Windy Win

12,064 wind-blown fans saw the Cubs take down the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 7 – 6 . Today was cooler than average for Mesa, 61 degrees at gametime.

HoHoKam’s version of the bleacher bums were out in full force today, tossing opponent’s homerun balls back onto the field. After the United States Naval Academy Glee Club sang ‘America, the Beautiful’ during the 7th inning stretch, the game resumed without time to sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’. Not to be denied, the Berm Bums started their own ‘Take Me Out’ rendition while Cubs rightfielder Felix Pie was at bat.

Today’s notable Cubs performances: Jerry Hairston back in the lineup for the first time since being hit in the head with a pitch, had an RBI double and scored a run. Todd Walker had a hit with 2 RBI’s and scored twice. Rich Hill was the starting pitcher went 2 innings, gave up 4 runs on 4 hits, a base on balls, and allowed 2 homeruns. He K’d 4 Angels. John Koronka and Scott Eyre both looked good, each pitching a 1-2-3 inning.

Kerry Wood and Mark Prior both are progressing well- Knock on Wood. Prior may get into a Cactus League game next week. This spring the Cubs offense has done well despite not having Derrek Lee and Michael Barrett as they sported a .321 Cactus League batting average coming into today’s game- that’s 2nd in the National League this spring and to go along with that, the Cubs have only struck-out 41 times, 2nd fewest in all the major leagues this spring. Love to see Juan Pierre continue to work on his bunting as he did again today. He may have bunted more in this first week and a half of spring than Corey Patterson did in his entire career.

Cubs wives are having their annual food drive and auction tomorrow, hopefully the weather will cooperate – so bring any non-perishable food items to the game or a big load of cash if you want to bid on the Cub’s memorabilia. Remember it’s for charity.

Yesterday in the Chicago Sun-Times, Quick Hits Columnist Elliott Harris wrote about the Vince Lloyd, “Voice of Summer” DVD.
Read Elliott’s column

Still no winners so far in the Vince Lloyd, Voice of Summer Trailer quiz. Go to the Cubs DVD page, watch the trailer, then click on the quiz@boysofspring link to send your guesses for who Vince is talking about in the trailer. Check the last post to look at the one-of-a-kind, unused, autographed Ron Santo ticket from the last game ever played at old HoHoKam Park. Here’s your 2nd hint: This person once had over 500 at bats in a season, and struck out less than 10 times.

~KC Royals tomorrow~