Cubs: September 2008 Archives

Chicago provided enough support to its two baseball teams that both reached the playoffs. The same can be said of Los Angeles.

As for the self-proclaimed "Capital of the World," New York won't have any playoff baseball coming through this year.

It's October and there will be plenty on the plate in the Chicago area the next few weeks. It can't get any better than this for an area baseball fan.

May the best team win.

I'm guessing that White Sox and Cubs fans can agree on one thing when it comes to who they'd like to have doing play-by-play during the most important games of their teams' baseball seasons. Not Dick Stockton.

Milwaukee is the place where hysteria surrounding the Cubs goes to die.

When the Cubs visited the Brewers at Miller Park in late July, the sky was falling for Cubs fans because their team had just been caught for first place in the National League Central. What did the Cubs do? They promptly swept four games and regained command of the division for good.

Then the Cubs made the journey to Milwaukee on Sunday to play a pair of games against the Astros that were rescheduled due to Hurricane Ike. With the Cubs struggling through early September, whispers of an imminent collapse were growing louder leading up to the series. What did the Cubs do? They sent Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly to the mound, and the duo gave up one hit in two games as the Cubs reasserted themselves as the team to beat in the National League, and perhaps in all of baseball.

The Cubs have one more regular-season trip to Milwaukee on the last weekend of the season. If the trend continues, they might come out of that looking so good that any talk of curses will be put to rest, allowing a restless fan base to prepare for a coronation.

The Cubs have in recent history had their share of can't-miss, could-be-otherworldly pitching prospects.

Kerry Wood burst onto the scene with 20 strikeouts in 1998. Then he burst into a cloud of injuries and disappointments.

Mark Prior was they guy who fell to the Cubs with the No. 2 pick in the 2001 draft. The guy who made an immediate impact and would be a cornerstone for years with his flawless mechanics. At least until he broke down.

Carlos Zambrano was called up without anything resembling the same amount of hype of those other two guys. In fact, if my memory serves, he came up with less hype than Juan Cruz.

But there's no doubt he's the best pitcher the Cubs have developed since Greg Maddux, and is likely to carve his niche alongside names like Maddux and Fergie Jenkins as the best Cubs pitchers since the end of the dead-ball era.

But unlike Wood -- with the 20-K game -- Zambrano seemed to be missing his signature moment. And in Big Z's case, a moment that defined not just how great he could be, but how great he is.

I think he's found his moment.

On Friday afternoon, The Score's Terry Boers and Dan Bernstein set aside putting down their callers for a couple minutes.

And they actually went through an entire segment without loudly sighing into the microphones as a result of their listeners' stupidity.

Instead, the two took some time out to make this preposterous declaration: If a professional sports team does not win that league's championship, then they are not a success.

WSCR's drive-time duo made this black and white assessment while discussing the injuries that have fallen on Chicago's two baseball teams: Carlos Zambrano's arm troubles and Carlos Quentin's season-ending broken wrist. The dynamic duo then went on to ridicule a Cubs fan that called in, for believing that this season could still be success even if the Cubs failed to win the World Series.

"If you believe that, then you're part of the problem," angrily pronounced Bernstein, the same man who often chides callers for taking sports too seriously.

Sorry fellas, success is not determined only by who has the last champagne celebration of any given season. It's determined by fans.

By Boers and Bernstein's definition, out-of-nowhere teams like last year's NL Champion Colorado Rockies, the Illinois football team, and the Stephen Curry-led Davidson basketball team among others - were not successes.

The two curmudgeons also made it a point to rip any fans that look back fondly on non-Series winning years. Boers specifically faulted Cubs fans that look back with affection towards 1969 or 1984.

Sorry Terry, success is measured by meeting or surpassing expectations but also by moments and memories that last. It takes a pretty gloomy personality to deny the authenticity of taking happiness or pleasure from such moments.

The current White Sox season would be a success as long as the team is able to squeak into the playoffs.

For Cubs fans, judging this season may be a little different but it's hard to imagine many fans calling the season unsuccessful if the Cubs were to make but lose in the World Series.

It's too bad. I wonder if Boers and Bernstein consider themselves failures after getting hammered in this quarter's ratings by the only competition they have, WMVP's mediocre but "happy" trio of Mac, Jurko and Harry.

I'm sure they'd just respond to that by going back to their tried-and-true formula - sighing loudly into the mic and calling me a moron.

By Erik Jacobsen
Staff Writer

Well there goes the streak.

The Cubs hadn't lost a series in well over a month, but with Tuesday's loss to the Astros they have no chance of salvaging the three-game set at Wrigley Field.

The loss marked the fourth straight for the Cubs, who just last week seemed like they could do no wrong. As a Cubs follower, all I ask is that they win or tie every series. I know that's not realistic, but the way I see it, if this team wins every series from here on out, they'll hoist the World Series trophy come late October.

I'm not ready to completely throw the team under the bus after this rough stretch, but things have to turn around in a hurry. It is September, and the Cubs need to keep their sharp edge. Another series loss or two, and I wouldn't blame Cubs fans for worrying that sky is falling. We aren't used to seeing this team scuffle like this, but this isn't a good time of year to start.

Here's a look at how each Cubs series since the All-Star break turned out...

July 18-20 at Houston (Astros won 2-1)
July 21-23 at Arizona (Diamondbacks won 2-1)
July 24-27 vs. Marlins (Split 2-2)
July 28-31 at Brewers (CUBS won 4-0)
Aug. 1-3 vs. Pirates (CUBS won 2-1)
Aug. 4-6 vs. Astros (CUBS won 2-1)
Aug. 8-10 vs. Cardinals (CUBS won 2-1)
Aug. 12-14 at Braves (CUBS won 3-0)
Aug. 15-17 at Marlins (CUBS won 2-1)
Aug. 19-21 vs. Reds (CUBS won 2-1)
Aug. 22-24 vs. Nationals (CUBS won 2-1)
Aug. 25-27 at Pirates (CUBS won 3-0)
Aug. 28-31 vs. Phillies (Split 2-2)
Sept. 1-3 vs. Astros (Astros won ?-?)