Tag: dodgers

Preacher Roe dead at 93

Former Brooklyn Dodgers lefthander Preacher Roe has passed on at the ripe old age of 93. Roe, who long ago settled in West Plains, Mo., near his childhood home of Viola, Ark., had undergone colon surgery recently and never fully recovered. Elwin Charles Roe was a five time All Star and a central character on Brooklyn’s storied “Boys of Summer” teams.

Roe prided himself with keeping hitters off balance with his slider and his “Beech-Nut slider”. Players regularly chewed Beech-Nut gum at the time, he’d use juice from the gum on the ball, causing it to dip dramatically. After Preacher retired he admitted throwing a spitter, without regret, and wanted to pitch made legal. His best year was in 1951, at the age of 36, when he went 22-3 for the Dodgers.

Brooklyn Ralph Branca said he was called Preacher because “he could talk your ear off.” In an interview with an eighth-grader in West Plains, Roe expressed his pride in having had Robinson as a teammate. “I just felt if Jackie hit a home run while I was pitching, it counted just as much for me as if Pee Wee Reese hit it or some of the other guys that were white. … I’d say, ‘You never have seen a good ballplayer until you’ve seen him.’ He was that good.”

I’m still waiting for the NLDS cuz the Cubs haven’t showed up yet

Please tell me Alfonso Soriano didn’t strike out on that pitch.  I guess it was appropriate as it was indicative of the Cubs’ whole series against the Dodgers and especially Soriano’s 1 for 14 performance. 

The headline on the sports page of our local paper on Sunday read "ALL IS WELL"  in big letters. I know it wasn’t a Cubs fan who came up with that headline.  "All is Well" was not in reference to baseball, of course but to University of Illinois football team’s 45-20 drubbing of Michigan on Saturday (btw, nice going guys).  Yet, for any Cub fan to wake up to that headline, it was insult on top of injury.  I’ll bet it was a Cardinal fan that fashioned that line. 

Aside from the costly errors, it was timely hitting that hurt the Cubs.  In some ways, the overall stats between the Dodgers and Cubs were comparable.  Hitting (LA’s .250 to Chicago’s .240) and ERA (LA’s 3.68 to Chicago’s 3.87) were not out of line.  The Dodgers did have 3 more extra base hits (12 to 9) and three more homers but the key stat as it usually is was runs scored.  LA scored 20 to Chicago’s 6. 

Derrick Lee who hit .545 for the series (6 for 11).  Out of all that, Lee could only produce two runs which is more indicative of the batters around him than anything.  Credit is due to Mark DeRosa, error notwithstanding, for his 2 runs and 4 rbis. 

Unless you are a Cub fan (been one since I can remember) you can’t understand what it’s like.  But this year was supposed to be different.  We actually had a good great team.  

Goat Riders of the Apocalypse are already looking towards 2009, something I can’t quite do yet.  They’ve got a list of 9 Reasons the Cubs will Shine in 09. 

The Cup is still half-empty for me. 

Cubs-Dodgers: Dempster was a little "off" tonight

Game 1 of the NLDS started out exciting enough.  Exciting enough that when Mark DeRosa hit his two-run homer in the second inning, I spilled my full plate of nachos on the floor and I didn’t even care. 

But that was about all the excitement I was going to get all evening it would seem. 

Cubs starter Ryan Dempster was one strike away from pitching 5 shutout innings against the Dodgers tonight.  Maybe in the back of his mind, that’s what Lou Piniella was thinking when he kept him out there.  I’m normally the kind of guy who likes to keep a guy out there when he’s pitching a shutout but even I would have considered some bullpen relief before this point.  TBS broadcaster Ron "Mr Obvious" Darling told us "It looks like it’s not Dempster’s night tonight". 

No, it wasn’t.  Four earned in 4 2/3 innings but also 7 walks.  He was lucky he got away with what he did. 

Kudos to Geovany Soto, by the way.  Yes, he was 0 for 3 behind the plate but he had his work cut out for him behind the plate.  He trapped countless balls in the dirt (and a couple high ones).  With our wild pitching tonight, he did a tremendous job. 

The best thing to do is to forget game 1 and  go on to game 2. 

Off-topic:  I have the utmost respect for Tony Gwynn and for the most part he says things that are reasonably intelligent but am I the only person who thinks he doesn’t have a voice for TV broadcasting? 

Cubs, Dodgers: Breaking down the Stats

Dave Pinto does a good job of breaking down the Cubs and Dodgers statistically on Baseball Musings.  Not too many surprises here:

Cubs come out on top offensively in pretty much every category.  They were tops in the league in runs/game, OBA (Dusty who?), slugging and batting. 

On the pitching side of things, it’s a little more competitive.  Dem Bums’ ERA of 3.68 was tops in the NL in ERA though the Cubs weren’t too far behind with a 3.87 ERA which was good for 3rd in the league.  Though the Cubs best the Dodgers (and the rest of the league) in K/9 IP, they don’t do as well in BB/9 IP in comparison. 

The Cubs won the season series record but Pinto points out that the games and stats were close.  Runs, homeruns and walks, were all pretty statistically even.