The heading says it all.

I am pulling for them, but if the Cubs win the 2016 World Series, they will no longer be the lovable “Cubbies” they have been since before we were all born.

One of the appealing elements to The Cubs has been their ineptitude.

Wrigley is beautiful once you get inside. It takes you back to when baseball was seen once a week on black and white small screens. If they win, then new things will be required.

Ernie Banks was so appealing when he wanted to “play two”…..even though the assumption was that the Cubs would lose both.

Leon Durham’s error against the Padres was almost as egregious as Buckner’s….it simply wasn’t in the World Series. Will Jon Lester enter into that category because he cannot field a bunt or hold a runner on first. As great a pitcher as he is, and he was the first to sign and  come aboard this new winning team playing in Cubs uniforms….. there is a similar angst in his inability to execute a fundamental part of pitching and the frustrating beauty of players like Banks, Sandberg, Williams, Wood, Pryor and others who played so well yet lost so often when it counted.

Greg Norman was a great golfer who became a greater businessman. However, on the golf course he was looked upon with sympathy because he had come so close, so many times.

My case in point…..

Were the Red Sox not a more lovable team before they slayed the Dragon and beat the Yankees in 2004…???  Did they not elicit more passion and emotion from the continually suffering New Englanders in 1978 and in 2003 than they brought  Joy AFTER winning in 2004 and again in 2007….?

It’s not the same as it was, in Fenway.

Some people think they are now look no different than……

I look both ways before saying this….

The YANKEES.

 

If The Cubs win….more will be expected. More will be required.

Look at the team this year….best record in baseball, maybe the MVP, the team felt no pressure, they were the BEST TEAM IN BASEBALL. Did not the fans expect more than winning one game of the three at WRIGLEY?  Maybe had they played during the day….the advantage might have been Chicago’s. But in the Series you play at night.

New requirements.

If they win, as happened in Boston…many fans will finally die happy.

If they win…many fans will be deliriously happy…..until April, 2017.

 

Rather that hoping and longing for their “Cubbies” to win….there will be the EXPECTATION of winning again.

Big difference between hope and expectation…especially after accomplishing what was thought to be impossible.

 

Are Yankees fans satisfied with making the playoffs?

Are Lakers fans pleased that the team might be better this year and simply be competitive???

Do Alabama football fans feel good about simply having a winning record..???

When winning happens….the bar of expectation rises and the fans no longer accept losing…..you cannot be a lovable loser after having won a Championship.

Is that not true Mets fans???

 

Its great to win it all. But the next year brings a new barometer of success.

When you taste winning there is no longer an appetite for just doing well.

 

The Cubs will no longer be “The Cubbies” if they win.

 

Terry

November 2016