Chicago Cubs vs. San Francisco Giants Preview, Sunday 6/3, 3:05 CT

Since this year's team is not very interesting to write about -- until and unless they make any major trades -- let's look back, shall we?

41 years ago today -- June 3, 1971 -- Kenny Holtzman threw a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. It wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing of no-nos -- Holtzman walked four and threw a wild pitch -- but the Cubs won 1-0 as Holtzman himself reached on an error and scored the only run.

It's the last Cubs no-hitter thrown in an opponent's home park (of course, Carlos Zambrano's no-hitter in 2008 was in a neutral park, though filled with Cubs fans).

Holtzman had the worst year of his Cubs career in 1971, despite the no-hitter; injured much of the second half, he was unhappy as a Cub and asked to be traded. GM John Holland obliged him, sending him to the A's for Rick Monday, one of the rare deals that worked out pretty well for both teams. Holtzman got two World Series rings out of the deal, and Monday would later be part of a trade that brought Bill Buckner to the Cubs.

Cubs lineup:

Campana CF, Barney 2B, Castro SS, Soriano LF, Baker 1B, Stewart 3B, Johnson RF, Hill C, T. Wood P

Giants lineup:

Blanco RF, Theriot 2B, Cabrera LF, Posey C, Pagan CF, Sanchez C, Arias 3B, Crawford SS, Zito P

Today's Starting Pitchers

Travis Wood Cubs vs. Barry Zito Giants 0-1 W-L 4-2 5.94 ERA 3.41 11 SO 34 8 BB 26 6 HR 6 vs. SF -- vs. Cubs

Travis Wood threw a good game against the Giants a little less than a year ago, June 10, 2011 in San Francisco; eight innings, two runs allowed. A repeat of that today would be nice. Current Giants are a small-sample-size 9-for-29 (.310) against him; none has more than seven at-bats.

Barry Zito missed a lot of 2011 with injuries, but managed to squeeze in a decent outing against the Cubs at Wrigley Field on June 28. Overall, he has held current Cubs to a .202 average (24-for-119) with just one home run. Repeat after me: "Clearly, we are doomed."

Today's game is on WGN.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Giants site McCovey Chronicles.

Today's first pitch thread will post at 3:05 p.m. CDT and the overflows at 4:05, 5:05 and 5:50 p.m. CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.