The Dog Days of August

Hello again Everybody and welcome to my newest edition of CubbieFever'08.  Well the Cubs just wrapped up their 9 game home-stand by beating the Cardinals 6-2 and giving Dempster his 13th win of the year.  Did you know Ryan's highest win total as a starter came all the way back in 2001 when he won 14 games with the Marlins?  He had 13 wins in 2000, so if all the stars align correctly for dempy he should be breaking his career high right around when Washington comes into town in the middle of the month.  Speaking of the schedule, we are now in what most of the tv analysts like to call the dog days of August.  Why do they call it that?? I don't know but it is catchy.  But it seems like just yesterday we were saying it's a long season yet, with lots of baseball to play still.  Here we are with 44 games left in the season and only 19 of those being here in the friendly confines.  So now is the time where every pitch and every game means alot more than just another win or loss, its also dropping that ever hopefully falling magic number.  And the sooner the better for the Cubs who do have a couple of players who look like they are wearing down a little bit.  The most noticable being Kosuke Fukudome, who's batting average has steadily fallen since late June and went a horrendous 3 for 28 in this latest homestand.  Even Lou had something to say about his struggles in his press conference after Sunday nights game, saying that he needed to pick up his offense, because while his defense is stellar there are a few bodies sitting on that bench whose bat and glove are performing well and are desperately seeking more playing time.  Watch out Kosuke you could very quickly become a highly paid and sought after bench player before you know it.  Back to the upcoming schedule again, Did anyone pay attention to the last 7 games of the season?  Ouch, talk about really sticking it to the Cubs, it starts with 4 straight games in NY against a more than likely playoff competing Mets, then ending the season with three in Miller Park against a Brewer team who will be either right on our butts and/or right in the wild card race.  If you even look at the whole month of Sept. that Mets series is the only time we play a non-divisional opponent that month, with only 9 home games for the entire month!  So like I said earlier lets build on that lead and get that magic number down as far as we can with our last remaining home games, because I don't know about you but I would rather be going into those last seven games just looking for maybe a win or two rather than worring about it knocking us out of a second straight division title.  Till next time Cubbie Nation this is Fro and Go Cubs Go!!!