Things I Learned During the City Series

Well, thank God that's over. The crapulance that is inter-league play is done for the year, and only about twelve games too late.

Anyway, my heroes sweep the series from the White Sox. Huzzah. I'm sure the jackass segment of the Cub Fan population is full of itself this afternoon (and, judging from the reports of fights breaking out at the Cell this weekend, the jackass segment of the White Sox Fan population was also full of something, too).

To these Cub Fans, I can only repeat Crash Davis' classic line to Nuke LaLoosh -- "The moment's over." Yeah, we won. Tomorrow, we get to play the Rockies. And they don't care that we're on a three game win streak.

So enjoy the win, as every win should be enjoyed. But don't be jackasses about it. It's not like we're printing playoff tickets, after all.

Other random observations:
** Jim is definitely more equipped to answer this question, but what the heck happened to the White Sox? I didn't realize that their record was worse than ours until Wednesday. A cursory glimpse at the stat sheet reveals that they're not hitting, and from what I hear the bullpen is...ummm...to be polite about it...not good.

** I've heard grumblings about Ozzie Guillen's managing for the last month or so. Again, I don't follow the Sox closely, so I'm not the right guy to comment. But I can't tell if he's doing anything different this year than he did in 2005.

He took some grief Saturday for bringing in Jenks in the eighth inning. I heard Sox Fan on the radio saying that Guillen lost the game with that move. But, again, if the rest of the bullpen is bad, who else does he go with in a tie game? Hoyt Wilhelm and Kevin Hickey aren't around to help anymore, after all.

** The debate on the WGN radio sports show is whether this weekend shows that the Cubs are really that good or if the Sox are really that bad. I'd say a little of both, probably.

But while I didn't think we were as bad as we showed in April and May, there's no way we should be making plans for October based on this weekend. We're still eight games behind the Brewers, and they're the real deal. We'll have to go on a hellacious tear just to make it an interesting race.

And we had the good luck to hit the White Sox at the right time. These guys are going to start hitting soon (tomorrow is fine with me, fellas), and they just can't be this bad. Can they? Or am I just a typically naive and Pollyanna-ish Cub Fan?

** Yesterday, the guy on WGN sports radio was whining that the Brewers get to play the Royals, while we had to play the White Sox.

I've said it before, but evidently I need to repeat it -- stop whining about the schedule! The crapulance that is inter-league play and the unbalanced schedule makes for some inherent discrepancies in strengths of schedule. But nobody cares, and Baron Budhausen isn't going to give us a handicap because the Brewhas got to play KC and we didn't.

Besides, the Royals might be better than the Sox. Zing! Don't post angry comments, White Sox Fans. I kid because I love!

** Even with the White Sox offensive woes, I was happy with the performance of Zambrano, Hill, and Marshall this weekend. Zambrano looks like he's back on track, and the other two young guys are showing signs that they belong in the Show. Let's hope they can build on the experience and continue to develop. Having five respectable starters would be a good thing heading into 2008.

** Thursday last week, the Trib ran a story about the White Sox that hinted, to paraphrase Homer Simpson, they're just a little airborne, but they're still good. One wonders if the eds are still as sanguine about the Pale Hose's chances now...

** On a similar note, after today's game the Cubs' record in June is a respectable 13-10. The White Sox have posted a slightly less notable 5-17 June mark.

A search for the word "swoon" at Chicagosports.com finds no reference to the word in relation to the White Sox in the paper. The only hit on the search is in an "Ask Mark Gonzales" column from last week. Meanwhile, Sully dropped a "swoon" in a bit about Marquis' recent slump.

Funny how that famous anti-Sox media bias works...