other stories may overshadow this sidelight of last night's win, but this page has devoted special attention to the travails of novice cub shortstop ronny cedeno and will continue to do so for the remainder of this season. for the most part, that attention has been negative -- in large part because there has been precious little positive to say. however, when positive things are there to be seen, this page will be seen to be the first to point them out.
cedeno did something positive last night that was so unexpected as to elicit a hearty laugh from this sleepy writer, and that was to take not one but two walks in four plate appearances, tacking on a seeing-eye game-winning-rbi single to right in the eighth for good measure.
perhaps it's true that cedeno, batting in front of the pitcher, should be in a position to take far more free passes than just two in 49 plate appearances. and perhaps it's also true that cedeno did his best to reverse his positive contributions by throwing yet another routine grounder past first base in the bottom of the eighth -- his fourth in just 13 games, making a annual pace for 46 -- putting jason repko on second to threaten the lead and put bob howry in a jam. and perhaps those things will yet in the end conspire to demote him to iowa.
but cedeno actually exhibited a smidgen of patience last night that this page thought all but categorically beyond him, and for that it gives him both credit and encouragement. finding more and better ways to get on base and doing something, anything about those godawful tosses over to first must be cedeno's two priorities in order to stick in the majors. last night, he did something about one of them.
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