How many got confused trying to find Cubs Friday night on television?

A part of me felt sorry for my step-grandmother, who had her plans to park herself in front of a television set Friday night and watch for herself if the Chicago Cubs were capable of actually winning a playoff ballgame.
 

How many Cubs fans nearly soiled themselves?

For she literally got caught up in the confusion of trying to figure out which of those high-numbered television stations she never pays attention to was the Fox Sports channel that was actually carrying the ballgame.

I’M NOT SURE if she ever managed to figure out the channel number (where I was based, it was channel 652). Although I wonder if the pitchers’ duel would have been so stressful that she was better off not seeing it.

For the record, the Cubs managed to get a 1-0 victory. Two more wins against the San Francisco Giants, and the Cubs will manage to advance to the next round of the playoffs – which would mean they would have accomplished as much as they did last year.

Now I’ve made it clear before I’m not rooting for the Cubs to win a thing. I’m an American League fan, and my interest is in seeing which ball club there manages to win the league championship – then go on to the World Series to beat up on the National League chump.

If it’s the Cubs, that’s cute. If it’s not, it won’t matter much.

ALTHOUGH I HAVE to admit to feeling a bit of compassion for Cubs fan-types who I’m sure felt a second of agony; what with the way Buster Posey came oh so close to hitting a game-tying home run for the Giants with two out in the ninth inning.

Valparaiso, Ind. native to pitch against Cubs on Sat.

You have to admit it would be so Chicago Cub-ish for the baby blue bears to lead their fans so close to victory, only to have it pulled away.

But the Cubs managed to win, giving them a jump toward trying to win their first National League championship in 71 years.

Which ought to be the target the team focuses on at this point. Win the league championship, then worry about which American League powerhouse you’d have to face come the World Series.

I’LL BE HONEST. A part of me thinks the multiple rounds of playoffs we now have is so excessive – and not just because it results in ballgames being broadcast on obscure channels that most of us never knew we had access to.

I long for the days when the regular season’s best ball clubs went straight to the World Series. Heck, even Cubs fans ought to wish that was the way things remained today.

For if they were, the World Series would be a facedown between the Texas Rangers and the Chicago Cubs – which would contain a certain amount of irony considering that when the Chicago White Sox back in 2005 made the first World Series appearance by a Chicago team in 46 seasons, they played against the Houston Astros.

Another Chicagoan vs. Texan matchup would be intriguing. Although considering that the Rangers managed to lose a second playoff game Friday to the Toronto Blue Jays. One more loss – which could come as soon as Sunday – and the “best team” in the American League will be outta dere!

AND AS FOR those people who are fantasizing about the all-decrepit ballpark World Series between the Cubs and the Boston Red Sox? I’m sure New Englanders are hoping that Fenway Park creates some sense of magic, or else they’re only one more loss away from letting the Cleveland Indians advance.

 

"Big Hurt" giving us his baseball insights on FS1

What happens if this becomes the year that Cleveland wins its first World Series in nearly 60 years, or if the Washington Nationals wind up bringing capital city baseball fans their first World Series victory since 1924?

Cubs fans may want to believe they hold a monopoly on losing. But what happens if nobody manages to break a losing streak this year?

It would be the cruelest possible cosmic joke if the Giants manage to rebound and go all the way to win the World Series – adding to their victories of 2010, ’12 and ’14. Which would mean we’d all be better if we can’t find the games on television, even though it means we’d miss seeing one-time Chicago White Sox star Frank Thomas offering his baseball analysis to the broadcast; such as telling us that Cubs fans will become so unbearable if the Cubs actually win that he'll have to spend his winter at his Las Vegas home.

  -30-