Manager Lou Piniella says Cubs fans have every reason to hope. The Chicago Cubs are playing like their fans should have every reason to hope. The moribund NL Central is such that Cubs fans have every reason to hope.
But, really, is there any reason to hope if you're a Cubs fan? Is there any reason to think 2007 will be any different than, say, 2003? Is this the year? Is this next year?
Well, maybe, just maybe, it is.
Let's go back to last Wednesday, September 12, when the Northsiders' latest win streak began...
The Cubs have lost six of their last nine and are dangerously close to falling all the way back to an even .500 record, a mediocre mark they haven't seen since being 40-40 on July 1. Even worse, the Lovable Losers are just hours removed from arguably their most crushing loss of the season, an 11-inning 5-4 setback at the hands of the rival — and woeful — Houston Astros that leaves them at 73-71. With Milwaukee's 6-1 win over Pittsburgh, the Cubs are now looking up in the NL Central, one game behind the Brewers.
Queue the "here we go again" groans of Cubs fans everywhere.
Those groans grow even louder with a shockingly inauspicious start to the bottom half of the ninth inning in last Thursday's game in Houston. Chicago carries a 3-1 lead into the penultimate stage of the game and brings in closer Ryan Dempster to shut the door on the Astros. Dempster is apparently on his way to doing just that when he induces a ground ball to first base off the bat of the inning's leadoff hitter, Mark Loretta. It's rolling harmlessly along in the direction of first baseman Derrick Lee, who is prepared to field it cleanly and step on the bag for a routine first out.
Curses! The dreaded baseball somehow takes a crazy bounce off first base and ricochets into right field for a leadoff single that brings the tying run to the plate. Mike Lamb then triples, making the score 3-2 and putting the tying run just 90 feet away. Two batters up, two batters on, and the question has suddenly gone from "can the Cubs actually find a way to lose this game?" to "can they actually find a way not to lose this game?"
Somehow, the Cubbies find a way not to lose it. Dempster gets Luke Scott to ground out to Aramis Ramirez at third base, leaving Lamb still on third. Piniella then signals in the intentional walk, putting Houston's Orlando Palmeiro on first base in order to set up the double play. Surely, the move will backfire and Palmeiro will soon cross home plate for the winning run. Right?
Wrong. Eric Munson sends a ground ball to first base and, what do you know, it does not careen off first base and into right field. Instead, Lee fields it and fires to second base, then shortstop Ryan Theriot throws it back to Dempster covering first base to complete the game-ending, potentially season-changing double play.
Cubs win! Cubs win! And with Milwaukee's 7-4 loss to Pittsburgh, the Cubs are back in a tie for first place atop the NL Central.
"One of those fluke plays, I guess," said Rich Hill, who started the game for Chicago and pitched seven strong innings, of the freakish start to the last half inning. "The way we handled ourselves was huge. And the way we came out and played under that kind of environment, and the time we're in right now in this race, it was very big for this team."
"We needed it bad," added outfielder Cliff Floyd.
"This type of game really should get us on a roll," Piniella said. "You have to think that the worm has turned. You've got to start feeling like things are going to go your way."
Since then, they have. In fact, the Cubs have not gone a single day without winning a game since last Wednesday (they did lose the nightcap of a double-header against the Cardinals on Friday). As of Tuesday, the Northsiders have won six of their last seven games to stay one game ahead of the Brewers in the NL Central and get within striking distance (four games) of the wildcard-leading Padres in case Chicago fails to win the division.
If last Wednesday's win kept the Cubs afloat, Monday's 7-6 come-from-behind win over Cincinnati has them soaring higher than ever this season. Trailing 6-4 heading into the bottom of the ninth, the Cubs erupted for three runs off Reds' closer David Weathers before getting out just once. Ramirez tied the game with a two-run triple and after an intentional walk to pinch-hitter Darryl Ward, second baseman Mark DeRosa, who finished the game 5-for-5 with a homer, finished the rally with a walk-off infield single up the middle. The Wrigley Field faithful — and surely the entire Cub nation — were sent into an all-out frenzy, and now playoff talk is buzzing loudly in Chicago.
The Cubs, themselves, are not the only reason why there's hope for them to finish off this somewhat improbable season in style. The general malaise of the National League is no secret, and the Central Division is especially bad. Now that the defending World Series champion Cardinals have reverted back to their early-season selves, it's all down to the Cubs and Brewers. With Chicago two wins ahead and even in the loss column, the Brewers will have to erase the deficit in the next two weeks. Obviously, that's doable in one day, much less two weeks, but the schedule is not in the Brew Crew's favor.
That's not to say Milwaukee's remaining slate of games is terribly challenging. The Brewers finish at Houston, at Atlanta, home against the Cardinals, and home against San Diego. The Astros are terrible and the Cardinals will have thrown in the towel by then, but four games each with the Braves and Padres could be tough.
"Tough" is not what comes to mind when perusing the Cubbies' finishing schedule. They host the Reds and Pirates and then travel to Florida and Cincinnati, where they get to meet the Reds once again. You probably don't need me to tell you that all three of those teams have losing records. In fact, the Reds are the best of the bunch and they currently sit 14 games under .500!
It would be premature to start talking playoffs, but it is necessary nonetheless. As long as the Cubs manage to qualify for the playoffs, once they're in they will have a very legitimate chance to go all the way to the World Series. And that, ultimately, is what Cubs fans want--and even need. After all, they were just six outs away from the Fall Classic in 2003 when Bartman struck, and while a Central Division title and playoff berth would be all well and good, all the North Side wants is to get those last six outs they could not get four years ago.
This could be the year to do it. Sure the National League boasts a few good teams (primarily the Mets and Diamondbacks), but the difference between the AL and NL is just about the same as the difference between Tiger Woods and the rest of the PGA Tour right now.
As good as it looks for the Cubs at the moment, can it possibly last? Maybe a Billy Goat will never be able to break the Billy Goat Curse. Maybe the next Steve Bartman is ready to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Maybe curses are real.
But even if a Billy Goat never returns, and even if there is another Steve Bartman out there, and even if curses are real, what do Cubs fans have if they don't have hope? In a word, nothing.
Maybe they're just setting themselves up for another gut-wrenching, heart-stopping, tear-dropping conclusion to the end of the season, but for any number of reasons, Cubs fans have no choice but to live it, eat it, breathe it, sleep it. It is the motto...
Hope springs eternal.
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