Sports entry alert.
It's been a while since I was blogging regularly, and so I haven't had much chance to sing the praises of my Northside boys. If the Reds' 6-1, 7th inning lead holds, then the Cubs will be alone in 1st place of their division for the first time since April of 2004, if I remember rightly. And they were last in 1st when it mattered back in 2003, back when this was just a wee blog, and they were getting ready to tank to the Marlins.
Interestingly enough, there are only 2 regulars left from that team just 4 years ago (Zambrano & Ramirez), 3 if you count Kerry Wood as a regular. And the 4th player from that NLCS on the Cubs, Derrek Lee, played for the other side.
Besides the roster turnover, one of the big differences between that year's team and this year's is the attitude of the respective coaches towards youngsters. I'm struck regularly by how Piniella is willing to give the kids a shot, even if and when they struggle. It's been great to watch Fontenot, The Riot, Pagan, Murton, Fox, EPatterson, Cedeno, et al., not to mention the various pitchers who've gotten shots. They look like they're having fun, and as I've had a lot of chances to watch baseball this summer, I'm having fun too. I think they've got a good shot at the postseason this year, but even if they stumble, this is the first year in a long time where we haven't had to place all of our Cub eggs in a couple of pretty fragile baskets.
Oh, and I should mention that, when you have a 26-year-old pitcher who's competing annually for Cy Youngs and who's never been on the DL, you don't allow him to test the free agent market, even if it does take Zito money to keep him. The Cubs did Zambrano right today, and their fans as well.
/sports.cubs
