There may be no baseball equivalent of the strictly rhetorical and always annoying how-many-angels-can-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin question, but if there were, it might be posed jointly by the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs and sound something like this:

Which is more difficult, stringing together 16 consecutive losing seasons, or playing baseball for an entire century without winning a World Series?

The Pirates and Cubs could come to an understanding of these things separately this summer, but the comparison of their twin albatrosses got virtually no discussion on the North Side yesterday, mostly because the entire afternoon (four hours and 47 minutes of it, technically) got swallowed by approximate baseball.

The Cubs, who won it in 12 innings, made three errors, issued eight walks and generally looked like something other than the clear favorite to win the National League Central. The Pirates, who did the 37,491 assembled the courtesy of rubbing out a 7-0 Cubs lead, made two errors, issued 11 walks and skunked up a ninth inning that would have beaten Chicago in regulation.

"I'd rather win ugly than lose pretty," said Cubs skipper Lou Piniella, who hectored his club into the playoffs last year and thus has an even more urgent charge in 2008.

Not 30 feet away, Kosuke Fukudome was chatting up the customary swarm of Japanese media, a phenomenon that only figures to intensify until someone in America figures out a way to get him out.

"I was hoping I could get off to a great start on the road," Fukudome said through an interpreter after slapping three more hits and lifting his average to .458.

He has been in the league a week.

"I'm glad everyone respects the way I play," said the silky right fielder between gulps of Mountain Dew. "I hope I can keep playing this way so that I don't lose that respect."

Fukudome not only adds speed, panache, discipline and defense to a Cubs club bulging with offensive talent, he adds $48 million to accounts payable through 2011 and $12 million to this summer's payroll of $118 million, which seems designed to end 100 years of largely desultory baseball history.

All of which is why it has to be a little alarming for the excitable Piniella when you look up and see Ronny Cedeno whipping one into the ninth row from shortstop in a five-run Pirates fourth or to watch the estimable Mark DeRosa booting Nyjer Morgan's easy bouncer with two out in the seventh, the one that tied this thing 8-8.

"We felt coming out of spring training that [defense] was going to be a strength," said Piniella. "Now I think we have as many errors as anybody in the National League."

Except that the Philadelphia Phillies are still in the league, and so are the Pirates.

Pirates errors were not limited to defense yesterday, particularly in the home ninth, which Ryan Doumit started with a thunderous center field double off Jon Lieber, from whom Piniella would somehow milk three innings yesterday.

Xavier Nady, your National League player of the week despite Fukudome's .421 in the season-opening six-game homestand, moved pinch-runner Brian Bixler to third with a grounder to DeRosa. Doug Mientkiewicz was walked intentionally to put runners at the corners with one out, bringing up Jose Bautista.

Bautista was 2 for 3 with a walk at the time and looked like as good a candidate as any to end it, except that he bunted the ball firmly to Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee, surprising everyone including Bixler, who stood pretty much transfixed at third.

Mientkiewicz moved to second, giving Bautista a sacrifice (yeah!), and Luis Rivas promptly popped out to end the inning.

Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez, the nearest Chicago agent to this intrigue, saw it this way:

"I thought somebody missed a sign, but I wasn't sure if it was a squeeze or not," Ramirez said. "I guess [Bautista] could have been bunting on his own, but that don't make no sense."

Not a lot that happened afterward did, actually.

Zach Duke pinch-hit in the 11th, Piniella let Lieber bat, even though he had Henry Blanco on the bench in the top of that inning (although that was likely because he was trying to rest closer Kerry Wood), and both managers ran out of roster to the point where the Cubs got to bat in the 12th against the Pirates' battery of Evan Meek and Ronny Paulino.

Left to his own devices, Meek would probably have walked in the winning run after issuing passes to Ryan Theriot and Alfonso Soriano to start the inning, but Ramirez tired of waiting for that and swatted a 1-1 pitch to right for the sacrifice fly that snapped the tie.

"It's not hard hitting in that situation, even though he has control issues," Ramirez said. "He's the one who's in trouble. I took a pitch, and the next one was right there."

Meek then walked Fukudome intentionally and DeRosa walked, bringing in the run to make it 10-8.

At least no one left without the customary minimal dollop of good news.

"It is a beautiful ballpark," said Fukudome. "And I enjoyed playing in it."

Yeah, thanks for that.