Sweet Home Chicago

A lot of people seem to think that Chicago is the only city in Illinois, so this is a tongue-in-cheek blog title. One of my best friends still believes that I am from the City of Big Shoulders, so now I just nod my head in agreement because if he hasn't gotten it by now, he's never going to figure it out... Anyway, this weekend was the final showdown of the year between the Cubs and the White Sox. Believe it or not, the Cubbies managed to win 2 out of 3 at The Cell (what an appropriate nickname for that concrete dump they call a ballpark). Mark Prior made his first start since he almost had his pitching arm knocked off at the game I attended on May 27. He was brilliant and only allowed 1 hit through 6 innings. Now these are the kinds of performances we need from our ballclub if we intend to fight for the Wild Card. However, I'm going to try to keep a level head this time and not be fooled by this rare display of sparkling play. It would be in character for me to get overly optimistic and think that the Cubbies are back in contention. But this time, I'm going to try to maintain an even keel and maybe I will be pleasantly surprised instead of devastated later. Only time will tell which Cubs are the real deal in 2005- the ones who won 7 in a row at the beginning of June or the guys who got swept by the Yankees last weekend.

By the way, I wanted to give a shoutout to my friend Maria's Florida Gators who made it to the College World Series Championship Series. There's nothing to hang your head about- your boys are considered the 2nd best team in the entire nation. They played their hearts out and hopefully today's loss is just the motivation they need to make it back to Omaha next year. GO GATORS in '06!