(This is being written on Oct. 16, the day before the start of Major League Baseball’s National League championship series between the Cubs and New York Mets.)
How ’bout them Cubs!!
Here comes a hungry bunch of young guns turning the National League upside down, and transforming themselves from a forgotten bunch in the post-season to an emotional team that amazingly just refuses to lose.
And guess who the latest opponent is – the Mets. By this time this fall, the Cubs may be riding high and heading to the 2015 World Series…or locked in a tight tournament or heading home. It doesn’t matter, Wrigleyville has awakened with a splash.
This is the METS, Cub fans. They are the guys that Cub fans hated before the Cardinals came along. The Mets are to the Cubs like the Yankees were to the Dodgers and later the Red Sox. Like the Pistons were to the Bulls and like the Sox always have been…well, you know.
What a motivation for 2015. How about “Remember ’69? Dare I bring up the collapse of ’69? Ron Santo, Don Kessinger, Glenn Beckert, Randy Hundley, Fergy Jenkins, and Leo Durocher. After the season, one player said they got too tired. He didn’t explain why the Mets and Baltimore didn’t!!
Now here come Anthony Rizzo, Kyle Schwarber, Dexter Fowler, Kris Bryant, Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta, and a happy genius named Joe Maddon. Erasing one Cub jinx and curse after another, playing the underdog over and over again, and showing us how desire, teamwork, and a sense of mission can overcome inexperience, a history of disaster, and a foul ball.
Just think of the motivations the Cubs have this year – erase the longest losing streak in all of sports, stare down the odds-makers and pundits who automatically defined the Cubs as bottom feeders. So what does fate do? Match the Cubs up with a sad 46-year memory, the METS??
What a rallying cry! The Mets? What a payback opportunity. The Mets! Remember’69! Every time a Cub batter comes to the plate, he should be thinking…the METS! With every pitch he delivers, Arrieta should say “Remember’69” to himself.
Think about it – Leo Durocher, who constantly criticized everyone, his own players and the umpires and the weather and baseball rules, etc. etc. And now we have Joe Maddon, who doesn’t know how to criticize, and praises opponents and laughs at defeats.
How are these Cubs doing this – finishing 28 games over .500, winning their first post-season game for the first time in 12 years, and BEATING THE CARDINALS in a post-season series for the first time in team history?
I’ve been a Cub fan for 50 years, as long as I have lived in the Chicago area. I believe they are winning because Cubs management finally abandoned the desperate plan of winning in a year, and taking a few years to patiently and carefully build a team with chemistry and talent. They stayed the course and created a team that has a future. Management didn’t get discouraged or panic when some players didn’t work out. Now we celebrate with the ones that did.
The Cubs don’t have just one home-run hitter, they have several. They have a lineup that scares pitchers top to bottom. They have a bullpen by committee, which is the way bullpens should be organized. One guy may falter sometimes, but there are always others eager to pick him up.
And who was the guy who thought Jake Arrieta would be a competent major league pitcher some day? And who was the scout that thought this guy Kyle Schwarber just might be a competent major leaguer some day? And who suggested that Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Anthony Rizzo, and Dexter Fowler might be successful in the bigs?
I think this Cubs team is the result of one of the best team and organization building projects conducted in modern sports history. And it’s not done yet.
Whatever happens this week and next – thank you, Cubs, for the best memories in a long time.
