Cubs = Completely Useless by September Part Two

From chicagocubs.com (bolding and number insertion by me):

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs need to get out of their funk, and the players should accept some responsibility for that, general manager Jim Hendry said.

(1) The team entered Tuesday's game 3-10 in its past 13 games, and in that span, the pitchers have a 4.94 ERA and the club has hit .236.

"We're just not getting it done, that's all," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said.

"For whatever reason, (1) we've been in a funk here the last five, six days that (2) we haven't played good baseball and made a lot of mistakes and a lot of mental mistakes," Hendry said. "Collectively, we've also had a little bit of an offensive funk."

The problem isn't Baker, Hendry said.

"I know one thing: (3) The 25 guys in that clubhouse aren't going to quit on Dusty Baker the rest of the season," Hendry said. "Hopefully, it's just a funk and we'll get out of it and make a run at it. (4) If we're not in a better position at the end of August, then we weren't good enough."

I'm just a baseball fan, an avid one, but just a fan, not some fancy expert, but the points I've number and highlighted seem to stand out to me.

First, Hendry thinks they've been in funk for the last six or seven days? Did you notice the part about being 3-10 in their last 13?

Second, this a nice quote: "we haven't played good baseball and made a lot of mistakes and a lot of mental mistakes"... So the team is really playing well, huh? When was the last time a Tony LaRussa team had problems like this for more than one or two games. It begs the question, has the team quit on Baker?

Third, here's another hum-dinger: "The 25 guys in that clubhouse aren't going to quit on Dusty Baker the rest of the season". Okay, sure... the team hasn't quit on Baker, they're just playing bad in all aspects of the game, mentally, offensively, defensively, etc...

Fourth, "If we're not in a better position at the end of August, then we weren't good enough." Yeah, wait until the end of August, no big whoop, nothing important happens in baseball in August. Don't look now, but the Brewers have passed you and the Reds and Pirates are on their way.

As always, make sure your Completely Useless By September

Cubs = Completely Useless by September

If anything in my life has proven to be consistently true, it's that the Cubs suck. And with another year of baseball coming down to the wire soon, the small bears from Chi-Town are on a well-documented decline. Let's examine what's goin on a little bit...

About three weeks ago, all I heard about was how the Cubs would pick up the pace when they got fully health and make a wildcard bid. Hmmm.... Woods, Prior, Garciaparra, et al are all playing now and over their last 10 games, they have two wins and have lost six in a row. Compare that to the Cardinals who still are missing Rolen, Walker, Sanders and Molina and have gone 7-3 over their last ten while facing some of the top NL teams, with Nunez, J-Rod, Mahoney and Taguchi filling in nicely.

I can't believe that Dusty Baker isn't on the hot-seat by now. Remember the 03 season when the Cubs almost made it to the World Series? (Bartman supposedly cost them the game)...
Has he done anything with the talent he has in Chicago? Anything at all? Here's an interesting fact, they only had 88 wins is in 03, not very many compare to most playoff years (and the lowest of any team in the playoffs that year). In fact, they had one more win last season and finished 16 games back of the division title.

Take a look at their record with Dusty as their manager:

Year	Wins	Losses	Win Pct
2003	88	74	0.5432
2004	89	73	0.5494
2005	54	58	0.4821
Total	231	205	0.5298

Not real solid, with their "talented" (and overrated) pitching staff. I think if they finish under .500 this year, he has to go... But I really don't want to see him fired, because he's been nice to the Cardinals for consistenly screwing it up.

Floatin' got ignored...

Until now, four weeks later, I didn't post what happened floating. You know why? Because it was fun, but nothing interesting happened. Sure, I had an unbelievable time, but for the first time in my adult life, nothing weird happened on a float trip. The usual things that happen on a float trip are:

Somebody makes a fool out of themselves drunk

Somebody makes a fool out of themselves drunk

A couple gets drunk, gets in an argument because one person isn't paddling, or because the canoe tipped over

Somebody passes out early and gets ridiculed by the crowd

Someone gets drunk and causes canoes to tip over

Notice a trend here? Okay, so none of the above happened. People got drunk (I don't drink right now, so not me) but nobody made a fool of themself. One canoe tipped very early, but otherwise it was a nice weekend floating trip. No drama, no problems, no arguments, just good, clean fun.

Interesting, I think I'm getting older.

I hate Sallie Mae

Hate is a strong word, but this is exactly how I feel. Maybe hate isn't strong enough of a word: loathe, despise, abhor, detest... yeah, those seem a little stronger, let's go with one of them.

Anyway, I have a tech school loan through Sallie Mae, which I took out despite being raped on the interest rate (currently around 14%) even while using a co-borrower. What can I say, I was young and needed the money.

So, I pay this loan on the 5th of every month automatically through online bill pay with my bank. For the last 3 months I have received phone calls (like, oh, I don't know, 5 in one day, until they finally leave a message) on the 5th of every month from Sallie Mae asking me where my payment was, and did I know it is 8 days late. So my payment is due on the 27th of every month and in reading their paper work their is a 15 day grace period, and I'm pretty sure that 8 is less than 15... so why are they calling me? So when I called them today and talked to them.

Here's my recollection of the conversation:
Me) My payment has cleared, today, I can see it right there showing as cleared from my bank.
Sallie Mae) Well it hasn't shown up in our system yet.
Me) By the way, why the hell are you calling me? I'm well within the grace period, haven't been late on this loan since you guys took over the servicing contract, and pay more than the amount due every month on the same day.
Sallie Mae) Well, you are 8 days past due, and if we want to call you we're going to.
Me) Umm... seriously, it's within the grace period, and I pay you more than I owe you every month, WTFO?
Sallie Mae) Yeah... we'll you could pay the day it's due or switch the payment date
Me) Well I guess I could switch the payment date, but again, that's what the friggin grace period is for, and I pay on the same freakin day every month, which based on the month (28, 30, or 31st) is either 5, 7 or 8 days after the due date.
Sallie Mae) Yeah, switch the payment date, or we are going to keep calling and harrassing you (or something to that effect).
Me) So how do I change my payment date
Sallie Mae) Call this number
Me) Can you transfer me?
Sallie Mae) Nope, sorry
Me) k, thanks, I guess

That led to another conversation, after calling the other number:
Me) I'd like to switch my payment date.
Sallie Mae) Okay, you have to do that through a written request.
Me) Okay, I was told to call you, but that's just dandy, what's the address.
Sallie Mae) blah, blah, blah, Oh yeah, you can fax the letter over also.
Me) Okay, what's the fax number?
Sallie Mae) blah, blah, blah...
Me) Any other methods your not telling me about?
Sallie Mae) Well, you can email us also
Me) What's the email address?
Sallie Mae) Well, it's not really an email address, you have to go to our website, login to our account, and submit a customer service request form.
Me) Thanks, you've been very, very helpful

So, whoever is still reading this post (which is really about me venting, and hopefully gaining some traction in search engines about Sallie Mae, just to get some vengeance), is probably thinking to yourself, "umm, Felone, why don't you just pay on the 27th?"... The truth is I probably could, but I prefer to make all my payments on two days each month (it helps me balance ye old check book better), the 17th and the 5th which allows enough time after pay day to make sure everything will clear fine and dandy.

So the obvious question is why not pay on the 17th instead of the 5th.... Well, yeah a few years ago I did just that... One huge friggin' problem with that:

For several months in a row I paid them 10 days early each month... guess what happened? They applied the first payment as a principal payment (instead of my monthly payment) and the next one they applied as a late payment, and this went on every for a while, so when I switched back to paying around the due date (a few days later), I was somehow 30+ days past due... This went on for 11 months, where they somehow recorded me as 11 consecutive months of 30 days late payments (different servicing company within the Sallie Mae Cartel) who didn't call when I was 8 days late, much less 30) so my credit score went down 130 points in one year. I can't figure out how the hell any of these were 30 days late, and I'm disputing it, but you can my hesistance to pay early...

So, I've made the request to change the date, with one caveat, if I end up having to pay two payments with 10 days, forget it, I'll just ignore Sallie Mae's harrassment on one day each month....

Did I mention, I hate this company?