Hire Jim Essian

We podcasted this week. Well, Dolan and I did. Because we thought Warren was gone. I also vanished from the podcast for two stretches, so you just get Dolan for a while. If that doesn't have you slathering at the mouth to watch this week's episode, I don't know what will.

The Muskbox is back just in time for. Well, for whatever. To celebrate Anthony Rizzo's new (excellent) contract? Nah. To celebrate the return of the podcast? Nope. I'll just let Carrie explain what we're celebrating in this week's Muskbox.

Cancer fucking sucks. Everyone has been touched by it at some point. It's a horrible disease, and I wish more people were willing to fund cancer research than boner pills. But they're not, so cancer continues to kill people we love. I've never had it, and I don't want to trivialize the contributions of the people who help cancer survivors through their ordeals, but I'd be really fucking pissed if I were Anthony Rizzo's cancer doctors and read his mom getting all the credit for him beating cancer by walking 3.2 miles. The media is weird.

Over the weekend, I took a spur-of-the-moment trip to Canada to visit Niagara Falls. Along the way, we spent a night in Toronto to visit the Rogers Centre and go up high in a giant needle. I was lucky(?) enough to see two beloved former Cubs play for the Blue Jays. Henry Blanco started for the Jays, and Mark DeRosa had a late-inning at-bat. Presumably because the game was already out of hand and the hot bartenders at Jack Astor's Front Street were busy serving Canadian beer to rowdy Jays fans.

In less (fewer?) than four hours, I'll be on the road for the Country that Always Sleeps. Thanks for the tips yesterday. I will take them and use them in the brief time I have in Toronto. I have to call Verizon and see if it's going to cost me 69 (tee-hee!) cents a minute to live tweet from Saturday's game. I love you all, but you're not worth $.69/min.

If there's one terrible thing about having to watch Comcast Sports Net and WGN to see Cubs games, it's the fact that the Cubs share TV time with the White Sox. Therefore, every time they run a TV promo of two of the most exciting moments in recent (2005 DIDN'T FUCKING HAPPEN) White Sox history, I have no choice ... Read More

I haven't intentionally read a Steve Rosenbloom article ever. But after inadvertently reading the lede of his latest succinctly-titled article, "Losing to the Pirates shows how much better the Cubs pitching needs to be," I couldn't resist. I didn�t expect the Cubs to win 90 games this season, but I sure didn�t expect them to blow a series to the ... Read More

Kosuke Fukudome isn't going to be around forever. Definitely not next year, and possibly not even by the end of this year. Jim Frey, on the other hand, is eternal, making me tempted to ROCK THE BOAT. So, what say you of today? Do you like change or fear it? VS. New Friday Old Friday ... Read More

If you signed up for Neifiball, check your e-mail. (1) I'm shocked how many people actually have Yahoo e-mail addresses. Is it 2001? (2) I can't tell if two of the "I'm ins" in the comments were sarcastic or not. If they weren't, we have 10 players and four dummy teams, which is perfect. ... Read More