Can the Cubs break the other curse?
Ah, now it’s all clear to me.
I’d heard about how well the Cubs are doing this year. I used to follow baseball assiduously (see this), but since I’ve been in baseball recovery I hardly pay attention. But in addition to my history as a Red Sox fan who used to be steeped in the Red Sox lore of The Curse, I’m well aware of the sad and sorrowful history of the Cubs.
The two curses were/are of different types. For the Sox, it was an “always a bridesmaid” curse, in which they typically had good teams and came close, year after year, only to lose in some newly creative and increasingly heartbreaking way. The Cubs, on the other hand, have pretty much been uniformly bad.
But this year, there’s hope. The Cubs are about to play in the National League Championships for the first time in twelve years. They haven’t played in a World Series since 1945, and haven’t won one since 1908. That’s a while.
What I didn’t know until yesterday was that Theo Epstein, the man who at a very young age was instrumental in building the Red Sox team that finally ended the Curse, has been President of Baseball Operations for the Cubs since 2011.
Guy’s a baseball genius, obviously. But we already knew that.
Go Cubs!
And the Cubs are now owned by the Ricketts family of Omaha.
Genius manager. Cy Young winner as number 1 pitcher. Rest of the pitching staff is good. And very good young hitters.
If not this year, soon.
“Cubs win World Series… against Miami?!”
Cornhead:
That’s what they always say. I know. I became a Red Sox fan in 1975.
As a Chicagoan born in Bronzeville whose mother works at UIC hospital, former grounds of West Side Park where the Cubs won back-to-back World Series (which was a looong time ago), I dearly hope so.
After losing politically in the past few years and after helping give America Obama (I voted for him in 2008 – I cried when he was elected), I just want something good to happen. Like actually something good.
And Epstein. Yep. The (young) man’s a baseball managing “stud.” The Cubs got a good one.
GRA:
At least you didn’t vote for him in 2012 (I take it that you didn’t, anyway).
I am very suspicious, reflexively, of the very young to whom great accomplishments are attributed. Like Epstein. It is almost as if they were pulled from a cradle, and crowned. Who really knows what and how he did as a young GM? And why would a team owner empower the very young?
The GM is obviously not the coach.
GMs to my mind are like the ADs at universities. But the Duke AD does nothing to make Coach K a better coach, or the Dukies a better team, other than to stay the hell out of the way and keep raising the monies from contributors. The same is doubtless true at all other universities with successful athletic programs.
Frog:
All Theo has done is win. Go with it. He’s a genius.
Schwarber, 22 years old. Bryant, 23. Soler, 22. Baez, 22. Castro, 25 (is that all?). Rizzo, 26, Russell, 21.
Contracts tie these position players to the Cubs through 2020 or so. All thanks to Theo. If not now (this wasn’t supposed to happen until next year in “the plan”, but Theo made the move for Lester and Maddon this past winter, and the rest is history…) then soon.
Go Cubs Go!!
I like seeing a sports post here! Don’t really care about the Cubs, I’m a Rockies fan. We don’t even have a curse to blame it on, we just suck. That said, it would be fun to see the Billy Goat curse broken, as it was the see the Curse of the Bambino broken.
As a northside Chicagoan (I only lived in Virginia for about 30+ years) I relate to those other Chicagoans who remind themselves that any team can have a bad century.
Too superficial, Cornhead.
All Obama did was win, too.
If life were only baseball!
I have not been a fan of any particular team since the 70s, I just like to watch good ball games. I stream MLB games and have been delighted by the cubs all season. Beating the cards in the play off was not just good baseball, it was great baseball. I hope they make it to the world series. GO CUBS!
GO CUBBIES!
It was predicted in the movie….Back to The Future!!!
Wendy, too funny, it really was!!!!!
Those who are interested in baseball history might be interested in reading The Original Curse: Did the Cubs Throw the 1918 World Series to Babe Ruth’s Red Sox and Incite the Black Sox Scandal?
I found it of interest that one of my uncles by marriage had the same hometown of Elkhart, Illinois as Jake Stahl, who managed the Red Sox to a World Series victory in 2012, Fenway Park’s first season.
its marty mcfly…