The Cubs managed to get out of town this time without punching any new holes in their Wrigley Field clubhouse, although they had plenty of good reasons, considering their 3-6 homestand.
The last time the Cubs went on a road trip-to Houston and the West Coast in May-the front office had to call in a repairman for a sheetrock partition at the foot of the clubhouse stairs.
Pitchers Frank Castillo and Greg Maddux each had hurled a baseball into the wall after frustrating outings. And they had pretty good control when they did it. The balls were side by side, an inch or two apart, sticking half into the wall.
Both balls were signed and dated and were seen by most of the players as a positive symbol of the two pitchers` desire to win. But, apparently management didn`t see it quite that way. The balls are gone and the walls are clean.
May man: Mike Morgan was named National League Pitcher of the Month after going 5-0 with a 2.32 earned-run average in six May starts. Morgan hasn`t lost since April 15 and the Cubs are 8-0 the last eight times he has started a game. It was the first time in Morgan`s 10-year career he has been named pitcher of the month and only the fourth time since 1980 that a Cub pitcher won the award. Rick Reuschel won in August 1980, Rick Sutcliffe won in August 1984 and Greg Maddux won in June 1988.
A millennium: The next run Ryne Sandberg scores will be his 1,000th as a Cub. When Sandberg scored the winning run in the 13th inning of last Tuesday`s game against San Diego, it was the 1,001st time he crossed home plate in the major leagues. But two of those runs came in 1981 when he played 13 games with Philadelphia. Sandberg is seventh on the all-time Cub scoring list. Cap Anson is the Cub career leader with 1,719 runs. In sixth place, just ahead of Sandberg, is Cubs broadcaster Ron Santo with 1,109.