maly, too: That Russell Kid Of the Cubs

Saturday, May 9, 2015

That Russell Kid Of the Cubs

By RON MALY

Rave all you want about Kris Bryant, the much -ballyhooed Chicago Cubs' rookie third baseman. And who, by the way, still hasn't hit a

Addison Russell

home run as a major leaguer. I certainly have nothing against Bryant. Considering his experience, he's a hitter who shows plenty of promise, and as a fielder he's better than I expected. But I'm starting to wonder if Addison Russell, the Cubs' rookie second baseman, isn't an even stronger player. Russell, 21, quietly has hit in 11 consecutive games--four of them against the the St. Louis Cardinals, the best team in baseball. Russell has already swatted two home runs since being called up by the Cubs on April 21....Russell has been playing out of position on defense. He's a shortstop who is doing a decent job at second base. I've heard that Russell , a first round draft choice who came to the Cubs last summer in a trade with Oakland, is actually the best shortstop in the Chicago system. He's not playing there

Starlin Castro

because of the continued presence of Starlin Castro. For my money, I'd get rid of Castro as soon as possible. I watched him in the four-game series with St. Louis [three Cardinal victories, one loss], and he is still the immature, undependable, lack-of-hustle player he was when he got to the bigs five years ago. He might make one superb defensive play, then screw things up with three terrible plays. I'd dump him and put Russell at shortstop. For Castro, maybe the Cubs can get a relief pitcher who can give up fewer than five runs in the sixth inning....Like I said, St. Louis is clearly the best team in baseball right now. Indeed, the Cardinals might be the best major league team I've ever seen. It pains me to write that, of course, because I've never been someone who wanted St. Louis to win. Indeed, I enjoy watching baseball on TV for two reasons: 1. Hoping the Cardinals lose. 2. Hoping the Cubs win. Yes, in recent years, I've altered

some of my thinking: I like watching the Cardinals lose even more than seeing the Cubs win....I guess I'm not alone. I heard the Cardinals' TV announcers say the other day that there are growing amounts of baseball fans nationwide who have become Cardinal-haters because of St. Louis' success in recent years....I realize sportswriters at the paper are catching hell from letters-to-the-editor writers about coverage of Iowa and Iowa State athletics, but the real problem continues to be the horrible coverage of high school sports. It's the worst it has ever been. Brad Wilson and Chuck Burdick, who were longtime stalwarts in the paper's high school coverage in years gone by, are no doubt rolling over in their graves....Back to the Cubs one more time: I'm starting to think Javier Baez, the clueless Triple-A shortstop,

Javier Baez

will never make it to the bigs as a fulltime player. Chicago already has enough rally-killers. Joe Maddon is a very smart manager. He knows the best place for Baez is minor league baseball. Heck, maybe Oakland or some other sucker of a team will take Baez in a trade for a relief pitcher who can pitch the seventh inning....Desperate baseball teams do desperate things. The Cleveland Indians for some reason decided to reach a minor league agreement with relief pitcher Carlos Marmol, a one-time Cubs flame-thrower who couldn't find the batters' box with any pitches in his aresenol in his final seasons with Chicago. Good luck to Cleveland on that one.

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.