MATT MURTON, my favorite Chicago Cub. Resurrected from the minors due to Soriano’s calf strain/sprain/pull/tear . . . . Matty is only 1 for 8 in two games, but yesterday he had two very “productive outs” producing 2 RBI. I’m sure he’ll do better once/if the Cubs stop playing head games with him. (When Soriano went down, they first brought up Eric Patterson who went 0 for 6 in 3 games—possible publicity stunt so they could play up the Corey/Eric Patterson matchup.) I will resist the urge to rant about how Soriano has been a big waste of money, but you might notice that the Cubs scored 53 runs in the 6 games since he’s been injured compared to 59 runs in the 12 games he played (his average .175)

BTW—if you didn’t get the “adorable redhead” reference, see
Are You Smarter than A Cubs Fan? #3

In other exciting sports news, Danica Patrick is the first woman to win an Indy Car Race (the Indy Japan 300)! This news brought back memories of cheering for Janet Guthrie in the ’70s and watching Lyn St. James at the Indy 500, especially the one year (I believe it was 1992) it was about 35°. My parents and I had seats on the backstretch bleachers. Cars were dropping like flies due to cold tires and driver stupidity, so lots of yellow light racing. Eventually mom & dad gave up and went to wait in the car. I stayed to watch Lyn finish 11th (okay, there were only 12 cars that finished, but on a day like that, just staying on the course was a victory!). A long cold day.