Cubs

Tattered and torn and generally overused, the Cubs will replace the blue "L" flag, flown over the bleachers after a loss, with a flag reading "We Tried Real Hard." The new flag is expected to fly starting with their next home loss, which will likely occur at the next home game. It's a move supported by both management and players.

It's every man for himself on the S.S. Cubby Blue, as the ship continues to sink with amazing speed. Each player is doing his best to look his worst, hoping a life raft is thrown his way from a team based anywhere but on Chicago's North Side.

Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker and general manager Jim Hendry have spent the last two months urging Cubs fans to be patient until they "have their horses back." Well, Mark Prior came back and got two losses, Derrek Lee came back and helped his team lose 8-1, and Kerry Wood is the kind of horse that should be sent to the glue factory.

A guy with the last name Lee returned to Wrigley Field after an extended hiatus, and the perennial all-star candidate had a great day at the plate. Unfortunately for Cubs fans, it was Brewers outfielder Carlos Lee, and not Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee.

Whoever said nobody makes more mistakes than the Chicago Cubs must have forgot about the Cleveland Indians, a franchise so mired in mediocrity, it made the North Siders look like a team with a clue Wednesday night.

When minor league umpire Mike Muchinski received word that he'd be filling in behind home plate for a vacationing umpire at Jacobs Field for the Cubs-Indians game Tuesday night, he felt calm and confident.

When times are tough for a ball club, a tense locker room is a given. Perhaps that's why catcher Henry Blanco and closer Ryan Dempster went all out to make their teammates burst at the seams with laughter during the Cubs' 12-8 win over the Cleveland Indians Monday night.