Carlos Pena

This is a real nice piece in the St. Petersburg Times about Carlos Pena and his wife, and the difficulties of moving to a new city.

It's obvious from the tone of the piece that they loved him in Tampa, and that the Penas miss the city. Sometimes we forget that these guys go through the same things we do, and think about how difficult it would be to uproot your family and move to a new city to start all over again.

The story of the man that was traded for himself

His name was Dickie Noles, and the Cubs once traded him to the Tigers for...Dickie Noles.

That's today's Tale from a Bad Century.

Cubs lose 2 starters in one day

This is so Cubs.

#4 starter Randy Wells and #5 starter Andrew Cashner are both out for at least two weeks after suffering injuries the past two days.

Details are here.

Worst Start Ever

The beginning of this season for the Cubs is nothing to get excited about, but it could also be a lot worse.

It could be 1997. That year the Cubs lost their first 14 games. That story is today's Tale from a Bad Century.

Smallest Cubs crowd since 2002

Yes it was a Monday afternoon. Yes it was cold. Yes it was only the Arizona Diamondbacks. Yes the Cubs got off to a shaky start in the opening series against the Pirates. But still.

There sure were there a lot of empty seats at Wrigley yesterday.

The smallest crowd since 2002. Maybe reader "BP" was right. After all, the Cubs did raise the price of beer by 25 cents this year.

Was Lou phoning it in?

This article on ESPN Chicago certainly makes it sound like Lou was just going through the motions last year.

The comments from Kevin Millar (who was with the Cubs in spring training) and Alfonso Soriano are not exactly complimentary.

The Long Arm of the Law

This week's Great Nickname at Just One Bad Century is "The Long Arm of the Law."

If you're a longtime Chicago baseball fan (Cubs or Sox), even if you don't remember the nickname, look at it carefully and you'll figure out which player it is.

E-mails, we get e-mails...

"BP" writes...

"Rick, I just finished a book called Scorecasting. It’s Freakonomics for sports. They debunk a lot of sports myths like the hot shooting hand in basketball, why there is a home field advantage and why going for it on 4th down is always a good strategy. The last chapter concerns the Cubs and whether they are cursed. They go off on a tangent on ticket prices and find that while most MLB teams can track ticket sales closely to winning, the Cubs ticket sales are not related to winning. In fact, ticket sales have gone up when the Cubs were losing the most. The one factor that they found that tracks ticket sales is BEER PRICES at Wrigley. Beer goes up, people stay away. Which is why Wrigley has some of the cheapest beer in MLB."

Interesting indeed. I really never considered $7 beer cheap, but now that you mention it, I think it was $9.50 in Colorado when I went to a game there a couple of summers ago. By the way, I went to Wrigley this weekend and had a non-alcoholic beer (yes, they have them). It was only $3.50.

Starlin Castro

Sure, it was a rough weekend for the Cubs (losing 2 out of 3 to the Pirates?), but there was one bright spot.

Starlin Castro certainly looks like a keeper, doesn't he?

Harry Caray

This week's Cubs Hall of Famer at Just One Bad Century is the legendary announcer Harry Caray.

Read about Harry, and watch our all-time favorite Harry Caray video here.

This week in 1908, 1945

Every weekend Just One Bad Century goes back in time to the last year the Cubs won the pennant (1945) and the last time they won the World Series (1908)

This week in 1945, the Allies liberate the first Nazi concentration camp, Eric Clapton is born in England, and the Cubs are getting itchy to start their season after a very unsatisfying spring training in French Lick Indiana.

This week in 1908, Chicago has 12 daily newspapers, and baseball institutes a new "tidy ball" rule leading up to next week's opening day.

Two Perfect Days at Wrigley Field

I posted this week's "A Suburban Dad" guest column at Kim Strickland's "A City Mom" blog on ChicagoNow. This week's is about...you guessed it...opening day.

I highlighted my two most perfect days ever at my favorite place in the world.

You can read it here.

The Onion and the Cubs

The Onion has some fun with the Cubbies. Pretty funny stuff.

Opening Day 1973

One of the most dramatic opening days in Cubs history had an unlikely hero.

The Cubs were down a run in the bottom of the ninth.

Joe Pepitone led off the inning with a single and was replaced by pinch runner Cleo James. Ron Santo got on base thanks to an error by Expos 2B Ron Hunt, and was also replaced by a pinch runner. Glenn Beckert walked to load the bases.

The Expos brought in their closer Mike Marshall, the best closer in baseball. He promptly walked Randy Hundley to tie the game, but he buckled down and got Don Kessinger to pop out down the line, and struck out Jim Hickman.

That brought up Cubs lead off man Rick Monday. The bases were loaded. The score was tied 2-2. It was the bottom of the ninth. Marshall vs. Monday. Marshall knew he couldn't give Monday anything to hit, but he tried to be a little too fine around the plate, and eventually walked him...to bring in the winning run.

Ron Santo's pinch runner scored that winning run. He was sent to the minors after that and never again appeared in another major league game as a player.

His name was Tony LaRussa.

Donating Goats?

It's not often that the Cubs and Cubs fans make it on TMZ, but today they did. There's a story about Cub fans donating goats to needy families...to try and reverse the curse.

I suppose it can't hurt, but can't we all just agree that this goat curse is a bunch of a hooey?

Mike and Molly go to Wrigley

I've never seen the show, but I may have to check it out a week from Monday. I got the press release from CBS, and here are the details...

“Opening Day” — Mike breaks tradition and invites Molly to join him and Carl at opening day for the Chicago Cubs, on Mike & Molly, Monday, April 11 (9:00-9:30 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network."

OPENING DAY!

Yesterday was opening day for a lot of teams in the league, but today is opening day at Wrigley Field.

A few years ago we highlighted previous memorable opening days for the Cubs.


Here are some from the first 50 years of our bad century.

Here are some from the second 50 years.

In April, hope always springs eternal. GO CUBS!