Chicago Cubs

According to an Associated Press article on espn.com, Cubs skipper Lou Piniella admits to getting "teary-eyed" over his return to Seattle.

But what he should be shedding tears over is the play of his ballclub!

"Lou Piniella heard the roar from the Seattle crowd. He smiled and raised his right arm to wave to the people he helped thrill during the city's baseball heyday in the 1990s," the report said.

But look, Lou, it's no longer the 1990s and you are no longer managing the Mariners.

It's the start of the summer solstice, so it's getting hot. OK...not that kind of "hot", but...well, I admit it — the pic is just a gratuitous photo to get your attention.

But it is June 21, and the Chicago Cubs sit seven games behind the division leading Cardinals, in third place at 31-38. It's no longer early, and it's no longer too soon to panic.

Now before we get caught up in unrealistic proposals here, let me start by saying that Alfonso Soriano is going nowhere.

The 2010 Cubs are a team I think of as being full of geezers, with Marlon Byrd, Mike Fontinot, Ryan Theriot, Kosuke Fukodome, Xavier Nady, Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, Derrek Lee, Ted Lilly, Ryan Dempster and Carlos Silva all over 30.  However, the Cubs have been quietly slipping a number of promising rookies into the mix this year.

Later this week we will hopefully see the return of Aramis Ramirez . It's been a rough year for fantasy owners, having to either drop the All-Star third baseman or painfully hold on and possibly waste a DL spot. Somehow I've ended up with Aramis two years in a row and I literally punch a wall overtime I see an article about how his poor thumb hurts him.

Get a freaking Band-Aid!

THE GOOD

Alfonso Soriano plays left field for the moribund Chicago Cubs. He is batting .267, with 10 home runs, 34 RBIs, and has stolen foures bases. In 2009, he hit .241.

At the age of 34, it is safe to say that Mr. Soriano will not have the career Derek Jeter predicted for him.

In 2001, Soriano hit the home run off Curt Schilling that was supposed to bring the New York Yankees' fans their fourth consecutive World Championship. It would have been the third time sports greatest dynasty accomplished the feat, but it never happened.

As a lifelong Cubs fan, I am used to watching failure.

From the infamous Bartman ball, to being swept out of the playoffs by the Dodgers in 2008, inability to win games has been a hallmark of Chicago Cubs baseball.

This season, however, has been even more difficult to watch than usual due to the slew of mental errors and unforced mistakes.

Today, for instance, when Ted Lilly threw a double play ball on a routine grounder in to left center field.

This current Chicago Cubs team has shown the unremarkable ability to lose in many different ways, most often due to a lack of so-called clutch hitting.

And yes, this team has certainly had its share of bullpen issues along the way, just to add insult to injury.

But one thing has remained constant throughout the Jim Hendry era: a lack of fundamental baseball.

Remember when we blamed Dusty Baker for a lack of attention to fundamentals as his teams kicked around the ball and couldn't ever seem to do the little things that win games?

The first two games of the 2010 College World Series will be played this Saturday.

For Cubs fans, however, the first game of importance might come Sunday night when the Clemson Tigers face off against the Arizona State Sun Devils.

That game, which will be aired on ESPN at 7pm Eastern Time, will feature the Cubs' 29th round draft pick Casey Harman. The left-handed ace of the Clemson pitching staff this year, he put together a 7-2 record with an ERA of 3.95, a .239 opponent batting average, 7.71 K/9, and 2.78 BB/9.

No matter how bad the product was on the field, people flooded to Wrigley Field to see...well...the field.

It brought baseball fans to what seemed like a different decade or even a different century to see a day game with an organ playing and no flashy scoreboard or advertisements to divert the eyes of those of whom have no attention span.

Granted, the crowd still has cell phones to do that, but the field itself would have no part in helping take away from the experience of the old generation of baseball.

BOISE—Despite the uncooperative actions of the Treasure Valley weather gods, summer is among us and the 2010 Northwest League season is just two days away.  Media Day has come and gone from Memorial Stadium, marking the return of the Boise Hawks and the renewal of minor league relationships.