For most of this season, the Chicago Cubs have been absolutely on fire. Prior to their recent six-game skid (notable for losing five games in a row at home), they'd had really only one comparable losing streak, from which they quickly recovered.
Despite breaking the losing skid with a commanding 14-9 victory over the Reds yesterday, the Cubbies returned to their losing ways as the Reds came from behind with three clutch runs in the bottom of the ninth inning thanks to a fielding error from shortstop Ronny Cedeno and poor pitching on the part of Kerry Wood.
The idea that the team's recent performance is but a tiny bump in the road on the way to the playoffs is being recited quite steadily by everyone from game announcers Len Kasper and Bob Brenley to most of the media who've had little bad to say about the team's performance this season.
The truth of the matter is that the Cubs are toast unless their starting pitching returns to form. Soon.
It's a shame if this ends up being one of those historic fades because the city has come alive as have the Cubs this summer. It's an amazing thing to find yourself in Wrigleyville come game time. The bars are packed with happy smiling faces - okay, that's not so hard to find anywhere if you get there early enough, but what's most different is that those faces are still smiling
after the game.
That's a nice change.
This winning thing has gotten a lot of gun-shy Cub fans to talk of a Cubs World Series. Many of them probably blame themselves for jinxing the team and attributing to the recent losing streak. Don't blame yourselves. The Cubs will bounce back.
Sure, lately, it's been like somebody snuck in and replaced the good coffee with stale Folgers crystals or something, but this is a momentary bump in the road...right?
Granted, the team has lost focus. They've taken their eyes off the ball, both figuratively and literally, and have unconconsciously taken their foot off the accelerator, thinking they're far enough ahead to cruise into the post-season on past accomplishments.
I can't say I blame them. It's a ridiculously long season, with fewer days off than the average office worker. At one point, the team played 20 games in 20 days. If you or I were made to work 20 days in a row without a day off, we'd be at our wit's end. Sure, baseball's a game and these guys are paid very well, but that's still a grueling schedule.
By this point, most players are starting to feel the fatigue of a hard-fought season and it's very easy to see how a team could want to slow the pace with a record that, at one point, was 35 games above .500. It's human nature to get a little lazy, or careless after operating at such a high level for so long and the Cubbies are proving themselves to be all too human as of late.
Resident fireplug Carlos Zambrano's recent arm troubles seem indicative of the current climate. They've fought hard, manhandled every team they've run up against, and maintained command of first place in their division all season long. But, just like a marathon runner who runs a strong race, but still hits the proverbial wall at the 20-mile mark, the Cubs are out of gas; some mentally (Kosuke Fukudome, Aramis Ramirez, and Jim Edmunds, for example), some physically (a majority of the starting pitching rotation).
Have I written the Cubs off completely, you ask? No, not as long as the Milwaukee Brewers continue letting the Cubs off the hook, having lost five of their last seven games.
The Cubbies need some help, though, and, well, I know this sounds strange - perhaps even opportunistic - but, they need me.
That's right, the Cubs need me.
Allow me to explain...
I've attended over thirty Cub games since moving to Chicago in '86 to attend DePaul University. That, of course, is no great achievement in and of itself. What is worth noting is that they've never lost a game that I've attended.
Not only that, but since the early 90's, championships have seemed to follow me wherever I lived.
It began in Chicago during the Jordan years when the Bulls racked up six championships.
When I moved to Denver in 1995, the winning came with me as The Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in '96. The Denver Broncos then followed suit with Super Bowl victories in '97-'98 and '98-'99.
Shortly after my move to Los Angeles, the Kobe-Shaq Lakers began their dynastic run of three championships.
The Bears made it to the Super Bowl in 2006. The only thing keeping them from winning that game was, in my opinion, the fact that I did not live in Chicago at the time. If I had, they'd have won. It's just that simple.
If you need further proof, let me first say that I moved back to Chicago in April of this year and that the Cubs responded in kind by winning their asses off - until recently anyway. You're welcome.
I haven't attended any Cubs games this season, though, as I hadn't felt they needed my help (and I'm not exactly made of the kind of money it costs to attend a Cubs game this year), but I honestly believe it is in the organization's best interests to force me to attend as many games as possible.
I don't know about road games, of course (although I did see the Cubs play the Rockies just days after I moved to Denver and they beat the Rockies that day), but I am willing to do all I can to get the Cubs over the hump and out of this slump.
If that means the team furnishes me with obstructed-view seats for the rest of the season and I stare at the back of a support beam while the rest of Wrigley explodes in cheerful pandemonium, so be it. I'm willing to work my schedule around theirs (no easy feat, mind you, as I have rent and expenses just like the rest of you) for the cause.
It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. :)
