White Plains’ 4th Best Personal Blog

By coincidence, I happen to be reading Scott Simon’s excellent memoir, Home and Away. And by coincidence, I happen to have just reached the chapter entitled “Cubbie Love,” which begins thusly:

“Being a Chicago Cubs fan defies metaphor. Nevertheless, over the years I have tried quite a few. It’s like rooting for the Italian army. It’s like campaigning for Harold Stassen. It’s like raving about your Edsel. If rooting for the New York Yankees is like rooting for U.S. Steel, then rooting for the Cubs is like…well, you see the point? No metaphor improves on, it’s like rooting for the Cubs. They are the devotion that defies despair. They are the love that evinces the triumph of hope over experience.”

As Cubs fans everywhere mourn the end of another season without a World Series championship, I couldn’t have put it better myself. At some point, you think ‘This is going to be the year; odds are it’s bound to happen at some point, right?’ But then you think, that’s probably what some poor schlub was probably saying in 1950. Note to self: Next year, don’t let yourself be fooled into thinking this is the year; instead, go into it with the attitude, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

If someone had asked me yesterday afternoon which would have produced more laughs, Game 2 of the Cubs-Dodgers series or the much-anticipated vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, I never would have predicted the former. But that’s what ended up happening in the Cubs’ 10-3 stinker. What else can you say when all four infielders make an error in one game? When virtually every reliever gives up a run? It’s hard to even be frustrated by this Cubs series because both games have basically been laughers. I mean, the Cubs haven’t even been close, so it’s hard to get all that devastated. As I said yesterday, the really devastating, crushing setbacks in my Cubs fandom have come when they were so close. This time, it has just been comical.

I still have a shred of hope, of course, remembering what happened in one of those aformentioned crushing defeats. In 1984, the Cubs destroyed the Padres in the first two games of the National League Championship Series — I think the scores were 13-0 and 11-1 — only to lose three straight and leave at least one seven-year-old boy in tears. (I still curse you, Steve Garvey!) So yeah, I have hope but no real faith that anything will change Saturday when Rich Harden tries to stave off bitter defeat for one more day.

Again, for more on this depressing state of affairs, check out Bleed Cubbie Blue’s take on where we Cubs fans stand today.

Well, at least a true one anyway: Hope for the best, expect the worst. I’m trying not to be pessimistic after watching last night’s terrible 7-2 loss to the Dodgers, really I am. But I already had a bad feeling coming into this series, and if the volatile Carlos Zambrano (not to mention the Cubs’ offense) doesn’t come through tonight, then you can probably kiss this season adios.

It wouldn’t be the biggest disappointment ever in my lifetime — 1984 and 2003 were both way more devastating than a potentially early exit in 2008 would be — but it would still be a major bummer. It just seemed like this ought to be the Cubs’ year. If not now, then when? Unfortunately, the playoffs these days seem like such a crapshoot. Teams can be mediocre most of the year and then catch fire in the last few weeks and go on to the World Series. Look at the Rockies last year. It seems like that used to not happen as much before the advent of the wild card.

I hope I’m wrong, but I’m afraid that the Cubs might have been built for the long haul of a 162-game season, but not the playoffs. The Angels, who won the most games in baseball this year and lost to the Red Sox in their opener, might be in the same boat.

So I’m hoping for the best tonight, but deep down expecting the worst. Until then, I’m trying to take some heart from this very rational post on my favorite Cubs blog. Let’s go, Big Z!