Healthy (?) Harden gives Cubs hammer in escalated NL Central race

Two hours? Less than two hours before CC Sabathia makes his Milwaukee debut, the Chicago Cubs swoop in and acquire Rich Harden from the Oakland A's?

How perfect. How exquisite. How exhilarating.

When he's healthy, Rich Harden can look filthy on the mound. (Getty Images)

"Exciting day," Gary Hughes, special assistant to Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry, said, relaxing for a few brief seconds in a San Diego box seat before scrambling toward his next scouting assignment. "We're thrilled.

"I saw him pitch two times in a row a couple of weeks ago and got real excited about him. We've gotten a lot of information on him. Health is always a question, but we feel it's a risk well worth taking.

"We're as excited as heck to have him."

Information? Here's the dope on the deal that could make the Cubs' season ... or help break their hearts again.

If Harden, 26, can keep his body parts intact and not allow any ligaments, tendons, muscles, joints, teeth, fingernails, etc., to blow into a million pieces, if he can stay on the field and make his start every fifth day, then the Cubs just acquired a right-hander with Cy Young stuff and a drought-killing fastball.

As in, that pesky little 100-year drought between World Series wins, 1908 and ... 2008? Could be ... gone.

"He's had trouble in the past with health issues," Hughes acknowledged. "But none of them were surgeries.

"I think it was Abner Doubleday who first said you can't have too much pitching."

Might have been Abner. Could have been Adam, while explaining the game's most important element to Eve, too.

It's all about pitching, and it always has been. Pitching is to contenders what ice cream is to 5-year-olds. More. Give me more.