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Just When You Think It Can't Get Any Worse...

By Al Yellon

... it does.

First of all, I have a bone to pick with my son. He's off school for a long holiday weekend, and could (and presumably, did) stay up and watch the game. I gave him a writing assignment just as I did last year; really simple; stay up, watch the game, write a recap and email it to me so I could post it here.

Got to work, found no email from him. So I'm on my own in writing something about a game of which I saw the first two innings, and judging from this recap of the 9-8 loss to the Dodgers, it got pretty ugly, despite scoring those eight runs on thirteen hits and four walks and not a single home run in the bunch.

So instead I commend you to JFCubFan's diary, since he actually attended this disaster, and in which he writes that the best thing was:

... it took me only 5 minutes from the freeway to roll into my parking spot in that parking lot...

I guess that comes under the category of "thank heavens for small favors".

The folks at the Rangers site Lone Star Ball noticed all our angst in the game thread last night. They want to trade us a relief pitcher, specifically Scott Feldman. Look at that link -- Feldman's been Scott Eyre-like awful this year, but he had a decent year in 2006 and is only 24. Wonder if we could ship Jacque Jones their way? He and Sammy could platoon at DH!

And have a look at True Blue LA's "Things I Would Rather Have Than Juan Pierre". Hilarious! (This will also serve as my link to my fellow SB Nation Dodger blogger Andrew, since I forgot to include it in last night's game thread. Sorry!)

Via my friend Rob at 6-4-2, I read "Top 9 Trolley Dodger Reasons Why You Should Remember To Breathe", which contains in particular these three gems:

1. Your failure to understand the logic of or not knowing the full story behind Dodger front office decisions does not mean there is no logic or reason behind those decisions.

2. It doesn’t matter if you have a subscription to Baseball America, obsessively monitor the news feeds, refresh the forums every 5 minutes, and Read Every Blog: you don’t know everything, and there is always more to the story than the public knows.

3. Does this mean the Dodger front office is always right? Absolutely not. But then, neither are you.

Rob didn't care for that logic, but there's a lesson in there for anyone who is a compulsive bitcher about every single one of Jim Hendry's moves. I suppose many of you will see this as being an apologist for him and the Cub front office, but it is nothing of the sort. Has Hendry made mistakes? Of course he has. But keep these things in mind the next time you think you're right and Hendry's wrong -- about everything. Because you're not, and neither am I.

As you know, I choose to be optimistic -- and yes, it gets harder and harder after each ridiculous loss, and I must say I'm glad I missed last night's. How bad is this division, though? Every one of the teams has a losing record on the road. And every one except the Brewers has a losing record at home. Last night, Milwaukee also lost (after nearly coming back from a 7-0 deficit). The Astros lost (that pitching staff is horrendous -- ERA 4.36 and rising). The Cardinals lost -- to Micah Bowie, who got his first victory as a starting pitcher since September 23, 1999, when he was a Cub. The Reds lost, and the only reason the Pirates didn't lose, too, is that they were playing the Reds. This division is still winnable.

But the Cubs had better start winning games. NOW.

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