I think it's safe to say no one...not the experts or the casual fan, expected the Cubs to win 97 times this season. This was supposed to be the year of measured improvement for the perennial losers from the north side. It was 2016 that Cub fans circled as the year when the new crop of Cubs would mature to the point of pennant racing. This year has been a true baseball bonus. The team blossomed early and rocketed to the third best record in the game and would win the division were they in any other division but the NL Central were the Cardinals and Pirates finished slightly better.
And now, on a fall evening in October, a poorly devised one game playoff is all that stands between this upstart collection of Cubs and an epic playoff series with their arch rivals, the St.Louis Cardinals. But before that can happen, the Cubs and their unquestioned ace Jake Arrieta have to record 27 outs in Pittsburgh. On Thursday, a team that won 98 or 97 games will be out of the playoffs despite having a better record than any other team in the post season but St.Louis. This is going to sting for the losing team Wednesday night.
But if ever the Cubs and their fans could follow their great manager's advice "Don't let the pressure exceed the pleasure", this is it. Unlike Cub teams of the past, there is no pressure here. This won't be the Cub teams of yore that caught lightning in a bottle and made the playoffs only to be dispatched quickly , said to be a victim of a curse that doesn't exist.
What actually existed was a team patched together by bad management with no direction ,given to plucking a few free agents and making a deal or 2 that looked attractive at the time . The expiration date on those ill advised moves came quickly and then the team would try the same formula, come up empty again and retain the title of "lovable losers".
This edition of the Cubs owes nothing to its pitiful past. Most of the players have little or no knowledge of the disappointments and "Cubbie occurances" that have deprived Cub nation of a Championship for over 100 years. They play in the now and unlike Cub teams past, these kids- home grown and not major league mercenaries patched together with fingers crossed, are fresh and talented and likely to return to the post season until they get it right. As trite as it sounds it is no less a truism, this is NOT your father's Cub team. A loss Wednesday night will be disappointing,sure, but only the stupid or ill informed will refer to it as a choke or glory in another year that the Cubs won't be champions. These Cubs are built for the long haul...."sustained success" as Theo Epstein stated. Baseball fans better get used to Bryant, Schwarber ,Rizzo and the rest because they will be post season mainstays for years to come and candidates for a slew of post season awards. And with the Cubs expected to be buying pitching over the winter, an already formidable staff that has given up almost nothing in the last week of the season\, will become even stronger. With the best manager in baseball and a bright, young, energetic front office, the sky would seem to be the limit and first place a familiar neighborhood.
No one expects the spanish inquisition or the Cubs having a 97 win season but this was just the appetizer. After a nuclear baseball winter that seemed to last forever as the team retooled, the Cubs are good...real good...and will be that way for awhile.
We saw the city erupt as the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup with a huge civic celebration that is probably still going on somewhere . And the Hawks will drop the puck on a new season the same evening the Cubs play their biggest game in years. Two teams, one big night...and both rebuilt from the dust of losing into organizations that are now the best the city has to offer and models for other teams regardless of the sport.
Enjoy the evening and no matter the outcome don't look on it as the end, because it's just the beginning.
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