@Randem

Michael Vick received a 23-month prison sentence today for his part in the dogfighting conspiracy. He will also get 3 years of probation upon his release, scheduled for October 2009.

Who knows… he’s still young enough to come back from this sentence and possibly play again in the NFL. Other pro football players have served sentences and returned to the starting lineup.

Oh, if only we could have gotten similar swift justice for Barry Bonds. Had justice been served promptly in his case, he’d have never gotten his name tied to a record he didn’t deserve.

If Barry Bonds served time — even only a year — he’d come out 40 pounds lighter due to the inability to find quality steroids and HGH in prison, and even if he returned to baseball (what is he now, 50 years old?) he’d never be able to crush a ball into the river.

Rumor has it that the White Sox are considering trading third-baseman Joe Crede to the Yankees for outfielder Johnny Damon. The Chicagoist seems to think it’s not only likely, but a good idea:

This trade seems to make a lot of sense for both teams. While Crede hit 30 home runs for the Sox in 2006, he missed most of ‘07, so Josh Fields filled in and proved he’s too good to keep down in the minors any longer. That make Crede expendable. And the Yankees need a third baseman now that Alex Rodriguez has opted out of his contract.

Meanwhile, the Sox are desperate for both a center fielder and a leadoff hitter — both rolls that Damon can fill. The Yankees have Melkey Carbrera waiting in the wings.

I proudly wore my Cubs jersey in public today. And I accessorized it will a lovely brown bag.

Some people will blame Piniella for pulling Zambrano too early in game 1, but I think that’s misplaced. The reason they’re saying that is because Marmol gift wrapped two runs, and if Zambrano hadn’t been pulled, Marmol wouldn’t have been in there. But let’s be realistic - Marmol had an unreal ERA for most of the year, and he decided to fall apart at the end.

But the real choke happened in game two. After Lilly’s meltdown on the mound, the message was sent. The team deflated right on the spot. It was reminiscent of the deflation they dealt themselves after the Bartman incident, only this time there was no fan to be a, ahem, scapegoat. They can only blame themselves.

Still, there’s reason to have heart. Lou Piniella came to Chicago and took a team that finished the previous season in last place to the playoffs. Another year or two with him at the helm should be long enough for the team to build that bond that carries a team to a championship.

So repeat after me, Chicago. “Oh well. Maybe next year.”

I’d like to thank Clay Eals, for emailing me in response to this weekend’s Go, Cubs, Go post. Clay recently had a book published about Steve Goodman, and he goes into some detail about the origin of “Go, Cubs, Go” and “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request”.

You can get more info on his web site: www.clayeals.com

The Lovable Losers have been doing a lot of winning this year, and Cubs fans have been hearing “Go, Cubs, Go” to their hearts’ content. There is a little bit of history behind the song that I find interesting.

“Go, Cubs, Go” was written by Chicago folk legend Steve Goodman — two-time Grammy winner, and perhaps most well-known for his song “City of New Orleans”.

Goodman was a die-hard Cubs fan. Literally. He was born after the Curse of the Billy Goat, and died of leukemia at the age of 36. The Cubs never played a single playoff game in his entire lifetime.

But in 1984, they were playoff-bound, and Goodman was asked to sing the national anthem for their first post-season game. He never got to see it. Goodman died eleven days earlier, and Jimmy Buffett filled in, dedicating the song to Goodman.

Now, I will always think of Goodman when I hear his song sung after a Cubs victory. He was a real die-hard fan. And some of his ashes were scattered at Wrigley Field.

Baseball season’s underway
Well you better get ready for a brand new day
Hey, Chicago, what do you say
The Cubs are gonna win today.
They’re singing …
Go, Cubs, go
Go, Cubs, go
Hey, Chicago, what do you say
The Cubs are gonna win today
Go, Cubs, go
Go, Cubs, go
Hey, Chicago, what do you say
The Cubs are gonna win today.
They got the power, they got the speed
To be the best in the National League
Well this is the year and the Cubs are real
So come on down to Wrigley Field.
We’re singing now …
Go, Cubs, go
Go, Cubs, go
Hey, Chicago, what do you say
The Cubs are gonna win today
Go, Cubs, go
Go, Cubs, go
Hey, Chicago, what do you say
The Cubs are gonna win today.
Baseball time is here again
You can catch it all on WGN
So stamp your feet and clap your hands
Chicago Cubs got the greatest fans.
You’re singing now …
Go, Cubs, go
Go, Cubs, go
Hey, Chicago, what do you say
The Cubs are gonna win today
Go, Cubs, go
Go, Cubs, go
Hey, Chicago, what do you say
The Cubs are gonna win today.

With a 3.5 game lead and only 6 games left to play, the Chicago Cubs would have to have a meltdown of chaotic proportions to lose their division. Not that it isn’t possible…

Popular opinion among Cubs fans — myself included — is that they’re always great, or at least close to it, so it might come as a surprise (it did to me) that this will be only the fourth time that the Cubs finish in first place since the Billy Goat curse in 1945.

From 1876-1945, the Cubs were one of the dominant franchises in baseball. During that period of 69 years they posted an incredible 51 winning seasons, finishing in first place 16 times, appearing in 10 World Series and winning two of them.

That was before October 6, 1945. Game four of the World Series against the Tigers, and the Cubs led the series 2-1. “Billy Goat” Sianis bought two tickets to the game, one for him and one for his pet goat, Murphy. Wrigley denied the goat entrance and Sianis cursed the team.

In the 61 years since the Curse of the Billy Goat, they have had only 15 winning seasons, and finished in first place only 3 times. They have neither won nor even appeared in the World Series. They haven’t even won a Pennant.

This year, they’re staring at first place. The bullpen is looking good and the big bats have finally woken up. And with Lou Piniella at the helm, the team occasionally even looks like they know what they’re doing.

Over the years, the Sianis family has claimed the curse lifted. Will this be their year?

As much as Barry Bonds sickens me, I’m glad he finally broke the record. Not because I’m happy for him, but because I finally don’t have to hear about him any more. To quote Phil Rogers at ESPN.com,

After a 30-day stretch in which a .279 hitter on a last-place team has dominated the headlines in baseball — that is, from the time that Barry Bonds spent an hour in front of reporters on the eve of the All-Star Game until Tuesday night, after a home run that set out the jubilant celebration that extended from AT&T Park almost all the way to Alcatraz — the focus shifts back to simpler pursuits.

So it’s official. Every facet of the great American pass time has been tainted. There is no sacred ground left. Now I just feel bad for the handful of decent men who tried to preserve the integrity of the sport — guys like Ken Griffey Jr., who is only 11 homers away from 600. His mark — heroic in my mind — will never hit the radar in a world dominated by the juice, the cream, and the clear.

I really don’t have anything new to add to what’s already been said, but unlike everyone else who’s sidestepping the reality I’m going to say the sad truth: I hope he does set a new home run record.

That’s right. Not because I’m a fan of Barry Bonds — I’m not — but I think there’s only one thing that would bring completion to this miserable monstrosity that somehow gets referred to as major league baseball. Watching Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds set home run records with the help of steroids is a sad thing, but let’s not forget that the single season homerun record was broken by two guys that year: Mark McGwire on steroids and Sammy Sosa with a corked bat. And that’s the reality of baseball: Everybody’s cheating. Pitchers cheat, batters cheat, outfielders cheat.

Nothing is sacred in MLB, and it all starts with ownership that allows one club to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on talent while another club can’t afford one million. If McGwire, or Bonds, or Palmeiro is putting asses in the stands, the ownership doesn’t care how he’s doing it. In fact, they’re going to do whatever they can to prevent him from getting caught.

So I hope Bonds breaks Babe Ruth’s record, and then goes on to break Hank Aaron’s record too. Then, finally, we can say there is nothing left in the sport to remind us of the days when it was America’s passtime. Maybe if Bonds set a new record it would incense the fans enough to make the commission finally clean up the sport.

Maybe. But here’s what I think: Major League Baseball continues to make money hand over fist, and Barry Bonds hitting baseballs so hard that people in canoes are fighting for a chance to catch one outside the park… all that does is make it more exciting. Sammy Sosa corked his bat and the fans loved him for it. Oh, and no man has 22-inch forearms without a little juice — people love to talk about McGwire’s muscular development and only an idiot would believe it was all natural.

If Barry Bonds broke the record, nothing would be done about it. Nothing will ever be done about it. I hope it happens because only then will the hypocrites stop running their mouths. When the freak of nature gets within two or three hits of that record, tickets will sell of ridiculously high prices and people will line up for miles to buy them.

Yes, I hope he does it, because then we’ll all see the hypocrites for what they are.

About a week ago, I commented on the role that The Daily Show has taken up in the present day news landscape. A few days later, Bob Costas appeared as Jon Stewart’s guess on the show. At the mention of steroids, Costas had this to say:

Everyone talks about Bonds, whatever, but to me, the most interesting guy in the midst of all this is Rafael Palmeiro of the Orioles: recently passed 3000 hits; closing in on 600 homers; seems to be a good guy; emphatically denied any steroid use and I accept that. But it’s interesting while he denies using performance enhancing drugs, he is the national spokesman for Viagra. So I don’t say that one necessarily connects to the other, but I will say this: for the past few years this guy’s been getting good wood on everything.

This morning on the ride in to work I heard it on NPR, and now I see in the Washington Post, that Palmeiro has been suspended for using what a well-placed industry source calls “a serious steroid.”

People are watching The Daily Show, and I have a feeling some of them are pretty important people. A few weeks ago, the Broward Art Guild fired their executive director after appearing in a Daily Show bit. Now Palmeiro is suspended for steroid use within days of these comments about him airing on The Daily Show.