To be fair, we labeled him E-ramis before he’d even played a game for the Cubs last year, and while his defense was shaky at times last season, Aramis Ramirez has hit since the day he walked in the clubhouse door. He’s quickly become one of our favorite Cubs and, by any kind of objective measure, he’s become one of the best players in the National League.

It’s hard to argue with a .323 batting average, 14 homers and 49 RBI in the middle of June. But that’s only half the story with Ramirez. Instead of just becoming a merely adequate fielder (which would have been nice) he’s gone beyond that. He’s one of the best in the league right now. On Sunday he made a tremendous barehanded play on a sure bunt hit and got the man at first. Last night he saved the game with a diving play on a would be bases loaded single by The Beege.

He’s hitting .398 as a cleanup hitter, which puts him ahead of Barry Bonds (.376) in the National League. On Friday, Sammy Sosa will come back to the lineup, moving Moises back to cleanup and E-ramis to fifth, giving the Cubs one of hte more formidable middle of the lineups in the game.

Anyway, we’re sticking with the E-ramis tag, only now instead of signfiying error it just a reminder of how excellent he is. It doesn’t hurt that he’s only 25 years old, either. He’s just starting to figure this stuff out.

A lot more is being made of Carlos Zambrano’s tantrum in the sixth inning than is deserved. Keep in mind, that we tend to like it when Carlos goes a little ballistic on the mound. There’s nothing wrong with reminding people that you care. But Carlos outdid himself with this one. With the bases loaded and one out, Jimy Williams let Wade Miller bat forhimself. Seeing as Wade was reaching the end of his rope, pitching wise it seemed an odd move, but a welcome one for the Cubs. Miller blooped one out into shallow right field and Todd Walker caught it over his shoulder with little problem for the second out. Walker figured the runner at third would be tagging so he turned and threw the ball towards home plate. What he didn’t know was that Jason Lane had either forgotten how many outs there were, or had listened to Chip go on about how shaky Walker is in the field and Lane just took off. The Cubs missed an easy chance for an inning ending double play by not throwing to second. After the play, the centerfielder Tom Goodwin noticably took the blame for not letting Walker know about Lane’s baserunning exploits. Zambrano threw his hat on the ground and very nearly stomped on it. Then he slammed his hat onto his head so hard that his ears nearly popped off.

But then it was over. Like all of The Lawnmower’s tantrums, he just shook it off and threw a first pitch strike to The Beege, and his second pitch caught too much plate and Beege lined it towards left. That’s when E-ramis made his rally killing play by diving into the hole, getting up on one knee and throwing to second for the force.

After the game Carlos didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Whether Walker took it personally, or was trying to be convinced by the writers around his locker after the game that he ought to take it personally isn’t certain. Regardless, we all know by now that Zambrano’s emotions are always simmering just below the surface. They’ll show themselves, good or bad, at times, but he’s getting pretty good at cramming them back inside the bottle after they’ve spilled out. (Wow, just how many metaphors got mixed there?)

The game’s end made it all moot, anyway. The Cubs mounted a ninth inning rally of epic proportions against one of the league’s best closers, Octavio Dotel. Tom Goodwin started it off by flying harmlessly to Lance Berkman in left. Only, the wall comes quickly out there in left field, and Berkman dropped the ball just before smacking into the scoreboard. The ball dropped for a two base error and the Cubs were in business.

After the game, Dave Otto credited the next batter, Moises Alou, with the key at bat of the game. Not only did Alou manage to fight off a number of two strike pitches, but he flew out deep enough to center to allow Goodwin to tag up and go to third on the weenie arm of The Beege.

Dotel had thrown 46 pitches in a two inning save against the mighty Brewers on Sunday and you could literally see him tire during the Alou at bat. After a meeting on the mound, the Astros brought the infield in with one out and E-ramis at the plate. There’s an old saying that you add .100 to a batter’s average by bringing in the infield (Steve Stone says it’s .050, but he’s always the contrarian). That made E-ramis a .420 hitter (he’s also batting 1.000 with runners at third this year) and he singled to tie the game.

That’s when another, more sensible manager might have gotten the bullpen up. Your closer is tired. He got screwed by an error, then pooped out on the next hitter and just gave up the lead. Oh, but Jimy’s a wiley guy. He left Dotel in. Octavio got Todd Hollandsworth to hit a weak chopper to second. Jeff Pornstache Kent is a lot of things (a good hitter, a raging assbag, and more) but he’s not a smooth second baseman. He took a circuitous route to the ball and had no play at second, so with two outs the Cubs had the go-ahead run in scoring position. I’m not saying Kent could have had a play at second, I’m just saying that the way he went after the ball meant he did not have a play. Does that make any sense?

Jimy walked Derrek Lee because you can never have enough baserunners in the late innings. Michael Barrett singled to Fat Lance in left and wonder of all wonders, Wendell Kim didn’t send E-ramis to certain home plate death. Ramon Martinez was up with the bases loaded and has a lifetime average of better than .400 in Minute Maid Park. He’d already homered to start the Cubs scoring in the third. He singled, scoring E-ramis and Lee and the Cubs had taken the lead. Who knew?

The Cubs bullpen did an unconventionally good job in the eighth and ninth. Still down 2-1 in the eighth, The Farns gave up a leadoff triple to Jason Lane. Three batters later, the inning was over and Lane was still at third.

In the ninth, LaTroy Hawkins allowed a leadoff double to Jose Vizcaino (though Moises almost made a tremendous diving play on that) and three batters later, the game was over and Jose was still on second.

The pessimist in me only sees one problem with the Cubs win last night, and it’s not anything they need to concern themselves with. I hope they win the next two and crank out the brooms on their way to the plane. However, there’s a danger in the Astros being in fifth place (though, to be fair the Cubs were there last week, it doesn’t mean much right now). We don’t want them firing Jimy Williams. With Jimy around, you know the Astros will find a way to lose when we need them to. With him gone, who knows what might happen? The good news is that Jack McKeon already has a job.

If the playoffs started today the Cubs and Reds would be tied for the NL Wild Card. Cincinnati has begun their inevitable retreat through the standings, so it’s really just the Cubs.

The Cardinals are a mirage. They have a good lineup (though really, it’s not that much better than the Cubs or Astros), but the starting pitching isn’t really that hot. Do we expect strong summers out of Woody Williams (he’s done), Jeff Suppan (please) or Jason (ouch my neck!) Marquis? No. So as long as the Astros are parked someplace behind the Cubs, it’s full speed ahead for the Cubs.

Things looked kind of bleak after Regular Joe blew The Franchise’s debut on June 4. But since then, the Cubs are 8-3, are hitting the ball–finally–and you can hear the cavalry charge sounding on the hill. Sammy and Gruddy will only make things better. (If for no other reason than beefing up the bench with Hollandsworth and Walker–or Gruddy and Corey, depending on the day’s lineup.) Then, supposedly, in another week and a half or so, the Cubs will finally have their five man rotation of Franchise, Lawnmower, Woody, Maddux and Clement. Glendon Rusch can go to the bullpen where we’ll finally have a lefty who can get a lefty out and wait for the next injury.

Jim Hendry will make a trade, eventually. But for a team that played so long without them, it has to feel to the players like the Cubs swung a deal on June 4 for a Franchise starting pitcher and on Friday that they traded for a 50 homer slugger to play right field.

To steal a phrase of our own from a couple years back…”It’s good to be the Cubs.”

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I know I don’t have to remind you, the intrepid readers of Desipio, this, but you can tell by talk radio that the anti-Sammy backlash is out there, so let’s look at Samuel Peralta Sosa’s numbers since 1998 just to get us in the mood for his return on Friday.

1998 — .308 BA, 66 HR, 158 RBI, 134 runs, 1.024 OPS
1999 — .288 BA, 63 HR, 141 RBI, 114 runs, 1.002 OPS
2000 — .320 BA, 50 HR, 138 RBI, 106 runs, 1.040 OPS
2001 — .328 BA, 64 HR, 160 RBI, 146 runs, 1.174 OPS
2002 — .288 BA, 49 HR, 108 RBI, 122 runs, .993 OPS
2003 — .279 BA, 40 HR, 103 RBI, 99 runs, .911 OPS

Just remember those when you hear Sox fans on the radio talk about how Maggs is the best right fielder in Chicago because he “always hits 30 homers and drives in 100 runs.”

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The Pistons apparently beat the Lakers last night to win the NBA title. I was busy with the Cubs, and then I had to try and catch up on “Deadwood” last night. Thanks to TiVo I’m now just one episode behind. But the end of the NBA season means the real fun is about to begin for Bulls’ fans. The expansion draft will be held Tuesday and the real draft on Thursday of next week.

We’ll have a thread open for the expansion draft, and for the fifth straight year we’ll cover the NBA Draft Live. The Cubs are in St. Louis that night, too. So screw ESPN, because for that night we’re the worldwide leader in sports.

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It’s nice to have four straight days where you wake up and say, “Hey, that was a good win.”

Paul Sullivan runs down the list of potential Cubs all stars.

Mike Downey’s almost coherent today.

Marcus Arnold nearly led ISU to an upset of the Illini last December. Now he’s joining them.

Sammy’s last rehab start got rained out.

Todd Walker’s not just going to let Gruddy have his job back.

John Paxson might not trade the number three pick, after all. That’s good, because I’ll have a helluva time selling my Luol Deng jersey if they don’t pick him.

Mariotti puts down the doughnut and wonders why the Sox can’t just market themselves? They tried that. It didn’t work.

Derrek Lee makes things easier on the other infielders. Then why is Chip trying give his gold glove to Albie Pujols?

The Wizard of Roz says the Cubs are still the NL favorite to win the pennant.

Sports Guy on the Pistons. I know Isiah’s gone, but I still hate the Pistons…and Detroit…and LA…see, I had nobody to root for or against.

TJ Simers on the disappointing Lakers.

Bill Plaschke on the Lakers. This is good stuff. Sometimes, the losers are more interesting than the winners. In this case, it’s very true.

I’ll bet Roy Oswalt’s groin would love this.

Who let the Sloth babysit the panda?

Things just get better at Colorado University.

We’re linking to the main page of America’s finest news source because you have to read the Jimmy Fallon joke. (Top right corner.) Perfect.