SPORTS
Cubs Fever
By Rick O'Shea
Cubs Fever may be the only ailment besides hiccups that can be cured by a pinch on the arm. It rages this week on the North Side after the team survived a battle of losing streaks with the Milwaukee Brewers to emerge on top of the National League’s central division. Never mind that their record would only be good enough for third place in any of the other five major league divisions. These Cubbies are for real . . . maybe.
That is in a large part due to the fact they are not the Cubs of 2003, another Cub team of untested mettle done in by a pension benefits consultant named Bartman who, let’s politely say, overreached in his eagerness to celebrate a Cubs playoff victory.
This year’s Cubs have only three players from the 2003 roster: pitchers Carlos Zambrano and Kerry Wood (now relegated to reliever status) and Aramis Ramirez, a late season pick-up from the Pirates in 2003 who, with Derrek Lee, acquired a year later, carried the flame of hope through a dismal 66-96 season last year when the Cubs again finished in the National League cellar.
What distinguishes this year’s Cubs from the loveable Cubs of old is that they are loaded with baseball mercenaries. The benign Dusty Baker has been replaced at manager by the Captain Ahab of major league ball, Lou Piniella, and Tribune management, perhaps because they have no intention of sticking around to see the consequences, authorized General Manager Jim Hendry to spent $300 million in the off-season buying up the free agent market.
Besides star outfielder Alfonso Soriano ($136 million over eight years), the Cubs also picked up pitchers Ted Lilly ($40 million over four years), Jason Marquis ($21 million over three years) and second baseman Mark DeRosa ($13 million over three years), re-signed Ramirez ($75 million over five years) and, for good measure, gave Zambrano a mid-season contract extension worth $91 million over the next five years. Hendry and Piniella made other trades, swaps and call-ups for lower-priced free agents, but no one on the Cubs needs a tag day. Their player payroll this year is a respectable $100 million, third in the National League behind the Mets and the Dodgers.
With all that new talent aboard, the Cubs nonetheless started the season like the Cubs of yore, going 22-29 in the first two months. This, of course, did not lessen fan interest. They packed out Wrigley, giving the Cubs a leg up on what would turn out to be a record 3.25 million attendance record. But it angered Derrick Lee.
On the first of what could be considered “Three Days That Changed Cubdom,” Lee called an end of May team meeting to berate his teammates over their poor showing. The next day, Carlos Zambrano got into a dugout fistfight with his catcher Mike Barrett. The following day, Piniella charged out of the dug to protest a call, kicked dirt on the umpire and was suspended for four games. Goodbye Loveable Losers, hello Big City Brawlers.
Since Piniella’s temper tantrum, the Cubs have gone 61- 44, best in the National League. It has not been a steady rise. This is a team that makes too many errors, leaves too many runners on base and has a starting pitching rotation that is less than dominant. Since signing his new contract, Zambrano has been as likely to implode as explode on the mound, and closer Ryan Dempster in relief is about as predictable as the river in Texas hold ‘em.
The Cubs bats came alive over the weekend with 30 runs against Pittsburgh at home, and just as suddenly went dead this week against the Marlins in Florida. The morning box score today has the Cubs two ahead of the Brewers with four games to play.
Around Wrigleyville, they’re talking about how the Cubs need this one to erase the memory of Bartman forever. But this isn’t a team with a long memory. They’re not in this race to break some curse. They don’t care about 99 years of futility in Cubdom. They won’t be playing for the fans (no matter what they say) or the honor of Chicago or bragging rights for the north side of town. They’ll be playing to earn their keep on the Big Bucks Boat of Baseball. Piniella says they should just go out there and have fun. Nonsense. These guys have to play better and win more.
And that’s the way it should be. The fans have only one job at Wrigley if the Cubs make the playoffs: to enjoy the show – and stay out of the way. But I wouldn’t blame any of them if they brought along their worry beads.
