In an effort not to draw your attention away from the hilarity that is our 2004 Playoff Preview we’ll keep the Dose quick today. But there are a couple of things that we cannot ignore. First and foremost is our GameCast schedule for the week.

Hey, you didn’t think we were going to abandon you just because the Cubs decided to go home early, did you? We’re basically going to set up a GameCast each day that there is a day baseball playoff game. Which, according to my math is every day from now until Friday.

So here’s your schedule

Tuesday, October 5
Los Angeles Dodgers at St. Louis Cardinals, Noon (Game One)
Boston Red Sox at Anaheim Angels, 3 p.m. (Game One)

Wednesday, October 6
Houston Astros at Atlanta Braves, 3 p.m. (Game One)

Thursday, October 7
Houston Astros at Atlanta Braves, 3 p.m. (Game Two)

Friday, October 8
Anaheim Angels at Boston Red Sox, 3 p.m. (Game Three)

So today you have doubleheader action here at Desipio. Who knew? We’ll be blindly rooting for the LA teams, since we hate the Satanic Fowl and the Red Sox can’t end their curse without our permission. Besides, we’ve got Nomar to think about now.

Anyway, two more issues on the Chip Caray front have emerged.

First, a freshly neutered Steve Stone was on Sports Central last night where he qualified all of his answers to every questions with, “I’m not an actual employee of the Cubs, so this isn’t tampering.” It sounds like Steve doesn’t see how Sammy can come back and that Carlos Beltran will be the top priority in the offseason. But what troubled me was his open campaigning at the end of his segment for Dave Kaplan to get the TV play-by-play job.

Dave Kaplan? The succubus former NIU basketball grad assistant? The guy who thinks yelling is the prerequisite to doing play-by-play? It was bad enough when Chip came in, and he’d been doing Major League Baseball for several years. That’s all we need is this weasely little jackass screaming at us. I’ll go get a terror alert prepared just in case.

Chip had his welcome to Atlanta press conference yesterday and inexplicably, he said this: “‘I have a little trouble understanding why [WGN] decided not to match [the Braves’ offer] because they had the best ratings they’ve ever had this year,” he told the Journal-Constitution. ”But I’m glad they didn’t.”

That’s right, Chip, millions of Cubs fans tuned in to listen to you. The fact that the team was coming off an NLCS appearance and was picked by every magazine in the world (including Successful Farming and Oui) to win the pennant, had nothing to do with it. There also weren’t millions of Cubs fans like me who had to MUTE the TV just to get through a telecast. If that’s what makes you sleep at night, then giddy up, monobrow. It’ll be far easier to avoid you down there in Crackerville.

Mariotti puts down the doughnut to say that the Cubs seem to be starting an anti-Sammy campaign. I won’t disagree, but there’s a fine line between greasing the skids so he can leave and overdoing it so much that nobody will touch him. Tread lightly.

Seabiscuit’s Jockey with ten things the Cubs need to answer. If the Cubs somehow manage to end up with Wendell Kim at first and Sonny Jackson at third, they’ll make this year’s baserunning look like the Gashouse Gang.

Eddy Curry’s “down” to 281 pounds. He apparently lost close to 40 pounds in the offseason. Odds are, they’ll find him.

Skip Caray compares Chip to Francisco Cabrera. I’m just glad neither of them works for the Cubs now.