Give up now

Sorry its taken so long to post this column. Every time I tried to sit down and write, I got distracted.



Here’s some advice to anyone just gaining an interest in the game baseball, regardless of age: Don’t pick the Chicago Cubs as your favorite team. It’s just not a smart thing to do.

I realize the pull to wanting to join Cubs Nation. The beauty of Wrigley Field, the long history, the rivalries with the Cardinals and White Sox, Harry Cary, being able to see a lot of games on WGN and the fact that it will be amazing when the team actually wins something. But take it from a lifelong citizen of the Nation. It sucks.

You see, the Cubs will never actually win anything. It’s been 98 seasons since the World Series trophy was at home on the North side of Chicago, and it appears that number will match Jay-Z’s problems come October. This year’s team is as talented as any in the Major Leagues. Yet here we are, at the start of June, and the Cubs are eight games under five hundred, 2-12 in one-run games and trailing two teams in the standings that have half the payroll that the Cubs do. Why can’t this team win? Because of just plain stupidity on everyone’s part. I’ve identified five people or groups who deserve the biggest blame for this season’s failure.

Lou Piniella---It seems as though Sweet Lou has gotten a pass from the Chicago media for making bad pitching changes, not getting on his players when they make bone-headed mistakes and not showing emotion during games. This is kind of strange to me, because these were the exact same criticisms that got Dusty Baker canned last year, even though Dusty took the franchise to its first playoff series victory since 1945. I still like Piniella as a manger, but I would like to see him get more aggressive, both with his players and with the umpires when a call goes against the team. This team needs some fire, and Sweet Lou can bring it.

Larry Rothschild---OK, stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The Cubs sign a couple of new pitchers who actually perform well. But the other guys on the staff don’t perform well, and the good performances by the new guys are ruined. Last year it was free agent signings Scott Eyre and Bob Howry that pitched well, but because the starters were so bad, it didn’t matter. This season the new starters, Jason Marquis and Ted Lilly, are doing a good job, but its being ruined by a crummy bullpen. I blame this in-consistency on Rothschild, the teams pitching coach. Obviously something is wrong with this guy if every year, the pitching staff fails to meet expectations. I wanted Rothschild to fired last season and it didn’t happen. Maybe after another crappy season on the mound, Cubs management will finally identify the problems.

Jim Hendry--How can the guy who trade Hee Sop Choi for Derek Lee and Bobby Hill/Jose Hernandez for Aramis Ramirez/Kenny Lofton get thrown under the bus like I’m about to do now? Because he has also done a lot of dumb things. Signing Jacque Jones last winter and then adding Cliff Floyd this year, even though they play the same position and the team already had Matt Murton, causing a right field logjam was pretty stupid. Paying six million a year to Mark DeRosa, even though he’s nothing more than a solid utility player, was pretty stupid. And acquiring Alfonso Soriano to bat leadoff, even though he obviously isn’t the type of number one hitter that wins games, didn’t make much sense. Hendry has done some smart stuff (see trades above), but a lot of his moves have not helped the Cubs win games.

Alfonso Soriano---I had to put a Cubs player on this list, so it was either going to be Carlos Zambrano, Scott Eyre or Soriano. I went with Alf because I already covered the pitching and the fact that he was supposed to put the team over the top, yet here we are on June 1 with an almost identical record then we had a year ago. The 115 million dollar man has been a huge disappointment. Instead of providing speed and power, all he has done is botch easy plays in the outfield and strike out in key situations. And the worst thing is, at least in my opinion, is that he doesn’t look like he cares that he is failing miserably. I don’t know if I’ll be able to stand five more years of him.

The fans---Don’t act so shocked to see yourself on this list. It wasn’t the manager, the pitching coach, the GM or the left fielder that sold out Wrigley Field for the entire summer and put un-realistic expectations on the franchise. It was the fan base that did all of that stuff. Since the 2003 playoffs, the Wrigley crowd has been much more abusive and negative to players they don’t approve of, such as Latroy Hawkins, Cory Patterson and recently, Jacque Jones. While it has been good to shed the “As long as the sun is shinning and the beer is cold, then everything is good” mentality, I think the majority of the fan base has been un-fair to a lot of Cubs players and that really hasn’t helped the team succeed. True, guys like Soriano, Jones, Cliff Floyd and Michael Barrett haven’t gotten off to the greatest of starts. But booing them every time they step to the plate won’t be helpful in getting their hitting stroke back. Now as for Scott Eyre and Will Ohman, that’s another story. Boo those guys as much as you want to.


Again, sorry for the length of time between posts. Also, I wanted to discuss LeBron’s performance from last night, but Bill Simmons summed it up better than anybody else in the world, so just check out his column.