Conservative Donnybrook

As of today, the Cubs have the best record in Major League Baseball, posting a record of 78 wins against only 49 losses. The conventional wisdom in baseball is that every team will win 50 and lose 50, it’s what you do with the other 62 games that determine who is a champ and who is a chump. As things stand, if the Cubs continue to win at teh same rate they have all year, they will finish the season at 99 victories (maybe 100, depending on how you round the numbers).

For the Cubs’ closest competitor, the Milwaukee Brewers, to equal them at the rate that the Cubs are amassing W’s, the Crew would have to win 26 of their last 34 – in other words, they would have to compile a win percentage of .765 for the rest of the season – to tie (.794 to finish a game up on the Cubs). That, my friends, is highly unlikely. Not impossible, mind you, remember the Astros’ second half run a few years back – just unlikely.

It has been a long time since the saddest of possible words to the rest of the league were “Tinker to Evers to Chance.” That refrain is a century gone, replaced by Theriot, DeRosa and Lee. A century ago the Cubs led the National League in arguably the greatest pennant chase in the history of baseball – a three-way affair involving the Cubs, John McGraw’s New York Giants, and the Pittsburgh Pirates led by the great Honus Wagner. Helped by a boneheaded play by New York’s Fred Merkle, who failed to run from first to second on Al Bridwell’s sure game-winning single at the Polo Grounds, the defending champion Cubs escaped the hostile Polo Grounds with a tie. A few weeks later, the season ended with the Cubs and Giants tied for first place and the Cubs were forced to travel back to New York to replay the game. They won 4-2 behind Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown who defeated Christy Mathewson to seize the pennant. The Cubs went on to defeat Ty Cobb’s Detroit Tigers in 5 games in the World Series.

Chicago fans all over the world are hoping for a slightly less exciting finish to the regular season. A ten-game lead at the finish line would not break our hearts. But, make no mistake, this team has rekindled the hope in the hearts of their admirers and the expectations are high.

Even when they have not been running on all cylinders – Soriano, Wood, Big Z, and Ramirez have all spent time on the shelf this season. Derrek Lee is leading the league in rally-killing hits into double plays. Our Japanese phenom has lost his luster with the lumber of late. And yet, behind the arms of our four aces, the Cubs are poised to take a place next to the Peerless Leader’s boys.

Cubs fans talk about curses: Billy goats and black cats. Let us not be sidetracked by fairy tales and bogeymen. This year it is about hitting and pitching, running and fielding. Do those things well and none of the other can derail this team.

This is the year.

Sit down Bartman and enjoy the game (perhaps from the third or fourth row, if you don’t mind). The 2008 Cubs will redeem your name and make us forget all about our past heartbreaks and disappointments. Because this is the year and there are no such things as curses.