Your Weekly Big Stupid Tommy Update....

Remember folks, it's not the heat, it's the stupidity.

Your old pal Tommy's wandered through another workaday week. After taking a poll of every dog I know, we may not necessarily be in the Dog Days of the Summer just yet, but judging from the smell after my folks' dog Max farting when I asked, it's close enough for government work.

As for Tommy? He's still speaking in the third person, when the mood strikes him, and he's settling into a routine in a new store. It's a good store, and he's not unhappy to be there. It's 10-15 minutes longer a drive, and it's having to be there earlier than he's accustomed, so there've been more than his share of 4:55 and 5:05 mornings. It's not a huge adjustment from the 5:20 he's used to waking, but it's a vital 15-25 minutes. As we all know, Tommy cannot afford to miss any beauty sleep, whatsoever.

An omen I am submitting for your consideration: There are apparently blackberry bushes somewhere nearby the store I am working near Loudon. And the birds apparently love both eating blackberries and using my truck for target practice. One particular drive home was made interesting by the five purple, seedy splotches on my windshield, which smeared rather than cleared when one of the now customary summer thundershowers rolled through during my drive home. I don't know if it seemed odd to see a man stopped at an Exxon station washing his windows with squeegee provided during a summer downpour. I just know it was what it was.

Anyway, I've found myself wandering through an all-too-rare weekend off. Caught a baseball game up in Kodak last night, in which the Cubs' Double A charges threw a whooping on the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx. I just want the world to know that Robinson Chirinos has no place on the North Side, what with his patience at the plate and his ability to hit for different results based on the situation. That's just good fundamental baseball, and we all know the Cubs have no use for that.

And the Cubs? I don't know if I mentioned it hear, but if there was no official concession speech when the Cubs did not fire Lou Piniella when he announced his retirement, it was pretty much a white flag. That 17 run beatdown by the Rockies the other night passed irksome, almost to the point of amusement.

I'm sorry to see Ted Lilly go, inasmuch as I liked that he was a gamer, who seemed to get more out of his B-grade ability with his A-grade smarts. I was dubious when he came aboard as a Cub, but I grew to dig the dude. I didn't want to hang on to him forever, though, and I wish him well on a quest for a Championship.

(And there are not words for how happy I was to see TOOTBLAN Theriot, who got less out his B-grade ability using his D-grade smarts, go out to the west coast....)

I'm guardedly optimistic for the future. I'm retarded that way. It's called Big Stupid Tommy I like what I'm seeing out of Castro & Colvin, to this point, and having seen both Iowa and Tennessee this year, there's a gamer or two wandering around both Triple and Double A....

Also? I still root for Kerry Wood. But it was made difficult when he wandered into the pinstripes this weekend.

Anyway. Doing the family thing today. As I settle into a routine, maybe we'll see more Stupidity on the blogamathing...