There hasn’t been much to report about the Cubs this week, though we did miss a couple stories in our Christmas hiatus. Longtime Cub employee Jimmy Farrell passed away last week.
You probably never noticed Jimmy Farrell. He’d prefer it that way. Farrell was the umpires clubhouse attendant at Wrigley Field, starting in 1982, and held that job until 2007. He loved his work.
Farrell passed away this week. He was 91.
Carrie Muskat goes on to retell some of the stories he told her when she was writing her history of the Cubs book. If you’re interested in reading a bit of behind-the-scenes Cubs history, click on the link above.
In other news, the Cubs continued to corner the market on aging East Asian relievers by signing Hisanori Takahashi.
The Cubs have agreed to sign Hisanori Takahashi to a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training, reports Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter). The veteran left-hander is a Wasserman Media Group client.
Takahashi, 37, pitched to a 5.54 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 in 50 1/3 relief innings for the Angels and Pirates last season. He owns a 3.97 ERA in 240 1/3 MLB innings, making 12 starts and 153 relief appearances. Takahashi has held big league lefties to a .238/.283/.381 batting line with a 4.14 K/BB.
I suppose this is just bullpen insurance, especially since the Cubs lost lefty reliever Jeff Beliveau to the Rangers on a waiver claim. Anyway, have a safe and happy New Year celebration!
Some interesting tidbits came out of the ESPN chat with Bruce Levine the other day, notably: 1) The Cubs are worried about holding onto the fan base, hence the Edwin Jackson deal; and 2) the Blue Jays and Rangers have asked about Garza, but it’s not 100% that he’ll be ready to go at the start of the season.
Um…
I can’t wait to see that attendance jump every time Edwin Jackson takes the mound at Wrigley.
As I posted on Facebook, I’m done with Chicago sports. Not only am I tired of losing and incompetence, I’ve lost most of my already tenuous connections with Chicago. So, why bother?
Im a DCer now, and you all know how much I love the Nationals — I even got a place across from the stadium. As far as football goes, I was always a dual Bears and Colts fan, so I have an easy fallback there. Those are really the only sports I follow, so that’s that.
I’m sure some of you are excited, assuming I’ll disappear. Unfortunately, irritating Julie is literally one of the top 5 most fun things in my life, so I’m not going anywhere
You say this every year. Granted, you usually wait until halfway through Spring Training, so you get credit for really being on top of things this year.
I’m done with the Bears if they don’t fire Lovie Smith and bring in someone with excellent offensive mind…(and they had better not fire Rod Marinelli).
there was a time where I would have argued with you over this, but I gotta say I kinda understand. Especially when you start to identify with your city I think sports allegiances can change, and its not like there was some sort of rivalry with the Nationals, it actually makes sense.
I can’t believe I wrote that, 18 year old me would not be happy. Oh well.
Lovie Smith . . fired.
I will miss my I <3 Lovie shirt
I've been having some issues retaining my Bears fandom. I'm still a fan, but my Ravens love has been creeping in, this is in no small part due to to Torrey Smith and Brendon Ayanbadejo. At least its better than becoming a Patriots fan.
What is going on today? Stop it, all of you! Get back here and root for your sucky Chicago teams before I have to pull this blog over.
No fear, I don’t think I could quit the Cubs even if I tried.
Football is different, I didn’t really care about football growing up (much to parental dismay) so my ties to the Bears aren’t as strong.
I’m not so much rooting for GA Tech so much as rooting against USC. Unfortunately, the announcers favorite phrase seems to be” the referee missed that call..lucky break USC.”
I would rather root for a sucky Bears team,then be forced to root for the Chargers,even though they will probably move to L.A…
Chicago teams have my undying and unebbing love and support.
I never revel in any of their failings or faults.
I’ve never reveled in it, either. But I sure did not mind pointing out that the results were usually predictable and that I’d done so.
It’s just the Bears. They are such a poorly run organization…and until this team is sold or the McCaskey’s finally realize they should have no part of the organization other than being simple figureheads, this team will continue to waste the tremendous amount of resources it has available to it.
I’m not nearly as big of fan of football compared to baseball. I don’t have nearly the loyalty to the Bears as I do the Cubs. I’ve lived in Wisconsin too long now to just blindly follow this clown of an organization. The Bears are a damn joke compared to many other less fortunate teams…including the Packers. The Packers do so much more with much fewer resources and it is a complete joke for Bears fans to see how well Green Bay runs things while year after year the Bears stumble over their own feet.
The Bears aren’t all that much different than the Cubs were under Jim Hendry…with a ton of money wasted in unwise moves…making the team somewhat competitive with free agents, but never developing its own talent to create sustained success.
I don’t care enough about sports at this point to switch allegiances. So there’s that.
I think Carrie Muskat is mad at me. She tweeted “The Cubs start 2013 with questions.” And I tweeted back “YA THINK?!?!?!”
What did she think you would say-”No!”?
Happy New year LOHO !!! Hope 2013 is better for all!!!