The MLB Network has a fun video of what it labels “the top moments in Cubs’ history.”

As I said, it is fun. But as far as top all-time franchise moments, it’s kind of lame. Typical is Milt Pappas’s almost perfect game. LaTroy Hawkins shows up as getting the final out in Greg Maddux’s 300th win.

The Cubs do have the coolest nickname for a game-winning home run: Gabby Hartnett’s “homer in the gloamin’.”

Of the nine, I’d say the most amazing thing I have ever seen during my life was Kerry Wood’s 20K game in 1998.

UIS class may be required to watch World Series

The course is “The History of Baseball in the United States.” It begins with the fall semester, which qualifies it as a Fall Classic, just like the World Series.

Read entire article at:

www.sj-r.com/bakke/x126913438/Dave-Bakke-UIS-class-may-be-required-to-watch-World-Series

Hope the class lectures are downloadable!

http://www.uis.edu/

Ronnie the collie attended the Illinois Senate vs House softball game.

Click here to see who he met at the game.

http://colliediary.blogspot.com

The Sporting News' Sean Deveney writes that the Chicago Cubs may have thrown the 1918 World Series, which they lost 4 games to 2 to Babe Ruth and the Boston Red Sox. His source is a newly discovered affidavit that Chicago White Sox ace Eddie Cicotte provided to the Cook County, Illinois grand jury during the investigation over the 1919 World Series. Cicotte's affidavit states that the White Sox received their inspiration from the previous year's series.

As an admitted fixer, Cicotte is hardly the most credible source. He also did not, apparently, purport to have personal knowledge of the matter. There remains no competent evidence that the Cubs threw the 1918 World Series. In contrast, there is an abundance of evidence against the 1919 White Sox. (See Eliot Asinof, Eight Men Out.) If the 1918 Cubs had thrown the World Series, it is likely that someone involved would have admitted the fix at some point. As it is, there are nothing more than rumors, as this 2005 article by Timothy Gay in USA Today notes. Something that big does not stay a rumor if it is real.

If you are throwing a World Series, do your top two pitchers pitch 50 innings in 6 games and allow only 6 earned runs? That's what the Cubs' Hippo Vaughn and Lefty Tyler did in the 1918 series. In contrast, the White Sox' top two pitchers--Cicotte and Lefty Williams--were both in on the fix in 1919. In Game 1, Cicotte didn't throw 4 innings before allowing 6 runs.

The discovery of Cicotte's affidavit is interesting, but it does not mean much in answering the question of the legitimacy of the 1918 Series.

In the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine, its 10th anniversary issue, Gene Wojciechowski revisits Game Six of the 2003 NLCS. In it, he quotes Paul Rathje, stadium operations director at the time, as blaming Moises Alou's jumping up and down for Bartman's infamy: "If [Moises] Alou had just jogged back to his position, Steve Bartman would have sat down and watched the rest of the game. Nobody would have ever known about him."

That is patently untrue.

Bartman, irrespective of Alou's reaction, still interfered with the play, and his interference was caught on national television.

That said, what I wrote initially holds true. Verbally and physically abusing him was much, much worse than anything Bartman did to interfere with the play.

The photo is accompanied by a nice photo showing at least six other fans reaching for the ball, two of them within striking distance over the wall.

Wojciechowski closes with a nice comment from Ryne Sandberg. "I would have liked to have met him [at his 2005 Hall of Fame induction]. I would have shaken his hand and thanked him for being a Cubs fan."

If you were ever wondering which Cubs' player has the most career at-bats in a Cubs' uniform without a hit, wonder no more, as Cubnut at The Cub Reporter has your answer.

Going through the list of Cubs' catchers who have caught Steve Trachsel that Phil Bencomo at Cub Town compiled brings back some memories. I really don't remember Tyler Houston catching that many games. And Brian Dorsett? If they weren't in Cubs' uniforms a decade apart, I would have confused him with Brian Dayett.

Only a few weeks ago, George Steinbrenner fired his strength and conditioning coach due to concern over some of the Yankee pitchers were having hamstring injuries. So with that said who is holding Larry Rothschild accountable for the way "his" pitchers have been performing, specially the bullpen? You constantly hear that the pitching coach can not be on the mound pitching for the players. However, it's not working. I am curious to know what the records are for starting pitchers and bullpen since Larry Rothschild took over? How many months total have his pitchers been on the IR during his watch compared to the other MLB teams?

I love reading "where are they now" stories regarding former Chicago Cubs players.

Here is a recent article regarding Cubs pitcher Glen Hobbie:

Quote from article:

Read entire article here

Related link:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/h/hobbigl01.shtml

Attention, Cubs fans – new book on the 1908 season is just out. (I know because I wrote it). It’s called Crazy ’08 – How a cast of cranks, rogues, boneheads and magnates created the greatest year in baseball history (HarperCollins, $24.95; foreword by Robert Creamer). The Chicago Tribune reviewed it warmly on March 18, and Sports Illustrated liked it, too (the March Madness cover). Go to crazy08.com for more.