Diehard Cubs fan Bill Murray has led the crowd through "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" countless times at Chicago"s Wrigley Field throughout the years, but never has the actor sung the tune at a Cubs World Series game.
With the Cubs playing in their first World Series home game since 1945, Murray was obviously pumped up, and that enthusiasm was captured in his passionate, somewhat loony rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" Friday night.
"It"s the bottom of the 7th inning, the last chance to order beer. But we didn"t come here to drink beer; we came here to win this ballgame," Murray yelled to the Wrigley faithful. "In order to sing the right lyric "Take me out to the crowd" you need to sing it like our greatest American entertainer, Mr. Daffy Duck. So I want you to spray it and don"t say it."
Murray then proceeded to lead the crowd in the singing of the 7th inning anthem in the style of the Looney Tunes character and Space Jam co-star, accentuating his S"s so they spritzed saliva on delivery.
"Let"s get some runs, suckers," Murray declared after the rendition ended. Unfortunately, the Cubs went on to lose the game 1-0, putting the team in a 2-1 hole heading into Saturday"s Game 4 at Wrigley.
CHICAGO Nervous time showed up late to the Wrigleyville party Friday night. It arrived unexpectedly and under the cover of darkness.
All day, starting at daybreak, the denizens of Chicago Cubs baseball poured into this neighborhood with great expectations. They were drinking beer at 5 a.m. They crowded the streets. They sang. They chanted.
For those who didnt have a ticket to the game, bars were charging upwards of $200 cover charges to come in and watch on television. In the two hours leading up to first pitch, other bars and restaurants were charging $20 to $25 just for the privilege of entering the establishment to buy a drink, or dinner.
One person flew in from Asia without a ticket simply to be in Chicago to soak in the atmosphere. Another flew in from Belfast, Ireland. And those are two we know of without canvassing the block.
For those who did have a ticket to the game, the Wrigley Field gates, scheduled to open at 5 p.m., were opened some 40 minutes early, simply to relieve congestion on the streets.
Then, with the wind blowing out and conditions perfect for one of those high-scoring slugfests that Wrigley is famous for, Clevelands Josh Tomlin and the Cubs Kyle Hendricks went to work. And in the seventh inning, a man with a breakfast-cereal name took a one-out hack that had the same effect as clicking mute on your television remote control.
Yes, nervous time showed up well before Coco Crisp swung and Clevelands ace bullpen delivered the gutsy 1-0 victory that catapulted the Indians to a two-games-to-one World Series lead with ace Corey Kluber ready to start Game 4 on short rest Saturday night.
Though Hendricks did a nice job of moving the ball around and avoiding damage, the Indians put nearly as much traffic on the bases as there was outside on Clark and Addison Streets. In each of the first five innings, Cleveland put at least one runner on base.
Then Crisp broke the ice, and down to their final nine outs at that point, Wrigley Field seemed to sway and writhe with each at-bat.
It should have been doable for Chicago. Cleveland manager Terry Francona went with relief ace Andrew Miller early, in the fifth, and Crisps hero moment came as he was pinch-hitting for Miller.
So Miller was gone for those final nine outs. But setup man Bryan Shaw and closer Cody Allen, as they were against Boston and Toronto, were enough.
I knew during batting practice we just needed to get our hits, said Ben Zobrist, one of the few Cubs who has been doing that with consistency this postseason. Sometimes when you see the wind blowing out, you try to do too much.
I didnt see one particular guy doing it, but when you see the wind blowing out before a game, you start licking your chops more than you should. Hopefully that wasnt the case tonight.
Wrigleyville was licking its chops all day.
The Cubs? This was the fourth time this postseason theyve been shut out.
Remember last year when they ran into the buzzsaw that was the New York Mets" pitching? That was no small part of the reason for this years remodel, signing Zobrist and Jason Heyward.
Yet, the Cubs now become the first team since the 1905 Philadelphia Athletics to suffer four shutouts in a single postseason.
Ironic, isnt it, that you have to go all the way back before the Cubs last World Series title in 1908 for that?
It was our first time seeing [Tomlin], but hes a fly-ball pitcher and the wind was blowing out, Anthony Rizzo said. Its crazy how we dont hit a fly ball.
Tomlin is a nice pitcher who works the outer edges of the strike zone and is baffling when hes on. He also surrendered 36 home runs this summer, third-most in the major leagues.
And zilch from the Cubs.
Now, here comes Kluber, which is why Friday nights loss could become dangerously pivotal for the Cubs. They didnt even dent him in Game 1 in Cleveland. If they dont figure something out, theyre in real danger of falling behind three games to one.
I know its hard to come back from 2-1, Chicago catcher Miguel Montero said. But weve been there before and come back.
I know its different in the World Series, but it shouldnt be different because weve got a good team.
The Cubs are hanging their blue caps on the fact that since they just saw Kluber, h**l be easier to hit this time. As far as Zobrist is concerned, Were going to have to beat Kluber, anyway if the Cubs are to win the World Series.
So why not Saturday?
We know what to expect now, outfielder Jason Heyward said. Just try to keep it simple. Not do too much. Youve got to take what he gives you. Hes probably not going to give you a lot.
But, the Cubs figured out Clayton Kershaw with repeated viewings. So...
Hes on three days" rest, Rizzo said. Just throwing it out there, he isnt going to be as sharp as he was in the first game.
Rizzo paused, then wryly added, Even if he is, Im going to convince myself that hes not.
It isnt just Kluber. The Indians now are 23-0 this season in games in which Miller and Cody Allen both pitch.
And while the Cubs have been shut out four times this postseason, Clevelands pitching has been off the charts: The Indians have racked up five shutouts against Boston, Toronto and now Chicago.
Maybe the Cubs could have avoided this one, maybe, had Jorge Soler run hard out of the box in the seventh inning when he skied a ball down the right-field line that Lonnie Chisenhall couldnt catch against the wall. Thinking it was a fly out at first, Soler jogged partway down the first-base line. When the ball ricocheted away from Chisenhall, Soler turned on the afterburners and wound up with a standup triple.
Zobrist didnt think Soler could have made it all the way around to score.
No, he said. Chisenhall got back to it quick enough that [Soler] wouldnt have been able to make it even if he was sprinting out of the box.
Even explaining it that way, you wonder how in the world any player can Cadillac it partway down the line in a World Series game. It was bad form, especially in such a close, tense game.
As it is, the Cubs margin for error is getting smaller by the day. On a historic night in Wrigleyville, it wasnt the way things were supposed to turn out.
Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
Photo Credit Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto Agency
1. Get ready for Game of Thrones, brought to you by AT&T.
The telecommunications giant has agreed to purchase Time Warner, the owner of HBO and CNN, for around $85 billion.
If the deal passes regulatory scrutiny no sure thing, with both presidential candidates promising to crack down on corporate megapowers it would create a media colossus.
Well have the worlds best premium content with the networks to deliver it to every screen, said AT&Ts chief executive.
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Photo Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
2. The presidential candidates are headed into the homestretch, with just over two weeks to go to Election Day.
Hillary Clinton, who holds a strong lead in most national polls, visited Ohio on Friday to start a multiday tour of swing states.
Gender issues have taken on a surprisingly powerful significance. At the candidates third and final debate, Mrs. Clinton spoke about Donald J. Trumps criticisms of women who have accused him of sexual assault and harassment.
He goes after their dignity, their self-worth, Mrs. Clinton said. And I dont think there is a woman anywhere who doesnt know what that feels like.
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Photo Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times
3. Mr. Trump toured the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania on Saturday and said that he hoped to heal the divisions of the country.
The Republican nominee tried to soothe a rattled political establishment, softening his position in the debate that he might not accept the result of the general election. He said that he would accept a clear election result.
Mr. Trump has raised concerns that the election might be rigged, but experts say that very little voter fraud has been documented in recent decades.
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Photo Credit Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
4. Twitter, Netflix, Airbnb and other websites (including our own) were inaccessible to many people on Friday after an attack on Dyn, a company that manages crucial parts of the internets infrastructure.
The assault, which flooded Dyns servers with traffic, appears to have relied on hundreds of thousands of internet-connected devices like cameras, baby monitors and home routers that had been infected with malware.
Election officials are concerned that similar attacks could affect voting. Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia permit internet voting for overseas military and civilians, and Alaska allows any citizen to vote online.
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Photo Credit Jon Durr/USA Today Sports, via Reuters
5. Chicagos baseball curse has been broken.
The Cubs will play in their first World Series since 1945, facing the Cleveland Indians. The series begins on Tuesday.
Chicago captured the National League pennant on Saturday with a 5-0 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers before a euphoric throng at Chicagos Wrigley Field. (We mistakenly said earlier that Cleveland captured the National League pennant.)
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Photo Credit Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
6. Sports fans, rejoice: This is the one week of the year when teams from all four major leagues will compete.
The N.B.A. begins its season on Tuesday with a game between the New York Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the leagues reigning champion. But the sports most closely watched player will be Kevin Durant, the all-star who now plays for the Golden State Warriors. The team may have the most talent-laden roster in N.B.A. history.
I took a leap, Durant said in July about his decision to leave Oklahoma City and head west.
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Photo Credit Nicole Tung for The New York Times
7. Syrian refugees who settled in Canada, and the citizens sponsoring them, are facing a wrenching question: What can be done about the relatives left behind?
Mouhamad al-Hajj, his wife and their four children are slowly adapting to life in Toronto. But in Lebanon, Mr. Hajjs brother Ali remains a stranded refugee, living with his family in a 6-by-10-foot shed.
As Canadians work to help their new arrivals move forward, they and the immigrants who migrated are haunted by messages and pleas from those still caught in crisis.
8. Iraqi and Kurdish forces have begun a campaign to retake Mosul, the Islamic States last major stronghold in Iraq.
The million or more civilians left in the city face a bleak choice: stay, and risk being taken hostage or caught up in the combat; go, and risk sniper attacks, roadside bombs and life in hardscrabble aid camps.
Militants have been entrenched in Mosul for more than two years, and the Pentagon hopes to capture a trove of intelligence data as Iraqi forces advance into the city in the coming weeks.
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Photo Credit Brendan Bannon for The New York Times
9. A landmark global deal to cut the use of a chemical found in air-conditioners and refrigerators could have a profound effect in slowing climate change.
Secretary of State John Kerry called it the biggest thing we can do in one giant swoop.
Chemical companies, betting that they can create and profit from environmentally friendly options, were among the deals most ardent backers. But one leading alternative, a refrigerant called HFO-1234yf that is becoming standard in many new cars, has some significant drawbacks. It is expensive and flammable.
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Photo Credit Caitlin Ochs for The New York Times
10. Finally, subway savvy. An affinity for kale. Endless practicing and cramming: for school tests, theater auditions, gospel concerts, photography workshops and sports team tryouts.
What makes a New York City teenager a New York kid? About a dozen of them gave us a glimpse of their world, through videos, photos and stories about the urban world they inhabit.
I like the noise; it helps me sleep at night, said Sonia Smith, 11, who lives in the Bronx. I feel like I know the city is still awake and protecting me.
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(CBS)Earlier this week,I made my last trip of the season to Sox Park. Every year when the South Side Nine arent headed toward the postseason, I make one final pilgrimage to 35th andShields to get all the stuff I need to carry me through winter. Its been too frequent over the last 10 years.
This trip usually coincides with me thinking about which team Im going to root for in the postseason, because the WhiteSox arent in it, but Ive already made that decision this year.
This White Sox fan is rooting for the Cubs.
I might be alone in this (Im guessing Im not), but even as a White Sox fan, Ive admired how the Cubs have built their team. It started with a clear-eyed assessment of organizational needs. The time for feelings and nostalgia was over. Theo Epstein and his crew went through every department and asked a simple question: How can we do it better? Then, Cubs ownership spared no expense in making that happen. From computers to extra bodies in the scouting department to a new clubhouse and even the video board, the Cubs were reborn. They took another step in their journey in clinching the NL Central crown late Thursday.
There are too many great moves for me to rehash all of them. But needless to say, through every level of the organization, theres strength and foresight. Their ability to formulate and stick to a plan has me hoping that the brain trust will be proved right. Granted, the postseason is a crapshoot and not always indicative of the best team in the game, which the Cubs have been since they left Arizona.
Im a baseball sinner, and I know it. I covet what my neighbor has. I covet their decisiveness and vision. In the last two seasons, the Cubs success has turned up the heat on the White Sox. If they win, my hope is that the byproduct is the White Sox getting their acttogether, but thats not the only reason why Im hoping the North Side has success.
With the one glaring exception of Aroldis Chapman, this is reallylikable team. How can you not want the cancer survivors in Jon Lester andAnthony Rizzo to win? How can you look at the quiet force that is Kris Bryant and not wish the best for him? Or Kyle Hendricks or Dexter Fowler or Grandpa Rossy. I want to see the Javy Baez swipe tag on the biggest stage, and d**n if I dont look with envy every time manager Joe Maddon steps in front of a microphone. Even John Lackeys get off my lawn act is endearing because of the rest of these dudes.
Im not looking to jump on your bandwagon. I love my team, even when Im furious with them. Its your party, Cubs fans, and I havent earned entry. But if your boys pull this off, Ill tip my White Sox cap as the parade goes by. Cant believe Im saying this, but Go Cubs Go!
Laurence Holmes hosts the Laurence Holmes Show on 670 The Score. Follow him on Twitter@LaurenceWHolmes.
Fifteen runs scored and one run given up in two victories yeah, I think thats what Joe Maddon was talking about when he preached the importance of a fast start for his Cubs.
The manager wants more than a 2-0 record, of course, and his request seems reasonable. Starting Thursday, the Cubs have a four-game road series against the improved Diamondbacks, who added Zack Greinke in the offseason. Thats followed by two three-game series at Wrigley Field against the bad Reds and the hard-hitting Rockies, respectively.
Mt. Everest, its not.
This is a chance for the Cubs to send a message to the rest of the National League that the burden of favorite feels more like a feather than an anvil. More importantly, it will reinforce to the Cubs that they deserve all the accolades that have been coming their way since they made it to the N.L. Championship Series last season.
With Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Jason Heyward and Kyle Schwarber, the Cubs lineup is implied menace before anybody steps to the plate. So when Matt Szczur, who had just 80 major-league games under his belt heading into the season, drives in four runs in two games, its borderline unfair to the competition. And with Dexter Fowler going 5-for-8 from the leadoff spot, well, forget about it.
Its only two games, but its worth noting that the last time the Cubs started 2-0 was 1995. Thats a strange, almost-unbelievable statistic from a franchise with a lot of strange and unbelievable history behind it.
The 95 team won its first four games but ended up 73-71, good for third in the division. That might serve as a cautionary tale about the unreliability of fast starts, but it has nothing to do with this team, which is loaded.
The Cubs could be 10-2 or 9-3 after the first 12 games. That would be a nice way to go into their next series, which is on the road. You might have heard of the opponent the Cardinals.
