Shish-KaColvin-Bob

So Bud,

The good news is we proved Tyler Colvin is not a vampire. The bad news is, we had to drive a maple stake into his chest to prove it. So my question, Buddy boy, is how many more players, coaches, fans and umpires will have to be skewered before we put a ban on these ridiculous injury machines?

Maybe a lawsuit or two?

Players, broadcasters, managers have all come forward to publicly condemn maple bats for their tendency to not shatter into a million pieces. Rather, they tend to shatter into just a few large sharpened stakes that fly in seemingly random directions.

Today's incident - yeah, we'll call it an "incident" - is just the latest in a long line of incidents in which people have been seriously injured by these things and they need to go.

Reflections on seasons lost...

Things we know
- Lou Piniella was not the answer
- Mike Quade isn't either
- The Cubs aren't as bad as we thought they were this year, but they're also not as good as we hoped.

Things we suspect
- Ryne Sandberg will be the Cubs manager next year
- The Cubs will still suck, even after 3 or 4 good moves.
- Jim Hendry should start typing his resume next August

The Cubs managed to fall flat once again this year - Lee and Ramirez never had their usual May turn around. And the rest of the roster amazingly failed to match their career years in 2008. Soriano managed to play a full season without leading off once, however arguably, the Theriot/Fukudome/Baker/DeWitt combo didn't do a whole lot better - just less home runs. Soto managed to put together a decent year, along with Sori and Ramirez is starting to make us all feel a bit better about him returning. Byrd is the freakin' word this year, so we hope he'll continue as such next year.

Wait...the year's not over? Well shoot. Ok.

It's over...

The White Sox losing to the Twins last night pretty much put the final nail in their coffin for this season. I'll admit, this season, I wanted the Sox to fail more than ever before. Maybe it was because they were supposed to suck like the Cubs. But more than anything, I wanted them to fail just to shut their fans up. Sue me.

Since the loss last night, I really now officially have nothing to cheer for the rest of this dismal god-awful season. Sure I can perk up when Colvin or Castro come to the plate. I'd sure love to see Castro finish the season higher than Joey Votto in the batting title race, but it doesn't matter. What does matter is developing the kids and putting together a good off-season.

A few thoughts on the off season. Jabba the Hendry's got a tough job ahead of him. He has to put together a decent team that can contend for 3rd place, and not sell the future on a loser next year. Anyone who is deluded enough to think that next year will be it, I've got news for you... The Cubs will have one more shot at a World Series before the world ends in December of 2012, and it will be in 2012. and it's a slim shot at best.

We'll talk more about off season moves/manager searching later. For now, just strap in and try to ride out the next couple of weeks. It's ok. It'll all be over soon.

Why should we care?

So the Cubs are pushing hard for a strong fifth place finish, and it makes me wonder - Why? Why do we still care? Well, if attendance is anything to look at - we don't. Attendance numbers being based on tickets sold being a ridiculous barometer, you can look at the M-T bleachers and see where the passion for this team is. It's in the bars, watching Bears preseason games. Because as bad as they are, the Bears are slightly better than the Cubs. Maybe.

But anyway. Why should we bother watching the rest of these pointless games? I'm going to lay out a few reasons for you. Some good, some bad.

Castro, Colvin, Cashner, Barney, Hoffpaiur, Berg, Russel, DeWitt, Marmol.

There's your future folks. If you're curious as to how many games you should buy tickets for next year, there's your answer. Have fun. It's almost over.