For people wondering if the Chicago Cubs are out of control, the answer is yes.
Furthermore, I'll add the comment that it's about time.
I'm happy a team made up of overpaid, underachieving and spoiled players is finally showing some life.
It was just a few days ago that I wrote that the Cubs were dead.
I said the St. Louis Cardinals were dead, too, and all that did was make my Cardinal friends mad and get Tony LaRussa's team winning again.
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As for the Cubs, I'm happy rightfielder Milton Bradley got into it with an umpire and drew a two-game suspension that was later reduced to one game.
I'm also happy pitcher Ted Lilly, who was supposed to be a spectator, stormed out of the dugout and got into an argument with Bob Davidson -- who is not only a very bad plate umpire, but a very bad base umpire, too -- and may face a suspension.
I'm happy, too, that pitcher Carlos Zambrano [shown in the Chicago Sun-Times photo at the top] got kicked out of yesterday's game with Pittsburgh after bumping plate umpire Mark Carlson during a heated argument. Zambrano also threw a baseball and his glove during after his ejection, and has already been suspended for six games and fined.
This kind of stuff is the best thing that could happen to the Cubs.
They need to show some life.
Now, with a number of regulars facing suspension, guys like Jake Fox and others from No-Name Team in Des Moines can move up in the National League Central standings.
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After yesterday's game, Cubs manager Lou Piniella told reporters that he's the only calm, cool and collected guy in the dugout. That's too bad. I wish Piniella would do something to get kicked out of a game or several. Don't forget, I'm the guy who wants Cubs TV analyst Bob Brenly to manage the Cubs.
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Thanks to IowaFootball.com, I've got a picture of Iowa's new artificial turf field inside Kinnick Stadium posted at the right.
The website says, "The work continues, and won't be complete for several weeks. However, that doesn't mean a good look at what the finished product isn't available.
"Once the project is completed later this summer, Iowa will become the seventh Big Ten university to have an artificial surface in its football facility. That list includes Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio State, Indiana and the new stadium under construction at Minnesota. Iowa currently practices on a synthetic surface when it is outdoors at the Kenyon Practice Facility and when inside "The Bubble," Iowa's indoor practice facility.
"The FieldTurf surface will replace the PAT -- Prescription Athletic Turf installed during the 2005 season. Kinnick has featured a grass playing surface since the 1989 season. It had an artificial surface from 1972 through 1988."
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Speaking of pictures, it looks like the Des Moines Register is trying to start a new trend--publishing photos of restaurants with people in them.
Datebook had a picture this morning of a Grimes restaurant named The Radish that actually had customers sitting at the tables.
For a long time, the Register seemed to be intent on publishing photos of restaurants with nobody sitting in the seats.
From that, readers might draw a couple of conclusions: 1. The food was lousy and nobody came to the restaurants; 2. The restaurants were already closed.
I, of course, have made fun of the paper for many months over the photos of restaurants with no people in them, so I'll gladly take credit for the editors deciding to get people in the pictures--even if they had to drag them in off the street to pose at the tables.
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Speaking of Datebook, there was a headline this morning that said, "Trendy Ames eatery uses local ingredients."
Forget me on that place. I don't go to places that are "trendy" -- whatever the hell that means.
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A guy at the sportswriters' lunch this week said the Register had a recent headline that called a filly a philly in a horserace story.
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That was a nice "personal perspective" by Andie Dominick on today's Opinion page.
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A headline today said, "D.M. hospitals will stop giving birth information to Register"
I suppose some nitwit at the paper will now decide that new mothers and fathers can get information published in the paper about the birth of their kids, but they'll have to pay for it -- like the obituaries.
