Life goes on. Marty Balin passed away. Peggy Sue passed away, my uncle Chuck Turley passed away and a classmate Ken Dede went on a honeymoon and suffered a heart attack and died. In the meantime, I'm still looking for bargains and the records and CDs continue to come in over here at well.
For baseball, it was a wasted year. Both Cedar Rapids and Quad Cities made the post season, both got thrown to the side by the Peoria Chiefs who met Bowling Green and Bowling Green won the series and are Midwest league champions. For the major league, The Baltimore Orioles was the crap team, losing 115 games and sixty games out of first place. In the above graphic, you see them leading the league in scoring 1 or less runs in a game. However, they were tied for first by by the Chicago Cubs, who somehow to win 95 games, the most in the National League while having 39 games of 1 or less runs scored per game. The Cubs were in first place from July 12th till October 1 when Milwaukee tied and then beat them the next game 2-1. In the wild card game the Cubs had their 40th and final game of 1 run as Colorado scored 3 runs and moved on.
Strange how The Cubs had home field advantage for both October games and yet couldn't do more than 1 fucking run. I have never seen a team that could score runs in bunches one game and then go for the next 3 or 4 and not score anything, despite having Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Daniel Murphy and Javy Baez, the latter the most schizophrenic hitter the Cubs ever had. One minute he's hitting the game winner, next day, he's swinging at gnats upside his head. True, most of the Cubs players were hurt, but I cannot tell you how many times I watch them swing at stupid pitchers ten feet outside. The Cubs pitchers really did a better job than originally thought as starters, Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks were the standouts, Jose Quintana was uneven and Cole Hamels gave the starters a shot in the arm when Tyler Chatwood couldn't. In fact Chatwood turned out to be a bigger bust than Yu Darvish, who was hurt all season and couldn't pitch, Even when hurt I don't think Darvish would have walked as many batters as Chatwood would. Chatwood's problem with walking guys got to the point that he was sent down to triple AAA and then back up to play in the bullpen to where he continued to walk people and after two disasters in relief pitching, Chatwood disappeared. I really expected more from him. While Yu Darvish can be forgiven for being hurt all season, the pressure is on him to do better next year. In hindsight Jake Arrevida should have been retained but even with the Phillies and his fade job, it's probably better that they cut ties.
The Cubs scored a lot of runs but they fired the hitting coach and got Chili Davis, a step in the wrong direction. like taking the first step into the mine shaft. This was known in the first three games to which The Cubs scored 8 run against Miami and then next game scored only 1. They score 10 runs on the third and the next two were shut out. And that was the way it went. The nadir, scoring 4 runs in 4 games against Pittsburgh.. And that was the turning of the tide, as Milwaukee hung around and then won at the right time, Chili Davis will not be back next season. Jim Hickey, the pitching coach had better luck as pitching coach but once again, the bullpen let him down. Justin Wilson couldn't be trusted, neither was Carl Edwards Jr, who was pitching hurt and the farm team Cubs were no help. Jamie Garcia was a fine acquisition, De La Rosa as well. Brandon Morrow looked good but once he developed back spasms he was done for the year. Pedro Strop filled in nicely as a stopper but he pulled a hamstring and he was done too. The wrong Cubs getting hurt did cost them a title but the inept hitting that the Cubs showed all year is the reason why they stayed home, scoring 1 run three of the last four games are why they're back home. You think with 95 wins the Cubs would be better thought of, but they have turned out to be the biggest disappointing Cubs team in recent memory. You can't blame Chili Davis for the holes in the bat but whatever he was teaching them wasn't working. And then the Addison Russell mess. He's suspended 40 games for abuse but chances are he might be with another team in 2019.
In Football, Iowa continues to keep Floyd home away from the cold of Minnesota, beating the Gophers. 48-31 despite two Nathan Stanley bonehead plays that kept Minnesota in the game. Stanley also threw 4 TD passes to the right team. Hawkeye defense sacked the Minnesota QB five times and got four interceptions. It was the fourth straight win over the Gophers.
