The scene was set for more Cubs-Yankees drama. A national TV audience, a rare Sunday night game at Wrigley, big stars like John Cusack and…OK, Jim Belushi doesn’t count, and above all, the Cubs had a shot to make my “homer” two of three prediction come true.

Yesterday the boys rallied for Hee Seop, today they said let’s win one for Desipio! OK, maybe not.

The fact that I’d be forced to endure three hours of the Anti-Christ, Joe Morgan, only made the tension here at Balls World Headquarters that much more heightened. Over on CMT they were counting down the top 100 country songs of all-time (Glen Campbell even showed up to peform “Galveston” live on the show). The NBA Finals were airing on ABC at the same time. Thank god that TiVo was there to make sure that “The Wire” got recorded. Phew.

Before the game, I heard weird little Jesse Rogers interview Kerry Wood on the Score. Kerry said that he went to see Big Choi in the hospital last night and Hee Seop said, “I have headache. A lot.”

The ESPN hype machine followed Mark Prior around all weekend. Harold Reynolds invaded his bullpen session on Friday and before the game tonight they had him show how he throws his three main pitches. Over on ESPN 4 they showed Mark getting a hernia check. That seemed a little excessive.

ESPNClassic ran Cubs and Yankees stuff all day. There’s no actual footage of any of the first eight games in the series (that could be because they happened in 1932 and 1938–just a hunch), so why didn’t they just show yesterday’s game over and over?

Anyway, the rubber game in the series, which most importantly would keep the Cubs ahead of the wretched Cardinals, featured Prior against Andy Pettitte. So let’s get to it.

– In the first inning, Jon Miller asked the Anti-Christ about how the shadows would affect the game. Morgan used the telestrator to circle the batter’s eye in center field. He said, “The good news is that this isn’t shiny. It’s grass.” Miller said, “Uh, Joe. In Chicago they call it ivy.” It’s actually some sort of evergreen, but whatever.

– Prior gave up a cheesy pop fly double to left center that Moises Alou loped after. He then absolutely blew away Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi and Robin Ventura. It was Mark’s way of subtly telling the Yankees, “Remember how much yesterday sucked? Today will be worse.”

– The Anti-Christ called Mark Grudzielanek a “journeyman.” Three teams in 12 years isn’t a journeyman. I think Joe played for three teams, didn’t he? Just another piece o’crap journeyman Hall of Famer, I guess.

– The Anti-Christ also bragged about Jeter’s arm at shortstop. Guh. Don’t these guys ever “watch” the games? Between Stone getting giddy about the range that’s just not there, Morgan’s pretending Jeter’s got a long hose. Wait, there’s another Mariah Carey joke in here someplace…

– Andy Pettitte brought nothing with him to the mound. If not for a freak line drive to first base double play, he’d have gotten incredibly rocked in the first inning. As it was, Corey singled back through the box, Sammy walked and Moises atoned for dogging it in the top of the inning by jacking one well onto Waveland for a 3-0 lead. Drive home safely!

– Corey’s up over .320 now and you just know most people are waiting for his slump. I’ve got news for you, it’s not coming. Corey’s good. Get used to it.

– Did you see Moises do the Sosa hop on the homer? It’s contagious. Let’s just hope Sammy gets to break it out for real, soon.

– The Anti-Christ pulled a Harry Caray and called Eric Karros, Alex Karras. How much does Joe make?

– In the bottom of the second, Ramon Martinez sent the message that Pettitte was throwing BP. Ramon didn’t get all of the pitch and still jacked one out to left. In the dugout we got to see that Juan Cruz left his hairline in town for Ramon. Yikes.

– ESPN showed Ernie Banks and Ryne Sandberg sitting next to each other in the stands. The Anti-Christ said, incredibly, “A lot of people forget that Ernie Banks was a shortstop.” Who forgets that? Why would anyone possibly forget that Ernie hit 40 homers two straight years at shortstop, back when shortstops were lucky to hit three or four in a season? Who would forget that Ernie was an MVP TWICE at shortstop?

– How’d you like to have been a fly on the wall to hear Ernie and Ryne’s conversation during the game?
Ernie: I hear your first wife screwed all of the Latin guys on the team.
Ryne: Yeah, but I heard your first wife took all your money and sold all of your memorabilia.

– ESPN had some lame poll about which 25-year old (or younger) player is most likely to get to the Hall of Fame. Not only is it pointless, but the Anti-Christ said, “When Albert Pujols was a rookie it was like he was a 10-year vet.” Yeah, maybe that’s because, like most 10 year vets, Pujols was 32 years old.

– Alex Gonzalez doubled in a run and the best part was the Jungle Juan Rivera actually swung on the vines in left field. Remember when Julio Zuleta got lost in the ivy a couple years ago? That was Juan on that ball.

– Andy Pettitte’s line 1.2 innings pitched, SIX earnies. Ouch.

– How great is that commercial with Don Nelson, Dirk Nowtizki and Steve Nash? Nelson is talking to Nowitzki in German and then turns to Nash (who’s Canadian) and to show he’s a well-rounded guy, Nellie says, “Hey Nashie, how about hustling it up, eh? You hoser!” I love that.

– Corey greets new pitcher Jeff Weaver with a triple down the right field line. Corey was literally flying around the bases.

– In the top of the third, Giambi hits one into Joe’s grass. I can’t wait for Giambi to leave town. Yikes.

– So John Sterling calls him the Giambino? Like we didn’t already know that John Sterling was a senile moron.

– Miller tells us that when he was talking to Rick Sutcliffe about the Choi injury, Rick said in all of his years with the Cubs he never once saw an ambulance on the field at Wrigley.

Sure, but I think one time the fire department had to bring a tanker truck out to put the fire out on Calvin Schiraldi.

– Then they showed Sutcliffe on a rooftop watching the game. His wife looks like she fell off the ugly tree and hit all the branches. It kind of looked like Rick was trying to push her over the railing. The Anti-Christ thinks Sutcliffe drinks “water and Coke.” Whatever.

– Hey, the Tony Awards were on CBS during the game. That must have been why there were bleacher seats available. All of the gay guys in Wrigleyville were home watching the Tonys.

– Jim Belushi made an appearance in the booth with Jon and AC. Jon said, “How come you’re not a Sox fan.” Jim’s answer should have been:

1. I’m too fat to go shirtless and run on the field.
2. Even I’m not that stupid.

Instead it was something about being molested by his Cub Scout leader at a Sox game or something.

– Halftime of the Spurs-Nets and the score was 33-30? Mike Tirico even admitted it “was tough to watch.” Then, Jewel came out for the halftime entertainment. I’ll tell you what’s tough to watch…her teeth. Man, those are some crooked Chicklets.

– Jon and the Anti-Christ started a four-inning (not even exaggerating) debate about the so-called “called shot” by Babe Ruth in the 1932 World Series. Here’s what I know about it. Supposedly, guys on the Cubs say that their pitcher, Charlie Root, was such an ass that if Babe pointed at the bleachers, Charlie would have put the next pitch in his neck. The Anti-Christ proves the called shot never happened because he thinks it did.

– Prior gave up a bomb to Raul Mondesi and an RBI single to Jungle Juan, and I think Dusty should have sent out a memo to remind his offense to keep scoring. It was 6-3…but still.

– Soriano fell down on a should-have-been-double play and the Anti-Christ was convinced he wasn’t wearing spikes. What is he wearing then Joe? Bunny slippers? A close up shows, that indeed, Alfonso’s wearing spikes.

– Dusty yanks Prior after six innings and what seemed like 1,124 pitches. The Farns came in and took ten pitches to walk Soriano. Uh-oh.

– However, The Farns gets Jeter to ground into the good old 6-4-3 double play. Phew. Remlinger comes in and continues his lease with an option to buy on Giambi.

– In the seventh, Gruddy is on first when A-Gonz bunts. Everybody’s favorite Yankee, Juan Acevedo throws the bunt into right field. Then Soriano runs the ball down and throws it into left field. Gruddy scores an all-important insurance run.

– Sammy singles in Gonzalez and the Anti-Christ is stunned by the ovation Sammy gets. He’s apparently the last man in the building to figure out that it’s Sammy’s 2,000th hit.

– Some handy commercials show us that:

a) The WNBA’s slogan this year is, “Better than ever.” You mean, “Better than that sub-mediocre crap we’ve been trotting out for all these years,”?
b) The College World Series slogan is, “More ping, less bling.” Is DJ Stu Scott writing all of the promos now?

– The Cubs are now up 8-3 and Jon and the AC have completely stopped announcing the game. They almost don’t notice that Robin Ventura went happy go jacky on Remlinger to cut it to 8-5.

– Morgan’s busy with his telestrator, breaking down some grainy, indiscipherable footage of the 1932 World Series like it’s the Zapruder film.

– ESPN’s cameras catch an attractive 30-ish woman sitting in the front row, give Soriano an obvious wink as he stands in the on deck circle. Jungle fever is alive in Chicago.

– Dave Kelton makes his major league debut, pinch hitting for El Pulpo. Jon and the AC completely ignore him, instead rolling footage of an awkward dugout interview between the Anti-Christ and Dusty. They finally show the end of Kelton’s at bat, don’t tell us who it is and when he lines hard to left, Jon calls him “David Helton”, twice. Here’s all you need to know about Kelton. He can flat out rake. You’ll love this kid. OK, back to the recap.

– Thanks to the glory of surround sound, I caught this in the waning moments of the Spurs win over the Nets. Kenyon Martin airballed a three-pointer and one of the Nets screamed, “Oh, motherf@#$er!”

– Regular Joe gets the top of the order in the ninth. Hey, he’s got a three run lead. How hard could this be?

Gulp.

After striking out Soriano, he got ahead of Jeter (walked him), Giambi (double), Posada (two-RBI single) and lost them all. Now it’s 8-7 and Mark Guthrie is frantically warming up in the bullpen. Dusty leaves Regular Joe in to pitch to Ventura who files to Sammy (phew). Joe Torre is awakened in the dugout and he sends speedy, Chicago Cubs spring training reject Charles Gipson in to run for Ventura with two out. Joe throws two nasty sliders to Mondesi to get ahead (again). Mondesi has hit the ball hard all night, and has homered in his last at bat.

– Regular Joe picks Gipson off to end the game! Somewhere Big Stein is asking,
a) Who is Charles Gipson? Is he the Good Morning America guy?
b) Why is he on the team?
c) Can we get him a bus ticket to Columbus?

– Cubs win! Cubs win! They take two of three from the Evil Empire and in the last three days played the kind of baseball that they’d seemingly forgotten how to play since they returned from that long road trip.

– Now it’s off to Baltimore (where they’ll try and avoid getting crabs) and then Toronto (where they’ll try and avoid getting SARS).

– I’m not normally a big interleague fan, but this weekend was great. I loved it. Who knew?