This Is the Year
This is the year. Surprisingly it caught us off-guard, even though we followed all season long.
This is the year. The team that was in “the plan” broke out and exceeding even internal expectations.
This is the year. The year Anthony Rizzo, The Sporting News, Doc and Marty proclaimed to the world that the Chicago Cubs would be world champions.
This is the year that the team is making good on all of those promises. They made good on the years of waiting through horrible baseball. Through watching poor examples of a ballclub trot out onto the oldest and most historic stadium in all of baseball, just to make a laughing stock of the team we all love and follow.
The waiting, the TY Griffen’s and Gary Scott’s, the hot starts and predictable failures. Everything loveable about losing, and underlying pain when they eventually did. The 45, 84, 03, and 08. The Harry Carey’s, Ron Santo’s, and Ernie Banks, as well as the Danny and Randy’s and thousands of others that have never witnessed a championship.
This season is why we waited all these years. This is why we put up with the heartache. This is why friends argue north vs south, and you played hooky to catch the 1:20 game. This is why your dad let you sip your first Old Style, and why you got drunk in the bleachers.
This is why you’ve chanted “LEFT FIELD SUCKS!” and heckled every other team’s right fielder. This is why you are a Cubs fan, always have been, always will. Why “wait till next year” is spoken with so much conviction, but rarely comes to fruition.
It is why you still claim Mark Grace had the most hits in the 90’s, and say if there wasn’t a building Glenallen Hill’s shot would still be flying. This is why.
From Ryno to Maddux to Dunston to Hawk. Ron Cey to Bobby and Jody to Berryhill. Randall Simon and Lofton, Ramirez and Lee. Matt Clement and Zambrano, Wood and Prior. Theriot and Fontenot, Hee Seop and DeRosa. Santo and Banks and Williams and Fergie, Evers to Tinkers to Chance there has been little greater. These are all reasons why this has to be the year, because the past was great but the Cubs future just might be greater.
I wrote this back in March, before the season even got started.
Prediction
95-67, first in the NL Central. First and foremost, I’m a fan of this team. If you want expert professional analysis of where the Cubs will finish this season, look for it somewhere else. What I know is the wait is finally over, and the installation of what will probably be a hideous monstrosity out in the left-field bleachers will be the harbinger of other unfamiliar things in Wrigley Field, including the Commisioner’s Trophy that has yet to find its way to Wrigley Field.
As I knew would happen when the team embarked on its rebuilding program, many life-long Cubs fans didn’t live to see it bear fruit. Dennis Farina, Harold Ramis, Ernie Banks and untold numbers of fans I haven’t heard of met their maker without knowing the satisfaction that comes from winning a championship.
To paraphrase Jim Morrison, I want the World (Series) and I want it now. And to quote from Bruce Springsteen, I believe in the Promised Land. Laugh at me all you want, but I finally believe in it myself.
Read more at http://throughthefencebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-2015-preview-time-to-shine/45079#EWccGVUUZZHaQgbm.99
I freely admit I missed the “Winning the NL Central” part of this. And 95 wins may be lowballing them by a win or two when it’s all over. But I called a title too. I sure do want to see it happen.