What are they saying?

Astros' win ends hopes for wild card
Henry Schulman, Chronicle Staff Writer (from SFGate.com)

Los Angeles -- What cruelty this business of baseball is. A team grinds and claws and bites its way to 91 wins, only to find it takes 92 to keep its World Series aspirations alive.

The 2004 Giants are finished after a meaningless 10-0 victory over the division-champion Dodgers on Sunday. Well, half the game was meaningless, the part after the fourth inning, when half a country away, the Houston Astros completed a 5-3 victory over the pliant Colorado Rockies to clinch the National League wild card.

As a result, the Giants (91-71) finished one game back in the wild-card race and two games back in the West.

Though it's tempting to cast a devil's eye toward the Rockies, who went 2- 8 against the Dodgers and Astros over the final two weeks and change, the Giants knew they had to look inward to understand why they are not going to the postseason for the first time since 2001.

"The Astros deserve it. They played better than we did," first baseman J. T. Snow said. "That's the thing about baseball. The teams that go to the playoffs deserve it because they played better over 162 games."

Said Marquis Grissom, whose two-run homer in the fifth inning gave him 90 RBIs: "I think we learned something this year, not to give away ballgames, stay competitive. Look at all the games we gave away. That's the difficult thing we learned as a group, what it takes to win."

The contrast could not have been more black and white before Sunday's game. The Giants were fighting for their lives and the Dodgers were throwing a keg party. They were inside their clubhouse autographing champagne bottles that were emptied the day before.

A sense of foreboding for the Giants turned to resignation as they watched the Astros jump to a 5-0 lead. Manager Felipe Alou, who addressed the team earlier in the morning, already had his concession thoughts in order.

"I know one thing," he said. "If we walk out of here not making the playoffs, my head won't be hanging because of the effort of this team every day. I know there are some clubs that fell terribly short that had high expectations that are not in the position we are in today. They went out and got some wonderful, expensive players. What happened?"

Jason Schmidt took the mound and pitched his best game in weeks, allowing two hits in six innings against a Dodgers team consisting largely of backups. He earned his career-best 18th victory and finished with 251 strikeouts, breaking Juan Marichal's 31-year-old San Francisco record of 248.

Schmidt was attempting to complete some serious business amid a carnival.

When the Astros' game ended, the final score was flashed in giant letters on the big video board, provoking an ovation from the crowd. After the fourth inning ended, the stadium folks rubbed it in by blasting "All My Exes Live in Texas" through the sound system.

Earlier, Dodgers manager Jim Tracy removed Steve Finley and Adrian Beltre after they took the field in the second inning so they could be recognized by the crowd. The change occurred after Kaz Ishii threw a pitch to A.J. Pierzynski, whose at-bat was interrupted as Chin-Feng Chen and Antonio Perez ran onto the field.

When the Houston game ended, the funereal mood in the Giants' dugout paradoxically brightened.

"I think it was bittersweet once they won," Schmidt said. "Everybody kind of relaxed. Guys were disappointed but we went out and had fun and got to see a lot of good things happen."

The Giants hit five home runs, by Grissom, Pedro Feliz, Deivi Cruz, Ray Durham and Jason Ellison, his first in the bigs. Two innings earlier, Ellison had his first RBI. Jesse Foppert finally got a chance to throw his first major- league pitch in more than a year following elbow-reconstruction surgery, and he struck out two of his four batters, a nice sendoff for the winter. Catcher Justin Knoedler caught his first inning.

Barry Bonds popped out and drew his 232nd walk before he was lifted in the fifth inning. He had a quiet final week, but finished with 703 career homers while winning his second batting title in three years with a .362 average.

Then there was Pierzynski, who played what might have been his final game with the Giants.

"If it was," he said, "it's kind of fitting that I hit into a double play. "

Indeed, Pierzynski grounded into his 27th of the season to break the franchise record of 26 that Billy Jurges set with the 1939 New York Giants and Sid Gordon matched in 1943. When informed of the record, Pierzynski smiled, raised his fist, yelled "Woo hoo!" and hollered his thanks to Alou for giving him a chance to play Sunday and set the mark.

"At least I'm in the record books for something," Pierzynski said. "I'm a guy who doesn't strike out a lot, I hit the ball on the ground and I can't run, so I'm going to hit into a lot of double plays."

More seriously, Pierzynski conveyed the emotional whirligig the Giants rode Sunday.

"We knew the situation," he said. "We realized the reality and we wanted to leave on a good note. Schmitty pitched a good game, and we won 91 games. We have nothing to hang our heads about. At the same time, we needed to win one more."
--------------------------------------

 

Choke? Injuries get blame (October 2, 2004)
BY TONI GINNETTI Staff Reporter

They have heard the boos in a week that saw their playoff hopes go up in smoke, even as a record 3 million fans passed through the turnstiles at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs know they have been portrayed negatively in the media, but they say they are a close team that has had a singular goal of winning all year.

"It's been very disappointing,'' Todd Walker said of the last week. "If we don't make the playoffs, it will be very difficult because of all that's happened this year. Everyone's getting booed. You'd like to think everyone's on your side, but that's not the case and that's how baseball goes.

"You have to do it for yourself. Inside this clubhouse, everyone loves each other. There are no problems in here.''

Walker did say "you feel bad for the people who are loyal to this team.'' And he shifted the blame away from the Cubs' final-week struggles.

"You can look back over the year,'' he said, "and the month we didn't have [Kerry Wood] and two months you don't have Mark Prior and three weeks without Sammy Sosa and not having Todd Hollandsworth to pinch-hit. If we don't make it, we'll lose by one or two games, and there had to be four or five more wins we would have had with those guys. It looks like [injuries] took too much out of us.''

 

Mariotti has been destroying the cubbies for the past week, go back & read his latest few columns, but here's the latest:

Another disappearing act for Sosa

October 4, 2004

BY JAY MARIOTTI SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

All that was missing were flying chunks of upper-deck concrete. Wrigley Field was crumbling Sunday, trembling amid the post-choke fallout from A Season of Mess, to quote the Rev. Johnnie B. It should shock no one that the most pathetic designated baby yet, inside baseball's nuttiest clubhouse, was Sammy Sosa.

Now, the asylum has finality, if also an impending winter of chaos and change.

There was Sosa, taking the most fraudulent day off since Ferris Bueller. There was the self-proclaimed gladiator, claiming to be ill, showing up late, seething over Dusty Baker's pregame criticism that he needs to be better prepared next season, failing to change into uniform, then reportedly leaving the park before the first pitch.

His actions, of course, are indefensible. Bottom line is, Sulkin' Sammy quit on the Cubs on the final afternoon of their miserable, choking-dog season. That made him a world-class hypocrite when he told the Sun-Times' Mike Kiley hours later, ''I'm tired of being blamed by Dusty Baker for all the failures of this club. I resent the inference that I'm not prepared. I live my life every minute every day to prepare for combat.''

If the war metaphors weren't painful enough, Sosa's mixed messages served only to reinforce the theme of my column Sunday: It's time to trade him and use his $17 million salary next year on wiser, healthier, younger reinforcements. His early exit angered Baker, who couldn't blame this one on the team broadcasters, and further exposed the three-time manager of the year as not having control of his clubhouse. Equally upset was general manager Jim Hendry, a development that might expedite trade talks. Maybe Sammy had a right to be quietly upset when Baker, asked if Sosa might be dealt, went public with concerns about an injury-prone, broken-down, .253-hitting, 35-year-old right fielder.

''I'd want him back if ... he's got to go to work this winter,'' Baker said. ''Get in tip-top shape mentally and physically. It's a big year for him.''

But Sosa had absolutely no right to go home. A gladiator never runs out on his teammates on the symbolic last day. He should have been in right field for the fans he purports to love, the players he annoys with his boom-box music and the manager who stuck by him when he was slumping throughout the second half. He should have been there for the organization that gave him $72 million over four years. He should have been there for his heart taps, his blown kisses, his legacy.

Now, he looks like a con man. Unless he apologizes quickly, such as today, Sosa has made it very easy for the Cubs to trade him.

All of which came on a day when Baker and the Fakers finally got something done. They can claim they contributed to running Chip Caray and perhaps The Evil Stoney out of town, which not only angers a cantankerous grandfather in the sky but underscores the sensitive, tight-sphinctered, rabbit-eared nature of Baker and some of his players.

With Caray's departure to a more professional organization in Atlanta, where the ultrasuccessful Braves bosses never would allow these clubhouse-vs.-booth battles, the focus turns to Steve Stone and whether he is next to go. After all, Stone and Caray are the real villains here if you listen to a clubhouse groan that unfortunately is gaining an audience among Cubs and Tribune Co. executives. Even now, when evidence is overwhelmingly clear that Baker and his players gagged under pressure, there is a noticeable whine in the manager's voice that he and his guys were treated unfairly.

''I'm trying to hang on and put everything together on a daily basis -- and not really getting much appreciation for the job we were doing,'' moped Baker, looking for love in all the wrong places after losing seven of eight critical games. ''What we got was criticism for what we weren't doing. Hey, man, these guys busted butt.''

Poor Dusty. He's even choking on the truth that his team choked. He should know he's getting little sympathy, and that if he doesn't do a better job of dealing with Cubdom's idiosyncrasies and expectations while nipping clubhouse complaining in the bud, he'll start hearing rumblings that he should be replaced in 2006. If he thinks otherwise, Baker should replay the echoes of a seventh-inning standing ovation. It was for Stone, courtesy of thousands of fans thanking him for his blunt analysis of the club and manager in case he is fired in coming weeks.

''Stoney! Stoney!'' they chanted, as Stone waved and a smiling, lame-duck Caray applauded his partner.

Woeful as the Cubs have been through time, this was their most embarrassing year of all. To think any contending sports team would allow team broadcasters to invade its competitive consciousness and become a major part of the season -- fair, honest and sometimes soft broadcasters, I should say -- is laughable. Cincinnati Reds voice Marty Brennaman spoke for many reasonable people when he said, "I used to be a Cubs fan, but no more. They are the most alibi-ingest, whiniest, cryingest bunch of excuse-makers I've ever seen, and they just got their due.''

The leader who let the sourpuss attitudes fester and unravel was Baker. Now you understand why Stone-Caray became an explosive issue -- Baker is as thin-skinned as Moises Alou, Kent Mercker and other booth critics. When he could have calmed things down, he chose to let his clubhouse churn with tension. Caray claimed Sunday that the raging storm had nothing to do with his departure, saying the Braves made a larger offer and that he'll have an opportunity to work with his father, Skip. But the club's ''offer'' included only a small raise, an indication that he really wasn't wanted back and that Tribune Co. -- a communications conglomerate -- is siding with the clubhouse on a freedom-of-speech issue. Shame on the Tribsters.

''I'd be less than honest if I said it didn't make a long year even longer,'' Caray said of the controversies.

Which is why Stone might be gone, too. If the Tribsters intend to bring him back, why not let him know as his 2005 option dangles? I asked him if he would ease up on criticism if asked. ''If I was 21, I might. At 57, I'm set in my ways,'' Stone said.

Therein lies the lesson of the 2004 Cubs. The color analyst had a spine, the manager and his players did not. Sammy Sosa might be the most spineless of all.

http://www.suntimes.com/index/mariotti.html

 

San Francisco Examiner - Too Little, Too Late

By John Nadel | Associated Press
Published on Monday, October 4, 2004

LOS ANGELES -- Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, Odalis Perez and the Los Angeles Dodgers are ready for the main event.

Perez came out swinging Sunday after the Dodgers lost a meaningless regular-season finale to the Giants 10-0.

"If we beat St. Louis, we're going to win the World Series," Perez said. "If we beat them, this is it: Dodgers champions."

Perez, 7-6 with a franchise-record 18 no-decisions and a 3.25 ERA, will oppose Woody Williams (11-8) Tuesday in St. Louis to begin the best-of-5 divisional series.

Sunday's game became meaningless for the Dodgers a day earlier, when Steve Finley's grand slam capped a seven-run, ninth-inning rally and gave them a 7-3 victory over the Giants and the NL West title.

As he promised beforehand, Giants manager Felipe Alou removed Barry Bonds and several other San Francisco regulars shortly after the Rockies-Astros game ended.

Bonds, who popped out and walked, won his second NL batting title in three seasons and shattered the on-base percentage and walks record he set two years ago.

The 40-year-old outfielder hit .362 and finished with a .610 on-base percentage, topping his old mark of .582. Bonds walked 232 times, 34 more than the record he set in 2002, and his 120 intentional walks obliterated the previous record of 68, also set by him two years ago.

With 45 homers, Bonds raised his career total to 703, trailing only Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714).

"Now you guys can go to the Dodgers and the Angels and the Yankees and Boston and Houston and go bother them," Bonds told reporters. "We controlled our own fate, we lost yesterday. That's the bottom line. I mean, you're upset, but you move on. It's life. It's baseball. Just turn it off and go to the next thing."

Jason Schmidt (18-7) allowed two hits in six dominant innings, walking two and striking out nine. He finished the season with 251 strikeouts, breaking the San Francisco record of 248 set by Juan Marichal in 1963.

Schmidt pitched hitless ball until Jose Hernandez hit a one-out double in the fifth.

 

Magowan assures changes are coming

by John Shea

Jeff Kent celebrated on Sunday, and the Giants mourned.

Joe Nathan and Russ Ortiz are going to the postseason, and the Giants are going home.

The team that was supposed to vanish long ago, based on the number of soft spots on its roster, finally vanished on Sunday despite a 10-0 whipping of the division champs. But the key thing is, the Giants did vanish.

All the maligned moves and non-moves since the 2002 World Series are at the forefront again because the Giants couldn't rally behind the most feared hitter in baseball history, falling short of the playoffs for the first time in three years.

In the fourth inning, when the final from Houston was posted on the Dodger Stadium scoreboard -- Astros 5, Rockies 3 -- the Giants' golden anniversary became official. Fifty straight years without winning a World Series.

Barry Bonds, signed through 2006, has two more tries.

"You try again. Why not?" Bonds said. "I don't have anything else to do."

Owner Peter Magowan, calling it a "good year in many respects," credited the Dodgers for their character and multiple comebacks in the season's final days, adding things might have been different if Robb Nen were healthy instead of sitting out his second straight season at $9 mil per.

Magowan said he expects next year's Giants to be better, but he's not promising to pay for elite players who become available. The Giants last winter didn't pursue Vladimir Guerrero or Gary Sheffield to protect Bonds, and both now are candidates to win the American League MVP award.

"It's unlikely you'll see a $14 million player on the Giants next year in addition to Barry Bonds," Magowan said. "That's too much money for two players. I don't think that's going to happen, but I think we'll have opportunities to find good players (who) will help us."

The Giants will pursue a run-producer, and it'll likely be a more affordable player such as Jose Guillen, who'll be on the trade block after being suspended by the Angels, or Moises Alou, whose 2005 option won't be exercised by the Cubs. Stick either in right field, for starters, and that's an upgrade.

Bonds, who campaigned for the Giants to sign a big-time hitter the day he was named MVP last winter, was asked if he'd like more help next year.

"The game just ended," he said. "Don't ask those questions right now."

It's almost unfair the number of on-field celebrations that Bonds has been forced to watch in his career, and Saturday's was added to the list after Steve Finley hit a grand slam to finish a ninth-inning comeback.

Despite the sorry ending, it can't be overlooked that J.T. Snow hit .327 or Marquis Grissom collected 22 homers and 90 RBIs or Jason Schmidt was an 18- game winner or Jim Brower tied the club record for appearances. But overall, with 91 wins and more runs than any NL team except St. Louis, it was a team that proved better than the sum of its parts, and that's a tough way to keep surviving.

"We always rebound. Every year, we rebound," Magowan said. "Next year starts tomorrow. I'm sure there will be changes. There always are."

A day after the Giants were eliminated by the Dodgers in the division race, their wild-card hopes were dashed by Kent's Astros. So in the fourth inning, Bonds got up from his dugout seat, slapped hands with an entire row of teammates, collected his bats and headed to the clubhouse.

He walked off as the league leader in batting, batting against righties, batting at home, batting during the day, batting with runners in scoring position, home runs per at-bat, RBIs per at-bat, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, walks and intentional walks.

But in the final week, Bonds was 2-for-16, though trainer Stan Conte said it wasn't because he tweaked his back and knee in the Giants' final home game eight days ago. Conte said Bonds' ailments troubled him for only one game, Tuesday night in San Diego.

"I was just tired. I mean, I played more games than anyone on this team at age 40," Bonds said. "It wore me down. But I had to be out there. You get in streaks. You go good, you go bad. We were still winning. My hitting or not hitting didn't have anything to do with what happened. What happened (Saturday) happened.

"You're upset, but you move on. It's life. It's baseball. It's easy. Turn it off. Go to the next thing.

"I'll take a week or two off and start up again."

E-mail John Shea at jshea@sfchronicle.com.

 

You know wat kinda pisses me off... the Giants can admit that the better team won and the Astros deserve to be in the playoffs, but the Cubs can't. It's about injuries or something else. Well ya know wat...the Astros were without Pettite and Miller for most of the season, but they clawed their way in.

 

that's typical of this cubs bunch. it's why they're taking so much heat nationally and at home right now. tons of excuses. lots of whining. no one says those kinds of things about the giants.

 

Do you expect anything else from the cubbies? It's always about something other than the team on the field...this year it's the broadcasters, the umpires, the fans, whoever. Last year it was Bartman & a baseball (I thought blowing that up was going to cure all the cubbies' ails?).

And I've heard something about a goat as well.

 

ha yeah thats true...i shouldn't be surprised by their constant whining...but it still ruffles my feathers...ESPECIALLY that comment Walker made about them being MUCH better than the 'STros and Giants on paper... WATEVER

 

Des Moines Register Column about Cubs

Keeler: No fun at Wrigley on Cubs' final day

By SEAN KEELER
REGISTER COLUMNIST
October 4, 2004


Chicago, Ill . - Zach Back of Waterloo came to Wrigleyville to party. He found a funeral instead.

"It's dead here," he said as he looked back longingly at Wrigley Field. First pitch of the Chicago Cubs' regular-season finale was up in a few minutes, and Addison Street was unusually thin for a sunny Sunday afternoon.

"This is the deadest I've ever seen (Wrigleyville). It's like a preseason game. It (stunk)."

It sure did. A pall hung over Wrigley Field, belying a brisk, postcard afternoon on the North Side. The team built for October glory spent the morning packing suitcases in shame.

The air was still moist with dew from the bursting of the Cubs' playoff bubble. Sammy Sosa showed up late and left early. Chip Caray signed off as the team's television play-by-play man. Some speculated that popular analyst Steve Stone could be next. Check your dignity at the door.

Oh. And in a related story, the Cubs ended their season with a cheerless 10-8 victory over the Atlanta Braves.

"It was tough to go out there," pitcher Greg Maddux droned after picking up the win, his 16th of the year. "It was embarrassing walking out on that field (Sunday).

"We won, but big deal. It just didn't feel right walking out on that field . . . it really should have mattered, and it didn't."

On Sept. 24, the Cubs had a 11/2-game lead in the National League wild card race. They lost seven of their next eight games, five by one run. Even by Cubs standards - 1969, 1984, 2003, etc. - it was a choke job for the ages.

"That's why you feel so bad," Maddux said. "It's not so much that you let yourself down, it's that you let down everyone else."

"This (year) has been the greatest disappointment in my career," said left fielder Moises Alou, who hit probably the quietest .293 with 39 home runs in Cubs history. "For us to be (done) on Oct. 3 . . . we can't look for any excuses."

Too little, too late. These Cubs led the National League in home runs, total bases, b****ing, moaning and childish finger-pointing.

First it was the umpires' fault. They're out to get us.

Then it was Hurricane Frances. Too many games in late September.

Then it was Stone. He said what? I thought he was one of us!

Alou was one of the ringleaders of a player clique that feuded with its own television broadcast team for more than three months. The sublime gave way to the ridiculous when the affable Stone, a Cubs icon for a generation and one of the most thoughtful analysts going, was called to the carpet by management for comments that manager Dusty Baker thought were too personal.

Poor baby.

The Cubs need a leadoff hitter in the Juan Pierre mold and a closer more than the serviceable Caray. Alou and shortstop Nomar Garciaparra can walk. But if Stone gets the boot because of Baker, the Tribune Company is going to need something stronger than giant fish nets to bind its crumbling baseball temple.

With no prompting, Stone drew a standing ovation from the crowd in the middle of the seventh. STONEY, one fan's sign read, THANKS FOR SAYING WHAT THE FANS ARE THINKING.

You don't pay a man for candor and then hand him a muzzle.

"I like both of them," chimed Amanda Wiegard, a Burlington native who lives in Chicago. "I don't think Steve is going to be back. It sure doesn't sound like it."

"Stone should stay," Jeff Applegate of Spencer said as he entered the park. "Because he knows everything about baseball. He should be managing the Cubs."

With that, poor Jeff frowned. Loving the Cubs is like dating a pretty girl who's all kinds of fun but can't stop cheating on you.

Every spring, you keep taking her back, vowing this will be the summer when your fidelity is rewarded in kind. Every October, you're back in counseling.

Ninety-six years on the couch. At what point do you finally get the hint? From loveable losers to whiny winners. This team got what it deserved. Nothing.

Link

 

You're a SR610 junkie too aren't you? How 'bout that Cap'n Wayne?

 

<i>The post-steriod emotions must be kicking in...</i>

Cubs down and out after another collapse

By RICK GANO, AP Sports Writer
October 4, 2004
CHICAGO (AP) -- Turns out Wrigley Field's crumbling concrete was just an omen for the team that calls it home.

The Chicago Cubs had plenty of cracks, too, and then collapsed under the pressure of a playoff run.

Numerous injuries to key players, run-ins with umpires and broadcasters, sporadic bursts of sloppy play and seven losses in their final nine games left the Cubs out of the postseason.

What started so promising ended in disappointment and disarray for a team still without a World Series appearance since 1945. For a few weeks in the middle of it all, falling chunks of upper deck concrete threatened to shut down the stadium.

Things got worse after the meaningless final game of the season when fading slugger Sammy Sosa left early without dressing, and then criticized manager Dusty Baker for piling too much blame on him.

No wonder Baker called the season his toughest in 12 years as a major league manager.

``I did the best I could. When players don't produce, the first question they ask is `Could you have managed better?''' Baker said. ``I'm always looking for stuff I could have done better. I'm a perfectionist and probably harder on me than anybody. One thing, I didn't get dumb overnight. It doesn't happen like that.''

After the Cubs were five outs from the World Series last October before a Game 6 collapse against Florida, they figured to be ready for a serious run at their first Fall Classic in 59 years, especially with the return of Greg Maddux and other key additions such as Todd Walker and Todd Hollandsworth.

But star right-hander Mark Prior began the season on the disabled list with Achilles' tendon and elbow problems, and missed the first two months. Kerry Wood later went on the DL with a triceps injury, and then so did Sosa with back problems brought on by a violent sneeze. Closer Joe Borowski came down with shoulder troubles, and the Cubs' bullpen suffered accordingly with 25 blown saves in 67 chances -- nine by LaTroy Hawkins.

Wood and Prior combined for just 14 wins. And Hollandsworth, a key player when Sosa was hurt, fouled a pitch off his leg before the All-Star break and never returned.

The pressure of the expectations was on display throughout the season. Wood, Baker and Hawkins all were suspended after angry on-field confrontations with umpires, and the Cubs earned a whiners label.

There also was a simmering feud with TV analyst Steve Stone, whose biting criticism didn't sit well with some of the players, especially reliever Kent Mercker, who called the booth one day to complain.

When the Cubs made a big trade at the end of July and got shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, they were already too far behind to catch St. Louis and repeat as Central division champions.

But they were hoping for a strong final push to make the wild card. And they appeared on their way.

Leading the wild-card race by 1 1/2 games with nine to play and ahead of the struggling Mets 3-0 with two outs in the ninth, they let it get away when Hawkins surrendered a game-tying homer before New York won 4-3 in 11 innings.

The Cubs never recovered from that. They went home and lost three of four to the Cincinnati Reds, including two straight in 12 innings.

``When we hit, we didn't get the pitching and whenever we had the pitching, we didn't hit,'' said Moises Alou, one of several Cubs who probably won't be back next season, despite his career-high 39 homers.

Sosa batted just .253 -- his lowest average since 1997 -- and in 126 games finished with 35 homers and 80 RBIs, ending his run of 100-RBI seasons at nine.

Sosa has another year on his contract that will pay him $17 million next season, and the club has an option for 2006 that probably won't be picked up.
<b>
``He's got to go to work this winter. Get in tiptop shape mentally and physically,'' Baker said, comments that angered Sosa.

``I'm tired of being blamed by Dusty Baker for all the failures of this club,'' Sosa told the Chicago Sun-Times. ``I'm always the guy they are going to blame. They blame me for not going to the World Series last year. They blame me for not going to the playoffs this year. I'm tired of it.''
</b>
Maddux did get his 300th victory and won at least 15 games for a 17th straight season. He and Carlos Zambrano led with 16 victories each. Alou, Sosa, Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez all surpassed 30 homers, and the Cubs secured back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in 32 years.

Not good enough for a team that still expected to be playing.

Now the Cubs will determine who'll be back, with decisions ahead on Alou, Walker, Mark Grudzielanek, Matt Clement and perhaps Garciaparra, who said he's considering returning.

``We haven't done what we liked or what everybody expected,'' Baker said.

``I'm not making excuses. You've got to find a way. What we did last year, I didn't expect until year three. We did it that quickly and it put more pressure to do more.''

<a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-cubswrapup&prov=ap&type=lgns">link</a>