This current event communique is not an oblique attempt to free a book lost somewhere in the  vast wastes of a computer. It feels much like Texas Ranger analyst Marc McLemore when he commented recently on one of his early plate appearances when he first joined the Rangers as a ;layer. Marc, who played for Joe Madden when the Angels had a farm club in Midland, "That Marc McLemore no longer exists, he's lost somewhere in this body."

Thios is about the injustice of it all. The top three teams in all of baseball were imprisoned in the National League Central Division, each with records that would have won any other division in the pennant races. The Cardinals, Pirates and Cubs were in a classs by themselves. It seems unfair that Chicago eliminated both the Cardinals and Pirates settle the issue of the best team in the majors, so why should they be subjected to the indignity of having to cointine  against inferior opposition. You'll agree, it's not fight.

You have to remember this is someone who saw his first major league game in Wrigley Field back in late August 1940 when rookie Lefthander Vern Olsen three hit Leo Durocher's uncouth Brooklyn Dodgers on three hits. It was a day when GA was $1.25, bleachers 55 cents and very few seats outside of the boxes were reserved. Only a long suffering Cub fan could appreciate the anguish suffered over the years, the promise of  'at last' only to be dashed again.

The worst probably came in 1969 and again Leo Durocher, the Lippy One  was involved, this time as manager of the Cubs,  a team for the ages, with Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Glenn Berckert, Ron Santo, Randy Hundley, Fergy Jenkins Ken Holtzman, and Al Spangler, manager of the early Midland Cubs. How could a team like this lose, heading into the final month with an eight game lead and losing the pennant by eight games. What's worse, it was to the New York Mets, -