Added by Al on July 17, 2008 -- the following information on the T-shirt sale that's going to be our 2008 BCB Project 3000 Fundraiser:

Click on image to open a larger version in a new browser window

No, don't be afraid -- this time it's going to be much easier, and you'll get your shirt in a timely fashion, or, if you are in Chicago, you can go and buy one in person.

How? Here's how. You've seen the ads for Strange Cargo pop up on this site from time to time over the last month or so (you may even be seeeing one right now, they've been around this morning). For those of you who aren't familiar with this store, it sells T-shirts and other miscellany and is located a couple of blocks south of Wrigley Field at 3448 N. Clark St.

Jay Schwartz of Strange Cargo and I have organized this deal to be as simple as possible. The shirt, as pictured above, is identical to last year's shirt, which a lot of people who didn't get one said they wanted. It also has the "BELIEVE PROJECT 3000" logo on the back. The shade of blue is slightly different, but it will still go well with all your other Cubs gear.

You can go to the store and buy one for $20 plus tax -- that's $22.50 total, and take it home right away. Or, if you are not in the Chicago area and can't get to Strange Cargo's store, you can order it online. The online price is the same -- $20, plus tax, and $5 for shipping, $27.50 total.

You can order your shirt by clicking on this link. Best of all, as you can see on that page, $8 from every shirt purchase will be donated to Derrek Lee's Project 3000, which has already seen $1450 donated from generous BCB readers from last year's shirt sale and pledges made about player performances in 2007.

I'll keep everyone updated on how many shirts get sold and how much we contribute to this worthy cause.

You asked, so here it is. Go get yours today!

Here is the original post by MerigoldBowling made in March 2007:

I ran this past Al, who thought this would be a good idea.  

You have all probably heard that both Michael Barrett and Ryan Dempster are donating money to Project 3000 in honor of Derrek Lee's daughter Jada and the Swinging for Sight campaign. Barrett is donating for every home run and Dempster for every save as well.  What if, as a website and the greatest collection of Cub fans on the Internet, we as a group could do a similar campaign?  We could all donate money for any big Cub event (Soriano stolen bases, Zambrano strikeouts, etc.). We would track it throughout the year and at the end set up a Paypal account for everybody to donate their money and pass it on to Project 3000.

I will go first and say, I will donate $10 for every Derrek Lee home run.  I will hopefully be donating ever $500 this year and if I'm really lucky over $600.  

Please only serious people only (no $500 for every Kerry Wood strikeout, haha).  I will track this and post updates every once in a while.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the anticipation for 2007.

[editor's note, by Al] I am making a place for this diary under "BCB Specials" so it can be accessed throughout the season. At some point, the SB Nation "automatic disabling" of comments will occur. If you are reading this and want to make a comment and can't, email me and I will re-enable comments on this post.

Baseball Tonight started a new feature tonight where they are going to rate the top 3 Web Gems of every major league team.  They started with the Phillies tonight.  

Cub nominations off the top of my head from recent years:

1. Sammy's diving catch at Pittsburgh 2004
   
2. Augie Ojeda's dive and throw to first to save a run at 3B in LA in 2003 (Prior Start)
   
3. Patterson in Cincy last year robbing someone of a home run (Maddux start)
   
4. DLee in a home game stabbing a ground ball after it took a big hop and was headed for his face (Kerry Wood start?) in 2004 against LA
   
5. One that I vaguely remember from 1989 (I think) was Shawon Dunston diving for a ball in short left field and then throwing doubling someone off of first base to end a game against the Mets?

Any others?  I know I forgot a bunch.

My Cardinal roommate got tickets for my other Cub fan roommate and myself for the game yesterday in the Bleachers.

The new bleachers are nicer than the old ones in terms of sightlines.  I remember the old ones if you sat anywhere in the middle, you couldn't see much in terms of balls hit towards the wall.  The only ball that we missed yesterday was Mabry's sacrfice fly in the 7th.  I think that went into the well, but I never saw a replay of that hit.

As for the game itself, this year especially, the Cubs seem like the team that plays with poise and confidence and the Cardinals, look like the Cubs.  I can't really find fault with Rolen for his play. He had his back turned to Mabry and the crowd was really loud, so he wouldn't be able to hear his teammates.  The Pagan steal of home was the play that the Cardinals fell asleep.  I would hope they would know that Pagan is a pretty fast guy and he would be going with any rundown at that point.  The Taguchi plays was iffy too.  I watched the replay and it looked like he was standing on secondbase when he began to turn around.  I probably would have done the same thing, but heads up to Neifi or Maddux for noticing that.  The ninth inning could have been a lot more interesting if not for two nice plays by Perez and Ramirez to get two key outs.

In our particular section one Cardinal fan brought about 20 signs with him to the game and even wore a jersey with Bartman on the back and 98 years and counting underneath.  I guess if I could find a Royals jersey somewhere and put Dekinger 85 on it, that could be an equivalent.  Anyway his signs included these dandy's, "We're Eckstatic about David," "Go crazy St. Louis you LUNAticks," "Another Web Jim", "Rolen down the River" (my favorite after his mistake),"If the Glove Fits" (with a gold glove, another favorite after their defense)".  There were others too, "This is your brain (Cardinals Symbol), This is your brain on drugs (Cubs Symbol), Any Questions?"; "Da Bears, Da Cubs, Da Bulls, Da Hawks, 1-800-Say-Help"(which prompted the guy behind me to shout, you don't have an NBA team, and the Bulls won 6 championships about 10 years ago).  Finally, he tried to be nice and had one about being a good rivalry and "Cooperstown deserves a Santo Claus."  Uhhh, it reminded me of baskeball games at Marquette, when freshmen (including me) would bring the dumbest signs, except this guy was probably 50ish.  He was in the first row of our section and kept holding up the signs to the crowd behind him.  After the last out, a Cub fan threw a full beer at him, and he turned around and gave the "WTF?"  Look, I don't condone beer throwing, but you are in the opposing team's bleachers with those signs with a bunch of drunk people, you didn't expect that?  When you're at an opposing team's stadium, you sit on your hands and clap when appropriate.  That's why I hate Cub fans sometimes in Milwaukee.

All in all an awesome experience.  As my Cardinal fan made fun of us for standing for Maddux for the sacrifice bunt, I am constantly reminded of the fact that nobody outside really understands the Cubs fan base.  There were 41,000 people there yesterday, most giving a standing ovation to a sacrifice bunt in the seventh inning, for a team 20 games below .500. As my Cardinal roommate said, there were 38,000 idiots there, 2,999 Cardinal fans, and you (me) the Cubs fan.  I told him he just doesn't understand.

Okay, I was reading a lot of things in the comments section about the Prior-Tejada deal and some things stuck out at me as not being really correct.

1. Dr. James Andrews and the American Sports Medicine Institute (Kevin Wilk) is the ONLY authority that has the real authority on pitching mechanics.  I only say this because I know they have over a thousand pitchers on video and they are now going over the data to determine what might be better to prevent injuries. I have had four different lectures on pitching mechanics and they have all said different things.
2. The idea that Prior uses a lot of legs is really false.  Look at him again sometime.  He has big calf muscles, but he has little thighs and more importantly little butt muscles (hip extensor strentgh).  One of the more important things I have learned is you have to have a proper balance point on your right leg as you pivot and turn to home.  That has to be balanced on a single leg, and you have to have good strength throughout the right leg in order for the arm to function properly.
3. Finally, your whole body provides the power, not just the shoulder or the elbow.  One of the physical therapists talked to us about Ben Sheets and how he worked mainly abdominals with him one off-season.  Those are just important as any shoulder muscle.

I am by no mean an expert on any of this stuff. It's very complicated, but the things above is stuff that I picked up on in my training in school.