(Who?) Jacque Jones! (Who?) Jacque Jones!

The hot stove heated up tonight for a few lucky teams, and the Cubs got themselves a piece of the action.

Cub Nation welcomes Jacque Jones to the Friendly Confines. A lifetime .279 hitter who can cover ground, throw out runners, get on base, and round out our lineup is most welcome to a Cubs team that had a gaping hole in right field. We got Jones for three years ($16 million) for nothing more than a compensatory draft pick because the Minnesota Twins offered him arbitration. What a great deal for us. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what he can do in a hitter's park like Wrigley Field.

And now we have a chance to trade Corey Patterson for a pitcher, hopefully a starter, which I think we are probably going to need.

The Yankees cashed in too, breaking the hearts of Red Sox fans everywhere by snatching Johnny Damon away for four years to the tune of $52 million. Wow, they play each other about 18 or 19 times next year, and I imagine Johnny Damon is no longer going to be welcome at the games played in Fenway.

I'm getting excited for the season already. Pitchers and catchers report on February 16th. Cub Nation will really have something to look forward to if Jim Hendry pulls one more rabbit out of his hat.


One more footnote: Another lackluster performance by the Hawks tonight in a 65-60 win over Drake. We needed two Adam Haluska three balls in the last minute and a half to get past the Bulldogs, and were losing with less than four minutes left. At some point, we're going to have to start playing good basketball or the rest of the Big Ten is going to give us the rough ride. We have Robert Morris on Thursday and then we finish off the preseason with St. Louis, who have played us tough lately. Let's go fellas. Time is short before we start playing the big boys.