Cubs End 12-Game Losing Streak

The Cubs stopped their 12-game losing streak, getting a boost from Alfonso Soriano's go-ahead home run to beat the San Diego Padres 11-7 on Memorial Day.

The Cubs' skid was their worst since they opened the 1997 season with 14 straight losses.

With winds blowing out at 35 mph on a 90-degree afternoon and the ball was flying. There were eight home runs, including four by each team and two from San Diego's Chase Headley and a total of 17 extra-base hits.

Chicago trailed 7-6 in the sixth inning when Soriano launched a drive that landed outside the stadium on Waveland Ave.

When the final out was secured and the Cubs had their first victory since a May 14 game at St. Louis, the Wrigley Field crowd and the Cubs as a team breathed a sigh of relief.

It's temporary, the Cubs still have a long season in front of them.

Dick Williams, Hall of Fame Manager Dies

Hall of Fame manager Dick Williams, who won two World Series titles with Oakland and led two other franchises to pennants, has died. He was 82. Williams died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm at a hospital near his home in Henderson, Nev., the Hall of Fame said in a statement.

Williams, who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the veterans’ committee in 2008, was a Major League Baseball manager for 21 years. He won World Series titles with the Athletics in 1972 and 1973, an American League pennant with the Red Sox in 1967 and the National League title with the Padres in 1984.
Other managerial stops for Williams, who had a 1,571-1,451 record as a manager, included the California Angels, Montreal Expos and Seattle Mariners.

Williams also played 13 major league seasons as an outfielder, third baseman and first baseman, retiring with a .260 batting average, 70 home runs and 331 runs batted in.

Williams was an interesting character, a good read is his biography written with Bill Plaschke called No More Mr. Nice Guy.