Fan News

When the Chicago Cubs announced in March that on May 3, this Sunday, they will retire Ferguson Jenkins' No. 31, it made my day. Adding Greg Maddux to share the honor embodies the legendary words of Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, "It's a great day for baseball. Let's play two."

Ferguson Jenkins, the pride of Chatham, Ontario and the only Canadian member of the Baseball Hall of Fame is finally getting a long overdue honor of being immortalized in the friendly confines of Wrigley Field, home of some of his greatest accomplishments.

Who says there aren't any big series in May? Perhaps if you live in any other city in the world other than New York you may think that's true. Not here, not now, not ever.

I begrudgingly admit that the greatest rivalry in all sports is the New York Yankees vs. the Boston Red Sox. Nothing else comes close. There are those rivalries that are older, even some that have played more games against each other, but none of them have captured the passion nationwide as those rivals have.

Albert Pujols is quickly becoming one of the grestest hitters that the game has ever seen.

In his first eight full seasons in the MLB, he has put up gawdy numbers, that can't be matched.

Recently, Pujols surpassed the 1,000 RBI plateau, and is slowly creeping up the all-time home run list.

Pujols was drafted in the 13th round of the 1999 MLB Draft by St. louis.

Most of the players who made this list were probably not even drafted in your fantasy league. However, nearly all of them have probably been grabbed from your free agent pool by now.

Not all of these players will continue to rake in these stats for the entire season, but for now they deserve to be recognized for what they have accomplished in the young season.

Here are the 12 biggest fantasy hitting surprises for the month of April:

Inspired by Rob Abruzzese’s article:

MVP of the Month:

Face of the Franchise:  Luis Gonzalez
Manager: Bob Brenly

C - Damian Miller
1B - Mark Grace
2B - Tony Womack
3B - Matt Williams
SS - Jay Bell
OF - Luis Gonzalez
OF - Steve Finley
OF - Danny Bautista
DH - Chad Tracy
Bench: 1B/OF Conor Jackson, 2B Orlando Hudson, SS Stephen Drew, OF Eric Byrnes

It has often times been said that baseball is part of the fabric of America.

I'm not trying to pass quick judgement on Alex. But I will say this, if he DID tip Pitches off to opponents, then he has wiped his a*s with the fabric of America.

I hope that he didn't do it. We already know he did steroids, he's the highest paid baseball player that has ever walked, skipped, jumped, or crawled on the earth and some historians are already putting him ahead of the old greats like Honus Wagner as the best Shortstop in history.

Matt Holliday showed signs of life.  Billy Butler continued to rake. Matt Garza had the performance of the night.  Let’s look at these stories and all the rest from yesterday’s games.

Oakland vs. Texas

With the song "We Are Family" glaring from the speakers in Three Rivers Stadium, the Pirates defeated the Baltimore Orioles, 7-1, in Game Five of the 1979 World Series to extend the series. It would be two games later when the Pirates would go on to defeat the Orioles by winning the next two games in Baltimore.

Filed: April 30, 2009

Mike Fontenot and Aaron Miles turn two against the Marlins Thursday (Cubbie Nation/file)

Click here for the photo gallery of last night's game.

What did we expect?