Cubs fans are entertaining hopes that the team still has a chance for a wild card.
“If you don’t have hope, you don’t have nothin’,” said Tom Cassin, 75, a lifelong Cubs fan visiting from Bristol, Va. “The way they’re playing, I believe they can get a wild card, sure I do. Anything’s possible.”
In seventh place in the wild-card standings after Monday’s 5-2 loss to Cincinnati, the Cubs’ biggest enemy is a schedule that tells them there are just 18 games remaining and some cold, hard statistics capable of slapping anyone in the face.
But ask five out of any 10 Cubs fans, and they’ll tell you about the seven games that still remain against Houston, including the final four of the season.
“What do we have left, 19?” asked WGN-AM 720 color analyst Ron Santo before Monday night’s game. “Then we have to go 16-3. I think 10 games over .500 is going to win it.
“Maybe it’s improbable, but it’s not impossible.”
But Santo, hopeful as he is, is thinking finishing above .500 for the third straight season would be a pretty decent story as well. “The best thing about being over .500 is feeling like you’ve won,” he said.
