(Ryan O’Malley’s Baron Von Raschke impersonation fails to intimidate the Phillies)

Writes Ben,

And I don’t mean the upper deck concrete hitting fans on the head, I mean the actual grass. With Izturis and O’Malley both injured, this moves Dusty from complaining that he’s never been able to field his A-list team to complaining that he can’t even field a B team. Is there anyone in Iowa left who can play baseball besides the ghost of Shoeless Joe and Kevin Costner? Did the Cubs just trade a Hall of Fame hometown favorite for a hamstrung Carlos Izturis? Or might that have something to do with dropping Maddux’s paycheck (along with hundreds of other Trib employees) in the last quarter?

As to the hate mail Dusty’s been getting — can Sammy Sosa write in English?