From The Cheap Seats: Cubs, and Ties, We’ll Try Again

May 13th 2009
Uh Oh. Cubs fans held their breath Friday after Aramis Rameriz went down with an injury only to find our that he is going to miss a month possibly with a dislocated shouldar. As I was reading the story Saturday morning on ESPN.com, the last paragraph stated that the Cubs had made a trade. For who I thought? A backup third basemen? Someone other than a utility guy to plug in like they have been doing?
Then I find out. Ryan Freel for Joey Gathwright. Ryan Freel for Joey Gathwright as I re-read the paragraph as if I don’t know these two guys. Probably because I don’t. So, I click over to the Chicago Tribune website and ready the story. There, I find that Freel, a former Red and Oriole, is supposed to provide endless versatility as any outfield spot is safe with him as well as second and third. Plus, he is supposed to step in as soon as possible to replace Rameriez. Great I think. He must have some pop in his bat or speed or hit for average. So I go back to ESPN.com to find out. I scroll through the Rameriez story and click on Freel’s name and low and behold, the Cubs replacement for Aramis is a .133 batter with 1 RBI in nine games. The Season is approaching 35 games and he has played in nine of them on a team that is 12-18 as of Saturday morning.

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A week ago, I threw out there for our readers to help me in making a decision about which baseball team to follow along with the Cubs this season. Teams available for selection were: St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers and the Minnesota Twins.
One criteria for this list was that they are all Midwest teams. The team has to have had a powder blue uniform in the 1980’s or a ‘retro jersey’ and they have to have been a team that I have seen play in person over my lifetime. The final criteria is that they must have played or won a World Series in my lifetime.
So, as you are waiting anxiously, here are the results. There were two votes for both the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox. One vote each for the Brewers, Twins and Royals.
Here are two responses that I received with the picks, one for the Twins, and another for the White Sox.

Twins – ….. So, you are looking for a new bandwagon to jump on? This is easy.
Minnesota Twins fans are the best (or worst depending how you look at it) bandwagon jumping fans in baseball. You can jump on and off their bandwagon anytime without remorse. Their fans do it all the time.

White Sox - …. I vote for the White Sox, a 2005 World Series Title, a great manager, what more do you want?

So, it’s down to two teams, the White Sox and Cardinals. Both are natural rivals of the Cubs so it is fitting that these are the two teams left. With that, I ask for your help again to break this tie. Contact me at ConservativeSports@hotmail.com with your choice. Even if you are not a fan of either team, your vote still will count. Next week I will publish the results here along with a tribute to my ‘new’ team.