at Memorial Field and we will be working hard for our first ever playoff victory. We are not taking anything for granted but rather just going out there, playing hard and having a lot of fun. Hopefully we can finish things off tonight.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Game 3 goes tonight!

My ball team plays game 3 tonight under the lights at beautiful Memorial Field in Moose Jaw. After the tense battle in game 2 I'm expecting another tight game and hopefully a good crowd will be there to enjoy it.

Since I've been hitting so terribly lately . . . correction, since I haven't been hitting at all lately, I expect that I will be patrolling the outfield in Centerfield again but that we'll be using a Designated Hitter to hit for me. As much as I'd like to be swinging the bat in there my confidence is shot right now and I know it's best for the team to having someone else swinging the bat in my place. It's a good lesson in humility for sure as I've never had this much trouble hitting a baseball before in my life. Maybe it's time to go back to slow pitch :-).

Shifting gears to hockey I have to say I've been pretty much captivated by the frenzy of free agent signings over the past 4 days. As a Red Wings fan it's difficult to see all these big names signing with none of them coming to Hockeytown. I would have loved to see Adam Foote and Scott Niedermyer on the back end with Nic Lidstrom but it just wasn't meant to be. Even though my team has not been able to make a blig splash this year and are probably going to experience some lean years in the immediate future, I'm still all for the new-look NHL.

How great was it to see Jarome Iginla ink a 3-year deal to stay in Calgary? How great was it to see the once mighty Oilers actually be buyers instead of sellers and be able to land big-time players in Chris Pronger & Michael Peca? When have the die-hard fans in Alberta had this much to be excited about (aside from the Flames Cup run two years ago)?

Aside from the coma that the Toronto Make Me Laughs appear to be in (hello McFly?), the Canadian teams are definitely wreaping the benefits of a level playing field.

Staying with hockey, my wife and I met with the Head Coach and the guy who looks after Billoting for the Moose Jaw Warriors last night. We're going to be billoting a Warrior player again this year so Steve Young & Bert Hunt were by to go over some things with us last night. It's a great opportunity for us to get involved with the organization and to provide a good home for a young guy trying to make his way in the crazy world of major junior hockey. We're hoping to have the same player back that we had for the last half of last season. It was a great experience for us and our player was a real blessing to have in our home. If that doesn't work out, then so be it. We look forward to the opportunities that God will give us through this. Hopefully the Warriors have a turn-around season as well. I know the coaching is definitely there.

Well, I'll try to report back in tomorrow with the results from tonight's game. Hopefully we'll really shock everyone and take a 2-1 series lead tonight.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

The First Playoff Victory

Well, last night our fastball team secured our first ever playoff victory in game 2 of our best of 5 series.

This is my second season playing in the Moose Jaw Men's Fastball League and it's been a lot of fun (for the most part). Our team, sponsored by the fine folks at Remax, is only in it's third year of existence. We've improved by leaps and bounds each year, going from 0 wins in year 1, to 3 wins last year and then to 6 wins this year and our first ever playoff appearance.

As the fourth place team we have the dubious honor of going toe to toe with the first place squad, the Bugsy's Canadians. The Canadians have pretty much had our number all season long. They're a great hitting team with strong hitters throughout their lineup. They also have two good pitchers that are capable of throwing a gem every time they take the mound. Needless to say we haven't been given much of a chance to stretch this series beyond 3 games.

In game 1 we jumped out to an early 2-0 lead before the Canadians even had their first at bats. By the time the fifth inning came around we were only down 4-3 and were very much in the game. The Canadians got a big two-strike, two-out grand salami in the bottom of the fifth and then a solo shot right after that to give them a 9-3 cushion. We went down quietly after that and lost game 1 by the same 9-3 score. Our guys very much felt though that the score was not indicative of how close the game was.

Game 2 saw a much tighter contest. The Canadians were missing their lead-off hitter and main catalyst so that hurt the top of their order. They also had their catcher, and one of the best hitters in the league, ejected in the second inning for arguing balls and strikes. Bad for them, good for us. However, regardless of who was missing we were still facing an excellent team with a lot of weapon's still in the lineup.

We got up 3-0 before the Canadians scored a pair in the top of the fourth inning. We quickly got a run back in the bottom half of the fourth when our catcher led off the inning with a first-pitch tater to deep left-center. Our catcher was interviewed on the radio after the game and proceeded to describe himself as a "swinger" (referring to his tendency to jump at the first pitch). That was all the scoring after that as our pitcher shut 'em down for the last 3 innings and we went on to a 4-2 win to tie the series up at a game a piece. It's now a best of 3 series and you can bet no one expected us to put up a fight like this. Our boys have been playing great. Our D has been tight. Our pitching solid. Our hitting has been good enough.

Hopefully we can continue to battle and maybe even pull off the upset.