“Smells like a hot dog” was a rather random comment that Chris Welch made during tonight's broadcast, but I think it fits. That game did smell, maybe like a hot dog. An evil, evil hot dog.

There were a few high points I could mention, but instead I want to take a quick moment to talk about the Cubs. They are, indeed, lovable losers, but they are officious, obnoxious winners. We saw it tonight when they actually booed when their own pitcher, Chad Fox, left the game, his arm practically dangling from a thread off his shoulder joint. And again when Wily Mo Peña was greeted with catcalls and jeers as came in as the last batter of the game to finally put the Reds out of their misery.

It reminded me of a time last season when my husband and I had gone to the last home series against the Cubs. By that point, the Reds had already spoilt the Cubs' hopes for the wildcard, but the stands were still disorientingly filled with blue. It was actually intimidating. When, during the seventh inning stretch, the line “root, root, root for the CUBBIES!” overwhelmed every other sound in a 3-mile radius, I felt like I'd slipped into an alternate dimension.

Anyway, though the Cubs won that game, the fans were not content to have totally overtaken Great American. The crowd outside bordered on hostile and as we walked through the throng back to our car, a group of rowdy (read: drunk) Cubs fans were announcing to anyone who would listen “Reds suck!”

And, that's when, showing way more courage than I had in such hostile territory, my husband Jon shouted back, “Yeah? Well Cubs suck historically!”

Little comfort now, I suppose, but at the time, it smelt like victory. Sure smelt better than this damn hot dog.