So many thoughts from this weekend. And lunch with Ronnie.

...Oswalt goes down and his replacement wins 3-1 in his major league debut. If Oswalt only misses 3 or 4 starts, the window of opportunity just got a whole lot smaller.

...Mark Grace, my least favorite player of the 90's, told the Chicago media that he wouldn't trade his title year with Arizona for any of the 13 years here in Chicago. Well, then why the hell weren't you more vocal about how bad the Cubs were while you were here? And why did you get bitter when they sent you out? And why were you so bitter when the D-Backs won? Were you really saying that you still wanted to be a Cub? Mark Grace is a loser. The fans ate up everything he did and he thanked them by being a good soldier and never rocking the Trib boat. We wanted to see a better team. Grace could have been a voice for the fan. Instead, he wanted to be Stoney's replacement. Thanks, pudknocker.

...Teams don't lose games like Saturday and expect to be a playoff team. You're gonna win 60 and lose 60. It's what you do in the other 40 that matter. You've gotta think that the 4-3 loss is one of the "other 40."

...Is there a more worthless hitter than Eric Karros? In the 5 hole, he hit .362/.400/.536 during July. He hit 2 home runs. He had a grand total of *7* RBI. And he only scored 9 runs. So he doesn't drive in runs, he doesn't score runs, but he has to play every day because he's tearing the cover off the ball. He then kills the Cubs with two brutal bases loaded/less than two out ABs (GIDP, short fly to right). Until he either causes guys to cross the plate or starts crossing the plate himself, I don't want to see this guy in uniform.

...Anyway to convice Pittsburgh to take a pitcher and let Bobby Hill play for the Cubs while free-agent-to-be Grudz is on the mend?

So, on Friday at 12:30, 12 of us sat down in the Wrigley Stadium Club with Ronnie Santo to discuss Life, the Universe, and Everything (and make 3 or 4 trips to the buffet). Ronnie was my favorite player when I was a lad. He's my least favorite broadcaster in town. He talked with us very openly and casually for about 45 minutes. He also showed why he's a better community outreach guy than a broadcaster. He told some funny stories about negotiating his contracts (he made $8,000 as a rookie). Said his health was fine and that the legs are great. He uses a cane for safety, not out of necessity. Some other fun banter.

Two "newsworthy" comments were when someone asked him about Pete Rose and when I asked him about what's wrong with the game. Regarding Rose, he was very clear that Rose had a problem and that he's had it forever. Santo said that Rose's jail time for emulating Al Capone is probably what kept him out of the Hall. But, Santo never said if he thinks Rose should be in -- and that was the question posed.

I asked what he would do to make the game better, if he were in Selig's shoes. Santo said the game needs to be sped up. "How you do that, I don't know," he finished. Gee, thanks Ron. You played the game for 15 years, commented on it for 10. Yet you have no idea on how to improve what you identify as baseball's most glaring need for improvement? Give me your solution to a problem that's fixable. Agents. Contracts. Expansion. Even speed of the game. This is why he's a terrible analyst. You tell me what you see. You don't tell me a better way to do it. Stoney really gets that. Ronnie doesn't.

Oh yeah, I left after the rain delay started. Good thing, too. Wife woulda killed me if I lefter her alone with the kids until 11.

Chuck