Rant Away...

I’d love to have posted more often, but (a.) real life has taken over recently, and (b.) I’ve been watching about ½ of each game lately, due to the overall suckfest that the Cubs have become. But I needed to jump in and write a little something about all the ledge jumpers out there:

I’m tired of all the chicken littles whining about every ounce of bad news coming from the Cubs.

Don’t get me wrong-they’ve been worse than awful lately. If awful could be quantified by population, the Cubs would be India and China combined. There is absolutely no arguing with this. In every aspect of the game they have been utterly craptastic. But you know what? They’re still making the playoffs. As of this writing, their magic number over the Phillies is 10 and if they beat the Cardinals tonight, their magic number for the playoffs in general is 9. They could literally have a playoff spot locked up by Sunday.

If they shit the bed and blow an 8 game lead with 19 left, then they are truly a waste of space and a garbage team. The season will be a waste and idiots likes Rosenbloom will have more fodder that will allow them to not have to actually do anything creative in their writing. No amount of whining and crying is going to change what they do over the next 19 games. Pretty much the only thing that all the hemming and hawing is going to accomplish over the next few weeks is to piss off all the moderately sane people.

I'll make this simple: They’re going to make the playoffs. Screw curses, jinxes, goats, whatever. They're going. And if they don't, its because they don't deserve it, not because some cosmic force has kept them out.

Its also important to remember that what happens in the playoffs is a crapshoot. But here’s the catch: if they went into the playoffs on a 22 game win streak, it would still be a crapshoot.

To wit-The hottest team going into the playoffs last year was the Rockies-they got swept in the World Series by a team that lost 11 games in September, including a stretch in which they lost 5 out of 6. In 2006, the Cardinals lost eight out of nine between September 18th and 26th. In 2005, the White Sox lost six out of seven between September 8th and 15th. The Red Sox lost five of seven between September 18 and 25th.

The point is not that the Cubs are going to win the World Series. The point is that “hot” teams aren’t really any more likely to win in the postseason than “cold” teams. Cubs fans should want the team to make sure that Harden and Zambrano are healthy and hope that they get over this annoying penchant for shitty defense they’ve developed lately. But losing a lot of games in September has about as much to do with how they play in the playoffs as winning a bunch of games in August.

So if you’re so upset about your first place team that is on pace to win more games than any Cubs team in the last 25 years, fine. Don’t watch. Move on. Find something fun to do. But quit annoying the rest of us with your obnoxious negativity. Actually, scratch that. Make sure you keep whining all the way into the playoffs so I know which “Its Gonna Happen” Shirt Wearing fuckstick to punch in the throat.