First the Cubs leave 15 guys on base on Tuesday and barely escape with a victory courtesy of Jon Lieber, then Fassero blows another game, and now Farnsworth is out for four to six weeks.

Fassero betrays no clue of how good he was the first half of last year. Perhaps what we all thought was end-of-season exhaustion from overwork by the clueless Baylor was actually the end of the line for the veteran lefty. And with Farnsworth out, that means Chiasson and Zambrano will really have to step up in the bullpen. And perhaps they’ll be able to do it for a month or two, but this is without a doubt a major blow.

Add to that the Alou question mark and the still invisible offense, and we have the recipe for a long couple of months. If the Cubs’ bats don’t get moving to help out the bullpen, the Cubs will be out of the race by mid-May. It makes me start to think that I won’t miss being away for the summer so much. On the other hand, if the Cubs stink it up, tickets might be easier to come by (not likely).

My dad and I went to see the 70-millimeter re-release of "2001: A Space Odyssey" at the Music Box Theatre on Sunday. Of course, the Music Box — recently defeated rat infestation and all — is a Chicago cinema treasure, and it was great to see the "2001" on a big screen for the first time.

I had only seen it on video previously, and I must admit it took me several attempts to do even that much. The critics who originally panned the movie as too slow, boring and abstract were not entirely wrong. The movie’s pace is definitely deliberate, and it makes you draw the line from one plot point to another, instead of having it drawn for you.

If you’re not ready to invest that effort (or at least get high for "the ultimate trip") then you won’t enjoy "2001." In the end, however you interpret the film’s enigmatic ending — or even if you think Kubrick and Clarke‘s anti-technology alarmism is off the mark — either you let yourself be carried away by the vast stillnesses and glorious soundscapes of Kubrick’s creation or you endure a miserable 139 minutes.

Whatever else can be said of "2001," it is always challenging and provocative — how many of today’s movies can be similarly assessed?

Post script: As with "Citizen Kane," "Casablanca" and other cinematic classics, it’s hard for me to view them apart from the snippets of mental imagery that have been instilled in my brain through parody, advertising, etc.

And I know going in that they are supposed to be great, so my critical functioning gets turned off, or at least shifts into lower gear. It’s almost as though I need to forget about the movie’s "greatness" in order to discover its true artistic power. Of course, sometimes I find that its hidden so deeply that it’s nonexistent. I like to think that I do have an independent mind, after all.

So after being limited to only 364 at bats (and 22 home runs) last year, Ken Griffey Jr. is injured again. This time he’s out for three to six weeks with a partial tendon tear in his right knee. He’s had two hamstring tears in the last two years and hasn’t played a complete season since joining the Reds.

Before Bonds took over last year, the smart money was on Griffey — if anyone — to break Hank Aaron’s home run record. Through 2000, he had averaged 35 home runs a year for his career, and 48 home runs in the seven complete seasons since the extra live ball era began in 1993.

Right now, Junior’s got 461 home runs, putting him at No. 22 on the list, but he’s still only 31. So, assuming he kept up his 48-home run pace through age 35 (when most players, unlike Bonds, McGwire and Aaron, start to decline), he’d have a total of of 652 home runs. Then he could coast with 25 home runs a year for a little over four years and be the toast of baseball at 40.

Oh, and by the way, he was supposed to help his hometown Reds win another championship. But his Cincinnati homecoming has been a disaster, and his leg troubles have weakened his once glorious outfield defense.

Hopefully, Junior will recover and be better than ever (except against the Cubs, of course). I want to to see him make a run for the record. He’s had a great career, but he can go down as one of the best ever, as Bonds is now doing. Like Bonds, Griffey’s got a shaky rep. He should learn from his San Francisco colleague and disregard the critics while making himself injury-proof.

It’s really up to him now. Great — or the greatest?

Curt Schilling is making his case in the early going. After losing out to R.J. for the big prize last year, he’s all business now: he shut out the Brewers 2-0, struck out 17 and allowed only one hit. He hasn’t given up a run in 16 innings this year.

As usual, Schilling shared the credit, this time with D-Backs trainer Paul Lessard. "I’ve had a bad neck for two days and I couldn’t move it this morning," he said. "[Lessard] worked on me at 7:45 [a.m.] and he got me to the point I could function. Once I got out there I was very focused."

Is this guy for real, or am I just being fooled by his great PR sense?

I admit to not being a theater buff, but I went to see "Proof" at the Shubert Theatre with my dad when I got a couple of freebie tickets, and I thought it stunk. In fact, we both did. Perhaps my expectations were too high, based on its being a Pulitzer Prize– and Tony Award-winning drama, but it struck me as a shallow, unconvincing and uninvolving examination of the relationship between genius and mental illness.

I have not seen "A Beautiful Mind," to which it is no doubt endlessly compared, but I imagine that the film — despite leaving out the most interesting parts of John Nash’s life story — could not have been worse. While I did chuckle a few times at the alleged comedy, most of the laugh lines wouldn’t have made into the average sitcom.

So this is the best the theater world has to offer? I sure hope not. I’ll stick to Mamet and Stoppard — and the movies.

Have you heard that "Panic Room" is a good flick? Well, you heard right — it is. It’s a very good, old-fashioned suspense thriller. Everyone is good in it, especially Forest Whitaker, as usual. Newcomer Kristen Stewart is feisty and believable as Jodie Foster‘s daughter, and David Fincher redeems himself for the ridiculous, incredible second half of "Fight Club."

The pacing is tight and Fincher’s showy camera tricks serve rather than distract from the story. Foster is surely better than Michelle Pfeiffer, who backed out of the part shortly before shooting began, would have been. If you want a modern Hitchcockian thriller, this is the pic to check out.

Pedro goes six, gives up only one run on three hits, strikes out five and is clocked at 97 mph. Much more reassuring than Pedro’s talk earlier this week: ”I’ve never been hurt. It’s the first time I’m experiencing this. Who knows how long it’s going to take me. I have no idea.” And the BoSox are 3-1, to boot.

Though his arm has never been exceptional, NL managers have recognized his defensive prowess by awarding him the gold glove eight times. And you know that in his first five games this year, Bonds has hit five home runs (including an extra-inning, walk-off home run on Friday). How many outs has he made? Four.

Another reason Bonds is so great, which I neglected to mention before, is that he so rarely makes outs. This, of course, has to do with his fantastic on-base percentage (.419 career, .515 last year, first player with over .500 OBP since Ted Williams in 1957.), but the larger point which sometimes goes unappreciated is that outs are the most precious commodity an offense has in baseball.

In short, every time a player does not make an out means another base runner, another scoring opportunity, another RBI chance, etc. People say Bonds doesn’t drive in enough runs (only 137 last year, to go with the 73 home runs), but that’s not the point. A player’s prime objective is not to "drive in runs" which in the long run leads to swinging at bad pitches and overswinging, but to not make an out and keep rallies going. There are only three open bases; the runners will cross the plate eventually.

He already has four home runs this year, and we don’t know how many more he’ll hit — tonight! They say he’s on pace to hit 362 home runs, which obviously is ridiculous, but it’s amazing what a quick start he’s gotten off to. On "Baseball Tonight," I hear talk about Bonds being one of the top five or 10 players ever.

Bonds is clearly one of the best players of his generation, if not the best. He is a throwback to Ted Williams when it comes to his resistance to hitting anything outside the strike zone. His combination of power and speed in the first half of his career was Hall of Fame material in and of itself. And now what he’s done in the last year — and what he will probably do this year — since bulking up … we are looking at a very special creature.

As all true statheads know, the best indicator of a player’s offensive capability is OPS, which stands for on-base percentage plus slugging. Unlike RBI, batting average or other statistics, it is comprehensive is solely dependent on a player’s offensive contribution, not how many guys are on base when he comes to the plate.

Barry Bonds is eighth all-time in career OPS, at 1.0034. Who are some of the guys before him on that list? Oh, just a few small-timers: Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx … you get the picture. Interestingly, Frank Thomas is sixth on that list. But Thomas is a terrible fielder and couldn’t steal a base to save his life, unlike Bonds.

Some complain about Bonds’ bad attitude and say he hasn’t come through in the clutch. Both are true, but when you look at how the numbers stack up, it’s damn impressive. How many other players have been walked with the bases loaded — twice— as Bonds has?

Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling pick up right where they left off last November. Back-to-back shutouts from the dynamic duo, with the Big Unit winning 2-0 and Schilling going seven in a 9-0 victory over the Padres. Then Schilling fined himself for missing two signs on a failed sacrifice bunt in the third inning — what a competitor.

Schilling famously said during the World Series that the Yankees’ vaunted "mystique" and "aura" were mythical. They sounded like stripper names, he said. If Johnson and Schilling keep pitching like this, they’ll have to stitch "mystique" on Johnson’s back and "aura" on Schilling’s.

Before Schilling pitched, the Diamondbacks picked up their World Series rings. It had to be a sweet moment for Mark Grace. Thirteen years with the Cubs, kicked out the door and he helps win a championship in his first year. I thought the Cubs made the right move with Grace, but I was elated that he was on the D-Backs and aided their defeat of the evil, evil Yankees (26 championships, 38 pennants, 52 human sacrifices).