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For those who believe it’s too bad that Ron Santo’s election to the Hall of Fame came after the former Chicago Cubs third baseman died (and that’s a reasonable stance to take), look on the bright side: The bottom of the seventh inning against the Cardinals on Saturday (July 21) — in which St. Louis had seven doubles and broke open a scoreless contest with 12 runs — just might have done him in.
Pilar Lastra was not driving in this outfit, but we saw fit to run this photo of the Playboy Playmate anyway.
* On the bright side for the Cubs regarding that 12-0 defeat at Busch Stadium: It counts as only one loss rather than two or three.
* Speaking of losses, the Chicago White Sox falling to the Tigers in Detroit 7-1 means the South Siders fall from first place in the American League Central. As noted in this space previously, all the Sox need is a victory in their series with the Tigers to retain the division lead. Sox fans no doubt are rapidly approaching full panic mode because … because they are Sox fans, and that seems to be the tendency among a fair segment of them.
* Speaking of Santo (as we were a few sentences ago), don’t you think a big-league third baseman who was the second player at his position to hit 250 home runs, retired with the third-highest slugging percentage by a third baseman (.462), won five Gold Gloves, was a career .287 hitter with 282 homer and 1,141 RBI in 2,034 games deserves to be enshrined in Cooperstown? Oh, wait. Those are the numbers for Ken Boyer, the late, great (OK, maybe merely really good) player of the Cardinals. He also was the 1964 World Series MVP. Santo’s numbers: 2,243 games, .277 batting average, .464 slugging percentage, 342 homers, 1,331 RBI, five Gold Gloves. Boyer’s shortcomings? He wasn’t a beloved broadcaster and died in 1982. Otherwise, maybe he would have built up a following similar to Santo’s.
* Speaking of Cardinals third baseman, if David Freese doesn’t make an excellent defensive play on Luis Valbuena’s slow roller in the top of the seventh and beat out a slow roller to third to start the bottom of the inning, do the Cardinals still win 12-0?
* Wondering whether right-hander Matt Garza leaving Saturday’s loss after three innings because of a triceps cramp will put a crimp into the Cubs’ plans to trade hhim?
* Speaking of trades, at this point next year — if not sooner — shouldn’t the Cubs be trading for players who can provide immediate impact. At the big-league level. Or does the Theo Epstein regime get a free ride next season, too? The National League Central is not a dominating division. To challenge, the Cubs need a few players. More than that, they need a commitment from ownership and management. If they could do that as well as they have in kissing off this season, the team could be in the postseason in 2013. Unless everyone is willing to wait till the year after next year. Or the year after that. Or …
* Still speaking of trades, the Sox’ acquisition of reliever Brett Myers from Houston on Saturday might raise some eyebrows — and not from folks wondering whether Addison Reed’s job as closer is in jeopardy. Myers is the guy who was arrested and charged with assault in 2006 after punching his wife on a Boston street. The case eventually was dismissed. Gee, if the Sox were going to add some punch to the roster, you’d think it would be a position player with his bat. No?
Playboy Playmate Pilar Lastra behind the wheel of a fast car or two or three seems like a good idea, don’t you think? Check her out:
Speaking of Playboy, here are a couple of videos from the good folks there. With a sports-related frame or two in each (not that there needs to be any justification for running such visual enhancements on this site):
Still speaking of Playboy (and is there any reason not to?), here is a video of a Bunny flash mob from this spring in Australia (some of us like to think of the following as an exercise/dance video):
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