Chicago

Reports on Monday indicated that the Tribune Company is considering an option where the Chicago Cubs would declare bankruptcy.

This news likely confuses many onlookers, who have been taken on a strange journey by the off-the-field news surrounding the Cubs in the last few months.

First the team was sold, then it wasn't, then it was sold to two different groups...and now bankruptcy?

Really?

On Sunday night, in front a national television audience, the creative genius Chicago Cubs' fans have been begging Lou Piniella to employ finally showed up.

If you read the play-by-play for the ninth inning, there is a sequence that will undoubtedly have you scratching your head.

Sean Marshall relieves Angel Guzman. OK, nothing major there.

Aaron Heilman relieves Marshall; Marshall to left field. What? It's bad enough Heilman's pitching, but Marshall in left field?

The Chicago Cubs looked like a steaming pile of hot garbage on Friday in an 8-3 loss to division leading St. Louis Cardinals in the first game of a crucial four-game series before the All Star Break.

Whether it's been Rich Harden's inability to gets outs past the second inning, Ryan Dempster's high jumping ability or Geovany Soto's new love handle contusion, the Cubs are giving off the vibes of a team completely out of it in the National League Central.

Chicago sports radio stations are reporting that the Chicago Cubs will place starting pitcher Ryan Dempster on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Friday, July 3.

Dempster reportedly has a fractured toe on his right foot.

Kevin Hart, who was just demoted on Monday, will be recalled to fill Dempster's rotation spot between now and the All-Star break next week.

UPDATE: Because the Cubs had optioned Kevin Hart to Iowa after the injury occurred, the team was not able to make the listing retroactive. Dempster's 15 days begin on Tuesday.

The 2009 season for the Chicago Cubs has not gone exactly as planned. Injuries, power outages, suspensions, "lack of fire"—you name it, it's gone wrong for the Cubs so far this year.

One bright spot for the team this season has been midseason call-up Jake Fox. In 23 games over his two stints with the big league club this season, Fox has hit .317 with three HR and 12 RBI. Prior to his call-up, he was lighting up AAA Iowa, with obscene stats of .409 BA, 17 HR, and 53 RBI in just 45 games. 

"Ya gotta believe" are the magic words, the "open sesame" of baseball history, immortalized by Tug McGraw in 1973. But the baseball good wish fairy doesn't always respond. Chicago Cubs fans and players remember the year, 1969, when the wish was never fulfilled.

In the span of two months, the Cubs slipped from nine-and-a-half games in front of the Mets to eight games behind.

"It's true," said the late Jack Brickhouse before his death in 1998. He watched it all go down in '69 from the great heights of the radio announcer's booth. "The Cubs lost it," he said.

On Wednesday night, the Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-1 behind seven strong innings from rookie Randy Wells.

Derrek Lee hit a two-run homer in the victory to win the three-game series in Pittsburgh.

But the news from the Steel City wasn't Lee going yard, or Wells dominating another team.

It was Lou Piniella getting ejected and showing emotion for the first time in what feels like a year.

In the sixth inning, on a bang-bang play that appeared to have been blown by the first-base umpire, Piniella left the dugout to argue that Wells was safe.

The Chicago Tribune's Paul Sullivan is reporting that, after flying out in the sixth inning against the White Sox Friday, Milton Bradley was involved in a verbal altercation with Cubs' manager Lou Piniella.

Bradley was replaced in right field by Ryan Freel in the bottom half of the inning, and was reportedly seen leaving US Cellular Field in street clothes before the ninth inning.

So not only is Bradley not hitting anything, or driving in any runs for his $10 million-plus salary, but now the inevitable has happened.

Please Milton, make it easier for Cubs fans and sportswriters to turn against you.

According to the Chicago Tribune's Paul Sullivan, after flying out in the sixth inning on Friday against the White Sox, Bradley threw his helmet in the Cubs dugout and then went after the Gatorade cooler.  Manager Lou Piniella then went to talk to Bradley in the tunnel, where the two exchanged angry words.

On Thursday it was revealed that, during the World Baseball Classic, 2008 National League Rookie of the Year Geovany Soto failed a drug test with traces of marijuana in his system.

And as a Cubs fan I thought he didn't hit anything until June...

This piece of lazy news comes as Soto was finally finding the missing spark at the plate. Could it be that Derrek Lee was bogarting the good cage time during road trips? Or was he having trouble picking up the ball's rotation because of excessive exposure to a black light in his closet during the WBC?