Jason Kendall - Just in Time.

I've been watching Jason Kendall throughout his career, mostly when he was with Pittsburgh and owned the Cubs. More than once he beat us all by himself, and for some reason he was always out of the Cub's grasp.

Now, this season, on what hopefully is a still rising wave, he has come to the Cubs. Like many Cub fans, I am wary of good signs. Maybe I shouldn't be, they really HAVE made the playoffs, and even advanced a round, but when things are going good, we all look for a shoe to drop. This isn't the shoe dropping, this is us getting a very good catcher, probably past his prime, but with serviceable stats over the last month, much better than what we've been getting. AND, he can catch the damn ball.

Jim Hendry made the announcement during the game this evening, that Jason Kendall had been acquired from the Oakland A's for Rob Bowen, the catcher we got for Barrett, and Jerry Blevins, a relief pitcher that has spent this season putting up decent stats for the Cubs' A and AA teams.

Losing Michael Barrett was a good addition to this team, for whatever reason you want to believe, witness the won-loss record since he left, now filling the hole he left behind with Kendall starts to put this team on the roll that will take them into the post-season.

I've been quiet this season thus far, observing, but now I am getting the feeling that this is all going to rally happen. The way Lou has taken over the team, weeded out the players not on his program, nurtured some that needed a shot... this is all working. So many things have happened this season that would never have happened with Dusty. Lou notices everything, and acts on it. He also won't have his managing dictated to him. Dusty spent the last three years he was here marching out the lineup he'd been force fed. He steadily sat hot hitters to rest and kept putting firestarting relievers in the thick of games, then shrugged when asked what went wrong, as if saying, "Whatcha gonna do? These are the players they gave me."

That is the main difference this year. Despite his press conference depictions of an Alzheimer patient, Lou doesn't miss anything. For instance, Jacque Jones has been seeing more playing time lately, out of necessity and because he started having better AB's and playing a decent center field. I watched him strike out tonight swinging at a pitch that bounced off home plate. I bet Lou saw that too.

Is Ted Lilly the son/brother of Bill Murray??

I couldn't help myself the other night, watching the Cubs horrible game against Milwaukee. Was it Ted Lilly pitching like a pitcher that has gone around the league once, and his scouting reports are catching up with him? No.

It wasn't even the terrible fielding and baserunning that has plagued the Cubs all season. It was when they put up Ted Lilly's picture and I saw the resemblance between him and Bill Murray, right down to the smirk on his face. Maybe it's just time to enjoy the season. Baseball is in full stride and if the Cubs can just slightly put it together, they can win their division.

So I'm going to just enjoy this season for a while.

Wade Miller develops a shoulder problem

Anybody that believes this injury to Wade Miller is any worse today than it was Sunday before he could only get through 4.2 innings against the Cardinals...

Well, we all know the deal, and if he was trying to do it hurt, then it's a tough break. The guy has more heart than the other, un-named glory hounds that can't seem to crack a lineup these days and maybe he can still regain his form. Chances are, it's over for Wade Miller, and that's sad. He goes out without the hoopla, or padded paycheck that some others get.

I like that with this move it looks like Lou has won the battle of wills with Hendry about having twelve pitchers, and I like that he is sticking with Pie so far, though the kid HAS to start hitting. I would still rather have him in the line up than continually going to Jones and Floyd, each a rally killer in their own right with differing and varying magnitudes. Jones is streaky, Floyd gives you the idea that he can get hot, but yesterday when the wind was blowing out, he was 0-5.

I also remember liking Rocky Cherry in the spring, and thinking that he deserved a chance and so here it is kid. Maybe they will send Ohman back when it comes time to bring up Guzman for a start.

Tonight I'm hoping to see Carlos return to form and be the horse in the rotation he has been for two years. I'm also wondering if the Brewers are going to do anything about the chip they have on their shoulders from when Carlos said in the press that they weren't as good hitting as Cincinnatti.

Let's go Brew-Crew, what ya got?

Santo and Hughes - Part of It

To be right to the point, I am writing this on the day after a nice win by the Cubs, where Jason Marquis, whom I still fear but less so now, came out and vanquished the Cardinals, the Cubs real rivals and the team which sent him packing last year, not even putting him on their playoff roster and leaving him out for several multi-run drubbings with no relief. They did him nasty and so for a game he repaid them almost as handsomely as the Cubs paid him this off-season. I'll even allow that he toyed with them, allowing them to get on base frequently, to stay there and collect their gloves from team mates as they came out of the dugouts. Then, to add insult to injury, he told Lou to send out our worst pitcher to relieve him, and they were so defeated they couldn't even hit NL batting practice pitcher Will Ohman for two innings, bringing his ERA DOWN to 9.0!

I'm all giddy, and so I will take this time to write about one of my favorite and most rewarding points of being a Cubs fan, Santo and Hughes. Even on days when I am able to watch the game, like yesterday, I will make the point of going somewhere and listening to it on the radio, if just for a few moments, because the world never sounds son right as when presented by Ron and Pat during a winning game. Often, I do it just to make sure that Ron didn't finally jump out of the front of the booth during the previous day's meltdown.

Ron's spirits especially are those I check on, because I believe they mirror my own, this guy truly does Bleed Cubbie Blue.

Felix Pie : A Slice of Optimism

Am I having a Tuffy Rhodes moment?

I don't know for sure, of course it will take a season or more to know, but I am quite happy about what I saw happen for the Cubs yesterday in center field. Felix came in and acquitted himself quite nicely. Though it's been pointed out he batted only .167, those were an important 167 points, helping rally the Cubs to tie. Then, he made a throw from the outfield to home plate that threw out the go ahead run for the Padres and eventually got the Cubs into extra innings.

He didn't throw the Cubs on his back and carry them to victory, but he wasn't overwhelmed. Seeing this kid in uniform, in Wrigley Field, makes me feel all better, and almost able to ignore that our high-priced offensive arsenal went 14 innings without being able to score more than three runs. These are all things that Lou Piniella can and will address, and though I know he can't go over the top about Pie, the performance was not lost on someone as savvy as Lou.

Soriano is out for a week to ten days, and either trying to get back quicker now or preparing to move to left field so the kid can stay. In Spring training Pie gave Soriano fielding tips, so I have to believe there is a good relationship between the two, and though Soriano had before yesterday's game refused an offer from Piniella to move him to make him feel more comfortable, this gives him the excuse he might need to comply. Pie isn't taking Soriano's job, it's going to be Jones, Floyd, or Murton who ultimately step aside for the kid.

Now is as good a time as any to clear the way.

Steve Stone for Cubs (Senior Advisor to the Owner)!!

Throughout this week, after realizing that Mark Cuban owning the Cubs is less than a pipe dream, it took a column in the Sun-Times to make me realize who I was forgetting about that I should want to be in control of the Cubs.

• Who is the voice that I home in on any time he is on a radio program talking baseball? (Well, this might be a negative because I know he definitely won't be doing that as much)
• Who is a deep, Cubbie Blue blooded Cubs fan?
• He would have gone somewhere else after getting run out of the booth if he weren't. You can't tell me there are jobs elsewhere for Andy Maser and not Steve Stone.
• Who has the baseball and Cubs organization knowledge needed to do the job right?

Of course I'm talking about Steve Stone. In the Sun-Times column, Stoney says he has been contacted by several ownership groups in regards to being a consultant for them. He also says that though he has tried in the past to be a part owner of other teams, he is not interested in ownership of the Cubs. Reading between the lines, this is a job for much deeper pockets than Stone has, but he would be happy to be a key adviser. The type of ownership group that would think to call Stone is the type that I hope gets the team, if they simply won't just sign themselves over to me, that is. In fact, if I were to be so lucky, I believe I would be calling Stoney myself.

In less than a week, the people surfacing as front-runners in owning/running the Cubs are Jerry Colangelo and Steve Stone. This is going to make for an even more interesting Summer.

All Hell Breaks Loose on Opening Day, Adam Dunn Loves Us

After all the hype of yesterday, all the new worries with impending new ownership, about Carlos Zambrano's new contract, and everything else new about the Cubs yesterday. Everyone forgot how much Adam Dunn loves to play the Cubs. Channeling a long line of Hall of Famers, Roberto Clemente, Mike Schmidt come to mind first as Cub-killers, Adam Dunn drove two pitches out of the park in two at bats.

The Cubs lost 5-2, but I'm not on the ledge yet. I saw things that I liked, and I also know that it was just one game. Carlos didn't do so hot, neither did most of the hitters, but it will come. Cincinnati always looks like a team of world beaters the first few weeks of the season, then they return to the same team that hasn't done anything since way back when Lou managed them.