The Lovable Losers
By Rich Bauer
Coming up this weekend is another interleague matchup of two pillars of Major League Baseball.
The lyrics of Take Me Out To The Ballgame are so appropriate for this series. The Yankees are in the Windy City for a three-game series versus the defending World Series Champion Chicago Cubs. It’s very strange to write defending champions when the Cubs nickname for years was the “Lovable Losers”. The name was well earned as the organization had not won a National League Pennant in 71 years and ended a 108 year drought by winning the World Championship in 2016.
The Cubs have played their home games at Wrigley Field, also known as the “ friendly confines”, since 1916. Fortunately I have had two opportunities to attend games and experience Wrigleyville. I thoroughly enjoyed myself with visits to Sluggers and Murphy’s Bleachers, two baseball-themed bars/restaurants that are within an Aaron Judge home run blast of the stadium. A major thrill for me was watching one of those games from the rooftop of an apartment building peering in to left field from across the famed Waveland Avenue. Wonderful, amazing viewing seats found no place like it in the world.
To top it off we parked in a local resident’s driveway two blocks from the field. My friend’s friend called ahead and reserved our spot as one of three cars that fit, left the keys under the mat while the “cash only” payment was left under the mat of the rear door.
Greats like Ron Santo, Ernie Banks, Ryne Sandberg, Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddox have all played for the Cubbies, unfortunately enduring many more losses than wins over their distinguished careers.
The lovable loser nickname began to wane in 2011 with the arrival of a New Yorker via Boston. Theo Epstein, the new club president, fled Fenway Park in a gorilla suit (no kidding) once he realized hard times were ahead for his Red Sox.
He, along with Cub fans, suffered through three consecutive disastrous seasons finishing last each year, one worse than another. The only saving grace resulted in the stockpiling of highly rated draft picks like Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, Addison Russel, Matt Szczur, Albert Almora, and last, but not least, the grossly over-publicized Kyle Schwarber (Yankee fans, think of Joba Chamberlain). Kudos to the group as they now are all proud winners of some very big rings.
I raise the question “where is all the homegrown pitching talent?” Since there was none, Epstein spent heavily at the time for free agent starting pitching and signed Jon Lester and Jake Arrietta but never building a strong bullpen. This approach hurt them in 2015 as they were blown out in the post season, swept by a Daniel Murphy-led Mets team in the National League Championship Series.
The key to the success for the Cubs in 2016 came when Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman did them a huge favor by trading closer Aroldis Chapman to Chicago in late July (it was more of a loan as Chapman signed with the Yankees as a free agent during the offseason). He proved to be the missing piece that Chicago needed to end 108 years of misery.
But in that trade, the Bombers picked up two highly-touted youngsters who have All-Star potential, Gleyber Torres and Billy McKinney. I believe both will become household names in the Bronx within the next year or two.
The Cubs are built to win now, much to the chagrin of my transplanted brother-in-law Mike (Closter, NJ to Naperville, IL) who has overdosed on Manager Joe Maddon’s Kool-Aid, I doubt that you will see them in this year’s fall classic unless they are big beneficiaries once again around the trade deadline. They need a leadoff hitter and, once again, their relief pitching is marginal at best.
This match up begins in typical Wrigley Field fashion as a day game with first pitch at 2:20pm ET. Tickets are beyond tough to get and cost a small fortune on the secondary market. I am sure my friends who let us park in their driveway will be allowing guests at a premium cost and by 10:00am Murphy’s will be at full capacity.
As is always the case, one team will win and the other will lose but for some reason I like the Cubs much more when they are the Lovable Losers.
photo: Jostens.com (World Series ring); dailyherald.com (Theo Epstein); comparewrigleyrooftops.com (Roof top views); nytimes.com (Cubs celebration)
