Hooray.

My money’s on the Sox in this series. They’re playing much better ball than the Cubs right now. And we won’t be hearing Ozzie complain about the ballpark being a dump.

I’d like to see them sweep and be at .500 before they get the Nats.

An open letter from David Kaplan (Cubs fan) to Chuck Garfein (Sox fan).

Dear Chuck:

After taking two of three in Arizona, I am sure you are licking your chops to get back home and to put it to my Cubs.  However, I caution you with this warning. Not so fast my South Side friend. The Cubs are playing much better after taking 3 of 4 from the NL Central leading Brewers and 1 of 3 from the high-flying New York Yankees. Something is different about this team since they went 2 for 8 on their last road trip and I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. They held a team meeting to get everyone on the same page and they started wearing those silly anti-goat t-shirts and since then they have started to look much better. They have stepped up their level of play against better competition and perhaps we may see some carry over effect on the stage that is the Cubs vs. White Sox rivalry.

The Cubs have had their issues the last two series they have played at U.S. Cellular with Milton Bradley getting into it with then manager Lou Piniella in 2009 and Carlos Zambrano having his meltdown in 2010 that led to his suspension for anger management therapy. However, we are now playing a much younger team due to poor play and a ton of injuries and I think that you will be impressed with how hard some of the kids play. Also, we have a superstar in the making in 21-year-old Starlin Castro and he is going to be a longtime fixture on the North Side. The starting pitching is shaky but if we get to the back end of our pen with the lead you guys could have some issues coming back late in a game.

Reed Johnson, Jeff Baker, Carlos Pena, and Tony Campana have given us some things to cheer about so far but I have a feeling that veterans like Aramis Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano, and Kosuke Fukudome may be ready to have a big series. We’ll see.

The next three days are a lot of fun for Chicago baseball fans and while your team’s slogan is “All In” and you are looking at this as a championship season, the Cubs are probably looking at these two series as one of the highlights of the season. Whatever happens it is going to be great fun and I know we will have some phenomenal trash talking going on in the offices.

See you at the ballpark tonight!

And there’s the difference:

Sox “All In” - World Series

Cnb$ “All In” - BP Trophy

Great post Bill....A lot to cover in one post but it was well done.

Starlin Castro is on track for a 200 hit season, needing only 7 hits to have 100 in the first half of the 2011 season. Only Jose Reyes and Adrian Gonzalez have more hits this season than Castro. He is 4th in the majors in doubles with 21 and 4th in triples with five. Castro is 5th in NL in hitting with a .315 average.

HOWEVER, when it comes to fielding Castro leads all major league shortstops with 15 errors in 69 games. His .952 fielding percentage is the worst among major league shortstops who have played in at least 69 games.

Castro made his 15 errors in 314 chances, while Troy Tulowitzki, shortstop for the Rockies has 3 errors in 367 chances, so Castro has 12 more errors despite having 53 fewer chances.

These errors don’t include mental errors like the one yesterday when he removed his foot from the bag before attempting a double play. Some umpires may have even called the runner out on the old neighborhood play, but he can’t count on that always being the case. Personally, I think the neighborhood play should not exist, because a runner is either safe or out depending if they arrive to the base on time to be safe. This neighborhood foolishness has to stop and all the umpires have to do is do their job.

Back to Castro, he has been great offensively since joining the Cubs last season, but has shown no improvement in fielding. Ernie Banks could give him some great tips at playing shortstop, if he hasn’t already done that.

The physical errors are bad enough, but adding mental errors to the mix, only compounds the problem.

I could have covered a ton more. Comcast has four different story threads going, FSPN has joined the fray after the Cubs “scared” the Yankees and so on. Add in Bill Melton’s wonderful rant about how ESPN a/k/a FSPN, skews voting for the All Star game and I could have pumped out 10,000 words and not touched on everything.

BigBadBill - 20 June 2011 02:04 PM

I could have covered a ton more. Comcast has four different story threads going, FSPN has joined the fray after the Cubs “scared” the Yankees and so on. Add in Bill Melton’s wonderful rant about how ESPN a/k/a FSPN, skews voting for the All Star game and I could have pumped out 10,000 words and not touched on everything.

I know how much work it takes to put together a post everyday, so I have total respect for you choosing the best ones to post on today. How you can make a post 6 days a week and sometimes 7 is amazing.

Actually Nite, some weeks I do 21 posts between the three blogs that have me.

BigBadBill - 20 June 2011 02:26 PM

Actually Nite, some weeks I do 21 posts between the three blogs that have me.

That has to be mentally exhausting. My 9 year old computer couldn’t handle that workload. Spend way too much time waiting for pages to load.

It gets confusing sometimes. I have to remember not to post sports on Hippo or Examiner, and never to cross pollinate topics. So, if I tell one story on one of those I can’t repeat it here. And visa versa. for example, if you go to NudeHippo.com today and click on world News Center, the most recent story describes why I was covered in blood for Fathers’ Day. But you’ll never read about that here.

Oh, wait .....

She doesn’t seem that hot to me....

Dude, she has no eyes…

BigBadBill - 20 June 2011 02:39 PM

It gets confusing sometimes. I have to remember not to post sports on Hippo or Examiner, and never to cross pollinate topics. So, if I tell one story on one of those I can’t repeat it here. And visa versa. for example, if you go to NudeHippo.com today and click on world News Center, the most recent story describes why I was covered in blood for Fathers’ Day. But you’ll never read about that here.

Oh, wait .....

Know what you mean. I have written a lot of American Idol articles at wordpress.com but nobody care about that at JTJ so I don’t even mention it here.

Big Star - 20 June 2011 02:41 PM

Dude, she has no eyes…

These chicks have eyes?

Niteowl049 - 20 June 2011 02:43 PM

BigBadBill - 20 June 2011 02:39 PM

It gets confusing sometimes. I have to remember not to post sports on Hippo or Examiner, and never to cross pollinate topics. So, if I tell one story on one of those I can’t repeat it here. And visa versa. for example, if you go to NudeHippo.com today and click on world News Center, the most recent story describes why I was covered in blood for Fathers’ Day. But you’ll never read about that here.

Oh, wait .....

Know what you mean. I have written a lot of American Idol articles at wordpress.com but nobody care about that at JTJ so I don’t even mention it here.

american idol???? I’d kick you in the balls for writing that if I could.... and Bill you covered in blood I just assumed you’d had your period again....