Hey Hank, I heard about the fan club.  That's neat.  Ooh, I scored!
When you’re a kid you don’t put a whole lot of thought into who your favorite player ought to be. You don’t even know how you made the decision, you just did. This Week In Baseball had a camera behind the Seattle Mariners’ batting cage in the early to mid ’90s and caught Jay Buhner talking to a little kid watching Ken Griffey Jr. take batting practice.

Buhner asked the kid, “Is he your favorite player?”

The kid nodded yes.

Buhner said, “Well, you picked a good one.”

Some of us probably should have put more thought into it. The first Cub I remember idolizing was Bill Buckner, who is probably still sitting in an empty WGN TV booth telling stories that have no point, to imaginary versions of Len and Bob. The Cub I rooted for the hardest all through little league was Shawon Dunston. I just loved the way Shawon played all out all the time, though until Corey Patterson he was probably the Cub whose wild swinging and lack of plate discipline caused him to get the least out of an incredible set of physical gifts.

So where is this pointless rambling going?

If you have a kid who is just getting into baseball, or even if you just know one, do him or her a favor. Sit them down and convince them to pick this guy to be their favorite player.

I choo choo choose you!

They’ll thank you for it when they’re older.

It’s not just because he’s having an unbelievable season. I mean how do you not root for a guy hitting .376 with 30 homers and 77 RBI on July 20? It’s that he’s more than just a pile of stats.

He’s easily the most complete baseball player the Cubs have had in my still short lifetime. He’s a gold glove first baseman. He’s the fastest and best baserunner on the team. He also doesn’t just run out every ground ball, he sprints to first like his paycheck is taped to the base. He won’t hit .376 forever, but his effort’s not going to change. Derrek Lee doesn’t have it in him.

There were lots of us who enjoyed the hell out of the Sammy Sosa era from 1996 to about 2002. He was doing some amazing things. But even we knew a lot of it was a fraud. We just didn’t admit it, or didn’t want to admit it. The numbers he put up were amazing, but the other stuff, the blown kisses into the dugout camera, the hop and the sprint out to right field to start the games…it had its moments, but few of them were genuine.

And so, we look back, even at the amazing things that Sammy did, and no matter what he did or did not do to put up those numbers, they are amazing…but you almost feel guilty for feeding that monster. You feel like you have to defend the fact you ever liked him, which is sad and wrong.

That’s why the current generation of young Cubs fans should be encouraged to dive headlong onto the Derrek Lee bandwagon. They’ll never look back on it and wonder if they were wasting their time.

For almost three full months, Derrek hoisted the Cubs on his back and helped them score just enough runs to keep their heads above water. Without that superhuman effort, this team would be Pissburgh right now.

But lately, he hasn’t been doing it alone. He’s had help from many sources. Jeromy Burnitz is having a nice, if not spectacular year. Todd Walker is thriving back in the two spot in the order. Michael Barrett is going through one of his stretches where he remembers that he is allowed to take pitches and even drive some of them into right field.

But the real reason for the Cubs offensive resurgence (or maybe just surgence given the way they started) is E-ramis Ramirez.

It’s almost like we forgot, but when the season started, he was the one that was supposed to carry the heavy load. He’s the one who hit .326 last year and gave off that, “He’s gonna win a batting title some day” vibe. He signed a big contract, he got off to a lousy start and he probably would have gotten booed through most of May but the fans were distracted by the little guy doing the Don Quixote routine out in center field.

But E-ramis is doing what we knew he could. He’s mashing the crap out of the ball.

Derrek Lee ranks first in the National League in just about everything.

He leads the league in:

Average: .376
Home Runs: 30
RBI: 77
On base average: .447
Slugging average: .738
OPS: 1.185
Doubles: 30

His buddy, across the diamond?

Average: .310 (ninth in the NL)
Home runs: 24 (fifth)
RBI: 69 (eighth)
On base average: .366 (29th)
Slugging: .599 (third)
OPS: .965 (fifth)
Doubles: 26 (sixth)

Of those seven categories, Lee is first in all and Ramirez is in the top ten in six of them.

It’s getting to the point that if E-ramis doesn’t cool off (and he probably won’t cool off much), he might be the biggest obstacle to Derrek Lee’s triple crown hopes.

I think as Cubs’ fans, we could live with that.

As Mike Ditka would say, “Gang, this is why the Cubs have a shot, gang. They’ve got two of the best five players in the National League, gang. You can go a long way with that.”

——————-

Last night I was driving home and was flipping around the dial and I heard a familiar voice being interviewed on Sporting News Radio. It was our old pal Chip Caray. He was in San Francisco waiting for the Braves to dump another game off their Wild Card lead to the Cubs and talking about how great the Braves are.

He said the word “we” about 1,000 times in three minutes. I’m not sure if he had a mouse in his pocket or if he thought he was in France.

But here’s the part of the interview that was interesting. The Sporting News Radio guy said, “Hey, your old buddy Moises Alou plays for the Giants, have you to had a conversation to clear the air over the controvery from last season.”

Chip’s churlish answer? “No.”

The guy pressed him and Chip went on to say that “…he’s a professional and I’m a professional and we only have to see each other six times this year.”

“What happened to me last year was unprofessional and the reputations of those players who were involved have been permanently damaged by it. It’s sad, but they brought it on themselves.”

What I was reminded of is the difference in the way Chip feels about last year, compared to Steve Stone. Stone is still upset that the Cubs didn’t step in and defend him. Chip’s hurt goes deeper than that. The Cubs’ players didn’t just criticize things he said, they rejected him personally. They found him annoying and didn’t want him around the team or on the plane. It wasn’t just that they didn’t like things he said–Stone wears that like a badge of honor–they didn’t like Chip Caray, and to make matters worse, his bosses with the Cubs apparently didn’t like him either because they let him go to Atlanta when he thought they’d exercise their contractual right to match the Braves’ offer.

It was funny, and somewhat sad to hear that same tone in Chip’s voice, the one that just screams “I am not still the fat loser I was in high school when the jocks pulled my underwear up around my throat every day!” The only difference between then and now, Chippy is your pants size.

With Scott Rolen hobbled, the most feared duo in the NL this year has to be Derrek and E-ramis.

Derrek insists he’s not tired. I don’t think he looks tired. I think he makes the pitchers look tired.

Jody Gerut grew up rooting for the White Sox. We might forgive him. Eventually.

Teddy G. on the Score’s dwindling ratings. Here’s some deep analysis as to why both the Mike North Morning Show and the afternoon show with Doug Buffone and Mike Mulligan are struggling. They both suck. There, how’s that for analysis?

Groucho says Chuck Daly was thisclose to coming in and finishing the season out for Larry Brown. Wow.

Ooh, the Big Ten has bids now with the Champs Bowl and with the Insight Bowl. Wow!

Mike Kiley needs to come to terms with the fact that as a writer…he stinks. Check out the opening paragraph.

True to form, Greggy doesn’t really care about his upcoming 3,000th strikeout.

Jody Gerut’s parents are Cubs’ fans and they’re excited Jody has to be one, now, too.

Dusty is babbling about how he can’t play Gerut much because he’s been playing mostly “right”. Yeah, because left and center are so tough to learn when you already know how to play them.

Alan Embree’s out, Tony Graffanino is in and the Red Sox are…better? Tony G? Really?

Eddy Curry can’t get insurance on his heart. The Bulls just saved a truckload of money.

The AJ Burnett hostage crisis will not end.

Here’s even moron it.

If the Burnett trade ever goes through, the Pirates are going to send Mark Redman to Florida for Larry Bigbie.

The Cardinals have a rookie almost as old as Albert Pujols playing left field now, and so they’re looking to upgrade. Maybe to Juan Encarnacion? Hee hee.

Tom Glavine would like to pitch for the Cubs or Cardinals. How about the Cardinals?

The Yankees are after Randy Winn, and have talked to Colorado about crazy Eric Byrnes.

Even Peter Schmuck knows the O’s ought to dump Steve Kline.

The Marlins want people to think Jack McKeon’s job is safe. They’re just hoping he’ll die.

Tom Verducci on ten players who might switch teams.

Kelly Dwyer on life without Larry (Hughes, not Brown).

Audio of Ron Gardenhire’s post game tirade. It’s not bad, but it’s no Lee Elia.

America’s finest news source on the Space Shuttle mission delay.