The Czech Republic

Cubs blow another lead in the late innings. This team is stupid.

Soriano would be good, but what would we be giving up for him? I'm apprehensive towards parting with Murton. Walker doesn't appear to be producing, Patterson can go and never return, Ramirez, Burnitz, Barrett, and Lee are untouchable. As for pitchers, they're all fair game except Prior, Maddux, Zambrano, Dempster, Rusch, and Mitre.

Which athletes had the best names. Put a quarter in the jar.

The Cubs still have 11 games with the Astros, I believe. Likewise, St. Louis. If the Cubs can be bothered into putting together a good run and win these important games, they can get back in it. Or they can take themselves right back out. It hinges on Prior, Maddux, and Zambrano having good outings, Hollandsworth having his playing time drastically reduced in favor of Matt Murton or a new arrival, and the bullpen, the bullpen, the bullpen. Good gawd. I mean, look at the team. It's not a bad team at all. Lee, Walker, Barrett, Burnitz, Ramirez are all highly capable of doing some excellent hitting. They're just not doing it at the right time: they're batting <.200 with runners in scoring position and it drives me up a wall. Also, Dusty Baker seems to not know when to run which style. The wind is blowing out and he's got everyone bunting, the wind is blowing in and they're swinging for the fences. Frustrating stuff. The potential is definitely there for this team to make the postseason, it's a matter of catching the teams they need to catch and playing...well I won't ask for smart baseball yet. We'll start with playing not-retarded baseball and take baby steps from there.

Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje Rollie Fingers thread over

The NL East is a still a crapshoot, but the only team that can run away with it is the Braves, I feel. Barring the Cubs getting their shit together, the wild card will come out of the East.

Hey, if they can just FUCKING HIT WITH RUNNERS AT THIRD AND NOT FLY OUT THREE TIMES, we'll be in business. And yeah, it's a close race.

Did it ever bother anyone else that Jericho's music was a really flagrant ripoff of "When The Levee Breaks"? Sure bothered me.

This Astros thing is driving me up a wall. This should not be happening. The pressure is really on the Cubs now to not fuck up in August.

Hooray for Pittsburgh, I was really worried about them, but deep down, I knew the Penguins weren't going anywhere.

He's not that respectable.

Perhaps that was an exaggeration. It's longer than I usually have it, but probably not THAT long. It was the closest though.

Yeah I heard this mentioned during the Giants-Brewers game and was going to post it here, then I remembered how thoroughly irrelevant college football is to me, and I went out to pull some weeds instead.

That's your problem, Mik, you're listening to Jay Mariotti. You should know better.

Having family in the radio business, I'm pretty familiar with the ins and outs of radio, and its seedy underbelly. However, we've never really been directly involved with any of the payola stuff. My favorite thing is when I'm at Summerfest and get free food from vendors in exchange for plugs on the air. I wish that was the case. FCC-mandated public affairs shows are a relic of radio, and they should be obsolete. Unfortunately, they're not, and if some station was "forgetting" to air its public affairs programming, the FCC would hit them pretty hard.

I know just what you mean, and I hate it. Sportscenter is guilty of a similar offense, as whenever they cut to break, the little Sportscenter SC logo has to zoom in, and make some whooshing and beeping, and then whoosh back out, then maybe some little lights flash around it, then it sort of flies backwards, and spins around maybe, and all this completely extraneous shit. Just cut to the damn break! It's the Derek Jeter of on-air graphics.

This is my cat, Mr. Baby.

I keep getting harassed by my friend to join this. I won't, because I don't like to exist on the Internet. I'm not really on Myspace or LiveJournal or any of these.

Consider this thread, your really fucking shitty webiste.

Pat, Ron, and the postgame guy all called today's Arizona-Cubs game their worst game of the season. It was pretty bad. Cubs are now batting under .200 with runners in scoring position, a lot of whom seem to reach third with 1 out, or none at all. There's no explanation for this terrible hitting in situations where it matters. Also, there were about nine walks issued in today's game. I'll hope that somebody motivates this team very soon because they have to win this homestand.

What the hell is Bob Barron rambling on about.

Interesting fact they just mentioned. Here's today's lineup Furcal Giles C. Jones A. Jones LaRoche McHann Francoeur Langerhans Sosa Of those nine guys, everyone but Jorge Sosa (acquired from Tampa Bay midseason) is a homegrown player who came up through the system. Compare that to my Cubs, where every position player has been acquired from another major league team between the beginning of '03 and the present.

No sooner do I say that than flip over to the superstation and there it is. Also, Skip Caray is calling the game! I enjoy his work.