My favorite story
Red Sox win first championship since 1918. Coincidentally, I covered the 1994 New York Rangers winning their first Stanley Cup since 1940 and nearly covered the first Cubs pennant since 1945 . . . until, well, you know.
Best game I covered
Game 5, National League Championship Series. Jeff Kent’s walk-off, three-run homer in the ninth for the Astros beat the Cardinals 3-0. Brandon Backe and Woody Williams both allowed only one hit in a classic postseason pitching duel. Old-school baseball still rules.
Play of the year
June 13: Cubs 6, Anaheim 5 (15 innings). Todd Hollandsworth’s game-saving catch while hitting the right-field wall face-first was the kind of stuff that made you think this just might be one of those magical seasons. Alas, it was only another Cubs mirage.
Favorite player to interview
Frank Thomas. While trying to convince the Big Hurt to end his media boycott during batting practice before a White Sox-Cubs game, Aaron Rowand whisked me away from the cage. “Would you please harass Frank later,” Rowand pleaded. Maybe next year.
Most telling moment I saw off the field
Dueling stereos in Cubs clubhouse. With Moises Alou listening to salsa and playing cards on one side of the clubhouse, Kyle Farnsworth cranked up an AC/DC song on the clubhouse stereo 20 feet away. The boom box was broken by season’s end by an anonymous attacker, symbolizing the schizophrenic season.
Funniest quote I got
Why do you refer to yourself as idiots? “We’re just not too bright a bunch of guys–we’re idiots,” the Red Sox’s Johnny Damon replied. “We have no clue. We just go out and swing the bat and hope the ball falls in our gloves.”
Idiot savants.
I covered a lot of games this year, but I wish I had seen
The Pacers-Pistons brawl. Spoiled millionaires beating up paying customers who act like hooligans. . . . Priceless.
To-do list
Keep searching for the tastiest Italian sausage in North America.
Interview Bartman.
Best road trip
Cincinnati, Florida, Pittsburgh and New York: a four-city, 11-game trip, the last of the season. Cubs were 8-1 on the trip until LaTroy Hawkins blew a three-run lead in the ninth and Kent Mercker served up the game-winning homer in a 4-3 loss to the Mets at Shea. Next day, Alou claims there’s an umpiring vendetta against him after another loss. One of the most surrealistic trips imaginable. Bad for Cubs. Good for thematic motif.
Worst road trip
Cincinnati, Florida, Pittsburgh and New York: (see best road trip).
Second-guessing myself
Predicting the Cubs to win the National League pennant made me a victim of my own hype.
Story line on my beat for 2005
Sammy Sosa’s fate. Can Mark Prior and Kerry Wood rebound? Can the Cubs avoid yet another stunning collapse, as in the 2003 NLCS and the final week of 2004?
