One of These Things is Not Like The Others: Why I Love DC and the MLB Equally Right Now

Stephen Strasburg will make his second Major League start and his road debut today. As I write this, Sports Center is taking about Strasburg live and I myself have just come back from a morning spent reading The Washington Post and USA Today with coffee in hand.

Growing up with baseball in your life, especially loving a team that is the physical definition of underdog (aka the Cubs -- and don't worry, I'm not disillusioned, I know their horrid this year. Let's not discuss it further), is what got me into the game.

That's why this morning was so much fun.

I walked into Starbucks on New Mexico Avenue near American University in a Nationals shirt (this is my first real Nats t-shirt with a player's name on the back ... I bought it on Strasmas Day, but I promise my next Nats shirt will be Josh Willingham to hand next to my new Strasburg prize). The barista and I proceeded to have a semi-lengthy dialog about how the Nats are so fun this year. She asked if I was going to the game today.

All I could do was smile.

I refrained from mentioning the fact that I follow the team daily as part of my tenure as one of two Nats beat writers for We Love DC. I stuck to the always believable and undeniable truth that I am a baseball junkie and knew they were playing in Cleveland today. The exchange was fun though. Nice to hear even the least sporty of folks talking baseball on a Sunday morning in NW DC.

Now to get to the photo that started off this post -- this is the true purpose for posting. Does that photo not scream CHICAGO TO DC? The only thing that would scream it louder would be a photo of Stephen Strasburg with Jim Riggleman and Kerry Wood at today's game in Cleveland.

That would be my best convergence off all things I now love -- Chicago, DC, the Cubs, the Nats, and Major League Baseball as a whole.

Cool, Calm, & Collected: Cliff Lee Makes Baseball Look Easy

The biggest losers of Monday night's World Series Game 1 were, despite popular belief, not the New York Yankees.

In what is sure to be the lowest scoring game in the series due to a power-pitching match-up between the phenomenal Cliff Lee and dominant C.C. Sabathia, the biggest losers of Game 1 were the Cleveland Indians.

No other pitcher in baseball history has posted a lower ERA than Cliff Lee. The Phillies Ace has a 0.54 ERA in 33 1/3 innings during the post season, beating the previous all-time record-holder/World Series opponent, Mariano Rivera, who posted as low as a 0.77 ERA.

The Tribe can only shake their heads and stare at their feet while baring the grunt of the heart wrenching mental defeat that goes along with trading two previous team members to the teams representing all of baseball in the 2009 World Series.

It must not be forgotten that despite Chase Utley's record-setting homeruns, Sabathia pitched a good game. His Yanks on the other hand did not produce any runs until the bottom of the 9th, leaving the big man to fend for himself on the mound.

Game 1 will be remembered for years to come not because of who the Indians let get away, but for how effortless Lee made World Series pitching look in what ESPN.com Senior Reporter Jayson Stark calls "the city where October legends are born."

The guy didn't even break a sweat. He just went out there and played baseball -- that's what the post-season is all about.

The Chicago Bred Indians Closer : Why I Miss Kerry Wood

The Chicago Cubs pitching and catching staff, and the rest of Major League Baseball's specialized staffs, reports to Mesa, Az. (and Florida for everyone else) today to open the spring training season. The biggest difference from this season and last season is that Kerry Wood no longer sports the royal blue and white pin stripe number 34. He's a Cleveland Indian.

Let us flashback to 1998 and remember what made this Rookie of the Year a Chicago sports superstar. The man threw 20 strikeouts during his fifth career start on May 6, 1998. That game was a one-hit, no walk, 20 strikeout shutout against the Houston Astros, that tied Roger Clemens' record for strikeouts in a 9-inning game and breaking Bill Gullickson's single-game rookie record of 18 strikeouts in 1980.

Wood was the fourth overall selection in the 1995 Amateur Draft and spent three years playing in the Minor Leagues before his Major League debut.

I wont lie. I miss Kerry Wood.

The 2003 season broke my heart. Millions of Cubs fans watched as their beloved team went from five outs until the World Series to the Florida Marlins taking it all away. That was also the year Dusty Baker used and unintentionally abused the two aces of the Cubs pitching staff -- Mark Prior and Kerry Wood. Both of which won positions as pitchers on the 2003 All-Star team.

Various shoulder surgeries put Wood out of a dominant and result producing starting position between the 2004 and 2006 seasons before coming into his own as a "force to be reckoned with" closer for the Cubs, but 2005 started the transition.

I witnessed Wood's first relief appearance under unique circumstances. It was my last night in Chicago before leaving for college the next day. It was a night game. The lights of Wrigley field were that of a sanctuary, illuminating the field on that warm, non-windy Chicago evening. It was August 2005 -- and I had first row seats behind home plate.

Kerry Wood, August 2005. Photo By R.H. Levitin

My dad took me to that game as a final, "Goodbye, You're going to college now so Cubs games in Washington, D.C. may or may not be a scarce entity to experience." And -- that it was.

Wood shot the ball over 94 mph at a time -- every time -- for the three batters he faced on the Cincinnati Reds. He even whizzed the ball by Griffey, Jr. I had never seen anything like it.

Even if the Cubs lost (I blame the loss on the Cubs' starting pitcher of the day, Jerome Williams, he choked. It was embarrassing.), it was a good day for me.

First row behind home plate at Wrigley Field to see a Chicago Cubs night game with your dad the night before you leave for college? What could be more memorable ...than a Cubs World Series victory? Nothing.

A few less than memorable players left the Cubs this season though. Mark DeRosa and Henry Blanco are playing elsewhere -- but that's okay. The Cubs will be fine. They just have to focus on cultivating the youthful talent, ensure the veterans stay healthy and happy, and -- most of all -- they need to have fun. Because after all, that's what baseball's all about.



All photos in this post are compliments of R.H.Levitin's baseball photo collection.