Small World

So I have another Jeff story today.

Monday, he told me that a friend of his that he grew up with, was bringing a bunch of people from his work, so we had to save extra seats. I said, fine, and last night a couple of them showed up early. After about five minutes, Jeff calls me over and says, "This is Doug. He's married to Sarah Schulte." -- who, of course, is one of my co-workers at ABC-7. So she came and sat with us last night.

Also, Jeff was one of the 500 winners of a Mark Prior autographed ball, which made me pretty jealous. Ron Hayden, another of the bleacher season ticket holders from LF, also won.

For a while during the game someone was smoking dope behind us, so we joked with Krista that she was going to fail her drug test, which is another of the requirements before she goes back to work next week.

And, just as the top of the 9th was starting, there was a power outage in the neighborhood that affected about 1800 ComEd customers, and blacked out about half the lights at the ballpark, in a weird pattern that kind of looked like the way the lights got shot out at the end of the credits on the old "Bullwinkle Show". The power outage also screwed up traffic on Addison; usually it's an easy shot for me to get home, but I had to detour around some traffic, which was obviously being caused by traffic signals being out.

It was much colder than I expected it to be last night, and although I did have three layers on, I was still freezing by the end of yesterday's dragged-out, badly-played 9-6 loss to the Brewers.

What is it about the Brewers, the NL's worst team, that brings out the worst in the Cubs? Seriously, Milwaukee has only one good player -- Richie Sexson -- and he didn't even do the most damage last night, their backup catcher, Eddie Perez did, with a three-run homer off Juan Cruz, part of his career-high 5-RBI night. Mark Prior pitched OK, but made a throwing error, something the Cub pitching staff has been doing way too much of. Moises Alou made about the weirdest error I've ever seen, rainbowing a shot about 100 feet in the air, allowing a couple of baserunners to advance in the 3-run Brewer 9th that sealed their win. Corey Patterson did hit a three-run homer into the teeth of the northeast wind.

The only thing that's kept this week from being a total washout is that the Cardinals are playing just about as bad. Now the Cubs have to count on the weak spot of the rotation, Shawn Estes, to avoid being swept for the first time this year.

Brewers. Get 'em OUT of here!