Congratulations!

... to Dave's Rockford Riverhawks, who won the independent Frontier League championship last night with a 14-9 win over the Evansville Otters (where do they make up these nicknames, anyway?), sweeping the best-of-five championship series.

I've known Dave for 25 years and it was always his dream to own a baseball team, and now, in their third year in the league, his Rockford team is a champion. I know it's also sweeter for him because his son Kevin, a catcher, finally played a full injury-free year and was a key part of the success.

Perhaps as important for we Cubs fans is how the Riverhawks made the playoffs in the first place. With a couple of weeks to go in the season, they ran off a ten-game winning streak and roared into first place, getting themselves home field for the first round, which turned out to be critical in beating Gateway.

Let's hope the Cubs' ten-game winning streak began with yesterday's second-game victory.