I heard from former Des Moines newspaperman Don Clasen, who has information from Chicago:
"Cubs win!
"We just got back from the game on a beautiful Thursday afternoon at Wrigley. But we left after the seventh inning when the Cubs took a commanding 11-1 lead. The Padres must be one of the worst teams in the majors. They looked almost as bad as the Sox did in last Sunday's loss to the stRangers. We were punished for eight innings and then departed.
"Yesterday, the Cubs looked like the guys who play at the No-Name Facility in Des Moines. But Scales, Theriot, Hoffpauir and Soto looked good.
"But how 'bout them Hawks? In this case I mean the Blackhawks. My wife was like a kid again after we viewed Monday night's victory over Vancouver. She was overjoyed to see her favorite player--Patrick Kane, the 20-year-old kid--notch a hat trick as the Hawks advanced to the division finals against the Red Wings.
"Can the Hawks capture the Stanley Cub? Don't know, but I'd never have guessed these kids would have come this far. They are a pleasure to watch after another slow game on the diamond."
Don Clasen
[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Thanks for your thoughts, Don. The Cubs are on a pretty good roll, and credit must be given to players from No-Name Ballteam for providing help. There are still some problems, such as what to do with Derrek Lee. Micah Hoffpauir is clearly doing a better job at the plate than the veteran first baseman Lee, who can't hit his weight. I wish manager Lou Piniella would bench Lee for a couple of weeks and let Hoffpauir play regularly. Maybe they can invent some sort of imaginary injury so Lee can go on the disabled list. The Cubs had a chance to do that when Lee was bothered by a neck problem but, unfortunately, he made a fast recovery. It's sad to watch Lee at the plate. He's a prime double-play candidate and he strikes out far too much. Mike Fontenot isn't hitting after a fast start, so I guess I'd use Aaron Miles, even though he's not hitting anything, at second base for a while and ex-No-Name player Bobby Scales at third while Aramis Ramirez is recovering from a dislocated shoulder. Milton Bradley still isn't hitting well enough, and we won't have to see him today because he'll be serving his one-day [reduced from two] suspension for bumping an umpire. Bradley needs to get it going, as does catcher Geovany Soto. The bullpen seems to be settling down, thanks to help from No-Name Team. Now if they can find some garbage bin to put Neal Cotts in.]
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Great atmosphere last night at the Farmers Market in Valley Junction. Excellent music, excellent crowd.
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The Valley Southwoods boys' soccer team is on an absolute roll. Another 1-0 victory -- this time over Waukee -- before the Farmers Market.
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I'm not sure the Des Moines Register knows that Milton Bradley plays for the Cubs. I mean, there wasn't anything in today's paper about Bradley's suspension being cut from two games to one game by major league baseball.
It could be that the copy editor at the paper who is assigned to baseball suspensions is working at Casey's this week because he or she is on a company-ordered furlough.
Bradley sat out yesterday's game against San Diego, and will serve his suspension today.
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Like I wrote earlier, I'm not among the two or three people -- all of them sportswriters -- who are excited that Lucca Staiger will be playing basketball for Iowa State again next season.
And, as I also wrote, I doubt Staiger is going to see much of the basketball in the 2009-2010 season because Craig Brackins will always have it.
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I don't feel good about the people who will be losing their jobs at Chrysler dealerships around the country -- right down to the folks who sweep up at night.
But I don't feel sorry for the bosses at Chrysler. I've always thought they made an inferior product, and I have never bought a Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto or Chrysler.
Maybe that's why Plymouth and DeSoto flew the coop long before Chrysler.
Well, maybe I could be talked into one of those Dodge 4-wheel-drive clubcab trucks at a good price, but that's about all I'd be interested in.
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Still on the subject of cars, I was thinking about the ones I've had since I bought my 1937 V-8 Ford coupe with mechanical brakes and lots of zip when I was 16.
There was the 1940 Chevrolet coupe, the 1941 Chevy sedan, the 1936 Pontiac I bought from Dick Plattenberger that rarely ran, the 1953 Chevy Bel-Air, the 1930 Ford Model A coupe [which briefly made me a two-car kid], the 1961 Chevy Biscayne [my first new car], the 1966 fire engine-red Chevy Impala Super Sport [which I wish I still had], the 1970 yellow Ford LTD that rusted out, all those Volkswagens [the 1959 black one with no gas gauge I bought from Dan Callahan], the 1970 green one I bought for the kids, the two Volkswagen vans that sometimes started and sometimes stopped, the two Pontiacs in the 1970s [one of which had been a State Trooper car] I bought at the DOT auction, the other Pontiac I didn't buy at the DOT auction, the 1989 Toyota Camry [pictured at the left] that I still own and which is the official car of this website, plus the 1998 Honda Accord with leather seats, sunroof, CD player and only about 50,000 miles that sits next to the Camry in my garage.
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Another thing that wasn't in the Des Moines Register today:
I don't lose much sleep over the National Basketball Association playoffs, but the Houston Rockets won again last night, and now have a chance to knock out the Los Angeles Lakers -- which would be fine with me.
Aaron Brooks scored 26 points, Luis Scola scored 24 points and had 12 rebounds, and the Rockets pushed the Lakers to the limit in their Western Conference semifinal series with a 95-80 victory in the sixth game of the series at Houston.
"For the last two days, all I've heard is that we weren't going back to L.A.," Houston coach Rick Adelman told reporters after the game. "Our guys didn't believe that."
