All right, for comic amusement, it's time to post Carlos Zambrano's tirade from yesterday's Cubs game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. For his antics, Big Z has been suspended for six games. He won't appeal. He'll start the suspension tonight.

If the Cubs recover from their early-season malaise and make the playoffs, I'm sure the asshat division of their fan base will insist that Zambrano's hissy-fit "turned the entire season around." Right. After all, I'm sure Z's antics got Reed Johnson so fired up that he hit a game-winning homer off whatever Triple-A puke reliever the Pirates were trotting out there yesterday.

Also, if the Cubs don't like that Gatorade machine, they should give it to me. As an avid bicyclist, I drink Gatorade like it's going out of style. That machine wouldn't look too bad in our office cafeteria either. It looks like it has a lot of different flavors. Nice variety.

Maybe I should start a halfway house for abused Gatorade machines.

No sadness here. Although the Hawks suffered a tough loss to end their season, a 2-1 overtime heartbreaker to the Detroit Red Wings in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals Wednesday night, I can't fault the effort.

Detroit wins the series 4-1 and advances to meet the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Hawks will shave their playoff beards and reflect on a very good season.

After seven straight years of no playoffs, the Hawks took a giant leap forward this season. They won two postseason series, and they put up a good fight against the defending champion Red Wings. Although the series lasted just five games, three went to overtime. That shows the Hawks are closing the gap between themselves and the NHL's top team.

Here's the reaction tonight from Hawks captain Jonathan Toews, courtesy of Sun-Times reporter Len Ziehm:

"We'll never be happy with the way we played because we didn't win,'' Toews said. ''But every guy on the team layed it on the line. They all tried to contribute everything they could. Unfortunately it wasn't enough.''

Not this year, but if the Hawks continue on this path there's no reason to think they won't be back in this spot again next year. And next time, they'll have the valuable experience they were lacking in this matchup with Detroit.

Even goaltender Cristobal Huet, who I bitch about all the time, gave a helluva performance in Game 5. Like Toews said, it just wasn't enough. For now, I can live with that. Thank you, Hawks, for a excellent season of hockey. It's been a long time since we Hawk fans have had this much fun.

The White Sox have a day-night doubleheader scheduled for June 8 against the first-place Detroit Tigers. Sun-Times beat writer Joe Cowley speculates that Jose Contreras might get his recall to the big leagues to pitch one of those two games.

Contreras is 2-1 with a 2.18 ERA in three starts at Charlotte. He has 18 strikeouts in 20.2 innings worked, but he also had 10 walks.

It's the lead story on Yahoo! Sports today. Baseball columnist Jeff Passan is calling upon Cubs manager Lou Piniella to explode in rage and get the North Siders out of deep May funk that has seen them lose eight consecutive games and dip below the .500 mark (21-22).

If Piniella does blow a gasket, he won't be the first. Several Cubs players have already had temper tantrums this week. Whacked-out right fielder Milton Bradley claims umpires are conspiring to destroy his career. Ted Lilly, who wasn't even pitching during last night's 10-8 loss to Pittsburgh, was ejected from the game for storming on to the field to argue balls and strikes. Ryan Dempster, who did pitch last night, was seen punching Gatorade buckets after walking half the Pirates lineup in the same inning.

Here's my question about manager tirades: Do they really help? Passan points out the Cubs went 63-46 in 2007 after an infamous Piniella tirade that included dirt-kicking and hat-throwing. IIRC, Piniella had a couple similar incidents while he was managing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays from 2003-05. Unfortunately, Piniella's Tampa Bay clubs never won more than 70 games in a season, so I can't say there's any correlation between manager blowups and winning and losing.

After all, if all it took was a manager going nuts to provoke a winning streak, wouldn't every manager be going on a tirade every day?

As a Blackhawks fan, I fear I might have to get used to the picture at left. That's Blackhawks goalie Cristobal Huet, with the puck behind him in the net. That's a sight we saw five times in Sunday's putrid 6-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals.

I don't really care to rehash Sunday's game. The Hawks didn't show up, and they were dominated from start to finish. End of story. There's no point in doing anything now except looking ahead to Wednesday night's Game 5.

Unfortunately, it looks like Huet is going to be in net again for the injured Nikolai Khabibulin. Boy, was I off base Saturday night when I blogged that there isn't much of a dropoff from Khabibulin to Huet.

My rationale was as follows: Khabibulin has been decent, but not great, in this series against the Red Wings. I never expected Huet to be great, but I thought he could be decent. Denied. He was awful. Of course, so were the rest of the Hawks Sunday, but it seems to me that awfulness is the norm for Huet.

Khabibulin is a free agent at the end of the season, and if he doesn't return to play again in these playoffs, he has played his last game in a Blackhawk uniform. Due to the salary-cap issues the Hawks face, there is no chance he will be retained.

Huet still has three years remaining on the lucrative free-agent deal he signed last offseason. It certainly seems like Blackhawks' brass thought Huet would be the guy to eventually get them over the top. Sorry, but I'm having trouble seeing that. Huet is adept at giving up the demoralizing soft goal, like the weak Johan Franzen wrist shot that floated into the net to give Detroit a 2-0 lead with 20.7 seconds left in the first period Sunday.

I like literally every other aspect of the Hawks team. I think they have a great group of forwards. The defensive unit could use one more experienced veteran, but I like the core group. I like Joel Quenneville as a coach, silly tirade about Sunday's officiating notwithstanding. But I worry this team is going to be denied a Stanley Cup in the next few years for the sole reason that Cristobal Huet is not the right guy in net.

We'll see what the Hawks do about their goaltending - if they do anything - this offseason.

UPDATE: Neither Khabibulin nor Martin Havlat practiced Tuesday, but both will travel to Detroit for Wednesday night's Game 5.

The Blackhawks got back in their playoff series against the Detroit Red Wings with a 4-3 overtime win Friday night. Patrick Sharp's game-winning goal cut Detroit's lead in the best-of-seven series to 2-1.

But the victory came at a heavy price as the Hawks lost both starting goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin and leading scorer Martin Havlat to injury. Khabibulin is likely out of Sunday's Game 4 with an undisclosed lower-body injury.

Havlat took a vicious check from Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall (left) and appeared to be out cold before he hit the ice. Kronwall was given a major penalty and a game misconduct, and Havlat never returned to the game. Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said Saturday that he is "optimistic" that Havlat will play Sunday.

I'm not so optimistic about that. I'll believe Havlat is playing only when I see him on the ice. And make no mistake about it, Havlat will be a tough guy for the Blackhawks to replace. This season, he has led the Hawks in scoring in both regular season and playoffs. He plays on the Hawks' No. 1 power-play unit. He's one of their best forwards in 4-on-4 situations. He has scored HUGE goals in these playoffs, tying two games in the closing moments of regulation and winning one in overtime. Havlat is a gamebreaker when healthy, and up until this point, he's been healthy. That's a big reason the Hawks have gotten as far as they have.

Losing Khabibulin sucks, but backup Cristobal Huet is an experienced veteran. He played admirably in the third period and overtime in relief of Khabibulin on Friday night. The dropoff from Khabibulin to Huet isn't that far, and I think Huet is capable of stepping up and giving the Hawks a big game.

But if Havlat is out, the Hawks are definitely a weaker team.

All right, the White Sox and Padres have agreed on a deal that would send ace right-hander Jake Peavy to the South Side for four unnamed players. The holdup is Peavy has a full no-trade clause, which he is reluctant to waive.

Personally, I'd be surprised if Peavy comes here. He has a stated preference for pitching in the National League, and he'd be coming to one of the most notorious hitters' parks in baseball in U.S. Cellular Field. It would not be easy for him to duplicate the numbers he has put up with Padres if he were to come to the White Sox.

If Peavy turns this down, I'm sure some Sox fans will take it personally. I won't. I look at this the same way I do college recruiting. If Peavy wants to be here, I'll welcome him with open arms. God knows this White Sox team needs some pitching talent. Right now, the starting rotation is second-division material, and that is reflected in the results through the first 40 games of the season. If he doesn't want to be here, then don't come. That's his right.

Here's my question: Why did the Padres go to the trouble of scouting the Sox organization and negotiating a trade with GM Kenny Williams if they weren't sure Peavy would accept a deal? Seems like a lot of wasted effort.

UPDATE: No deal.

For four years, the Brian Anderson fan boys have been claiming that White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen holds some sort of personal grudge against their guy.

Well, the BA fans should look on the bright side: At least Ozzie has never said Anderson is destined to play in the Korean League. Here's what the skipper had to say about infielder Brent Lillibridge (left), who was recently optioned to Charlotte after striking out 21 times in 68 at-bats:

"You have to use your legs, play baseball, and when you have warning-track power you're going to go from minor leagues to the Mexican League to Korean League," Guillen said. "He has a tough road to come back here. He's not doing what he's supposed to do. I'm just being honest. He got the message three times, and he has to change his ballgame."

Ouch. It seems rather unlikely Lillibridge will be back on the South Side anytime soon.

It ain't over until it's over.

The Hawks have come this far. There's no reason to give up now.

Mikael Samuelsson scored at 5:14 of overtime on a 3-on-1 break to lift Detroit to a 3-2 victory over the Blackhawks in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday night.

The win gives the Wings a commanding 2-0 series lead, with Game 3 to come Friday night at the United Center in Chicago.

For me, this loss is harder to swallow than the 5-2 defeat in Game 1. Quite frankly, I thought the Hawks sucked in the series opener. They made way too many mistakes to beat the defending Stanley Cup champions in that game. Nikolai Khabubulin's fine goaltending - especially in the second period - kept the score from getting out of hand. The Hawks deserved to get their asses kicked in Game 1.

That was not the story on Tuesday night. This was an evenly-played game. The shots were basically even. The scoring chances were even. It can be argued that perhaps the Hawks even had a slight edge. When you play well and still lose, that's not easy to live with.

After the two sides completed regulation tied at 2-2, it was clear whichever team played smarter in OT would prevail. The smarter team proved to be the more experienced Red Wings.

Hawks defenseman Brian Campbell made a soft pass and a turnover at the offensive blue line in the overtime period. That set up the fateful 3-on-1 break that Samuelsson finished off.

Turnovers at the offensive blue line have been a familiar story for the Hawks in this series. Defenseman Brent Seabrook has made not one, but two costly turnovers of that type. Both times, those mistakes became goals for Detroit winger Dan Cleary -- the Red Wings first goal in Game 1 and their second goal to go up 2-1 on Tuesday.

The Hawks have got to cut the soft, backhanded little feeds they are trying to make at the blue lines. The Red Wings are picking those sissy-ass passes off and counterpunching the other way. Detroit is deadly on the counterattack, as the Hawks have learned quickly in this series.

In Game 3, the Hawks can't have any more soft plays in the neutral zone or at the blue lines. For God's sake, get the puck deep and make the Red Wings skate 200 feet to score a goal.

On odd-man rushes after turnovers, Detroit is going to put the puck in the back of the net with regularity. If the Hawks continue to allow odd-man rushes, the Western Conference Finals will be over far quicker than I had hoped.

Here's the video:

Thank goodness it's only a flesh wound.

Is Jose Contreras getting back on track at Triple-A? I hope so, because the Sox need him.

Contreras tossed a one-hitter Monday night as the Charlotte Knights beat Toledo 4-0.

Contreras struck out five and walked three. He threw 66 of his 100 pitches for strikes, which is a better ratio than his first outing in Charlotte. It's hard to judge, though, whether Contreras is close to being ready for a recall without seeing him pitch in person.

Triple-A hitters are in the minors for a reason. Most of them probably cannot handle Contreras' fork ball. Regaining the feel for that off-speed pitch is the key for Contreras. He can't help the White Sox until he does that. Hopefully, the numbers from last night are indicative that he's on the right path.

There was much rejoicing across the countryside this afternoon as White Sox center fielder Brian Anderson was activated from the disabled list.

To make room for Anderson, Brent Lillibridge and his .162 batting average and uppercut swing were optioned back to Triple-A Charlotte.

Carlos Quentin is still missing from the lineup with a bruised heel, but at least the Sox can get Scott Podsednik the hell out of center field now and put him in left field where he belongs. Anderson will start tonight and bat seventh against the Minnesota Twins.

Believe it or not, I'm walking on air! I never thought I could feel so free!

To the left, you see a picture of the great Toronto pitcher, Scott "Cy" Richmond. He is untouchable -- at least for White Sox hitters.

It's pathetic that the Sox can't score a run off a pitcher who had a 20-30 record in the minor leagues, but it's par for the course. Richmond tossed seven shutout innings for the Jays today as Toronto beat the Sox 3-2.

This isn't a new phenomenon. Whenever the Sox hitters face a pitcher for the first time, their bats turn into wet newspaper. Well, actually, the Sox have been bad against everybody this year. They've scored three runs or fewer in 20 out their first 37 games this season. But the suckiness has been particular profound against no-name pitchers. Take these six examples of guys the Sox had never seen before until this year:

Brad Bergesen (Baltimore) -- W
5 2/3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 4 K, 2 BB
Chris Jakubauskas (Seattle) -- L
8 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 K, 1 BB
Brandon McCarthy (Texas) -- W
5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 K, 0 BB
Brett Cecil (Toronto ) -- W
6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 K, 2 BB
Robert Ray (Toronto) -- W
8 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 K, 1 BB
Scott Richmond (Toronto) -- ND
7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 7 K, 1 BB

In the case of Bergesen and Ray, both pitchers earned their first MLB wins against the Sox. Richmond can't be that good, since the Yankees knocked him out in the second inning of his previous outing.

Totaled up, these six no-names are 4-1 with a 1.82 ERA. No wonder the Sox are 15-22.

Fresh off the press, here are the game dates for the Western Conference finals between the Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings:

Game 1: Sunday 5/17 at Detroit, 2 p.m.
Game 2: Tuesday 5/19 at Detroit, 6:30 p.m.
Game 3: Friday 5/22 at Chicago, 7 p.m.
Game 4: Sunday 5/24 at Chicago, 2 p.m.
Game 5: Wednesday 5/27 at Detroit, 6:30 p.m.
Game 6: Saturday 5/30 at Chicago, 7 p.m.
Game 7: Monday 6/1 at Detroit, 6:30 p.m.

**This entry has now been updated to reflect the start times for each game -- JB

White Sox center fielder Brian Anderson is close to returning to the big league club. He is eligible to come off the disabled list Friday, and he started a rehab assignment tonight with Charlotte.

Anderson with 2-for-4 with a triple in the Knights' 2-0 victory over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

The winning pitcher in that game? Jose Contreras, who was recently optioned down to work on his control problems.

The good news for Contreras is he tossed six shutout innings. The bad news is he threw only 57 of his 108 pitches for strikes. He walked five, hit a batter and uncorked two wild pitches. You can get away with that in Triple-A. But if Contreras is going to get a recall, he needs to throw more strikes.

Getting Contreras back on track might make or break the Sox this season. It doesn't look like Clayton Richard is ready to handle a starting role.

Anderson, who I have criticized heavily in the past, will also be a welcome sight when he returns to the lineup. After Jermaine Dye was ejected in Wednesday's 4-0 loss to Cleveland, the Sox trotted out an outfield of Scott Podsednik, Brent Lillibridge and Jayson Nix in the late innings.

For those scoring at home, that outfield consists of two infielders (Lillibridge and Nix) and a guy the club picked up off the scrap heap last month (Podsednik).

The Sox need Carlos Quentin and Anderson to get healthy. It wouldn't hurt, either, if Dye would avoid getting ejected from games. The outfield I saw today in the late innings ranks among the worst Sox outfields of all time. I certainly can't recall a worse one.

Brad Melges, my co-worker, started signing this song while we were watching the Detroit-Anaheim hockey game tonight post-deadline. Don't ask me why.

For the record, Anaheim won 2-1. The Blackhawks will have to wait a couple more days before learning who their next opponent will be.

The Ducks and Red Wings will play a decisive Game 7 on Thursday night in the Motor City.

The Vancouver Canucks are a good team. To say otherwise would diminish what the Blackhawks just accomplished in defeating the Canucks in six games in the Western Conference semifinals.

But the Canucks are also a bunch of mouthy morons. In particular, defenseman Willie Mitchell's mouth wrote a check that he and his teammates couldn't cash. After Game 1, a 5-3 Vancouver victory, Mitchell said that Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane was incapable of hurting the Canucks in five-on-five situations.

Oops. I'd say that didn't work out so well for Vancouver, especially after Kane's hat trick was instrumental in Monday's series-clinching Game 6 victory. Kane even did some trash-talking of his own after the game, much to my amusement:

''Any time you get a wake-up call from old Willie Mitchell -- he decided to make some comments that fired me up,'' Kane said. ''He said I couldn't play five-on-five, and I had three goals playing five-on-five tonight, so ask him about that!''

Kane scored six goals in the six-game series, including five at even strength. I like the way the 20-year-old Hawk winger handled this situation. He proved Mitchell's comments wrong, and then he told him to eat it after the series was over.

Great series, Kaner.

Who would have thought the final score of tonight's Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals would be 7-5? What a shootout! Thanks to three goals by Patrick Kane and two goals by Jonathan Toews, the Blackhawks came out on the right end in this one.

As a result, the Hawks win the series from the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 and advance to the Western Conference Finals, where they will face the winner of the Detroit-Anaheim series. The Red Wings lead 3-2 with Game 6 scheduled for Tuesday night in Anaheim.

How great would it be to see an Original Six matchup between the Hawks and their old rivals from Detroit? I rarely root for the Red Wings to win, but in this case, bring 'em on! Chicago-Detroit would be a great series for hockey -- the defending champions against the young upstarts. What more could Blackhawk fans ask for than a shot to play against the best?

But tonight is more about celebrating the Game 6 victory. It was an incredible back-and-forth game. Vancouver scored first. The Hawks tied it. Then the Hawks went up 3-1. Then the Canucks scored two straight to tie it. Then Vancouver went ahead 4-3. The Hawks tied it. Vancouver went ahead 5-4. The Hawks tied it again. Finally, two late goals from the Hawks, one by Toews to give them the lead with 6:11 left and one by Kane to ice it with 3:43 left.

Excuse me while I put my heart back in my chest. Great series. Can't wait for Game 1 of the next round, no matter the opponent.

White Sox closer Bobby Jenks is being investigated by Major League Baseball after throwing a pitch behind Texas second baseman Ian Kinsler during the ninth inning of Saturday's 3-2 Sox victory.

Jenks admitted in postgame comments that he was "sending a message" to Texas, which had plunked two Sox hitters earlier in the game and hit both Jermaine Dye and Josh Fields in the hands during a previous series this season.

I applaud Jenks for sticking up for his teammates, but he shouldn't be so candid in his comments to the media on these matters. Now, he's probably going to be suspended.

Pitchers around MLB intentionally throw at hitters all the time. Then the media asks about it, and pitchers lie and say it was unintentional. The league can't prove a thing and no disciplinary action is taken.

Jenks has essentially admitted his guilt. He didn't need to do that. He should have just said the pitch slipped. If he had kept his mouth shut, there would be no MLB investigation of this incident.

Due to the Sun-Times Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, all non-union employees here are required to take one week of unpaid leave this spring. For me, that time has come. I'll be on "furlough" all next week.

I will return to work May 11. Blogging will resume then.

Temporary layoffs! Good times!

Count me among the skeptical about Scott Podsednik's return to the White Sox. I'm not sure he can stay healthy enough to make an impact. I'm not sure he's anywhere near the threat on the basepaths he was in 2005. I'm not sure he can handle center field.

But he played well in his season debut Friday night, a 4-3 victory for the Sox over the Texas Rangers. Podsednik went 2-for-4 and scored what proved to be the game-winning run in the seventh inning. With two outs, he beat out an infield single, advanced to second on a balk and scored on Chris Getz's RBI triple.

At the very least, I think that performance deserves a "Welcome Back" salute: