Happy Father’s Day and Other Bullets

No matter how many ways I try, I just can’t get upset about yesterday’s loss. Should Carlos Pena have tried to score? Should the Cubs have bunted in the 9th? Should Mike Quade have gone to Sean Marshal rather than John Grabow? Eh. The Yankees out-hit, out-pitched, out-walked the Cubs all day long.

  • Chicago Cubs manager Mike Quade said he wasn’t interested in going for the tie in the bottom of the ninth yesterday with the tying run on first and double play risk Geovany Soto at bat. That’s why he let Soto hit, and, of course, Soto grounded into a double play. Quade pointed to the fact that he had just two arms – Carlos Marmol and Rodrigo Lopez – left in his bullpen (I guess Sean Marshall was unavailable?).
  • Ken Rosenthal was leaning into the Cubs’ dugout yesterday to get quotes from Carlos Zambrano about the trade rumors floating around. *During the game.* I know you’ve got to get your story, but that just strikes me as ridiculous and uncool. Quade was not pleased, but also kind of ambivalent. “I didn’t even notice,” Quade said. “I guess I’ll have to talk to [Rosenthal] and tell him not to bother my guys. You can bother me [during a game] but not my guys. Whatever. I was somewhere at the other end [of the dugout] with other stuff on my mind.”
  • From Rosenthal’s perspective, it was Z reaching out to him, not the other way around. In the words of Mike Quade: “Whatever.” Rosenthal said Zambrano was trying to clarify that his preference is to stay in Chicago, despite his earlier quote that he would be willing to waive his no-trade rights if the Cubs approached him about a trade. Huge scoop there…
  • Everyone agrees that Pena’s collision with Russell Martin at home plate in the sixth was a clean play.
  • Happy Father’s Day to all you Cubs fathers out there. This is my first Father’s Day as a father, and I can already tell that I will not be able to heed some sage advice: parents, don’t let your kids grow up to be Cubs fans.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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