A few random notes before discussion of today's game, which may again be interrupted by rain:
I am remiss in not mentioning the nice dinner I had on Wednesday night with Rob McMillin from the Dodgers/Angels blog 6-4-2 and his lovely wife Helen, who is a big Cubs fan and occasional poster here at BCB. We had a terrific meal at the Roaring Fork in Scottsdale (and thanks for picking up the tab, Rob -- awfully nice of you), conversation about many topics including the Cubs, and left when we realized they were starting to stack up the chairs on the tables. Rob and Helen were also in Peoria yesterday and got a little wetter than I did:
Rob: Nah. See all those rain streamers? They're way east of us. It'll pass by us on one side.
A few minutes later...
Rob: (wiping a raindrop off his cheek) That's one.
Rob: (wiping a raindrop off his leg) That's two.
Rob: (wiping raindrops off several extremities) That's ten.
And shortly thereafter we hightailed it out of the stadium.
See you two on the lawn today. Weather, of course, permitting.
"Chasing October" premieres in Chicago theaters today; in addition to the Landmark in Highland Park, which I had mentioned the other day, it's at three other Chicago-area theaters -- the Music Box on Southport in Chicago, the AMC South Barrington 30 in Barrington, and the AMC Cantera 30 in Warrenville. There are reviews in today's Sun-Times and Tribune, although both reviewers misspell the name of Matt Liston's girlfriend. Go see it anyway.
Now, on to this afternoon's matchup between the Cubs and Giants, which will be available through a MLB Audio webcast featuring Giants announcers. Carlos Zambrano throws for the Cubs; I assume he will be asked/expected to go six innings today, as they tried to have him do last Sunday. He'll be opposing Noah Lowry. Kerry Wood is scheduled to throw an inning today, also.
See cwyers' daily headlines for more info, including the inexplicable news that Ronny Cedeno has made the 25-man roster. Ronny's going to start today, too:
Soriano, CF
Murton, LF
Lee, 1B
Ramirez, 3B
Jones, RF
Barrett, C
DeRosa, 2B
Cedeno, SS
Zambrano, P
I like this lineup -- provided as always courtesy of Bruce Miles. Except for Cesar Izturis at SS, this very well could be the lineup on Opening Day at Cincinnati.
Discuss amongst yourselves.