COMMENTARY : The Cubs, Jim? You picked the Cubs?
Posted on Friday, May 16, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Sports/225866/
If you think St. Louis Cardinals fans are unnerved by the prospect of Jim Edmonds galloping through center field at Wrigley Field while wearing the official costume of the Chicago Cubs, the reaction is polite compared to the howling gusts of wind swirling on that city’s North Side.
Watch out for the poison ivy, Jimmy Baseball.
Here is one from a Cubs’ fan’s blog, Out of Right Field: “Signing Jim Edmonds would be like, when Saddam Hussein was overthrown in Iraq, and the U. S. signing the new free agent Hussein to run a cabinet position in the White House. Cubs fans hate Jim Edmonds so much, I am comparing him to Saddam Hussein, a ruthless dictator.”
And the blogger at Hire Jim Essian wrote this memo to Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry: “Hendry, you’ve done an awful lot of dumb things in your tenure as general manager — I’ve forgiven you for most of those things. But so help you God, if you sign Jim Edmonds, you are dead to me.”
OK, then.
Welcome to Chicago, Mr. Edmonds.
In St. Louis, my sense is Cardinals fans are more saddened by Edmonds ’ defection to the Cubs, which became official late Wednesday. Edmonds, who was released by San Diego late last week after batting. 178, was in Chicago in preparation of signing with the Cardinals’ rival.
Many Cubs fans are irate because they despised his theatrics and heroics as a Cardinal, but also because the Edmonds signing will block the development and progress of a speedy, skilled but underutilized center fielder, Felix Pie.
Pie, 23, isn’t hitting, mostly because Manager Lou Piniella won’t play him regularly. And even at that, Pie still has a higher combined onbase percentage plus slugging percentage than Edmonds this year.
Over his past two seasons as a Cardinal, Edmonds batted only. 208 in 48 at-bats at Wrigley, and that’s just when he was passing through Rush Street, without actually living in Chicago and enjoying the nightlife.
The idea of the greatest center fielder in Cardinals history stumbling in wobbly pursuit of balls hit over his head is depressing. The reality that Jimmy will be teammates with Carlos Zambrano — who plunked him twice in a raucous game at Wrigley back in 2004 — makes no sense. And seeing Edmonds repeatedly strike out and walk away with his head down... well, I’m thinking Willie Mays, 1973 Mets.
Then again, the 1973 Mets made it to the World Series with Mays. And suppose Edmonds has a reasonably successful last hurrah ? He was starting to hit a little before his release, and Wrigley Field has a smaller yard than vast Petco Park in San Diego.
If Piniella uses Edmonds smartly and doesn’t run those old (nearly 38 ) legs into the Wrigley sod, Edmonds may be able to regenerate that smooth swing with enough regularity to make a positive impact.
Besides, the Cubs only must pay Edmonds around $ 289, 000 the remainder of the season, so it’s a cheap way to see if his decline can be reversed for a while. Edmonds doesn’t have to be a dominant performer; he just needs to put a fairly regular wallop to right-handed pitching.
“He feels like he has something left to give this game,” Cardinals outfielder Skip Schumaker said. “I’m happy for him. I still think he can play. I don’t think he was ready to hang it up yet.”
Then Schumaker said something that stings: “I think he could have picked a few different teams he could have played for.”
That’s right, Jimmy Baseball wanted to be a Cub. He didn’t have to be a Cub — he volunteered.
If this tryout lasts, we’ll see Edmonds at Busch Stadium on July 4, when the Cubs open a three-game series in St. Louis. What will Cardinals fans do ?
I asked my pal Will Leitch, editor of deadspin. com and a passionate but reasonable lifelong Cardinals fan.
“I don’t think Jim understands what this means,” Leitch said. “By signing with the Cubs, he may be thinking he’s getting back at Cardinals management. But the fans who loved him, we’re the ones who will feel this. The fan base is forever.”
So let’s move ahead.
“Can we really give Edmonds a standing ovation when he’s wearing a Cubs uniform ? Can we do really do that ? I’m not sure we can,” Leitch said. “Any other uniform, sure. It’s easy. But that uniform ?
“ And if we do give him a standing ovation, he’d better strike out and sit down.”