It’s been a great regular season. We started the season with eight weeks of abysmal to mediocre baseball (good for lowering expectations) with a dugout dust up timed to be the perfect prelude to a rest of the season run of sound pitching (rare), solid defense (very rare), and outstanding bullpen work (unheard of).
No matter what transpires during the playoffs this has been a rewarding season. But we’re looking for more. Nobody wants to jinx it, yet we’re all wondering, how far can the Cubs go? Is this the year?
Prospects for victory:
- ESPN’s panel of experts predict the Cubs will prevail over the Diamondbacks, eight experts to two.
- Vegas has the Cubs favored to get to the world series
- The Cubs finished up the season hot, aside from a late season stumble in Florida the Cubs have been on a torrid pace since late June.
- We’re Due!
- Lou Pinella
- Carlos Marmol
- Ghosts of October Past
- We already got pasted by the Marlins in some key games, lucky for us we’re still standing. Good bye failures of 2003.
- The New York Mets had an epic late season collapse that put a fork in their playoff hopes. I wasn’t around in ’69 but I’d be willing to bet my bottom dollar that Ron Santo had a private chuckle when their September fade was final. Good bye failures of ‘69
- The Padres lost an exciting game 163 to the mountain people when their ‘lights out’ closer (Trevor Hoffman) blew his second game in 3 days. Bye bye memories of Steve Garvey, bye bye failures of ’84
- The Detroit Tigers could never recover from the devastating loss of Neifi Perez for the season (due to his need for speed), steadily losing ground to the Indians before finishing a full 6 games out of the wild card spot. Detroit beat the Cubs last time they made the series in 1945, they also have the distinction of being the only team to lose a world series to the Cubs , twice (1907, ’08), so I’m not sure if this means anything
- The Cubs have also lost some pre WWII series to the Yankees, A’s (in Philadelphia then), Red and White Sox. But that's all pretty much off the radar for most Cubs fans and for the Octogenarians who were around back then, they’ve probably witnessed enough tragedy and heart ache to know that getting swept by the Yankees in 1932 doesn’t make too much difference now.
Bad Experts aren’t always wrong, but when they come together to agree on something like this it smells trouble
Bad. Cubs fans aren’t known to hedge their bets, we like to put our money where are heart is, to vest ourselves emotionally and financially. Heavy betting from our large fan base skews the line. A skewed line doesn’t bother me but if the Cubs have to beat the Diamondbacks, Phillies/Rockies AND Vegas to get to the World Series, that worries me because Vegas doesn’t like to lose.
Even. We’re not playing the Reds anymore.
Bad. We’re past due; it's never made a difference before.
Good!
He’s been simply masterful in every respect. I’ve never seen a coach handle all the disparate aspects of the jobs with such skill. The entertainment value would have been worth it even if the Cubs didn’t win the division. The befuddled, slightly sleepy look on his face when a relief pitcher comes into a game and walks the first two batters he faces; the jog/walk out to the field to argue a close play followed by tempered dialog:
Lou: ‘I thought he was safe’
Ump: ‘Nope, he was out’
Lou: ‘oh, well oh, you’re sure about that?’
Ump: ‘Positive, anything else?’
Lou: ‘Nah I’m good, just going to catch my breath for a second here’
Ump: ‘We’re trying to play a game’
Lou: ‘I’m leaving. You’ll give us the next one right?’
That and every Carlos Zambrano interview always get me laughing. Entertainment value aside this Cubs team has a decent chance at making some noise in the playoffs, and if they don’t it won’t be because Sweet Lou plays his cards wrong.
Good!
Marmol has been the MVP of the Cubs so far. No doubt about it. Since he established himself as an integral part of the Cubs bullpen in early June the Cubs started winning all those one run games we were losing the first two months of the season. He pitches two innings most outings and can pitch back to back games, “I can pitch every day, I never get tired.” (!!) He’s our version of Mariano Rivera (late 90’s model.) Appreciate this man, recognize his greatness, love him!
Let's investigate….
Prospects:Good!
