They didn't win — it's a shame

Column originally published Nov. 1, 2011.

"Do they still play the blues in Chicago when baseball season rolls around?"

Songwriter Steve Goodman asked that eternal question before his untimely death in 1984. He continued by asking, "When the snow melts away, do the Cubbies still play in their ivy-covered burial ground?"

Sadly, yes. This is my eighth annual column wrapping up a recently concluded Cubs season. While I generally write the piece right after the last game of the season — and since is the Cubs, we're usually talking about the regular season — I simply had no desire to continue the tradition this year.

Maybe it was because Game 162 this year came on what many fans and writers called the most exciting day of regular season baseball ever. While the Cubs played out the string in a meaningless game in San Diego, there were four, nationally televised games with postseason implications playing out at roughly the same time.

I watched the dramatic conclusions with one game on the TV and two on my laptop and ignored a pile of laundry that needed to be folded. It was like watching the opening round of the college basketball tournament, except the absence of a game clock means hope never dies until the final out is recorded.

The ensuing playoffs were packed with more drama than usual. Instead of the traditional first-round sweeps (a la the Cubs losing in 2007 and 2008), there were close series everywhere you looked. The schedule allows for a maximum of 41 playoff and World Series games, this year fans were treated to 38.

I'll spare you the details of rehashing each series, but I will share this anecdote. A friend of mine, a few years younger, had the chance to attend Game 6 of the World Series in St. Louis. An impartial observer, he was treated to what must have been the most dramatic World Series game ever, with the visiting Rangers twice needing just one more strike to win the series, yet each time the Cardinals rebounded before a hometown player hit an extra-inning home run to force the first game seven since 2002.

When I saw the guy in church Sunday, he declared he has no need to attend any more World Series games ever. How can you top game six, he reasoned, and I could only agree.

Continue reading "They didn't win — it's a shame"

MLB shows utter lack of common sense

Column originally published Sept. 13, 2011.

When is a hat not just a hat? When the morons who run Major League Baseball get involved.

You'd be forgiven for not paying attention, what with a few exciting college football games and the regular season NFL kickoff, pretty much all dripping with the star-spangled patriotism you'd expect from public displays on the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

But it wasn't just the Jets hosting a nationally televised home game in (or near) New York Sunday night. The Mets, who actually play in New York (city and state), hosted the Cubs on ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball." With far better games to choose from (Phillies-Brewers, anyone?), it seems the Worldwide Leader chose Mets-Cubs based on the 9/11 factor more than anything else.

Frankly, the Cubs and Mets are not real good this year. Though the teams used to have a great, semi-historic rivalry, realignment essentially killed the feud in the mid 1990s. And as much as I love the Cubs, I had far better things to do than watch bad baseball on a lovely September Sunday evening. But I never ignore the Cubs entirely, and the game was enough on my radar I was able to pick up the signs of discontent when it was learned Mets players would not be allowed to wear the 9/11 memorial hats on the field during he game.

Perhaps you recall these hats, which honor first responder agencies, from 10 years ago, when the Mets wore them for their first post-attack game Sept. 17, 2001, in Pittsburgh and their first home game four days later. (If you haven't seen a replay of Mike Piazza's home run in that Sept. 21 game, well, you may need to have your TV repaired.)

The players wore the hats for pregame warmups and also for special 9/11 ceremonies. But MLB said they could not be worn during the game. (The entire league wore regular logo caps with large American flags stitched on the side.) Turns out the same rule applied in 2011, but the Mets of a decade ago simply wore the hats anyway.

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Anything's possible as baseball starts again

Column originally published March 29, 2011.

And so we have come to another Major League Baseball opening day. Today is the last spring training contest for my beloved Chicago Cubs, and by Friday the curtain goes up on the 2011 campaign as the Pittsburgh Pirates visit Wrigley Field.

Once upon a time, this column would actually appear on opening day or perhaps they day after. But now MLB has shifted opening day from Monday to the weekend, I guess to take advantage of the typically gorgeous late-March weather near the 41st parallel.

Guessing at the real reason makes no difference, because the only correct answer is money —that's why MLB and Commissioner Bud Selig do anything, to try to increase the profitability of the game at the present moment. That's why the camp calling for World Series games to be start earlier in the day or be played on weekend afternoons in an effort to attract younger viewers will never see that wish granted. The TV networks want the games at night, and they write the checks.

So baseball starts this weekend, and I'm thinking a fair amount of Cubs fans are not much more than ambivalent. Spring training attendance was down, the team is still trying to push tickets for the first few home games, the Bulls are one of the NBA's elite teams with a homegrown superstar, casual sports fans are wrapped up in another exciting NCAA basketball tournament. ... heck, Carlos Zambrano wasn't even the most volatile Carlos on his own team the last few weeks.

That honor goes to Carlos Silva, the fat guy general manager Jim Hendry had to accept from Seattle in order to rid himself of Hall of Fame malcontent Milton Bradley before the 2010 season. Silva failed to make the roster over the weekend, despite a guaranteed salary nearing $12 million. On his way out the door, he blasted the organization and the new pitching coach. Manager Mike Quade, in his first full season as the manager of this or any big-league club, responded to Silva's comments by labeling Silva as "dead (bleeping) wrong about my pitching coach."

Even before Quade dropped the f-bomb in front of live microphones, I started to wonder if he didn't have something else in common with one of the Cubs' most well-known fans, disgraced former governor Rod Blagojevich.

Continue reading "Anything's possible as baseball starts again."

First signs of spring emerge in Arizona

Column originally published Feb. 15, 2011.

I've been writing a weekly column on and off for nearly a decade now, and every time the calendar approaches Valentine's Day my thoughts turn toward the beginning of the baseball season.

Sure, it'll be a few weeks —about 45 days — before there are actual games that count. But anyone can write about Opening Day. Sure, the event has been robbed of most of its pageantry so owners and the commissioner can worship at the altar of the almighty television networks. But come the end of March, scribes across the land will put finger to keyboard to create odes to what used to be our national pastime.

So if Opening Day is the low-hanging fruit, logically someone who can wax nostalgic about the joys of spring training —of pitchers and catchers simply reporting for duty, as Cubs players did Sunday — must be the truest of true fans, right? Heck, even ardent football supporters don't get all excited about minicamps and OTAs.

But the beginning of baseball, especially for fans in the Midwest, is more important as a herald of spring and summer than anything connected to the actual sport. I'm hard-pressed to think of the Chicago sports fan who would, with money no option, prefer spending a few August days watching the Bears in Bourbonnais over seeing the Cubs or Sox in Arizona in March.

Further, it's a safe bet that as Easter approaches, there will be much more interest in football's union contract dispute and the draft than the first week's of baseball's regular season. Last month the big news was how the television ratings for the Pro Bowl, truly the worst all-star game in sports, were nearly as good as those of World Series games from last fall.

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Resolutions that ought to be kept

Column originally published Jan. 4, 2011.

Well, happy New Year. By the time you read this, 2011 will be nearly four full days old, and many of us already will have defaulted on our resolutions.

Not me, though, because I have a fail-safe, two-phase plan.

Phase One: Make only resolutions I can guarantee are attainable. For example, this year I've resolved not to play second base for the Seattle Mariners. Since I'm so confident in meeting that goal, I've also resolved not to referee any steel cage matches.

Phase Two: Make resolutions for other people. Remember: It's always more fun telling someone else what to do than actually getting off your own butt and making something happen. With that in mind. ...

Donald Trump should resolve to stop talking, even facetiously, about running for president. He should figure out how much money he'd spend on a campaign destined for failure, then cut a check for that amount to the U.S. Treasury to help chip away at the national debt. Everyone wins.

Major television network executives should resolve to guarantee fans a certain number of episodes before a show begins airing. When fans fall in love with characters and plots only to have a show canceled in less than a month with every loose end untied, it's no wonder people refuse to get excited about fall premieres.

Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano should resolve to keep laying low. With all the drama about who would succeed Lou Piniella as manager, and now even more speculation about who will succeed the late Ron Santo as radio commentator, Big Z —you know, the one who could have the most significant impact on how the team performs — is practicality an afterthought.

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Wrigley revenue plan ill-timed, short-sighted

Column originally published Nov. 16, 2010.

Generally when I write about the Cubs, it's all about the baseball.

But when the face of the team's family ownership group has the gumption to ask for $200 million in tax revenue while the city and state are flat broke, I can't miss the chance to jump in.

Late last week, Tom Ricketts went public with a plan to renovate Wrigley Field and the area surrounding the park with a mix of public and private funds that he said would secure the landmark stadium's future for 50 years and make the neighborhood a destination on the 284 nongame days each year.

I like to advise people to follow the money, but in this situation, that's pretty complicated.

The team wants the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority —the same agency that owns U.S. Cellular Field, home of the White Sox — to issue between $200 million and $300 million in bonds. That money would be repaid over 35 years with amusement taxes paid on Cubs tickets. The bond revenue would go into the stadium, the family would spend an equal amount on private development outside the stadium.

The part of the plan that should sound incredibly to La Salle County residents is the polish Ricketts tried to apply.

While calling Wrigley the state's third-leading tourist attraction and touting stadium renovations as a jobs program in the midst of a struggling economy, Ricketts also defined the revenue source as a classic example of tax increment financing.

Continue reading "Wrigley revenue plan ill-timed, short-sighted."

Reasons I love my wife, No. 967 & 968

No. 967: I'm watching the Braves-Giants playoff game Friday night after we finished catching up on a DVR'd show. It's well after 11:15 p.m. Braves closer Billy Wagner injures himself throwing out the batter on a sacrifice bunt. Game is tied in the bottom of the ninth, and the Braves must get a new pitcher ready. Game goes to commercial. Come back from the break and I see a familiar face warming up on the mound for Atlanta. The quads, the tattoo, the glasses — I instantly know who it is from his days as a Cub more than five seasons ago. And, feeling for the Braves, I simply say "Oh... no..."

Kristie looks at the screen and, despite the guy's new hair, despite the new team and despite the fact she hasn't paid a lick of attention to baseball since a three-hour rain delay before a Cubs-Cards game at Wrigley in August 2005, she says, "Is that Farnsworth?"

No. 968: Pops and I are, right now, in Cincinnati on business. How and Pop were at our house for about four hours this afternoon, but Kristie was all on her own for bed time for the first time since we moved the boys to the bunk beds. No nap for Doodle, today, so that means simultaneous story time/sleep routines. And yet, at 9 p.m. Central, she sends me this note:

The kids are in bed, the kids are in bed! And it's 9 o clock... and they're both sleeping in their bunk bed and I only yelled once! I read to Max, then I read to Jack (this is where I yelled b/c Max kept throwing his pj's onto the top bunk), then I laid down on the floor, they flopped, then they went to bed. Ahhhh... now, then there is idea of tomorrow night... it just depends if I can get lucky two nights in a row. (and they both ate noodles and broth for dinner and Max had peanut butter too... and they had baths. I rock.)

Now, onto desperate housewives and hot chocolate... sorry, but I deserve it and don't want to wait.

Love you, have a good night, don't let the bed bugs bite (no seriously, you did check right?)

Your favorite pregnant lady.

As I said on Facebook, I might just be married to SuperMom. Hopefully Monday (last day of a four-day weekend for Jack) goes well, especially with all the things on the afternoon/evening calendar. I'll be back by Tuesday afternoon.

They didn't win — it's a shame

Column originally published Oct. 5, 2010.

"Do they still play the blues in Chicago when baseball season rolls around?"

Songwriter Steve Goodman asked that eternal question before his untimely death in 1984. He continued by asking, "When the snow melts away, do the Cubbies still play in their ivy-covered burial ground?"

Sadly, yes. This is my seventh annual column wrapping up a recently concluded Cubs season. And while I could have written this column back when I decided the season was over and emotionally detached myself from the team — which should have been before the All-Star break, but I'm an idiot and held out hope a bit longer — I decided to honor tradition and wait until the season actually ended.

I've been a regular Facebook user for a few years now, and this year my news feed said all I needed to know about the season. In years past, it seemed every time the Cubs played at home, one of my friends was headed to Wrigley Field. Heck, there were plenty of folks who made appoint to attend Cubs road games in Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Miami, Colorado and all across the country, but in general, it wasn't true this season.

Instead, Facebook was a prime avenue for the secondary ticket market — that is, people who excitedly bought seats near the end of winter and, by June and July, were looking for people to buy them for face value or less. Through this and other channels, I had the chance at several free tickets and passed on them all. I even won two tickets for a late-September home game and gave them to my brother who lives in the city and wouldn't have to mess around with parking or private transportation.

No, 2010 was a season where what happened on the field was secondary. The first big story of the season was the team being under new ownership. Then Carlos Zambrano got sent to the bullpen. Then he came back as a starter and started a fight with his teammates. Then Andre Dawson got inducted to the Hall of Fame. Then several beloved players got traded away (no complaints here) and then manager Lou Piniella left the team to care for his ailing mother — and leave Chicago with a winning record in most of four seasons.

Continue reading "They didn't win — it's a shame"

Minor league ball: For the love of the game

Column originally published July 27, 2010.

After reading last week's column about the difference between Wrigley Field (which hosts a highly-paid, poorly performing team that routinely draws more than 35,000 fans)and Camden Yards (home to a bunch of also-rans and never-will-bes who don't make a ton of money and can't dry flies), Times reader Rita Morey suggested I try attending a Peoria Chiefs minor league baseball game.

She laid out her points succinctly: Much cheaper, more fun, lots for kids to do, contests between innings, easier parking, no parking fee. And on the whole, it's tough to argue. If you simply must support the team you love, then spend the money and make the pilgrimage to the big league stadium. But if you want to see the game played by talented people, you'll never find a better bang for your buck than minor league ball.

What I neglected to mention in last week's column is that I have a long love affair with minor league baseball. My grandparents helped start me on that path by taking me to games in Rockford, Peoria and Davenport, Iowa. My family made at least one trip to see the Kane County Cougars shortly after that franchise arrived in Geneva.

On a family vacation in Toledo, Ohio, we made sure to check out the Mud Hens. As memory serves, ex-Cub Jamie Moyer was one of the day's starting pitchers. This would have been about 15 years ago, a few years after his first big league stint ended. I have to imagine he's the only player I saw that day still on a major league roster — and he'll be 48 years old in November.

When I went to college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I made sure to take advantage of Coe Night at the Kernels, a free-ticket bonanza that helped populate the grandstand at old Veterans Memorial Stadium. And then, during my junior year of college, the wheels began to turn.

Continue reading "Minor league ball: For the love of the game."

Take me out to any old ballgame

Column originally published July 20, 2010.

I try not to write too often about sports — better to leave that to fellow Cubs fan JT Pedelty or, I suppose, Sports Editor Andy Tavegia, providing he's not writing about his White Sox or worse, the Iowa Hawkeyes — but I had occasion this weekend to take in a baseball game at Camden Yards in Baltimore and it drove me to think.

As I write this, it is Sunday night and I'm in a hotel room on Baltimore's Inner Harbor. I have just seen the Cubs' Alfonso Soriano hit a two-run home run off Phillies' ace Roy Halladay, pushing the Cubs to a 6-2 lead. Wrigley Field appears full for the nationally-televised contest, despite a lackluster season thus far on the North Side.

Lackluster these days is about 10 games below .500, kicking around third place, highly-paid yet underperforming players and no idea what management will do to be more competitive in 2011. It is disappointing, yet a far cry from the Cubs of 10 or 20 years ago, featuring rosters full of guys not even skilled enough to create expectations they failed to meet.

In Baltimore, however, the Orioles have won just 29 games this year —the same number of games by which they trail the first-place Yankees. Wrigleyville remains a popular destination. Yet six rows from the top of Camden Yards, I can easily hear the second baseman slap his mitt while trying to distract a runner. Halfway throughout the game, there are far more empty seats than orange-clad fans.

An Orioles' pitcher records a strikeout and not a creature stirs all through the house. The crowd is loudest during the national anthem, when they shout the "O" before, "say does that star-spangled. ... " The next biggest outburst is for a video board game in which you are supposed to determine which of three Maryland crabs is hiding a ball.

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Welcoming baseball back another season

Column originally published April 6, 2010.

And so we have come to another Major League Baseball opening day. As I write this, the Cubs are a few short hours from the first game of the season in Atlanta, and that fact alone has put an extra spring in my step.

Sure, today's game is one of just 162. And in the sports world, there is plenty to vie for fans' attention — the final of the NCAA basketball tournament pitting tiny hometown hero Butler against Duke, the modern era emblem of college hoops excellence.

There is Tiger Woods getting ready to play The Masters after a winter of discontent. The NHL and NBA regular seasons are winding down, one offering us a truly elite Chicago team, the other a dreadfully dull conclusion to a too-long regular season followed by a painfully slow playoffs and then the real excitement: the offseason to end all offseasons, when players making up the best free agent class in recorded history largely decide to stay with their current teams, because those teams can offer a lot more money.

Some twisted folks are worried more about NFL rosters and the annual draft scheduled for later this month than the actual real baseball being played this month. I used to chide football as a sport for fans lacking the attention span to follow baseball, but then I heard about people watching live video from the annual NFL scouting combine. Attention is not the problem with football fans.

At age 30, some things make me feel very young. Reading board books to a two-year-old before bed every night. Playing basketball on a Tuesday night and not feeling the effects the next morning. Eating nearly anything I want with practically no repercussions.

Some things, however, make me feel very old. Preferring to leaf through pages of newsprint instead of looking at content on a brand new iPad. Realizing the day after Easter that I not only had zero Cadbury creme eggs this year, I didn't even see one in a store. Writing newspaper columns praising baseball as America's national pastime.

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Dawn of a new era for Cubs, fans

Column originally posted Feb. 16, 2010.

I know a young a man who loves sport:
Gridiron and hardwood — that sort.
But his favorite of games,
Fans his passions like flames
Dawns as pitchers and catchers report.

I figure a new era of Chicago Cubs history warrants a new start to my annual column celebrating the start of spring training. You may have your Super Bowl, your Daytona 500, your NBA All-Star Game and your Winter Olympics. As for me and my house — well, mostly just me, since my wife doesn't care and my boys are oblivious — I will cheer when baseball returns.

Tomorrow marks 15 weeks since the Philadelphia Philles' Shane Victorino grounded out to second base, ending Game 6 of the World Series and earning the New York Yankees their 27th league title, mercifully rewarding Bronx fans who had suffered since 2000 without seeing their beloved Bombers ascending to glory.

Please excuse my lack of sympathy.

The snow on the ground says otherwise, but spring begins for me Thursday. Just like the boaters and fishermen who this week are getting their 2010 licenses, transporting them instantly to a summer day on the water, I am picturing myself firing up the backyard grill with the dulcet tones of Pat Hughes emanating from my garage radio.

Continue reading "Dawn of a new era for Cubs, fans."

Resolutions done right

Column originally published Jan. 5, 2010.

Well, happy New Year. By the time you read this, 2010 will be nearly five days old, and many of us already will have defaulted on our resolutions.

Not me, though, because I have a fail-safe, two-phase plan.

Phase one: Make only resolutions I can guarantee are attainable. For example, this year I've resolved not to play right wing for the Buffalo Sabres. Since I'm so confident in meeting that goal, I've also resolved not to make any trips to the International Space Station.

Phase two: Make resolutions for other people. Remember: It's always more fun telling someone else what to do than actually getting off your own butt and making something happen. With that in mind...

• Marlon Byrd, the newest Chicago Cub, ought to resolve to emulate everything Mark DeRosa did when he arrived in Chicago from Texas in 2007, and emulate nothing Milton Bradley did when he arrived in Chicago from Texas in 2009.

• The producers of "American Idol" should resolve to end the live shows on time this season, so those of us who digitally record each episode and watch when our kids are asleep aren't cheated out of the last few minutes each week ... which on elimination shows are the only minutes worth watching anyway.

• The people who insist we're still in the last decade because there was no Year Zero should resolve to sit on it, as Arthur Fonzarelli might say, because the rest of us count decades by the third digit of the years in question. Any year from 1960 to 1969 comprised the 1960s. Got it?

• The executives of Fox News, CNN and MSNBC should resolve to keep doing everything exactly the same, because their idiocy makes excellent fodder for "The Daily Show" and some of my favorite syndicated columnists.

• Rod Blagojevich should resolve to go gentle into that good night, or at least not spend so much time around cameras and microphones.

Continue reading "Resolutions done right."

They didn't win — it's a shame

Column originally published Oct. 6, 2009

"Do they still play the blues in Chicago when baseball season rolls around?"

Songwriter Steve Goodman asked that eternal question before his untimely death in 1984. He continued by asking, "When the snow melts away, do the Cubbies still play in their ivy-covered burial ground?"

Sadly, yes. This is my sixth annual column wrapping up a recently concluded Cubs season. And while I could have written this column back when I decided the season was over and emotionally detached myself from the team — I'm thinking back to early August when the Cubs dropped three of four to Colorado and then got swept at home by Philadelphia — I decided to honor tradition and wait until the season actually ended.

Usually in this space I recount the failures of the last several years, but I no longer see the point. The Cubs have won a few division titles and no playoff games, and really, the sour taste of this season diminished recent regular-season triumphs. This team was supposed to contend for a World Series, and the spin doctors spent the last week saying fans should be thrilled to have a third consecutive winning season for the first time since the 1970s.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals won the division by eight and a half games, could well be considered the favorites to win the National League pennant and ...l wait, who's their starting second baseman? Oh yeah, Mark DeRosa ... an incredibly popular ex-Cub our genius management traded away to make room for Milton Bradley, possibly the worst free-agent signing in the history of the franchise. Pardon me while I go dip my fingers in boiling acid.

I've spent the past two Septembers ignoring college and professional football, the new season of fall television and just about everything except for playoff baseball. This year my fantasy football team is dominating, I'm a big fan of two new fall shows ("Modern Family" and "Community," thanks for asking) and I've seen far more gridiron greatness than usual.

Last Wednesday morning I was riding with my brother to his Wrigleyville apartment. A few blocks west of the stadium on Addison, we saw people with handmade signs for $25 parking spaces. We looked at each other and Matt said, "Wait, is there a game today?" Not only did I not know for sure, I couldn't recall if the Cubs had won the night before. Later he offered me his tickets for Sunday's home finale — bleacher seats at no cost to me — and I didn't even feign interest.

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Still in love as opening day arrives

Column originally published April 7, 2009

As I write this column — far past deadline, by the way — we're just a few hours away from the opening game of the Cub's 2009 season.

After the winter of my discontent with a team that excelled in the regular season only to extend a postseason losing streak from six to nine games, I'd wondered how the actual arrival of the season would feel. Now that it's here, I can with certainty say I have not felt this way at the beginning of a baseball season.

Opening day typically is something I have marked on my calendar weeks or months in advance, like someone else might do for Spring Break or a birthday. This year it snuck up on my like a dentist appointment— I knew it was coming sometime in April, but don't ask me for details. Someone asked me today when the first game at Wrigley Field this season, and I uttered the unthinkable for a die-hard fan: "I'll have to look it up."

I remember being a fourth-grader in April 1989, sprinting home from school, which ended at 3 p.m., to watch Mitch Williams load the bases against the Phillies and somehow escape with a save and the win. It set the stage for a magical summer of high drama that resulted in a trip to the playoffs for just the second time in my life ... a trip that ended with me in tears after the Giants beat us in five games.

But no matter what happens in tonight's game in Houston — even if Carlos Zambrano somehow throws another no-hitter against the Astros — you won't catch me rushing out to get a "This is the year" tattoo.

Continue reading "Still in love as opening day arrives."

Getting ready for another baseball season

Column originally published Feb. 10, 2009

I've been writing this column on and off for almost eight years, and every year about this time I type my ode to spring training and another season of Cubs baseball.

It's typically as exciting as algebra — I have the basic formula, then plug in some new variables. I always make sure I have the dates correct (the first spring game is Wednesday, Feb. 25, against the Dodgers; the regular season opens Monday, April 6, in Houston). Then I swap out the names to freshen things up. Take out Kosuke Fukudome, insert Milton Bradley.

And while it's true I'm excited for the best four words of spring — pitchers and catchers report — I'm having a hard time getting as excited as usual for baseball's return.

One of the best parts of assembling the preview is running down my list of the 12 teams that have no chance to make the playoffs. Last year, I included the White Sox and Tampa Bay Rays in that dirty dozen. Since both played into October and the Rays made the World Series, I think I'll be retiring that practice.

But beyond my poor prognostication, I still can't get over the Cubs second consecutive playoff collapse. The lost in three straight to Arizona in 2007. The 2008 regular season team was arguably the best Cubs team of my life, and they, too, crushed my soul and lost three straight playoff games.

I looked back at the column I wrote in October after the Dodgers embarrassed my hometown heroes, and the words I wrote then ring true today:

Continue reading "Getting ready for another baseball season."

They didn't win -- it's a shame

Column originally published Oct. 7, 2008

"Do they still play the blues in Chicago when baseball season rolls around?"

Songwriter Steve Goodman asked that eternal question before his untimely death in 1984. He continued by asking, "When the snow melts away, do the Cubbies still play in their ivy-covered burial ground?"

Sadly, yes. This is my fifth annual column wrapping up a recently concluded Cubs season. To the surprise of a few folks, this year's column had to wait a week for the Cubs to totally wash out of the postseason. The same thing happened last year, except then the surprise was that the team made the playoffs at all. The shocker this year is that an improved 2008 squad with home-field advantage still failed to win even one playoff game.

The 2004 season was supposed to end in a trip to the playoffs until a meltdown in the final week. The 2005 collapse came a bit sooner, but the 2006 Cubs were one of the worst teams in baseball, a glorious throwback to the teams of my youth in the 1980s and 1990s. The 2007 and 2008 squads should be remembered for repeat trips to the postseason, a Cubs first since 1906, 1907 and 1908, but the faithful will never forget the blinding speed at which both seasons went from delight to disaster.

Every year since 2003 has been a disappointment in one way or another. At 29 years old, I think I can pretty much safely say that only six Cubs seasons in my lifetime have been even remotely satisfying. I am reluctantly adding 2008 to the "remotely satisfying" list because there really were a lot of high points. But getting the sour taste of the second straight choke job out of my mouth will take a while, especially since this season was all about redemption for 2007's disappearing act.

Continue reading "They didn't win -- it's a shame."

Cubs fans are sky-high -- for now

Column originally published Sept. 30, 2008

OK, Cubs fans, are you ready for this? Are you ready for another gut-wrenching trip through the playoffs? Are you ready for another chance at jubilation that could well end in heartbreak?

When the curtain comes up on the baseball postseason Wednesday, the Cubs will be one of eight teams with, statistically, an equal chance to win the World Series. This puts them in a far better position than the 22 teams that did not qualify for the tournament, obviously, and their relative health and performance during the regular season has caused many otherwise sane pundits to suggest the Cubs might be the team to beat in the National League.

This may not come as a surprise to bandwagon fans, those who hopped on board during the 2003 "In Dusty We Trusty" experience. That season, and the epic collapse just shy of a World Series berth, brought in a bumper crop of new Cubs fans, much like the 1984 team that got tantalizingly close before crumbling like stale bread.

The difference between then and 2003 is what happened in the following years. After 1984, the Cubs returned to being the Cubs: failing to live up to high expectations despite rosters stocked with once-talented stars way beyond their playing prime. Sure, there was a magic summer in 1989, but that one similarly ended poorly in California with me in tears (which is why I'm none too thrilled to be facing the Dodgers). Then it was back to the baseball wasteland for most of the 1990s.

Bad teams, bad uniforms, a strike, Ryne Sandberg retiring and unretiring and retiring again, Harry Caray dying before getting the chance to work with his grandson, fewer games telecast on WGN ... I could go on -- and probably should for the benefit of the neophytes -- but suffice it to say this: the Cubs have been awful far more seasons than they have been good since I was born in 1979. And yet here I am, ready to jump off the high dive for another playoff run, hoping there's water in the pool this time.

Continue reading "Cubs fans are sky-high — for now."

Keep feet grounded while reaching for the stars

Column originally published July 22, 2008

As I write this column, the Cubs have yet to play their first game after the All-Star break. They sit in first place of the National League Central, four games ahead of St. Louis and five ahead of Milwaukee.

The Cubs have had a share of first place since May 11, the day they beat Arizona 6-4 to complete a three-game sweep as part of a 9-2 homestand. They are 37-12 at home, by far the best winning percentage in the National League. Overall they are 57-38, good for a .600 winning percentage matched only by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Calif., United States of America, which may or may not be the team's official name.

The Cubs have scored 106 more runs than their opponents, best in baseball (Boston is second at plus-99; Washington is worst at minus-117). According to ESPN.com, the Cubs' chance of making the playoffs in some capacity are 83.5 percent, again best in the game (Boston is second at 79.9 percent, and a few sorry teams are ranked at 0.1 percent, presumably because the scale does not allow negative numbers).

So why am I nervous?

Reread the first few paragraphs, except every time you see the word Cubs, insert Yankees instead. In that light, everything is coming up roses. If the Yankees were in this seat, fans would be crowing about the teams chances for a 27th World Series title and a chance to send Yankee Stadium out in a blaze of glory.

The truth is the Cubs have the best chance in at least two generations to return to the Fall Classic, and it's more likely the last Series game in the House that Ruth Built will be the 2003 game six that ended with the Florida Marlins celebrating on the infield.

Still, most Cubs fans I know are firmly entrenched in the "cautiously optimistic" camp.

Continue reading "Keep feet grounded while reaching for the stars"

Get on the wagon

If this were 2004 and I had all the free time in the world and only one baby -- a baby who would sleep in broad daylight without being held -- I would have linked to these ESPN.com stories as soon as they were put online Friday. But it's not 2004. Good thing, too, since the 2008 are far, far superior to the 2004 Cubs. If you didn't know that, these links are for you:

* Guide to being a Cubs fan.
* Most memorable Cubs victories.
* Cubs uniform history.

Read now, thank me later.