For the second year in a row, the Cubs have landed their #1 offseason free-agent target. Last year they got Alfonso Soriano for a mere $136 million to play left field and bat leadoff. This year they toned down their spending by signing Kosuke Fukudome for $48 million to play right field. The money is flowing out of Wrigley and the fans continue to flow in, with the expectation that there will be a celebration in 2008, and not the 100-year anniversary party that some of you are thinking about.
* * *
Late last night, the Cubs decided not to offer Mark Prior arbitration, thereby making him a free agent. This was inevitable when Prior refused to sign an incentive-laden contract with a club option year for 2009. He did not have the same sense of loyalty that Kerry Wood had last year and again this year. Prior felt he didn't owe the Cubs anything in return for the almost $7M they had paid him over the last 2 years in exchange for pitching in 9 games and earning 1 victory.
It is possible that he could recover to his greatness of 2003 and make some team (likely SD Padres) very happy. But, I won't feel bad about losing him, not only because he has no loyalty, but because he is a pansy. He whined that he wasn't hurt multiple times but then wouldn't take the mound and eventually said he was hurt. He is an evil-twin mirror image of Kerry Wood. Prior wanted to be a great pitcher and recover from injury, but he wasn't willing to work through it like Kerry has just as often. I would much rather have a player like Kerry than Prior.
* * *
The Mitchell report was released today and implicated 86 individuals as users of performance enhancing drugs. Big names like Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Miguel Tejada, David Justice, and Mo Vaughn were included in the report. But one name was conspicuously absent from the list of the guilty.
Sammy Sosa
His name is mentioned once in the report, as one of many players whose lawyers' were sent a questionnaire and never returned it. Of course, it is possible Sammy had a different source than many of the players identified today. But, if that is the case, the source has stayed loyal and silent, and none of Sammy's teammates have ever implicated him other than saying that his body got a lot bigger over a few years.
I am starting to think that Sammy's Hall of Fame application is looking a lot better with over 600 home runs and no direct link to performance enhancers.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Friday, December 7, 2007
The Angry Young Man is Back
It took Billy Joel to rouse me out of the funk I have been in since the Cubs went down in 3 games to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
I attended the concert at the new Sprint Center in Kansas City with a friend of mine. Other than some tightly packed seats (gotta maximize revenues), the venue was nice and the sound was pretty good. The same can not be said about the food we had beforehand at a local bar. But I digress.
Billy was his normal awesome self. Dressed in his typical fare - blue jeans, a black tee shirt with a black sports jacket over it, and some black shoes. He hadn't put on any weight since last time I saw him, but his hair continues to thin. But as Billy quipped, "It's not about having less hair, it's about getting more head."
He played most of the hits, a few lesser-known tunes, a new song he wrote about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (I am not a fan of political commentary at concerts - I went there to be entertained, not lectured), and even threw in some piano-only Christmas songs. It was disappointing, but not surprising, how few people could sing along on the two religious Christmas songs he played. He started about 15 minutes late, but said he was waiting for the late arrivers because there was bad weather outside, and he played for almost exactly 2 hours.
I am pretty sure I will go see Billy every time he comes around. He puts on a great show. He still knows how to sing, has fun with the audience, and plays one-hell of a piano. Below is the playlist from the concert. The link for the first song is to a YouTube video of Billy opening a concert in April. There are other YouTube links that show the talent that goes into playing the first part of that song where he is banging the piano keys with tremendous speed. He gets extra points from me for using music from The Natural as a lead-in to his on-stage opening.
Angry Young Man
Jingle Bells - piano only
My Life
Everybody Loves You Now
The Entertainer
Vienna*
Allentown
Zanzibar
Hark The Herald Angels Sing - piano only
New York State Of Mind
Sleigh Ride - piano only
Root Beer Rag
Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
Keeping The Faith
Don't Ask Me Why
She's Always a Woman
River Of Dreams
Christmas In Fallujah
We Didn't Start The Fire
Big Shot
It's Still Rock And Roll To Me
You May Be Right
-------------------------------
Encore:
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
Only The Good Die Young
Angels We Have Heard On High - piano only
Piano Man
* - Billy gave the audience a choice of songs: 1) Summer Highland Falls, 2) She's Right On Time, and 3) Vienna. I didn't vote because I don't really know any of them, but Vienna was the only one I had heard of.
I attended the concert at the new Sprint Center in Kansas City with a friend of mine. Other than some tightly packed seats (gotta maximize revenues), the venue was nice and the sound was pretty good. The same can not be said about the food we had beforehand at a local bar. But I digress.
Billy was his normal awesome self. Dressed in his typical fare - blue jeans, a black tee shirt with a black sports jacket over it, and some black shoes. He hadn't put on any weight since last time I saw him, but his hair continues to thin. But as Billy quipped, "It's not about having less hair, it's about getting more head."
He played most of the hits, a few lesser-known tunes, a new song he wrote about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (I am not a fan of political commentary at concerts - I went there to be entertained, not lectured), and even threw in some piano-only Christmas songs. It was disappointing, but not surprising, how few people could sing along on the two religious Christmas songs he played. He started about 15 minutes late, but said he was waiting for the late arrivers because there was bad weather outside, and he played for almost exactly 2 hours.
I am pretty sure I will go see Billy every time he comes around. He puts on a great show. He still knows how to sing, has fun with the audience, and plays one-hell of a piano. Below is the playlist from the concert. The link for the first song is to a YouTube video of Billy opening a concert in April. There are other YouTube links that show the talent that goes into playing the first part of that song where he is banging the piano keys with tremendous speed. He gets extra points from me for using music from The Natural as a lead-in to his on-stage opening.
Angry Young Man
Jingle Bells - piano only
My Life
Everybody Loves You Now
The Entertainer
Vienna*
Allentown
Zanzibar
Hark The Herald Angels Sing - piano only
New York State Of Mind
Sleigh Ride - piano only
Root Beer Rag
Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
Keeping The Faith
Don't Ask Me Why
She's Always a Woman
River Of Dreams
Christmas In Fallujah
We Didn't Start The Fire
Big Shot
It's Still Rock And Roll To Me
You May Be Right
-------------------------------
Encore:
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
Only The Good Die Young
Angels We Have Heard On High - piano only
Piano Man
* - Billy gave the audience a choice of songs: 1) Summer Highland Falls, 2) She's Right On Time, and 3) Vienna. I didn't vote because I don't really know any of them, but Vienna was the only one I had heard of.
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