The Ryne Sandberg era hasn’t even begun, but already I am looking forward to his firing.  It’s nothing personal — Ryno was a helluva Cub and all indications are that he’s a fine minor league manager — but I don’t know how many times I can stand hearing the phrase “player x plays the game the right way” or “player y knows the way the game is supposed to be played.”  If you listen to sports radio or read the beat writers, you’d think every Big Leaguer save Adam Kennedy never learned the proper rules for tagging up.  Milton Bradley probably runs to third instead of first after hitting the ball!

But enough from me, let’s hear it from Mr. Sandberg himself.  From his 2005 Hall of Fame induction speech:

The reason I am here, they tell me, is that I played the game a certain way, that I played the game the way it was supposed to be played. I don’t know about that, but I do know this: I had too much respect for the game to play it any other way, and if there was there was a single reason I am here today, it is because of one word, respect.

And here I thought talent was what got you into the Hall of Fame.

Anyway, Dave van Dyck, laid the first sacrifice at the altar of doing things the right way in yesterday’s Tribune.  He even uses the catchphrase!

He [Sandberg] gives a very similar talk about playing the game the right way to his players before each season begins.

As van Dyck and of course Ryno remind us, the phrase can be molded to suit any circumstance, and can be combined with other cliches (“play hard all the time,” “I am what I am,” “paying dues”) for an added bonus.  Keep up the good work, fellas.

- Positive news coming out of Boise about Hayden Simpson. The Cubs potential 10th round pick, who was luckily picked up mid-first round, is apparently enjoying the Boise scene. Sadly, this has led to a case of mononucleosis and he won’t be able to pitch this summer. Hey, it can’t all be positive. (ed note: I can neither confirm nor deny that Mr. Simpson contracted mono from making out with tons of Boise natives.) [Bleacher Nation]

- Minor League Report (in brief): Last night, Carlos Zambrano practiced one inning of scoreless zen work in the Rookie League while SS, turned 3B, turned 2B, turned retired player, turned coach, turned RP Matt Matulia pitched five scoreless to lead the Daytona Cubs to a late win. [Bleed Cubbie Blue]

- Going into last night the Cubs chances of making the playoffs were 866 times better than those of the Astros (according to BP, I mean Baseball Prospectus. They probably totally hate the BP moniker right now). [The Cub Reporter]

- With Silva returning to form, and Lilly on the trading block, Sean Marshall notes he is open to starting again in this Paul Sullivan piece. Marshall’s basic point though is that he has enjoyed being the only Cub player to not be moved around constantly and/or booed loudly for totally sucking. [Chicago Tribune]

- Oh, and yes, Carlos Silva is who we thought he was:

The lights went out at Wrigley last night causing an 18 minute delay. Strangely, there is a true dearth of fun puns surrounding the incident. No, “Darkness sets on the Cubs.” No, “Cubs don’t see the light.” Hell, not even a “Wrigley lights out, pitching not.” I was under a strong impression that a full 1/5 of newsroom staff were employed solely to come up with cheesy headlines. Instead we get:

Wrigley loses power, delays game
Lights go out at Wrigley, delaying Cubs game
Lights woes cause delay of game

You know the NYPost wouldn’t let something like this happen. Some of their current headlines are:

Yanks Turn a Twin Killing: Because the Yanks swept a double header against the Twins.
“Tak” of the Town: Because Hisanori Takahashi pitched good against the Phillies yesterday

I mean, is it really that hard guys?

Anyway, we did have a couple fun quotes come out of the game. First, from Blake DeWitt who walked at, like, the EXACT instance the lights went out:

“Thinking back, I wish I had hit a pop up,” DeWitt said. “It would’ve been a good time. I would’ve had an inside the park home run in the dark.”

Um, awesome.

We also got this gem from Lou:

“That’s something new,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. “That didn’t help either pitcher either, because they had to sit out there for 15, 20 minutes. That’s a long time.”

I don’t mean to nitpick (ed: I totally do), but this is just another in a series of factually incorrect statements that Lou seems to think he has to make. Ask him a question and he will give an answer that speaks unequivocally, but is not backed up by facts. “That didn’t help either pitcher either.” Really? I mean, I know conventional wisdom is sitting doesn’t help pitchers. I am sure statistics back that up. In this case though, it seems to have had no ill effect on the pitchers.

Gorzelanny gave up 5 runs before the lights went out in the top of the 4th. He was pitching badly enough that the TV announcers were OPENLY talking about pulling him so somebody could pinch hit for him with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third. Following the outage his next two innings went as so:

Strikeout
Strikeout
Strikeout
Ground out
Fly out
Fly out

Billingsley had an equally good 4th and 5th inning, facing one above the minimum and not allowing anybody passed second (while striking out three himself).

Very small thing for me to jump on, but, hey, this is my second post and I missed the opportunity to jump on a million other Lazy Lou quotes.

Two additional meaningless notes:

1. Enjoy the Blake DeWitt tag. Probably won’t be coming up much in the future.
2. Three game win streak ended. Sad face.

[Both quotes pulled from here]
[Picture: (Scott Strazzante/Tribune) found here]

Since 1901, there have only been 8 instances of a pitcher maintaining a k/9 rate of 14.00 or above through an entire season (minimum IP: 20).

Eric Gagne: 14.98
Billy Wagner: 14.95
Brad Lidge: 14.93
Armando Benitez: 14.77
Billy Wagner: 14.55
Billy Wagner: 14.38
Byung-Hyun Kimm: 14.14
Rob Dibble: 14.08

There have only been 13 additional times when a pitcher has maintained a k/9 rate of above 13.00 for an entire season (minimum IP: 20)*.

After his 2 K’s last night, Carlos Marmol is sitting at 23 2/3 IP and 46 K’s. A staggering 17.49 k/9 rate. To put that in perspective, there have only been 29 games, since 1901, in which an individual pitcher has thrown more than 17 K’s. In 8 of those 29 games the pitcher went more than 9 innings.

This stretch of strikeouts is so dominate, I am curious if there has ever been a streak of 23 2/3 innings with more strikeouts. I have played around on Baseball-Reference, Baseballmusings, and Baseball Prospectus, but they either don’t have the ability to search that way, or I am totally missing it. Anybody know?

* Nick Massett is sitting at 13.72 k/9 so far this year. I did not include him the the count.

[all stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference]