The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

Must be the heat

Parker is fast asleep on my office floor, which is the first he's stopped panting since waking up this morning. Poor guy doesn't have sweat glands, and it's going to be another sticky day in Chicago, with heat indices approaching 38°C.

Perhaps the unpleasant heat has led the Cubs into first place. Yes, somehow, slowly, steadily, yea even stealthily, they have ticked up more wins than losses and last night surpassed the Milwaukee Brewers to sneak into the top spot.

Let's see if they're still there when I attend Lou Gehrig Day this Sunday...

Link roundup

Share and enjoy:

And also from reader MB, some bumper stickers we'd like to see:

  • Even Nixon Resigned
  • We Need a President Who's Fluent In At Least One Language
  • The Republican Party: Our Bridge to the 11th Century

St. Louis in the news

Congratulations to Anne's home-town team, the St. Louis Cardinals, winning the World Series against the team that the Cubs last played for the same title. As a Cubs fan, I had some difficulty rooting for the Cardinals (the teams' rivalry goes back to the beginnings of professional baseball in the 1880s), but since the Tigers are in the American League I managed to do so.

Also of note to St. Louisians, it was on this day in 1965 that engineers completed the Gateway Arch.

Cubs finish season at the bottom

The Cubs did, in fact, win yesterday, but so did the Pirates, which ensured the Cubs would end at the bottom of the National League with 96 losses. That's one shy of the number of seasons the Cubs have played since their last World Series win in 1908. Management hasn't yet fired Dusty Baker—that should come this afternoon—but I believe this was his last trip back from the mound as Cubs manager:

But this is always a gratifying sight, even if it really didn't matter much:

And hey, they did win a game in October. That doesn't happen very often.

Until next year, I guess.

Going to Wrigley

A friend of mine who works for Tribune Co. invited me to today's Cubs game.

It's going to be pretty intense. The Cubs have fought valiantly since mid-May for their rightful place in the National League Central division, and it all hangs on today's results. At this moment the Cubs are where they want to be. But if the Cubs can pull it out today, and if the Pirates lose, then the Cubs will have failed to win the bottom slot in the league.

Yes, seeing that big "E" next to the Cubs' entry for the past two months has really made baseball come alive in Chicago, but you have to admit: 96 losses in a season is impressive. Not as impressive as the Royals' clean century, but still impressive. Today could be loss #97, which is only one fewer than the number of years since they last won the World Series.

I'll have photos of the game, and another Daily Parker, tomorrow.