KUDOS to the kids from the JACKIE ROBINSON LITTLE LEAGUE on the south side of chicago, who won the UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP on saturday before falling to SOUTH KOREA in the sunday title game. let's hope they go on to be upstanding citizens.

but if they stay in that neighborhood, the sad reality is that two of them will be shot sometime during the next five years, six of them will drop out of high school and four will father children while still a teenager. ELEVEN of them will be the victim of a crime and seven of them will be in the criminal justice system before they turn seventeen. 

mom & dad, you can change their futures. you can't win the battle long term because the gangbangers will just keep on shooting until they hit someone. this week it was a nine year old & a ten year old in seperate incidents. is your kid next? GET OUT of the south side. 

i made a visit to WRIGLEY FIELD on saturday and the day turned into a near disaster when the rains came. HOW DOES HEAD GROUNDSKEEPER ROGER BAIRD KEEP HIS JOB? first, the fiasco on tuesday against the giants and the cubs still haven't figured out which lie to use for that. too much overtime? lack of personnel? tarp was rolled up incorrectly?  (sounds like all three of those would be in roger's domain) .................and then saturday's  folly.

i will say the grounds crew DID get the tarp down in time on saturday BUT then they had to stand on the edge of the tarp like human sandbags & lightning rods in a driving rainstorm for about 5 minutes until someone found a couple of sandbags to hold the tarp down.  woefully inadequate.

on a serious note, the driving rain forced the fans to retreat under the roof. after about twenty minutes of monsoon, we decided to call it a day and headed down to the main concourse to exit the building. GRIDLOCK! thousands of people on the ground floor unable to move.  ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE for public safety or any type of rescue unit to get into the building because there was just no room to move in the archaic and crumbling stadium.

 FYI---there are but three exits from wrigley field....right field foul pole, left field foul pole and behind home plate. if someone had a health issue and went down, they would have been trampled. or died on the spot.  it took us 25 minutes to move from third base to the home plate exit. better soaked outside than dead inside.

if you see something large bobbing in the waters of lake michigan and barely staying afloat, it's probably the white sox so DON'T throw them a life preserver.  some things are better off dying and ending the misery.   NINETEEN LOSSES in august (with a week to go) and losers of six in a row AND thirteen of their last seventeen. and they're averaging 2 runs a game in those 13 losses.  good thing the players haven't quit on robin ventura.

well, the BEARS wasted no time cleaning house after that debacle in seattle on friday night.  THIRTEEN players got whacked including CARSON PALMER, ADRIAN WILSON and NATE COLLINS. twenty five more players get cut this week including three on tuesday.

THE CHICAGO SKY failed to close out their playoff series, losing 92-83 AT HOME and now must travel to atlanta for the deciding game on tuesday night.

adios for now.