Good afternoon all,

My name is Mattie T, a devoted Cub fan & sports writer for BMSRadio.com. All season long i’ll be providing game recaps for the Cubs which i hope you will enjoy! Now, let’s talk about the season opener…

March 31st, 2008 was destined to be a great day in the City of Chicago. Not only was Ernie Banks’ honorary statue about to be unveiled for the first time on Clark & Addison, but the Cubs were about to start a new season at the friendly confines & show off their prized off-season acquisition, rookie rightfielder Kosuke Fukudome from Japan.

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Today the Cubs will unveil a statue to honor their Hall of Fame player Ernie Banks. I felt this would be a great time to revisit a story that was written a couple of years ago.

Without Ernie Banks, the Cubs would have finished the season in Albuquerque

PITCHERS (12):
21-Jason Marquis, RHP
22-Kevin Hart, RHP
30-Ted Lilly, LHP
32-Jon Lieber, RHP
34-Kerry Wood, RHP
38-Carlos Zambrano, RHP*
43-Michael Wuertz, RHP
46-Ryan Dempster, RHP
49-Carlos Marmol, RHP
53-Rich Hill, LHP
62-Bob Howry, RHP
63-Carmen Pignatiello, LHP

CATCHERS (2):
18-Geovany Soto*
24-Henry Blanco

INFIELDERS (7):
2-Ryan Theriot*
5-Ronny Cedeno
7-Mark DeRosa*
16-Aramis Ramirez*
17-Mike Fontenot
25-Derrek Lee*
33-Daryle Ward

OUTFIELDERS (4):
1-Kosuke Fukudome*
9-Reed Johnson
12-Alfonso Soriano*
20-Felix Pie*

*denotes members of the opening day starting lineup

You can always tell someone is happy when they show a good sense of humor, and in baseball, a team’s hapiness usually equates to wins. Or is it winning that makes a happy team? Regardless, when a team is meshing well, it’s always a positive. This spring training there’s been a few feel-good stories that would indicate that the guys on the roster are getting along. Sure, Matt Murton is pretty upset (and rightfully so in my opinion) about starting the year at Triple-A, but most of the other guys seem to be in a good place right now.

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It seems to be a spring tradition for the experts to make their predictions for the upcoming spring. This year the Cubs are the trendy pick to take the NL Central, as everyone from Billy and Cal Ripken (XM 175) to ESPN the Magazine thinks that this could be the year for the Cubbies.

Over at ESPN.com, their panel of experts made their picks recently (found here) and I couldnt help but decide that it’d be a good idea to put my picks on record as well. This will give all of you the chance to laugh at me when/if I’m wrong.

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