With the Cubs having lost two of their previous four games by scores of 9-7 and 11-10, it was reassuring to hear coach Don Zimmer say they were playing baseball, not football.
”If you go into a slump in football and lose two games in a row, you can be eliminated,” Zimmer said. ”But in baseball, you play 162 games and there`s going to be a lot of ups and downs.”
Zimmer made this observation before the series final between the struggling Cubs and the St. Louis Swifties. The Cardinals` 5-2 victory Sunday put the Cubs` losing streak at five, equaling their longest 1984 snooze.
Neither Zimmer nor manager Jim Frey, grizzled old heads both, are ready to jump ship.
”You lose four or five in a row and you think the world`s coming to an end,” Zimmer said. ”Then you win five in a row and you`re sky high.”
Perhaps the principal beauty of major-league baseball is the schedule, 162 games in 180 days and nights, constant action from the first week of April through the first week of October. It`s an endurance contest for the players as well as the fans. With rare exceptions–such as last year`s Detroit Tigers, who won 35 of their first 40 games–the race goes to the tortoise, not the hare.
The White Sox, for example, had been playing poorly and appeared to be sinking in the American League West. But they are back in the hunt, the result of 13 victories in their last 18 games. Likewise, the Boston Red Sox, who were 10 games out and next to last in the AL East on May 26, have since won 16 of 18 games. Moreover, the Bosox have been winning with superior pitching, not the hitting that was expected to be their long suit.
The long season is a rollercoaster ride, and surely the White Sox and Red Sox will hit the skids again.
”You play like hell and try to keep going,” said St. Louis coach Red Schoendienst, who has been on the major-league scene for the last 41 years.
”You try to stay close. When you get into September, that`s when you see how good you are.”
Schoendienst was delighted, of course, with the Cardinals` weekend sweep here. But he insists, over the long haul, the Cubs actually will benefit from their injuries. ”A lot of the Cub players who have been hurt will be stronger at the finish,” he predicted.
Schoendienst took the words right out of Jim Frey`s mouth. Instead of responding to the questions, Frey was asking them before Sunday`s game.
”Tell me,” he said, addressing a platoon of reporters, ”what club is capable of going from 2 1/2 games out to 2 1/2 up with three of their starting pitchers injured, and without their left-fielder, center-fielder and second baseman? How many teams can do that?”
There was a silence.
”That`s exactly what we did,” Frey said, supplying the answer.
Frey then launched into a soliloquy on what has become his favorite subject: the necessity for fans to understand that pennants are not won in May and June.
”It makes me sick when people tell me everything looks so dismal,” he said. ”This is June 16, not doomsday. Regardless of what happens in New York (in the four-game series against the Mets that opens Monday night), we`ll still have 100 games to play.”
Frey`s arithmetic is in error–the Cubs will have 98 games remaining–but he made his point: Two-thirds of the adventure lay ahead.
Last season, for example, Dwight Gooden beat the Cubs 2-1 on July 27 in the opener of a ”crucial” four-game weekend series at Shea Stadium. The Mets increased their lead to 4 1/2 games, and many of the so-called experts began predicting a Mets` runaway.
It was nonsense. It was only the Cubs` 99th game. By Aug. 1, the Cubs were in first place. They flogged the Mets in the final three games of that weekend series and destroyed them the following week with a four-game sweep in Chicago.
The memory lifted Frey`s spirits.
”My grandchildren called me today,” chirped Frey, who has two grandsons, Jimmy, 6, and Jake, 3. ”They wished me a happy Father`s Day, but they think they`re supposed to get a gift. They wanted to know when I was going to bring them a candy bar.”
Frey said he asked the 6-year-old if he was having fun. ”Jimmy told me everything was great. He said, `Grandpa, I throw the Frisbee, and Jake runs after it.` ”
Sunday night, it was the Cubs who were in pursuit. But in September, the Montreal Expos and the Cardinals and Mets could be chasing the Frisbee.
