MVN - Most Valuable Network

Rain, Snow Close Opening Day

Yesterday’s weather was so poor that the Iowa Cubs called off their opener several hours before its scheduled 3:05 P.M. start.

Right about the time the first pitch would have been thrown, a persistent day-long drizzle gave way to a bombardment of snow that was more chunky than flaky.

I hope the system drained itself before moving east. Bad enough that it cost us a game here in Des Moines without forcing postponement of today’s game between the Cubs and Astros in Chicago.

The I-Cubs will get started tonight and have re-scheduled Thursday’s rainout as part of a day/night twinbill tomorrow when the local forecast calls for sunny skies and temps in the high 60’s!

Marshall to Mound; Micah to DL

Greetings from chilly, damp Des Moines where the Iowa Cubs are scheduled to open their 2008 season at 3:05 this afternoon vs. the Round Rock Express in Chicago-style weather.

Sean Marshall is slated to start for the I-Cubs after his less than impressive, late-spring audition for the Chicago bullpen landed him in Triple A for the time being.

Micah Hoffpauir, who tore up the Cactus League this spring and the Pacific Coast League most of last summer before getting sidelined, will open the season on the disabled list after sustaining a tweak of the oblique in Tuesday night’s exhibition game against the University of Iowa Hawkeyes.

Hoffpauir awakened yesterday with soreness after feeling a twinge on his last swing in the seventh inning Tuesday night. The good news for Micah is that his rehab will happen in Arizona at EXST. He’s expected to be out for a couple of weeks…MW

Rookie Batboy Eyes I-Cubs

It won’t be long now. I just got back from Principal Park where our fourteen year-old son, Ben, submitted an application to be a batboy for the 2008 Iowa Cubs. Ben [5′1″, 97 lbs., bats left, throws left] is a crafty, quiet southpaw who hustles - not a holler guy. We were talking on the way downtown about what an omen it might be if his first job turns out to be in a Cub uniform. Before long I was imagining him calling Jake Fox for rides to the ballpark. Ben told me I was getting a little carried away.

The club was holding tryouts for national anthem singers this morning. Rendition after rendition filtering into the front offices through the PA system provided a promising but monotonous soundtrack while Ben inked his app. Most of the shivering patriots while we were there were young girls turning shades of red, white and blue in the chilly Easter Eve temps here in Des Moines.

The I-Cubs open on Thursday, April 3 at home with a matinee vs. the Round Rock Express. May the goosebumps that afternoon during the anthem have nothing to do with the temperatures. May the hometown team’s ‘lineup’ include a promising new batboy moving from the cheap seats to the dugout…MW

I’m here, are you?

Ok, it’s been way too long since I posted last, but I’m still lurking around the Cubs’ communities. Right now, I’m wrapped up at my college hoops site, SCACCHoops.com, but rest assured I’ll be back here once college basketball ends.

In the meantime, I just participated in a cool feature at View From the Bleachers, where they polled several different sites about the Cubs Top 10 Prospects, and then tallied the results. Here is what they came up with. For those interested, here was the top 10 that I submitted…

1. Geovany Soto
2. Josh Vitters
3. Sean Gallagher
4. Tyler Colvin
5. Jose Ceda
6. Josh Donaldson
7. Donald Veal
8. Tony Thomas Jr.
9. Kyler Burke
10. Jeff Samardzija

Chris Huseby was my #11.