Last night the Atlanta Braves eliminated the Chicago Cubs from the NL wild card race. There was much laughter around our house when we heard. For all that we have friends in Chicago who are Cubs fans, our year there converted me to a Cubs anti-fan. Particularly, hearing the name “Steve Bartman” all winter long made me wish nothing but the worst for them. Since they eliminated the Braves from the post-season last year, I can’t say there isn’t a little schadenfreude in watching them fail to make it this time.
If you want an example of the kind of Cubs crap that makes me root against them, here is one from that article:
“This last week has been ridiculously crazy,” Cubs second baseman Todd Walker said. “We score six, they score eight. We score three, they score four. It’s crazy. Going into the ninth inning last Saturday against the New York Mets, the last thing on our minds was not making the playoffs.
“We lost seven out of eight when we needed to win the most this year. I can’t explain it. If you want to call it a jinx, that’s fine.”
This goat crap and jinx crap and curse crap, what a way to not take responsibility. When my Braves lay down in the post-season by not playing well enough and not playing hard enough there is no curse to invoke. Cubs players and Cubs fans, however, have no shortage of supernatural reasons why the team underperforms. Shut up, you whining bastards, and either play to win or go home. This year, looks like the latter.
Update: Here’s my post from February in which I predicted the Cubs failing to make the post-season. At the time, all anyone in town could talk about was how the signing of Maddux was the ticket to winning the NL Central. I was wrong in my prediction that Maddux would win 12 or fewer games, but right about the Cubs.
Dave — here’s a good article on the demise of the Cubs: http://www.sports-central.org/sports/2004/10/06/failed_season_dismal_future_for_cubs.php