Before we start assigning blame for a Cubs season gone sour by July, let's agree on one thing: There is plenty of blame to go around -- from general manager Jim Hendry to manager Lou Piniella to just about every player not named Derrek Lee.
Chalk it up as a lost weekend for the Cubs. They dropped two of three against the White Sox, and the one game they won -- a thrilling one-run victory Friday -- left everyone with a bad taste in their mouths thanks to twin blowups by manager Lou Piniella and right fielder Milton Bradley.
Just as reporters were being cleared from the clubhouse and just before the Cubs were to take the field for their pregame stretch Saturday, Milton Bradley slipped into manager Lou Piniella's office. And the door closed.
Here's everything you need to know about Milton Bradley. The setting was the opening homestand of the season. Bradley was expressing his unhappiness in Chicago during a contentious session with reporters. As he walked away, the oft-injured Bradley was asked: How do you feel?
Chris De Luca: Lou Piniella said all the right things on the eve of another Cubs-White Sox showdown. But deep down, you could tell his heart just wasn't in it. ''I enjoy the series with the White Sox, I really do,'' Piniella said with all the enthusiasm usually reserved for a traveler resigned to a flight delay. ''It's fun. The fans are really into it. It's a big deal back in Chicago. And it gets a little crazy at times, but that's OK.''
At some point during their three-game series this week against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the White Sox will play the classic fight song, ''Let's Go, Go-Go White Sox,'' and you can bet manager Ozzie Guillen will get a longing feeling for a team he doesn't quite possess.
Chris De Luca: A group of fans -- it looked like a family of about 10 decked out in gaudy Cubs gear -- gathered on the field during batting practice Thursday and flashed smiles for the camera. The famous scoreboard at Wrigley Field served as the perfect backdrop.
Chris De Luca: Mark me down as never being a fan of Sammy Sosa. It was nauseating to watch him ham for the WGN dugout cameras after all those home runs, listen to his ear-splitting music in the clubhouse and see his me-first circus play out 24-7. Sosa seemed to forget there were 24 other Cubs on the team during his reign.
They never peeled the tarp off the diamond at Wrigley Field on Tuesday, but the craziness that comes with any White Sox-Cubs gathering still played on through the rain. As players stayed dry in their cramped clubhouses, talk soon turned to Sammy Sosa, the disgraced slugger who called the North and South Sides home during his power-hitting career.
Chris De Luca: Clutch hitting, solid pitching and thrilling victories before a long-awaited day off. Life is good for the White Sox and Cubs as they open Round 1 of the city showdown tonight at Wrigley Field. Life is good, that is, as long as your memory stretches only to the weekend. The annual civic war is missing the requisite talk of a potential Sox-Cubs World Series rematch 103 years in the making.
