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After being in the dumps the past few days watching my favorite teams in baseball and football suffer tough losses, it was great watching the Chicago Cubs pull out a victory tonight against the Cards in 11 innings in a nationally televised game on Fox. Most folks were probably watching the Cowboys-Giants game that was a thriller as well, but the Cubs-Cards game was as exciting a baseball game as one could hope to watch.

First, I should tell about the other losses. No doubt the Cubs have all but missed the playoffs, especially after the Cards won back-to-back heart-breakers on the final play of the game. Then the Nebraska Cornhuskers, whom I followed while growing up in that state, blew a sure win when Virginia Tech used an 81-yard passing play in the final minute to pull out a 16-15 win. Then I went to the Rose Bowl to watch my alma mater, Kansas State, play UCLA tough for all but the last few minutes when the Bruins pulled away for the win.

Finally I got something to cheer about in tonight's Cubs-Card game, which went into extra innings when Matt Holliday tried to break up a double play with the bases loaded only to be called for interference for going way off the base path. It looked at first that the Cards pulled out a third straight win on the final play of the game, but the umpires shouted down the celebration and sent the game into extra innings. Jake Fox's two-run bomb in the top of the 11th won it for the Cubs and kept their flickering playoff hopes alive.

Yep, this one was a classic, starting off with the news that Milt Bradley was suspended by the Cubs for the rest of the season for badmouthing the Cubs and their fans and ending in a hard-fought game with a few lead changes and a strange turn of events.