Results tagged ‘ Cubs ’
Curse of the Bradley Goat
The Twins have just beaten the Cubs at Wrigley Field by a score of 7-4. This was a day game in Chicago, making it perfect Friday evening viewing here in Great Britain. It wasn’t perfect viewing for Cubs fans though.
They are not happy with their right-fielder.
Milton Bradley made two bad plays in the field. The first was an unfortunate case of him losing a high fly ball in the sun during the seventh inning. The fielder is always made to look completely clueless in this situation, with the ball landing several feet away, but it can happen to anyone.
The second mistake was less easy to forgive. The right-field crowd were on Bradley’s back due to his previous moment (not an ‘error’ for the purposes of the scorecard, of course) and when he easily grabbed a fly ball in the next inning, he posed to the crowd before chucking the ball into the stands.
Unfortunately for Bradley, his catch was only the second out of the inning.
The consequences weren’t huge in the context of the game. Punto tagged up and came home to score from third, something he would have done regardless of Bradley’s brainless error. Harris was able to move from first to third, but he was left stranded so no extra runs scored as a result.
However, it was a deeply embarrassing moment for Milton. He’ll have to put up with seeing it replayed countless times in the days and weeks ahead. More immediately, he’ll have to deal with the fans in right-field at Wrigley, who were not exactly holding back on telling Bradley what they thought of him.
Somehow controversy seems to follow Milton around.
Don’t miss those day games
It’s Thursday evening here in the UK and I’m enjoying a pitching duel between Aaron Harang and Carlos Zambrano thanks to MLB.tv.
Just watch the runs start pouring in now I’ve written that!
Anyway, the reason I mention this is that it will be one of many games from Wrigley Field over the course of the season that Brits can watch at a convenient time. We’re six hours ahead of Central Time, so first pitch at 1.20pm in Chicago works out as a 7.20pm start over here. That’s the standard start time for day games at Wrigley and it’s perfect really: get home from work, sort out any chores that need to be done, fix yourself something to eat and settle down for an evening of baseball that should finish at a decent hour.
Last year, we worked on a project at BaseballGB called the Team Picker. It was designed to be a fun way to help a Brit pick which MLB team they should support, bearing in mind that most of us don’t have any of the traditional reasons (following the same team as your family, rooting for your local side etc) to fall back on. We looked at various factors which would be important to a Brit, such as the history of a franchise and their underdog status, and ranked all of the thirty MLB teams.
The Cubs came out on top and by a considerable margin. One of the big factors that worked in their favour was the amount of day games they play during the working week. Quite simply, the more day games a team plays, the more often a fan in Britain will be able to follow their games live. Most teams play a fair number of games under sunlight rather than floodlights at the weekend and, in any case, staying up to watch a ballgame in the early hours over the weekend isn’t too much of a problem.
Therefore, the real bonus for Brits is the number of day games played during the working week. The Cubs played thirty such games last season, six more than the second-place Brewers and eleven more than the joint third-place Tigers and Giants. Wrigley was the venue for a number of Friday games in particular: a great way to start the weekend.
Reading the box scores and watching the highlights is fine, but that doesn’t compare to watching the games live. That makes it all the more essential to know in advance which evenings can be filled by a live game or two. Planning ahead means you won’t miss an unmissable pitching match-up.
To help fellow Brits out, one of the regular features we publish at BaseballGB is a guide to the games that are scheduled to be played in the daytime over the week ahead. I put this together on Sunday evening, noting down the start times and the probable pitchers, before publishing it first thing on a Monday morning.
Be sure to check it out every week during the regular season so that you don’t miss any of those day games.
baseballgb
Recent Comments