With 13 games to go, St. Louis was 8 1/2 games up on the Astros.  With 13 games to go, they are 1 1/2 games ahead.  In related news, Walmart reports their St. Louis store is sold out of Depends undergarments. 

I actually heard a Cubs fan make a baseball comment the other day…..about the St. Louis slide.  Too funny.

Peace, E maj

e-maj@spikesballparks.com

**Cubs lose again to go to 63-94…(sigh).  People have been asking me a lot about whether Dusty has a chance to be back.  I have to game it at 10-20%, and it pains me to say that.  Why has he lasted this long?**

**Detroit up by a game and a half with 6 left to play.  Bring it home baby.  Only writer in the country to pick them to win the division, and yes, my neck is sore from self-fellating.**

**Florida is an amazing 76-80.  Is this the re-incarnation of the movie Major League?  Reader Earljam pontificates that they are trying desperately to move to Las Vegas.**

**Philly has won their last 5, and is a 1/2 game up on the wildcard.  As a season ticket holder(true), we pullin’ for the playoffs.**

**Cleveland at 73-83 by far my worst call of the season.  Had them going deep in the playoffs.**

Peace, E Maj

e-maj@spikesballparks.com

**Rich Hill threw another gem yesterday to improve to 4-6, and lower his ERA to 5.23…it was 9.53 the day before he won his first game….looks like the kid is here to stay**

**Detroit lost 7 of their last 10…4 1/2 ahead with 26 left to play….they’re slowing down, but consider the fact that we’re talking about Detroit with 26 games left in the season**

**Mea culpa:  I should’ve done a lot more coverage of Dusty this year.  I’ve nutted that story for 2 straight years, but didn’t play it enough.  Poor journalism.   My conspiracy theory is he’s tied to Balco a lot more than anyone even cares to speculate about.  He was Bonds’ manager for 10 years.  Food for thought, anyway.**

**Covered a clinic a couple of weeks ago for high-schoolers(more later)….man, it was great to be around kids playing for the love**

alright, i’m off to Wrigley a couple innings late…

Peace, E Maj

e-maj@spikesballparks.com

**

Alright.  Spent the last 5 hours in the lab cranking out the "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder" essay for www.spikesballparks.com .  You can get it there tomorrow, and I’ll post it in its entirety here at Mlblogs in a couple days. 

Sitting here watching the Whitesox play the Triple A Royals and check this out.  The camera pans to the owner’s boxes to a gentleman letting out a humongous yawn.  20 seconds later the white caption, "Royals GM Dayton Moore" appears on the screen.  Classic.

Sorry Kansas City fans.  I feel you.

Peace, E Maj

e-maj@spikesballparks.com

**sat 3rd row for Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters tonight…r u kiddin’ me?…he’s telling Kurt stories and ****….great show**

**Twins take the wildcard lead tonight….watch out for the Twinks…no one is really talking about them**

**Boston isn’t going anywhere with that bullpen, repeat of last year.  On paper, they could have a decent ‘pen, yet it’s so hard to decipher in general who did what and when in terms of artificial substances(league-wide)**

**Looking forward to the new dawn that is tomorrow and filiming/chronicling some baseball for all the right reasons…more to follow**

**I wake up last week, answer my voicemail, and my good buddy Shorty who I haven’t spoken with in 6 months leaves ‘Sister Christian’ by NightRanger blasting on my email….when I call him on it, he chimes back with ‘Time after Time’ by Cyndi Lauper…..basically, a declaration of ‘stick a bad sond in your buddy’s head’ war….he called the truce 5 years ago after ‘oompa loompa’ song and ‘Girl, you’ll be a woman soon’ hurt him for days…..game on**

**have a wonderful weekend…relax, and have fun**

Peace, E Maj

e-maj@spikesballparks.com

**

**I didn’t get the memo that the Dodgers were going to win 17 out of 18, best run in 107 years, as I publicly worried about them at 47-55.  They are my NL pre-season World Series pick if you recall**

**Cubs have won 4 in a row, longest streak of the season.  Imagine that.  They’re playing the kids.  Guess what.  Kids.  I’ve often wrote that kids know no bounds.  Maybe that’s Dusty’s downfall.  He doesn’t embrace youth.  I’m thinking out loud right now.  The Cubs Baseball kids are winning cause they don’t know any better.  Dusty needs to go. **

**Al race is going to be fun w/Boston, New York, Chicago, Minnesota, and upstart Detroit vying for 3 spots**

**Coors Field is a very nice park.  Pleasing to the eyes.  I had a misperception of the field given that it has been a home run launching pad.  Check it out**

**I am all about the present, and moving forward.  What bothers me about the Steroids Era is there is no empirical data.  The only reason we look back is so we can turn mistakes into lessons.  Since we haven’t been provided any data, you can be rest assured the Phantom Farter Squad is on alert…watch out, all you obfuscators**

**I love baseball**

Peace, E Maj

email me at e-maj@spikesballparks.com

I’ll try to hammer out a meatier post later, but in case you haven’t seen this:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2550337

There is comedy, and then there is transcendental comedy.  Josie fits the latter.

Peace, E Maj

email e maj at e-maj@spikesballparks.com

as posted at www.spikesballparks.com

Cubs Quickie

1)The Cubs traded one of our favorites, American Samurai Greg Maddux, to the LA Dodgers for SS Cesar Izturis.  My sister who lives in LA called that night to thank me(as if I gave the OK on the deal, LOL) for bringing Maddux to LA.  E-Maj’s take:  Great to get a Gold glove shortstop, and not-so-secretly hoping Maddux is a rental for LA, and Greg re-signs with the Cubs in the off-season to finish his illustrious career where he started.

2)Rookie LHP Rich Hill got off the schneid last week for his first major league victory.  He won again today.  The kid’s got electic stuff, but his head/heart have been questionable.  Methinks he wins 5 or 6 in a row. 

3)Z for Cy Young.  ‘Nuff said.

4)Juan Pierre, CF, is now hitting .279 w/39 steals.  One of the true good guys of the game has now found his groove and made the adjustment to Wrigley Field.  Cubs should re-sign him to a 2-year deal, and let Murton and Pie battle for the regular LF job/4th OF position.

5)NL Central leader St. Louis Cardinals have gone 4-9 since July 23rd a row.  The Cubs have gone 10-4 over the same time span and are now 13 1/2 games out of the division lead.  10 games out of the wildcard.  Am I really reporting on this?…

6)There is no statue of Mr. Cub Ernie Banks outside the stadium, a fact that has not missed these eyes.  We could Tribune-hate, but life is not about hatin’.  It’s about Ernie-lovin’.  Stay tuned.  E-Maj and www.spikesballparks.com are going to do something about this fact. 

Peace,

E-Maj

no sooner said, 3rd inning of the Cubs game, and they botch a pickle between 2nd and 3rd resulting in a run scored….

peace, E Maj

e-maj@spikesballparks.com

Detroit still 1st in majors at 52-25.  And yes, I am the only baseball writer in the country that picked them to make the playoffs.  And I also have been way off on the Phillies.(guess I shouda listened to GM Pat Gillick when he came out and said they were short on pitching).  The important thing to take from the Detroit season is they are changing a culture, changing an environment up there.  It is difficult to do, just ask the Royals, Pirates, or Cubs

Al East is the Al East again.

Minnesota has won 15 of their last 17.

A’s are in 1st by one game.  It’s going to be interested to see how the Zito(he’s a free agent, and GM Billy Beane will trade him if he knows he isn’t going to sign him) situation plays out.

Does the Cubs Management, upper and lower, know that they are 28-47?

Peace, E Maj

e-maj@spikesballparks.com