Roosters and Ramirez

Aramis Ramirez doesn't want to talk about cockfighting.That game is popular in the Dominican Republic, but it's usually frowned on in the United States. A recent story in the press says that Ramirez raises roosters for cockfighting when he's at home in the Dominican Republic. Ramirez doesn't deny this, but he told the press that the culture is different in his country and that he doesn't want to get involved in discussions about the sport in the United States. He just wants to talk about baseball. That's fine with everyone here at New Moon.

Bad to Worse

First Soriano gets hurt. Now Ramirez has a sore wrist, which may or may not indicate a serious problem.

What will happen next? I'd like to predict that the remaining Cub batters will start hitting the ball. But it's bad luck to predict anything, especially anything related to baseball.

Carlos Zambrano had a bad night at the plate Wednesday against the Astros. With the bases loaded in the fourth inning, Big Z struck out. Frustrated to the max, he broke the bat across his leg. If I tried that, I'd break my leg and not the bat.

And Zambrano didn't have much luck on the mound either. He gave up seven runs on eight hits.

In case you lost count, the Cubs have now lost four in a row.

Guarded Optimism for Cubs

After the Cubs 10-1 victory over the Mets last night, we've adopted a policy of guarded optimism. Zambrano looked good over the course of eight innings, giving up only one run, allowing six hits, and striking out three.

Zambrano did all this while changing his delivery. He had been delivering in a way that allowed opposing batters to see his grip on the ball, thereby knowing what the pitch would be. Knowing the pitch in advance allows a hitter to quickly raise his batting average, and most pitching coaches deplore the practise of early revelation.

Aramis Ramirez led the offensive frenzy for the Cubs, hitting a grand slam home run in the sixth inning.

As a result of these heroics, we are now guardedly optimistic about the Cubs, which means we think the North Side boys will not finish last in the Central Division.

We wouldn't want to say more than that. If we did say more than that, the Cubs would be sure to finish last in their division. We dare not mess with this superstition.