I'd just like to write that the Chicago Cubs are the greatest team in the history of the world. Or, the greatest 79-70 team. Or, the greatest 79-70 team that I've ever supported, anyway.

They're super. Just awesome.

When Aramis ripped his two-run, game-tying triple tonight, I'm pretty sure I heard Ron Santo whistling. Whistling. He's properly impartial, I'd say. (Of course, there's no part of any Cubs fan who wants impartial. We want blabbering and cheering and living it just like we are. Lord knows he is all of those. Gosh.)

Anyway, they won another game tonight they didn't deserve to win which, by my count, makes about four of those in the last eight days.

This list includes:
Tonight - The 7-6 win over Cincinnati in which Mark DeRosa goes 5-5 and the Cubbies score three runs in the bottom of the ninth.
Sunday - The 4-2 win over St. Louis in which they manage to somehow leave 14 men on base.
Saturday afternoon - The 3-2 win over St. Louis, won on Fonzy's eighth-inning homer (by the way, are that guy's wrists amazing or what?)
Friday - The 5-3 win over St. Louis in which Dempster decides, Hey, why not allow two homers in the ninth?
Thursday - 6-2, over Houston, but it featured Steve Trachsel. You don't deserve to win when you run out Steve Trachsel.
Wednesday - The 3-2 win clinched by the improbable 3-6-1 double play. Field your position, Dempster! Sweet, and the day after blowing one.

Six of seven, and seven of ten, and this team is sweet.

Tonight sounds like it was one of those awesome games where everybody just kind of stands, and takes it in, and stands some more, and applauds for no real reason, because they just don't want to leave. There's something magical about sitting in an uncomfortable chair with 40,000 others who are all pulling for the exact same thing.

I was at one of those once, at Wrigley. It was 1998, and the Cubs beat Robb Nen. I started yelling "Bring on the Yankees!" though, it was August, and I should have been more worried about the Braves.

I was at three of those at Comerica, last year. They were pretty sweet.

- - - - - -

You've been spared a semi-tearful post about Northwestern's loss against Duke, and a semi-joyful but tinged with sadness post about Charlie Weis, and Notre Dame's pathetic failure of a season. (I think Ty Willingham was fired, primarily, because he's black. His record after three years will undoubtedly be better than Charlie Weis'. It seems that Charlie Weis' biggest accomplishment in three years will be losing, at home, to a team that didn't even win a national championship. Ty, meanwhile, is steadily improving a program that was in the pits, and he's doing it with dignity and class. Charlie, meanwhile, is doing nothing to improve his program, and he's doing it with a side of chili cheese fries.)

Is there one no-gray-area rule in football? It's tough for there to be a no-gray-area rule. But, Never Take The Points Off the Board might be that rule. NU's 2-1 because their head coach is the only idiot so short-sighted as to ignore that no-gray-area rule.

Oh well, losses like this just make wins over Ohio State that much more joyful.