The streak lives on

Try as they might, the lowly Cubs couldn't end my personal winning streak, which now stands at 8 after their crazy 15-11 win over the White Sox this afternoon. (In my last post, I had mentioned that it would have been 7 with a win, but I was actually 1 off.) With Carlos Zambrano and Mark Buerhle facing off, the matchup featured the two teams' respective aces, both of whom will represent their clubs in the all-star game this month (Buerhle will start for the AL). I was expecting a pitcher's duel, but a football game broke out (albeit one in which both teams got a two-point conversion). Although I can't say for sure, I'm pretty confident that the wind was blowing out of the park today, which would explain the combined 9 home runs hit by the two teams today. (Interesting note: besides Michael Barrett, none of the Cubs batters who hit home runs today—Carlos Zambrano, Neifi Perez, and Angel Pagan twice—are home run hitters—or even good hitters, for that matter.)


After the White Sox scored twice with 2 outs in the top of the first, I figured this would be a long day. That feeling was short-lived, however, as the Cubs jumped all over Buerhle in the bottom half of the frame. Usually he shuts down the Cubs, even when they're actually playing well, but not today. He got lit up like a Christmas tree to the tune of 7 runs, and with that the craziness was underway. Not trusting the Cubs, I didn't want to party too soon, and the Sox came fighting back several times. Thankfully, the Cubs matched every jab with an uppercut of their own, and they managed to hold off the South Siders, at least for one game.


Before the game, Stacey noticed a guy sitting in the section in front of ours sporting a Neifi Perez jersey. This, of course, trails only the Jose Macias jersey I saw being worn by some confused soul at a game last year. Anyway, I think the guy must have been on to something, as Neifi went 2/5 with 4 RBI. I'm thinking the Cubs should give him and me season tickets, as we obviously inject life into this team just by being there.

Speaking of the streak, here's a list of the last 11 Cubs games I've attended, along with the Cubs' starting pitcher. Although I don't recall the dates of games I went to previously, I think my record of 10-1 with an 8-game winning streak speaks for itself:

• 8/08/2001: Cubs 2, Rockies 1 (Jason Bere)
  
• 5/15/2003: Cubs 4, Brewers 2 in 17 innings (Kerry Wood)
  
• 7/13/2003: Braves 7, Cubs 2 (Carlos Zambrano)
  
• 7/17/2004: Cubs 5, Brewers 0 (Greg Maddux)
  
• 8/19/2004: Cubs 9, Brewers 6 (Maddux)
  
• 4/24/2005: Cubs 5, Pirates 2 (Wood)
  
• 5/24/2005: Cubs 4, Astros 2 (Sergio Mitre)
  
• 6/28/2005: Cubs 2, Brewers 0 (Zambrano)
  
• 9/13/2005: Cubs 4, Reds 3 in 10 innings (Zambrano)
  
• 4/9/2006: Cubs 8, Cardinals 4 (Sean Marshall)
  
• 7/2/2006: Cubs 15, White Sox 11 (Zambrano)

I know I'm kind of going around in circles here, but I do have a few more comments about the game. Most of the fans for both sides were fairly well-behaved, at least from what I could see. There were a couple of obnoxious White Sox fans sitting a few rows behind us, but verbal abuse is to be expected at any baseball game so I wasn't really surprised. I will say that the Sox, while lacking a lot of big-name players, are a team that flat-out refuses to give up and is a nightmare for an opposing team to close out. It doesn't matter how many runs they are down or how late it is in the game, they always manage to claw their way back into the game. I give them a lot of credit for that.

Okay, enough baseball for now—I did do other stuff this weekend, you know. (Speaking of this weekend, I have to mention how nice it is to type this up from my own bedroom on a Sunday night. I really wish I didn't have to fly back to Phoenix!) On Saturday, as I mentioned in my last post, Stacey and I went furniture shopping. After finding out that we could pay $400 for the washer and dryer belonging to our future house's current tenants, we had three major purchases to make: couch, dining room table, and bed. We managed to get the couch and bed, leaving us with a table still to be bought. Hopefully that gets taken care of soon, but all in all it wasn't a bad day. We ended up getting a LA-Z-BOY two-cushioned, reclining couch, which is very comfortable. As for the bed, it's king size with springs that are not only comfy (and sport memory foam, to boot), they also somehow manage to absorb movement so that one person doesn't get woken up when the other tosses and turns. That is a very nice feature, as I tend to move a lot while sleeping.

In the course of shopping, I have to say that I have found a new equal for car salesmen: bed salesmen. Oh my gosh, they can be really pushy and desperate. Okay, maybe it was just the one guy we saw—he had half-inch long fingernails (no joke) and tried everything he could to get us to buy a bed without leaving the store. We ended up going to comparison shop at two other bed stores, one of which had the bed we eventually chose. We really did not want to go back to face the slightly-creepy fingernail guy, so it was a relief to find a great bed somewhere else. The fact that the salesman there knew how to do his job properly was a pleasant surprise.

I've been rambling these last few paragraphs, so I think I'm going to call it a night. It's 11:30 here, and I need to get some beauty rest. Have a great Fourth of July, everybody! I'll be back with a fantasy baseball update soon.

-Mark