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Short trip up the dial for Cubs fans

Let's take a dip back into the baseball waters now that the Blackhawks' ice has melted.

• As traumatic as the radio move to be announced Thursday is, there's a slight chance Cubs fans are smart enough to locate their the new outlet next year.

Judging by the concern, many of these people don't handle change very well. If it were up to them, Adolfo Phillips at age 72 still would be patrolling center field.

(Come to think of it, could he do any worse than what the Cubs are throwing out there these days?)

Anyway, the Cubs have a relationship with WGN-AM that dates back 90 years. Next year they'll switch to WBBM-AM.

The trip is short from 720 on the dial over to 780, sort of like crawling from the CubbyBear to Bernie's after another loss.

I wouldn't be so confident in Cubs fans' ability to navigate the radio move if games were sliding over to WMVP-AM … a trek all the way to 1000.

But it's just to 780. You can do this Cubs fans. Trust me. I have confidence in you. You might not be smart, but you're smart enough to find WBBM on your radio.

Start practicing now and you should be dialed in by next spring.

• Speaking of smart, it'll be interesting to see whether White Sox fans finally come out of hiding to watch the team play the rest of this season.

Slugger Jose Abreu and pitcher Chris Sale are worth the journey to the South Side. On days when both are in the lineup, Comiskey Park shouldn't seem all that far away for baseball fans out here in the suburbs.

• The White Sox will select third overall and the Cubs fourth overall in Thursday's draft.

This conjures memories of consecutive drafts in the late 1980s, when the Sox immediately followed the Cubs.

In 1987, the Cubs took pitcher Mike Harkey at No. 4, and the Sox followed with Jack McDowell at No. 5.

Harkey had a record of 36-36 with a 4.49 ERA during an injury-plagued career. McDowell went 127-87 and 3.85 before he broke down.

In 1988, the Cubs took second baseman Ty Griffin at No. 9, and the Sox went for Robin Ventura at No. 10.

Griffin never made it up to the Cubs, while Ventura had a long and productive major-league career before becoming the Sox' manager.

So, the Cubs wound up with Harkey and Griffin and the Sox with McDowell and Ventura. No wonder the Sox had a nice run during the 1990s and the Cubs didn't.

• Credit goes to the "Carmen and Jurko" midday show on WMVP for pointing out that the Cubs haven't won a World Series since Marconi invented the radio.

• The draft is a crapshoot, as demonstrated by some players picked from 2005 to 2009.

At No. 3 have been the likes of Jeff Clement, Josh Vitters and Donovan Tate. At No. 4 have been Brad Lincoln, Daniel Moskos and Tony Sanchez.

Meanwhile, these players were passed on at the positions the Sox and Cubs will pick Thursday:

Troy Tulowitzki went seventh and Andrew McCutcheon 11th in 2005; Clayton Kershaw seventh in 2006; Matt Wieters fifth in 2007; Buster Posey fifth in 2008; and Mike Trout 25th in 2009.

It's good to win the crapshoot, you know?

• Just wondering why it's OK to break with tradition and move from WGN to WBBM but not from Wrigley Field to Rosemont.

• The Cubs can relocate to some 5,000-watt radio outlet on Pluto as long as Pat Hughes goes along to do play-by-play.

• Do you think White Sox attendance would be any worse if they played on another planet?

• OK, now you should be ready for some football.

mimrem@dailyherald.com

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