you got me, i thought someone was gonna find fault with the series…other than Howry of course

good. It’s an odd feeling. Comfortable. Confident. We have both hitters and pitchers. While there are weak spots, we just saw the road problems from earlier in the year get swept under the carpet. This is a team that has some veteran leadership, some young guys, and all of them seem to be playing loose. The near future schedule looks to be light, so we should be in good shape heading into September. We never know what’s going to actually happen, but the pieces are in place.
Plus, neither the Brewers or Cards should feel good right now after watching the last 4 days.
I’m not sure how to take this. But right now, it feels good.

There were hundreds already tailgating when we got there just before 10. Lots of Cubs fans in the lot and the go-cubs-go song blaring in a few places. We set up our canopies and grills, popped open growlers & bottles and sat back to enjoy the late morning.

Getting in there, it seemed like it was about 50/50. It was a late-arriving crowd consdidering it being a day game. Less than 40,000 through the 1st inning. There were Cubs cheers coming from every area. The chants came and went through out the game, with all HR’s receiving loud ovations. Domer’s shot was a classic HR shot for him; well balanced swing and that little bat flip as he’s leaving the box. Edmonds first shot I swear had no hook to it even though it landed only 40’ fair. Soriano’s shot, we knew it was gone with the crack and Edmonds granny, I wasn’t sure it’d leave but the carry there today was good; maybe the day’s heat helped out, not much wind.

This is the 2nd loudest I heard a Cubs game up there. The loudest was in Sept, 2003 when Miller Park had it’s highest attendance ever, over 46k. But then it could have been a 2:1 ratio of Cubs fans to Brewers fans. More recently, with their team getting better and the “take back Miller Park” promo, it’s closer to 50/50, perhaps maybe even favoring the Brewers fans a few percentage points.

When Fontenot dropped that bloop double that plated 2 more runs, the “sweep” chants started. By then, I’d say about 5,000 Brewers fans had already left.

The one constant I heard from their fans is how sick and tired they were hearing “Go Cubs Go”. They were not nasty about, just tired of it. Personally I like the ‘69 song and blared the full rendition on my PDA several times during the game and even walking over the ‘bridge’ back to the lot to post-game tailgate.

Healthy players. The Cubs still need more good luck with respect to healthy players, we have older guys and higher injury risks in some areas.

This is a good team but I’d prefer an everyday star type player in CF, like Edmonds before he showed his age. We aren’t getting that guy. Injuries and age could be pretty key for the Cubs down the stretch. If we haven’t done it already then we need to drop down to 12 pitchers for August, the starters are coming together and we could use an extra everyday player.

If Harden stays healthy he’s damn good, not just okay, but damn near unhittable. You go into a three game series looking at Z, Dempster and Harden and this team is going to be position to kick some butt the rest of the way. Lilly and Marquis at 4 & 5, come on, that’s a damn good match up for the Cubs.

Hopefully Reed Johnson and Jimbo will remain healthy and fresh and can have productive ABs for the stretch. This team is good enough to get to the WS but they need guys to stay and get healthy.