Roger Clemens potentially screws the Cubs too

No. 1 with a Rocket?...Interesting take from John Heyman regarding the potential fate of Carlos Zambrano on SI.com yesterday. According to him, the signing of Roger Clemens may have pushed HaGWilT to head of not only the free agent pitcher class but also the trading block:

Back in early April, Zambrano was close to signing a five-year extension with the Cubs for somewhere between $80-85 million. But then the Tribune Co. was sold to Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell, throwing Zambrano's all-but-done deal into limbo. Word is now that while Cubs general manager Jim Hendry would still love to lock up Zambrano, the matter is out of Hendry's hands.

After thinking he'd commit to his beloved Cubbies until into his 30s, word is that Zambrano's mindset is now such that he is preparing himself for a rather lucrative free agency. And that is the wise course because it looks as if free agency looms as a very real possibility for him.

From there, Heyman goes on to explain how Zambrano could be traded citing a rocky start to the Pinella-Big Z relationship. I'm not buying that, not with the Cubs streaking right now and winning in good ways (as opposed to three years of bad wins, and not many of them.) But the idea that the best thing to happen to the Cubs in my lifetime (the Tribune Co. releasing their loserly talons) could directly result in the worst thing in the past four years happening (Zambrano walking for free.)

I know that Carlos has his mental moments. Mercurial, I believe, is the term for his bouts of wildness and undue emotion. But that's precisely why he can't leave. It's not the 13-16 wins or the perennial 3.00 ERA or the strikeouts. Zambrano, at least superficially but I believe it runs deeper than that, cares about the Cubs. I feel like he hurts almost as much as I do when they lose and that's priceless.

Sure he only ranks #28 on SI's list of 50 players you'd want to build a team around. He's still the only Cub on the list. After the perceived cornerstones of Prior and Wood were mercilessly chipped away, all we had left was Zambrano and now he might walk. Forgive us if we become a little illogical at the mere mention of it. That's what Cubs fans do best.

Maybe Z isn't the savviest pitcher to build your rotation around, he's still got amazing stuff when he's on and, more importantly, he's one of us.

Just call us the Zambratistas. Viva Senor Carlos!

Morning Walk-thru - Marathons aren't won in the first three steps

Let another summer of eternal torment begin!!! By my estimation, the Cubs 2007 season was 12 minutes old before I was totally pissed off. They were a great 12 minutes: Soriano swung mightily at the first pitch of the season, Thunder Matt was silenced, Derrek Lee was caught stealing and Hagwilt kicked things off with a lead-off walk. Just what I had expected.

But then Carlos gave up a two-run shot to Adam freakin' Dunn. He of the .238 batting average who either hits a home run or doesn't hit at all. (And he did it again in his second plate appearance too.) That I didn't count on, but perhaps I should've. Hagwilt became only the third Cubs pitcher this century to start three consecutive opening day games, but he hasn't won a single one of them despite the fact that Chicago has won their last four season openers.

So maybe this is a good sign. The Cubs didn't win on Opening Day. Just let me have that one. April is for optimism.

Speaking of Opening Day...there is a flurry of coverage from all the team-specific writers over at Bugs & Cranks concerning baseball's launch. Yes, this is a shameless plug for a site that I write for on occasion, but I really believe that by offering one talented writer for every team in the league the site is giving something you can't get anywhere else

Arkansas loves Nebraskan coaches...I touched on the Dana Altman departure at length last night, but another interesting note courtesy of the Yun' Ball Coach: this is the third time Arkansas has absconded with a college coach from the Cornhusker State. (How's that for alliteration? It is National Poetry Month.)

First Eddie Sutton traded bluejay wings for cloven hooves, then Dave Van Horn left Nebraska to take over as the head coach of the Arkansas baseball team, and now Altman.

I guess the good thing about this pipeline is that it didn't run both ways when the Cornhuskers came a'callin on Houston Nutt.

Florida wins the National Title. The rest of us lose...If you consider yourself a college football or basketball fan and you're not a Gator, you lost last night. I've never rooted for The Ohio State University in anything, but I was the biggest Buckeye ever last night.

College sports are built on bragging rights. They're what allow us to get through the lean times, and Florida has them ALL right now. Football and back-to-back basketball titles. An unprecedented run. All I can say, Florida fans, is enjoy it. This will be the best year of your life and the pendulum will eventually swing the other way. It doesn't feel that way now, but it will. As a Nebraska football fan, I never felt like 2004 could happen either. 5-6? No bowl game? Unranked? Right.

But it did, and you know what got me through those tough times? You should, they both involve your school. 1) Terrell Taylor's game winning three over you boys in 2002 for Creighton, and 2) the ultimate ass-kicking in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl. 62-24.

Does this sound pathetic? It does now. You're the undisputed champions of everything. But it won't. It won't somewhere down the line.

The Morning Walk-thru - Big Z knows "The Secret"

My love for Hagwilt knows no bounds...Just when I think Carlos "HAve Gun WILl Travel" Zambrano couldn't have provided a more entertaining Spring, he opens his mouth again.

This time, Hagwilt thought it was worth noting that he could've gone nine in his first start of the season instead of two, but what followed was even better:

"I belive this year, I can win the Cy Young, and besdies that we will win the World Series. I guarantee that. I have faith in that."

As sports fans, I think we're immune to guarantees at this point. You'll get at least five of them in the upcoming NBA Playoffs, but it's not that Hagwilt guaranteed a championship that's interesting. It's how he did it. Real non-chalant.

Let me translate. What Carlos was really saying was:

I'll probably win the Cy Young this year after getting shafted last year where I won a quarter of my team's games by myself, but I doubt anyone will really notice, what with us ending the most infamous streak in sport and all. I believe this, thus it will be so. I too have been reading The Secret.

Sweet Lou's response to his fiery fireballer's comments?

"You've got an emotional manager, for God's sake. Sure, I like an emotional pitcher...You can't have 25 Stepford Wives."

Damn right, Lou. That movie sucked.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it...In other Cubs related news, both Prior and Wood pitched yesterday in the same game and the world did not immediately fall victim to the plague.

Wood was pretty sharp, getting three outs on 12 pitches, but Prior struggled, giving up three runs on four hits and two walks in less than two innings.

What does this mean? The usual. They'll both be on the DL by Memorial Day.

It's so much worse than I thought...Last week I postulated that Florida's new gator-skin jerseys would be their tournament specials from Nike that I'd been hearing so much about. If only it were that simple.

Turns out that themed-prints simply aren't enough for the sportswear giant. Instead, the've decided to make the cagers at Ohio State, Syracuse, Florida, and Arizona look like they're participating in the NFL combine with shirts that are 10 inches smaller through the torso, shorts that appear to be 10 inches longer (who would've thought that even possible?), and, most notably, sleeves. Take that Evansville!

Check out the garb below...




The new look will debut tonight, so all that remains to be seen is who will look the most ridiculous: Matt Gorman, Matt Terwilliger, or Bret Brielmaier.

I'm not sure which is more alarming. The fact that all the options listed just happen to be big dorky white guys, or how easy it was to pick out the big dorky white guys on the rosters based on name alone.

Either way, Nike has officially become your mom when it comes to dressing kids for school.

The Morning Walk-thru - A New Name for Big Z

So this is what Powerman 5000 meant...according to the Washington Post yesterday, we might get to find out what happens when two worlds collide as XM and Sirius are mulling a merger. I'm firmly on the XM side of the argument here for a couple of reasons: a) I have XM and not Sirius because b) listening to baseball is a far superior experience than listening to football, and c) I don't give a damn about Howard Stern.

With that said, check out the potential sports radio line-up if this happens: NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, MLB, UEFA Champions League and Barclays English Premiere League, PGA, Indy Car and every college team that matters. You can even get the crazy Canuck Football League if you're interested.

I don't know anything about anti-trust laws, but there seems to be some skepticism as to whether or not this deal will get done, especially when you consider that the competition they're planning to cite is the iPod. How does that affect satellite radio? Fourteen million people are anxious to find out.

Jim Hendry, today you are, indeed, deft...absolutely loved the headline over on Cubs.com announcing that Zambrano and the Cubs had avoided arbitration. This is good because, as Carrie Muskat (deftly?) points out later in that same article, there are definite winners and losers in arbitration. In fact, the Cubs are 3-2 all time in arbitration for a .600 winning percentage which is markedly better than their .513 all-time mark on the field.

Oh, the Cubs. They haven't won a World Series since 1908, but they jobbed Mark Grace just 14 short years ago.

I'm glad they got to avoid the namecalling. Hopefully this makes Carlos happy and gives the Cubs a shot at inking him long-term, but perhaps more important this allows me to unveil my new nickname for Big Z: Hagwilt.

It started when Carlos made his third-person extension request and I started thinking "Have Gun Will Travel" will surely be a headline somewhere. (It wasn't.) That doesn't exactly roll off the tongue or fingers, so I went military style and came up with the acronym: HaGWilT.
Account for proper noun capitalization and adjust for ease of typing and finally you get to Hagwilt. Kind of Harry Potter, no?

It's either that or Paladin.

Synthetic substances continue to plague MLB...I was all set to buy my first New Era 5950 in years to celebrate the start of spring training. Lately, I've been sporting the Twins Enterprise Franchise model, in a couple of different teams, because, well, that's what white dudes wear. But then I saw this 5950 Surgery post over on Bugs & Cranks and I realized that it had been awhile since I had gotten my hands dirty and gutted an authentic. The timing was perfect, pitchers and catchers had just reported and I'd have six weeks to get my new lid into game shape.

But then an AP report on boston.com reminded me of something I read weeks ago on Uniwatch: New Era is ditching the all-wool caps of the past in favor of a new polyester blend. Now I'm having second thoughts.

I'm probably sadder about this than I have any right to be, but the wool cap was the last link modern baseball had left to the old flannels. Now it's all about moisture-wicking. Wherever there is moisture in sport, it simply must be wicked away as quickly and efficiently as possible. Every time a league debuts one of these fancy new smart uniforms we're made to believe it is the greatest innovation in player comfort since the athletic supporter. Can we even compare players today to players from non-wick eras?

Personally I'll miss the sweat stains from the hike-your-pants-up, one gamer per season guys. I'm going out today in search of any woolies still left on the market and I urge you to do the same. (And if you really want to go authentic and get a horsehide band, check out Cooperstown Ball Cap Co.)

UPDATE: Some bad news...retailers were alerted to the impending switch from wool to polyester a few weeks after the season was over and have been selling down their old stock all winter, so if you're like me and have an average head size, finding one of the wool soliders might be difficult.

Some good news...if you do happen to find your size, there's a good chance it might be on sale. I picked one up for $20 today and the mod is complete.

The Morning Walk-Thru - 24 the Hard Way

Z-DAY?...Last night, Carlos Zambrano was reportedly 85-90% sure that Carlos Zambrano wouldn't go to arbitration today with the Cubs, but Gordon Wittenmeyer of the Sun-Times isn't sold. This is a sour turn as I expected to get to lunch today and find that the Cubs had at least appeased Big Z with a 1-year deal.

Now, that may not be the case. Aside from the all the logical reasons the Cubs should just give Zambrano his deal (he's your only reliable pitcher, he actually shows that he cares about winning, he's better than anyone else who'll be available one year from now) perhaps the most important reason is this: Zambrano is as volatile as 30-year-old TNT. To go to court and try to convince an independent party that he's not worth at least the agreed upon mid-point could be particularly damaging for the young flamethrower. Shouldn't the Cubs just continue to let the hand of God destroy their pitching staff rather than doing it themselves?

Z is a little crazy and that's why I love him, but if the two explosive references above weren't enough I'll give you one more: expressing doubt in Carlos' abilities truly is playing with fire.


KU-KSU Still Not a Rivalry...Back in October at Midnight Madness, Bob Huggins claimed that KU-KSU would be a rivalry once the Wildcats ended the Jayhawks 23-game winning streak...in Manhattan. It didn't happen last night. The Jayhawks haven't lost in the Little Apple since before Lucas unleashed Return of the Jedi on the world. Even Nebraska, who has never won an NCAA tournament game and who has lost their two games to the Jayhawks this year by a collective 73-points, has dusted Rock Chalk off at home a couple of times in that period.


K-State was in the game for the most part, but they faded down the stretch in embarrassing fashion. This may have been due to the fact that Huggins looked like he had just gotten of his overnight shift as a croupier at Harrah's in Topeaka, wearing a long-sleeved purple polo under a black vest. Turns out, he's fond of the look.


I knew Vegas wouldn't let me down...Sunday night, I questioned whether or not the Vegas All-Star game had been a bust in terms of debauchery, but the stories are starting to come out and it looks like Pac Man Jones, a place called Minxx (excessive x usage always spells "tawdry"), and Michael Jordan may be involved.


That whole "what happens in Vegas" thing is great for the average Joe looking to lose a weekend in sin, but if you've got any juice whatsoever it should probably read: "What happens in Vegas will be blogged about within the next two days."