May Brings Outbursts to Chicago Baseball Coaches!

Well it took a little bit longer than some of us who follow Chicago baseball thought, but I guess April showers, brings Chicago coaches floods. After a good April for both the Cubs and the Sox, all it took was a little dry patch and both Chicago coaches went off the deep end in the past week.

On Thursday, May 1, after the 3rd blown save for Kerry Wood in this early season, Lou went off when asked about Wood blowing the save, and his decision to have Soriano in left field. At one point Lou said he did not even see the play in which Soriano "misplayed" the ball that went to the wall. That I would say is unacceptable, what did the Cubs hire Lou for? To do nothing and every once and awhile head on out to the mound and take the ball from his pitcher? He needs to watch the game.

But the decision to play Soriano in the outfield in late innings or to take him out is something that the people of Chicago need to understand. The Cubs organization is not going to let a man being paid that much money sit on the bench in the late innings. It may sound stubborn, but it's true. I don't blame them either. They made their own bed, by signing him to the outlandish deal, so they have to sleep in it as well.

The whole take Soriano out of the lead-off spot is getting old as well. It's not going to happen. Somewhere in the negotiation process with Soriano's agent, Jim Hendry probably made some promise about letting him bat lead off. But does it really matter? He leads off the game once. More often than not, he is not leading off any other time. What they should do is take a page out of the team that plays at "Wrigley North" and bat the pitcher 8th, and someone like Theriot or DeRossa in the 9th spot. Look what it's done for Jason Kendall up there. That way when Soriano comes up there is more of a chance to have someone on base because the pitcher is not right in front of him. It makes teams have to think more when pitching to the bottom of the order and give more RBI chances to the top of the lineup.

On to the South Siders. I will preface this for all you White Sox fans out there, that I grew up in Cleveland, I don't particularly like the Sox, but this has nothing to do with my allegiances.

In a pregame interview before Sunday's game with the Blue Jays, Sox Manager, Ozzie Guillen went where I didn't even think he could go. According to the Chicago Tribune, he basically called out Chicago, the whole city, saying "That's what ticks me off about Chicago fans and Chicago media: They forget pretty quickly. A couple of days ago we were the [bleeping] best [stuff] in town. Now we're [bleep]." I understand where he's coming from, fans do forget quickly. People don't get that there is 162 games in a baseball season. There are going to be times when your favorite team do not win. If they are a good team, which I feel, against my better judgement the Sox may be a decent team, and they will come back and win their fair share of games.

The best part of the rant is when according to the Chicago Tribune Guillen says
"We won it a couple years ago, and we're horse[bleep]..." The Cubs haven't won in [100] years, and they're the [bleeping] best. [Bleep] it, we're good. [Bleep] everybody. We're horse[bleep], and we're going to be horse[bleep] the rest of our lives, no matter how many World Series we win." Now that is a true statement. Chicago is a Cubs town. I believe the city was starting to turn after the 2005 championship and the Cubs being terrible last year. But still it doesn't really matter. People will still flock to Wrigley (even if it's named Com-Ed Field or something) because they want the experience of going to a game there. It's not just the game, it's the stadium, the area, the food, the fans. Going to a Sox game is like going to any other normal, not historical ball park. But I will say, if you want to go and watch baseball in a real baseball atmosphere, go to U.S. Cellular, because the people there do actually care about baseball, and not about seeing how drunk they can get.

There's a time in the Chicago Tribune article, where Guillen goes on talking about making money in the future and when he called Marrioti gay, and cussing out Mike North, and I was not quite sure what that had to do with his team playing terrible and the fans giving him a hard time.

So I don't know if these two outbursts were just the typical. Lou being Lou and Ozzie being Ozzie, but there was some warrant to these rants. The fans of these two teams need to take a step back and understand what they are going through. Both teams will come out fine. Remember the Cubs play in the worst division in baseball and the Sox were not supposed to make the playoffs. So remember the expectations of these teams before you criticize