Anybody received a refund yet?  I emailed the Cubs on October 6 to ask when we would be refunded and they emailed me back with this

Refunds will be credited to the purchase card in the near future.

 

Cubs Ticket Office

Well, I still have not received a refund and it's been two weeks since that reply.  I just emailed them again tonight with this message:

Apparantly we have different ideas of what "near future" refers to as I have still not yet received a refund for my two tickets.  Can you give me a specific date that my card will be credited?  Thanks.

So I'm wondering if anyone else who bought tickets has been refunded yet... Bueller?  I'll keep you posted if/when I get an email back from the Cubs or my refund.

With Soriano out anywhere from 4 weeks to 10 weeks (really Eric Young?, I think you're flat wrong), the Cubs are in need of a left fielder.  Lou's been wracking his brain trying to find a lefty with some pop.

 

What about Jay Gibbons?  After being named in the Mitchell Report, Jay Gibbons was released by the Orioles and since, seems to have done just about everything he can to atone for his errors .

 

Gibbons apparantly will be joining a team in the independent Atlantic Division.  In that same article, it says that Gibbons "agreed to a Major League Baseball-imposed suspension" so that would of course be an issue.  I'm not sure how long the suspension was for and if it were for any great length of time, it would certainly negate the reason for signing him.  My guess is though that the Cubs could sign him for the pro-rated league minimum.

 

Here are his stats from Baseball Reference .

 

Disclaimer:  I'm not sure exactly how I would feel about signing a known PED user, but I feel like the whole thing has humbled him and I'm generally for giving people second chances if they've shown themselves worthy of a second chance which I think he's done.

So someone smarter than me will have to get a screenshot of the page, but right now on ESPN's homepage, they have as a headline, "Cubs Lose Big Z".

 

The actual article says that he left the game with an arm cramp and that he shouldn't miss a start.  So... the Cubs haven't actually "lost" Zambrano.  Thanks ESPN, the headline worked, it made me read the article.

 

On a separate note, Carlos, drink some friggin' water please.

I happened to come across this article today on Yahoo about Dusty Baker and the Cincinnati Reds.

I think it's kind of funny how some things change (Dusty from the Cubs to the Reds) and some things stay the same (Dusty preferring a known, Norris Hopper, over a rookie, Jay Bruce).  Now, someone else with more time can probably list the reasons why this is crazy.

Then we have these two gems from the article.

"Who says they need to be eased in?" Baker said. "I wasn't eased in. Junior wasn't eased in. A whole bunch of guys weren't eased in. A lot of it has to do with need." "But what if you say, `Go play, kid,' and he's not ready to play winning baseball? Is it OK to overlook that? I don't know."

So with all that what do you think the over/under is for Bruce, Votto, Cueto, and Bailey?