A few weeks ago, my friend and colleague, Andy Tarnoff, penned a controversial blog entitled "I Hate Cub Fans."

Needless to say, it created quite a ruckus in Talkback City.

Being a sports libertarian and a guy who spends most of his time in press boxes away from the unwashed masses (just kidding, folks), I don't really get too worked up about fans, one way or the other.

When I do venture into the stands, I don't like sitting next to loud, drunken, profane or uninformed people any more than anybody else does. It's just that I'm too busy focusing on players, coaches, strategy and the action on the field to worry about the audience.

But, I have to give credit where it's due: the Cubs fans who attended the "neutral site" games against the Astros Sunday night and Monday afternoon at Miller Park were amazing.

With less than 24 hours notice, about 23,441 Cubs fans filed into the ballpark. It was Sunday. Football was on TV (the Bears lost, in case you hadn't heard). It was a "school night." And, the weather was damp, drizzly and cold.

There are some franchises that would kill to draw 23,000 fans under those circumstances. The Cubs did it and it wasn't their park!

The fans that showed up were, for the most part, well behaved and very into the game. They went crazy when Alfonso Soriano led off the game with a homer and they recognized the drama as Carlos Zambrano inched closer to his eventual no-hitter.

Even in the early innings, the crowd went crazy when Zambrano got two strikes on a batter. It was a playoff atmosphere. The noise of the crowd made it seem as though there were 40,000 people in the place. (I've seen lots of Brewers games when 42,000 sounded like 20,000 -- and spare me the cracks about the way the team has played this month, because I noticed it in August, too).

The crowd on Monday was smaller (15,158) but equally involved. It didn't hurt matters that Ted Lilly flirted with a no-hitter.

Maybe these were the true Cubs diehards and not the bucket hat-wearing, Old Style-swilling (and spilling) poseurs that Andy talked about. Maybe they're easier to take when it's a Sunday night or Monday afternoon in September.

But, it was a great showing by the Cubs fans. If I see one any time soon, I'll raise my Miller High Life bottle in their general direction.