I would like to see lots of Cubs fans traveling to Arizona or San Diego next week if Cubs happen to face Diamondbacks or Padres for the National League Division Series. Although the matchups have not been determined yet.

For your information, the Diamondbacks announced that the NLDS Games at Chase Field will go on sale  later today on Saturday Sept. 29th at 9:00 AM Mountain Time Zone. You can purchase tickets at dbacks.com, losdbacks.com, or by calling (602) 514-8400. It appears more likely that the Diamondbacks will host NLDS against Cubs at Chase Field on Oct 3 & 4 with game time to be determined later. Single-game tickets prices range from $15 for outfield reserve to $185 for clubhouse box seats.

As for San Diego Padres, they announced that the NLDS tickets will go on sale later today on Saturday, Sept. 29th at 9:00 AM Pacific Time Zone. The tickets can be purchased at padres.com, padresbeisbol.com, or by calling at 1-877-FRAIR TIX. The NLDS Pricing at Petco Park are from $35 outfield reserve to $75 Premier Club. If the Padres win NL West and happen to face the Cubs, the games will be played at Petco Park on Oct. 3-4 at game times to be determined later.

Good luck to all of you to try purchase NLDS tickets for Arizona and/or San Diego if the Cubs will face either DBacks or Padres next week. GO CUBS!!!!!

Julius

As Cubs expected, they took Jeff Samardzija with their second pick in the 5th round (149th overall). He is two-sport star at Notre Dame in football and baseball. He was named 1st team All-America team in college football last season in his position - Wide Receiver.

He has promised football coach Charlie Weis that he will be back for the football in the fall with Notre Dame for his senior season. He's a right-handed pitcher star for the Notre Dame baseball.

The Cubs might spend first-round money on Samardzija what could be a back-loaded deal that would allow him to play football this fall, a commitment he has desired.

Hopefully; the Chicago Bears would draft Samardzija in next year's NFL Draft in the first round, so it would be easier for him to stay in same city and become two-sport star with the Bears and Cubs.

Here's is Samardzija's profile at http://und.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/samardzija_jeff00.html

My friends and I have conflict plans and unable to attend Dodgers/Cubs game on Wednesday August 31st.

The seats are located in Section 239, Row 21, Seats 101-104. The game starts at 1:20 PM.

$25.00 each. I'd really like it sell all 4 together or 2 and 2.

Anyone interested, please privately e-mail me at julius@glborchert.com.

Thank you!

I will be going on vacation to Texas later this week to watch some Minor League baseball games in Texas including Fort Worth Cats and Frisco RoughRiders. I may go to Texas Rangers game in Arlington, TX this weekend. My father lives in Grapevine, TX where they aren't that far.

Some of you know that Fort Worth Cats' Manager Wayne Terwilliger is former Cub and he turned 80 years old last week on Monday. I will report on that Fort Worth cats game if you would like me to and I will describe more about Wayne Terwilliger. The Official website is www.fwcats.com.

The two-year old ballpark in Frisco called Dr.Pepper/7-Up ballpark is one of the best ballpark for the Minor League baseball. In 2003, it was named the new best Minor League Ballpark by  Baseball America. If anyone of you visit North Texas, I would recommend you go to Frisco RoughRiders game in Frisco, TX about 40 minutes north of Dallas. The RoughRiders is Rangers' affiliate of its Double-A in Texas League. The Official Website is www.ridersbaseball.com.

I know I will miss some Cubs game on TV this week. I hope the Cubs will finish on a better note before the All-Star Break with victories over Braves and Marlins.

Julius

I reside in Geneva, IL near St. Charles. I attend lots of Cougars games where they play their home games in Geneva. The Peoria Chiefs; the affiliate of the Cubs came to play against Cougars; the affiliate of the Oakland Athletics.

Last night on Fourth of July, the Cougars pounded Chiefs 21-2. The Cougars had season-high 26 hits and never stopped afterward. It was Cougars leading 15-0 after 6 innings. At the top of the 7th Inning, Ryan Harvey of the Chiefs hit solo home run.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

The Cougars' Tony Evans had retired 11 consecutive Chiefs batters until Harvey homered. Kane County scored 5 more runs in 8th inning, forcing the Chiefs to have third baseman Aaron Smith to take the mound asa pitcher.

It was Cougars' night. After the game, they had displayed beautiful 30 minutes of fireworks.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

It sounds like not very good 4th of July for the Cubs Organization because the Cubs lost again for its 5th consecutive loss to the Braves. Hopefully today is another new day.

Today's game for Chiefs/Cougars is slated at noon to conclude two-game series. Anyone of you among lives in Chicago, and might want to take look at Cubs' farm players for the Peoria Chiefs, feel free to drive to Geneva; which is about 45 minutes west of Chicago. There is only 2 1/2 hours left until noon, and it's never too late if you have chance to be online right now.

Julius

Many of you among BCB Readers might don't have any idea about Chicago Cubs Newsgroup on Internet. I would like to share with you about information for the newsgroup.

A newsgroup is a repository, usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users at different locations. The term is somewhat confusing, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on the World Wide Web.

It has over 100,000 different newsgroups; however about 20,000 are currently active. If you want to learn more about usenet newsgroup, feel free to visit this excellent information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet_newsgroup

The URL Address for the Chicago Cubs Newsgroup is at news:alt.sports.baseball.chicago-cubs OR news://alt.sports.baseball.chicago-cubs. (Copy this link and paste it on URL Location Bar on any web browser - Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, or Internet Explorer, etc.)

Either or both works on any Internet Service Providers (ISP) for the URL Address. But if you have AOL, it might not work with this URL Address.  In fact, the AOL has newsgroups. If you want to find newsgroup at AOL, I think you can go to Keyword and type "newsgroup" then it will bring up the screen for the newsgroups on AOL.

The Chicago Cubs newsgroup has excellent discussion sharing about Cubs baseball throughout the baseball season and off-season.

Al Yellon and many other BCB Readers are subscribed to the Cubs newsgroup. Feel free to join and subscribe Cubs newsgroup and enjoy read and post on any topics regarding the Cubs on the newsgroup.

Julius

Hi, my name is Julius Borchert. I already have four extra tickets for upcoming this Saturday's game against Red Sox. My friend has two tickets in the Club Box 22 in 5th row about couple rows behind the home plate. Those are great seats!

So I am helping my friend to sell on Internet like BCB, etc... However; for your info., will be selling for less than $300 for face value. The seats are Aisle 22, Row 5, Seats 107 & 108. There are lots of scouts sitting around that seating areas including radar gun.

If anyone of you are interested, please send me e-mail directly at julius@glborchert.com for more details and specific amount of dollars how much we are selling. Thank you very much!

Julius