53-69

The record of my Chicago Cubs today. Currently 12 games out of first place in the NL Central and 9.5 Games out of the NL Wildcard spot. Another season, easily over before September and another year added onto the train wreck, which is known as the Chicago Cubs. Since 1908 the Cubs have failed to win a World Series. The Cubs last appeared in one in 1945, and were beaten by the Cleveland Indians. In 2003, the Cubs came six outs away from making their first trip in 58 years. But a series of unfortunate mishaps occured, which I have repressed every waking moment since.
I love baseball, of all the things in life, which bring me a simple joy, baseball reigns above any other sport in my book. People complain because the season is too long; I don't see it as too long. The 162 games played allow for momentum swings and droughts and in the end allow the best teams to prove that they are the best in the end. And pure and simple any given game can be won by either team. And one loss is not a reason to give up on a whole season. A team witha ten game winning streak can enter a series against a team struggling and leave being swept. There are no guarantees, and specious reasoning holds no bounds. In 2003 a Florida Marlins team, with a salary cap of 40 million dollars, toppled a Yankees team with a payroll on 200 million dollars in the World Series.
Why did I choose the Cubs? It's like having a draft for states to live in and I get stuck in Alabama, right? Not really. I chose the Cubs when I was really young and just happened upon a Chicago Cubs shirt. If it had been a Royals shirt I may be in more misery than I am now. In 1998 I really began to follow baseball with the epic homerun chase between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. I followed Sammy's assault, and watched the Cubs make the playoffs in their 163rd game of the season, a one game playoff with the San Francisco Giants. I remember Gary Gaetti hitting the clutch homerun into the right center field basket at Wrigley. Then the Braves destroyed us in the first round, which was all but expected.
I really could walk down every experience I have went through with the Cubs, all my disappointments, every term I've coined out of anger when we lose, and every moment that I thought we were done, and we rose up to win. I watched my second Cubs game of the year last night. The first beinga 1-0 loss to Houston back in June. I had the opportunity to see Carlos Zambrano face the first place Cardinals. I watched him give up two runs and five hits in the first two innings. I was worried and though maybe I was on the verge of seeing the pitcher I've hyped as the NL Cy Young Award winner be shelled by a team I despise almost as much as the New York Yankees. Then in the third inning, he struck out the side. Then in the fourth with the bases empty, two out Albert Pujols came up to bat. The Cards down 3-2, Pujols is the most dangerous hitter in the NL if not major league baseball as a whole. One swing of the bat and it would be a tie game. Zambrano threw a 96 miles an hour fastball right down the middle; Pujols didn't swing. 0-1 count. Zambrano lauches a 95 miles an hour fast high and out of the strike zone and Pujols swings right through it. Its an o-2 count, and the Cubs ace has a lot of options at his disposal. Zambrano lets go of anothe blazing fastball this one shoulder high on Pujols and well wide of the strike zone. Pujols takes a desperate swing at it to no avail. Zambrano struck out Pujols on three pitches. Pujols had nothing but an array of fastballs, and he couldn't touch them. Zambrano went on to finish with seven innings pitched. He gave up one hit after the second inning, and was dominant. The Cubs though couldn't hold the lead and he wasn't able to get his NL leading 14th win. The Cubs prevailed in 10 innings. And Pujols almost hit a grand slam in the top of the ninth. It would have been an 8-4 game. Just kind of how the Cubs almost made it to the 2003 World Series. Baseball doesn't deal in almosts. The Cubs received another W in a season where they have been so far and few between.