Beer Distracts from Bad Baseball
Oh, by the way, the Cubs are fading fast
Thank goodness for beer.
The beer tosser was a blessing in disguise, folks. He distracted us from just how bad the Cubs are playing these days.
Sure, the bum was a public relations nightmare. And he didn't do any favors for Cubs fans who prefer not to be known as drunk dilettantes. But for all his faults, the dumb college kid who threw a beer at Shane Victorino managed to keep our attention off the field, where the Cubs were being swept by the Phillies, losing their seventh game in eight, falling four-and-a-half back of the St. Louis Cardinals and generally sucking big time.
Here's the fun part: General manager Jim Hendry is publicly calling out Alfonso Soriano, saying he needs to improve his production, which, you know, duh. Welcome to four months ago.
Hendry is blaming Soriano for not "running the way he did when we signed him," which is a handy way of putting the blame on Soriano when Hendry is the one that signed a veteran to a ridiculously outsized contract after a career year.
Perhaps if Hendry would invest some money into the Cubs' minor-league operation and produce a few home-grown prospects from time to time, he wouldn't have to sign guys like Soriano and get such a bad return on his investment. Just a thought, Jim.
All the while the clock ticks. There are seven weeks left in the baseball season, and the Cubs are not only NOT closing in on the Cardinals, they're fading away. This was right about the time Lou's players should have molded into form: Milton Bradley is a second-half player; Aramis Ramirez is back from injury, and so on.
Instead, it just keeps getting worse. Fortunately, we've got beer -- and beer-tossing college morons -- to distract us.
Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.
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Posted Friday, Aug 14, 2009 - 10:55 AM CST
