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| Is the World Series headed for Wrigley Field in 2015? Not likely. |
I
get the fact that the team’s fans are going to get all excited about a team
that is likely to have a winning record – considering that the last five years
resulted in losing records for the Cubs, and last-place finishes in each of the
last two seasons.
SO
THE FACT that it would take a collapse of historic proportions for the ’15 Cubs
to be a losing ball club (even I believe the Cubs will win at least three of their remaining 26 ballgames) means this year is already successful for the team.
They’ve already accomplished far more than anybody had any right to expect.
But
do I really think of this as a ball club that has a right to think of itself as
being championship-quality? I don’t think so.
Maybe
I’m a traditionalist, but I can’t get beyond the fact that the Cubs are likely
to finish in third place in their own division.
I
can’t help but think that any team that has two other ball clubs in its own
division that are better ought to be thinking in terms of next year and how to
make themselves better to overcome.
THIS
2015 SEASON ought to be the year we ponder the quality and future of the St.
Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates – particularly since the Pirates
themselves declined into decades of crud occasionally topped by mediocrity.
If
the Pirates were able finally this year to prevail and win a National League
pennant (for the first time since Sister Sledge ruled the music charts), that
would be a remarkable baseball story in and of itself.
Yet
there are those who are determined to believe that it is the Cubs resurgence
that ought to be our prime desire. Then again, I don’t know that resurgence is
the correct word – the team has been so awful for so many decades, while
resurgence implies that they were once worthy.
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| Big national newsplay for a 3rd place ball club |
Do
you really want to know what I think of a third place finish? It means someone
else is better (and I don’t care if you want to say that they are the best “third
place” team in baseball).
HECK,
THE CHICAGO White Sox also have the potential to be a third place team – they were
only two games behind the Cleveland Indians by the end of Labor Day. They could
wind up topping the Indians, while finishing behind the Kansas City Royals and
Minnesota Twins by the beginning of October.
The
year 2015 could easily wind up being a baseball season in which both of Chicago’s
ball clubs finished in third place!
It
could also be a season in which, because of the quirks of modern-day baseball’s
desire to have extended rounds of playoffs, in which the Cubs get dragged into
the playoff picture come October – only to be the team that gets knocked out in
a first-round play-in game. While all the legitimate “first place” ball clubs
advance to the full-fledged playoffs.
I’m
sure the Cubs fans are going to rant and rage (I anticipate your messages
telling me how full of it I am) that a third-place finish under these
circumstances is special. I just don’t buy it.
I’M
INCLINED TO think this is a part of the rebuilding effort – and nothing more.
This was supposed to be the team that wouldn’t have a serious chance of winning
anything until NEXT year.
As
in 2016, and not the perennial “next year” that Cubs fans always whine about.
So
my own thought about the significance of baseball in Chicago this season is
that I hope Cubs fans have enjoyed the boost they got in ’15. Although I wonder
how many will rant that the New York Mets may wind up in the playoff picture
this year, while the Cubs may not. Particularly if the Washington Nationals
play well enough in coming weeks to win their division, while the Mets play
well enough to be the other wild card playoff slot that Cubs fans seem to feel
they already have clinched.
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| Will we get a 21st Century take on this moment? |
Memories
of 1969 and tales of that black cat (along with fables of a silly goat) may wind up being spewed as excuses. For
THAT is the true character of the Chicago Cubs franchise.
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