Writers Bloc: Crunch Time

Updated: September 16, 2003, 9:24 AM ET
By Jim Baker
  • Are the Braves worried about their recent showing as a .500 ballclub? If they are, it isn't showing in the clubhouse. Amy Shipley of the Washington Post visited the team in Miami and found them loose and confident.

  • Why did this take so long? The Cubs are just now retiring Ron Santo's number, some three decades after he left the team. One of the greatest third basemen in the history of the game, Santo will have his number '10' retired before the final home game of the year on September 29. In the Cubs defense, they were probably waiting until Santo was elected to the Hall of Fame -- an eventuality that has, unfortunately, not come to pass. Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune has Santo's happy reaction to the number retirement announcement.

  • Santo played for both the Cubs and the White Sox, which gives him a unique perspective on how the fans of both teams feel about one another. Carol Slezak of the Chicago Sun-Times takes the pulse of Chicago in order to find out what Cubs fans really think of their Southside cousins and visa versa.

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    Jim Baker is an author at Baseball Prospectus and a frequent contributor to Page 2. You can e-mail Jim at bottlebat@gmail.com.

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