Wait til Next Year

Well Tuesday night marked the end of my 2009 Cubs season. I had to keep mild interest in the weeks leading up to the tickets I purchased 6 months ago, but now that I have gone to my last game of the season, I can officially say that I am in the 'wait til next year' mode, as sad as it is to say. So here on my thoughts on the 2009 Cubs season, for all it was worth.

The expectations for this year were the highest that I can remember. Every year I'm alive, I get a little more of the Cubs history, and the feeling of what it means to be dedicated to a season. At the turn of high school, and the passing of college, and the beginning of my trek as an adult, sports become more and more of a crutch. And each year, I learn more, I research more, and I pay more attention. So besides the fact that we were two time defending National League Central Division Champions with supposed added artillery, I was also more aware of what the organization was doing. My investment began the day last season ended. The sting of what the Dodgers did to us got me even more involved than ever before.

If anyone who isn't a big baseball fan reads this, this is a hard notion to explain. Other sports fan, or 'American Idol' fans, or any other way that people find to spend their time, baseball has a whole different set of baggage. You're talking about a team that plays 162 times over a 6 month span, before playoffs even start. When basketball ends and hockey ends and football hasn't started yet, there's baseball. The time spent and emotional investment that goes into a season is truly grueling. Add games to sports center, around the horn, PTI, baseball tonight, and sports talk radio on the Score 670 and ESPN 1000, and baseball can consume someone more than Twitter consumed the world. So that's what I mean by investment.

So with all those expectations and investments, this season was the most disappointing I have come across. There was drama, but no excitement. Every two weeks someone got hurt. Egos flared. We had a coach tell a player 'you're not a ballplayer, you're a piece of shit.' Wrigley has never booed that loud. The fans have never cared that much. And I can't say the players have never played that poorly, but we all know the Cubs teams of the 90's were far worse. Hell the 2009 Cubs are still over .500 and in second place. But in the 90's, they weren't doing it with a $140 million payroll. They weren't coming off back to back division titles for the first time in decades. They were hungry. And they didn't have the weight of the city on their backs.

This is still a good team. I actually believe, with a few minor changes, that this will be a very competitive team next year. They should finish in the top 4 of the National League next year and challenge for a playoff spot, even with the pitiful attempt at this season. The reason I believe this isn't because I'm a helpless Cubs fan that calls into the score, claiming if the Cubbies go 15-5 during the remaining 20, and the Rockies go 7-10, they will tie for the Wild Card. I'm not that guy. And that actually happened. But the expectations of ALL Cubs fans, die hard or drunk, new or tourists, they ALL want the Cubs to win NOW.

But the truth is, 29 teams finish the year as failures. I don't need a World Series to brag about. I just want a team to play up to its expectations, to have fun when they do it, to be good teammates, to enjoy playing in Chicago, to respect the game and play it the way its supposed to be played. If they do that every year. If they forget how much money they make and just play ball, then I will always be a Cubs fan. I don't know how likely that is...