Chicago Cubs Baseball

Those of you tuned into Sunday night’s ESPN telecast of the Chicago-New York game were given a taste of everything baseball has to offer - excluding a Cubs’ win.

There was plenty of drama and little suspense in the Mets’ 8-3 win. Baseball fans got to see history being made and perhaps, history being lost all in one nine-inning game.

New York’s Tom Glavine earned his 300th career victory, a feat accomplished by only 23 others and just the fifth southpaw to do so. Think about that baseball fans.

Just take a moment to stop and smell the leather. Consider that Glavine may be the last major league pitcher - righty or lefty - to do so. And he did it the right way - he earned it as a craftsman, a master of his trade enhanced only by natural ability, hard work and savvy.

While Glavine was slicing and dicing his way through the Chicago lineup, Cub fans saw the remainder of the 2007 season flash before their eyes. The vision didn’t include a Central Division title, a National League pennant or a World Series flag.

The picture did include Alfonso Soriano clutching his right leg and pulling up lame as he tried to go first to third on Ryan Theriot’s two-out single. Soriano was placed on the 15-day disabled list, and many a Cub fans’ hope for 2007 was placed on ice with that single play.

As if that wasn’t enough drama for a single game, Wrigley Field finally got an opportunity to cheer when Miracle Wood strolled out of the Chicago bullpen in the seventh, looking lean and keen in his first appearance since Lou Piniella was a young man.

But wait, there’s more. Chicago starter Jason Marquis continued his quest to become baseball’s all-time leader in inconsistency, finding his way to 100 pitches in little more than five innings of work. In all fairness, Marquis wasn’t the only Cubs’ pitcher to struggle with command, walking seven Met batters and giving up 16 hits.

Will (Bad) Ohman and Ryan Dempster showed their stuff to the Mets and got whacked all over Wrigley for doing so. I guess bad habits are hard to break.

Oh yeah, and Cub sluggers managed two home runs on the eight-game home stand - one each against the Phillies and the Mets.

Other than that, nothing much to write home about.