Still another game to attend that's been mucked-up. We had Elvis Friday night, Fox moved our normal Saturday night game to 12:15pm. Today, our 2:05 kids day game was moved to 7pm so ESPN could cover this debacle nationally. SO, since it's Kid's Day (they were giving out book bags as a promotion), they were having the autograph sessions before the game. Saw a group of people dressed up in Yakult Swallows gear to get Shingo Takashi's autograph, and there was a group of people sitting a couple of rows back with their bento boxes and sushi... I'm actually happy about this. I'd like to see us jump on the Japan bandwagon and ride this for as long as Shingo is here.

The other big thing is that ESPN's Baseball Tonight is setup on the field and is being done live before the game. I went over to check it out, but it was difficult to follow anything that's going on, since most of the talk was voice-overs of videotape of the afternoon games. A crewman came over and shared a plate of desserts with the fans (which, to my shock, didn't storm the guy). Had a great fudge brownie.

The game... sucked again. We actually got into the lead for the first time this series. Freddy Garcia, who has thrown about 117 pitches, comes out in the 8th and on the first pitch, Manny Ramirez hits a homer to tie the game. Ozzie brings out Damaso Marte who throws one pitch to Ortiz who hits a homer putting them in the lead.

That's it. That just sucked the life right out of me. I'm angry, I'm disappointed, I'm shocked, I'm disappointed, I'm despondent, I'm disgusted, I'm tired, I'm sick.

We were in First Place for a good part of the year. If we weren't, we're just a few games out.

We're in 3rd, 8 games out. Everything has failed - hitting, pitching, defense - everything.

To top it all off, there were a TON of Boston fans at each of these three game. Where the hell are these people coming from? Are there that many displaced Bostonians in Chicago? Are people actually traveling here to see them? Even on a Sunday Night?

However - Props to those fans. They were THE BEST fans for the visiting team I've ever seen. Cub Fans should take lessons from these guys.

(Boxscore)