Bruiser Chong

They did the same thing with Heenan on All-American Wrestling in 1993 (might have been after Mean Gene left) where he was trying to host the show solo and would be doing stuff reading the paper unaware they were back from commercial breaks.

The Cubs are still probably winning the division, but holy shit. The offense can't cash in on almost any opportunity, the team's losing on a bizarre plays, and Lou is managing like Dusty. Slump or not, you don't squander a lead-off walk by having Pie pinch run, only to force Soto to bunt. He's not a bunter. Why would you make him do something he's not done all season? Just let him swing away against the shitty bullpen. Gah.

I'll be with Czech on this one. Losing a game in the ninth on a fucking CHECK SWING from Cesar god damn Izturis.

Get ready for another Czech rant. Cards have the winning run at second (courtesy of a balk) with no outs. Cubs are content to never score more than three runs in a game, apparently.

What's everyone think of the IRS/DBS match? IRS's matches generally bore me, because of the amount of rest holds he goes for regardless of match's duration. But this seemed like a near legit 20 minutes of wrestling. Not much stalling, minimal rest spots, and Davey didn't look like he was too blown up at any point. I might have to watch it again, but on first viewing, I'd say it's one of Rotunda's better matches under that character.

That also means the Astros are only five out. They have a pretty soft schedule down the stretch, too. Man would that be awful.

Those Reds are sure pesky now that they're out of the race. With that loss, the Phillies are now just three back of the Brewers in the Wild Card.

If there's anything worse than a really slow match, it's a really slow match that's sloppy. Tornado and Bully moved in slow motion and there were still a ton of awkward spots. Heenan's reaction to Hayes praising Davey Boy Smith being on his own so far away from home is great. "He's not some kid at camp! He's a grown man. He's only alone because no one wants to hang around him."

I love how Savage referred to Duggan's crossed eyes en route to building him up during that promo.

I'm a bit disappointed Bored didn't make the subtitle to this week's thread something like "Better Boner: Merkle's or Dotel's?"

At the very least, the rhetoric of Czech's "the sky is falling" posts is a lot easier on the brain than AS's or The Don's.

There's no reason to trot Zambrano and Harden out there if it's not absolutely necessary. Regardless of how awful they looked this week, they're still a near lock for the playoffs. I still think they'll win the division. They can't possibly play this badly much longer. Wood is fine. When you don't get to pitch very often, you tend to be rusty. If they're still playing like this in a week, I'll join you on the ledge. Until then, let's accept that it was quite possibly one of the worst weeks a team can have where they only lose two games in the standings.

But for the record, that is the type of play I expect to see if the Cubs are within outs of winning the World Series. I wasn't listening to the radio, but I'd imagine we got another Brant Brown moment from Santo out of that play.

Czech, stop being a damn woman. You're going to let ONE week of awful baseball offset an otherwise great season? I'm as disgusted as you are about what just happened, but they're still four games up on the Brewers and guess what? They're still going to be after today.

In the span of five minutes, Young loses the no-hitter and Ronny Cedeno boots a game-ending double play ball that ties the game and they lose two pitches later. Fuck.

Chris Young has a perfect game through seven innings in Milwaukee. He's got a real chance of making this happen, as the Brewers have been struggling offensively and they've shown a habit of expanding their strike zone.

Wait, when did he get banned? I was just thinking about how little I knew about the O's recent Sunday performances. This explains it.

Ned Yost's insistence on making Gange his set-up man, despite mountains of evidence that suggest he'd be a damn fool to do so, might just offset the Cubs' no-win September.

Regression to the mean is a bitch. Ted Lily sucks. And I'm wondering if the Cubs are going to win that 86th game any time soon.

Carlos Quentin has a broken wrist.

Carlos Zambrano's season is apparently in jeopardy. A source says the Cubs are bracing themselves for the possibility that they're going to be without him for the rest of the year. His absence in September isn't the kiss of death, but forget about it if he can't pitch in the playoffs.

- The Cubs just got swept at home against the Astros - They were shut out twice in the series - Randy Wolf threw one of the shutouts - David Newhan stole home That about says it all. Get this shit out of your system, Cubs. It doesn't help the Astros have played like the fucking 1998 Yankees since July.

It's hard to get upset when you're all about ensured a playoff spot. But god damn the Cubs suck right now. And Lou's unfounded love of Casey fucking McGehee is going to induce a stroke for me. The guy doesn't belong up here and if his minor numbers are an indication, that's ALWAYS going to be the case. Yet Lou has flipped the pinch-hitting duties to him in critical spots the last two nights.

Zambrano's arm is "not feeling good" and there's a chance he's going to get shut down. Super.

I'll never outright compare Lou to Dusty, but he does have a tendency to overvalue shitty players. Bob Howry shouldn't be pitching unless it's in mop-up duty, especially with expanded rosters. And Daryl Ward, who aside from that homer in Florida hasn't done shit off the bench, shouldn't be pinch-hitting as the tying run against Valverde. Blah. I guess the Cubs are afraid to get that 86th win and pass last year's total or something.