99, 100, 101… The Cubs Collapse, Yet Again…

"As Dodgers fans celebrate above the Cubs dugout, Ryan Theriot, Mark DeRosa and Ted Lilly can only watch the end of the 3-1 loss."

“It wasn’t a collapse. “Collapse” is too nice a word. A collapse would mean the Chicago Cubs actually showed up for the National League Division Series.”  This is what ESPN analyst Gene Wojciechowski had to say after the Cubs were swept in the 5 3-game NLDS.  Frankly, I can’t disagree with his analysis.  The Cubs looked as if, they had forgotten everything they had learned about baseball since little league, and showed up expecting to beat a professional baseball team.

Many people will want to call it a choke, but they’d be wrong.  A choke would have been the Dodgers losing Game 4 and 5 in L.A. and then going back to Chicago and losing again.  A choke assumes the team ever had a chance of advancing to the next level (As in 2003, when the Cubs were 5 outs away from their first World Series in decades).  The Cubs never showed really any hope of winning a single game in the series, so we can’t call it a ‘Choke’ either.  So, what do we call it and who do we blame?  The players?  Sweet Lou?  The fans?

Saturday October 4th, 2008 would mark the ninth playoff loss in a row for the Chicago Cubs. Ninth!!  We haven’t won a game since October 11, 2003, five years ago!  The fact is the Cubs have seemed to become as they say, “playoff-irrelevant”.  This post-season, the Dodgers simply eliminated them in 3 games.  Only one of which was even kind of competitive, kind of…  Now, I must congratulate the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Not too long ago, this team was under .500, but the addition of veteran, Manny Ramirez seemed to really turn this team around and they worked harder and made it into the post-season.  Here, they showed up to play, and did just that.  They got the job done.  Congratulations to them.  Sure, the cubs had an amazing season as well.  But, winning 97 games, and having one of the best home-field records in baseball, means absolutely nothing after this performance in the post.

“They’re Cursed” you say.  This post-season collapse had nothing to do with Billy Goats, black cats, or guys named “Bartman”.  This one can mostly be blamed on our players, and their bats.  To start, lead-off hitter Alfonso Soriano batted .280 on the regular season, and was only able to go 1-for-14 in the NLDS.  That’s a batting average of .071!  Embarrassing. Third baseman Aramis Ramirez and catcher Geovany Soto went only 2-for-11!  They were batting .289 and .285 respectively going into October.  Embarrassing.  And of course, Kosuke Fukudome went 1-for-10, and the big question is “Why was he even up to bat 10 times?”  Lou Pinella’s choice to start the slumping, right fielder was an obvious mistake, and may have cost them big-time.  Anyone in the entire franchise probably would have been a better choice to place in the lineup.  Out of the entire Cubs’ line-up only two guys looked like they deserved their spots.  Both second baseman Mark DeRosa and first baseman Derek Lee, were the only two batters to provide any sort of semi-consistent offense.  But, not nearly consistent enough, as the Cubbies were outscored 20-6!  Embarrassing.

The Dodgers scored 20 runs, in only 3 games, two of which were in Wrigley against Ryan Dempster and Carlos Zambrano, who had 2.96 and 3.91 respective ERA’s during the regular season.  And for those of you who aren’t good at math, 2.96 and 3.91 add up to 6.87 earned runs on average.  So was it Rich Harden who gave up the other 13.13 runs?  No, Rich only gave up 3 runs, although he had to be taken out after only 4 1/3 innings.  The fact is, that not a single thing went well for the Cubs, not even defense.  During Game 2, the Cubs had 4 errors, one from each infielder! 4!  And they were costly too, leading to 5 unearned runs, 4 in one inning!

And so it’s done.  Another brilliant season wasted.  Last year, when the Cubs were swept by the Diamondbacks in the NLDS, people were bummed, but also extremely optimistic about ‘next year’.  This time around something is different, that optimism just isn’t there.  The Cubs seriously embarrassed and disappointed their fans, and some may be skeptical to ‘believe’ in their Cubbies again, for a long time.  ESPN writer Scoop Jackson interviewed fans as they solemnly exited the bars of Wrigleyville after Game 3, and it seems some people are giving up on the team all together.  Too much stress maybe.  You can read the full story here.  And it’s true, “Still waters don’t run that deep.”  Personally, I will go into next season with my usual positive attitude, and will continue to do so for every season after that.  Even if I never see the Chicago Cubs win a World Series [knock on wood].  But, if some of you can’t take the pain anymore, I do understand, but I think that is just taking the easy way out.  After all, you are a Cubs fan, hardship seems to be all we know.

“It’s Gonna Happen”

Cubbie Love,

A.K.