Mark of Fridays: Dodgers fan at Wrigley

Mark got to a Cubs game for his 5th birthday! He liked Wrigley Field, but he still rooted for his favorite team, the Dodgers. For some reason, Matt was very suspicious of old Cubs players.

Perfect in the playoffs!

Well, Matt has done it. A perfect 4-for-4 in the playoffs. What's that you say? Matt got all his playoff predictions wrong? Hark! I dare say it may have seemed that Matt swung and missed on every single one of his playoff predictions. But if you look closely, the exact opposite is actually true.

Let's take a closer look:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Boston Red Sox vs. Los Angeles Angels

Matt's prediction: Angels in 3 games
Comment: The Red Sox are good. The Angels are really, really good.

Result: Red Sox win the series in four games.

See? Matt said the Red Sox were good. He was right on!

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Chicago White Sox

Matt's prediction: White Sox in 5
Comment: Experience and good starting pitching edges out the team of the future.

Result: Rays won in four games.

See? Matt clearly mentioned that starting pitching's the key. "For the Rays" was implied. Booya!

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Chicago Cubs

Matt's prediction: Cubs in 3
Comment: Cubs aren't as good as everyone thinks. But they're a lot better than the Dodgers.

Result: Dodgers in 3.

See? This one's easy. Matt clearly said the Cubs aren't as good as everyone thinks. They're not even as good as Matt thinks! And, by the way, Matt nailed it: three games. Money.

Milwaukee Brewers vs. Philadelphia Phillies
Brewers in 5
Comment: With Sabathia pitching two games, the Brewers squeak by.

Result: Phillies in four

See? Matt never put the word "prediction" in there. So, if he had been allowed to finish ... Matt would have said Brewers in 5...years, will win the World Series. Stay tuned...

OK, after all that success, how can Matt avoid throwing out some predictions for the championship serieses?

Red Sox vs. Rays

Matt's "prediction": Red Sox in 7 games

Comment: Red Sox experience edges out the Rays. Matt will send his formal apology, by fax, to each and every Sox fan.

Dodgers vs. Phillies

Matt's "prediction": Dodgers in four games

Comment: Phillies have the hitting, but not the pitching. Inexplicably, the Dodgers will be in the World Series.

That's right! Matt's predicting an all-Manny series! (So start getting tickets, Phillies and Rays fans!)

Matt's playoff review/preview

The White Sox game just finished. Wow.

Hello from the baseball capital of the universe. (OK, along with you, LA.)
Let the playoffs begin!

Somehow, Matt was lucky enough to see seven of the eight playoff teams this year. If the Mets hadn't let him down, Matt could have had a nearly improbable clean sweep.

This year's playoffs should be great. (Check out the match-ups at baseball reference.) On the plus side, the games will have a lot of big stars: Kazmir, Crawford, Longoria, Utley, Howard, Hamels, Zambrano, Soto, Lee, Fielder, Braun, Sabathia, Buehrle, Thome, Konerko, Griffey, Teixeira, Lackey, Guerrero, K-Rod, Jenks, Papelbon, Beckett, Papi, K-Rod, Ramirez, Ramirez and Ramirez.
On the down side, no Mets. Stupid Mets.

Matt spent the night scouring his bookcase for the scorecards from the games he went to this year, so he could provide you with his spellbinding insight into the playoff squads (excepting the Phils).

Saturday, May 24
Angels 2, White Sox 0
Lynne and Matt's bachelorette/bachelor parties. Vlad the Impaler hit a home run, but pitching was the star. Johnny Danks and Jared Weaver were both awesome. If the Sox can get to the second round, these two might face each other again.

Saturday, June 14
Tigers 12, Dodgers 7
Matt and his dad drove to Detroit for this game. If you had asked Matt after this game who was going to the playoffs he would have given the Tigers a better shot than L.A. The Dodgers looked horrible; Brad Penny got knocked around pretty good. Of course, at this point Manny was still wearing a Boston uniform. Unlike, the next game Matt went to...

Monday, Aug. 11
Red Sox 5, White Sox 1
Again, another possible second round match-up: Beckett vs. Danks. Danks was perfect for 6-1/3 innings, but then the wheels came off a bit. Beckett was awesome for eight, then Papelbon finished it off. Which is exactly what the Red Sox will try to do in the playoffs. Incidentally, Lynne and Matt sat really close to Carlos Quentin. He really does look like Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.

Sunday, Aug. 16
Twins 11, Mariners 8
The only game Matt went to not featuring at least one playoff team, although the Twins got as close as you can possibly get without making it. On the way home from a wedding, Lynne and Matt met Adam at the game. Matt was happy to see Ichiro play, even in a horrible stadium like the Metrodome. The Twins were up 8-0 and somehow they still needed Joe Nathan to save this one.
In a somewhat related note, Matt noticed after Tuesday's Twins-Sox game that all the best, established relievers are in the AL: Papelbon, Jenks, Nathan, Rivera, K-Rod.
Wood, Lidge, Valverde are pretty good, but not yet established. Hoffman's probably the best NL reliever with a track record but he's pretty old. Wagner may be done.

Saturday, Aug. 23
Rays 5, White Sox 3
Kazmir vs. Vasquez, another possible playoff preview. (Matt saw a lot of good pitching this year.) The Sox looked good, except for the eighth inning when they gave up four runs. Jermaine Dye did hit two home runs, but the Sox couldn't manufacture a run. It's going to be the same battle this week.

Monday, Sept. 1
Mets 4, Brewers 2
Santana struck out 10 and Carlos Delgado hit a bomb. Yet, that doesn't really matter, does it? In other news, Sheets had to leave after 5 innings despite giving up no runs and two hits. Foreshadowing.

Wednesday, Sept. 17
Brewers 6, Cubs 2
Aramis Ramirez hit a nice line drive home run, but the Cubs didn't have much going this night. For the Brew Crew, Sheets had to come out after the second inning, despite only giving up a run. He hasn't been the same since.

Thursday, Sept. 18
Cubs 7, Brewers 6 (12 innings)
This was a great game - one you didn't think the Brewers would recover from. The Brewers stupidly ran themselves out of the eighth inning, but the Cubs were still down four runs. The Brewers got the first two outs in the ninth. Somehow, the Cubs rallied and Geovany Soto hit a three-run homer to tie the game. The Cubs won in the 12th to put the magic number at one.

OK, onto Matt's division series predictions:

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Boston Red Sox (1-0 in games Matt saw) vs. Los Angeles Angels (1-0)
Matt's prediction: Angels in 3 games

Comment: The Red Sox are good. The Angels are really, really good.

Tampa Bay Rays (1-0) vs. Chicago White Sox (0-3)
Matt's prediction: White Sox in 5

Comment: Experience and good starting pitching edges out the team of the future.

NATIONAL LEAGUE
Los Angeles Dodgers (0-1) vs. Chicago Cubs (1-1)
Matt's prediction: Cubs in 3

Comment: Cubs aren't as good as everyone thinks. But they're a lot better than the Dodgers.

Milwaukee Brewers (1-2) vs. Philadelphia Phillies (0-0)
Brewers in 5

Comment: With Sabathia pitching two games, the Brewers squeak by.

One interesting baseball note: C.C. Sabathia led both the American League (2) and the National League (3) in shut outs. That's got to be a first.

Let the games begin!

Yo Mets - wake up!

Dear New York Mets,

We've been together a long time. Through the Strawberry years and the Mark Carreon and Rico Brogna eras. Through the Jason Isringhuasen Before He Got Good times and the Terrible, Epic, No-Good Collapse of 2007.

Did I mention that you are killing me here?

Did I mention that practically everyone I know is a Cubs fan? I've spent a year sifting through this nonsense from last season. And now the Brewers are apparently going to pitch C.C. Sabathia every night. And you're finding unexpected ways to hand this thing over. A man on the third with no outs in the seventh. No runs. A man on third with no outs in the ninth. A fly ball wins the game! All right, the first guy strikes out - no flyball. But you still manage to the load the bases with one out...and still no runs. Aaaargh!!

“When tomorrow comes, hopefully the sun comes up,” manager Jerry Manuel told the Associated Press after Wednesday's loss to the Cubs, 9-6 in 10 innings. “It might not.”

Gee, thanks, Jerry. Your confidence is uplifting.

Did I mention that not too long ago, I dreamed of the Cubs, White Sox, Brewers and Mets making the playoffs? Everything was in place. It would have been a dream match up - lots of fun inter-Hanley rivalries. But really, deep in my heart, in the parts of my soul where I store batting statistics and presidential trivia, I only cared about the Mets making it. It's ugly, but it's true. So, the wheels exploded on the Brewers bus and the White Sox are floundering. That's been an ugly sight to watch here in the Midwest. But even from 400 miles away, the smell of your bullpen drowns most of it out.

Did I mention your bullpen reeks? Reminds me of bull something else. Billy Wagner was good - no doubt - but there's not one other arm that can throw an inning or two and give up less than three runs? Find Lee Smith. Bobby Thigpen's still around and looking good. Jeff Montgomery's available. Roberto Hernandez always seems to be pitching somewhere. Greg Olson? Even Dan Quisenberry could be an improvement, and he's been dead 10 years.

Did I mention you're killing me? Seriously, pull it together.

Most sincerely,
Matt

Can't tell the players without a scorecard!

Scoooooorecards! Getch yur scoooorecards here!

A few people mentioned they couldn't get to all the tables to see all the centerpieces, so we'll post the line-up cards here.

Lynne and Matt chose players they had some connection to - like a favorite player, or a player who excelled in a game they attended. And, as often as possible, they tried to connect that player to someone sitting at the table - sometimes more directly than others, as you'll see.
(All the cards on the centerpieces were from Matt's collection, except for Ryan Theriot because Matt burns every Cubs card he gets.)

TABLE 1 - Pee Wee Reese: The captain played in 10 All-Star games and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1984, by the Veteran’s Committee. Reese was one Matt’s grandpa’s favorite players on his fave team, the Brooklyn Dodgers.

TABLE 2 - Ryan Theriot: Since his debut with the Chicago Cubs in 2005, Theriot has found a way to keep himself in the lineup. He’s having one his best season’s yet, batting over .300. He’s Lynne’s favorite Cubbie. She’s often heard saying, “Can’t quiet The Riot.”

TABLE 5 - David Wright: This Gold Glove slugger is one of Matt’s favorites. On July 16, 2006, Matt and his dad enjoyed watching the Mets score 11 runs in the sixth inning against the Cubs, capped by David Wright’s long two-run homer.

TABLE 9 - Ted Williams: Teddy Ballgame has nearly the best offensive numbers ever, despite two stints in the Marines as a fighter pilot. Of the 900 pictures Matt took before seeing a game at Fenway, at least one was in front of the Splendid Splinter’s statue.

Table 12 - Shawon Dunston: The Cubs shortstop with the rocket arm became famous when the "Shawn-o-meter" appeared at Wrigley Field, tracking his batting average. Shawon was one of Megan Hanley's favorite players.

TABLE 14 - Ernie Banks: The slugging shortstop nicknamed Mr. Cub was twice the National League Most Valuable Player, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1977. He was also one of Mrs. Hanley’s favorite players on that ill-fated 1969 Cubbies squad.
TABLE 14 - Gil Hodges: After a great career with the Dodgers, Hodges took over as Mets manager. On Sept. 10, when his team passed the Cubs in that fateful 1969 season, Mark Hanley was at the game in Shea and Diane Majewski was at Wrigley. It’s fate!
This was the only split table. With Matt's mom (the Cubs fan) and Matt's Dad (the Mets fan) both seated at Table 14, they couldn't risk a riot.

TABLE 16 - Jack Perconte: The slick-fielding infielder wore #16 in his one season with the Indians. He was twice MVP at Murray State. He’s married to The Rev. Linda Misewicz-Perconte, who officiated Lynne and Matt’s wedding. He also enjoys reading.
Yep, it's true and Mr. Perconte was seated at his own table. Incidentally, that note about his love for reading came from the back of his 1985 Topps card. You can't make stuff like that up!

TABLE 18 - Darryl Strawberry: As a kid, Matt worshipped this lean Mets slugger. In a game against the Cubs, while the crowd chanted ‘Daaa-ryl’, Matt saw him hit one out of Wrigley. Sadly, ‘The Straw’ turned out not to be the best role model for young men.

TABLE 21 - Roberto Clemente: Growing up in West Virginia, the Pirates were the closest baseball team. Barry Seago got to watch Clemente fly around the bases and make rifle throws at Forbes Field. The four-time batting champ finished with exactly 3,000 hits.

TABLE 24 - Joe Crede: This power-hitting, smooth-fielding third baseman is at his best in the clutch, winning the 2005 ALCS MVP for the Chicago White Sox. Joe Crede also happens to be the favorite player of Mrs. Lynne Hanley.

TABLE 25 - Jim Thome: When Thome hit his 500th home run to win the game Sept. 16, 2007, Lynne and Matt were there. Matt was so excited he nearly cried. On an unrelated note, the Peoria native looks remarkably like Buzz Lightyear.

TABLE 27 - Vlad Guerrero: Matt can't find this one, but the fact was something about how this hard-hitting Angel hit a home run at Matt's bachelor party and Lynne's bachelorette party.

TABLE 28 - Matt Hanley: This very light-hitting and average fielding second baseman hit a robust .308 in 1991 with 7 hits, 4 RBIs and no homers. Sadly, the Big League offers never materialized and he retired to life of obscure writing.

TABLE 30 - Ken Griffey Jr.: Matt, Dave, Angela and Adam were in the first row behind home plate when Griffey and Sammy Sosa - both with 500 homers - faced off at Wrigley Field. Sosa went deep to become the Cubs all-time home run leader.

TABLE 31 - Greg Maddux: In 2006, Alex invited Matt to Wrigley to watch Maddux face fellow 300-game winner Roger Clemens, the first time in 106 years that 300-game winners faced off against each other.

TABLE 32 - Manny Sanguillen: This likable catcher was a mainstay on the ‘We Are Family’ Pirates teams of the early 1970s. When Matt visited PNC Park in 2006, Sanguillen was sitting in centerfield greeting fans. Because he apparently had nothing else to do.

TABLE 41 - Tom Seaver: ‘Tom Terrific’ was Mark Hanley’s favorite. When Seaver was traded, Mark wrote the Mets a letter, vowing to never come back. He didn’t break the promise until 2007, when his son took him. Matt later got to interview Seaver.

TABLE 42 - Curtis Granderson: This University of Illinois graduate was patrolling centerfield when Matt and his dad visited Comerica Park on Father’s Day, 2008. Granderson, who was not fazed by actor Gene Hackman sitting in the stands that day, hit a single and a triple.
TABLE 45 - Bobby Jenks: In 2005, the burly righty became the first rookie to save the clinching game of a World Series. Lynne, Matt and Barry love to see big ‘ole Bobby Jenks coming in to the song: ‘Here comes the boom!’ A Sox win is sure to follow.

TABLE 47 - Tom Glavine: On Aug. 5, 2007, while with the New York Mets, the lefty won his 300th game, vs. 197 losses. While he beat the Cubs 8-3 that day Lynne, Matt, Mr. Seago and Laura Seago cheered him on.

TABLE 53 - Moose Skowron: When he came up in 1953, Moose wore #53. He went on to hit eight World Series homers, won five rings and was inducted to the Polish-American Hall of Fame. Later, Matt, his dad and grandpa met him in a Hoffman Estates video store.

TABLE 72 - Carlton Fisk: Fisk wore 72 while with the White Sox, reversing his Red Sox number. Matt has more than 100 of the Hall of Fame catcher’s cards. Matt got to interview “Pudge” when the Field Museum opened a new Hall of Fame exhibit.

Jose Reyes, Ichirio, Jonathan Papelbon and Todd Helton just missed the cut. Should have hustled a little more!

Comerica Park: 12 and counting...

Matt's been meaning to put a post about his Father's Day trip to Detroit. Last year, for Father's Day, Matt got his dad tickets to Busch Stadium in St. Louis to see a Cardinals game against the Phillies.
Are Matt or his dad fans of the Cardinals? No.
Fans of the Phillies? No.
The point is to go to the stadium. Of the 30 current major league teams, Matt's been to 12 stadiums.
This year, Matt and his dad took a five-hour drive to Detroit to see the Tigers play the Dodgers.
Are they Tigers fans? Nope.
Dodgers fans? Nah.
(They're Mets fans.)

But they wanted to see the park.
Comerica Park lived up to its billing as a beautiful baseball field with a mall around it. Even the team is pretty up front about the game nearly being secondary, which is kind of sad. But the stadium was built during a time when the Tigers were losing 119 games, so maybe you didn't really want to see the field then.

OK, let's get the distractions out of the way. Comerica has a merry-go-round and a ferris wheel inside the park. At first, Matt was like, wow, that's cool. And then, well, not so much. (The Tigers on the carousel were a nice touch.) It was $2 to ride either one, so Matt and his dad skipped them. Plus there was more baseball-centric things to see before the first pitch.

.

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On to the cool stuff. First of all, they have these giant towers all around the stadium with memorabilia and facts about the Tigers through the decades. Very cool. It's too bad they can't do stuff like this at Wrigley because people would eat it up at $5 a pop.
Then, Matt and Dad wandered over to the statues in the outfield for the Tigers retired numbers (Al Kaline, Willie Horton, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg, Hal Newhouser and Ty Cobb). The statues had a unique style that really emphasized the player in action. Balls seemed to shooting off Greenberg's bat, and the dirt was flying up as Cobb slid into a base. Check out the picture of Kaline leaping to catch a fly ball. If you look closely (click on the picture to enlarge it), you can see the ball is actually suspended a few inches off his glove. The viewer gets to see that perfect moment, just before the conclusion. Really nicely done, Matt thought.
That goes for the outside of the stadium, too, where they've gone all out on the Tiger theme, and it works. Sadly, the girl who took 18 minutes preparing to take Matt and Dad's picture in front of the giant Tiger kind of blew it. Oh well.
The rest of the stadium was beautiful with nice seats and good sight lines everywhere. The food was OK, not terrible or spectacular. The scoreboard was impressive and fountains spouted water in the outfield when the Tigers scored.
Oh yeah, the game. well, it was a wild one. Matt liked seeing the Tigers because there were a few potential future Hall of Famers on the field. Ivan Rodriguez is in for sure. Miguel Cabrera (who homered) and Magglio Ordonez (who needs a haircut) could be on their way. (Juan Pierre - nah, he could never get to 3,000 hits. Or could he?)Plus, there were two Hall of Fame managers - Jim Leyland and Joe Torre - skippering their clubs. Well, actually,they were just holding on that day. The game had errors and two men on the same base and plays at the plate and failed squeeze plays and and homers and back-to-back triples. When it ended, the suddenly-hot Tigers won 12-7. Root, root, root for the home team.
One other note about the game: Matt got decent seats through stubhub, in Row 34 behind home plate, looking right down the left field line. Strangely, Matt and his dad ended up sitting right behind two-time Academy Award winning actor Gene Hackman. Who knows why he was there. Maybe since he's a Hollywood type, he just follows the Dodgers everywhere. Matt kept yelling out, "Hey French Connection" and "C'mon The Conversation" or "Little hit there, Hoosiers" to get Hackman's attention so he'd turn around for a picture. But he never turned around. Maybe he didn't want the attention. Or maybe it was only some guy who sort of looked like Gene Hackman. Nah, it was him. Mr. Lex Luthor.

So that brought Matt's stadium total to 12. (Matt's dad has been to many more, including a bunch of retired stadiums.
Here's Matt's ratings of the fields he's visited:

First tier: Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox), Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles) and PNC Park (Pittsburgh Pirates)
Second tier, and close behind: Busch Stadium (St. Louis Cardinals), Comerica Park (Detroit Tigers), Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs)
Third tier, still close behind: Coors Field (Colorado Rockies), Miller Park (Milwaukee Brewers)
Fourth tier and further back: Shea Stadium (New York Mets), U.S. Cellular Field (Chicago White Sox), Yankee Stadium (New York Stinkees)
Fifth and this is a bad stadium: Metrodome (Minnesota Twins).

You can read ESPN Page 2's else review of all these stadiums right here.

Twelve down, 18 to go. (Matt sure hopes they don't tear down Shea Stadium, Yankee Stadium and move the Twins out of the Metrodome in the next two years. Nah, that'll never happen.)

Well, it was another great Father's Day trip with a great guy. As for next year...Cincinnati isn't too far....or Cleveland...or...