4/05/2005 09:11:00 AM by Rob

Mixed bag

Well, I'll start with the bad news. You live by the sword, you'll die by it, too, and when James Augustine decided to poop the bed last night, the Illini had no choice but to shoot threes every time down the court. Twelve for forty will not win most games, and certainly not in the National Championship game. It was a helluva ride this year, and this Illini fan certainly has no complaints. Deron Williams is going to be a hella pro 2-guard. Sean May, on the other hand, could be a great pro player, but he's gonna have to push himself away from the buffet once in a while. If he could have gone 38-40, even 35 minutes, the Illini wouldn't have come within 20 of UNC.

As for the Chubbies, mostly sunny today! What's not to like about 23 base hits? Everyone wearing blue in the Phoenix area was fighing for a bat. Good gravy, everything was Down and Hard, fundamental baseball, for Christ's Sakes!!! Corey even waited out a walk!! My biggest hope is that we REMEMBER whatever we learned this spring, because watching eight guys take level swings and going with what was pitched was a thing of fuckin' beauty.

I wonder WTF is wrong with Javier Vazquez? How long will it take to get the New York out of him? He tossed up Meat, and the Cubs ate all day!

Finally, we get to the saga of Carlos Zambrano. Baker was right to yank him. I'm actually shocked to shit that he had the nuts to make that call. It was a 9-3 game, but the sacks were juiced, and the way he was huffing and puffing out there, it was quite conceivable that Arizona could come back and make a game out of it.

But the result was that Z lost a sure easy win, and if you're the kind of guy who could win 20, and you only get 33-34 starts in a good year, every win counts. He got fucked on the corners, yes. It wasn't even funny. But he needs to be able to control himself. He should have gotten that last out. He wanted it, sure, but wanting it isn't always enough. You have to hold yourself together. He should be forced to watch re-runs of Greg Maddux pitching, every single day.

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