I have never met a person who has defected away from the Chicago Cubs. I have seen people defect from the Chicago Bears to the Green Bay Packers. I have seen people defect from being a Chicago Bulls fan to being a Cleveland Cavaliers fan. What I mean by defect is that fans, all too often, are quick to jump on the band wagon of a team experiencing success. It is easy to get caught up in all the hoopla and move away from a team that is experiencing woes.
But for a Cub fan, woe is all that has been wrought. Year after year, misery after misery, so close yet so far, we have endured over 100 years of lacklusterness. From the 1945 World Series, to the 1984 season, to the 2003 hex, Cub fans have had to either look away in disgust from bad baseball or agonize over fan interference. The world has dubbed the Cubs as the “loveable losers.”
In 2012, Theo Epstein who had been the architect of the Boston Red Sox and their run to a World Series title and broken the Bambino Curse, brought hope to 1060 W. Addison. The “Friendly Confines” would now have a mastermind at the helm and his vision of “how to get there” began to develop. The development would begin in the trenches of the minor leagues and farm systems and work its way up. Key draft selections were also being placed and the team began to flourish. In 2014, with the acquisition of Joe Madden, the pieces were falling into place. Madden, an eccentric and quacky baseball statistician, was the final ingredient needed to take the Cubs to the NLCS in 2015. The Cubs were swept away by a youthful New York Mets organization but the mantra, “wait until next year,” began to permeate even the media.
The 2013-2015 seasons would become the chipping of the flint that did not create the flame. Sure, hot sparks spit off into the periphery but failed to kindle the flame and faded away. It was now, in 2016, that finally a red, hot spark ignited into the National League. Walk-off home runs, suicide and safety squeezes and rock solid defense reinvigorated the city of Chicago and brought about a new hope. With fresh young talent found in Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Javier Baez, Dexter Fowler, and Wil Contreras, the team was reinvigorated. This young talent was mixed in with seasoned veterans with the likes of Anthony Rizzo, Miguel Montero, Ben Zobrist, and Jason Heyward. The cog in the defensive machine was David Ross, the old man who had been around the block much longer than most players in the league. He would catch some of the most dominant pitchers in the the MLB with names of Jon Lester, Jake Arieta, Kyle Hendricks, and the outstanding closer in Aroldis Chapman. Thanks in part to quirky management and grit and flash, the Cubs went on to win 103 games for the 2016 season, becoming the best record in the league.
After some stressful games with the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Cubs weathered a hitless streak and some fierce pitching to make it to the World Series, a feat not seen since 1945. The Cubs will face the Cleveland Indians, another team marked with woe, for a chance to become world champions. The question lingers of will a World Series win see Cub fans be satisfied with one or desire the creation of a dynasty? Or, will Cub fans become bored with this new found success and lament for the good old days, the days where being a Cub fan was cool because of the misery that it entailed. It was cool to be a Cub fan because it would be a way to commiserate and hang with dejected cronies. It was cool to talk about a billy goat curse and how the legend lived on. Moreover, it was cool to be a “loveable loser” and know that previous Cub fans, now in their graves, could rest easy because their eyes were much like our own, devoid of a World Series and living by the maxim of, “just wait till next year!!!”
IWest Gazzette Page 3
2016 CUBS
By Mr. Ehmen