Illinois

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.

Sam Cicioni bears a striking resemblance to Phoenix Suns two-time MVP point guard Steve Nash. Until now, however, that has earned the Akron, Ohio, schoolteacher little more than a few second glances and one mistaken make-out session at a Cleveland bar when the Suns were visiting town. But thanks to the inept draft habits of the Chicago Bulls, that's all going to change: Cicioni has been notified by the Bulls that he will be the team's first-round draft pick Wednesday.

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.

After getting swept by the White Sox in last year's World Series, the Houston Astros came to U.S. Cellular Field this weekend with something to prove. What they ended up proving, though, is that the Sox—who won the three-game series in dramatic fashion—are clearly the better team.

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.