The fire sale (that Jim Hendry insists isn’t a fire sale) at Wrigley Field is officially underway with the news that the Chicago Cubs have traded outfielder Kosuke Fukudome to the Cleveland Indians for a pair of prospects.

This is the second trade Hendry has put together with Indians GM Mark Shapiro. The first was the deal that sent Mark DeRosa to the Tribe in exchange for Chris Archer, James Russell and John Gaub. Turns out the trade was one of the rare deals that benefited both squads. Cleveland flipped DeRosa to the St. Louis Cardinals to acquire closer Chris Perez, while the Cubs turned Archer (and other trade chips) into Matt Garza.

So, what did Hendry get out of Shapiro this time?It doesn’t seem like much, especially considering the Cubs are picking up a chunk of Fukudome’s remaining salary.

Carlton Smith is a 25-year-old right-hander who is 2-3 with a 4.50 earned run average in 34 relief appearances in Triple-A Columbus. He’s got 46 strikeouts in 46 innings of work, but the rest of his numbers aren’t really worth repeating. On paper, it looks as if the Cubs just got another warm body to call up and eat roster space if necessary.

The big fish of the deal just might be Abner Abreu, a 21-year-old outfielder still making his way through the organizational ranks. Unfortunately, his only redeeming quality seems to be the fact that he’s only 21 and at Class-A ball. Meaning, he probably still has a lot he can learn and there is room for growth.

Hopefully, that’s the case because that .244/.294/.429/.723 slash line isn’t pretty.

I’m not at all surprised the Cubs didn’t get anything quality out of Cleveland’s system, which hasn’t produced anything worth a damn in years.

Look at Cleveland’s top hitters and you’ll realize they all came via trade. Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore, Shin-Soo Choo, Michael Brantley and Carlos Santana were all acquired in deals. Staff ace Justin Masterson and the aforementioned closer (Chris Perez) were also brought along via the trade waters.

To me, that says that their GM has quite the eye for others’ talents and has shown the ability to swindle teams out of their unpolished or undiscovered gems.

As for Fukudome, the Indians get an outfielder with good plate discipline, good range in the outfield and a guy who I thought could be a valuable piece on a contending team because of his high OBP at the plate and defensive skillset in the field.

Meaning, he had no place on this miserable roster of misfits.

So, where does this make sense for the Cubs?

It allows the team to bring up Tyler Colvin to see how much of his 20-homer rookie season was a fluke only to bench him in favor of Tony Campana.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

I guess that’s what it takes to be Chicago’s top columnist these days.

On Saturday, Cowley posted a column titled “Pirates on rebound, Cubs should take notes” from PNC Park as he took in the action featuring two teams headed in opposite directions.

Unfortunately, Cowley doesn’t do much to take readers through what the Pirates have done in the three years since Neal Huntington took over for Dave Littlefield. Instead, Cowley’s opening seven grafs (145 words to be preceise) are used to take us back to 1992, when Sid slid and Barry Bonds’ head didn’t require its own zip code.

(For those of you scoring at home, that’s 17 percent of the column wasted on something that happened when Starlin Castro was two years old.)

Eventually, Cowley makes his point. Then, it only takes Cowley 20 grafs Cowley gets to his real point.

Look, moneyball was cute for a few years, and even earned an overrated GM such as the Oakland Athletics’ Billy Beane a best-selling book and a soon-to-be-released movie. Then pitchers Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson and Barry Zito moved on, and Moneyball went to paperback in more ways than one.

Nothing like another half-hearted swipe at Moneyball to get the creative juices flowing, huh?

Joe Cowley vs. Moneyball is a pretty unfair fight in Chicago. Considering that its baseball teams and fans are so stuck in their traditional ways, this battle likely resembles LeBron James vs. Kyle Korver on the hardwood or Ray Lewis vs. Garrett Wolfe on the gridiron.

Cowley, the long-time White Sox beat writer and No. 1 pom-pom waver, has been clear in his distaste for Moneyball, which also tends to fall in line with the way many people think on the Southside, especially when Hawk Harrelson is calling it the biggest fraud in baseball history — conveniently forgetting that whole Steroid Era thing actually existed.

And if that is the case and Moneyball is in fact, the biggest farce since Milli and Vanilli took to the stage, then the Cubs should be first in line to attempt their own little ponzi scheme.

Contrary to popular belief, the Moneyball A’s weren’t built by a team of lonely nerds looking for love only to find it in a Bill James handbook.

Tim Hudson was drafted in the sixth round of the 1997 amateur draft. Mark Mulder was Oakland’s first-round choice in 1998. Barry Zito was the Athletics’ first-round selection in 1999.

Jason Giambi was drafted in the second round of the 1992 amateur draft. Miguel Tejada was signed as an amateur free agent in 1993. Eric Chavez was drafted as the 10th overall selection in the 1996 draft.

The six players who played the biggest role in the Athletics’ success from 2000 to 2003, when Oakland won 392 games and made four straight postseason appearances, were all homegrown talents.

So, what’s the problem with Moneyball again?

I don’t know what Cowley thinks the concept of Moneyball is, but I have a hunch that my conclusion differs from his.

In my world, Moneyball is about collecting young, inexpensive talent through drafts and trades and watching it excel at the big league level while it still is at a bargain price.

• In 2000, the A’s had three All-Stars (Jason Giambi, Tim Hudson and Jason Isrinhausen) making a combined $4.1 million.
• In 2002, Oakland’s two ASG reps (Barry Zito and Miguel Tejada) made a combined $3.9 million.
• In 2003, $11.5 million was the combined salary of All-Stars Keith Foulke, Mark Mulder, Ramon Hernandez and Zito.

Now, that’s getting bang for your buck.

(And sadly, it puts Alfonso Soriano’s $18 million salary in perspective doesn’t it?)

Back to Moneyball’s concept, once said talent hits a price premium (see the escalating price tags on Zito, Mulder, Tejada and Giambi) the franchise could no longer afford, it is shipped off for younger, cheaper talent that can do the same job at a lesser price.

(See: Mulder for Dan Haren trade.)

Considering Tom Ricketts just spent $800 million, the Moneyball method just might be the right plan of attack for the Cubs.

Even if the great Joe Cowley thinks otherwise.

They are 27-39, 10 games out of first place and 12 games under the .500 mark. If not for the always LOL-worthy Houston Astros, the Cubs wouldn’t just have the worst record in the NL Central, but they would own the worst record in the National League.

They have a Triple-A manager who seems overmatched, a Triple-A pitching coach who is understaffed and an owner who is resorting to Triple-A promotions to sell tickets.

So, naturally, the logical move is to run to Wrigley Field wielding torches and pitchforks and ask for Wrigley Field to be torn down.

Wait. What?

This shouldn’t be breaking news to anyone, especially with someone that has a high baseball IQ, such as Peter Gammons.

Gammons got the ball rolling by calling Wrigley Field a dump.

Where was Gammons in 2003, when the Cubs were five outs away from winning the NLCS and going to its first World Series since 1945

Or what about when the team won consecutive division titles in 2007 and 2008?

Was there a need to burn Wrigley down and start over?

I’m not sure where Gammons has been the last decade, but much hasn’t changed about Wrigley Field in that time span.

There is protective netting still in place to save the common man from having concrete fall on his head.

(Though, at times, that seems like a better alternative than watching Jeff Spellcheck pitch in a high-leverage situation.)

The bathrooms still have more troughs than stalls. And I still think that’s a good thing because it logically is the best way to accommodate large crowds of people trying to use the restroom at the same time.

The clubhouses are as comfortable as your first dinner with the in-laws. But why should I care about that? It’s not like I’m prepping to play a game. I spend much of my pre-game time in my seat or on the ‘L’ en route to the stadium.

The seats are still too small to accommodate a population that has grown in height and width since the ball park was opened in 1914.

We get it, Pete. No one could evah get it right like the Sawks did with Fenway.

* * *

Then, Rick Morrissey found it to be a good time to pile on and co-sign by delivering an over-the-top salvo against the ol’ ball park on Clark and Addison.

And leave it to a journalist with a degree from Northwestern University’s acclaimed school of journalism to bury the lead in the 19th paragraph.

“No matter how uncomfortable the seats at Wrigley might be, the lack of a winning product is a bigger burr in fans’ saddle.”

You don’t say?

The complaints about Wrigley’s crumbling facade conveniently took a back seat when the Cubs didn’t suck. And rightfully so.

You know, it’s not Wrigley Field’s fault the Cubs own a .409 winning percentage heading into today’s game. Is it the stadium’s fault that Jim Hendry drafted Josh Vitters ahead of Jason Heyward, Madison Bumgarner and Matt Wieters. Hell, it’s not even Wrigley Field’s fault that the Chicago Tribune, the Cubs’ former owner and Morrissey’s former employer, made a minimal effort to keep the ball park up to code and in good shape over its two decades of ownership.

Maybe Morrissey should have written this column back then.

* * *

I likely would have just let it be and chalked it up to another waste of internet space if not for Morrissey’s Sun-Times teammate Joe Cowley deciding to throw gasoline and matches on the fire with a round of tweets that only served as a reminder that without a day-to-day beat to cover, Cowley is nothing more than a version Jay Mariotti that actually attends ball games throughout their entirety.

“Next week is the perfect time for Cubbie fan to come to the Cell, see a real ballpark, throw his little blue “C” hat in the trash and live.”

Honestly, I love that Cowley’s idea of “a real ballpark” just happens to have its insides resemble the presumably “fake ballpark” with all the green seats and shrubbery beyond the center field batter’s eye.

Why do I feel as if U.S. Cellular Field’s renovation plans have Woody Paige’s signature in the lower right hand corner?

Look, Wrigley Field needs modernization like Alfonso Soriano needs plate discipline. But the stadium is old, get over it. The only thing that needs more repairs than the stadium is the team that resides within its four walls.

What the people lining up to work the wrecking ball at Wrigley need to realize is that the only thing that can cure what ails the park is a successful team between the white lines.

Comfort be damned. I’d rather see a good product at a “dump” of a stadium than a bad product at a sparkling new facility.

Fact is, there would be much more money generated from fannies in the seats, concessions sold, marketing revenue and television dollars if the team was 39-27 instead of the other way around.

As it stands, the 27-39 record means the focus has turned to an aging stadium when the spotlight should be on an aging, overpaid nucleus.

Would a state-of-the-art stadium serving as the new home of my favorite baseball team make my day? Of course.

Would tearing down Wrigley Field kill my soul? Of course not.

Just win some games and suddenly, Wrigley Field will have charm again. Even if the bathrooms smell like *gasps* urine.

In Game 5 of the 2011 NBA Finals, a game which James himself coined as the biggest game of his career, the Miami Heat star put all of his talents on display.

In the words of Ice Cube — you know, when he was a rapper and not a shell of his former self — last night LeBron messed around and got a triple double.

You want to think that 17 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists would be impressive in a way. Especially considering it came from a 6-foot-8-inch, 250-pound specimen of an athlete.

But really, it wasn’t.

Mostly because it came in a loss.

Still, many scrambled to James’ defense after the loss. They took note of the triple double as just another piece of evidence of LeBron’s greatness that in such a big game, he filled the stat sheet admirably.

Stat boys be damned!

(This, coming from a self-proclaimed stat kid.)

James’ triple double immediately took me to a different place — 2006.

That’s when Juan Pierre, then of the Chicago Cubs, put up the most statistically hollow season baseball fans on the northside have probably ever seen.

In his lone year with the Cubs, Pierre posted what seem to be solid, big-league caliber numbers. He hit .292 out of the lead-off spot, stole 58 bases and racked up 204 hits.

Respectable numbers, for sure.

Until you actually look at them.

In the first two months of the season, Pierre posted a .240/.276/.309 slashline. Considering that Pierre was supposed to be the sparkplug lead-off guy that was supposed to make Cubs fans forget Kenny Lofton.

The Cubs went 20-32 over that 52-game stretch.

Some sparkplug, huh?

Hell, yours truly would rather have had Corey Patterson or Felix Pie out there. At least then, Ricky Nolasco would have still been on the team. Not that the Cubs need any quality starting pitching or anything.

Pierre picked up 52 hits in April and May. That’s right, kids. Fifty-two games. Fifty-two hits.

Meaning that I’m supposed to be impressed with the 152 hits he accumulated in the 110 games from June 1 through October 1.

Well, I’m not. And anyone who is probably deserves to be punched in the face repeatedly. Or face a worse punishment, like watching Juan Pierre take 750 plate appearances.

It will be argued that Pierre was a great base stealer and that his appreciation for the lost art of the swiped bag is overlooked in today’s game.

And if you make that argument, you, too, deserve a swift kick in the crotch.

Pierre was caught 20 times in 2006. That number represents 26 percent of his base stealing attempts.

I don’t care where you got your education. Harvard. Southern Illinois. Kennedy-King Community College. It doesn’t take Bill James and his gang of statisticians to tell you getting caught stealing 26 percent of the time isn’t good for your numbers or good for your team’s success.

By the time the “good” JP showed up to play, the Cubs were already 12 games under .500. And even when Pierre turned his season around, posting a .315 average and .354 on-base percentage, the Cubs went 46-64 en route to a 96-loss season that would mercifully bring the Dusty Baker Era to an end.

To put it in perspective, James’ triple double was so hollow last night, it had me thinking about Juan Frickin’ Pierre.

And that’s how you know you had a bad night.

Move over, Jay Cutler. Carlos Zambrano has re-taken his spot at the top of the list of most polarizing Chicago athletes.

The excitable and unpredictable Big Z did so Sunday with his post-game rant after the Cubs 3-2 extra-inning loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. The loss completed a sweep of the Northsiders at Busch Stadium and sent the team to its sixth straight defeat.

Via Cubs.com beat writer, Carrie Muskat:

“The problem wasn’t Pujols,” Zambrano said. ” The problem was the previous at-bat. We should know better than this. We played like a Triple-A team. This is embarrassing, embarrassing for the team, for the owners, for the fans. Embarrassing. That’s the word for this team. We should know better than this, we should know better than we did on the field. We should know that Ryan Theriot is not a good fastball hitter. We should know that as a team. We should play better here. We stink. That’s all I’ve got to say.”

Wait, so what was so bad about that?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

In fact, I woke up this morning wanting to write about how this Zambrano’s post-game statement was a non-story.

Though, really, the non-story here is Zambrano throwing his teammate Carlos Marmol under the bus.

Much was made about the comment directed at Marmol’s pitch selection to Ryan Theriot. However, there’s a gigantic hole inside this argument considering the fact that Zambrano fails to directly mention Marmol by name.

In fact, Z takes a very wide-angled approach to his statement.

“We should know better than this, we should know better than we did on the field.”

“We should know that Ryan Theriot is not a good fastball hitter. We should know that as a team.”

“We should play better here. We stink.”

He didn’t say “Carlos Marmol should know better than this.” Nor did the words “Carlos Marmol stinks.”

This is far from throwing a teammate under the bus. This is the exact opposite. This is a player who many have labeled a me-first guy clearly pointing out that — as a team — the Cubs simply aren’t getting the job done.

In any case, if anyone knows that Theriot can’t get around on a quality fastball it’s the Cubs, who saw it time and again when he was on the roster flailing away and failing at the most inopportune times.

The most frustrating point, as a Cubs fan, is some of the social media abuse Zambrano took on various Twitter and Facebook accounts. Look, if I go through your timeline and see that you’ve said worse things about the Cubs than Zambrano has, then you’re not allowed to criticize him for saying what you’ve been tweeting, but in a different forum and in a different tone.

Sorry, your hypocritical stance won’t fly with yours truly.

Full disclosure: Carlos Zambrano is probably one of my three favorite Cubs.

The funny thing about how some media and fans have reacted to the Zambrano stuff is that Big Z does everything meatball fans, writers and talk-radio hosts want.

He plays hard in all facets of the game. He runs the bases harder than Aramis Ramirez or Alfonso Soriano, who Cubs fans and analysts openly bash as lazy whenever the opportunity arises.

Zambrano openly loves Chicago and has a sense of loyalty to the Cubs organization. He’s been on the record saying his love for the city and the organization is part of why he has refused to waive his no trade clause.

He speaks his mind and hasn’t been afraid to show emotion.

And now we’re supposed to hate him?

Ridiculous.

The fact is that Carlos Zambrano has been arguably the city’s most productive starting pitcher in the three-plus years since signing his contract extension. Has he lived up to the $96 million billing? Not quite. But it’s not as if he’s gone Carlos Boozer on us.

Zambrano has the highest winning percentage of any active Chicago starting pitcher since 2008.

He has made more starts than Jake Peavy and has a lower earned run average in that time span than Ryan Dempster, Mark Buehrle, Gavin Floyd, Edwin Jackson and John Danks.

Yet, David Haugh thinks the Cubs should suspend Zambrano until the Cubs find a trade partner for him rather than watch the team’s most movable commodity’s stock rise as he continues to pitch his best ball in recent memory. Thankfully, Doc Blume has a rather solid takedown of Haugh at his website this morning.

So, please, wake me up when Zambrano says something that isn’t true about this team or pitches them out of contention.

Unfortunately, our attempts at global domination have fallen short. Way short. Then both of us grew up, took big boy jobs and scrapped the world domination via sports blog chit-chat.

And while Hartwig has retired from the blogosphere, I’m still chugging along. As is this blog.

With that being said, I’d like to say thanks to this blog’s fanbase. I appreciate you all the same, but bless the Saluki fans for really putting me on the map and trusting me as a source for analysis and news.

I’d also like to give a shoutout to the contributors we’ve had over the years.

Johnny Sole. Jon Iaccino. Stile Smith. Brian Feldt. Jeff Engelhardt. Mike Carter.

Here’s hoping I didn’t forget anyone.

(Though I probably did.)

So, how will we celebrate another year of this blog’s existence?

Well, if it was up to me…

And if you’re note already doing so, follow this fine blog’s editor on Twitter @lcm1986.

And people are surprised?

Of course they are, but they shouldn’t be.

The combination of low expectations, low temperatures and high ticket prices create an imperfect storm for stadium attendance and the perfect excuse for people not to show up.

Chicago’s North Side fans are stuck in damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario.

For years, Cubs fans blindly showed up to Wrigley Field and the stereotype of the world’s largest outdoor beer garden emerged. They were stupid for showing up to see Sammy Sosa launch a homer or two and watch bad Cubs pitchers give ‘em right back.

Now, many are not showing up because the blinders are off and there is a segment of the fan base that is sick of throwing money into a product that isn’t worth the value.

It’s a Catch-22 that has nothing to do with seeing what Carlos Pena is doing at the plate.

(See what I did there?)

I’ve grown up past caring about attendance values. I’ve evolved from wanting to win the attendance battle against the White Sox.

At age 24 (25 in July), my love of baseball has surpassed any feelings about the attendance game.

Last year, I went to a Cardinals game in St. Louis and a White Sox game at U.S. Cellular Field before stepping foot into Wrigley Field. That was a first for yours truly, who grew up in the shadow of Wrigley Field at the intersection of Byron and Clark.

The 2010 trainwreck didn’t keep me from games when I returned to live in Chicago, because while some were concerned about the overall product on the field, I saw the drop in ticket prices and knew that it was the best value to go see professional baseball in a bad economy.

I attended a Cubs-Pirates game in which free bleacher tickets were handed out at Harry Caray’s Restaurant for the statue re-dedication.

I paid approximately $29 per ticket for three bleacher seats for a Cubs-Cardinals game that happened to be the last home game played at Wrigley last year — down from the face value price by more than 50 percent.

While gloom and doom surrounds the Cubs as the team masks a rebuilding year by calling it re-tooling on the fly, now would be the ideal time for fans to check out professional baseball at a low price.

Might as well get in now before Starlin Castro figures out how to play defense and the Cubs get good at baseball again.

His 22 starts, 10 wins, 113 innings and 4.22 earned run average weren’t really much to write home about — especially after a 9-2 start to the season that spanned 16 starts.

But the truth is, the Cubs are better without him. Hence, the declaration of the Cubs winning the trade with the Seattle Mariners that sent maligned outfielder Milton Bradley out west.

While the Cubs are on the hook for the $11.5 million owed to Silva, Mike Quade’s clubhouse is a better place without the divisive malcontent who somehow believed he had earned a roster spot this spring before even toeing the rubber.

Quade’s 25-man roster, too, is better without Silva on board.

Silva’s ouster means a younger, hungrier player with a higher upside (Read: Anyone not named “Carlos Silva”) will get a chance to fill a roster spot and round out what could be the best bullpen bunch in the National League’s Central Division.

The Cubs won’t likely win the World Series in 2011.

Heck, making a run at the NL Central seems like a long shot at times.

But there’s no doubt in my mind the Cubs are that much closer to being competitive now that Silva is no longer squeezing into Cubbie blue pinstripes.

Meanwhile, Bradley still toils away for a Seattle franchise that is likely eagerly counting down the days until it rids itself of the much-maligned outfielder and his albatross of a contract.

Have fun with that.

I’ve never done a 180 on a sports figure the way I did in regard to Dusty Baker.

I was a flag-waving member of the Dusty Baker fan club back in the day, so much so that I openly rooted for the San Francisco Giants to lose the 2002 World Series in hopes it would lead for Baker to manage my beloved Chicago Cubs.

When Baker pulled Russ Ortiz and opened the flood gates for the Anaheim Angels to win the sixth and seventh games of the World Series, yours truly got his wish.

One year later, the Cubs prospered, winning 88 regular season games, a National League Central Division championship and a playoff series.

I mean, what could go wrong after that?

That’s right, an empty 89-win season that ended with the Cubs blowing a sizeable lead in the Wild Card standings and two losing seasons later, Baker was shown the door and was left a rather unique parting gift.

While much of the focus was on the crap that was near the manager’s step at Wrigley Field, we at TBDS will turn focus to the crap spewing from Dusty Baker’s mouth.

“At the very end, somebody took a dump right where I stood in the dugout every day,” Baker said Monday morning. “That was the low point. The grounds crew guy cleaned it up. He said, ‘Oh, I think it’s dog crap.’ I said, ‘No it ain’t. That’s human crap.’”

Because if there’s anything Dusty Baker knows, it’s crap. Whether it’s leading off Corey Patterson at every opportunity or getting Shawn Estes 30 mind-blowingly awful starts — Dusty. Knows. Crap.

Hell, for all we know, the deuce left in his spot dates back from 2003 when he soiled himself after the Florida Marlins kicked the Cubs in the nuts during Games 6 and 7 of the NLCS.

“It really hurt my reputation,” Baker said.

What hurt your reputation, Dusty?

Are you telling me that going 145-179 (.447 winning percentage) on the back half of a four-year deal in which you were among the highest paid managers in baseball is going to help your reputation?

“Ever since then, all of a sudden, ‘I don’t know how to manage.’ I don’t know how to handle pitchers.

I wonder what would ever suggest that Dusty didn’t know how to handle pitchers.

Maybe having Mark Prior average 126 pitches per start in September after throwing 120 pitches in three starts prior to the Cubs’ late-season push.

Possibly throwing Kerry Wood for a meaningless inning the night before he was to undergo season-ending surgery.

Or probably throwing Aaron Harang for a four-inning relief appearance on three day rest which was part of a stretch of eight days in which the former Reds ace threw a total of 239 pitches in three games gave us the notion that you didn’t know how to handle a pitching staff.

I don’t like young players.’ …

Look, we didn’t like Ryan Theriot either. But there is no logical reason to give Neifi Perez, a guy with a career .297 on-base percentage, 922 plate appearances over a two year span.

They don’t even have a clue about it.

When you insist on batting the center fielder first and second baseman second no matter who’s at those positions, it seems as if you’re the one without a clue about anything.

I never heard that in San Francisco.

That’s because San Francisco is full of dopes whose baseball IQ was tainted by a collection of Barry Bonds used syringes.
Idiot

“I was one of the top managers around, supposedly, and then all of a sudden I don’t know (expletive), know what I mean?

Not exactly, dude.

“They (the critics) were always looking for something critical, ever since I went there (to Chicago).”

When you lose 55 percent of your games in the second half of a contract that started with the biggest tease in Chicago sports history, finding something wrong isn’t much of a challenge.

But apparently, managing was.

Before you pop that cork on the champagne upon hearing the news that Ryan Dempster was named the Cubs’ Opening Day starter, does anyone remember the last time Dempster earned the Game 1 nod over Carlos Zambrano?

I do.

Because I was there.

Dempster’s line in Game 1 of the 2008 NLDS was a forgettable 4.2 IP 4 H 4 ER 7 BB 2 SO 1 HR in a 7-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

James Loney’s grand slam on a 3-2 pitch from Dempster is still fresh in my memory. Nothing like driving 12-plus hours round trip to get kicked in the nuts in front of a nationally televised audience.

Not like Zambrano’s Game 2 performance was any better, but it would have been much better if Mark DeRosa didn’t gag an easy double-play grounder.

(Seriously, while everyone bitches and moans about The Dreamboat’s departure, his Game 2 gaffe is grounds for pure hatred for the cat.)

So here’s hoping Dempster fares better than he did last time he got the call over Big Z.