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via @willbyington

Apparently Internet “friend” – and dandy photographer – Will Byington was documenting a band at Clark and Addison on Friday night. Close to midnight some folks noticed two wild coyotes across the street and Will was able to get the shot. Been the talk of the neighborhood ever since.

Dear Theo: Please take note of how the Oakland A’s have built their success.  A team that is roughly $33 million cheaper won 94 games, and the AL West. If you compare the Cubs to the A’s, defensively they were pretty similar. The Cubs had fewer errors and turned more double plays, but both teams shared the same fielding percentage. On the offense, the A’s did have more home runs (195 compared to 137), but the Cubs were slightly better in team batting average and stole more bases. Now take a gander at pitching. The A’s had an ERA of 3.48. The Cubs: 4.51. I’m no rocket surgeon, but that there seems like the biggest difference between being 94-68 vs 61-101.

Earlier today, the Cubs Marketing Department was informed that their annual pizza party had been cancelled. The announcement came after the Cubs failed to reach 3 million in ticket sales for 2012. This season was the first since 2003 that the team didn’t reach the magic number with only 2,882,756 fans paying to see the 61-101 team. “We’re not going to reward failure,” said Team Chairman Tom Ricketts. “Maybe they can earn it back next year.” Many in the Marketing Department walked around in shock after the announcement was made. “Does this come as a surprise? No,” said Colin Faulkner, Vice President of Ticket Sales and Services. “Do I like pizza? Yes. Yes, very much so.” Asked why he thought the Cubs didn’t reach the 3 million mark, Mr. Faulkner had few answers. “I have absolutely no idea” he said. “I mean, we have such a simplified system for tickets. Good games are “Gold”,  great games are “Platinum”… really, really great games are “Marquee”, crappy games are “Silver” and games you can’t believe you still have to pay to watch are “Bronze.” It’s very simple.” Executive Vice President, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Wally Hayward didn’t have much more to offer. “Couldn’t be the ticket prices,” he said. “Plenty of people were willing to hand over up to $160 a ticket to sit in the bleachers, plenty.” “Maybe it was the weather. It did get cold in April, and it did rain a few times a couple of weeks ago,” Mr. Hayward said. “Listen, I’m not one to point fingers. If I was, I’d point them directly at the team’s play this season, but I’m not going to do it.”

Fresh off of suffering through our first 100 loss season since 1966, the Cubs went and announced that they’re gonna move in the brick wall behind home plate. They pulled a similar stunt back in 2004, adding three rows of “premium seating” for folks with money to burn. Now, I couldn’t fathom how much it costs to move a brick wall 3 feet, but based on how much the Cubs tend to charge for those seats, I reckon this move will bring in at least an extra million dollars a year. (56 seats x $200-300/game x 81 games) I’m certainly not against the Cubs having more money available, but I doubt it’ll turn much around come next season. Perhaps the only positive we Cubs fans can count on will be that knuckleheads like this guy will be three feet closer: