The Chicago Tribune online has just reported that the Cubs have announced that Kerry Wood has a torn rotator cuff.

The funny thing is that there are some people who are actually surprised by this news... well, I'm not surprised in the least. As I've said in previous posts, I fully believe that the Cubs, and even Wood himself, have known that his arm was toast for a long time. I mean, he has been in to see his doctor a few times since his "return" this year, and it has taken them this long to discover the torn cuff? COME ON!! Are you saying that the doctor wasn't smart enough to do an MRI test until now? If so, then why the hell is anyone going to him/her? No, I think that the Cubs were hesitant to get a definitive report, and once they had it, they were careful about when they released it so that we fans wouldn't have a chance to tell them what a bunch of putzes they are until after the All Star break.

This could mean the end of Kerry's career, or at the very least, that he will have to go to the bullpen. At the moment, he says he isn't sure if he'll do surgery to repair his shoulder or just try to make a go of it later... as well, whether or not he will be able to remain with the Cubs at all is in question, since they know now that Wood will be useless for about a year (correction, they've always known it, just haven't wanted to admit it...)

As sad as the news is, my fellow Cubs fans (although if you're a true fan, you should have known this was the deal a LONG time ago), there may be a light at the end of the tunnel: we might finally be able to unload Wood without anyone arguing that Wood might leave us and become stellar once more.

By the way, Cubs Management, you deserve this... and no one does it better than The Man in Black...

Well, it's that time again here in the Windy City...

If anyone wants to see the history of our beautiful city, all that they need to do is look at our two teams. Traditionally, the Cubs are the team which was supported by the German immigrants who lived on the North side of our city... while the Sox were the team of the Irish immingrants who inhabited the South side. Now, there are still some people of German descent in Wrigleyville, and plenty of Irish-Americans (including Mayor Richard M. Daley, son of the infamous Richard J. Daley - let me just say that the son is far better than the father) who support the Sox. Way back in the day, when Chicago was in it's infancy, the South side Irish and the North Side Germans were actually quite detested by the people who had already been in the city for over a generation.

But something brought them together... the majority of Protestants in the city were disturbed by the way that the Catholic Irish and Germans would drink on Sundays, having little outdoor parties. They were so upset by it that they attempted to ban drinking on Sundays in the city of Chicago. The Germans and the Irish banded together and defeated that proposal.

The moral of the story is that we here in Chicago should remember how the two groups banded together as one for a common purpose, and do it again to bring us some good baseball. Chicago is now the home of immigrants of all different nationalities, and the two teams no longer belong to only one ethnicity.

I'm excited to see this... but we all know whose side I'm on!

Doggie took a loss tonight... The Indians got 3 runs off of him in the first inning. Gee, I wonder if the problem was that the sun was setting and blinding him on the mound? Think I'm kidding? Dude, the first base umpire had to be lead off the field because the sunlight had fried his eyes... I'm not kidding. Doggie was throwing pretty damn hard in the beginning, but I'm not so sure that he could even see where he was throwing. From the second inning on, he was in the zone and, no big surprise, the field was no longer full of sunlight. In the end, Doggie lost and the final score was 2-4. However, I did manage to catch him sticking his tongue out on the left and then right side of his mouth, which totally put me on my swooning couch and left me like Niagra Falls...

Speaking of Canadian things that make a lot of noise and make me wet (it's a joke... a really raunchy joke because I didn't get to tease them at all today), "Bring the Noise" is taking a break this week... I'm like, totally going into withdrawal... sigh! Come back soon guys!! 

"Let me put this jersey on... That way, Maddyzghirl has to go through multiple layers... aw, who am I kidding, it won't stop her! My lame-o dork cuteness is such a curse!!!"

Granted, I like Mark Prior in general, I think he's a swell guy... but at this point in the 2006 season for the Cubs, I'm not expecting him to come back and save the team from themselves. If Mark Prior comes in and pitches well, more power to him... but the Cubs have another problem.

They can't hit.

When they get a "duck" or two on the "pond", they leave them there. There's an occasional dinger to be seen... but as far as giving decent run support goes, forget it. I mean (and don't get me wrong, y'all know that he gives me special feelings in my pants) Doggie is more reliable than the great majority of players when it comes to RBI's. What the hell does that say?

On top of all of this, we're still waiting to hear the verdict on Barrett's suspension (it's certain he'll get it, we just don't know how long it will be for) and Barrett is hitting fairly well at the moment, at least when he isn't punching that inflatable clown that has AJ Pierzynski's face on it. (I know it was really wrong to do, I know he has to be punished, but damn, was it funny at the time!! It's hard to explain to those of you who aren't part of the Cubs vs Sox fray, but it rocked!!)  

What I'm saying is that good pitching will help this team, no doubt, but it's not going to be enough to give us wins. In baseball, one has to expect that the other team will get a hold of the ball a few times, and if one's team can't return a few runs and give proper run support, forget it.

BTW, check out the NHL finals if you can... it's pretty damn good, and that's coming from a girl who's proud to say she's an American (just don't get me started about Bush)...

Check out Schwartzy's blog (under "My Favorite Blogs" on the right) and add your name to the list of people who want Gary Bettman out as the NHL commish: whether you're a fan of the NHL or not, the sport is in dire need of your help (they've got a twit running the show, guys), and just as you'd want non-fans of your team to support actions to save your sport, we need to help out the NHL fans!

As Bono of U2 said, "The world could use more Canada"!!

My old man got another one! He managed to get a nice hop back to the mound; another one hit my poor sweetie on the inside of his right ankle (OUCHY!!) but it wasn't enough to slow him down. Yet again, the on-field microphones caught Greg releasing a swear... but thankfully, this ump realized that he was upset with himself. (Yeah, guys, when he swears a millisecond after his release - and before the ball hits the mitt or the ump gives a call - he can only be swearing at himself). I happen to find it very cute when Greggy swears during his starts... Yes, I'm a Mad Dog slappy, what do you want?

Zman had an awesome showing again today, with a firm start and a grand slam from Michael Barrett to pad the score. I love Zman; he managed to keep himself under control today and not flip out over anything, which is definitely a good thing considering that he has had his moments over the years and even this season... wait, wasn't it my old man who tried to kill a water cooler? Uh... never mind... ;-)