Yesterday, I sat watching a taut pitcher's duel, huddled up in sweatshirt and balaclava over my head.

Today, in the sunshine, with the wind blowing out to RF and the temperature in the 70's (officially 67 at game time, but when I got back to my car the thermometer inside said it was 77), we saw six home runs leave the yard, four of them by the Cubs, and they hung on for a 7-4 win over the Pirates, despite an implosion by Bob Howry that allowed the Bucs a three-run eighth and made an appearance by Kerry Wood necessary for his ninth save of the season. More on that in a moment.

During the 2006 football season, then-Arizona Cardinals coach Dennis Green said in a memorable postgame news conference, regarding the Bears' comeback against his team, "They are what we thought they were!", and then angrily left the podium. We don't have to be angry, but the fact is -- Alfonso Soriano is what we thought he was. He's a maddening player. There are times when he doesn't even look like he should be in a major league uniform... and other times when he gets hot and can carry a team. He appears to be in the latter mode this week; in this homestand he is now 15-for-32 (.469) with 5 HR and 12 RBI in the eight games so far on the stand. He's got 22 RBI for the season despite missing two weeks; after 42 team games in 2007, during which he missed a similar amount of time, he had 9 RBI.

So we have to take the bad with the good. The Cubs wouldn't have won the NL Central last year without Soriano's hot September; it'd have been nice if he carried that over into last October, but that's Soriano. Maddening. Let's hope his hot streak continues for the... well, for a while, anyway.

Sean Gallagher picked up his first major league win today. He struck out only three and during his appearance at the postgame news conference, that I heard on the radio driving home, said that after he got the big lead he could concentrate on throwing strikes and putting the ball in play and letting his fielders catch the ball, which they did. The Pirates did hit Gallagher pretty hard, but virtually everything was right at somebody -- kudos to Mark DeRosa for a tumbling catch on the warning track in right field to end the fifth inning. It won't be the last win for Gallagher, either. I like the way he approaches the game. He'll need to develop a good changeup to go with the good curveball, though.

Bob Howry was... bad. He slogged his way through a mediocre 7th inning and then the Pirates teed off on him in the 8th, hitting two home runs, including one by Doug Mientkiewicz, who had come into the game hitting .237 with no homers at all this year. Howry threw an alarmingly large number of pitches -- 39 -- and this made the score 7-4 and necessitated a save-situation appearance by Kerry Wood.

Wood, like Gallagher, realized that he didn't have to blow hitters away, especially since the first two hitters he was facing were light-hitting PH Luis Rivas and Jason Michaels, and he got Rivas to fly to right and Michaels to pop up, and then Freddy Sanchez lined right to Aramis Ramirez to end the game -- Kerry threw only ten pitches, so he should be available tomorrow if needed for the third day in a row.

Say, I've been complaining about the schedule-makers a lot, but could they arrange it so the Cubs could play the Pirates every day? Now 7-0 for the season against Pittsburgh, the Cubs have Carlos Zambrano ready to go tomorrow, to make it a good shot at 8-0. Z got a chance to pinch-hit today, and as I predicted to our group when he was announced, to a loud ovation, he'd probably try to hit a 900-foot home run. He did just that on the first two pitches, then hit a comebacker to Tom Gorzelanny to end the sixth inning.

Gorzelanny -- who can explain it? He has now thrown three times against the Cubs this year, 11 total innings, 21 earned runs allowed for an ERA of 17.18 against them. His ERA in his other five starts is 2.73.

In any case, revel in this. The Cubs are 18-7 at home, at this moment the majors' best home record (Arizona is 17-7 pending their game tonight at home vs. Detroit). They're two games in first place, pending Houston's game vs. Texas -- yes, the Astros muscled their way into second place yesterday ahead of the Cardinals... and St. Louis lost Jason Isringhausen today when he suffered a cut on his hand when he hit a TV in Tony LaRussa's office. I'll be keeping an eye on their series with Tampa Bay this weekend, because that ought to give us a good idea about the futures of both those teams (and remember, the Cubs have to play the suddenly-hot Rays in Tampa next month).

We were joined today by BCB reader sparkles721 -- who hasn't posted much here lately because she's been busy with school, but is now home for the summer. And Crane Kenney, who spent the day in the bleachers talking to people, stopped by to say hi and explained a little more about the fan lunches that will begin next month. He told me that they'll select 30 people at random from season ticket holders for each session, and that he feels really strongly about listening to fans, particularly season ticket holders, who are the Cubs' best customers. Incidentally, today's attendance of 40,537 pushed the season total to 1,000,892, an average of 40,036 and the earliest ever that the Cubs have passed the million mark in attendance (25 dates).

This franchise is turning around before your very eyes. Can you see it? Can you feel it? Until tomorrow.

I suppose I shouldn't have any complaints after today's come-from-behind Cubs win, 7-2 over the Diamondbacks, but indeed, there are some things that need to be said before I recap all the good stuff:

• Ryan Dempster needs, needs, absolutely needs to throw more strikes. Even before he walked two in a row, forcing in one run and setting up a second run scoring on a bases-loaded groundout, he had run a lot of full counts early and threw an alarmingly high total of 118 pitches. The boxscore shows 70 strikes, only three hits and two walks and seven strikeouts, but this wasn't Dempster's finest hour.
• What was Alfonso Soriano still doing in the game after the six-run seventh? He was running very slowly chugging into second after his RBI double, again running slowly around third scoring on Ryan Theriot's hit, and we saw him holding the back of his right quad in the outfield when he came out for the 8th. He'd gone 3-for-4 up to that point, hitting the ball solidly, and the Cubs had a five-run lead. There's no reason he should have stayed in.
• The Cubs ran themselves out of three rallies, twice getting runners thrown out at the plate (though I too would have sent Reed Johnson on Derrek Lee's fly ball to Justin Upton in the 5th).
• What was Carlos Marmol doing in the game in the 9th with a five-run lead? He threw only 12 pitches yesterday, true, but with a five-run lead, that's the perfect opportunity to get Chad Fox some work. Or Sean Gallagher. Lou and the staff constantly talk -- correctly -- about the starters' failure to consistently get to the 7th inning, and that's why they have so many relief pitchers. Well then, use them when the situation calls for it!

OK, I'm done now, because as the title of this post says, the complaint department is closed after the Cubs mounted one of their most impressive comebacks of the season, a six-run rally off Chad Qualls (who was 0-3 despite allowing only two earned runs all year -- he had allowed six unearned runs -- before today) and Brandon Medders, who came in after Qualls had allowed hits to four of the first five batters he faced (the other one, Reed Johnson, sacrificed -- a really nicely laid down bunt which he almost beat out. The Cubs executed two nice sac bunts today, the other by Dempster). All six hits in the inning were solidly hit, capped by the two-run homer, his second of the year -- to the opposite field -- by Kosuke Fukudome, that put the game out of reach.

Scott Eyre got the win in his first appearance of the season, a well-pitched inning. Bob Howry also threw an efficient inning (12 pitches, 9 strikes), and Marmol wasn't overtaxed, throwing only 14 pitches. I still don't quite see the point of his appearance, though.

Back to Fukudome for a moment. Every single day, quietly most days, some not (as today with the HR), he is reaching base at what, for a Cub, is an unaccustomed pace. In 35 games (he sat one out), he has 43 hits and 22 walks -- 67 times reached base, averaging nearly two times on base every game, and now with triple-slash stats of .321/.416./.473.

Just very, very impressive. I still think he belongs in the leadoff slot -- but today, everything went the way it was supposed to, and this is what good teams do, come back even when down, when blowing a lead and not looking good, and so far, the supposedly "invincible" Diamondbacks have been shut down in the first two games of the series, scoring only three runs. A couple of D'backs fans sat down near us today after my friends Brian & Kristy (who had brought their 9-month-old baby girl to her first Cubs game) had to leave. They got pretty quiet during that 7th-inning Cub rally, but I gave them a BCB card. If you two are reading this, welcome.

Tomorrow's Z-Randy Johnson pitching matchup could be a good one, but the weather forecast doesn't look good:

Sunday: Showers. High near 50. Breezy, with a north northeast wind around 25 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%.

What do you expect? It's Mother's Day, when the weather's always rotten when the Cubs are scheduled at home. I'm off to the Police concert. Till tomorrow, and yes, I'll stop complaining. Celebrate the win!

Drifting in and out of sleep last night (since I have to get up at 3:30 am for work on Saturdays, and thank you to BCB reader northsider for posting the extra inning comment thread), I woke up just in time to see Skip Schumaker's walkoff HR fly over the RF wall in St. Louis, finishing the Cubs' 5-3 loss to the Cardinals in 11 innings.

It's got Lou Piniella so exasperated that he doesn't know what to say. In this Bruce Miles article in the Daily Herald, Lou elaborates on his "You think I'm stupid?" remark at Thursday's postgame press conference:

After the game, Piniella took exception to a question from a radio reporter who asked if Piniella had thought about moving Reed Johnson from center to left and replacing Soriano, who had come off the disabled list Thursday after suffering a right-calf strain.

"The question that was asked yesterday, the guy who asked it knew the answer before I had to answer it," Piniella said. "Why ask it? Why can't he report the news instead of trying to create news?

"I'm not going to take Soriano out for defense. He knows it, you know it, and unless there's a double switch, that's the only way he's coming out of the ballgame. Everybody knows that. You don't take superstar players out of the lineup. You don't do it."

But then, in Bruce's game recap from last night, Piniella shows his frustration, which matches all of ours:

"I've got no explanation for the left-field play," Piniella said. "I really don't."

Soriano dropped a playable fly ball in the 7th inning -- well, "dropped" isn't the right word, because he appeared to never touch it -- that helped the Cardinals eventually extend their lead to 3-1 after Yadier Molina hit a ground-rule double. The Cubs actually caught a break on that play, because the ball bouncing into the seats held a runner at third. Otherwise it'd have been 4-1. At the same time, if Soriano makes that play (or if Derrek Lee hadn't made an error on Rick Ankiel's grounder on the previous play), the Cardinals score NO runs in that inning and then Soriano's two-run HR in the 9th inning would have been a game-winner.

Such is what happens when you're in a bad stretch, and the Cubs are in a really bad stretch (now six losses in the last eight games). I was actually encouraged by that inning, because Bob Howry did his job -- got Ankiel to hit a ground ball and Albert Pujols to hit the popup that Soriano couldn't field. When Troy Glaus struck out, that should have been a 1-2-3 inning. Kerry Wood also threw a 1-2-3 ninth inning, good news after his Thursday meltdown.

All of this wouldn't have been necessary if Rich Hill had just done his job. He walked four batters in the first inning, forcing in a run, at which time Lou had had enough and yanked him, and that may be it for Hill in the rotation for a while:

"Hill can't start like this in the big leagues," Piniella said. "Come on. Every time he pitches, it's an adventure. He's doing his best. I have no bullpen. I don't know what the solution is. I can't start him anymore until this thing gets taken care of. I would think that if we did something, we'd put (Sean) Marshall in the rotation, for now."

Give credit, at least, to Michael Wuertz and Jon Lieber, who together threw five innings and allowed only one run, keeping the game close. But Lou is right. I can't figure out what's wrong with Hill, who appears to have seriously regressed from his fine season last year. He's walked 18 in 19.2 innings and doesn't seem to have a clue out there. I don't think he's hurt, because his velocity seems OK; is it a mechanical problem? Larry Rothschild has already worked with him on that once this year, and that resulted in Hill's only win of the season. Hill has now thrown 353 pitches in five starts -- not getting past the sixth inning in any of them -- and only 55% of them have been strikes (194). Contrast that with Carlos Zambrano's excellent start this year (after a couple of years' worth of Z walking way too many) -- Z has thrown 723 pitches, 458 for strikes (63%).

Would an all-expenses-paid trip to Des Moines for Rich be useful? I say it would; what's the point of putting Hill in the bullpen? If he's a long reliever, he's likely to come into situations where the team is behind, maybe with runners on base, and if he can't throw strikes -- that's potential disaster.

The Cubs did have their opportunities last night, having nine hits and five walks... but leaving thirteen men on base in 11 innings isn't going to cut it. The Cubs left RISP in the 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th.

And Chad Fox... well, he threw strikes (14 in 23 pitches), but everyone he faced hit the ball hard (save Brendan Ryan, who bunted). I'm not so sure he's the answer to the Cubs' current bullpen woes, either. Just remember this: Lou won't stand pat if something isn't working, and even with the swap-out of Kevin Hart for Fox, there are still problems with both the rotation and the bullpen.

Perspective: after 29 games a year ago, the Cubs were 15-14, but already five games out of first place. This morning they trail by 1.5 games and are two games better off than the 2007 edition.

Raise your hand if you still think there's something wrong with Geovany Soto.

Just as I thought -- no hands raised. Soto smashed two home runs last night. But look at this photo for people raising their hands for Soto for the right reason -- here's what our section looked like after the first one landed just a few rows below us (yes, that's us in the top row, me bundled against the cold in a blue coat, behind BCB reader ballstitch, in a burgundy Florida State sweatshirt, arm raised):

Soto's two HR and six RBI, both career highs, led a 17-hit, nine-walk attack (eight of the nine walks coming from the fifth through the eighth inning) and the Cubs demolished the Brewers 19-5, the most runs the Cubs have scored in almost exactly seven years, since May 5, 2001, when the Cubs took a garden-variety 4-1 lead into the seventh and then scored eight runs in consecutive innings and smashed the Dodgers 20-1.

Balls were really jumping out of the yard during batting practice, many sailing over our heads. So since my friend Sue showed up last night, and she likes to organize Home Run Derby in our section, we played. BCB reader ballstitch sat with us along with a friend of his, and the friend had Soto in the pool. He was in the men's room when Soto hit his second HR in the fourth, and when he returned we didn't say a word until he asked, "Did Soto hit another HR?" First, I said, "You have to be present to win", and then we all paid up.

It was that kind of fun night both for fans and players. The game was pretty much over in the first inning, when the Cubs sent ten men to the plate and scored six runs, smacking singles and doubles all over the place -- you don't have to hit only three-run homers to score tons of runs -- and Ryan Dempster, who had a single himself in that six-run first, threw well enough to win with that kind of offensive onslaught, although he labored in later innings, throwing 108 pitches in six innings and issuing five walks. His command and control are going to have to get better to continue to win, because obviously, the Cubs aren't going to score this many runs every day.

It's fun when they do, though, isn't it? Leading 13-5 in the 8th, the Cubs piled on Brewers reliever Derrick Turnbow, who had absolutely nothing last night -- he gave up four hits and four walks, and was charged with six runs, making his ERA an unsightly 15.63 (Jeff Suppan, the Brewer starter, allowed eight earned runs; his ERA, 3.48 at gametime, jumped to 5.19). Ryan Theriot got a RBI with a bases-loaded walk, and then Ronny Cedeno came up with the chance to hit his second grand slam of the month. (Read that again; would you have believed a phrase like that a year ago?)

He nearly got it, too; his bases-clearing double hit off the right-center field wall. It got so bad that Ned Yost, who had clearly wanted to save his 2,756 relievers for another day and wanted Turnbow to finish the inning, had to yank him after 43 (!) pitches and finish the inning with lefty Mitch Stetter.

Discordant note: Bob Howry, put in the game with a 13-3 lead to work out some of his early-season troubles, instead raised his own ERA to 8.10 by allowing a two-run HR to Brewers backup catcher Mike Rivera, who came into the game at 1B after Yost cleared his bench. Lou Piniella did so too, wisely giving Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Kosuke Fukudome and Soto some rest and giving all five of his bench position players some playing time. In the 8th inning, pinch-hitter Mike Fontenot nearly got to bat a second time.

So the Cubs finish April with a 17-10 record; the 17 wins is the most ever for a Cub team in the month of April, though that record is a bit misleading -- teams play so many more games now in April than they did years ago. The previous record, 16, set in 1969, was posted in 23 games (16-7). The 27 games played since March 31 is exactly one-sixth of the season; match the 17-10 record, not an unreasonable thing to do, five more times and you will wind up 102-60. I'm not saying the Cubs will do this, or that it would be easy to do this, only that it is possible.

Derrek Lee tied the team record for HR in April, eight, originally set by Lee Walls in 1958. The 1958 Cubs played only 13 games in April -- and Walls hit his eight in an eight-day, seven-game stretch, as follows:

4/23: 1
4/24: 3
4/25: 0
4/26: 1
4/27: 0
4/28: off day
4/29: 2
4/30: 1

And for the kicker: all eight were hit on the road, in the new major league cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Walls hit 24 HR in 1958, never more than 11 in any other season, sort of the Tuffy Rhodes of his era.

Enjoy these -- they don't come around very often. We spotted "Friggin' Hot Dog Vendor" again last night and this time decided to buy some from him -- they were friggin' good. Also thanks to BCB reader cubsonWGN4ever, who stopped by to say hi last night. With Carlos Zambrano going this afternoon, the Cubs are in good position to win the series -- and then say goodbye to the Brewers for almost three months, because they won't meet them until the last week of July at Miller Park, and not again at Wrigley until mid-September. Today's game thread will be up at 11 am CDT.

More photos from last night:

Derrek Lee slides into second on his first-inning double

This Felix Pie AB resulted in a foul ball... but look at Prince Fielder's reaction.

Matt Murton, Felix Pie and Reed Johnson celebrate last night's win. Click on photos to open a larger version in a new browser window. All photos by David Sameshima

And yes, I know it's only April. The most amazing thing about Reed Johnson's amazing catch (I realize I wrote "amazing" twice right there, but this one, if you haven't seen it before, really is worth that sort of hype) is that when he gets up, the look on his face said, "Hey, no big deal, I do this all the time." Meanwhile, the Cubs' bullpen, right behind the wall where Johnson's head hit the (fortunately) thick padding, applauded, and left fielder Mark DeRosa just stood there as if to say, "Did I really see that?" (Also take a look at Reed's cap, the bill folded back.)

The title says it all about that catch -- and even though it IS only April, when it comes to recaps of 2008 this fall, this catch will be shown on every highlight show, every "year in review" show.

Unfortunately, that was the highlight of this game, which the Cubs lost to the Nationals 5-3 when Wil Nieves hit a two-run walkoff HR off Bob Howry.

Ugh. Guys like this shouldn't hit these sorts of home runs. In fact, Nieves, who had had 162 career AB for three teams (the Padres, Yankees and Nats) over the last six years, had never hit one in the major leagues before (and in over 3400 minor league AB had only 20).

However, that's not the reason the Cubs lost this game. Here's the boxscore line that explains why the Cubs lost this game:

Team LOB - 10.

I made that big and bold because the Cubs squandered numerous opportunities, including having the bases loaded with only one out in the 8th trailing 3-2. They did tie the game when Matt Murton drew a bases-loaded walk, but then still had the bases loaded with one out... and Mike Fontenot struck out (on what looked to be a really bad pitch) and Johnson grounded out. The Cubs caught a bad break in the 5th when Kosuke Fukudome's double to LF just barely bounced into the stands, forcing Aramis Ramirez, who would have scored easily from first, to stop at third. With two runners in scoring position and two out, Mark DeRosa struck out.

One more thing bothered me about that 8th inning -- Lou's overuse of pinch hitters, trying to get the platoon advantage. Four players were used up in two AB -- wasting Daryle Ward -- and although it did result in a run when Murton walked, had the game gone into extra innings, only Felix Pie would have remained on the bench, and since Henry Blanco was used up without even getting to hit (replaced by Fontenot), there would have been no backup catcher. If Lou is going to continue to do this, the Cubs have to trim the pitching staff to 11 and get another bench player.

I thought Ryan Dempster threw another nice game -- the only mistake he made was the Nick Johnson HR in the first inning. Naturally, that followed a two-out, no one on, four-pitch walk to Ryan Zimmerman. I hate those! Not just the four-pitch walk, but the fact that Dempster didn't "close the deal" after retiring the first two hitters easily. It's as if he had too much focus and started overthrowing the ball.

Notes: Alfonso Soriano says he'll be ready to return when he's eligible to come off the DL on May 1. Hey, Alfonso: no rush. The team is 7-3 without you in the lineup (8-3 if you include the game he got hurt in, in which he barely played). And Lou Piniella likes Nationals Park, especially the home clubhouse:

"You can actually play a night game there, and just stay overnight," Piniella said. "You can get up in the morning and have the chef cook you eggs and hash browns and bacon, and you're ready to go to work the next day without having to leave."

For some in-person details and photos, check out BCB reader 08cubs' excellent FanPost, posted late last night. And hang in there -- the Cardinals and Brewers also both lost last night, which keeps the Cubs' early-season division lead at 1.5 games, and with Carlos Zambrano on the mound tonight, the chances of evening up this series are pretty good.

But please stop leaving so many runners on base.

This one had a chance. Really, it did. As I said to Mike after the 9th inning, today's game had already leaped into the top rank of all Cubs home openers after Kosuke Fukudome's dramatic, frenetic, amazing three-run homer that had Wrigley rocking tied the game.

But in the end, the thing that was supposed to be one of the most solid aspects of the 2008 Cubs -- its bullpen -- failed. Kerry Wood had good velocity today -- hitting 96 on the ballpark speed gun several times -- but bad command, hitting Rickie Weeks with his first pitch.

That was his undoing, as with two out, Corey Hart hit a two-run triple. We all thought the game was done, until Dome's incredible shot. Dome was, obviously, the Cub star of the game, singling, doubling, walking and hitting the HR.

The Cubs lost to the Brewers 4-3 in 10 innings today in a game delayed twice by rain, 40 minutes at the start and 50 minutes in the bottom of the third. It rained most of the time play was taking place, too; heavily before the delay in the third, less so after the second delay, although it didn't stop for good until the 8th inning.

So one dome team -- the Brewers -- plays in Chicago and wins. Another -- the Blue Jays -- were to play in New York and got rained out. When will the schedulers learn? Today, I heard that there are rumblings that MLB brass is threatening to fine players who complain about the weather. Shades of Bowie Kuhn sitting coatless at the World Series back in the 70's, pretending it wasn't cold.

It wasn't too cold today -- game time temperature was 44, but once the first rain blasted through, the wind shifted to the southwest and the temperature jumped into the not-uncomfortable mid-50's, though the gusts made it hard to hold on to the umbrellas we all had raised most of the time. Howard arrived promptly with the Jimmy John's sandwiches not long after the gates opened, but he spent much of his time during the first delay downstairs, while I watched the KC/Detroit game on the plasma screen across the street at one of the rooftop clubs.

Who says you can't entertain yourself during a rain delay?

During the pregame delay several Cubs walked across the field to hit in the batting cages beneath the bleachers. Guess who got the largest ovation? Mark DeRosa.

DeRo hit two fly balls that nearly caught enough of a wind gust to make the bleachers during the game; both wound up caught by Tony Gwynn Jr., unfortunately.

The usual lineup-along-the-baselines Opening Day ritual for both teams was dispensed with in order to speed along some of the other pregame activities, including a moment of silence for the NIU shootings, a nice touch, and the Cubs will fly a NIU flag on top of the upper deck all season. When the Cubs took the field, Dome ran to his RF position to a rousing ovation, and dozens of signs, including a huge section-long banner reading "FUKUDOME". He took off his cap and gave what in Japanese culture would be seen as a formal bow, very slight.

It was a much more excited and lively crowd that greeted him after the HR. He did do a curtain call out of the dugout, but also doffed his cap to the remaining crowd in RF.

For eight innings it was a pitchers' duel, starters Ben Sheets and Carlos Zambrano nearly matching each other pitch for pitch into the 7th. Sheets was yanked after giving up the single to Dome, and Salomon Torres hit DeRosa and walked Geovany Soto (good sign today: the Cubs drew four walks). While Soto was at bat, Dome got hung up in between 2nd and 3rd and had nowhere to go; DeRo took second, but Jason Kendall ran all the way out to near the SS position to tag Dome out.

That seemed to take a lot out of the Cubs; in the previous inning Z had left the game with forearm cramping. This has happened to him before, and having thrown 89 pitches, Lou took him out, likely as a precaution in the wet, sticky-cold conditions (my gloves finally got so wet I gave up and just put them away). I'm sure he'll be fine for his next start.

Carlos Marmol relieved and threw one pitch to finish the 7th, breezed through the 8th, and then, unfortunately, Wood and Bob Howry simply didn't do their jobs. But is this a disaster? (A certain local newspaper columnist will probably say so.) No, it's not. It's one game. Closers fail (and this isn't a blown save, since it wasn't a save situation). It's just as likely that Wood will throw great in his next six outings. I can quibble (and Phil was haranguing me in the bleachers all inning about this) about the choice of Howry to throw the 10th. Phil said Michael Wuertz might have been a better pick, and I think I agree.

Oh, and it didn't help that the first two spots in the batting order went 0-for-10, either.

One comment about the crowd, and I realize it was Opening Day and the weather was terrible -- but security in the bleachers was nearly nonexistent. I didn't see a single security person upstairs until after the rain delay; the new no-smoking-anywhere-in-Wrigley (mandated by the new state law) was being widely flouted by people smoking right in front of the many new no-smoking signs, and until several security supervisors came by, people were refusing to sit down in front of us during game action. It wasn't rowdy -- except down the LF line in the box seats late in the game where there was a disturbance -- but if this isn't addressed, it could get that way. Hopefully, this can and will be addressed soon.

It's late and I'm cold and tired and wet, but tomorrow I'll have some more things from the opener to post. Many of you liked the scorecard scans I posted last September and I'll scan mine and post it. Also, we at SBN are doing some test mobile audio posts. I recorded what I call some "Sounds of the Game" today on my phone and I'll put them together in a "mobile post" tomorrow afternoon.

Finally, it was nice to meet BCB's newest most prolific poster, Keystone80435, who stopped by and said hi. Thanks for the fries, incidentally. Several other BCB readers who didn't identify themselves, just said they read and like the site, stopped by to say hello -- thanks to all of you.

And despite the loss (hey, it's only 1 game of 162. Not worried), it was nice to feel home today. Home at Wrigley. Home to baseball. Now let's go get those Brewers on Wednesday.