This Hurts

I haven't posted much since the Cubs lost game 2. It's been a rough week to be fair. Getting swept in the first round two years in a row is just unreal. Last season it was a bit of a surprise for the Cubs to even be there, nobody really thought it was going to happen. Even though we lost three straight, the signs were in place that the team was about to be really good. And this season they were. It was unlike any Cubs season I've ever seen. Never have they been hands-down the most dominant force in the league throughout a season. 97 wins? Unheard of in my lifetime.

I'm not going to go into a season recap. Everybody knows what happened all season, and everyone witnessed one of the biggest flop performances of my lifetime. With everybody getting ready for the NLCS to get going tomorrow night, the pain is really starting to sink in. The team announced they were picking up Rich Harden's option for next season, and it's just devastating to realize what happened. Literally as I write this, Stu Scott and John Anderson just made a mention of the Cubs incident (the poll of the night was who would win the World Series, and Anderson asked where the Cubs were and said people were probably still looking to pick them). The whole experience was a surreal, catastrophic embarrassment. The Dempster walks in game one, the infield errors in game two, and the brief appearance of Rich Harden in game three. That's what I have to remember what once was an incredible season.

Now the Cubs have to figure out what to do to fix the problem. I wish I had an answer, but I don't even know what to do. I have my doubts about the team's ability to respond to the choke job that was 2008. But how do you break up a team that just won 97 games? There clearly weren't any problems all season, and you can't trade players around based on perceived clutch ability. So we have to go into the season with the same team we have now, and we probably won't be able to go out and splash the market because of questions regarding ownership. But here's wishing for the dream situation. Mark Cuban comes in and rescues this franchise from itself.

Cuban could bring a new attitude to the team and the fans surrounding the team. Instead of waiting for the worst, he could bring the money and energy to a ball club desperately looking for a winning culture. At the end of the day, the Cubs just won back to back division titles, and that's something I never thought I'd say. If Cuban can close the sale in time for free agency, which is completely possible, the Cubs could make a splash. These are the small comforts I have to hold on to right now, as I still try and get my head around what happened.

The last thing I want to say on this topic, and I have no intentions to write about baseball for the next 3 weeks, is that I don't want to hear anything about a curse. Curses are for children and witches. Not baseball teams. The Cubs weren't cursed, they just choked. They were untalented, not unlucky. The whole city froze up, and it effected the team, and after that game one loss we came off the tracks. I don't want to talk about it anymore, I've spent enough time dwelling on it. For now, there's football.