9.07.2008

Pennant race? What pennant race?

Aside from the house cleaning Kates and I had to do this afternoon it was a dream sports day … I had the picture-in-picture going to watch the Brewers and Cubs games, and oh, look at that, the Jets were on CBS too, meaning I also got to watch Brett Favre make his somewhat impressive Big Apple debut -- Remember he was playing against a team that had just one win a year ago ...

Thanks to the regional interest, we're still going to see a lot of Brett Favre this season ... I'll take it, though it's not near as exciting as watching him dressed in green and gold ...


Of course, I started playing a lot closer attention to the Brewers-Padres game as Chris Young took his bid for a perfect game deeper, and a Cubs win seemed imminent …

Then the notion of both those outcomes was blown apart within minutes of each other when Gabe Kapler hit the homerun off Young and Kerry Wood blew the save for the Cubs. …

Consider what the Cubs and Brewers have done in the last week -- or should I say, not done.

If the Cubs had won in their last eight games the way they’ve been winning all season, they’d be running away with the NL Central. Had the Brewers won their last seven games, they’d have caught the Cubs, broken hearts would be littering Chicago’s north side and we‘d have a completely different race in the NL Central. If things keep up, with both teams losing, the Cardinals are going to sneak in there when we’re not looking …

As for CC Sabathia’s controversial no-hitter last weekend: I’m standing on the side that’s content with Major League Baseball’s decision not to overturn the official scorer’s decision. Should the play have been ruled an error? Probably. But the official scorer also has the rest of the game and several hours afterward to change his mind -- which he didn’t. And correctly, that’s where it ended … It would have been an awful precedent for Major League Baseball to set had they decided to overrule the official scorer. And besides, after all that, how could Sabathia enjoy the no-hitter.

Here’s a collection of good reads I’ve come across the last couple weeks about the Cubs and Brewers going down the wire …

a Cubs fans have reason to worry ... "... these are the Cubs, the historical Cubs, and things happen to them. Things happen to other teams too. Injuries happen to other teams. But when they happen to this team, they're put into a larger, 100-year context. A raindrop to another club is a possible Category 5 hurricane for the Cubs."

a Don't worry, Cubs fans: Playoffs are secure ... "Yes, these are the Cubs we're talking about. Even first-graders know their history. But when you have scored the most runs in your league while allowing the fewest, and when you have done that over more than five months, you have earned the benefit of the doubt."

a Without Zambrano, it's not gonna happen

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