I'm slowly growing concerned MB won't make 100 games due to performance rather than injuries.

Second consecutive year MB got off to a slow start. I've never understood the acceptance of players (for some reason it happens in MLB a lot) getting off to a "slow start". Famous slow starters include CC Sabathia, Teixeira, LaRoche, and now Milton Bradley.

I mean really, what other job can you say " I don't do well my first month back from vacation, but I always pick up the next month." CF, could you come back from Summer break each year and hold really bad lectures for the month of September? What other job lets an employee off the hook for an entire month like baseball? It cracks me up.

Anyway, in regards to Milton Bradley... it can only get better. (hitting-wise that is. His personality could get worse at any time).

Johnny Evers should be in the Hall of Fame. Ryne Sandberg should not be.

I like baseball on Slog and all, but the Cubs? Every time? Really?

And, it's not that you hate Bradley. You're obsessed with Bradley. In a borderline creepy way.

LOL!

Interesting how commenters accuse me of Haterism when I talk about Bradley, but then take me to task when I don't mention him.

That is interesting, considering that I'm the one that brought it up but have never accused, or ever implied that I thought you were guilty of haterism. I will accuse you of being sloppy for not remembering who said what, however; as a Northwestern U. professor, I expect you to keep the same pedantic eye to detail here that you would the term papers you grade.

BTW, I don't have cable either. Just this thing called the world wide web. And steroid use is cheating; just look at the numbers. Greenie use was not cheating.

can't wait to see how milton reacts to being booed in seattle when the cubs are in town.

@7, that's assuming he's still here at the end of June. A big assumption.

1) Tinker, Evers, and Chance weren't more prolific with double plays, but they were one of the best run-preventing SS/2B/1B combos in the history of the game.

2) Justice Stevens says he saw the called shot happen. Are you calling him a liar?

3) You're certainly contributing to a negative media environment. Why don't you leave him alone and focus on your eternally crappy NL Central team?

@7 Will MB get booed against the Cubs in June? Does Seattle have a big Cubs following?

I'd say the more worrying factor for the M's is that besides Felix, they have four #5 starting pitchers in their rotation right now. I know Lee is coming back, but will they already be out of it by that time?

Hey Chicago Fan, according to Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, Babe Ruth's called shot DID happen! And he would know, he was there! Where YOU there?

I'm constantly amazed at the enduring obsession Chicago media and fans have with Milton Bradley, to the point where local media was still trying to bait the guy well into spring training.

Time to let it go Cubs fans. You've got another disappointing season ahead of you, no point in dwelling on the last one. He's just another ball player after all.

No one cares about the Cubs. Or the Mariners. Because they suck.

Red Sox all the way.

@ 10, judging from the games I've seen in Denver and Seattle, and also on TV, it seems that the Cubs, along with the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Dodgers and Cardinals, have a LOT of fans in other cities, especially ones that have not had the same baseball team for 100 years. (The Dodgers are the only team I listed who don't fit that description. And the Braves sure had lots of fans in Denver when they were still good, but they seem to have stopped coming to the games.)

God - I really was happy to see someone covering sports on this Blog, but does it have to be the same guy on the same rant/theme every time. Is there really no one in Seattle qualified to discuss Seattle teams - even if he is not a Savage?

"When the snow melts away,
do the Cubbies still play
in their ivy-covered burial ground?
When I was a boy, they were my pride and joy
But now they only bring fatigue
To the home of the brave, the land of the free
and the doormat of the National League."

@18, I'd ask for a refund if I were you.

Thank you for the gonfalon. Second time I've heard it, after Vonnegut.

@17, the Cubs and Cardinals gained their national reach through the magic of radio, back in the days before there were any teams west or south of St. Louis (1958, 1962). They had the biggest and best networks, by far. Ronald Reagan got his start in show business calling Cubs games off the wire. That still carries over even today. The Braves have something like that from the early days of cable, when TBS was the only national game-broadcaster except for Saturdays.

OK, lots of responses.. . .
@9
The Called Shot did not happen. My maternal grandfather was a sportswriter, and he interviewed the radio play-by-play guys, and they said it didn't happen. Ruth pointed at the Cubs dugout, and then at their pitcher,Charlie Root, indicating that he had one strike left.

Baseball culture was vicious back then. Had Ruth pointed to the bleachers, the next pitch would have been in his ear. Also, the Cubs were riding Ruth mercilessly from the dugout (probably with racial taunts, since Ruth was rumored to have black blood).

Only one newspaper account that day mentioned any called shot or other gestures by Ruth. Ruth "wrote" one of his autobiographies not long after that World Series, and never mentioned calling any shot. Only after the legend began did he start claiming to have done so.

So, yes, Justice Stevens is a liar. Or someone who has bought into the dominant narrative, the story v. the facts. As I said on some TV show long ago, Ruth is such a huge figure in American culture that his actual accomplishments are not enough. We have to make him even bigger, more Ruthian. . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Ruth%2…

Fnarf is right about the Cards and Cubs and their radio networks, but also most West Coast cities have large ex-pat populations who bring their baseball loyalties with them.

Meanwhile, hated just now to see the M's waste Milton's one-out double. Coulda scored, but didn't. . .

And for all the complaints about the Milton Situation, no jokes here about how the Mariners have a pitcher named "Fister"?

Hey! What did Tinkers, Evers, and Chance have in common with the cubs over the last 102 years? No titles! Oh those lovable losers!

ICHIRO!!!!!

Ok, I don't want to disparage your Mom's dad so I'll tread carefully. It's possible Babe's "call" was legend. BUT, you did mention one newspaper mentioned the called shot and/or gestures. I don't know how many papers covered teams back in the day, but can't imagine there were that many. (unless that is, they followed the Babe like the Japanese cover Ichiro, but I kinda doubt it)

Justice JPS said Ruth was being razzed and gestured to the scoreboard in centerfield. The score was tied, so he wasn't pointing to the score. He could have been pointing to the fact he still had two more strikes left. He got another strike and again gestured to centerfield. He cranked the next one to centerfield. And the next day the New York World-Telegram headline screamed "RUTH CALLS SHOT, PUTS HOME RUN IN NO.2 SIDE POCKET.

I know Ruth sometimes laughed it off, but it it was in the NY World Telegram it must be true.... and I prefer the legend.

For the sake of CF's grandfather's memory, I hope the old guy's sportswriting was better than this dreck.

@25, Tinkers, Evers, and Chance had seven World Series rings between them, including two apiece with the Cubs, who won in 1907 and 1908.

Until recently the last time I heard someone yell "Doug Fister" was at a bar in Amsterdam.