In past years, it felt like a relief for Cubs fans when the Cubs actually reached the playoffs, but this year, it was supposed to be different.
Maybe it wouldn’t have stung so deep if the Cubs didn’t have the best record in the National League. Or maybe it wouldn’t have been nearly as agonizing for Cubs fans if their team had just missed the playoffs all together.
Instead, Chicago’s north side was given the glimmer of hope on the 100th anniversary of its last World Series title, that the Cubbies would rise from the ashes and break the dreaded century-long curse.
The story line was destined to become a Disney script. Instead, Cubs fans all over the country are going to spend the off-season the same way they spend every off-season8212;wondering why the hell they thought this year would be any different than the 99 years before it.
“Choke” just doesn’t give justice to the performance of the Cubs in this year’s American League Division Series. Alfonso Soriano went 1-for-14 in the three game series, Aramis Ramirez, only 2-for-11. The Cubs just couldn’t get the bats going against a Dodger’s pitching staff that seemed unstoppable from the get-go. As a team, the Chicago Cubs were outscored 20-6, left 23 base runners stranded and batted a pathetic .240 over the course of the sweep.
This all took place against a Los Angeles team battling for its playoff berth until the very end of the season. A little over a month ago, the Dodgers were the losers of eight games in a row and were five games under .500, not to mention in the worst division in baseball. There were seven teams that finished better than the Dodgers in the American League this season, four of which were in the AL East.
Reporters caught up with Cubs first baseman Derek Lee after game three. When asked about the off-season, Lee replied, “You just have to try and come back strong next year.”
It’s those two simple words8212;”next year”8212;that have given hope to Cubs fans for the better part of a century, just as it did for Red Sox fans for 87 years before 2004. Maybe that’s the appeal of baseball8212;knowing each year you have a clean slate to make another run at a ring.
But each year, like clockwork, fans on the north side sell out Wrigley Field all year long, only to spend the winter thinking about how they had their hearts ripped out again.
It will be a long winter for Lou Piniella and the Cubs, knowing they haven’t won a playoff game since before any of us knew who Steve Bartman was. The Cubs have lost nine playoff games in a row and are only the fourth team in history to go winless in back-to-back postseasons.
I have just as much, if not more, respect for Cubs fans than any other sports fans. I almost feel a tear coming on every year when they show an old woman crying in a Cubs hat after another season comes to an end, knowing plenty have come and gone and have never seen their Cubs win a World Series.
The hardest thing for Chicago fans to swallow is the fact that this year was downright deflating. You can’t blame a curse, a billy goat or a nerdy little die-hard in a green turtleneck. Instead, Cub fans need to look to the players in their dugout, because they flat-out blew it.
I would like to say they choked, but that still just doesn’t give it justice.
Bryan Chouinard