Day: September 17, 2003

Rocky mountain high

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Definitely a Lisa day today! Cubs win behind Kerry Wood’s best performance all year, a complete-game shutout. He struck out 11 and allowed only four hits and one walk. Awesome. When the boy’s right, he’s really right.

And the Rockies came through with a win over the Astros! They made me sweat by giving up those two runs in the top of the ninth, but they held on to win 7-5. The Cubs gain a game and are now only a half game back. Wait. It gets better.

The Cardinals lost too! And in fine fashion, once again. Jason Isringhausen gave up three runs to the Brew Crew in the top of the ninth as they came back to win it, 7-6. I have a feeling somebody in St. Louis is going to be in the free-agent market for an overpriced closer this winter. So the Cards stay five and a half back.

Now if the Rockies can win tomorrow, the Cubs and Astros will be in an identical tie for first place. Still, even if the Astros win tomorrow, as I fully expect they will, being within a game is huge. That means it only takes one day of a Cubs win and Astros loss to force a playoff.

Oh, yes. It’s all good. The Twins beat the White Sox again, putting them two and a half back. The Twins have a cupcake schedule once this series is over, and the Sox take on the Royals, Yankees and Royals. All is fine tonight.

Clark no anti-war Superman

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

According to the record, the much-ballyhooed “anti-war” Gen. Wesley Clark has done as much bean-jumping on Iraq as the famously plastic John Kerry.

Was Clark against the war? Not really. He just wanted to wait longer and get the U.N. on board. Dean said pretty much the same thing, though in Dean’s case I guess that was said in lieu of the probably more truthful but politically inexpedient position that the war unnecessary and a bad idea altogether, unilateral or no.

At least Dean didn’t jump on the Bush bandwagon the way Clark did when Baghdad fell. “Let’s have those parades on the Mall and down Constitution Avenue,” he wrote.

So the great hope of a national debate about this war next year is fading fast. Oh, sure there’ll be a debate all right: Which man do you trust more to manage a mess?