A fan base that suffers from congenital heartbreak is being asked once again if it would be willing to place its trust in a baseball franchise that seems to delight in destroying dreams, foreclosing on hopes and, for all anyone knows, clubbing baby seals.
The fan base wonders if there’s a catch.
No, the fans are told, that’s it. Just lie on the ground so men with spikes on their feet can grind you into oblivion.
And the fan base points to a mud puddle and says, “Would over there be OK?”
This is the year. Well, it appears possible it might perhaps be the year the Cubs’ amazing string of seasons without a World Series title ends, maybe. You know, unless something goes wrong. The Cubs’ last world championship came in 1908. George Washington made Eagle Scout that year.
But things are supposed to be different in 2007. During the off-season, the franchise committed $300 million in contracts to building a winner. Expectations were high for a team that went a dismal 66-96 the year before. Expectations are even higher now heading into the final week of the regular season, though Cubs fans are feeling the familiar undertow of sheer terror.
These are people who dress in layers — Cubs blue over end-of-the-world black.
The Cubs play Pittsburgh on Sunday at Wrigley Field, and it could be their last home game of the season. For that to be the case, they likely would have to experience some sort of breakdown on the road in the final six games. They lead the Milwaukee Brewers by 2 1/2 games in the National League Central.
Does the standard-issue Cubs fan have reason to believe in this team more than in other models in other calamitous years? The answer, of course, is no. But understand the mind-set on the North Side. Fans have no additional cause to trust the Cubs this time around, but they mostly do nonetheless, despite compelling, almost century-long evidence that indicates they are fools for it.
It’s called being a fan, and if the definition of “fan” is “love, regardless,” then nobody does it better than the true believers who follow the franchise.
The romantics among you might not like this, but what we’re witnessing now is a faux division race in a faux division. Several teams have battled most of the season to rise above mediocrity. It of course matters not a whit how a team gets to the playoffs. The St. Louis Cardinals proved it last season by winning just 83 regular-season games en route to a World Series title. The Cards’ success is now the rallying cry of every team with a middling record: “Average is good!”
So this faux race is very real to the people who are playing the games and very real to the people in the seats. (Maybe that’s what’s going on here. The Cubs and their fans are unsuspecting actors in a “Truman Show”-style dark comedy, and America watches in wicked fascination. Are the producers ever going to let the team win the big one? Stay tuned and tuned and …)
The Cubs certainly have attracted the city’s attention this year. They set a franchise record Saturday when the season attendance reached 3,211,098. Then again, this is the fourth straight year they’ve drawn more than 3 million. If the Cubs were to put on a craft show at Wrigley, 40,000 people would call a guy who knows a guy who can get tickets.
It makes for a very good discussion, this theory of relativity. How are the 2007 Cubs better than the other good Cubs teams that have surgically removed fans’ hearts? The short answer is they aren’t. The longer answer is there are reasons for hope:
*Lou Piniella. Even though he has steered the club through an up-and-down year, the sometimes-clean-shaven manager is the star, to the point where you wonder why the canonization process hasn’t begun yet (wait, St. Louis? No, that’s not going to work.). He’s a former Yankee with an advanced degree in winning. Maybe whatever he has will rub off.
*Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez. Not too shabby. Each of them homered Saturday, Soriano twice.
*The you-never-know factor. If Carlos Zambrano gets hot again, if the Cubs start hitting more home runs, if the bullpen holds up, well, you never know.
*Somebody has to win this thing, right? Nobody in the National League is especially menacing. The Mets are flagging. The Diamondbacks and the Padres can’t hit. The American League? Cubs fans will worry about that when the time comes. Why shouldn’t their team win the World Series?
There are, of course, all sorts of answers to that last question. The Cubs don’t have the consistent hitting, Zambrano is struggling, closer Ryan Dempster is Halloween scary.
And they’re the Cubs.
Ah, but who wants the truth when the ivy is starting to turn red at Wrigley? It’s why a panhandler outside the ballpark was taking a major risk with a cardboard sign that read: “I’m not going to lie. I need a cold beer.”
The fans were on their feet Saturday during the Cubs’ 9-5 victory over the Pirates, and they’ll be on their feet Sunday for last gasps of the regular season. Breathing might be difficult at times. It’s the way it is with this team. The Cubs have been unable to take advantage of dramatic victories, often falling the next game despite the momentum that seemed to be on their side. The people who follow these Cubs find them easy to love and hard to believe: You lost a two-run lead in the ninth how?
If it doesn’t work out this year, the conventional thinking goes, there’s always next year. But you wonder. If the organization spent all that money and still didn’t win a title, would some people give up, throw in the towel, trade their mint-condition Billy Williams baseball card?
Probably not. Cubs fans boo more now than they used to, but they won’t abandon their team, any more than they would abandon their spleens.
And if you’re seeking symmetry in your Cubs fantasy stories, you might want to look to next season. Oct. 14, 2008, will mark the 100th anniversary of their last World Series title. In the Series clincher, Cubs pitcher Orval Overall threw a complete game to beat the Detroit Tigers 2-0. Great name, Orval Overall.
Since then, dryness.
There is very little reason to believe this expensive group of players will be able to do what other, better Cubs teams couldn’t do.
But you never know. (Even if you’re pretty sure you do.)
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IN THE WEB EDITION
As the Cubs pursue the division championship, watch videos of memorable Cubs moments at chicagotribune.com/ cubshistory
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rmorrissey@tribune.com
