It looks as though I'll begin the slow morph back into a more general purpose weblog, and a little sooner than I'd planned. The Marlins just concluded their comeback from 3 games to 1 down, and knocked off Zambrano, Prior, and Wood (the latter two at Wrigley) in a row to clinch a trip to the World Series. I'm happy for the 16,000 actual Marlins fans, the ones who attended their regular-season games.
As for us Cubs fans, the nonsense about the curse continues, much to my disappointment. Let's review. The Cubs:
- Had the single biggest turnaround in win-loss percentage in the majors this year
- Won their division with a team that should have finished 3rd (both in terms of talent, and in terms of run differential)
- Went to the playoffs with only one pitcher who won more than 15 games, four who lost at least 10 (inc. Wood), a team BA of only .259 (11th in the NL), only one everyday player batting over .300 (2 if you count Lofton post-trade), and so on and so forth
- Won a playoff series for the first time in 58 years
- Beat the Braves, who typically own the Cubs year after year, and stole Maddux back in the day.
- Played October games in Wrigley
Yes, like any and every fan who grew up knowing and desparing of the Cubbies, I was greedy. I wanted to see them kick a little American League tail. But if this season was the result of a curse, then there are going to be 28 other major league ballparks turning away goats next year. The Cubs had a great season, our first in a long, long time, and if it didn't end up in the World Series, we're a better team than we were last year, and we clearly now have some management looking to make us even better.
So don't talk to me about curses. If curses were real, I'd lay one on FOX. Out of one side of his mouth Lyons was complaining about how poorly the Cubs fan who interfered with Alou was being treated. Of course, every chance he freaking had, Lyons used the fan's name, thereby guaranteeing that those of us who didn't want to know it could not forget it. The sooner they retire him (Lyons, not the fan) the better as far as I'm concerned. If anyone at FOX was genuinely concerned about how the fan was being treated, they wouldn't have been bending over backasswards to fan that fire by using his name over and over.
Oops. Sorry about that. What I meant to say was: Don't talk to me about curses. I'll be spending the winter months fantasizing about Miguel Tejada in a Cubs uniform, and reminding myself that Pudge was only signed to a 1-year deal by Florida. Jim Hendry? You out there?
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