Cubs Opening Day Live Blog

Lost in all the NFL draft talk and the Sabres playoff run (which I haven't written about, yet) is the fact that the MLB season has begun, the Cubs are back, and they're starting TODAY. I'm sick at home, so why not run a Opening Day live blog? Cubs-Pirates-FEEL THE EXCITEMENT.

1:23 While WGN showed the Pirates lineup, they showed a terrifyingly haggard Pirates fan. Yikes. Kind of sums up the franchise. A cursory look at their lineup shows three players I know- Andrew McCutchen (the one good player they have), Lyle Overbay (the name just sticks in my head) and Ronny Cedeno (an ex Cub who I hypothesized could hit into a double play with no one on base).

1:26 Dempster, the Cubs starting pitcher, starts with three balls, then throws two strikes, eventually forcing a groundout to shortstop Starlin Castro, who makes a nice play on the ball. He's one of the reasons I'm sort of excited for this season. Dempster strikes out the next batter on three pitches, but then gives up a double to McCutchen. Despite his goofy dreadlocks, he's good.

1:29 Dempster strikes out Overbay to get out of the jam. Dempster looks good so far. Cubs trot out Fukudome to lead off. Maybe he'll have another huge April and do nothing afterwards (as always).

1:33 Fukudome flies out, but Castro hits a screamer towards the third baseman, who can't handle it, so Castro makes it to first. That's right, the youngest opening day starter gets our first hit.

1:35 Castro scores FROM FIRST (well, sort of) after the Pirates third baseman (Alvarez, I guess?) skies his throw to first. Byrd at second. That's a promising start. Pretty amazing to run the bases that quickly.

1:37 Here comes Carlos Pena in his Cubs debut. Huge x factor for the Cubs this year. He's got 30 HR potential, but he bat below the Mendoza Line last year. If he can raise that average closer to what he's used to, I'll be a lot more confident about the the teams offense.

1:39 And he draws the walk. That won't help out the ol' average (because it's a flawed stat at heart), but its good for the team.

1:41 I'm surprised that Tyler Colvin isn't playing. I guess the Cubs have to squeeze every cent out of Fukudome, but Colvin is much better. They should have Colvin playing and Castro batting lead off, but, hey, that's just my opinion. Geo Soto pops out to end the inning, stranding two men on base.

1:45 Oh, here comes Ryan Domuit to the plate. I know him too, but only because I did an MLB 2k10 "My Player" mode as a pitcher with the Cubs and pitched against the Pirates a ton of times. Like most years, this looks to be a down year in Pittsburgh. Dempster goes 1-2-3 in the second inning.

1:50 Here comes Alfonso Soriano to lead off the second. Unbelievably that its his fifth year with the Cubs. So much money for so little production. He might be the streakiest baseball player I've ever seen. Sometimes he'll go on these ridiculous tears when gets a homer a game, and then the rest of the season he's just striking out or popping up. To start the 2011 season, he pops out.

1:52 And now, the Cubs second baseman, DARWIN BARNEY!!! Who? Exactly. Love the guy's name, though. Also, he just fought off an 0-2 pitch for a base hit. Good for you Darwin.

1:54 Ryan Dempster gets up to the plate and can't even lay down a bunt. Yikes. The announcers are calling it uncharacteristic, and I sure hope that's true.

1:56 Darwin, NOOOOOOO!!! Caught stealing, and it wasn't even close. Plus the announcers had previously called out Ryan Domuit for not being great at throwing out base runners. The Cubs are not going to be stealing too many bases this year, it seems.

1:58 The Cubs advertising strategy this year features billboards with a Cubs player facing off with either Derek Jeter or Albert Pujols. Ahh, the classic strategy of not very good teams- "Come see stars we don't have! Come see better teams!" The other example of this I've seen in Chicago was the Bulls in the Jamal Crawford/Jalen Rose/Eddy Curry nightmare days. The Blackhawks would've done the same thing back in the Bill Wirtz pre-Patrick Kane and Jonathon Toews day, but I don't think they had an advertising budget. Speaking of which, now that the Blackhawks are in a precarious position for the playoffs, yes, once again, the bandwagon fans are disappearing...

2:05 Hey! Kosuke got a hit! Can't wait to NOT see this past June.

2:07 The Pirates bungle a potential double play, allowing Castro to reach first. Man, that is so Pirates-y.

2:08 Just remembered that Ron Santo died, so I won't have the delight of hearing him on the radio. What a bummer. Byrd reaches base on a single, moving Castro up. Here comes Aramis Ramirez with a RBI chance.

2:10 Ramirez gets a single but he can't bring in the run, so now its bases loaded for Carlos Pena. He could make the city fall in love with him right now with a big hit here. Seriously, Cubs fans will LOVE a guy early in the season, with all their hope built up.

2:12 Tom Ricketts (the owner) has awkwardly been in the booth this whole inning, but at least he sounds like a real baseball fan. Pena grounds into what could've been a double play, but Ramirez is savvy enough to slide into the second baseman, so Castro comes in for another run scored. 2-0 Cubs!

2:14 Geo Soto once again fails to get a hit with runners on base. Thanks, Geo, you've been AWESOME ever since you won Rookie of the Year. Can't help but think that Colvin could've done a little more in that spot.

2:17 The Cubs began the game with God Bless America, the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem, along with the 9/11 flag. Woah. We get it, baseball is AMERICAN. Also, the Ricketts are also apparently funding the Tea Party. Weird.

2:21 Dempster gets out of a jam (Overbay doubled) with a strikeout. He's been pitching well. It's weird to see that on Opening Day, because I'm used to Carlos Zambrano going out on Opening Day and getting shelled. My routine has been thoroughly messed with.

2:27 Cubs go down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the fourth. Darwin couldn't save us. But I'm still hopping on the bandwagon.

2:35 The Pirates had a man on second with 1 out with Ronny Cedeno coming to the plate. I thought this was a sure double play opportunity. Instead, Dempster walks him. It's RONNY CEDENO. Now there's men on second and third with two outs (after a sac bunt). Dempster's gonna have to work to get out of this one. In an alternate universe, Carlos Zambrano is pitching this game and has just given up a home run and is screaming at the dugout.

2:39 Oh god, Dempster just walked the bases loaded.

2:42 Full count, bases loaded....and oh my god, he just hit a grand slam. Not a good place for Dempster to put that pitch. I guess me making fun of the Pirates is coming back to bite me. Now that I remember it, the Cubs sucked last year against the Pirates.

2:45 It's pretty easy to take the energy out of Wrigley field, and Neil Walker just did exactly that. Add in the fact that its cold and raining...the Cubs need to do something in this inning to get the fans back.

2:48 Aaaaaand Kosuke strikes out. See, even I'm getting bitter, and I'm sitting at home.

2:52 1-2-3 inning for the Cubs. Oof.

2:58 Dempster should be out after this inning. He's having trouble hitting the strike zone consistently this inning (the 6th). Taking his time between pitches, too. His location is also off (a belt high changeup,yeesh).

3:04 Dempster eventually gets out of the inning, but I'd describe his performance as 'laboring'. Which could also describe my interest in this game.

3:07 Shots of people in ponchos watching the Cubs losing set to U2's 'Beautiful Day'. I never knew WGN was so ironic.

3:12 Carlos Pena gets the green light on a 3-0 pitch and skies it straight upwards, leading to a fielders choice when the Pirates can't catch the pop up. And, right on cue, here comes Geo Soto. I'm guessing double play here. Literally right after I typed that Soto almost grounded into a double play, but it turns into another fielders choice. Now Soriano comes to bat, and it seems like a perfect opportunity for him to strike out, but instead he pops out. Still 4-2 Pirates. Yikes.

3:19 Adam Dunn is trending on twitter for doing well for the White Sox, while Neil Walker is trending for killing the Cubs. McCutchen just hit a 2 run homer. This game is going swimmingly.

3:25 Russel comes in and strikes out the next batter. Maybe the crowd will be revitalized by Santo's family singing the seventh inning stretch. Let's Get Some Runs!

3:31 Darwin Barney (MY BOY!!!) pops up and somehow the Pirates let another one drop. If the Cubs had a competent offense today, they'd take advantage of more of these mistakes.

3:34 Tyler Colvin is pinch hitting! Watch him strike out and make me look like an idiot.

3:35 Yep.

3:38 Hey, Kosuke showed up! An RBI single brings in Darwin Barney to cut the lead to 6-3. That was that capitalizing-on-their-mistakes thing I was talking about.

3:42 Another hit by Starlin Castro. This guy is a machine. Now Byrd is up, tying run at the plate, one out.

3:45 Byrd pops out, so now its Ramirez's turn to try and make something happen, but he flies out into deep left center. Once again, we strand two base runners. That's not a trend you want to continue.

3:57 After a quiet inning for the Pirates, Pena gets on base with a goofy hit, allowing Geo Soto to not do anything with a man on base (he pops out). Soriano's up now. Guessing he'll pop out or strike out, in classic Soriano fashion (as you can tell, its been a pretty bitter five years with Soriano).

4:00 Yep, strike out. I think we have 3 more years with this guy. Well, here's DARWIN BARNEY!!! Maybe he can cement himself as 'my guy' with a clutch hit.

4:04 He struck out. Well, he hasn't been doing that for five years, so I can't be completely disenfranchised with him.

4:09 Jeff can't-spell-his-last-name-the-former-ND-WR is pitching for the Cubs now. If I had to choose between professionally playing football or baseball, I'd definitely pick baseball too. It's a pretty lazy sport and they make a lot of money for not a lot of effort (with so much less brain damage than football).

4:18 The aforementioned Jeff walks the bases loaded, but eventually settles down and gets the batter to line out to Starlin Castro, who makes another great play in the field for a double play. He had a bunch of errors last year but looks much improved this year. Now it's time for the bottom of the ninth, the Cubs last shot.

4:21 Blake Dewitt starts the inning by striking out. Now its up to Kosuke and the the top of the order.

4:23 Fukudome walks, getting him up to 3 times on base in five trips. I don't care, I still very much dislike Kosuke.

4:25 Starlin Castro gets his third hit of the day on a base hit up the middle that's initially stopped by Cedeno, but he can't make a play on it. Now Marlon Byrd is the tying run at the plate.

4:27 Byrd strikes out disastrously, missing late on the first two strikes and then looking at the last pitch.

4:28 And Ramirez grounds out to end the game, Cubs lose 6-3. That was a very Cubs-ish ninth inning- get in position to at least tie, and then failing to produce. If this team hopes to make a playoff run this year, the situational hitting is going to have to get a lot better. I know its just one game, but it was not a sparkling start by any means.

Final thoughts, I guess, on being a Cubs fan. It's perennially being in the bottom of the ninth inning, down a couple runs, but hoping, hoping for that one time when things will go wonderfully right. And its been that way my whole life, and the 82 years before that. Sure, there are fans who just go to Wrigley to get drunk and leave early if the Cubs are going to lose; but there's also that faction just waiting, waiting, waiting.