Guy with cancer goes to the doctor, he's told he's cancer free. Get's home and sees a twitter from a pitcher on his team that the pitcher wants someone to throw with. Dude goes to Coors field, gets in, get's to throw with the guy, do batting practice, and it's all been good from there.

Nice to see.

Boy, did we ever dodge a bullet there.

Yesterday, Justine Siegal walked on Practice Field No. 2 and became what was believed to be the first woman to throw batting practice to a major league team.

I'm sure Jessica knows about this already, but it's kind of cool looking.

We spend so much time laughing at a player who isn't on the Cubs, I figure we should spend some time on him when he plays well. 3-run HR to win the game, a double, and, apparently, some good defensive plays.

Lookit what I just won on the Ebay! :D

Looks like the previously published article didn't include everything that Ernie said:

Ernie Banks doesn't know if Sammy Sosa used steroids to eclipse the legendary Cub's franchise home-run record -- and Banks doesn't care.

''It wouldn't bother me,'' said Banks, whose 521 home runs rank second in Cubs history to Sosa's 545 (of 609 total). ''Whatever he did, just be honest about it. I like him a lot; he's wonderful. And I'm not accusing him of anything.''

[...]

''I don't know what he did or didn't do. But I know he hit the home runs. It doesn't bother me at all [whether steroids were involved]. But he hit the home runs for the Cubs. He created a lot of attention and great PR for the Cubs.

''I'm not saying he did no steroids. I don't know about any of that. I know there's been a lot of accusations with him and steroids. But I have no proof of that. I'm not the commissioner. All I know is I like him, and he's a wonderful player, and he hit 60 home runs three years for the Cubs. I don't care about any of this other stuff. It's totally different now than when I played.''

That COMPLETELY changes the tenor of his remarks as previously discussed.

The article is very short, but basically it says that the media has jumped the gun in assuming that the Mesa bid is definitely being taken; and that Crist has talked to Rickets and been told that no decision has been made. Could be something real, could be more posturing. FWIW, the report this blog pulls from was posted around 6:30 pm today, so it's not like it's from the day before yesterday or anything. Also, there's no way to tell if Crist & Co are wearing Wood jerseys or not.

"Everybody juiced in some way," Lee said. "You had a rough night so you take a few greenies. That was tough playing in those days. These (players have access to) designer drugs like the East Germans were using a long time before.

"The object of life is to try and live longer, be healthier. Ponce de Leon was looking for the Fountain of Youth. If you told me there was a magic bullet, I'd be knocking over old folks homes so I can pitch for one more year. Every kid's a little bit bigger. It is out there in our society.

"To single out ballplayers and BALCO for putting a little Clear on the back of your tongue to make you heal faster from injuries ... hell, how many times did I get injected? At the end of the '74 season I couldn't get out of bed because my kidneys shut down. That's what the team put me on."

While there has been a lot of finger pointing at Tom Ricketts for the Cubs lackluster offseason, behind the scenes Ricketts has been very busy refinancing the $250 million his family borrowed from three banks to buy the Chicago Cubs. Eddie Baeb explains in Crain’s Chicago Business that he is trying to give the team flexibility despite the heavy debt load:

and

Next there was this little bombshell:

The team, now interviewing candidates for the new position of chief financial officer, still intends to raise additional money, upward of $100 million, by selling "investor notes" to wealthy individuals, the spokesman says. That money would go to pay for capital projects, he says.

So the Cubs are trying to sell $100 million in financial notes to pay for the upgrades to the ballpark. This is worth keeping an eye on as we move forward.

A 17-year-old female pitcher in Japan made history by making her professional baseball debut on Friday . Some baseball pundits have questioned whether her joining a team in the first place was a publicity stunt, while others wonder if the pitcher's mound is a safe place for a teenage girl.

"I chose Chicago as a free agent because I wanted to be part of finally bringing a championship to Cubs' fans. I expected to have a great season and I am deeply disappointed by my performance and the team's struggles. I played every game with everything I had and wanted desperately to win. My frustration and disappointment boiled over and I said and did certain things that I regret. In hindsight I wish that I handled certain things differently and I apologize for those things that did not work out for the better.

"The air has been cleared and we all want to move on and look forward to better days."

Frankly, I still want him back. We'll see what happens.

DeRosa
.244/.313/.425 for an OPS of 738. His OPS-plus is 93 and his BABIP is .273. With the Cards, DeRo has 8 homers and 19 RBI.

Baker
.328/.383/.500 for an OPS of .883. His OPS-plus is 126, and his BABIP is .420, which suggests a lot of hits are falling in and a lot of grounders are finding holes. He’s got 3 homers and 13 RBI for the Cubs.

If you’re into Weighted On-Base Average, or wOBA, which uses linear weights as each type of hit has a different value, DeRosa’s wOBA for the season combined is .336. Last year with the Cubs, the wOBA was .376.

Baker has a combined wOBA between the Rox and Cubs of .353.

Eli Greenspan says "no", because a deal would cost $50-60 mill over 4 years.