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| Would Cub fans prefer Yu in Texas? |
Or
a year that will amount to little more than a stinkeroo!
MORE
THAN ONE-quarter of the season has passed. It’s blatantly obvious that 2018 will
be the painful part of the experience in watching the Chicago White Sox do a
thorough rebuild of their ball club into something resembling championship quality.
And
as for the Chicago Cubs? Their fans are delusional enough to think they’re in
the midst of a New York Yankees-style dynasty, although it shouldn’t be a
surprise if the Wrigley faithful get a season with barely a winning record, but
one that falls short of a playoff appearance.
The
year 2016 is as over-and-done with as is 2005. Chicago’s two seasons of World Series-winning
ball clubs in this century are a thing of the past.
And
as for who’s the sorriest excuse of a ballplayer toiling away in Chicago? I say
it’s a split.
THE
80-GAME SUSPENSION that White Sox catcher Welington Castillo got for use of
performance-enhancing drugs regarded as steroids brings some shame to the Sox –
particularly since he’s the first Chicago ballplayer to get caught in a
steroids-related scandal and wind up suspended.
A
fact I don’t doubt is giving Cubs fans something to snicker about –
particularly since talk about steroids and Chicago baseball usually becomes a
rant about the fraudulent ways of one Samuel Peralta Sosa and those '90s-era home runs he hit in Cubbie blue.
But
let’s be honest. For all the digs one might want to take at Castillo, no one expected
him to be capable of doing much. Castillo was the nine-year baseball veteran
whom the White Sox acquired because somebody has to catch the ballgames this
season – and the baseball prospects whom the team thinks will be the catcher
come the better days of 2020 (they hope) is still lingering in the minor leagues.
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| Would Castillo's suspension look better in Arizona? |
INSTEAD,
DARVISH HAS become a disappointment who can’t last long into ballgames (and certainly
doesn’t win them).
He’s
also in the midst of his second stint on the disabled list. It’s only been 50
games into a 152-game season, and Darvish has been taken down by the flu and
tendinitis.
Certainly
not the durable “ace” of old who can be counted on to “take to the mound” every
five games and keep his ball club competitive.
Moreso
than anything or anyone else, Darvish is having the season that will be most
memorable for 2018 being an utter disappointment.
IT’S
NO LONGER possible to say that it’s early and things will turn around in coming
games. Yet only the most delusional of Cubs fans think that Yu won’t turn out
to be the bust of Chicago baseball, if not all of Major League Baseball for the
year.
So
big a bust that it’s a wonder we’re not getting more jokes about Morgana – the one-time
busty “kissing bandit” of baseball who used to charge onto playing fields in
mid-game to give a smooch to some unsuspecting ballplayer (and whom some
players used to say had extremely greasy lips).
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| Can anyone top the memory of Morgana? |
And
the Second City’s baseball fandom will focus on the possibility of the Cubs
holding on to competitiveness long enough to match up with the White Sox’ potential
for future greatness that we might actually get a “City Series”-type World
Series some time around 2020 or ’21 -- which would be a "first" in about 115 years.
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