Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo threw out the first pitch at Wrigley Field today before the Cubs-Diamondbacks game, and he was roundly booed. Then he sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and got booed some more:

Romo grew up in Burlington, Wisconsin, 75 miles from Chicago, and he played at Eastern Illinois, and he's apparently a Cubs fan. But really, it's probably not the best idea to bring in football players for teams other than the Bears. Was there any doubt that they'd boo him?

Also: His singing voice is terrible. Jessica Simpson might want to work with him on that.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

St. Louis Cardinals (23-15) at Milwaukee Brewers (17-19) - 2:05 PM ET

Milwaukee, already known for its consumption of beer and brats, has been the Tums capital of America this weekend. First, Jason Isringhausen blew a save on Friday after having the Brewers at two outs and nobody on in the ninth inning ... which led to Jason being demoted from the closers role. Then the very next day, there was Eric Gagne blowing yet another save, which was Gagne's ... oh I've lost count this season, how many blown saves is that? Gotta be between 50 and 80 (actually, he only blew a tie game in the ninth, but Gagne did get the loss). And that led Gagne to muse that maybe he should go the same path as Isringhausen. So can anybody here close today's game? Hey, at least extra innings will be fun.

The story in Cincinnati today started out as Jon Lieber's first start as a Chicago Cub in just under six years. Only it didn't go so well for Lieber as he fell victim to the small ballpark blues at Great American. He only went two innings while giving up five runs, including four (!) dingers to Joey Votto, Adam Dunn, Paul Bako, and Jerry Hairston Jr. Probably not the major league record that Lieber wanted to tie in his first start back as a Cub, but he's in the record book ... tied for giving up the most home runs in an inning.

But Votto and the Reds weren't done however, as the Reds smacked a total of seven home runs, including two more ding dings in the 5th and 6th innings by Votto, giving him a three HR day. He had a chance at a fourth in the eighth inning against Michael Wuertz, but he grounded to short, leaving the Cincinnati crowd disappointed, but happy overall.

Want more notable notables? Edinson Vólquez went seven shutout innings and struck out ten Cubs, as he went to 5-1 and dropped his ERA to a ridiculous 1.06. So why should the Cubs be ashamed of themselves? Because Vólquez walked six batters to go along with the four hits he gave up, and the Cubs still couldn't score.

Ronnie Woo Woo Wickers' annoying woo-ing is nothing new to FanHouse, but it is incredibly funny to see people with no concept of the Woo deal with Ronnie. The simultaneous fury and incredulity -- just what the hell is this guy doing? -- is always worth the price of admission.

In this Cubs-Brewers throwback (sent to me by YouTube user Soul of Wrigley), Woo Woo takes his act to the Brewers' rich-people seats and, well, you can imagine how the white people from Wisconsin reacted to ever-present Woo-ing. In Chicago, this is painful; in Wisconsin, it restores my faith in the unversality of the Woo.

UPDATE: As made hilariously clear in the comments by Flubby, MLB Advanced Media just took down this clip. Because baseball fans enjoying old baseball footage is a terrible thing for baseball.

New Studs takes a look at players ready to make the leap from "possibly productive fantasy player" to "must-have fantasy stud." This is not a "you've never heard of this dude, but ... " series -- these should be names you already know.

Coming into the season, I was as skeptical as anyone -- being a Cubs fan -- concerning Geovany Soto's breakthrough 2007 campaign. Prior to 2007, Soto had only 25 career jacks in nearly 1600 at-bats in the minors. He never OPSed higher than 750, and his career minor league batting average was .262.

Of course, in 2007 he absolutely destroyed the Pacific Coast League with a .353 average, 1076 OPS, 26 HRs, and 109 RBIs in only 110 games. He even crushed the ball in the show once he was recalled to the tune of a 1048 OPS with five bombs and 23 RBI in only 28 games.

So we knew he was capable, but what about consistency (you know Joe Morgan was worried about it)? 2007, after all, could easily have been an outlier instead of a breakthrough campaign. We've seen fluky seasons before.

It wasn't one of those, though. It was a beginning.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Kansas City Royals (14-16) vs. Los Angeles Angels (20-13) - 8:10PM Est.

Who the hell needs John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar? It's a question that many Angels fans have probably been asking themselves a bit the last few weeks. I mean, those two were only the two best starters on the Angels staff last year, winning a combined 37 games.

Who needs those 37 wins when you have Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana? Those two have pitched back-to-back all season long, and neither have bothered to try losing a game yet. Yesterday Saunders improved to 6-0 on the year with a win over the Orioles, and today Ervin will try to join his teammate at 6-0.

Everyone's favorite cranky manager, Lou Piniella, had a bit of a dust-up this week when asked a relatively innocuous question by a radio reporter. Asked if he considered taking Alfonso Soriano out of the lineup and inserting someone less likely to embarass himself in the outfield, Pineilla kindly reiterated that he was not stupid, and then mumbled his way out of the press conference. It was, like almost all things Lou Piniella, totally awesome.

Today, Piniella explains himself, and comes up with some pretty solid media juggles that Chicago's top two papers might consider:

"It's like me asking, 'On Sunday, with the Sun-Times, take (columnist Jay) Mariotti out. He's not writing a column today,'" Piniella said. "Or, 'Put the third subordinate behind him. Or doing it with (the Tribune) with (baseball columnist Phil) Rogers, (telling the sports editor) 'Don't use Rogers on Sunday. Use the third guy.' You'd look at me like I'm stupid, you know what I'm saying?"

In other words, like Mariotti and Rogers at their respective papers, Soriano is an untouchable who deserves to be in the lineup.

Whether Lou knows it or not, he just called for the removal of two of Chicago's least favorite columnists. Maybe Piniella is a blogger, after all. Though, to be fair, he seems decidedly undedicated to cruelty; he'll have to work on that if he wants to help us contribute to the downfall of society.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Chicago Cubs (17-12) at St. Louis Cardinals (19-11) - 3:45 PM ET

A Cubs/Cardinals game on a Saturday afternoon which is aired on national television will always bring back memories of Ryne Sandberg hitting dingers off of Bruce Sutter while Bob Costas freaks out on NBC. Of course, not everything can be like it was in the 80's. Sandberg is now a coach, the Cardinals no longer wear powder blue uniforms, and Costas is currently teaming with Buzz Bissinger to stop the spread of evil bloggers like us, who didn't even exist in the 80's. But one thing is like it was then: Cubs vs. Cardinals on this Saturday afternoon on national television is an important matchup with may help decide the division (even if the division is the N.L. Central, and not the N.L. East as it was in the 80's).

In the here and now, the Cardinals, who won the first game of this series last night on a Skip Schumaker walk-off home run, will go with the wildly successful Kyle Lohse (3-0, 2.36), while the Cubs hit the field with the not so wildly successful Ted Lilly (1-4, 6.46). In the bullpen, watch out for rookie Kyle McClellan, who has a .211 batting average against, with a 1.72 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP so far this season. (Actually, I only bring up McClellan as an excuse to tell you that on the day that Sandberg hit two HR's on NBC, McClellan was alive for all of eleven days. Damn, I'm old. And I love the 80's.)

So here's a nifty idea: the Cubs, beholders of the precious night game inside their stadium -- are ceding their July 29 evening to let their Class A affiliate Peoria squad take on the Kane County Cougars. (Sidenote: The only foul ball I've ever caught at a baseball game was at a Kane County Cougars game.)

The reasoning? To let Peoria Chiefs coach and former Cub second baseman Ryne Sandberg show off the Cubs No. 1 pick Josh Vitters.

"I think it will be very cool," said Sandberg, the Hall of Famer in his second season as Chiefs manager. "It's an opportunity for everybody involved, probably the chance of a lifetime for some of these players to come here and play at Wrigley. I can't imagine what that will be like."

The game-the only one in town that day with the White Sox playing in Minnesota and the Cubs in Milwaukee-will include team mascots, T-shirts being shot into the bleachers and kids running the bases afterward, or, as Kenney said, "things we've never really done here before to bring the spirit of the minor-league system into Wrigley Field for a night."

Three cheers to the Cubs for letting these teams play inside an MLB stadium: should be fun for all parties involved and might be the highlight off some of these kids' careers. And sweet, t-shirt guns? Whooooo!

This picture could have been from one of four different games this year. It wasn't supposed to be this way.

I just wanted to let you know before you visit all the (OTHER) big-name fantasy or real sports engines across the internet, though, that the Cubs are not going to change closers anytime soon.

Nope, those know-it-all types are all wrong in this situation. They will inundate you with information you already knew. You know, all those stats that tell you Carlos Marmol is a better pitcher than Kerry Wood. You'll see strikeout numbers, hear non-stat based arguments, and be reminded about how much better a closer Marmol would be.

Blah blah blah freaking blah.

Here's the problem: Those people aren't talking about what's important. Telling someone that Marmol is a better pitcher than Wood these days is like saying you'd rather have Jay Bruce than Corey Patterson ... only a complete moron would dispute it (oops, sorry Dusty). Everyone that follows baseball knows this. It's no secret, and it wasn't one before the season started.

But the people who are telling you the Cubs are about to make the switch to Marmol are wrong. Plain and simple.