Dzija!

Yesterday marked the beginning of the Jeff Samardzija major league career for the Chicago Cubs. He got called up to take the place of Kerry Wood's roster spot, and was put to pitch (relief) in his first game.

Seeing the highlights on baseball tonight, he had some nasty action on his fastball, and looked pretty good. He did give up a run, in 2 innings, but overall looked like a major leaguer.

In all reality, he probably will be sent down in a week or so, as Kerry Wood could be activated from the DL early next week. However, he'll definitely be a September call-up, when the rosters expand in early September, and if he does really well, could make the post-season roster.

You can visit his website at www.jeff-samardzija.com

Here's a few highlights from the Cubs.com article:

"The Cubs didn't waste any time getting him into a game. With Chicago leading, 2-1, Samardzija came on in relief in the seventh against Florida, and struck out Alfredo Amezaga, prompting the crowd of 41,570 to rise to its feet."

"The first member of the Cubs' 2006 Draft class to reach the big leagues.."

"He may be a little groggy. Samardzija got the news when he was in Tucson, Ariz., with the Iowa team, and flew to Las Vegas, then took a red eye flight to Chicago. He arrived around 5 a.m. CT on Friday. How much sleep did he get?

"None," he said, laughing."

"The first thing Piniella wanted to know was how long Samardzija's hair was."

"He had family and friends scrambling to get to Wrigley for Friday's game against the Florida Marlins." Good thing he's from Northwest Indiana, though it was an afternoon game.

On a personal note, the thing I always admired about Samardzija was his determination to get to the end-zone. The guy was a human-highlight film, and brought many warm fuzzies to ND fans with the Quinn-Samardzija football connection. I do think he made the right choice to play baseball over football, as his impact as an athlete will be better in baseball, and I look forward to seeing his determination play out as a starting pitcher. He could easily be one of the "Roy Halladay" old school type pitchers who gives you more complete games than the regular guy.

Like everything in sports....time will tell.