He is perhaps the most concerning player on the team.  At the age of 27, Carlos Zambrano has now logged 1,382 innings of work - and he's averaged 211 a year since he became a full-time starter for the Cubs in 2003 at the age of 22.  He consistently throws 100+ pitches a game.  He signed a massive contract extension late in the 2007 season, guaranteeing him $91.5 million for 5 seasons.  He spent the first year of that contract battling bizarre maladies, he threw a no-hitter in early September, and he's the craziest, fiercest Cubs pitcher I've ever seen.

It's hard to say if the 2008 season was a success for The Big Moose.  Yes, he won 14 games to only 6 losses.  Yes, he cut down on walks, from 101 last season to 72 in '08.  Yes, he reduced his ERA from 3.95 to 3.91.  But on the negatory side, Zambrano threw the fewest innings since he became a starter - 188.2 in 30 starts.  He left more than one game early due to arm bizarreness, he was diagnosed with having rotator cuff tendinitis, and he only struck out 130 guys - down from 170 in 2007 and 210 in 2006.

Basically, the question has to be not if Carlos will eventually lose a lot of time due to arm problems, but when.  His shoulder and elbow seem to be ticking time bombs and we have seen games where Zambrano battled through seriously decreased velocity, although there seems to be some argument that his problems may mostly be mechanical. But just ask Kerry Wood - if your mechanics are bad enough for long enough, sooner or later, your body will fall apart.

Don't get me wrong.  I remain a tremendous Zambrano fan, and as I have joked for a very long time, Carlos may never suffer from a serious arm injury because his shoulder and elbow might be too afraid of him to get hurt.  More to the point, the Moose is one player who will not hesitate to pitch hurt, and I believe that he could have a knife sticking out of his right forearm and he'd still go out there and work 5 innings if he had to.  Carlos Zambrano is just that tough.

All told, the biggest problem with Carlos's season was that, when the wheels came off in August and September - two of his worst months ever - Lou* came to the conclusion that he wasn't reliable enough to start Game One of the NLDS.  Consequently, the Cubs turned to Ryan Dempster who pitched with his balls shriveled up into his cavity against the Dodgers.  When Zambrano pitched the following night, it was already too late, and he gave a good-but-not-good-enough performance.  Had he pitched that effectively in Game One, then the Cubs very well might have seized the momentum.  (But probably not.)

(*Okay, fine, I sided with Lou on the decision, as did probably almost all of us)

One thing we cannot criticize, however, was his hitting in '08.  Carlos has been a fantastic hitter throughouth is career - at least, for a pitcher - and he really rose the bar this past season.  In 83 at bats, the Moose batted .337 with 4 doubles, 1 triple, 4 homers, 14 RBI, and an OPS of .891.  In other words, he was perhaps the best pinch hitter on the team when not pitching.  He had hitting and RBI streaks that went into the double digits, something most regular hitters fail to accomplish.  Oh, and in his career, the Moose now has 16 homeruns and 47 RBI in 494 at bats.  It's easy to imagine that, as an every day hitter, Carlos might actually be able to carry his weight in the batter's box.

I don't know what the future will bring for Zambrano.  Perhaps it will be a healthy 2009, perhaps not.  But he has been the cornerstone of the Chicago Cubs starting rotation for six years now, and he's still a few seasons from turning 30.  Maybe he's as tough as we think he is, and maybe he'll get over the tendinitis and other various arm ailments that have impeded his path to Cy Young Glory.  Or maybe the 1,200+ innings of work in 6 seasons will finally take their toll.  But ultimately, the 2008 season was a successful one for Zambrano, although I can't help but believe that, had he stayed healthy, the Cubs would have won 100 and perhaps they would have won even more than that.

Game 1 hurt. The innocence of this team has been completely demolished. Looking down from afar, they look the same as all the other cubs teams. Personally, I'm not much better.I'm devastated. My faith in the goodness of the world has been destroyed, after one game. (I'm not actually that bad, I'm not straddling the ledge like so many other cubs fans, but I am pretty bummed) It reminds me of the movie Platoon a little bit, after they find the one soldier has been tortured and mutilated and killed by the vietcong, and they are full of hatred. Ryan Dempster's body is laying in the middle of some river in Vietnam, his blood trickling away with the slow current, and I'm pissed about it. Thats how I feel.

But today, Zambrano pitches. Zambrano is crazy and unreliable and damn talented and unpredictable. He will be fired up, and he wants to win this game probably more than any person on the planet. He's been so hit and miss this season that he can't be trusted, but his intensity and his not give a fuck attitude is perfect for this situation.

In Platoon, after the guy is killed they are pissed off. And they have to take a village following Tom Berenger's character, who they hate because he is crazy and kills everyone, and they know they can't trust him. But after he finds his friend's body in the river, Charlie Sheen says about Barnes(Tom Berenger): "Barnes was the eye of our rage. And through him, our captain Ahab, we would set things right again. That day we loved him."

To me, that is how I feel about Zambrano. As a cubs fan, our sense of rationality is gone. Zambrano's antics this year have given many cubs fans headaches (not me, I still love him), but I even am queasy about him starting this game with the way he has been pitching. However, his intensity, his qualities that make him so frustating and worrisome, are exactly what make him so appealing today. Not despite of, but because of his flaws, this is the man I want on the mound today. And despite everything that has been said in the media, Z has a history of being clutch. (Sorry, season openers don't count)

Of course, in the movie, they turned to Barnes and he killed innocent people and he just typically fucked everything up until Willem Dafoe comes into stop it, which is a distinct possibility with Zambrano today. But following Zambrano, the face of the organization, at this stage, in THIS game, doesn't just feel right, it is right.

Note from the Editor: I've actually uploaded the pictures so they're viewable on GROTA, and I've promoted the blog to the front page for the world to see.

I was driving home after classes on 43 South when my girlfriend called me to break the news: "My flight to Houston got cancelled from the Hurricane.  Looks like I don't get to see the Cubs down at Minute Maid this year."  You could tell she was pretty crushed about it but I tried to cheer her up with talks that maybe, just maybe, the series would be rescheduled somewhere nearby like St. Louis so we could still make a road trip to see it.

As a Chicago Suburbs resident transplanted to Milwaukee, I had been lucky enough to see another transplanted series the year before when the Indians and Angels came to town to hide under the roof of Miller Park from the snow.  It was a great time, and as a baseball fan in general, it is always nice to see baseball in any form sometimes.  However, I had no expectation that Miller Park was even in contention to be picked for an alternate, perhaps even "neutral" site for the Cubs/Astros series to take place.  My luck changed for the better on Saturday night when I found out the news: the series had been moved to Miller Park.  I couldn't have been more ecstatic when I heard the news (there may have been a possibility of terrible white boy dancing involved... I'll spare you the details and mental images).

I called my friend, John, a transplanted Houston native and law school classmante of mine, and we both arranged to get tickets and planned out our tailgate the next day.

Image above: Mike, John, and I tailgating.

When we got inside the ballpark, my friend John wanted to go down to the dugout area and see if he could flag down JR Towles, a friend of his from high school (Towles was John's catcher in HS).  While we waited, we got to talk a bit with Ed Wade, who was getting ready for an interview.  He didn't seem too thrilled about the amount of cubs fans at the game.  (I also learned later that the Astros wore their alternate jerseys and stationed themselves in the visitors dugout as a form of "protest").

After the first pitch you all know what happened.  Soriano Homers.  Felt great.  I really thought that would be one of the big highlights of the game and at the end most of us would be talking about how much we enjoy him in the leadoff spot, even if it doesn't make sense, for that purpose alone.

Fourth Inning: I get up to pee in the mid 4.  Get back with one man on.  I ask the usher how Bourn got on and she tells me it was a walk.  I reply with, "Good, no hits."  I had no idea the foreshadowing that happened at that moment.  Runner erased a second later on a DP ball.

Bottom 5: Lee's height enables him to make a sick catch to end the inning.  Butterflies start.

Bottom 6: I just got quiet.  My jaw can only clench together.  After the final out my girlfriend looked over, looked at the scoreboard, and states "I'm going to leave you alone."

Bottom 8: I hear a girl seated behind me ask her boyfriend why he is acting "so weird."  He replies that he can't talk to her about it, he'll tell her later, when the game is over.  She sighs and pouts, not understanding what is going on.

Bottom 9:  The place is rocking.  I can't hear myself think.  I don't want to think, for fear of ruining the moment somehow.  Two ground outs.  One out left.  Full Count.  Flashbulbs.  Game.  I let out a gutteral yell that can only be described as primal and my fists are clenched to the point where you'd think I was trying to make the knuckles pop out.  The team mobs the field in a big blue blur.

My phone vibrated with a text message.  It was my Father.  "I had Holtzman's.  Now you have your own memory."

Everything fell into place in that moment.  In those awestruck moments, I couldn't help but think that the Cubs weren't simply a baseball team: they were a destined team.  I have never felt such electricity in the air at a game in my life.  I can only hope to have that feeling again sometime soon.  Maybe this time, come October, my father and I can share the moment that eluded him in the '69 season.

Without further adieu, I will share my pics (courtesy of my girlfriend and her camera)

The Final Pitch:

The Celebration:

The Flooding of the Field:

The Scoreboard:

Me screaming like an idiot:

Ben Sheets, Philanthropist

Hope you all enjoy the photos!  Sorry for the quality of some of them... some are a bit grainy.

So I'm talking to Kurt earlier about how cool D.B.'s photos were and he goes and posts them all to the front page. Well, I could just sit there and say "yeah, they were cool photos, it doesn't matter he stole the idea from me" but I'm not like that. Oh no! Lucky for me I get a hot tip for something I can slap Kurt in the face with, for I don't have to scour the reader blogs, I get the stuff emailed to me directly! Yep, thanks to Steve McCoy I get to post never before seen on GROTA photos and look way cooler (well, less dorky) than Kurt. Haha!

Oh, and Steve also notes this was his kids' first ever Cubs game! I think that's called "doing it with style".

I'm not going to flood the page (although the occassion possibly merits it) but go take a look at the whole set. Full credit to Scott (and D.B.) for helping us get a little closer to this one.

Goat Reader D.B. has posted over on her GROTA blog a link to her flickr account. She took the liberty of capturing the event with her camera, proving forever that she was on hand to see it. (%$##@ lucky!)

Posted below are some highlights, but check out her flickr for the full monty.

Photo courtesy of D.B.

Photo courtesy of D.B.

Photo courtesy of D.B.

Photo courtesy of D.B.

Photo courtesy of D.B.

Photo courtesy of D.B.

Again, thanks to DB for the fantastic pictures. I, uh, didn't exactly ask for permission, per se, to post the pics here, but if you want to see the full set, just check out the post on the Readers Blog by DB.

Available here! Please excuse the damn netting which fouled up almost every shot!

http://flickr.com/photos/17986186@N08/sets/72157607296844330/

I remember.

The skies had been opened wide for 3 days straight, the rain pouring onto the ground. The earth swelled and the water rose above, puddles becoming ponds and ponds becoming lakes. The air shifted colder and colder, a sense of forboding permeating the day. People are suffering throughout the South as the flooding brought back unsettling thoughts of destruction and loss. Nothing was right in the world.

Until Carlos Zambrano took the mound, prepared to show Houston a REAL hurricane.

Like a gunslinger or a gladiator returning from oblivion, Zambrano took the mound and the fate of his squad in his right hand. Geovany Soto nodded his head and extended his fingers and the game was under way.

As if on queue, the rain stopped and moved to the East. As if knowing what was happening, the air warmed a bit and the clouds separated. Something was Brewing.

6th inning, seventh. Eighth inning, 9th.

Over three decades of waiting and there it was. Before our very eyes, another record was achieved and the first no-hitter since Milt Pappas was in the record books.

It was a symphony. It was a masterpiece.

I will remember where I was, my sons sleeping in the other rooms, too young to know what this meant.

I will remember hitting record on my DVR, knowing that this was something to cherish and keep forever.

I will remember forgetting all the wrongs and ills in the world, if only for just a couple moments, as My Team mobbed Our Ace.

I will remember my friend texting me to tell me that this was his greatest day as a Cubs fan. I could sense the tears welling in his eyes that he could not have watched it with his father who taught him to be a Cubs fan.

I will remember that this was something that I will tell my kids about when they are older.

This was the moment the 2008 Cubs ceased to be a team rather than The Team.

I will always remember September 14, 2008.

...I figured Senor Holy Shit Carlos Zambrano was good for about 100 pitches, and then Lou would come take him out. What IF he tried to take him out at that point, which would have been with 2 outs, facing Erstad? Z would have stripped Lou's flesh from his bones with his talons, sucked his marrow out, and wore Lou's skin as a frilly frock on his next trip back to Venezuela. So good times, all around?

Heh. My ass. Today I'm gonna write about God, and Mother Nature, and what the hell did I ever do to any of you to deserve what just went down? (In all honesty, it would have been exceedingly hard for me to attend a Sunday night baseball game in Milwaukee, drive home, then get up at 5 bells to come here today, but...) if it weren't for a lousy 14 dollar "check valve" that my contractor DIDN'T put in my house, my basement would have been dry, I would have been in BeerCity yesterday, and at least the opportunity would've been there for me and Wendy to buy tickets to see the FIRST CUBS NO-HITTER since Christ was a kid.

Dovetailing from my post on Friday, More Good Things happened besides history - the inflamed rotator cuff of our most intimidating pitcher seems to be fine. Our entire ballclub, which as recently as Wednesday morning seemed in freefall, now enjoys a 7-game lead for Home Field Advantage in the NL. When you consider Senor Holy Shit, Harden and Dempster, we have to be the prohibitive Short Series favorites. Throw our #4, Ted "the Cannibal" Lilly into the mix, we are the Long Series favorites, too. Who else has this? Now all Uncle Lou has to do is sit back and be judicious on how often he pitches his starters, uses his pen, and plays his hitters, strike that balance between work and rest, maybe give Dempster a few days of rest, maybe let Marmol try his hand at closing a game or two, and oh yeah, maybe pack Howry on the next scheduled trip to the Space Station. Not to mention that the no-no knocked the Sux (who were sweeping the Tigers) off tWWL's telecast last night! Take a suck of THAT, Ozzie Tourette!

Firstguessing, not secondguessing: I am not applying for my Nostradamus Psychic Friends membership card here, or anything, because over the past 36 years there have been scores of times I thought the time was ripe for a Cubs no-no. But it was clear to me from the first that Houston got pooched up the butt by Bud Lite, and it was obvious to me, to my wife, and anyone else watching this deal that the Asstrolls did NOT want to be there. They arrived in Milwaukee at 2:30 in the afternoon...checked into their hotel, the SAME hotel their opponent was occupying (?!?)...then went directly to the park and, as the "home team", checked into the Visitor's clubhouse. I assume that they had first choice as to what clubhouse they wanted to occupy, and I imagine the Visitor's accomodations at a Miller Park aren't as bad as, say, Beautiful Wrigley Field, but when you understand that major league ballplayers are not all Rhodes Scholars and are notorious creatures of habit, it really is not that surprising that they went out there and played like turds that fell out of a tall cow's butt.

I mean, I love Senor Holy Shit as much as the next man, and he is a very good pitcher, but last night he looked like Nolan Ryan and Mad Dog Maddux rolled up in one. He ain't THAT good, he kept bouncing 50-foot sliders up to the plate. I loved his post-game interview, when he said he kept seeing the scoreboard registering 98, 99 MPH for his pitches, which pumped him up more. Uh, Senor? That particular feature of Miller Park is notoriously inaccurate, you didn't just wake up feeling like the 1998 Kerry Wood. Like I said, I'm sure Senor Holy Shit didn't score a 35 on his ACT's.

The Cubs fan part of me has never felt such dominance. This team looks unstoppable in 7-game series. But just like most of the rest of the free world (and I would post the links as proof, but there's no need, just go to ANY sports-related site) deep down, I feel the Asstrolls are more the victims in this deal than the Cubs are conquerors. I understand the logistics of it all - it's raining seemingly everywhere, the Trop dome is not open today, the Hump dome was not open yesterday (Vikings). So the Beer dome was the only option, when you consider that the douchetube that runs the Asstrolls waited until late Saturday night to concede that it would be impossible to play ball in Houston. He was a greedy bastard, and his players paid for his avarice.

Eh, I just re-read my last sentence, so. Hey, Houston? How DO you like deez nutts? You suck, you're uniforms are ugly, there's gonna be another 25,000 Cubs fans in there again today. Why don't you just take another 10 whiffs and get the hell back home?

I would have been happy with a solid, quality outing. But we got extra gravy, more rolls, and they forgot to charge us for our drinks. BONG! I stole this pic from Desipio, but too damn bad, we all should share more. Love IS in the air...

Carlos Zambrano with the no hitter!

First no-hitter since Milt Pappas!

Milwaukee loses and it's a 7 game lead!

Now *that's* a pitcher I want in the playoffs.

Cubs.com is reporting that Carlos is simply suffering for a bout of rotator cuff tendonitis, which is probably the best we could have hoped for.  They say he will be out for a week and there's no reason to think they are being anything less than forthcoming.

Ask Dr. Jason: What is tendonitis?

Tendonitis of the rotator cuff is when is hurts to throw a baseball.  Similar to the flesh eating virus, tendonitis presents itself with the same symptoms as your basic flu, except for the fever, nausea, and vomitting.  The aches and pains part is the same, though.

The Cubs would be insane to bring him back next week unless the Brewers are threatening to overcome the Cubs for the Central lead and, even then, they're probably better off with Marshall.  In all seriousness, tendonitis is little tears in the tendons and absolutely nothing will help other than rest and anti-inflamation medication.  Let Carlos rest.  His rotator cuff is sleepy.

But still, good news.

This message was approved by the Mark Prior Institute