stitchface

Brought in a rookie from the bullpen with the bases loaded up 3-2. Walked two straight batters. "you can't walk around the bases." - legendary ex-cubs manager in the "it's not just the cubs" category, the next batter popped out on the first pitch

Brought in a rookie from the bullpen with the bases loaded up 3-2. Walked two straight batters. "you can't walk around the bases." - legendary ex-cubs manager

CL draw has Juventus and Barcelona together. The world eagerly awaits the matchup between Dest and McKennie!

dudes going to lining up behind Leo horsefeathering Messi at the Camp Nou - wow. Imagine how surreal that moment you walk into training has to be.

or did they go to 3 at the back?

Gio and Richards (for Pavard) both on in Super Cup. Seems like a good game to watch - should have gone for that instead of cubs.

thanks Joyce! Kyle really laboring but six shutout innings.

welcome back Ian Happ

while not great, they are way better than the ones doing the oakland game yesterday.

I see we didn't get a top ump.

cubs led mlb in out percentage on ground balls - that's good!

I find myself cheering for the reds. Now to see if get ABC

Baseball can be so slow you can have it in the background and still get your work done, and not really miss out on much. nahh..."horsefeathers work" is a much better approach I never like paying bills anyway . . .

Bauer struts off . . . this is an unlikely 0-0 game.

Baseball can be so slow you can have it in the background and still get your work done, and not really miss out on much. Completely agreed. Except when I have 2 hours of back to back customer calls where I'm on video and I'm doing 90% of the talking like I have to tomorrow in the middle of the Cubs game ugh. Blame the dog barking when you have to mute suddenly.

yes, it is! Glad Koeman is the coach - to me, that lowers the risk significantly over a spanish coach.

"Dest is expected to slot immediately into the first team set up Barca, although sources at the club have called for patience. The deal is unlikely to be finalised in time for Thursday's trip to Celta Vigo but he could be on the squad for Sunday's game against Sevilla." right into the fire if he starts against sevilla.

First one isn't too bad considering home teams win 55% of the time over the last 145 years. Add that the cubs have a better record (and run differential) and 64% doesn't seem too out there. I suspect they are just going on game by game odds. The randomness of baseball makes those less than certain bets but they don't seem that unreasonable to me. Would you take the Cubs over the Dodgers at 3:1?

The last game you watched was a game that was being played opposite a Bears game? It was on the TV. Game was on the computer. Honestly, it was background fodder during non-commercials. But I believe the Bears game ended around the 6th inning. shouldn't really be an issue since football games are about 85% commercials.

It can't be different for attackers and defenders like it was last year. Really the referee can't judge intent that well but some are obvious. The ones I hate not called are the Sergio Ramos twist with his hands behind his back and it never gets called though he deliberately blocks the ball. Frankly, you should be far more pissed by how badly Spurs played against an absolutely pathetic Newcastle team. So make an intentional hand ball a direct free kick and an unintentional one indirect. If the ref isn’t sure, it’s indirect. You can still review PKs inside the box for intent and get a better sense than what happens live. You can still review goals also. But we can’t be giving PKs for player A kicking the ball of the foot of player B and the ball deflects up onto the arm of player C who is standing right there and has no time to react. It’s dumb. Nobody likes this rule. The players don’t like it. The managers don’t like it. The fans don’t like it. So if nobody likes it and everybody is in agreement that it’s dumb, why do we have it. And yes, Spurs should have been 2 or 3 to the good at that point and it shouldn’t have mattered. That's what I was saying, we have it because of the Liverpool play where the goal shouldn't have counted because it hit someone's arm so they made the rule last year about not allowing goals, which was unfair since it wasn't a foul on a defender. I have no objection to your plan. Otherwise players will start intentionally kicking balls into defender's arms - and they are good enough to do it.

In other news, what the hell happened to bayern? That's a shocking scoreline. Speaking of rules, one thing that should always always always be a foul and caution for me is grabbing an attacker from behind - it's ridiculous that backs grab an attacker's shoulder and pull them off balance but the attacker has to go down to get the call. I would also like to see harsher punishment from grabbing players from behind at midfield. Leicester's strategy to stop DeBruyne was to tackle him at midfield apparently.

Sounds like this is happening. Barca looks really good in the first half today. Lets see if they take the second half off like last year.

It can't be different for attackers and defenders like it was last year. Really the referee can't judge intent that well but some are obvious. The ones I hate not called are the Sergio Ramos twist with his hands behind his back and it never gets called though he deliberately blocks the ball. Frankly, you should be far more pissed by how badly Spurs played against an absolutely pathetic Newcastle team.

seems unlikely at this point but the Cubs and White Sox could have clinched their divisions on the same field on the same day. I guess you don't dogpile if you clinch by losing but would still have been an oddity. I doubt the benches clear - no one wants to be suspended for the playoffs. Umpires did good job yesterday - Renteria getting all worked up was ridiculous- even more so when they showed him getting similarly worked up when Anderson got drilled after his bat flip. I don't see anything wrong with Javy batting lefty against a guy throwing 50 mph - a similar farce. What should he do? Try to pop up? Hit it 500 feet? It's all so stupid. So glad Len and JD get it.

Nah, we are due for a random 10 run game where everyone feels like things are back on track, followed by scoring 2 runs total the rest of the weekend I really wish I could be more excited for this series. This is what its all about, division on the line for both teams, crosstown "rivalry", both teams getting ready for the playoffs. But I just don't feel excited about this team right now. Maybe its a character flaw that I cant enjoy this, but I know I'm not the only one feeling this way. the cubs are boring in addition to hapless. also, winning the division is almost meaningless anyway. This weekend is irrelevant - you just have to hope the hitters get their horsefeathers together and somehow stay hot for the playoffs.