2007 Chicago Marathon a Blast

Well, even though I didn't get to run, I went to spectate my buddy's first attempt. It was the hottest marathon on record for the Chicago Marathon (85+ degrees). They closed the course early and ran out of supplies too. Tons of people were sent to the ER and I believe their is already one confirmed death (my thoughts are with those people).

Anyways, back to the fun stuff. I made it for the start just 20 yards from the start line. Then I met up with a friend and headed to North avenue to watch just after mile 10. Then down to China Town (around mile 20). It was so fun and everyone spectating was positive and having a good time. That's a great distraction given that I was at Wrigley just 12 hours earlier and had tickets to the game that didn't happen today.

So, Perhaps next year will be my year to make the run and the year the Cubs do it all! (Probably neither will happen).

Good news is that my buddy finished around 4hrs 50min. We found him about an hour later. He's doing well and I'm heading over to his place for Lou Malnati's pizza, Guinness and Bears! GO BEARS!

Confirmed: TBS in HD on Comcast Chicago

I got home last night and channel 219 was there. There will be post season HD baseball for Cubbie fans!

Cubs, Chicago Comcast and TBS HD

Update 10/2/2007 11am - Looks like we'll be OK in Chicago by gametime Wednesday after all.
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So, TBS buying the broadcast rights to the NLDS and NLCS sucks if you have Comcast in Chicago and want to see those post season Cub games in HD. (Not to mention they won't let local TV carry the games). Apparently, if you're in Philly or Boston, Comcast added the HD TBS just in time and you'll be able to enjoy the games in HD. While, those sitting with the stupid motorola cable box in Chicago will watch reruns of Surface and Babe: Pig in the City on the Universal HD Channel (by far the worst HD station).

Good news though, Comcast is adding TBS HD as channel 219 as soon as possible, but ASAP may mean AFTER the NLDS. Apparently, there are technical difficulties (read technical non priority) in adding the channel. I don't understand how Comcast can care more about smaller east coast markets than the Chicago market.

This and the holdout on the Big Ten Network makes me really start to consider switching to a dish...

Why can't I get to video.digg.com?

Here's a small task that Digg staff can do to make it easier to visit their site... Add topic subdomains.

How may times have received a DNS failure when going to digg because video.digg.com doesn't work? For me, all the time. I can go to video.google.com without issue, but dig I have to type www.digg.com/videos. And DON'T go singular, you'll lose.

I wish Digg would add video.digg.com and videos.digg.com that simply forwarded to the video secion. Hell, I would love baseball.digg.com to forward you right to the section. I propose that they use setup subdomains for each section to mke it easier to get to and link to. How would you live to post a story and the link is to http://apple.digg.com/iPod_touch? Or how about all the stories from Apples by just going to http://apple.digg.com/.

For example, we could just goto:

• news.digg.com - right to news technology.digg.com - right to tech video.digg.com - my want, right to video
• apple.digg.com - (fanboys do apply)
• baseball.digg.com - right into the baseball section (GO CUBS!) and on, and on... It's a convenience factor. This is much easier to redirect to the section than adding the much wanted pic section.
• Pics.google.com - coming soon?

anyways, I rarely rant on Digg. it's a good site. I just want this...

What a Weekend for Sports on TV (for me at least)

With the Cubs Magic Number down to 8, it's all eyes and thoughts on the Cubs winning and Brewers losing. Lucky me, today both the Brewers and Cubs are on TV (in Chicago). No need to watch the Cardinals anymore, as they eliminated themselves mathematically from the playoffs last night.

Northwestern Football, which I am a big fan, is on TV finally today (I'm on Comcast, no Big Ten Network). Although they play Ohio State, which could get ugly.

Tomorrow, more Cubs and then the game of the week, BEARS at home against the red hot Cowboys.

So, the lineup:

Saturday:
-12:05 - Pirates at Cubs on WGN
-2:30 - Northwestern at Ohio State on ESPN and ABC7
-2:55 - Brewers at Braves on FOX

Sunday:
- 1:10 - Pirates at Cubs on WGN, Wrigley closer (or is it with NLDS coming?)
- 7:15 - Cowboys at Bears on NBC

Of course, don't forget that there's tons of College and Pro football on TV, like Notre Dame going 0-3. Nice.

And don't forget, Cubs playoff tickets on sale at 9am on Sunday...

Holy Cow!

It's getting close for the 2007 Chicago Cubs making the playoffs. I hate to get too excited but it's hard to hold back the excitement.

As I wrote earlier, http://www.cubsmagicnumber.com/ is up and counting, courtesy of Mister Pickles Worldwide Entertainment. To add to the fun of the race, Mister Pickles is accepting photos to post along with the numbers! Send an email to 2007@cubsmagicnumber.com with your Cubs photos today with a small caption and you may be representing the next number!

To get you in the mood, here's mine:

Teddy says "GO CUBBIES! I WANT THIS TO BE THE YEAR!"

Oh, and Cliff Floyd just hit a homer while I wrote this! WOOT! And now BACK TO BACK! DeROSA! GO CUBS!

The Cardinals' Elimination Number

Is 11. Doesn't it really suck to lose 7 in a row down the stretch.

There are over two full weeks of baseball yet to be played this 2007 season and the defending World Series Champs, the St Louis Cardinals are slipping fast. They're third place in the race for the National League Central Pennant. What's worse, they're trailing last years 4th and 5th place finishers.

I guess Cardinal Nation is still hopeful they will win the pennant. Even though they haven't won a game in over a week and only have a slight mathematical change to clinch, you can register for playoff tickets on their website. I'll be sure to register! Mister Pickles would like 4 seats please.

Anyways, it's going to be a great close for the NL Central this year. I'm in the Cubbies Camp and they're looking pretty (at the moment). Because I'm such a nice guy, I'm helping you keep track of the Cardinals woes at http://eliminatecardinals.blogspot.com/, an up to the minute elimination number tracker. Subscribe to the RSS feed so that you always know how inevitable their elimination is.