No one wanted the strange dream deferred another day. There had been enough deferring, enough toe tapping and enough get-it-over-withalready to last a lifetime or two.
If you believe any division crown won by the successstarved Cubs is a miracle, then no one wanted the miracle on ice another day.
After a long season and an exhausting last week, the Cubs won the modest National League Central on Friday night by beating the Reds 6-0 and then watching division rival Milwaukee fall 6-3 to the accommodating Padres.
Champagne was sprayed, swallowed and introduced as a hair-care product here.
“It’s a long season, but all this stuff makes it worthwhile,” shortstop Ryan Theriot said in the middle of a raucous clubhouse. “The last few weeks have been a grind, but this is why we do it. This moment right now. It’s all worth it. We’re not done yet.”
The best things are worth waiting for, so this must be one of those because it feels like the Cubs have been waiting forever for this particular division crown. But that’s an exaggeration. We know it’s an exaggeration because the Cubs have been waiting forever for another World
Series title.
After getting swept in Florida in their previous three games, the Cubs just wanted to play a good game Friday night. That sounds simple and simplistic, but when you’re chasing a division title and things aren’t going well, it helps to break things down to their most basic elements.
Just. Play. Ball.
And that’s what the Cubs did Friday against a depleted Cincinnati lineup. Carlos Zambrano came up big in a big game, pitching seven scoreless innings. It’s what aces are supposed to do but what Zambrano hasn’t done consistently this season. On Friday he didn’t have his best stuff, but he kept himself under control and pitched like a shrewd veteran.
Alfonso Soriano opened the game with a home run. In the fourth inning, he threw out the Reds’ Joey Votto, who was trying to score from second. Why teams believe they can score on Soriano’s arm is almost beyond understanding. He has thrown out 19 runners this season. It’s what guys who sign eight-year, $136 million contracts are expected to do.
Before the game, the Cubs talked about taking care of business. They came in with a two-game lead with three games left. They wanted to exit this night without feeling the Brewers constantly nipping at their pants legs.
“The window is open, let’s close it,” second baseman Mark DeRosa had said.
Shuttered, closed and locked.
Cincinnati looked like it was located in a blue state Friday. A majority of the announced crowd of 32,193 were Cubs fans. A huge cheer went up in seventh inning when the scoreboard at Great American Ball Park showed that San Diego had gone up 3-2.
A bigger cheer went up in the ninth inning, when that apparently pro-Cubs scoreboard showed San Diego leading 4-3 in the sixth inning.
Cubs fans have been on edge. More than a few are tired of hearing that their team last won a World Series in 1908. They would prefer to live in the present and ponder the future. It’s a fine attitude, though not very realistic. It’s like ignoring the 800-pound gorilla in the room, the gorilla wearing a pink teddy and feeling amorous.
Let’s agree on this: Until they prove otherwise, the Cubs are the Cubs. That means they are capable of causing monumental heartache. But it also means that somehow, some way, they’ll have to break this ridiculous dry spell of theirs.
“We can win the whole thing,” pitcher Kerry Wood said as champagne dripped from his cap. “You get in the playoffs, anything can happen. We’ve got a good team. We’ve battled a lot this year. We’ve gotten through some adversity. We’ve had good stretches and bad stretches. Anything can happen.”
The Cubs had much going for them Friday night. Former Cubs pitcher and future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux was going for the Padres against Milwaukee’s Chris Capuano. The Brewers were 0-17 in Capuano’s previous 17 starts.
Surely a higher power would not forsake the Cubs in this moment of need. Surely that higher power would not ask them to sniff a flower that squirted water. The somewhat suspenseful (and surprising) answer: Surely not.
So the Cubs are in the playoffs for the first time since 2003, when that bad thing happened while they were five outs from going to the World Series. If we’re going to stay positive here, we’ll just call it That Which Must Not Be Spoken Of.
The Cubs are headed to the postseason, having won a charitable division that gave more than it took in terms of wins.
Hundreds of Cubs fans who bought tickets to Friday’s game stayed where they were afterward and cheered each other on while they waited for the Milwaukee precinct to report. Then they got kicked out of the ballpark and, presumably, repaired to local establishments that provide liquid refreshment.
Thanks in part to the suggestion of manager Lou Piniella, the traditional rookie hazing had been postponed the night before. It meant that no one in the Miami or Cincinnati airports got to see Sam Fuld in a little black dress or Geovany Soto in some silky something.
“Let’s get to Cincinnati and forget people getting dressed up,” Piniella had said.
So, yes, this does mean it’s OK to break out the evening wear now, boys. To the victors go the spangles.
