Michael Barrett, wish you were here?
Hail to you, Cesar Izturis.
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Wade Miller, wherever you are, this one was partly for you.
Your contribution, Koyie Hill, is duly noted.
Rocky Cherry, you were more than just a flavor of the month.
Hey, remember that Billy Petrick kid, shuttling back and forth from Iowa?
Jake Fox, even that one lone RBI of yours brought the Cubs a step closer to where they are.
Each was a Cub for a while. Some still are. Some are in the farm system, if not on the active roster. Some had 15 minutes of fame and will have no more. Others are gone for good.
“A lot of different people got us this far,” Lou Piniella reminds us, a manager’s memory longer than most. “A lot of guys did good things for this team this year, not just our stars.”
Chicago will toss a pep rally at Daley Center Plaza at high noon Monday to catapult the Cubs into the playoffs. A good guess is that somebody is measuring the Picasso for a size-100 blue cap with a “C” on it.
There will be salutations to the men of the moment: Messrs. Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, Zambrano, Lilly, et al.
But they aren’t the only ones who have had a hand in this so-far-so-good 2007 season.
Remember the practice in the cactus, how these Cubs shaped up in Arizona in the spring?
Mark Prior was on the mound. His mind was willing, but his arm was weak. His season ended before it began.
Neal Cotts was in the bullpen. He had a chance to do the truly bizarre — win a World Series with both of Chicago’s teams. Too bad he couldn’t locate his old stuff.
Roberto Novoa stood tall and was ready to bear down. Novoa’s shoulder said no. Onto the 60-day disabled list he went.
Kerry Wood’s rehab was in progress. Yet not one Cub knew for a fact if Wood would ever again throw a pitch in Wrigley Field.
“I’m not the only guy in this room who didn’t know where he’d be when this season was done,” Wood said during Friday’s playoff-clinching party as teammates with champagne bottles cheerfully hosed him down.
Pitching coach Larry Roths-child also was drenched from head to toe. For him back in April there were no such showers, only a cold sweat.
“This season did not start out very well for us, as I’m sure everybody in here knows,” Rothschild said.
“A lot went wrong. There were people we thought we’d have that we didn’t end up having.”
For example, there was Miller, who was given three starts. His earned-run average was a poor 10.54 when the Cubs had to turn to someone else.
Angel Guzman’s time also was at hand. But soon his elbow gave out, and onto the 60-day DL he went.
To the minors Piniella and Rothschild turned, to a Cherry, to a Petrick, auditioning newcomers while reassessing what to do.
In the meantime, while the Cubs’ pitchers were being sorted out, they lost their catcher.
Barrett spent 57 games behind the plate this season. He hit nine home runs.
But then he and Zambrano tangled, twice. It was assault from a battery, and somebody had to pay. Somebody had to go away.
It turned out to be Barrett, who went to San Diego and hasn’t hit a home run or a teammate since.
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Catchers came and went. Hill got a shot. Rob Bowen did too. Henry Blanco’s neck injury healed slowly. Geovany Soto waited in the wings. Fox came up for a cup of coffee. Jason Kendall became a Cub out of the blue. Wrigley Field was transforming into Catchers R Us.
“I’m lucky to be here,” said Kendall, who caught Zambrano in the playoff clincher Friday night.
He is in his 12th season but made it to the playoffs last October for the first time. Good things come to those who wait.
“This is why we play the game, for moments like this,” Kendall said, his chin whiskers dripping champagne.
Izturis is not so lucky. Instead of playing in the playoffs, he is a last-place Pittsburgh Pirate. He spent 65 games at shortstop and is in for a slice of the Cubs’ playoff pie when the money is divided up. But he is on the outside now, looking in like a kid on Sheffield Avenue at the knothole.
Relief pitcher Ryan Dempster realizes how many people got the team to this point.
“We don’t have an MVP,” he said. “We’ve got 25 of them in here.”
A few more were missing.
There were invisible guests at this party. The ghosts of Wrigley past.
At that rally Monday, maybe someone would be so kind as to mention one or two of them by name.
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