Dave Veres

STARTING PITCHING The Dodgers were the only National League team with more effective starters than the Cubs in the regular season. The guys at the front of the Cubs' rotation, Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, ended the season strongly. With Wood, scheduled to...

They wore Cubs uniforms, sat in the Cubs dugout and bore an eerie resemblance to the same players who have called themselves Cubs since Opening Day. But after watching them pound Atlanta 15-6 only one day after a 16-2 victory over Florida, it was easy to...

Imagine the shock for an Atlanta Braves fan who spent the winter abroad without giving his favorite team a second thought. Hey, that isn't Tom Glavine in a New York Mets uniform, is it? And what's the deal with Kevin Millwood wearing that Phillies cap?...

Two decisions, one by Cubs manager Dusty Baker that worked and one by Arizona manager Bob Brenly that didn't, were key factors in the Cubs' 2-1 rain-delayed victory on Sunday. Baker trusted his offense rather than pinch-hit for starter Matt Clement...

If the Cubs are holding a trump card in their hand, it's their collection of starting pitchers. It's almost always bad news when one of Dusty Baker's front four asks his free-swinging teammates to win slugging contests. Matt Clement did just that Tuesday...

Today's temperature for the Cubs-Expos game in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is 86 degrees with mostly cloudy skies. The Weather Channel says it feels like 93, but I can't confirm this -- I'm two levels below ground in the Tribune Tower. The thermometer here...

Perhaps the hardest part of being a Cub is having to hear about the team's woeful history from the start of spring training until the end of the season. Constant reminders of past failures ring in their ears, as though they're doomed to repeat the sins...

Florida ace Josh Beckett kept the cork in the champagne bottles in the Cubs' clubhouse on Sunday, but may have uncorked a controversy with an alleged knockdown pitch to Sammy Sosa. Beckett threw a two-hit shutout in a 4-0 victory in Game 5 of the...

Broadcaster Ron Santo couldn't make the five-hour plane trip to San Juan, so Cubs manager Dusty Baker told him during Sunday's pregame show the club would try to win the games so Santo wouldn't throw anything at his television. Whether Santo tossed...

Dusty Baker had a chat Sunday morning with Kenny Lofton after watching him pressing at the plate during his first four games as a Cub. Lofton, 1-for-17 entering the series finale with Houston, then knocked out three hits to energize the Cubs in a 5-3 win...

The 2003 salaries for the 827 major league baseball players on opening day rosters and disabled lists. Figures were obtained by The Associated Press from management and player sources and include salaries and pro-rated shares of signing bonuses and...

What was worse? Living through the eighth inning of Game 6 of last year's NLCS or the interminable offseason that followed it? If that wasn't the longest sixth months on record, I'm Hee Seop Choi. By now everyone is tired of the talk of baseballs and...