In case anyone needs something to listen to at work today here are some links that WGN radio has on their site to previous cub convention audio files from the past 3 years.  I'm hoping they do the same this year since I can't make it to the convention.  I tested a couple of the links to make sure they are still active.  I can't guarantee them all though.

If anyone from WGN reads this ,  Audio is cool but video would be awesome.  Harness the internets!

http://www.wgnradio.com/sports/photos/cubscon2004/audioCC04.htm
http://www.wgnradio.com/sports/photos/cubscon2005/audioCC05.htm
http://www.wgnradio.com/sports/photos/cubscon2006/audioCC06.htm

Cubs first round pick Tyler Colvin had quite a game today by hitting a Grand Slam in the bottom of the ninth to win vs Oral Roberts in the NCAA tourney to decide who goes to the college world series.  

espn.com story The next game is on ESPNU ( not available in chicago on comcast) so hopefully they make the college world series so I can get a look at him.

http://mysite.verizon.net/heyjude421/chf/chf.html

Cole Hamels makes his Major League debut tomorrow and in the spirit of all the Chuck Norris facts that went around the internet a year or so ago Hamels gets a page dedicated to his greatness.

Part of it I'm sure is the espn east coast bias but I will be paying attention when he pitches too.

I just noticed a that most of the minor league rosters had been announced.  I'm not sure if it's been mentioned here but there were a few interesting things that I noticed.

Donald Veal is moving up to Peoria
Ryan Harvey is moving to Daytona
Brian Dopirak is going to West Tennesee
Eric Patterson is staying in West Tennesee
Felix Pie is going to Iowa
Mark Pawelek is nowhere to be found
Adam Greenberg is staying in West Tenn(surprising)
Sean Gallagher is going to Daytona
Nate Spears(Patterson Trade) is starting in Daytona
Juan Mateo(returned from Cards after Rule 5 selection) is starting in West Tennesee
Luis Montanez stays in West Tennesee
Randy Wells and Carlos Marmol stay in West Tenn

http://www.northsidebaseball.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=29324

Sounds like Jones had a great game.  The lineup for the A team which is potentially the cubs opening day lineup had Walker hitting second.  

Pie took a walk :)  Dopriak had a good game also.  The Riot! had a good game also.  

I so hate the 300 character limit.  This is a seperate subject and I don't want to add it as a comment for today's comic or an older thread.  I think a lot of people will be interested.  How about that for skirting the rules :)

Can anyone explain the difference in number of games shown on TV for each team?

Cubs: 7
White Sox: 7

I know some will say because they are world champions but I still think the cubs have a better TV draw than the sox.  

Does anyone know what kind of coverage if any mlb.tv will have?  

Also in order to fill out my 300 character limit :)  I noticed the A's are playing the South Africa WBC team during spring training as well as their AAA affiliate.  Do the cubs play the Iowa cubs at any point?  Seems like a fun idea.  

Cubs named a new director of scouting Tim Wilkin who was an Assistant to the GM with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays according to the Cub Reporter.  He was also a Director of Scouting with the Blue Jays and Baseball America said this about him in 03

9. Tim Wilken, special assistant to the GM, Tampa Bay

Wilken ended a 25-year association with the Blue Jays this summer. The Blue Jays continue to reap the benefits from his tenure as scouting director as he helped usher Carlos Delgado, Roy Halladay and Vernon Wells to the big leagues and contributed to Toronto's unprecedented streak of getting 11 straight first-round picks to the majors. Many insiders believe Wilken, 50, could be in line to replace Tampa Bay incumbent GM Chuck Lamar.

I did a somewhat in depth write up on the Baseball America top 10 cubs prospects as a reason to look it up for myself and as a reason to dig out some baseball cards :)  

http://www.jonheupel.com/?p=50

any feedback is welcome and if anyone wants to take a shot at 11-20 that could be fun too.  I think I probably will eventually :)

I'm not totally sure if I get ESPN Deportes in Chicago (Comcast) but I saw off this site which is in spanish unfortuntely :)
http://espndeportes.espn.go.com/story?id=376880

that the Azucareros del Este which I think is the team Pie is playing for are going to be on ESPN Deportes Wed. December 7th at 7EST.  

Does anyone know if we get it in chicago?  I can't check right now because my Tivo is freaking out but I certainly see enough commercials for it.  

Also has anyone found a site for the Azucareros del Este?  (Sugar Bowls of the East?)  My spanish is muy mal so I haven't been able to find one.  Box scores are pretty universal so I don't mind a spanish site which I assume will be the case.  

A few of the other teams in the league have sites like

Licey
http://www.licey.com
Wilson Betemit
Clint Barmes

Gigantes
http://www.gigantesdelcibao.com

Leones
http://www.escogido.com/

Lou Piniella took a step down my future managers of the cubs list last night on the Fox broadcast.  I was pretty surprised Fox used the prime time playoffs to debut a new announcer.  To me he came off as not terribly sharp and in my humble opinion didn't sound like he knows as much about baseball as Bob Brenly or some of the other former managers I have heard in the box.

I just hadn't seen any mention of him today and was wondering if anyone else had as negative an opinion of it as I did.  Granted maybe he gets somewhat of a pass if it was his first game broadcasting.  But once again the playoffs isn't the place for that.  

The cubs should sign Sosa if he retires.  I would very much like to see Sammy end his career as a cub even if it is only ceremonial.  I could see that not being the case since he left on such bad terms but it would be appropriate given what he has done for the franchise.

I know the Cowboys did it with Emmit Smith and it's been done with a few other players.  No matter what the Tribune company tried to do to Sammy's image when he left or what he did in Baltimore he was exciting to watch for the 13ish years he was a Cub and he deserves a little recognition for it.    

After flying in early saturday morning from chicago with many other cub fans and as I later realized Notre Dame fans since Pitt was playing Notre Dame on Saturday also, we arrived at the park around 30 minutes early or so.  

Normally when I go to away games I end up talking to other cub fans.  With that in mind I smiled at two people in cubs fans outside PNC and they asked if we had tickets and I said yeah and started to walk away since being propositioned by a scalper isn't anything new but as we turned she said "because we are trying to give these tickets to a cub fan" we(my girlfriend and I) stopped and told them they had ok upper deck tickets but we bought them over the internet which in my experience yields bad tickets.  The tickets they were offering were a field box so I assumed they were better and graciously accetpted.  We told them we had tickets already but they said these should be better.  Well long story short as we start walking down the section looking for Row F we soon realized Row F is the very front row.  Needless to say the game was off to a good start.  

This was my first trip to PNC and Pittsburgh.  If you have never been I urge you to go.  It's easily the nicest ballpark I have ever been to though I've only been to 15 or so.  As you can see on TV the view of downtown is obviously planned by the designers and they hit it dead on.  One notable thing they do is how at most parks the mascot and some cute girls will use slingshots or air guns to shoot T-Shirts into the crowd.  They did that but they also used a more non standard ammo,  hot dogs.  Now, I like a hot dog as much as the next guy but I don't know if an air fired hot dog that was fought over by sweaty dudes is my idea of a snack.  Plus you better fire some ketchup right afterwards ( With Heinz being based in pittsburgh I would think they could work that out).  

Both Cedeno and Murton got the start.  Cedeno is much more muscular in real life than he looks on TV and Murton has really thick legs.  Cedeno started off looking good and Murton looked cold until his HR and then got another single.  I don't know how Cedeno getting hit looked on TV but from right next to where they were examining him I didn't think he was going to stay in the game.  We'll see if it has any long lasting effects.  
The Zambrano injury looked less serious and I was a little surprised the trainers came out for so long.  I haven't yet seen a replay of it though.  

Overall Pittsburgh as a city gets a bad rap.  I was talking with a Pittsburgh resident during the game and she was the first to bring it up.  I thought of it as "dirty steel town" but the downtown area and everything around the ballpark was beautiful and I recommend booking tickets for next year or even this year if you don't mind not seeing the cubs.  I think there is enough there to warrant it.  

I listened to a ESPN radio interview with Todd Walker while at lunch that was very interesting.  They interviewed him mostly because he was being shopped around before the deadline but also went into a few other areas.  

One was on the subject of Chad Hutchinson (Who is Todd Walker's Brother-in-Law) and his release from the Bears.  Walker said it was the right decision on Lovie Smith's part because once a player gets booed like he was in his 2 starting preseason games you can't recover from it in Chicago.  Walker cited that he has seen it happen a couple times and gave Hawkins as a specific example.

Is that a true statement.  Can Dusty or Corey Patterson ever really recover from the criticism in Chicago they have received?  Is the criticism adding to the problem and thus making it even less likely we will see a recovery?  

Also Walker was asked if he thought Nomar would be back next year.  Walker said no pretty much but he did throw in the caveat (pseudo quote)"unless he wants to take a large pay cut"
Walker really made it sound like there was no chance Nomar would be back though.  

Lastly he did mention that the cubs have a fantasy football league and the draft is tonight.  DLee has the first pick and Walker was second.  He also said Barrett and Wood were in it.  It's kind of a reality check that baseball players have a fantasy football league :)

The cubs have been kind of quiet with news on Pie's injury.  He was originally placed on the 7 day DL and is in his 2nd month being out of games.  Seeing how he is the Cubs top prospect I'm a little worried that they haven't been more forthcoming with information.  Is this because of the recent trade deadline?  

Has anyone heard any more detailed news than this?

OF - Felix Pie sprained ankle on 06/16/05; Placed on 7 day DL on 06/21/05;
Diagnosed with bone bruise during rehab and is still not 100%;Still a week away