Results tagged “mlb”

Marriage may be til death do us part, but apparently allegiances to one's baseball team last even longer. Which, we guess makes sense—how often does one hear of anybody abandoning their team for another? Even those Cubs fans who've lived close to a century without ever seeing a World Series title on the north side of town remain loyal forever to their Cubbies.

Nick Swisher: "Ozzie and Juan Uribe got me out of a slump by talking to my bat. 'We need you to be a better friend,' they told it. 'We need you to help Swish.' Hey, it worked." That and 101 other kinda fun facts in this article from ESPN Magazine. Thanks, Padre!

Hurricane Ike isn't the only thing heading to Houston this weekend: The Cubs are supposed to, too, for a three-game series against the Astros, with night games scheduled for tomorrow and Saturday and an afternoon game on Sunday. Major League Baseball hasn't announced a change in the schedule, even though residents of areas around Houston are evacuating. [Houston Chronicle, Trib]

While the Cubs have raced through the 2008 season atop the NL Central, often with the best record in all of the majors, Cubs fans can't help but feel some sense of dread over the past week. Or its eerie similarities to the Cubs' infamous swoon of '69...

An MRI confirmed today that Carlos Zambrano has inflammation and right rotator cuff tendonitis, but he's not seriously injured. GM Jim Hendry says Zambrano will start throwing again September 10 or so and should be back in the pitching rotation for the series against Houston, which starts September 12. [AP]

Starting Thursday, Major League Baseball will begin using instant replay for some home run calls.

In the heat of a division race, with a pitching staff that's seen its ERA climb in each of the past four months, the last thing the White Sox needed was to lose a part of their starting rotation. In fact, the Sox were hoping to get back a key component of their rotation when Jose Contreras, who'd been out since July 13 because of elbow tendinitis, pitched Saturday night. Instead, they lost Contreras to an Achilles tendon rupture that will end his season, if not his career.

According to a new analysis from Forbes magazine, Cubs fans are the fourth most loyal in baseball, behind the Rangers, Red Sox and Braves. Loyalty here is measured as the relationship between winning percentage and attendance since 1991: "The faster that fans boosted attendance and the more hastily they abandoned poor performance indicated fans who were less loyal." Baseball's least-loyal? Angels fan. [Forbes]

When Wrigley Field joined the 20th century and added lights to the stadium in 1988, part of the team's agreement with the city banned night games on Fridays or Saturdays. Now the Cubs want that ban lifted.

We know plenty of people whose devotion to the Cubs borders on the religious. So maybe it's not that surprising that there's a new way to show fandom: being interred in a Cubs mausoleum. Beyond the Vines, a Cubs-themed final resting place to be constructed in Bohemian National Cemetery, will include a stained-glass replica of the Wrigley scoreboard and is the first sports-devoted tomb in the United States. There are only 280 urn-spots available though, so act quickly. You know. Before you die. The deluxe package, which includes all funeral and cremation arrangements, and an official Cubs urn, costs $5,000.

Carlos Zambrano remained in demigod form in Wednesday's 5-1 whipping of the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley. Zambrano, who has a 0.64 ERA in his last two outings, allowed one hit, one run and no walks in eight innings to earn his 10th win of the season. That's 10 wins before the All-Star break, not to mention (though we're mentioning it) a stint on the DL that caused him to miss a few starts. With the win, the Cubs are 35-10 at home, winning 17 of their last 19 at the really, really friendly confines.

This afternoon, the Cubs and San Diego Padres face off in the final Hall of Fame Game -- an exhibition held annually since 1940 at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York.

Alfonso Soriano's roller coaster season took another plunge on yesterday when Atlanta Brave Jeff Bennett's 0-2 pitch hit the Cubs outfielder in the hand, breaking it.

Wrigley Field is in better condition than everyone thought. Now that the state buying the stadium is off the table, other possible buyers have been sent documents about the property.

In honor of this year's All-Star game in Yankee Stadium, Major League Baseball is releasing a series of city-specific, unbelievably ugly Statues of Liberty. (Statue of Liberties?)

For Alfonso Soriano, the past few days had pretty much sucked. After his ninth inning drop of a routine fly ball on Saturday led to a 6-5 loss in extra innings, he's been the target of scorn by Cubs fans and sports media alike.

For the second time this week, the White Sox pulled out their brooms. With last night's 3-1 win over the Cleveland Indians, the Sox swept the series, after sweeping the Giants earlier in the week.

In need of left-handed hitting in their lineup, the Cubs signed Jim Edmonds on Wednesday after the 38-year old outfielder cleared waivers. Edmonds had been released by the San Diego Padres last week after getting off to a slow start this season, in part due to a calf injury from spring training.

Oh, the ambiance of the Friendly Confines ... the ivy, the manual scoreboard, the giant columns blocking half the field for some seats. Well, that last one kind of sucks, actually.

The White Sox head to Toronto for a four-game series with the Blue Jays tomorrow, minus one if their players. Because of visa issues, they left Cuban national Alexei Ramirez behind in Chicago.

The accusations that members of the 1919 White Sox squad took money in return for throwing the World Series are well documented. Eight players -- including Shoeless Joe Jackson -- were banned forever from baseball, while eventually acquitted of criminal charges. Many a Sox fan blamed this for their team's own difficulties in winning a World Series -- until 2005.

Racism and baseball have a long and entwined history, and this season there's a new chapter thanks to some Kosuke Fukudome t-shirts.

Maybe Chicagoist needs to rethink our less-than-optimistic opinion of the White Sox's prospects for putting together a decent season. Following a weekend series sweep of the Detroit Tigers -- who many experts predict to win the World Series -- the Sox return to Chicago for Monday's home opener with a 4-2 record.

With the Cubs winning their first game of the season on Thursday, newly anointed closer Kerry Wood came into the 6-3 game, allowed one hit, struck out two, and with no runs scored notched first save.

It's only one day into the season, and already we've ridden a rollercoaster of emotions -- no matter which of Chicago's baseball teams we pledge our allegiance to. The Cubs and White Sox both opened up their 2008 seasons on Monday, and both teams rallied late before coming up short.

Yesterday morning, WSCR 670 AM reported that free swinging White Sox infielder Juan Uribe has been placed on waivers by the team. Uribe had been competing for the second base position since he was relieved of his position as shortstop when the Sox traded for Orlando Cabrera from the L.A. Angels over the winter, and by most accounts he was performing well. When a player is waived, the team has the option to trade him within two business days, keep the player on the team if no offers are made for him, or release him with full pay.

Cubs third baseman Aramis Remirez finally arrived at Spring Training on Tuesday, but when asked by reporters what he did on his winter vacation, he refused to answer. In fact, he wouldn't even allow for the reporter to finish asking the question.

Sure, it's still damn cold out. And the snow keeps coming. And coming. But spring is just around the corner. How do we know? Because Spring Training is finally upon us.

While the Cubs and their fans held their annual love-in last weekend, this past weekend the rest of us gathered at the Palmer House Hilton to celebrate and commiserate with fellow White Sox fans. Given the airing of grievances by fans and feats of strength by team management, it could very well have been renamed SoxFestivus.

It's not just your suburban-bound friend's condo that's taking longer to sell -- the Cubs sale is proceeding slower than Sam Zell predicted due to real estate uncertainties as well.