Cubs’ Wrigley Cake Saga Tough to Swallow

April 25, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

Well, that takes the cake. A 400-pound cake that was part of the Chicago Cubs’ centennial celebration of Wrigley Field on Wednesday was found in a dumpster on Thursday. How crummy — or crumby — can you be?

The Blue Crew is to the St. Louis Blues as the Ice Crew is to the Blackhawks.

* The Cubs did issue a statement: “The Chicago Cubs are disappointed in how our Wrigley Field display cake was disposed of by the Field Museum following our successful charity event last night. The team made a decision not to serve the edible portion after the cake was on display outside Wrigley Field for most of the day. Though the cake was mostly made up of non-edible material, it certainly does not excuse how a celebratory display cake artfully created by Buddy Valastro and Carlo’s Bakery [of TV’s “Cake Boss” fame] was handled.”

* It’s difficult to figure which is more incredible: that the cake was basically inedible or that it was the product of a New Jersey enterprise. There were no Chicago bakers who could handle the job? And president of baseball operations Theo Epstein couldn’t come up with a Boston bakery that he frequented when he was with the Red Sox to handle the job?

* On the bright (?) side, at least the Ricketts family apparently does not have a “Let them eat cake” attitude.

* Cubs second baseman Darwin Barney struck out in his only plate appearance in Thursday’s 5-2 loss to Arizona. He has seven strikeouts, seven walks and seven total bases this season. And a .121 batting average. Meaning he has about zero chance to being traded any time soon.

* The White Sox struck out 15 times in the 7-4 loss to the Tigers in Detroit. Gordon Beckham made his season debut (0-for-4) with three strikeouts. Also fanning three times was Jordan Danks (in five at-bats). He has struck out 15 times in 32 at-bats this season. The Sox lead the American League with 198 strikeouts.

* Speaking of strikeouts, Sox catcher Tyler Flowers went 3-for-4 to raise his batting average to .375. He has struck out 24 times in 64 at-bats. Meaning in the at-bats when he hasn’t whiffed, he is 24-for-40 (.600).

* It’s a triple play day at Comcast SportsNet. Actually night. But you get the picture. Or three of them. CSN will telecast the Chicago Blackhawks, Bulls and Cubs contest that will be played simultaneously (7 p.m. Central). The biggest challenges will be finding which game is in which channel and overusing the remote control. The network’s web site — CSNChicago.com — can provide information on locating channels for the games. The Hawks will be on CSN, the Bulls on CSN+ and the Cubs on CSN+2. Now the trick will be to have three televisions in the same room to view all the action.

* Sports City Memorabilia (9241 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, Ill.) is having a sale Saturday on merchandise from 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Discounts of 30-60 percent will be available for most merchandise.

* Ex-White Sox of the day: New York Mets right-hander Bartolo Colon allowed one run on four hits in seven innings in a 4-1 victory against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals. Colon (2-3) struck out eight. Honorable mention: Arizona closer Addison Reed picked up his fifth save (and second in two days) in the Diamondbacks’ 5-2 victory over the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Reed tossed a 1-2-3 ninth with a strikeout. Eight of his 10 pitches were strikes.

* Ex-Cub of the day: Minnesota left fielder Sam Fuld went 3-for-5 with two doubles and two runs batted in in the Twins’ 9-7 victory over the host Tampa Bay Devils. Honorable mention: Rays designated hitter David DeJesus had a two-run home run.

***