Ryan Dempster. Blue-collar hard thrower with control problems or gift from God? you decide. My whole take on this seemingly out-of-nowhere signing is that Hendry really is a master of his trade. 300k guaranteed with a 200k buyout if the Cubs don't excercise their option for next year. This guy was a stud his first two years in Florida and could, I stress could, pull a Matt Clement act out of his hat. In all reality, I believe Dempster was signed to be Matt's replacement next season. Clement, with another good year, would be looking at a 7-8 million per year contract somewhere. The Cubs cannot afford that even with Moises and Alex dropping off the payroll. So far I must say all I've seen Hendry do is magic. Pure magic. He won the Chicagoland "Houdini" award when I gave it out. Let Cub-dom hope that this is just another good trick up his sleeve...
In Other News...
a) Kerry is running away with New Hampshire. Literally. Dean and Clark can taste the dust. Long live Democrats with speaking skills and civility.
b) Quatros Pizza. Still the best in southern Illinois. You can take your Pagliai's and stuff it.
c) If anyone (Im talking to you, Jimmy) doubts Paul's assumption that SIU has the best mens basketball team in the state they can go to hell. Illinois is terrible. NIU is terrible. Illinois State and Northwestern can both obviously give Illinois a run. I would pay good money to see an SIU-UI matchup in the Big Dance.
d) Never let a sick dog into your room.
Connemara's Rising is solely a division of David Brunner's Intellectual gifts.
© 2004 David Brunner
