Bruiser Chong

Impressive win for the Cubs. They've been terrible against the DBacks for years, even when Arizona was lousy. So for them to win against Arizona with Brandon Webb facing Jason Marquis is shocking.

Doubt that would matter, since an entire crew of shady officials wouldn't have been able to make the difference.

My favorite team's players are dropping like flies. Cliff Floyd naturally got hurt, Derrek Lee is serving his suspension because he fouled a ball hard off his foot, and now Daryl Ward, one of the Cubs' best off-season acquisitions has a calf tear that'll probably put him on the shelf until September.

Popular opinion is he just didn't want to do the job. I wonder if Wrestlefest will be the unedited version. If so, set your recorders, people.

Shame about Carpenter. If the Cards were contenders this year, I may be not shun the news, but this guy was one of the legit feel-good stories to come out of baseball the last several years. Has a WS team dealt with this much adversity the following year?

Will Oh-Man, lefty extraordinare, just gave up a three-run shot to Bonds. More importantly, it cut the Cubs' lead to one run.

I wish I were getting this game. It sounds so bizarre. Highlights include Ted Lily being over 80 pitches through four despite only walking one and fanning one, Cliff Floyd scoring from second on a wild pitch, and Ted Lily singling AND stealing second.

Lost in all this Izturis hype is that Bonds homered in the second inning.

Kind of funny when you think the Cubs traded Greg Maddux AND cash for a PTBNL. Still glad to have Izturis gone.

I almost always wear medium t-shirts, so finding my size at these places isn't generally an issue. In fact, the only problem I usually run into when shirt or pants size is related is them only having sizes that are too big for me. The graphic tees found in these stores are generally boring/terrible, but there's usually one or two good ones in the bunch. I hit the outlet mall yesterday and this was the case in the GAP and Aeropostale outlets; lots of graphic tees and maybe one or two from each I'd ever wear. Pac Sun on the other hand had dozens I'd have no issue wearing, yet I only walked out with one (splitting a 2-for-$25 deal with my brother). Speaking of outlet malls, if you've got one near you, hit it up. You aren't going to notice much of a difference if you walk into a place like Calvin Klein (which should be renamed The Nothing Under $45 Store), but most of the stores house great deals. I picked a niiiiiice pair of Adidas kicks that apparently retail in the $80 range for $36. On top of that, it was buy one get one half off. Unfortunately, places like this generally don't stock up on a wide variety of size 13 shoes.

I was wondering the same thing. I thought the rollup was going to be the finish, but suddenly we're at a break. After three months of 24/7, I've noticed PTW from this era has an odd bias towards some really terrible wrestlers. Seems like the Shadows, Kirchner, and Frenchy Martin are on all the time. The Shadows are vanilla at best, so I don't know why it seems like they never had a match under 10 minutes. The Can-Am Connection's fun to watch, though. Too bad Zenk bailed because these guys were way over and gelled together, whereas Strike Force never really clicked. I'd never seen a spot like the one where Zenk protected Martel from the whip to the corner by lying across the top turnbuckle to soften the blow. On an unrelated note, this may be the fastest Bobby Heenan's ever gotten Monsoon to break.

That'll happen when you blow a play at the plate, let a ball go by you on a pitchout, and drop a foul pop-up in the span of five innings.

I guess I'm in the middle. I won't throw down $100 for a pair of jeans or $50 for a t-shirt, but I also won't buy anything from the Marts of this world. For t-shirts, I stick to eBay, Pac Sun, and the occasional non-gay ones I can find at joints like Aeropostale. Old Navy's great for the low-rise boot cut jeans and sweaters and track jackets. I'll snatch up the pricier brands occasionally, but that's almost always on eBay at a significantly lower price than retail.

Do you give them prices or do they generate those themselves?

But what two cents was that? I guess I don't understand what specifically you're connecting "not to mention the cast..." to.

My favorite team lost because their new "acquisition" decided to channel the spirit of Michael Barrett throughout the game. It's been a while since the Cubs lost ground.

I love how Ohman retired Bonds and then goes ahead and walks the next two guys to walk in a run and put the Giants on top. My hat's off to Oh-Man and Kendall.

And now Bonds pinch hits with said go-ahead runner at second.

It took about two hours before Jason Kendall started hearing the boo birds at Wrigley. He's hitless, which isn't any shock, but he's made three defensive blunders: the play at the plate, what should have been ruled a pass ball on a pitchout, and failing to catch a popup behind the plate. That last one gave Molina new life and he promptly cashed in with a single. He's been lifted for a pinch-runner, who stole second and in a tied game, this could be huge.

Jason Kendall bricked on his first play at the plate. Semi-tough hop, but I thought he had enough time to snatch it.

Free Extra Innings preview this week, I guess. This was the first time since 2003 I hadn't subscribed to the package, so this is a treat.

I know Hebner had a cast on in that match, but what the hell are you talking about?

I don't have a problem with the trade. Kendall's been awful, but so have Hill and Bowen. And it's not like the Cubs gave up someone like Marshall (as was initially reported). They gave up one of their horrible catchers and a Single A guy who might be a LOOGY down the line, but isn't even the top one of those in the Cubs' farm system. As long as the Cubs don't do something stupid like re-sign him after the season, I don't see much harm. Sure I would've preferred a catcher who is sure to hit, but those aren't too common.

I can't believe they came back from five down. Now if only Jason Marquis would stop trying to be 2003 Shawn Estes to this team. Cubs don't have miraculous comebacks in them every five days, so this problem needs to be addressed sooner than later if this team's for real. And Lou earned big points with me by going to Marmol with two outs in the fifth in a one-run game. He hasn't been deemed the closer with Dempster out, but at the very least, he's been the lights out setup man. Lou realized the game was on the line at that point and instead of going to one of his middle relievers just because tradition dictates such a move, he went to his best arm in the pen and it paid off.

As a child, my brother was watching this match from my PPV tape late one night and wound up cutting some of his hair with a pair of household scissors. I'm not sure if the two were directly related.