Dying Again

Wait.

Till.

Next.

Year....

Again


Cubtober is over. After last night's 5-1 Arizona victory in game three of the NLDS, 2007 has ended the exact same way as the last ninety-nine years have--without a World Series. Media folks can talk about curses all they want, but they don't have to live through the pain and heartbreak only a real fan can feel after watching their team go down year after year. They don't have to suffer through a long, cold winter, listening to White Sox fans brag about 2005 and Cardinals fans yap their mouths off about '06. The writers and TV guys who say that crap may think they know what it's like to see their team dye in front of their faces, but I find it hard to believe that's actually the case. The curse believers may think that a stupid goat did the Cubs in this year, but really, it was much more simple than that: The Cubs got swept by Arizona because they couldn't hit when it mattered most.

Not to take blame off of Rich Hill, who must have written page one of "How to Take A Home Crowd out of a Game as Fast as Possible", but it really wasn't his fault the Cubs lost last night. It wasn't Jason Kendall's fault for allowing three Arizona base-runners to steal bases. One hundred percent of the blame has to go to the hitters, especially Alfonso Soriano, Derek Lee and Aramis Ramirez. Last night, the team left on nine men on base, which is pretty low considering they also grounded into four (yes, four) double plays. The three guys I mentioned, who led the offensive attack all season long, went a combined six for thirty-eight this series with zero runs batted in throughout the entire series. It's neatly impossible to win a playoff series, or a regular-season game versus a last place team, when a lineup's top three hitters all decide to not show up. It got to the point yesterday where I feared Ramirez's turn in the order, because I knew it was just going to be a momentum killer.

I could say that credit belongs to Arizona, for dominating the Cubs in every sense of the game. But I really believe that's not true. The Cubs lost because they couldn't swing the bat, and it didn't have a lot to do with good D-Back pitching. It had to do with too many strike-outs, too many double-plays, and not enough power hitting. They say that in October, the big stars come to play. And when they don't, as the Cubs proved, a team's stay in October will be short lived.

I have an entire list of things I want the Cubs management to acquire before Spring Training begins in February of '08, but now is not the time for that. Right now, it is time to bury the '07 Cubs, just like we have for the last ninety-eight years.