Crunch Time

The last time I saw a Cubs team playing this solidly going into the final week of September, they knocked off the Astros in 2003 to handidly take the NL Central. I won't jinx them the way Richard Justice did when he predicted on PTI that Chicago would reach the World Series in a month, but I agree with him that you can't see our bullpen doing any better than this. Carlos Marmol truly has taken on the role of an unsung hero, but it hasn't been merely in August where he's shown brilliance. I remember earlier in June/July when Ted Lily was thrown out of a game in the first inning against the Braves (it was a BS move--the ump thought he was intentionally throwing at Edgar Renteria but Lily had an 0-2 count on the guy, for crying out loud), and Marmol came in to do several innings of dirty work, doing a great job. The Cubs didn't win, but you could see the potential in him and other players like Mike Fontenot, who hit his first home run that game as well.

Now the promise of youth combined with the flashy stars of D-Lee, Soriano and Lily are paying off; instead of outpitching, the Cubs outslugged the Pirates this afternoon in convincing fashion. Soriano has taken criticism from both fans and his own manager this season for his hitting habits, but he hit the ball this week as well as he has the entire season. More importantly, Aramis Ramirez looks completely healed, which is sooooooooo important to this lineup (A-Ram:D-Lee::Man-Ram:Ortiz). I still have no idea who the hell Geovany Soto is, but I like him!

Well, I've gone off and broken my rule about praising the Cubs several times now, so let me finish this portion of the weekend preview by giving my team a pep talk:

Forget next year. Forget whomever's going to spend a billion to own you. Forget all the bandwagon fans who hopped on after 1998 and than waddled into the sunset after Dusty was fired. Take care of business at home, playing not the way you must play, but the way you can play. That's why you're in Chicago.

(If they're in a spot to clinch next weekend in Cincy, I'm doing everything in my power to see that game in person. Unfortunately I'm a busy man...)

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Let's stay in Chicago before moving onto the really nasty stuff: PTI also took time to state that Rex Grossman's job could be lost if he stinks it up against Dallas Sunday night, and this couldn't come at a worse time for the Sex Cannon. He's yet to see competency from his starting running back, his prime target (Bernard Berrian) will see double coverage because of the wear on tear (God bless him) on Mushin Muhammad, his newest target (Greg Olsen) is making his debut on national television, and we're not sure how strong a Mike Brown-less defense will do against a very good Cowboys passing attack. Oh yeah, Rex is really bad, too. At least a year ago he was taking shots at the big play and getting picked off half the time. These first two games he's been like a deer in headlights. Yeah, you could pretty much say that about the entire Bears offense, but the lack of leadership from a veteran, playing in this league, has to rain question marks from all directions. That's why, Mr. Wojiechowski, Bears fans spent four hours complaining on that radio show you covered--they couldn't beat the spread against the Chiefs, for God's sake!

If you're a betting man (I think the line's around 3-4 Bears favorite), you take the Cowboys, 'natch. Good offense against a great defense is going to beat a bad offense against an average defense.

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And then there are the Fighting Irish.

Here's a bad trend for the MSU/ND series: over the past six matchups, the away team has gotten the victory. You can't pick the Irish to win until they get an offensive touchdown. They will get several of these, yes, but if there season truly is starting right now--and if this past week was half as difficult as Charlie Weis was making it out to be in that post-game conference last week--Notre Dame will still show a lot of youth and anxiety against an MSU team doing everything it can to not fuck up its great start to the season for the umpteenth year in a row.

(I know two things about MSU coach Mark Dantonio: he's the former coach of the UC Bearcats (which reminds me, Jason should've written something about this!!!), and he could not have looked less pleased to have done that commercial hawking the Big Ten Network when I saw it on TV last week during the Pitt-MSU game. The Big Ten Network has the commissioner and all the coaches in their back pocket, and now they're antagonizing cable providers that refuse to carry their channel. It's true; there's a radio commercial on Columbus airwaves where BTN essentially calls Time Warner bad names for not giving the people what they want. Well hey, douche bags, the PEOPLE don't want to pay anything extra to see their hometown team, they want to enjoy OSU football the same way they did for years and years, before this awful idea was even conceptualized. I don't think I can hate BTN enough. Okay, rant over.)

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And on that note, OSU will get to pad its stats offensively against a Northwestern team coming off a loss to Duke. Although Notre Dame might be in that same position in November, so we can't hate on NU for too long.

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Finally, HOCKEY SEASON HAS ARRIVED!!!! I know, because instead of listening to alternative music on CD101 in the evenings, I've been hearing Canadian dudes yelling incessantly about Columbus Bluejackets preseason games. I actually enjoy it, it helps me focus while driving. I'm obligated to preview Columbus sports, and I will have a few things on the Blue Jackets in the near future. I'm sure you bitches can't wait for very long.