Panic time not here yet, but it sure is getting close

There is a cloud hovering over Wrigley Field, and it is rainingdoom on the Cubs. The good karma has evaporated. Bad omens haveinvaded the airspace. They come in groups of three, these omens.

Bases loaded, first inning, no outs and the wind blowing out? FredMcGriff, strikeout. Matt Stairs, strikeout. Ricky Gutierrez, groundout. Inning over, no runs scored.

An eight-strikeout major-league debut by 20-year-old Juan Cruz?Overshadowed by the 10-strikeout, seven-inning effort of recent Cubscastoff Ruben Quevedo.

Kerry Wood announcing after the game that an MRI showed he hasadvanced" tendinitis in his pitching shoulder? We shudder, wonderingwhether he will pitch again …