So I’ve been to hundreds of baseball games in my lifetime and I’ve even gotten a few balls from time to time. It’s not really my thing, but my brother knows a few players and it’s pretty cool when I get one and hand it off to someone who appreciates it a little more than I do.

    Here are a few good pointers from my perspective on how to get one. First off you pretty much have to have great seats and by great seats I mean you have to be in the first 10 rows over the dugouts or in the first few rows down the line where the outfielders come in & out each inning. Next it helps to be a kid; players’ loves kids especially when they are all decked out in the teams’ jersey and a hat. Having a glove doesn’t hurt either. Even these over priced athletes for the most part can’t resist a young kid screaming out his name. Thirdly just like in life it really helps to be a cute girl. Everyone knows cute girls get away with…. Well you get the point. 

 It’s also a big plus to know the players, either personally or at least have a program and know who’s who. 

    A few years back I was at Dodger Stadium sitting in the second row behind the Florida Marlins on deck circle with a female companion of mine. Mark Kotsay who had played with and against my brother in their high school days was taking swings. I introduced myself to him and asked for a ball. He acknowledged me and my request and next time he was in the on deck circle he flipped me a ball. I in turn handed it over to a kid sitting not to far away from us with a Marlins shirt.

      Most recently I was at a Cubs game at Wrigley Field sitting four rows behind the bullpen of the Chicago White Sox with an out of town friend of mine and we were sitting next to a woman who was at her 1st game at Wrigley field. In the later innings I spotted relieve pitcher Matt Thornton backing up the pitcher warming up. I yelled to Thornton to say hey & make him aware of the fact that this was her first game at Wrigley and asked him for a ball for her.   
   
     He nodded back and motioned for me to wait until 3 outs. At the end of inning he called me over and handed me a ball. I thanked him for the ball, we talked briefly about the fact that we were at the same bar a week earlier watching the Lakers/Celtics game and that was that. I handed the ball over to the woman and she couldn’t thank me enough, not only was she impressed, but my friend in town from LA was equally impressed. I had come through like a champ and it felt pretty good.     

In what seems like an eternity, the Cubs finally return from their longest road trip of the season and begin a six game home stand at Wrigley Field. The trip wasn’t all that bad either. After the White Sox returned the favor by sweeping the Cubs last weekend, the Cubs split four games with the Giants before taking two out of three from the hated Cardinals. Blowing a two run lead in the ninth Saturday was a little hard to watch, but overall it was a successful trip.

More important at this stage in the season is that the Cubs are starting to get healthy. Getting back ace Carlos Zambrano was huge and Friday night he showed he can carry a team, having pitched six shut out innings before giving way to the bullpen. The Cubs also got back leadoff hitter and team spark plug Reed Johnson who had been out for some time. What Reed lacks in numbers he more than makes up for with intangibles. Now word comes that Alfonso Soriano is doing light baseball drills, taking batting practice and looks to return to the lineup in the very near future.

Soriano’s return couldn’t come at a better time as the Milwaukee Brewers have made a blockbuster trade today and acquired last year’s American League Cy Young award winner C.C Sabathia. This move really shakes things up in the NL Central, because now the Cubs can’t just stand pat. It’s very likely they will go after a top of the rotation guy to solidify their starting pitching. It should be a great pennant race down the stretch.

Although his starts are far less dominate and far and few between, Randy Johnson is inching closer and closer to that magic number of 300 wins. His performance yesterday was reminiscent of his better days as he pitched into the 7th inning, walked none & struck out 10.

What is so impressive and mind boggling is that Roger Clemens is widely considered the “greatest pitcher of our generation” and even that has come into question with his involvement in the steroid scandal. Clemens whose nickname is “The Rocket” has 110 games of 10 plus strikeouts. But get this; the Big Lefty has him trumped with 211 games of ten plus strikeouts. Randy has long ago locked up his place in the Hall of Fame with an incredible body of work, but now Randy is 11 wins away from the magic 300 and all this as he is now two months shy of his 45 birthday.

In his prime Randy could get away with all sorts of mistakes, like leaving the ball over the plate or walking a batter here and there, because he knew he could reach back and blow a fastball by just about anyone. Now in the twilight of his career he is in what he describes as “pitching” and he really has to locate his pitches better and think about different ways to get today’s hitters out. Having lost some velocity after undergoing numerous back surgeries, he still has good and bad days. Randy seems to be enjoying what might be his last couple of years playing baseball.

Barring any more injuries, he should get to 300 wins in early 2009.  He’s also hoping to lead his young Diamondback team to a postseason or two, and once they get in who knows what can happen. Nobody gave his 2001 team much of a chance against the mighty Yankees and we all know what happened then.

A week after their rivals to the north swept a seven game home stand the White Sox took the anything they can do we can better and they swept a seven game home stand of their own. Presumably with a little help from their mouthy manager Ozzie Guillen who went on a tirade and ripped the teams' recent performance right before the team came home from Toronto. I guess it must've worked because the Sox unloaded on their opponents all week.

After beating the Royals at the beginning of the week, they dismantled the Twins outscoring them 40 to 15 in the four games. As usual the pitching was dominant and the bullpen held it down. Joe Crede & Nick Swisher had multi home run games and Carlos Quentin was his usual stellar self as they lead an offensive charge not duplicated since 1932.

With the Cubs currently having the best record in baseball and the South Siders leading their division by a robust 6 and 1/2 games the city of Chicago is beaming with hope of post season play. It makes for an even bigger cross town classic when the teams meet at Wrigley. The biggest concern for the White Sox is if they can sustain this stellar play on the road. They have lost twice as many games on the road as they have at home. For whatever reason, the bats don’t come alive as well as they do at the cell. The schedule is pretty favorable the next six weeks so maybe they can increase this lead and somewhat cruise as the dog days of summer approach.

In what could only be described as a “dream match up” by everyone from advertising executives to fans across the world. The Los Angeles Lakers take on the Boston Celtics for the NBA’s world championship beginning tonight in Boston.

The match up is drenched in history and screams nostalgia. In the sixties it was Bill Russell against Wilt Chamberlain and in the eighties it was Magic versus Bird. There has been nothing but classic footage on ESPN this whole week in anticipation of this year’s final. The names and faces have changed, but the rivalry and hatred remains the same. The Lakers are looking to win their 4th title of the decade, while the Celtics are playing in the finals for the 1st time since 1987, where guess who they played? You got it the Lakers.

The series is not just the names on the jerseys either. There is plenty of star power on both teams. The Lakers attack with one of the all-time greats in Kobe Bryant while the Celtics counter with Kevin Garnett. It seems like everybody is pulling for ‘nice guy” Garnett to win it this year as he has taken on the feel good story of the NBA. I guess people feel sorry for him for putting up with all of those losing seasons in Minnesota. Not me! If a player is willing to handcuff a team and sign a contract for crazy money, he should deal with the repercussions of not being able to afford a supporting cast.

As for Kobe Bryant, if the Lakers win the title he is looking to cement his legacy and be mentioned in the same breath as Michael Jordan as one of the greatest of all-time.

If the Lakers can split one of the first two games on the road, with the format set up by the league, the next three games will be at the very friendly Staples center where the Lakers have not lost since late March. With all the hype surrounding the series obliviously I’m picking the Lakers to win it & it will take them five games to do it.

The Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and Spurs is one of the fiercest rivalries in all of sports. Both teams have dominated the playoffs this decade with either the Spurs or Lakers winning the NBA Championship in 7 of the last 9 years.

With that being said if last night’s game 1 was any indication of how the series is going to go. I’m going to have some serious health issues when the series is over.

The Spurs gave the Lakers everything they could handle in the first 2 ½ quarters in building a 20 point lead. Then midway through the 3rd quarter the Lakers started to find a rhythm and crawl back into the game. By the end of the quarter they only trailed by seven and things didn’t look so bad. Mr. MVP Kobe Bryant had that familiar look in his eye and he started to take over the game like only he can.

The fourth quarter was back and forth as the teams traded baskets early in the 4th before the Lakers went on a little at the end to close the gap. The Lakers even took their first lead of the game with 2:42 left in the game, but the Lakers weren’t out of danger yet. With the Spurs down two with 20 seconds, they were setting up a possible game winning 3 point shot and Manu Ginobili did just that, but it rimmed out and the Lakers got the loose ball, made a couple of free throws and escaped with the win.

Game two is Friday night before things move to Texas and here’s hoping the Lakers make things a little easier on themselves and also a lot easier on my ulcer.

The Cubs just finished their longest homestand of the year in ten games and boy did they make the most of it. In fact they looked like world beaters winning eight of the ten games. It’s the best homestand the Cubs have had in over thirty years.

After sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Cubs went on to take three of four from the San Diego Padres, including beating one of the top pitchers in the league in Jake Peavy and an old friend in Greg Maddux in back to back days. And to finish up the long homestand they took two out of three from the rival Pirates.

Alfonso Soriano who had been struggling ever since coming of the disabled list really made himself at home this past week. Not only did he raised his batting average over .100 points, but he also lead a game off with a home run three times on his way to seven for the week. He also became only the second leadoff hitter in the last forty years to have consecutive multi home run games. For the incredible week he was awarded the prestigious National League player of the week.

Hopefully the Cubs can keep up their torrid ways and extend their division lead. The lovable losers now hit the road for a week and play the upstart Houston Astros before they visit a Pittsburgh team looking for a little revenge. From there they come home to face the new look Dodgers led by Joe Torre.

The Stanley cup finals will commence Saturday night after taking a few nights off out of the sporting world spotlight. The Detroit Red Wings advance to the finals for the 23rd time in the storied franchise’s history while the upstart Pittsburgh Penguins return for the first time since winning it all in 1992. In fact the last time the Pens were in it, their star player Sidney Crosby was five.

Let’s break down how they got here. The Red Wings got past the Nashville Predators in the first round, and then made surprisingly quick work of the Colorado Avalanche sweeping them in four games. Then it was on to the conference finals where they met up with the Dallas Stars. Most people thought the series would be a knock down drag out fight, but the series was over in six games with 35 year old goaltender Chris Osgood winning every game; allowing a little more than a goal a game.

The Pittsburgh Penguins got to the finals in similar fashion. After dumping Ottawa in four games and blasting the New York Rangers in five, that set up an interstate final with rival Philadelphia. Well it didn’t turn out to be much of an eastern final as the Pens dismissed their rivals to the east in five games. Marian Hossa who came over to Pittsburgh at the trade line was unbelievable in the last game as he had a goal and three assists to cap off a 6-0 rout & Sidney Crosby is really lighting it up with 17 assists in 14 games.

All of the pundits are predicting the savvy Red Wings will hoist the cup when it’s all said and done and that might not be to far off, but I’m going with youth and speed and predicting the fast paced Penguins will win the cup in a seven game shocker. I do know that NBC is probably most excited about the match up as this series has tons of star power.

Now that the pretenders have been eliminated and the contenders are fighting it out to see who gets to the conference finals, it’s time to reassess the match ups.

In the east the Pistons have a 3 games to 1 strangle hold on the Orlando Magic and appear poised to make yet another east final. In the other match up The Boston Celtics look like world beaters at the garden, but continue to struggle on the road as they are still winless on the road. LeBron James has struggled in every game, so if he can get his game together the Celtics could be in serious trouble. The Cavs can even the series tonight with a win at home. Oddly enough the Celtics won the most road games in the regular season in 34 and are the only team left in the playoffs NOT to win one on the road. Funny how things change when the games matter.

In the Western conference the Lakers cruised to two home victories to take what most people thought was a commanding lead in the series, but once the scene moved to Utah where the Jazz are the NBA’s winningest home team, the Jazz evened the series with two tightly contested games and now that series is a best of three. I still expect the Lakers with newly minted league MVP Kobe Bryant to advance to the Western finals.

The same can be said in the other semifinal with New Orleans winning their two home games and San Antonio winning their two. With every one of the four series, the teams are so closely matched; I can see why the home court advantage means pretty much everything, but I still wonder why one of these teams can’t rise up and take a game on the road.

I’m guessing the teams with the most remaining home games will advance. So it looks like the Lakers, Hornets, Pistons and Celtics will be playing for a spot in the NBA finals. And like I’ve stated before - the whole country is waiting for a Lakers/Celtics match up, so let’s hope the two teams hold up their end of the revenue bargain.

...But it's the Cubs who spew venom

The Arizona Diamondbacks made their annual trip to Wrigley field this past weekend and what a weekend it was. The D’backs came to Wrigley field with the best record in baseball and the Cubs returned home after a lackluster road trip. Thankfully, the Chicago Cubs caught a few breaks, got great pitching, timely hitting and swept the Diamondbacks and now find themselves back in first place.

The opener of the series was a great pitchers’ duel with Dan Haren going for the visitors and Ted Lilly going for the Chicago Cubs. Each starting pitcher went seven innings with Lilly turning in his best game of the year. After last year’s playoff disaster Lilly definitely had something to prove and he did - allowing one run while striking out a season high 10. The Cubs also got some timely hitting as they scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth with two outs and Lilly even got into the action with a run scoring single of his own. The bullpen held the lead and the Chicago Cubs took game 1.

The last two games of the series were pretty similar, with both starting out as pitchers’ duels. That story changed once Arizona’s bullpen got involved. Saturday’s game saw the Cubs break open a close game in the home half of the seventh inning. It was that man again Kosuke Fukudome capping off a six run inning with a two run homer that had the Wrigley faithful chanting FU-KU-DOME!!!

The last game of the series was supposed to be the best of the three, with future hall of famer Randy Johnson going head to head with Big Z Carlos Zambrano. Apparently Mother Nature wasn’t impressed with the match up as heavy rain hit the Chicagoland area all night and all morning with temperatures dropping into the mid 40’s. When the rain finally did stop, the game was delayed a little more than an hour. Both managers decided to scratch the top guns and replace them with lesser known pitchers. Very good game nonetheless and once again the D’backs bullpen was to blame for the loss. It was that lucky 7th inning again as Reed Johnson hit a two run game tying home run and little used pinch hitter Daryl Ward came up with his second clutch hit in as many days in the 8th to give the blue shirts the lead. The Cubs ran Kerry Wood out in the ninth to nail it down the three game sweep was complete.