OK, that headline is just to piss you off; I love the World’s Cup. Now, to piss you off more, Slog Sports Lovers, it’s: Cubs v. Mariners’ Week!

Or weak, as in both teams’ hitting. But Sweet Lou Piniella brings the Cubs to Safeco Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this coming week. Only the ugly reality of teaching for a living keeps me from being there for all three games, but as it is I switched my class schedule this summer from T Th to M W to be able to make the Thursday afternoon getaway game, when Carlos Silva is scheduled to start against . . . well, the Mariner’s website ain’t saying yet. But the first 20,000 fans get Mariners rally towels.

The Mariner’s pitchers have been hot, and delusional Cubs fans everywhere (which is to say all Cubs fans everywhere) thank the M’s for sweeping the Cincinnati Reds, keeping our NL Central/Wild Card hopes on life support. But more important matters:

First, Slog Commenter Slake and I had a wee bet (one whole beer!) about the Silva-Bradley trade. I claimed that Silva would win more than 10 games, and Bradley would start fewer than 100. Slake did some math to synch this season-long assertion up with the Cubs visit next week, and bet me that Silva would not have 4 wins by the time the Cubs came to town, but that Bradley would have 43 or more games started.

Well, Silva is 8-2, after starting the season 8-0, so I win that half of the bet. Bradley has appeared in 48 games already (even with his Mental Health Break) so I lose that half. Later this Cubs v. Mariners week: A Slog Poll to determine how to pay this bet off. Is it a push? Do we each owe each other half a beer? Or one beer each?

Second, a commenter (sorry for not recalling whom exactly) suggested we have a Sports-Friendly Slog Happy after Thursday afternoon’s game. Well, I checked with the Powers That Be, and it turns out as a Slogger, I have the awesome power to convene an unofficial Slog Happy at will. So, after Thursday’s game, anyone who cares to join me will convene. . . where? I’m a lowly out-of-towner, and while I have my Seattle bar preferences (the Triangle, the Comet, Liberty) I want to open this up to direct participatory democracy, just to see what that feels like (we don’t get much of that in Daleyland). So, we’ll have another Slog Poll sometime this week to determine the location of the Sports-Friendly-Slog-Happy Thursday.

Hope to see you at Safeco. I’ll be in Section 243, row 8, seat 7, 8 , 9 or 10. Prime foul ball territory from left-handers. I’ll be the guy in the Cubs hat keeping score. And Thanks, Dad, for making me a Cubs fan. If Mom had had her way, I’d be one of those douches who roots for the Dodgers.

18 replies on “Screw the World Cup and Happy Father’s Day!”

  2. Screw soccer? Are you kidding? It’s one of the few sports in AMerica where you can go to a stadium and see 90% white players and 90% white supporters. No low class, urban blacks anywhere. It’s why Sloggers and Seattleites love it, no low class, uneducated people (aka blacks) anywhere. Only rich, middle and upper middle class college educated whiteys!

  3. C’mon Stranger, at least get a dude who f’in roots for the Seattle teams to “cover” sports. As if I wanted to hear more about Carlos Silva. I would’ve been happy to get a six pack in return for getting his bum ass out of Seattle. Have some pride in your cities teams. The only consolation is that this dude is a Cubs fans and so he has to suffer through their garbage. Disgrace.

  7. ” Totally divorced from reality”

    Really? Every Sounders game I go to, the crowd is at least 90% white. Every old Sonics game, maybe 50% white, Seahawks, maybe 70% white.

    As for the players? Sounders are whiter than white with an couple of Africans (not black AMericans). I know it’s why rich, white urban liberals who spend a summer abroad for college in Holland love the sport…it’s so cosmopolitan in the US, so sophisticated so global……plus, no poor people, no blacks. Just white liberals with faux mutton chops but none of the working class chauvinism and xenophobia that makes the sport so popular in most countries.

  10. Professor: You’re sitting in the club section of Safeco, behind glass doors and where no one really cares about the game. I’ll be in the left field bleachers, where the real fans sit. Enjoy the boat races.

    For post game pitchers, you should go to the Pioneer Square Saloon.

  11. “World’s Cup” — nein, mein Herr. WORLD CUP.

    Otherwise, carry on, and also carry me back to the day when I could swoon for Ryne Sandberg…

  12. Sorry, Chicago Fan, I’m so disgusted with the Ms by now that I don’t know that I could ever get excited about the franchise again. Not even Sweet Lou could get me out of my funk and back to Safeco Field right now.

    That said, I’m willing to concede by now that the Silva/Bradley trade worked out far better for the Cubs, though isn’t that like Titanic passengers deciding who got the better cabin, long after the last lifeboat departed?

  14. Who wants to bet that Silva won’t earn 10 wins?

    Okay, that’s just mean (and unrealistic) – even if he reverts to his usual form, he’s got at least 2 more wins he can squeak out in three months. But I bet his wins total, assuming he stays healthy and in the rotation for the whole season, will be less than 15.

  18. Everyone else is drinking pitchers of hard cider at the bars showing the World Cup.

    Man, Brazil was amazing. Sucks to be Cote d’Ivoire.

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