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 Braves vs. Cubs SI's Jeff Pearlman reports from Chicago-Atlanta series
Posted: Saturday October 03, 1998 03:38 PM
I am sitting in room 506 of the Chicago Hyatt Regency, and my thoughts are on life's wacky contradictions. Friday morning, while checking in, I happened across a walking prune. The woman's head was shriveled and iodine-dark. Her eyes -- her actual eyes -- seemed remarkably wrinkled. For a moment, I considered asking for an autograph --it's not often one runs into Prune Lady No. 2 from those old Fruit of the Loom commercials. As it turns out, the Hyatt is hosting this weekend's gala International Tanning Trade Expo '98. The sponsor is, uhhm, Looking Fit magazine. Contradictions, contradictions, contradictions. They're all over the place. Tonight, in the most important game of their soon-to-be-dead season, the Cubs start rookie Kerry Wood against Greg Maddux. The thinking, at least here in Chi-town, is that Wood's head will overwhelm aged Atlanta. One problem, though: Wood is Texas through-and-through. Chicago, as I write, is cold as death. Contradictions, contradictions, contradictions ... "I've never pitched in weather like this before," Wood said Friday evening, sitting beneath some risky pipes in the bowels of Wrigley. "It's all hot weather where I'm from. I've never pitched in sleeves before. I have to figure this thing out." Wood hasn't asked any of Chicago's veteran pitchers about frigid throwing, opting instead to learn as he goes. As a Terry Mulholland or Kevin Tapani or Mike Morgan would've surely told him, it's a helluva lot different. Throwing hard hurts. Curveballs can break sharper in crisp air, but it's also more difficult to keep a grip. A fastball is a fastball, unless there's any numbness. That's when a fastball becomes a meatball (a frozen one, like Mama Pearlman used to serve). "I wouldn't say I have an advantage from pitching here so often," said Maddux, "but I know what to expect."
No. 1, to Sammy Sosa before Thursday night's Game 2 in Atlanta: "If you could talk to Mark McGwire right now, what would you tell him?" Suggested answer: "Sucker." No. 2, to Greg Maddux, Friday evening at Wrigley Field: "Is there any part of you that's pulling for the Cubs?" Suggested answer: "Yeah, I've always dreamed of losing in the first round of the playoffs."
Whenever Sosa is asked anything -- How did you feel at the plate? What'd you think of Smoltz? Has the socio-economic impact of the Russian stock market collapse affected global warming within the northern hemisphere? -- he starts the answer with "Well, I have to say." This isn't really an insult (Sosa's first language isn't English), just an insulting observation.
"The reality in baseball is that the teams with the most money can always achieve success every year," he said. "They can afford winning. For us, it will be more difficult. It's hard to keep everyone you have nowadays, with the way the bidding goes. We can win here for a long time. But it's harder."
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