Hitting the Dusty Trail

The Cubs, I surmised, sent up the white flag on another disappointing season this week when they placed Aramis Rameriz on the DL and traded away Matt Lawton. The Cubs have slipped to 7 games under .500 and are now at risk at finishing at the bottom of the NL Central (lets be honest Pittsburgh doesn't count as a professional baseball team, I'm uncertain the Pirates could win the AAA crown). The time has come to send Dusty Baker out onto the dusty trail. Dusty was brought over from San Francisco with aspirations of ending the "THE DROUGHT". You can point fingers at injuries or curses or the fact that the deep dish pizza has weighed the team down but ultimately failure (which is what the Cubs have been given their payroll) means changes. Maybe the Chicago contigent would disagree but something needs to be done and I for one say it should start with the manager and move on from there.

2. I'm starting with early prognastication...Miami Heat's buying spree is not going to pay off. Stan Van Gundy is on thin ice with Riley. With cast characters assembled there, grumbling will occur and team is going to go off-kilter. I just have a sinking sensation that Shaq is going to find himeself in the LA Lakers Part II or Portland Trail Blaizers Part 34

3. Interesting article in the Washington Post on Sunday about the lost art of the bunt. Basically the sabermaticians (baseball folks crunching numbers) determined that the sacrifice bunt isn't worth it. There are some points that I agree with and some I don't . The first is the seeming decline i fundamentals (like laying a bunt down). If you can't advance a runner then the bunt is worthless. As someone who has watched the Indians all year I can agree with this. The bad side of this analysis is that it was conducted in 2003. Hmm what's changed that may influence the statistics since 2003. I don't know maybe a lack of steriods. Scoring someone first often requires a multi-base hit and without steriods home runs are down which would influence the statistics. Dear sabermaticians please use the right numbers before making claims.

Things you Should Pay attention to this Week
I would say the most important games this week centers around Oakland's two series. Oakland first up faces the LAAAA Angels followed by a series against the Spankees.. A good week and they could have a leg up in winning the division. A bad week and Oakland is going to be sitting come playoff time. This week also starts college football with the marquee matchup Monday Sept 5 between FSU and Miami. The matchup I care up about is Miami (of the Ohio variety) v. The OSU in the Horseshoe. Finally the Chicago branch of The Back Seat Drivers is sending one of their star reporters to Israel to check out the improvements in Jewish basketball. Safe journey Cara....