Your Turn

My day consisted of:

• Going to my scheduled meeting in New York;
• Getting to LaGuardia Airport and finding out my flight back to O'Hare was delayed an hour -- though by the time it actually left, it was only 30 minutes late;
• "Watching" the first three innings of the game on MLB's Gameday -- how do you guys do that every day? Sure, it's informative and you can keep up, but it's pretty surreal!
• Checking my web-enabled cellphone just before the plane pushed back to find out it was still 2-0 Pirates in the 5th;
• Landing 30 minutes late. They promised us only five minutes, but then we flew west past O'Hare 30 miles, before turning around and landing from the west. I hate when they do that!

So, I really don't have a whole lot to say about the Cubs' 3-0 loss to the Pirates at Wrigley Field, which snapped their five-game winning streak.

Random thoughts only:

• Zach Duke, the Pirates' rookie lefthander, is pretty darn good.
• Greg Maddux has got to stop giving up home runs in the first inning. But, after that he threw pretty well -- only two more runs (one earned), and six strikeouts. Incidentally, the six strikeouts leave Greg six short of 3000, so he'll probably get his 3000th in his next start Thursday at Cincinnati. Big whoop. Fergie Jenkins got his 3000th, in a Cub uniform, on the road as well, at San Diego on May 25, 1982.

I'll leave you with this: in 2003, I also missed two games, a Friday and a Saturday. In a reverse pattern from this year, one was a blowout loss in which the Cubs scored one run, and the other was a low-scoring shutout victory.

Reversal of fortune? Let's hope so.

A new winning streak begins tomorrow.