Were this a movie or a book or some other kind of respected medium, the line would be "...and with Marmol, they were eight.  And then they went and found a ring and killed that big giant eye thing and then there were three, count them, three endings in a row along and we all really had to pee but it wouldn't end."  But this is just a blog post, so I'll keep things nice and under-dramatized.

With Kerry Wood going down with a pointer finger blister, the National League squad needed a replacement.  Of course, with the Cubs being stuck on an odd number of players, it only made sense to add Marmol, giving the Cubs  eight All-Stars.  This has both the advantage of being divisible by two and allowing the Cubs to field their own team, although Zambrano will have to play in the outfield (the Zambino!) and they'll have to go with two outfielders (or "rovers", as I will call them).  Soriano will swing down to second, Marmol will play first (former catcher, so no problem there), Wood will do his best at third, and Aramis will man short. Dempster will go ahead and start (I don't see him being all that great in the field) and Soto, of course, will be behind the plate.  

Meet the Cubs!  They're their own All-Star team!

At first I was a little disappointed (and frankly, given his recent performance, baffled) when I read that Marmol had made the squad.  I had been looking forward to him getting a nice rest in a situation where Piniella couldn't find him, let alone warm him up.  Now Piniella, on the bench for the NL squad, will be whispering Marmol's name in Hurdle's ear...

marmol

he says.

marmol.

And if you've ever had your ear whispered in, you know just how suggestive that can be.  But then I read about how excited Marmol was to be in the game and perhaps, knowing he's an All-Star, he'll regain his confidence.  Maybe this will put Marmol back where he needs to be.

Whatever, a third of the Cubs made the All-Star team.  Remember when we were embarrassed to even have one underserving candidate?

Go Cubs.