Saturday, July 28, 2001

It's a great time to be a Cubs fan. Their pitching staff is better than any I've ever seen in the Windy City, they've got a four game lead in the NL Central, and they have just acquired veteran Fred McGriff from Tampa Bay to help them in the playoff stretch.

Despite all the pesky little concrete factors that have led to the Cubbies' success so far, I credit it to the fact that I've only been able to catch one game on WGN this season, thus avoiding my own personal, unintentional jinx on the team. (Despite the fact that they won that contest as well, I remain convinced they do better when I'm not looking.) With each victory, I follow the game reports more closely and spend more time pouring over box scores and game analysis.

The prospect of a Cubs pennant and World Series chase presents me with a dilemma. I'm not a huge sports guy. My true athletic love, pro football, is right around the corner. Will I be able to divide my limited sports attention between the inhabitants of the Friendly Confines as they charge toward the post-season and the gridiron antics of the Boys of Autumn? Stay tuned.

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At the risk of going all Dick Gregory so early in my 'blogging life, here's another wrinkle on the whole tax rebate thing I've been ranting about for the past few days.

Tim passes on word of a tremendous program on the GiveForChange Web site. If you donate to a charity via their donation function in the amount of $300 or $600, they will match your contribution dollar for dollar. The program is capped at one million dollars, and ends November 1st. I, for one, would love to see every dollar earmarked for this program spent. If you're considering giving your windfall to charity, and if you can find groups on the GiveForChange roster that you want to support, why not double the bang for your buck?

Posted @ 12:19 PM

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