• The May Cubs TOOTBLAN report is out.  While the Cubs are stealing at a better rate than April (12/15), there were still a ton of baserunning errors to account for. [WV23]
• Brian Cole of the Bulls has been awarded the Team Physician of the Year.  Really?  They didn’t seem to catch that minor Deng injury and didn’t Gooden seek a second opinion outside the organization? [By The Horns]
• Someone else weighs in on the booing debate.  And as most other people that have read about it, he thinks booing is acceptable in certain circumstances.  Obviously. [Zoner]
• The White Sox call up Gordon Beckham.  I don’t know anything about him beyond the fact that Sox fans think he’s the second coming.  I guess we’ll see. [Tribune]
• Joakim Noah is already back in the gym.  Love that kid. [Blogabull]

Wrigleyville23 invented a statistic last year called the “TOOTBLAN”.  For those of you not familiar with this stat, it was created to honor Ryan Theriot, one of the worst baserunners in the entire league.  TOOTBLAN stands for “Thrown Out On The Basepaths Like A Nincompoop”.  This includes any kind of out made on the basepaths, be it caught stealing, getting doubled up, or caught trying to stretch a single into a double.  While Theriot was the most egregious offender of the TOOTBLAN last season, the entire Cubs roster has been getting in on the fun this year.  Here is the rundown from WV23:

Total TOOTBLANs: 15

TOOTBLAN Leaders: Kosuke Fukudome (5), Alfonso Soriano (3), Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot (2)

TOOTBLANs While Tied: 8

TOOTBLANs While Leading: 2

TOOTBLANs While Trailing: 5

TOOTBLANs At First: 0

TOOTBLANs At Second: 11

TOOTBLANs At Third: 3

TOOTBLANs At Home: 1

Record In Games With TOOTBLANs: 4-7

Multiple TOOTBLAN Games: 4

Kinds of TOOTBLANs: caught stealing (9), taking extra base on hit (3), doubled off on line drive (1), picked off (1), thrown out at home on infield grounder (1)

Of all people one would think that Kosuke would not be TOOTBLANed that often. He is usually a very smart ballplayer. While I love Sweet Lou, the fault for this lies with him.  When “being aggressive” on the bases leads to giving away massive amounts of outs, you are costing your team runs and thus wins.  This is only a minor problem for the Cubs compared to the power outage at the plate and the awful bullpen, but the Cubs can use all the help they can get.  Think about toning it down a bit, Lou.  Thanks.

• Theriot got his first TOOTBLAN of the year last night.  Oh and Ramirez threw one in for good measure. [Wrigleyville23]
• The Bulls won a big one down the stretch.  Back to 7th with 4 games to play. [Bulls Blog]
• Cubbies blew it in the 10th.  The bullpen has looked really good though. (UPDATE: I’m not sure if that’s sarcasm or not; Heilman and Guzman looked good, Cotts was left in too long and Gregg choked) [Tribune]
• Michael Jordan is pissed he’s in the Hall of Fame, because he thinks he can still play.  I’m not going to be the one to tell him he can’t, but umm… [Deadspin]
• A yellow card was given in a soccer match to a player for farting.  No joke. [BBC]
• It looks like this will be Lou Piniella’s last year managing the Cubs, at least according to some Yankee guy. [Bleacher Nation]
• NQTC favorite Curtis Granderson is going to be blogging over at Big League Stew.  He’s such a classy guy. [Big League Stew]
• More details on the sale of Wrigley Field.  It sounds like a lucrative deal. [Chicagoist]

• I know what you’re thinking, “I need a sweet, borderline inappropriate, yet hilarious t-shirt.”  Well you’re in luck.  Scroll down about an 1/8 of the page over at the Dong and look on the right. [Luol's Dong]
• The trade deadline is an interesting phenomenon, here’s a look at the history behind it. [Hardwood Paroxysm]
• What’s the difference between the Cover 2 and the Tampa 2?  What is the Cover 2 anyways?  Here’s an explanation. [Windy City Gridiron]
• So now Soriano is going to bat leadoff again?  I thought we went over this. [Sun-Times]
• It looks like Paxson isn’t going anywhere, at least according to him. [Tribune]
• What’s the story with all the construction at Wrigley Field?  Whatever it is, I hope concrete doesn’t fall on anyone this year.  Just saying. [Bleed Cubbie Blue]
• It was a busy trading season for the Bulls, and as Sam Smith points out, they now lead the league in Thomases. [Bulls Blog]
• Charles Barkley is back calling games for TNT.  Barkley: “I thought I did well on the sobriety test. But clearly not good enough.”  [TrueHoop]
• Don’t know what a Tootblan is?  Ryan Theriot will show you soon enough, but don’t forget to buy your t-shirt. [Wrigleyville23]
• The Blackhawks are opening the season in Finland next year.  I’m not going to lie, I didn’t read this article so I have no idea why or when this would even happen.  Maybe you’ll care. [Sun-Times]