Chicago celebrates: There's a winner in town!

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Huge night for Chicago sports, baby!

The Fire managed a 2-2 draw with the Colorado Rapids in thrilling MLS action!!!

What's that? There was a hockey game, too? And the Blackhawks won it, beating the Flyers in OT? Do tell.

Hey, big props to the Blackhawks. Anybody who paid any attention at all knew way back in October that they had the talent to win the franchise's first Stanley Cup in 49 years. But actually doing so took a lot of drive and grit and hard work.

And, in the case of Duncan Keith, a whole mess of teeth.

As I write this, I'm sitting in the office area of my 17th floor, North Side apartment listening to the revelry outside. TV news helicopters are flying over the nearby Wrigleyville area doing live shots of all the partying in the streets. Hopefully, stupidity and hooliganism will be at a minimum so fun can be at a maximum.

I've lived in many metro areas, I grew up near New York and I've covered championship events in just about every major city in North America ... and I consider Chicago the best sports town. It's nice to see folks here getting all revved up about one of the teams.

Three years ago, the Blackhawks were a non-story in Chicago. Tonight, they are The Story in Chicago.

Pretty cool.

Another Chicago sports day from hell

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The Cubs were helpless against a pitcher who had been 0-7 this season, losing 3-1 to the awful Astros.

The White Sox were hapless against a pitcher who had been 0-11 since last August, getting humiliated 10-1 by the inept Indians.

The suddenly vulnerable Blackhawks fell behind big, lost Game 4 to the Flyers and now the Stanley Cup Finals stand tied at 2-apiece.

But hey, at least LeBron is leading on Bulls fans, so it's all good.

Cubs appreciate losing Blackhawks, raining Pittsburgh

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Wednesday sure was a nice night for sports ...

Nice of the Blackhawks to lose to the Flyers, guaranteeing an extended Stanley Cup Finals and keeping the Cubs and White Sox off the front pages of the Chicago newspapers for a little while longer.

Nice of Ken Griffey Jr. to wake up long enough to announce his retirement.

Nice of it to rain in Pittsburgh, preventing all those Pirates fans - like, 2,000 of them! - from celebrating yet another win over the Cubbies.

Nice of Jim Joyce to admit perhaps the biggest umpiring gaffe since Don Denkinger's 1985 all-timer: "I just cost the kid a perfect game."

Nice of Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga to provide the perfectly classy quote about Joyce's screw-up: "He probably feels more bad than me. Nobody's perfect. Everybody's human. I understand."

Of Blackhawks, Pujols, Marquette memories and Cubbie angst

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Took a break for a bit. It was tough to sacrifice the huge paycheck I usually get for my work here at TBT, but that's the kind of guy I am.

Anyway, a few random thoughts ...

+++ As impressive as the Blackhawks have been - which is plenty damn impressive - it's still too early to assume they'll beat the Flyers and win their first Stanley Cup in the Color TV Era. Many, many, many times throughout history, a team has gone up 2-0 only to lose a series. In fact, the Hull-Mikita-Tony O-Martin-Pappin-Stapleton Blackhawks of 1971 did just that. So I'd advise Blackhawks fans - both longtime loyalists and Pucky-come-latelies - to enjoy every moment, cheer on the lads and keep their playoff beards growing.

+++ Nice to see Mark McGwire fix Albert Pujols because, you know, Pujols was nothing before Big Mac saved his career.

+++ Ubaldo Jimenez = Bob Gibson. Except Jimenez is dominating from a regular-height mound in a hitter-friendly era.

+++ The Nationals have handled the Stephen Strasburg situation perfectly every step of the way. Folks who disagree understand neither modern Major League Baseball nor economics.

+++ Those who know me well know that I root for no pro teams. Still, I can't acknowledge the pending Celtics-Lakers championship series without wishing best of luck to my former Marquette colleague, Glenn "Doc" Rivers - surely one of the worst soccer players ever to take Charlie Nader's team sports class.

+++ The Pirates beat the Cubs 6 times in May. They beat the other teams on their schedule 5 times. If you're waiting for a punch line, I don't need to provide it. The Cubs already have.

+++ And speaking of punch lines ... Aramis Ramirez is only one hot streak away from hiking his batting average all the way up to .175.