3/21 Cubs lineup & more
Aramis Ramirez was scratched from Monday’s lineup. He went home Saturday with a 102-degree fever. Jeff Baker was scheduled to start at third against the Angels.
* Kerry Wood and James Russell were to throw in a Minor League game at Fitch Park on Monday.
* Angel Guzman shifted his rehab to the Minor League camp. He was scheduled to throw batting practice Wednesday and could get into a game there in one week. He’s coming off right shoulder surgery, which forced him to miss all of 2010. “He’s certain he’s coming back,” Mike Quade said of Guzman.
* Infielder Augie Ojeda was scheduled to have a cortisone shot on Monday. He’s been limited because of back spasms.
Winds are gusting up to 35 mph in the Valley today. Here’s Monday’s lineup:
RF Fukudome
SS Castro
CF Byrd
1B Pena
C Soto
LF Soriano
3B Baker
2B Barney
P Cashner
– Carrie Muskat
mlblogsmuskat1
Hi Carrie,
Isn’t it amazing that you’re looking at a lineup starting with a Japanese player, including three Dominican-born players, one Puerto Rican born player, a Southern black man, a guy that was born in Germany (was Baker a military kid?) a Texan kid and a kid named Darwin from the Pacific Northwest?
Though I don’t know if the World Baseball Classic is the right format, I do believe that the strength of baseball is it’s international reach. I hope that there is a strong effort being made to reach out into new countries that haven’t yet caught baseball fever. Think about how small the DR is and how many great players come from there. Think if India went baseball crazy…how much talent there must be in a country of 1 billion people. We could stop talking about contraction and start thinking more globally about the game. Does MLB charge for internet access games overseas? They shouldn’t.
I love watching football, but baseball is my passion. I hope we can pass that on to my son’s generation, but I fear that like my grandfather’s love of the Masons, America is growing weary of a game that is deemed to slow for today’s youth. It’s a beautiful game, but unless you’re in pinstripes or from Southie you’re probably not going to get more than 2 seconds on SportsCenter on any given night.
Keith