The Cubs complained last year when they were finished with their most natural rival on July 20. After all, how could they catch the Cardinals in the last two months if they didn’t play them?
Well, this season the Cubs got their wish. They still have 11 games against the Cardinals, who come to Wrigley Field on Thursday for the first time in 13 months.
Of course, there’s one problem: Cubs vs. Cardinals means absolutely nothing–except for the thousands of central Illinois families the rivalry tears apart–because the Cubs have failed to live up to their end of the bargain.
Here is the sad truth, as the Cardinal whom Cubs fans hate the most explained it after his team finished sweeping the Brewers on Wednesday:
“That series is no more important than winning this series,” Matt Morris said. “Actually, the Brewers are ahead, aren’t they?”
Yes, indeed, the Brewers are ahead of the Cubs. So are the Astros. And the Cardinals are so far ahead they might as well be in September.
“Yeah,” former Cub Mark Grudzielanek said, “you would have thought the Cubs would be better off than they are.”
Better off? Things couldn’t be much worse for the Cubs, who limp into this four-game series with an eight-game losing streak, 19 games behind St. Louis.
That did not stop manager Tony La Russa from having his game face on Wednesday.
“My guess is the Cubs will play their four best games the next four days,” La Russa said. “It’s just the nature of that rivalry. We know their ability. We’ve always respected them.”
La Russa was saying this after his team’s 3-0 win over Milwaukee and as he watched the end of the latest Cubs loss on his office television. He tried to act interested, but the truth is this series will only help determine how many victories above 100 the Cardinals will finish and whether they can catch the White Sox for baseball’s best record.
This is a rivalry fueled through the generations, highlighted by a 2003 five-game September series in Wrigley Field when La Russa and Cubs manager Dusty Baker exchanged heated words and accusations as the Cubs won four and left the Cardinals in the dust.
La Russa so looked forward to this weekend’s series that he juggled his rotation at the All-Star break to ensure Morris and Chris Carpenter would start in Chicago.
And now it has come to this, pretty much a meaningless exercise.
“But it doesn’t matter–it’s still a rivalry that’s far beyond this year’s standings,” Morris said.
“We’re just trying to keep it rolling,” said La Russa, whose team is 17-9 since the break and 36-18 on the road. “We’re not even in the middle of August yet.”
Is La Russa surprised about the depths of the Cubs’ depression?
“They’re a really dangerous club,” he said. “It’s tough to win a game sometimes; and then all of a sudden you start winning. Everybody has gone through it. But since Day 1 we have respected them.”
So did most other opponents, until the Cubs played their way out of the respect game.
“It’s a situation where they have a lot of talent, especially with their arms, and they haven’t figured it out yet,” Grudzielanek said. “They haven’t got the missing people in there yet. Over the past few years they’ve made some changes and obviously they weren’t the best.”
One of them may have been letting Grudzielanek leave. He is hitting .302 with seven homers and 47 RBIs, and La Russa has called him the best second baseman in the league.
And now La Russa’s Cardinals go to Chicago just one victory behind the White Sox in the race for the best record in the major leagues.
“I just think anything like that falls into place,” he said. “You just play as hard as you can and then whatever the results are . . . just like this weekend. Then at the end you don’t have any regrets.
“The only regret you would have is to get distracted by nonsense like [the best record]–that’s not really nonsense–but distracted with stuff.”
So about that Cardinals-White Sox World Series?
“That’s the kind of nonsense I’m talking about,” La Russa said.
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dvandyck@tribune.com
