Only the Cubs could find a way to go into a doubleheader and split when the opposing pitchers are Carl Pavano and David Weathers, and manage to beat Pavano but not Weathers. Ahh, that’s just their charm, isn’t it?

You didn’t think this would be easy did you? What, you haven’t had cable for 22 years? These are the Cubs. They don’t do easy.

And yet, they’re not in a bad spot. It would have been great to have won both games yesterday, but the only disaster would have been to have lost both. Third place is not the place you want to be this time of year. The Cubs have 13 games now in thirteen days. Three with Pissburgh, three in the giant cesspool of Shea then home for four with the Reds and three with the highly overrated Braves.

I’m not buying these Braves this year. They just can’t pitch all that well. If the Cubs need to win two or all three in that series to end the season, I like the Cubs’ chances.

Anyway, the most encouraging thing from yesterday was of course the return to form of a budding Cubs legend. After some rough patches recently, he shook off his cloak of mediocrity and came through with a huge performance when the Cubs needed it most.

I’m talking, of course, about Jose Macias.

He was three for four in the opener and…

OK, fine, I was really talking about The Franchise, Mark Prior. Granted he had the advantage of an enormous strike zone (Jerry Crawford must have had a buffet to catch), but so did Carl Pavano and he didn’t pitch nearly as well as Prior did. He threw 129 pitches which means he’s just about ready to spend an October wearing out his Achilles’ and elbow again. I kid because I care.

The performance of Matt Clement was not so stellar. Granted, the Cubs only scored two runs in the nightcap, but Clement couldn’t even escape the third inning. Who knows what’s going on with him physically. He’s built like a twelve year old girl, and he could just be wearing out. Or it could be, as we suspect, that he’s kind of a pussy. Who knows? What we do know is that he’s just not throwing strikes anymore. And when Chris DeLuca figures out you’d be better off dumping Clement for the last two weeks and using Glendon Rusch…well, it has to be obvious.

The announced attendance at yesterday’s doubleheader was 37,412. Thirty-seven thousand? Judging by the shots of the stadium during the game, Pro Player Park must seat 240,000 people. It looked like an Atlanta Hawks game had broken out. At one point the umpire became confused and charged Paul LoDuca with strikes one and two because he heard his own echo.

I’ve got a million of ’em.

I’ll stop now.

The Cubs have won nine of their last 12 games and six of their last seven against losing teams. They’ll now play ten straight against losing teams. Sounds good to me.

—-

By the way, in the photo above, check out the hairline on Mark Grudzielanek. I’ve seen thicker coverage on a Chia Pet.

Chia Pet? There’s a good reference. I’ll now make a succession of jokes about the Clapper, parachute pants and the A-Team. It’s old school week at Desipio!

—-

The Bears got some bad news yesterday. A day after learning that Mike Brown had done what Prior, Nomar and Gruddy had only threatened to do—blowing out his Achilles—they also learned that Peanut Tillman could miss a month with an injury to his knee. You know how Terry Shea likes to say that his offense doesn’t need wide receivers to be effective? Maybe Ron Rivera’s defense can get by with defensive backs?

I actually enjoyed Dick Stockton and Moose Johnston’s call of Sunday’s game, though I like Tony Siragusa on The Sopranos better than on Fox, because HBO won’t let him speak. But the Moose had a postively Brian Baldinger-esque moment when they brought the cart out to drive Mike Brown off the field and he said. “Normally, when they bring out the cart, it’s not good.” Really? You mean not being able to leave the field under your own power is not a good thing? I’ll have to write that down. I’ll put it right here next to “Scoring fewer points than your opponent’s is bad.” I’m glad we got that straightened out.

Nothing’s more boring than somebody talking about their fantasy team, but you might enjoy this. You may remember that I slept through my draft and ESPN’s Otto Pilot picked my team for me. He gave me two stud tight ends, Kellen Winslow and Todd Heap. I was going to trade Heap for a wide receiver but didn’t. I was glad about that after I heard that Winslow broke his leg on the second to last play of the game against the Cowboys. Then, I saw that Heap hurt his knee and could miss a month. This is just proof, as always, that I’m a dope.

Even though I had a rooting interest (Don McNabb is my QB) I didn’t watch much of the Vikings-Eagles last night because the combination of Al Michaels and John Madden gives me hives. I’m serious. I had to switch from Madden to the ESPN NFL 2K series on PS2 because I was going broke buying calomine lotion.

Instead, I watched, thanks to TiVo, the History Channel’s special on the War of 1812. Other than the fact that the guy they paid to pretend he was James Madison looked like former Cubs catcher Tim Blackwell (without the porn mustache), the thing was pretty well done. I realized that I didn’t know that much about the war of 1812. So how about I go into a long, boring dissertation about how Dolley Madison saved the portrait of George Washington from the White House (I knew that), and some lady made the world’s largest flag for the defense of Fort McHenry, and that that was the flag that Francis Scott Key saw and then wrote The Star Spangled Banner about and how Dolley Madison loved to make little invidually wrapped cakes and snacks…no,wait, that wasn’t in the show. Never mind.
—-

The Cubs have a way of prolonging the inevitable, don’t they. Assuming the inevitable is good, of course.

Mark Prior says the Cubs could use a five-man rotation in the playoffs. It’d be nice if they’d use one now.

We scoffed when Jim Hendry picked up Neifi Perez and Ben Grieve. Who’s scoffing now?

The Bears are getting a little thin at defensive back. If you see Cameron Worrell and Todd Johnson on the field at the same time, cover your eyes. Not since the days of Terry Schmidt and Jon Magnum have people so pale tried to cover guys so fast.

Marcus Reese wants to bump one of the honkeys (Joe Odom) to the bench.

Jack McKeon muttering to himself and Rosey.

The Rob Goldman trial just won’t begin. Hey, if they wait long enough, the imaginary girl will be 18 and he gets off Scot free! Right?

Mariotti puts down the doughnut to proclaim that after one good game, Thomas Jones is the next Walter Payton. He’s not even Eddie Payton, yet.

Rap on Comcast SportsNet. For those of you who are jonesing for some Gail Fischer, she’ll be on October 1.

Apparently Nomar wasn’t a decoy when he appeared in the on deck circle at the end of game two. On Saturday night the TV cameras caught him coming up the tunnel in the ninth inning and putting two bats in the bat rack. He’d clearly been hitting in the cage and I wondered then if he was going to pinch hit.

Rest easy, the Sleeze left her Volvo unattended for a second to write this about how the Cubs will win the Wild Card and the World Series and the Super Bowl! Or something.

For whatever reason, most doubleheaders are split, but you can’t blame Dusty. He loaded up for game two and they just didn’t hit.

The Genius can’t even get a victory celebration right.

If it’s late September it’s time for another Ron Santo health scare! He talks with the Wizard of Roz.

If it’s Tuesday, it’s time for another of Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterbacks. Huh?

Kelly Dwyer is handling all of the SI preseason previews for the NBA. See, they know talent when they see it. That’s why they won’t hire me to write anything. I’m not bitter. No, really. Did I mention that I once mailed a turd to Ted Turner? What, he doesn’t own them anymore? Damnit. Don’t tell anybody I did that. It’s just between you and me. But anyway, Kelly’s funny and these previews are very good. So enjoy.

Oops. Sorry.

X-tina says Britney’s wedding was “trashy and low rent.” Ooh, burn!

Jacko has photos of naked boys in his house. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for this. Maybe John Wayne Gacy mailed them to him? Don’t judge!

Carmen Electra is going to be on TBS’ “The Real Gilligan Island.” Some people will do anything to get away from Dave Navarro, I guess. Navarro lost to SNL weenie Seth Meyers in the finals of the Celebrity Poker Showdown and you could tell that Meyer was afraid Dave was going to snap and kill him. That was good TV.

The world’s greatest newspaper says that Kim Jong Il has gone cannibal. They even have pictures to prove it.