Hire Jim Essian

Imagine my surprise when I came into work this morning to find an envelope with my (misspelled) name hastily scrawled across a nondescript yellow padded envelope with the return address reading only "IGH." My first thought was, "Could it be? Has the IGH Guy finally tracked me down? Is it finally, indeed, gonna happen?" My next ... Read More

Thanks to Reed Johnson's stunning pinch-hit home run yesterday (which still ranks behind this game as his most stunning home run), the Cubs moved to 22 games over the .500 for the first time since nineteen eighty nine. Courtesy of Wikipedia, here are some interesting things that were going on in the world the last time the Cubs reached these heights: George ... Read More

Remember way back to September 1, 2003, when the Cubs started that five-game series in Wrigley Field against the first-place Cardinals, and ended up mauling them and passing them in the standings? Antonio Alfonseca also got suspended for being so fat that he couldn't get his belly out of the way of umpire Justin Klemm. That series was ... Read More

Okay, what the hell was that? Other than the first game of the four-game set with the Brewers, that series was easier than convincing Stevie Eyre to take just one more bite. Remember how the Brewers fans and even most of the writers in Chicago were saying we'd be "lucky" to get out of Milwaukee with our one-game ... Read More

A quick scan of baseball-reference tells me that these are the seasons, since 1945, in which the Cubs were in first place in their league or division on August first: 1969 1977 1984 2001 2007 Yeah. That didn't take long. Among those teams, the '69 Cubs had the biggest lead on the month's first day (6 1/2 games), and we all know what happened there. ... Read More