Morning Walk-thru - Wynalda Scores!!!

Coach Taylor totally takes the heat off Altman (almost)...I wonder if former Arkansas head coach Dana Altman felt any kinship with Dillon High's Eric Taylor last night during Friday Night Lights.

For those that missed it, Taylor took the TMU job without consulting the family, a whole bunch of other stuff happened--divorce, infidelity, break-up, trip to police HQ, your typical week following a high school football team--and I was sure that, in the end, Dana would have some company as Coach Taylor reversed field and decided to stay at Dillon.

But, this being television, that will have to wait for next week. For now, Altman, you're on your own.

Hey! Hey!...The Cubs got the first win of 07 and they did it in an unusual fashion, making actual baseball plays. They got their sac bunts down (except for Lilly, that is, but that ended up working out), hit the ball with runners in scoring position and generally didn't blow it. Shocking really, especially when you consider that Bronson "Worst Hair in the Majors" Arroyo struck out nine in seven innings.

But Lilly was better. His line: 7 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K. The Cubs took their lumps for overspending on Lilly, but I had a feeling early in February that he might exceed expectations.

Of course, I can't back that up with anything, but I firmly believe that Lilly won't be a disappointment when it's all said and done. There are plenty of players on this squad who can fill that role.

Soriano has certainly been aggressive early on, Lee looked awful on each of his three strikeouts, and Sweet Lou jumped all over Ryan Dempster after giving up a walk in the ninth and delivered the shortest mound meeting of the season but we'll save the sorrow for another day.

Cubs win!

Meet my hero, Eric Wynalda...One of the fastest ways to my heart is to hate Jim Rome, and, unless it was just the beer talking, that appears to be the case with US Soccer's Uncle Sam.

In an interview with Christian Franek of FulhamUSA.com, Wynalda had this to say about the king of the jungle:

You will never get a guy, in me, who is more of a believer in the American player. Jim Rome can suck my ****! And he should be very afraid, because I’m the kind of guy, if I get too many drinks in me, I will club his ass. I’ve been on with Jim Rome, and I said, “Let me get this straight, you’re more impressed with water polo???"

That's the money quote and odds are you've already seen it, but what's interesting is that the rest of the interview is pretty enthralling in it's own right. Wynalda shoots from the hip regarding everybody: Landon Donovan, Juergen Klinsmann, Sunil Gulati and, his old friend, Bruce Arena.

Could Wynalda "fix" American soccer like he claims in the interview? Who knows, but it feels like he's trying and that's good enough for me.

A lot of people can't stand to listen to Ron Santo call a Cubs game, but, and I'm probably the least impartial source on this, love it because his pain and frustration is so apparent over the air.

It's the same deal with Wynalda but on a different scale. Feeling dismayed by the Cubs is just about the most pedestrian feeling in all of sports, but that love and loathe relationship with U.S. Soccer is entirely novel for a national audience. Or at least it should be.

If loving America (and its soccer team), drinking a few too many on occasion, and cursing a little too often is wrong then you might as well be Jim Rome.

Rack it.

Disclaimer: If you only care about sports talk, you can stop reading now as this last bit is solely TV related.

The Office turns tonight?...Tonight's episode could be the turning point for The Office. As good as the show is, I've always felt like the dominant Jim-Pam dynamic might be the show's eventual undoing.

Quite simply, the tension between the two is the storyline. It's brilliantly funny and people turn in for a lot of different reasons, but Jim-Pam has become one of the great fictional relationships of our time. Eight-five percent of viewers care more about that fictional relationship than they do their own and how do you resolve that? This is what makes the show more than just a series of sketches.

I don't foresee a season where the two lethargic gazers are together, because, well, what then? Michael and Jan? Dwight and Angela? It doesn't matter how funny the show is, the Romeo and Juliet dynamic accounts for quite a bit and everything else will fail in comparison.

So that means it can't happen until the final episode ever, but how long are people willing to wait? Four years? Seven years? Ten years? Other sitcoms have stuck around for that long and none of them were as good as The Office so if anyone can pull it off, it might be this crew.

But honestly, I'm more interested to see how they play it rather than how it plays out, and that makes me a little uneasy...and probably a victim of overthnking.

(Aside: Thank you, NBC, for finally realizing that putting Scrubs between The Office and 30 Rock was like swapping crap for creme in an Oreo. Nine'o'clock no longer tastes like shit.)