Well, I guess it's my job to give you the Chicago Cubs' information again today because the paper some of us used to depend on for the news got an "F" on its report card again last night and this morning.
No story on the Cubs, I mean.
I guess the game finished past the ridiculous 11:10 p.m. deadline the paper now has.
In the old days [here I go again, talking about the old days], a game could finish at 1 a.m. and the paper would have the results.
Anyway, the Cubs won last night's rain-delayed [three times] game, 6-4, over the San Diego Padres, and that's what really matters.
Heavy rain finally caused the game to be halted by the umpires after 7 1/2 innings.
I watched the game on TV and I watched the televised interviews afterward.
Shortstop Ryan Theriot was the star of the show. A guy who isn't supposed to be a home run hitter smacked two, thanks to a 15-mile-an-hour wind that was blowing out, not in, at Wrigley Field.
Pretty soon they're going to be asking Theriot what he sprinkles on his breakfast cereal.
I'm assuming it's not the same stuff Manny Ramirez used to get suspended for 50 games.
The shortstop has hit a career-high five home runs this season -- all this month. Alfonso Soriano hit his 53rd leadoff homer and Geovany Soto also went deep for the Cubs, who are only a half-game out of first place [behind Cincinnati, St. Louis and Milwaukee] in the National League Central despite the loss of third baseman Aramis Ramirez with a shoulder separation.
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The Cubs wound up sweeping the three-game series from the Padres by winning Thursday's game, 11-3.
Bobby Scales, the 31-year-old rookie who was recently called up from No-Name Ballteam in Des Moines. hit a pair of two-run doubles. Scales has hit safely in all six games he's played, and it's the longest streak for a Cubs player to start his major league career since Jerome Walton hit in seven successive games in 1969.
"He wants some playing time," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said of Scales.
Asked by Chicago reporters if he'll get it, Piniella said, "I've said many times players in the large part make out the lineup for the manager."
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I'm afraid I wouldn't last long in Tony LaRussa's press sessions before and after St. Louis Cardinals games.
The way LaRussa is critical of reporters' questions and the way he barks at people is childish and ridiculous.
Obviously, he'd like to control [maybe even strangle] the press. If you don't play the game his way, you're an outsider.
He sounds a lot like Lute Olson in his last few seasons as Iowa's basketball coach.
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Nancy Newhoff, [pictured at the left], editor of the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier, writes on Twitter: "Sad, but true: UNI baseball begins final home series at 6:30 p.m. today at Riverfront Stadium in Waterloo. Games also Friday and Saturday."
That's right, this is it for UNI baseball, which won't be a collegiate sport at the university after this season.
UNI goes into its final series with a 21-25 record. Average attendance for home games is a paltry 257.
Of course, the road attendance isn't all that hot either -- 414.
I guess college baseball fans are going to have to depend on Grand View, Wartburg and Iowa in the future -- and that's not saying anything positive about Iowa.
If that program were dropped, no one would notice.
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No, that picture at the right isn't another one from "Dancing With the Stars." The Chicago Sun-Times photo shows Chicago Cubs outfielders Alfonso Soriano, Kosuke Fukudome and Milton Bradley. They've obviously been pretty happy lately.
