7 posts tagged “chicago cubs”
Ten years ago today, one of the game of baseball's iconic voices went to that great broadcasting booth in the sky.
A Cub fan and a Bud man I'll always be, Harry. Thanks to you.
Hope springs eternal, ladies and gents. Nowhere is that more true than in Cubbie Fandom.
This is our year. I can feel it.
(And, hey, if not - there's always next year.)
...the life of a Cubs fan is filled with heartbreak, anger, frustration, horror and outright resignation.
Every once in a while, though, the life of a Cubs fan is pure joy. And it reminds you why you love these abject failures so damn much.
Today was one of those days.
Somewhere, Harry Caray is smiling and drinking a Bud.
As a Cubs fan, one of the best things for me when the teams heads on a West Coast road trip is that they're playing too late for me to stay up late and watch them lose. Again.
God, do they suck. 2-10 in one-run games is a bit of a problem, there, Lou. So is two runs in two games, and nine men left on base.
Somebody do something. And fast.
Here, in the Heartland, we're digging ourselves out of a mountain of snow. A brutal, brittle wind is howling constantly, blowing snow drifts to dangerous levels all over the place. Once you do get the snow dug, there's a wonderful layer of black ice underneath, further complicating matters.
Spring should be the furthest thing from my mind, wouldn't you think? Wrong. Why?
Pitchers and catchers! For Cub fans, hope springs eternal. But fuck all that. This year is our year, baby.
Of course I know it's not, but I have to tell myself that. We all do.
So, eight years and the GDP of a Central American banana republic is all it takes for the Cubs to snag the biggest name in a weak free agent pool, huh? What to think?
First, for the good: Spending like this is completely foreign to a Cubs fan, especially to bring in an outside free agent. It's unprecedented. As a Cubs fan, it certainly shows a commitment to winning right away, and they did without giving up any young talent via trade. As much as one player can, he makes an immense impact on the balance of power in the National League. The Cubs still have holes to be plugged (starting pitching, relief pitching, some left-handed hitting), but put Soriano in a lineup with D. Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Michael Barrett, and all of sudden it's rather formidable. Most importantly, signing Soriano shows Cubs fans the team actually is serious about at least trying to win right away. Cubs fans have always been (rather accurately) portrayed as blindly loyal to the point of mental retardation, rooting for a team that makes loads of cash off of them but won't spend any on talent. Now, for once, at least, they have.
OK, on to the bad: The deal itself. It's just too many years, and too much money. With a full no-trade clause to boot. Actually, the money per year isn't nearly as bad as the eight fucking years. He's 30 now, will be 31 before the season starts, meaning he'll be pushing 40 by the time this deal is done.
But here's the thing: If the Cubs win the World Series in the next 3-5 years, the remainder of the contract won't matter. It will have been worth to have finally brought to an end a century-plus of losing, agony and embarrassment. And make no mistake about it: If they do win it all in the next 3-5 years, or at any time during the length of Soriano's contract, he will have played a huge part in the success of the team. There's no way they'll be able to do it in spite of him.
That's where I stand on everything. Eight years was too many for the deal, but you know what? They could have made four or five middle-level moves like they did last offseason, and I don't think I'd be as excited about the upcoming season as I am after this one move. It so un-Cubs. I guess that's why it's so freaking energizing.
How it turns out, of course, is a different story. This guy better not flake out on us.
I'm a Cubs fan. As I write this on Friday night, the god damn St. Louis Cardinals are getting ready to win the World Series. Last year, you may recall, the fucking Chicago White Sox won the whole enchilada. The year before that, lest you forget, the execrable Boston Red Sox took their turn in the winner's circle. This would mean that, as a Cubs fan, I've had to endure the only two franchises with bad luck anywhere near my team's take turns ending decades of frustration and heartache to win the World Series, and now we have to sit and watch our dreaded archrivals win it all. Over those same three seasons, mind you, the Cubs have only gotten worse. Much, much worse.
The only good consolation comes from knowing that, even if the Cardinals win, they still have the most ass-backward, inbred, gap-toothed, chromosome-deficient fan base in the Western world.
Oh, and their new stadium sucks, too.
So it could be worse. Keep your chin up, Cub nation. Next year is our year!
