***

My Cubs are in first place. Not just in their division, not just in the National League, but after last night's victory over the Rockies, they have the best record in baseball. How long will it last? I dunno. But I'm enjoying it...

This is a team with a few holes, but then again, what team doesn't have holes? The Cubs' holes aren't of the "drive a truck through them" type...they could upgrade CF but with Reed Johnson, they aren't awful there. There's still hope for Jim Edmonds, and there's still hope for young Felix Pie (pronounced Pee-yay), who is in the minors trying to make adjustments to his approach at the plate. Their rotation has some question marks, but again, they aren't the huge questions that many other teams have at the bottom of their rotations. The Cubs still have Rich Hill in the minors (though I'm told he's hurt at the moment), and among Jason Marquis, Sean Gallagher, and Jon Lieber, the four and five starters should be adequate. I'd prefer a top of the rotation guy, but those guys aren't growing on trees this year.

Kosuke Fukudome has been as good as advertised in all aspects of the game except for maybe his power numbers. I'll take the solid OBP and the very good defense any day. Rookie catcher Geovanny Soto has not tailed off since his hot September of 07. Lee and Ramirez have been good enough, if not as good as in past years. And Soriano - well, we just gotta live with his downs, since his ups are so spectacular at times.

Things look to be moving in the right direction on the north side of Chicago. Maybe a playoff appearance, maybe even...dare I say it? A World Series appearance?

Shhhh...I didn't just jinx them, did I?

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Meanwhile, in my other favorite sport, the Bulls have had the number one pick in the Michael Beasley/Derrick Rose sweepstakes. Their chances of getting the pick were somewhere between slim and none. A 1.7% chance of landing in the top spot came to fruition, and John Paxson has to make the right choice. Is it the big guy who can score down low and will cause matchup problems? Or is it the big point guard with extraordinary court vision and leadership skills? It would seem that either choice, with the right moves in other areas, would be a step in the right direction. Right now, the discussion centers on which Bulls players to try to trade. Most are hoping that Kirk Hinrich goes the way of many other mistakes by management, but some don't really see him as a mistake. I imagine it will be Ben Gordon who goes, since he wants to be a starter and wants big money but really only does one thing well - score. (Admittedly that's a big thing, but he's still a limited player who doesn't play defense great and doesn't handle the ball all that great, and who isn't big enough to play against off guards in the NBA night after night...he's a wonderful 6th man ala Vinnie "Microwave" Johnson of the old Detroit Pistons, in my opinion.)

****

I won't even touch on health care, politics, racial issues, or drug policy. (Not that I have spent very many journal entries on any of these except health care.)

*****

Reading Laura Lippman's ANOTHER THING TO FALL. While it's quite good, I think it falls short of her best. I may review it more completely later on, but at this point I think I'll just say that while I'm enjoying it, I enjoyed her last one more...that isn't a bad thing, because I really LOVED that one...

*****

Sun is coming out, but I think we're going to get another round of storms coming through before the day is over.

*****

Have a great weekend. Six more days till we leave for Disney...