Elisberg Industries
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like
Decent Quality Since 1847

Hello, Good Baez

8/8/2014

0 Comments

 
Even if one isn't a sports fan, most people can appreciate the Chicago Cubs not winning a World Series in 105 years, the team being in last place this year, and Cubs fans hoping for their Moses to lead them out of the wilderness.

The team brought in a new team president a few years ago, Theo Epstein, and the smart and understand fans have been patient as the team has ripped itself up to start rebuilding from the ground up.  That has started with taking one of the worst minor league systems and turning it into the highest rated, with four prospects in the top 14 of all of baseball.  And a 5th in the top 30.

As you might imagine, Cubs fans have been anxiously waiting for these young hopeful phenoms to be called up to the majors, and the most impatient have been clamoring for it (unreasonably) now.  But you don't rush prospects until they're ready, because you can just as easily ruin them.  Still, there is an anxiousness to find out if these messiahs are actually as great as they're touted, or false prophets.

For several years, the top name among all those prospects was infielder Javier Baez.  He's since been supplanted in the Cubs system by 3rd baseman Kris Bryant, as the team's #1 prospect, but that's no insult to Baez.  Bryant is ranked the #2 prospect in all of baseball -- and Baez is ranks #5.  That's how great he's supposed to be.  You can imagine the salivating of Cubs fandom after 105 years wandering in that desert.  However, Baez is still only just 21, which is awfully young to be a savior....

But then on Tuesday, the Cubs galvanized the Chicago sports world when they announced they were promoting Javier Baez to the major leagues -- and that he would be starting that very night!  Here at last was the fans' chance to see if he really, actually, truly was as great as his reputation.

As I told my friends, I hoped the fans would cut him some slack, and understand that however he did at the start -- good or bad -- you had to give him 30-40 games, at least, to see how he played.  Still, though, you did hope he started well, if only to help build his confidence.

In his first game, there was good and bad.  One of the good things was that he clearly had a maturity and didn't appear overmatched by major league pitching.  He's known as a wild swinger who strikes out a lot, but has a "fast bat" with great power, and can hit for average.  So, he looked like a major leaguer at the plate.  The bad was that he was 0-5 and had struck out three times -- though one of his outs was a long fly to the warning track with the bases loaded.  It was a long and tiring game, going extra innings, and by midnight had reached the 12th inning.

That's when Javier Baez came to bat leading off the top of the inning.  And with the score tied against Colorado 5-5, this is what happened on the very first pitch.
Let's just say it was worth staying up that late.  His game-winning home run was the talk of Chicago sports news the rest of the night and all the next day.  It's amazing how a game-winning home run can erase 0-5, no matter how good the 0-5 was.

By the way, the next day he went 0-4, so he was 1-10.  (Albeit with one game-winning home run.)

And then yesterday, oh, by the way -- he went 3-4, drove in four runs...and hit two more home runs!  Giving him three in three games.

And Cubs fans
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Elisberg Industries gets a commission if you click here before shopping on Amazon.
    Picture
    Follow @relisberg

    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.



    Picture
           Feedspot Badge of Honor

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Audio
    Audio Land
    Books
    Busienss
    Business
    Chicago
    Consumer Product
    Education
    Email Interview
    Entertainment
    Environment
    Fine Art
    Food
    From The Management
    Health
    History
    Huffery
    Humor
    International
    Internet
    Journalism
    Law
    Los Angeles
    Media
    Morning News Round Up
    Movies
    Music
    Musical
    Personal
    Photograph
    Piano Puzzler
    Politics
    Popular Culture
    Profiles
    Quote Of The Day
    Radio
    Religion
    Restaurants
    Science
    Sports
    Technology
    Tech Tip
    Theater
    The Writers Workbench
    Tidbits
    Travel
    Tv
    Twitter
    Video
    Videology
    Well Worth Reading
    Words-o-wisdom
    Writing

    RSS Feed

© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2023
Contact Us    About EI    Chicago Cubs
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like