Very-bad-word next year!

All those white flags flying around the city with a big, blue "W" on them: that "W" stands for "WASTE!" What a very-bad-word waste this whole pointless very-bad-word season was! Why bother going through all that effort to make the very-bad-word playoffs when you're just going to very-bad-word choke again?! You can't very-bad-word hit, and you can't very-bad-word pitch, and you can't very-bad-word field with both hands around your very-bad-word necks! If baseball wanted teams that played like the Pittsburgh very-bad-word Pirates in the playoffs, they'd invite the Pittsburgh very-bad-word Pirates!

Here's what baseball should do. They should send the Cubs - the entire very-bad-word franchise - down to AAA and not let them come back until they win that league's championship.

No, I have a better idea. Let the Cubs play the first two months of the season. Then, make them stop and play in the College World Series. Then, if they win that - which they won't because it's against the very-bad-word law for them to win anything with the name "World very-bad-word Series" in it, including the very-bad-word Little League World Series - they come back to the major leagues and try to get into those playoffs. If they don't, they pack up and go home so they don't waste another entire very-bad-word year.

This year's Cubs' playoff MVPs are: Henry Blanco, Bobby Howry, Reed Johnson and Ted Lilly. Why? Because they never got into a very-bad-word game. Can't very-bad-word up on the very-bad-word bench.

I have another use for all those very-bad-word "W" flags. Wipe.

Very-bad-word! Very-bad-word! Very-bad-word! Extremely-bad-word!

There. I feel better now.


Wipe-on-a-Stick

Pitching follies

The Cubs gagged away home field advantage last night because Ryan Dempster was left in the game two batters too long.

Mishandling the pitchers was a problem (though by no means the only one) last year as well. In game 1 last year, he took out Carlos Zambrano, who was doing great, too early to save him for a game that never came. Then, in the next two games, he failed to realize his starter had nothing and left them in too long.

Same thing yesterday. Dempster never had control. He threw 109 pitches, but only 57 strikes (I can't believe it was that many), and walked seven. Three of them scored on a grand slam in the fifth. That was one of those rare strikes.

And that's the problem. By the fifth, he had so little control, I was afraid he would throw a strike. Because if you're wild out of the strike zone, you could be wild in the zone and leave a pitch fat. That's what happened, and it was game over.

But it wasn't just the walks that was indicative of a problem, it was all the guys who didn't walk that he got behind. It was how badly he was missing the target.

Entering the fifth, the pitch count was around 80. He struggled to get the pitcher Lowe and walked Furcal on five pitches. At this point, the bullpen should be working and the pitching coach should be on the mound, but that didn't happen. He gets Martin to fly out on a 3-1 pitch, but when he walks Manny after having him 0-2, it was time to call it a night. Unfortunately, he stayed in for two more batters and threw one strike too many.

Hopefully, if Zambrano is going good tonight, Piniella lets him keep going. The Cubs have to treat this as a must win though. If it's bad Carlos tonight, he needs to have a quick hook. There is no point in making the trip to LA if they lose tonight.

The Sox, on the other hand, made the shocking decision to start Javier Vasquez today against Tampa. Vasquez is not a big-game pitcher. At all. By any measure. So, either the Sox are conceding, or they must feel they can outscore whatever he gives up.

Win or stay home

The White Sox spent the last week of the regular season trying their hardest to blow the Central Division, but they failed because Minnesota couldn't do much with the lowly Kansas City Royals.

So, the Sox had to make up a game with the Detroit Tigers yesterday that had been rained out in August. Then, they had to sit through a three-hour rain delay to get it started. They did win though, thanks to a grand slam from Alexei Ramirez.

I was listening to Detroit implode in the sixth inning on the radio on my way home, and as they were pitching to Junior, one of the radio guys (I forget if it was Ed Farmer or Steve Stone) says, "if they walk him, that will bring up our Ramirez, who is our slam guy." They did walk him as I was pulling in my driveway, and by the time I got in the house, it was 6-2 Sox.

Ramirez, a rookie, now has four grand slams on the season.

That had to be one of the worst-pitched innings in the history of baseball. Four guys walked. The first one walked, stole second and scored on two wild pitches before the second batter was finished walking. Then a third guy walked. There was another wild pitch, an intentional walk, and then the grand slam. Actually, I think Thome struck out in there somewhere as well. Four walks and three wild pitches leading up to the slam.

Now, the Twins come to town for a division tiebreaker tonight. The Sox are pitching John Danks on three days rest, but you can't blame them. Gavin Floyd pitched yesterday, Mark Bueherle on Sunday, so there really isn't anybody left. Javier Vasquez probably wouldn't get out of the first inning.

Minnesota counters with Nick Blackburn. The Sox have lit him up this year, although Blackburn did better the last time he faced the Sox, holding them to two runs in five innings and getting the win last week.

The prize for the winner? A trip to Tampa to face the Rays on Thursday.

Cubs win.

Note that the headline was punctuated with a period, not an exclamation point. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited that the Cubs won the division, but I've seen that before. What I've only seen one time is the Cubs winning a playoff series. And it goes without saying that I've never seen them in a World Series.

If all that happens this season is winning the division, then it's a team that fell short again.

Now, our attention turns to the Sox, who can wrap up the division in a 3-game series with the Twins in the Humpdome. The Sox magic number is five with six to play. Both Chicago teams in the playoffs at the same time? That's something I've never seen before! I don't think my stomach could take a cross-town World Series.

At least they finally got a hit

I don't know if it's the effects of being dislocated by a hurricane, or playing "neutral" games in front of a big Cub crowd at Wrigley North in Milwaukee, or if it's simply a case of a team this hot finally cooling off, but the Astros set a standard for futility in their two games against the Cubs this week.

The first 47 hitters they sent to the plate in Milwaukee failed to get a hit. Carlos Zambrano faced 28 in his no-hitter on Sunday, and Ted Lilly got into the 7th inning before finally giving up a hit to Mark Loretta.

That was it. One hit in two days. The Astros were outscored 11-1 in the series. They finally scored in the 8th of game two with two walks, a wild pitch and a sac fly. Even Bob Howry, the designated lead blower this season, couldn't give up a run.

The Cubs are the first team to ever put a no-hitter and a one-hitter back-to-back.

Meanwhile, in a very strange twist to the playoff chase, the Brewers fired manager Ned Yost today. Milwaukee is tied for the wild card lead entering the day, and although they have faded a bit in their chase of the Cubs, I can't remember a manager ever being fired in the middle of a playoff race like this. The Brewers have lost seven of their last eight, and collapsed in the second half of last season as well. Perhaps this is just a desperate attempt to shake things up.

Dale Sveum will take over for the remainder of the season. The Brewers are in Chicago for three beginning tomorrow.

Cubs and Astros move to Milwaukee

Because of hurricane Ike, the Cubs and Astros will now play two games in Milwaukee. They were supposed to play three in Houston this weekend, but obviously, nobody's playing anything down there right now.

It's ironic that the games are in Milwaukee. If you are a Brewers fan, who do you root for? Your team is chasing the Cubs for the division title, although it's slipping away. The Cubs' lead is up to 6 games and their magic number for clinching the division is 10.

Houston, meanwhile, is on your heels in the wild card race. Philadelphia is a greater concern at the moment because they are the current opponent and only two games back after beating the Brewers last night, but Houston is 2.5 games back.

So, do you want the Cubs to help watch your back in the wild card race, or do you want to hold out those fading hopes for a division title?

Athletic, yes, but not a sport

I've always felt that one of the definitions of a sport is something where you can tell who won. Gymnastics and figure skating, which rely on judges to tell you who won, are more like athletic pageants than sports. Diving fits into that as well.

We saw another example again tonight. Nastia Liukin of the US appeared to have done a little better than He Kexin of China, but the judges ruled them tied, and He won on a tiebreaker. Another Chinese gymnast finished third, but she might have been better than the other two. Who can tell? Certainly not me, and even the announcers (who have a huge US bias to be sure) struggled with it.

He, who was below the minimum age required to compete in the Olympics before she miraculously produced a passport that said otherwise, had a worse low score that counted than Liukin did. That was the tiebreaker.

Another US-China matchup was pretty spirited as well. Today's 9-1 win for the US baseball team over China got a little intense. Five, or perhaps six (news reports conflicted), US batters were hit by pitches. Two US runners collided with Chinese catchers. One of those catchers, Wang Wei, got knocked out of the game in the 5th. Backup Yang Yang got steamrolled in the sixth, which made China's manager, Jim Lefebvre (the former Cubs manager) pretty irate. He argued the US runner's play was unnecessary and that he should have been kicked out of the game. Lefebvre was launched instead. The first batter for the US in the next inning, Matt LaPorta, was beaned and knocked out of the game. Maybe the next one too. That got the Chinese pitcher tossed along with backup manager Steve Ontiveros (the former MLB pitcher, not the former Cubs 3B).

The final act of sportsmanship came when Yang yanged one over the left field fence in the 9th for the only Chinese run. He ran the bases with his arm in the air in celebration like he hit a 10-run homer.

In the bigs, the next guy goes down and pretty much everyone in uniform gets ejected. Here, the teams just shook hands after the game.

Gotta love the Olympic spirit!

Catching up

A lot has gone on since I last wrote:

I saw The Dark Knight. It was fantastic. I don't know that I have much to add beyond what most of the reviewers have already said. Heath Ledger stole the show and the story was great. If I have any complaint, it's that it gets a little speechy at times (is "speechy" a word?). It's pretty cool, as a Chicagoan, to see the way the city is used in this movie.

The Cubs keep rolling. They went up to Milwaukee and kicked the Brewers back to the Cardinals in the standings. The team didn't make any trade deadline moves, but their big trade came earlier in July when they picked up Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin, both of whom have done quite well, despite Gaudin blowing a lead yesterday. Jeff Samardzija, the former all-American WR at Notre Dame, was called up to fill Kerry Wood's spot on the roster and has done a pretty credible job as well. He's got nasty stuff, and once he nails down his control, he'll be a quality starter. That is, if they don't make a closer out of him. Rooting for ND guys is hard for me, but I guess I'll just have to get used to it.

I had another garage sale. This one didn't go as well as the first because the main road near my house is under construction, which kept down drive-by traffic. I may do one more, or I may not.

I signed up to coach soccer again this fall, but for the second season in a row, I didn't get a team. I'm starting to take this personally.

I have also been working on getting CollegeBCS.com going for the new season, so if you are a subscriber, you can find my bowl projections and commentary on the initial coaches' poll.

I also joined up with Facebook and LinkedIn. Links to my pages on those sites are on the right side of the page.

Drake scratches itchy trigger thumb again

I wrote about vacation fill-in ump Rob Drake and his itchy trigger thumb last month after a particularly bad performance in a Cubs-Sox game.

Well, he was back last weekend for the Marlins-Cubs series, and he got busy again. After blowing a call at first where he called Mark DeRosa out, he launched first base coach Matt Sinatro when he went to argue, and then threw out Lou Piniella as well shortly after he arrived from the dugout.

This guy really knows how to throw gas on a fire. Won't the game be so much better when this guy gets up to the bigs for good?

DeRosa, by the way, did one of those stupid head first dives into the base. I have no idea why guys do that, but all it does is slow you down.

Another Uggly loss for NL

Some thoughts and notes from the all-star game.

It took a record-tying 15 innings, but the AL finally pushed the NL off the Lidge (Brad, the losing pitcher) for a 4-3 win.

In terms of time, it was the longest game ever.

Every available player on both rosters got in the game.

Winning pitcher, Scott Kazmir of Tampa Bay, wasn't supposed to play, but manager Terry Francona ran out of arms.

JD Drew was the MVP, and he deserved it.

Dan Uggla was easily the LVP, and turned in quite possibly the worst performance ever by an all-star. He was 0-4 at the plate with three strikeouts and a double play. On the DP and one of the strikeouts, he had a chance to give the NL an extra-inning lead by driving in a runner from third with less than two outs. He also made three errors, all by failing to field a ground ball cleanly. He fumbled another grounder as well, but still managed to get the out. Two of the errors came in one inning, but none of them led to a run.

It was a rough night for some others too. The umps blew calls on at least two tag plays, one at second and one at home. Even announcer Joe Buck made three silly mistakes, like miscounting hits and confusing positions.

Honoring the Hall of Famers is nice, but MLB went overboard. It took longer to announce the starting lineups (and not even in order) than to play the first four innings of the game.

Tim Lincecum of the Giants missed the game because he had been hospitalized that morning with flu-like symptoms. Still, I thought they should have "introduced" him with the rest of the NL reserves, and announced why he wasn't there. Instead, they just skipped him entirely, like he wasn't even named to the team.

The locals had kind of hit-and-miss games. Kosuke Fukudome, Geovany Soto, Carlos Quentin and Joe Crede were a combined 0-9. Aramis Ramirez batted once and walked. He immediately came out of the game for a pinch runner (who was caught stealing). The pitchers fared better though. Carlos Zambrano faced six hitters in two innings. He got a double play after giving up a hit in the third, and picked off a runner in the fourth. He was in line to pick up the win for the NL before Drew's HR tied the game. Ryan Dempster struck out the side in the 9th and Carlos Marmol struck out two of the four hitters he faced in the 13th. The only runner against Marmol reached on an Uggla error.

Washington SS Cristian Guzman played 3B for the rest of the game after pinch running for Ramirez, even though he has never played the position in the big leagues.

Colorado pitcher Aaron Cook pitched three adventurous innings, but didn't get scored on. In the 11th, he faced five hitters, the first four of which reached base. One was wiped out on a caught stealing and another was thrown out at home. Both of those calls were questionable.

Pretty bold of Budweiser to go on with the ad campaign referring to Bud as the Great American Lager, don't you think?

I could go the rest of my life and never hear another word about Yankee Stadium. And I like the place.

Team charter gets no break

The Cubs added a NL record-tying eighth all-star to the roster today when recent whipping boy Carlos Marmol was selected to replace Kerry Wood, who will miss the game with a blister.

Marmol was selected because he had the highest vote total among relief pitchers on the players' ballot. He is the only pitcher on either roster who is not a starter or a closer.

The last team with eight all-stars was the 1960 Pirates. The 1958 Yankees had nine. Of course, two Cubs will not play because of injury (Wood and Alfonso Soriano) and a third, Ryan Dempster, may not be available because he pitched today.

The Cubs go into the break with a 4.5-game lead over St. Louis in the division and are tied with the Angels for the best record in baseball.

Oh, and let's not neglect the White Sox, which are also in first. They have a 1.5-game lead over the Twins at the break after both teams lost today.

It's the first time since 1977 that both teams were in first at the all-star break. Neither team made the playoffs that year. Here's hoping both teams get it right this time.

Cub All-star count falling

Cub All-stars are dropping like flies hit to Brant Brown.

Alfonso Soriano was officially replaced on the roster this week by Mets' 3B David Wright after Wright failed to win the final fan vote. Colorado's Matt Holliday will take Soriano's spot in the starting lineup.

Now, Kerry Wood has a blister on his finger and won't be able to play. He has not been replaced on the roster yet because the injury was only discovered yesterday.

By the way, that does not excuse Lou Piniella for leaving Carlos Marmol in to blow a five run lead against the Giants in the ninth inning yesterday. When Marmol is good, he's unhittable, but when he's bad, nobody is safe out there. Not the hitter, not the catcher, not the umpire, not even the guy in the on-deck circle. It's not hard to tell when Marmol is off his game because he misses the plate by feet, not inches.

Marmol hasn't been good much lately, and yesterday was no exception. Piniella did have the sense to get Sean Marshall up in the pen, but even after Marshall was ready, he left Marmol in to implode. Marmol's last outing was the other night against Cincinnati. He had a four run lead when he took the mound in the ninth. After getting the first two guys out, he lost it. He gave up a hit, threw a wild pitch, and walked two more before Wood came in and got the third out. This time, Lou didn't pull the trigger, and the lead went away.

That poor decision cost Rich Harden a win in his debut with Cubs. He pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out 10. It was a hot, humid day and he threw 96 pitches, so that's why his day was a little short.

The Cubs did come back and win in the 11th with a rally started by a lead-off single by Marshall, so the only victim of Piniella's slow hook was Harden.

However, Marmol's ineffectiveness has to be a concern going into the break. In his last 12 appearances, dating back to June 19 at Tampa, Marmol has retired every batter he has faced only four times. Keep in mind that he rarely pitches for more than one inning. In the other eight trips to the mound, he has given up 14 runs, 13 earned, 11 hits, 10 walks, 4 hit batters, and has watched his ERA balloon from 2.09 to 4.13.

Probably no Cub needs the all-star rest more than Carlos.

Cubs answer Milwaukee

The Cubs went out and got one of the top starting pitchers in the AL when they acquired Rich Harden from Oakland.

The right-handed Harden is 5-1 with a 2.34 ERA in 13 starts. He has 92 strikeouts and 31 walks in 77.2 innings. He missed most of April with an injury, and that's the rub with Harden. He seems to be a bit fragile. He has not made more than 12 straight starts since he did that in 2005. That might concern the Cubs a bit since his current streak is 11.

The good news about his injuries is that he hasn't had surgery. Yet. But when healthy, he's been one of the best in the American League.

The Cubs also got Chad Gaudin, a righty who made six starts early in the season, but has been in the bullpen ever since. He is 5-3 with a 3.59 ERA.

Gaudin will probably be middle relief/setup, a similar role to that of Bob Howry and Scott Eyre. Obviously, he could spot start as well.

The Cubs gave up Sean Gallagher, a young guy who could have a promising future. They also gave up journeyman OF Matt Murton, OF/2B Eric Patterson (the Cubs also traded his brother Corey a couple of years ago), and minor league C John Donaldson, who is expendable because of the emergence of Geovany Soto. Donaldson played Ryne Sandberg at class A Peoria.

Harden, by the way, is from Canada. One of the Cubs best pitchers ever, Fergie Jenkins, is also Canadian. He will make his Cubs debut Friday or Saturday against San Francisco.

You'd be hard pressed to find a better top three starters than the Cubs have in Zambrano, Harden and Dempster.

The Cubs have also reportedly signed their top draft choice, TCU P Andrew Cashner.

Cubs better watch their backs

The Brewers picked up CC Sabathia from the Indians (for a ton of minor league talent) yesterday, sending a message to the Cubs and Cardinals that they intend to be in the Central race for the long haul.

Sabathia and Ben Sheets become one of the best 1-2 starter combos in the league. They're right up there with Brandon Webb and Dan Haren of Arizona, and the Cubs' Zambrano and Dempster.

There was talk that the Cubs would be in the market for Sabathia, but the Brewers made them an offer of minor leaguers that the Indians couldn't refuse and that the Cubs likely wouldn't have matched. The big name going to Cleveland is AA star Matt LaPorta, who already has 20 homers and 66 RBIs this year. LaPorta was Milwaukee's first round draft choice last year.

The Indians also got two other minor leaguers and a third as a "player to be named."

Real All star rosters

The all-star rosters have been announced, and there were a couple of surprises.

The AL starters held form. David Ortiz was voted as the starting DH, but because of injury, was replaced in the starting lineup by Milton Bradley of Texas, who was elected to the roster by the players.

Other AL reserves elected by the players include:

C: Jason Varitek, Bos (.218, 7 HR, easily the worst player elected by either fans or players - quite possibly the worst player ever selected as a reserve)
1B: Justin Morneau, Min
2B: Ian Kinsler, Tex
SS: Michael Young, Tex
3B: Joe Crede, Chi
OF: Carlos Quentin, Chi
Grady Sizemore, Cle

The players also selected pitchers Roy Halliday (Tor), Scott Kazmir (Tam), Cliff Lee (Cle), Jonathan Papelbon (Bos), Mariano Rivera (NY), Joakim Soria (KC), Frankie Rodriguez, Ervin Santana and Joe Saunders (Ana).

Francona had five choices, but had to pick players from Baltimore, Detroit and Oakland, who were not represented among the players chosen by the fans and other players.

He picked Orioles' P George Sherrill, P Justin Duchscherer of the A's and Tigers' OF Carlos Guillen. He also picked Tampa's C Dioner Navarro and Twins' closer Joe Nathan.

So, five of the 24 players I would have chosen as pitchers/reserves were not among the 23 chosen on the AL squad today. I had AJ Pierzynski, who isn't terribly popular among players, Placido Polanco as the Detroit rep, Dice-K, Sox OF Jermaine Dye and Tampa 3B and desperate housewife Evan Longoria.

Longoria and Dye still have a chance. They are among the five "final vote" candidates. Fans can vote at mlb.com for one last player. The other candidates are Jason Giambi of NY, who will win, Baltimore 2B Brian Roberts, and KC OF Jose Guillen. I would vote for Dye.

In the NL, a last minute race between Kosuke Fukudome of the Cubs and Milwaukee's Ryan Braun for the final starting spot in the outfield ended up securing both of them spots and knocking out Cincinnati's Ken Griffey, Jr. In fact, Braun ended up the leading vote-getter at the position. So instead of Fukudome getting left off for the Cardinals' Ryan Ludwick, it was Junior who didn't make it.

The other NL starters were the same as the week before.

The player-elected reserves are:

C: Russell Martin, LA
1B: Adrian Gonzalez, SD
2B: Dan Uggla, Fla
SS: Miguel Tejada, Hou
3B: Aramis Ramirez, Chi
OF: Matt Holliday, Col
Nate McLouth, Pit
Ryan Ludwick, Stl

They also elected pitchers Aaron Cook (Col), Ryan Dempster and Kerry Wood (Chi), Brad Lidge (Phi), Tim Lincecum and Brian Wilson (SF), Ben Sheets (Mil), Edison Volquez (Cin), Brandon Webb (Ari).

Clint Hurdle's picks were SS Cristian Guzman, Washington's only representative, Atlanta C Brian McCann, pitchers Dan Haren (Ari) and Billy Wagner, the lone Met so far, and two guys that I cannot believe were not elected otherwise, Albert Pujols of St. Louis and Carlos Zambrano of the Cubs.

I missed on six reserves for the NL (counting that I mentioned I would take Ludwick if a spot opened for him). Two of the guys I missed, OF Carlos Lee (Hou), who gets my vote, and Pat Burrell (Phi) are among the five last chance finalists. The others are NY 3B David Wright, who will win, OF Aaron Rowand (SF) and OF Corey Hart (Mil).

One of those guys may get added when it is finally determined that Alfonso Soriano can't play. That's not official yet.

A couple of Cubs all-star notes. Soto is the first rookie to be elected to start as the NL catcher ever. He is also the first Cub catcher to get the honor since 1937 (Gabby Hartnett). Ryan Dempster's last all-star appearance was as a starter in 2002. He's a starter again, but last year, he was the Cubs closer. Kerry Wood's last all-star appearance in 2003 was also as a starter, but now he's the Cubs closer.

There are seven Cubs on the squad (even without Derrek Lee), and no other NL team has more than two. The Red Sox also have seven all-stars.

All-Star Rosters

Not that Clint Hurdle and Terry Francona asked, but here's who should make the MLB All-Star teams, which will be announced tomorrow.

Note that I am listing 32-man teams, but only 31 get picked tomorrow. The fans then vote on each league's 32nd player, and that winner is announced July 10th. Also, each team has to be represented. Actually, I'm listing 33 because each team has a player who will be voted as a starter that will miss the game with an injury.

Kosuke Fukudome may not make the team if he doesn't get voted on. He's the only player among the likely starters in that position. If he doesn't make it, I would expect Ryan Ludwick (Stl) to take his place.

*- Likely starter

AL
C: *-Joe Mauer, Min
AJ Pierzynski, Chi

1B: *-Kevin Youkilis, Bos
Justin Morneau, Min

2B: *-Dustin Pedroia, Bos
Ian Kinsler, Tex
Placido Polanco, Det

SS: *-Derek Jeter, NY
Michael Young, Tex

3B: *-Alex Rodriguez, NY
Evan Longoria, Tam
Mike Lowell, Bos

OF: *-Manny Ramirez, Bos
*-Josh Hamilton, Tex
*-Ichiro Suzuki, Sea
JD Drew, Bos
Jermaine Dye, Chi
Carlos Quentin, Chi
Grady Sizemore, Cle

DH: *-David Ortiz, Bos (Inj)
Milton Bradley, Tex

SP: *-Justin Duchscherer, Oak
Roy Halladay, Tor
Scott Kazmir, Tam (L)
Cliff Lee, Cle (L)
Daisuke Matsuzaka, Bos
Ervin Santana, Ana
Joe Saunders, Ana (L)

RP: Joe Nathan, Min
Mariano Rivera, NY
Francisco Rodriguez, Ana
George Sherrill, Bal (L)
Joakim Soria, KC

By team (starters): 7-Bos(4), 4-Tex (1), 3-Ana, Chi, Min (1), NY (2), 2-Cle, Tam, 1-Bal, Det, KC, Oak (1), Sea (1), Tor

NL
C: *-Geovany Soto, Chi
Russell Martin, LA
Brian McCann, Atl

1B: *-Lance Berkman, Hou
Albert Pujols, Stl (DH)
Derrek Lee, Chi
Adrian Gonzalez, SD

2B: *-Chase Utley, Phl
Dan Uggla, Fla

SS: *-Hanley Ramirez, Fla
Jose Reyes, NY

3B: *-Chipper Jones, Atl
Aramis Ramirez, Chi

OF: *-Alfonso Soriano, Chi (Inj)
*-Ken Griffey, Cin
*-Kosuke Fukudome, Chi
Xavier Nady, Pit
Carlos Lee, Hou
Pat Burrell, Phi
Ryan Braun, Mil
Matt Holliday, Col

SP: *-Brandon Webb, Ari
Tim Lincecum, SF
Ben Sheets, Mil
Dan Haren, Ari
Edison Volquez, Cin
Carlos Zambrano, Chi
Johan Santana, NY (L)
Aaron Cook, Col

RP: Kerry Wood, Chi
Brad Lidge, Phi
Billy Wagner, NY (L)
Jon Rauch, Was

By team (starters): 7-Chi (3), 3-NY, Phl (1), 2-Ari (1), Atl (1), Cin (1), Col, Fla (1), Hou (1), Mil, 1-LA, Pit, SD, SF, Stl (1), Was

Minor league umps who belong there

I was gone camping last weekend with my son's Cub Scout den, so I missed most of the Cubs-Sox rematch, which ended up a Sox sweep (payback's a pitch). However, I did get to watch some of the Sunday night game, during which two minor league fill-in umps showed why they are still in the minors.

The trouble started pretty quickly. In the bottom of the second, Joe Crede tried, but failed, to check his swing on what would have been strike three, except that home plate ump Rob Drake didn't call it a swing. On the appeal, first base ump Chad Fairchild also blew the call.

That set Lou Piniella off. He came out of the first base dugout and took a few steps toward Fairchild, and yelling at him about the call. Fairchild held up his hand and told him not to come out. Piniella stopped, and slowly headed back toward the dugout, still yelling at Fairchild.

Meanwhile, Drake moseyed over from home plate and threw Piniella out of the game - while Piniella had his back turned to him. In fact, Piniella never said a word to Drake, and didn't even know he had been ejected. Drake had to give him the thumb at least twice because Piniella didn't see it the first time. That really set Piniella off. He got right in Drake's face and gave him the business, following him all the way back to the plate. The third base ump finally came in to intervene and break things up.

Not a whole lot went right in this situation. Both umps blew the call. You're not allowed to argue balls and strikes (something the announcers overplayed), but debating whether someone swung the bat is different that arguing pitch location. It's more like arguing whether a ball is foul or fair. Piniella should get some leeway to debate that, and Fairchild - correctly - seemed ready to give him a smidgen.

Drake was way out of line ejecting Piniella. If anyone was going to do that, it should have been Fairchild. Drake wasn't even part of the discussion. It's one thing to have your partner's back, but at least wait for him to need the help. Fairchild isn't a baby. I'm sure he can take care of himself. In fact, he seemed to have the situation quite under control. Not five seconds had elapsed between the time Piniella came out of the dugout and Drake's ejection.

Later in the game, Fairchild blew another call on a play at first. Ronny Cedeno beat a throw, but Fairchild called him out. Manager pro tempore Alan Trammel came out to argue, and once again Drake moved into position to interfere, but Trammel finished before Drake could scratch that itchy trigger thumb.

Rough night for both guys (and I haven't even talked about Drake's strike zone yet). It was the kind of performance that gets you optioned back to AAA.

Marmol finally gets hit

I was watching the Cubs last night when Carlos Marmol came in to pitch the eighth inning. Marmol was greeted with a leadoff single to right, which prompted Cubs announcer Len Kasper to point out, "that's the first hit he's given up since June 8th."

Of course, that doesn't mean he'd pitched well. In fact, he had been stinking up the joint lately. He hadn't given up any hits because he wasn't throwing strikes. He made seven straight hitless appearances before last night, and the first four of those were solid. But, last week against Tampa, he walked the first two batters he faced, then hit the next two, plating a run. Scott Eyre then came into the game and gave up a granny to Carl Crawford, so Marmol was charged with four runs, even though he didn't allow a hit.

In his next outing against the White Sox, he walked the bases loaded before allowing a run on a wild pitch. He did manage to get out of the inning unscathed otherwise.

Finally, in the first game against Baltimore, he seemed to have settled down some. Although he did hit another batter, he didn't allow anything else.

So, in three outings totaling two innings, he walked five, hit three more, threw a wild pitch and gave up five runs.

But no hits.

There's no need to fear, Wonderdog is here!

Fresno St won the College World Series 6-1 over Georgia last night, capping a remarkable postseason run.

Fresno entered the tournament with an RPI rating of 84, which basically means they only got into the NCAA tournament because they won their conference tournament.

Like basketball, the baseball tournament is a 64-team field. OK, technically, the men's basketball tournament is 65, but set that aside for the moment. In baseball, teams are broken into 16 regionals with the teams seeded 1-4 in each region. Fresno was a 4-seed in their region. That makes them roughly the equivalent to a 13-14 seed in the basketball field. So, Fresno winning the CWS is like Valparaiso winning the men's basketball championship.

Not just making the final four. Winning the whole thing.

For some perspective, when George Mason made the basketball Final Four in Indy three years ago, they were a 11-seed.

Oh, and the Bulldogs did all this without their best starting pitcher, Tanner Scheppers, who missed the CWS with an injury. Scheppers was the second round choice (48th overall) of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Wonderdogs, indeed.

For more coverage of this event, check out Eric Sorenson's Extra Innings blog.

Gorilla Ball

Rule #1 of attending a game is, "never leave your seat." That comes from when I took a friend of mine to his first Cubs game back in 1984. He got up in the bottom of the sixth to get a beer, and while standing in line and watching on TV, he saw his empty seat during the seventh-inning stretch as they showed our sheet sign, and then he saw it again a couple of batters later when a Cubs home run hit two rows below us in the right field bleachers. That was it for the Cubs offense in the game, and he missed it in the beer line. At least the Cubs won.

Apparently, this applies to watching on TV also. Last night, I was watching game two of the College World Series final between Georgia and Fresno St. I got to it a little late because of eating dinner, and when I turned it on, it was 5-0 UGa, withe Georgia still batting in the top of the 3rd. A few minutes later (now bottom 3rd), I had to put the little kids to bed. That only took 10-15 minutes, and when I came back, Georgia was up again in the 4th, but the game was now tied at 6. At the end of that inning, I went out to put up my grill - a relatively short task, but when I got back to the game, it was 8-6 Fresno. Runs were being scored at will, but only when I was away from the television.

I did manage to catch the last 15 runs of the game though, a 19-10 Fresno win that extends the series to a deciding game tonight. Pitchers, especially Georgia's, were hiding in the clubhouse, hoping not to get called into the game.

Check out my friend and CSTV colleague Eric Sorenson's coverage on his Extra Innings blog.