Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 3:30 a.m. in "The City."

I have said for most of the current Major League baseball season that the Tigers are a bad baseball team, which they are. Now, I'm not so sure that the Cubs are a good team in spite of their results from last year. I've seen the Cubs have similar expectations for players with big contracts in past seasons, only to see those players underachieve the next season. I think I am seeing that phenomenon once again.

The Cubs have developed a bad habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory all too often. I am still a Die Hard Cubs Fan, and I can't bring myself to give up, but the Cubs are not giving me a reason to hope on a consistent basis.

Yes, they came out of the gate after the All-Star break with a string of victories to overtake the Brewers in the NL Central, but their success has been sporadic since then, just enough to keep fans tantalized, but not enough to make them clear favorites to repeat as champions.

Yesterday is a prime example. The early results in the game looked promising, catcher Willson Contreras homered twice, but in the top of the 8th inning, Carl Edwards Jr. with the complicity of manager, Joe Maddon, walked the bases full and then hit the next batter to force in the tying run. It wasn't Maddon's idea to have Edwards hit a batter nor throw a grand slam pitch to Matt Wieters, but that's what happened and the game was out of control after that. The Cubs never recovered and lost the game to the Nats, 4 - 9.

The Cubs now travel to San Francisco to face the Giants tonight @ 10:08 p.m. Fortunately, the Giants are even worse than the Tigers with an NL West record of 44 - 69. However, you know what often happens when the Cubs face what should be an easy opponent to beat.

Speaking of the Tigers and their record of futility, they lost to the 55 - 56 Orioles yesterday in a game that the Tigers were never in by a final score of 3 - 12. Thanks to a rule that limits most games to only nine innings, the Tigers didn't have time to surrender any more runs to another sub .500 team. The 51 - 59 in the AL Central Tigers travel to Pittsburgh to face the 54 - 57 Pirates tonight @ 7:05 p.m.

My beloved Red Sox defeated that other team from Chicago 6 - 3 yesterday and moved to an AL East division leading record of 63 - 49, three games ahead of the 2nd place Yankees. The Sox have the day off today before traveling to Florida to face the Rays @ 7:10 p.m. Wednesday night.

The Caps are still on a roll, as they tied an MWL record of 23 with a 9 - 0 shutout of the Lake, County, OH Captains. That win gives the Caps a 2nd half record of 30 - 12 as they prepare to once again face the Captains tonight @ 7:00 p.m. By the by, the Caps have an overall record in the MWL East of 75 - 34.

Mary and Ginger walked to the waterfront to see the Coast Guard ships depart yesterday morning. I knew that they were leaving when the blast from one of their ship's horns sent STWD into paroxysms of fear and a mad dash for home. Mary did get a picture of the departing ships while she and Ginger were there.

The current temperature is 65° under mostly cloudy skies according to the NWS which had been forecasting a 40% chance for T-storms this morning which has since been revised to a 20% chance. I will be watering.

The day will be spent with me sitting next to Mary as she works on her catalog index and I read and offer whatever assistance she needs. We will take the morning safari and then settle in.  The sun will rise @ 6:42 a.m. and set later @ 8:58 p.m. Ciao.