The View From The Bleachers

Monday, August 16, 2004
A Question To All Cub Fans

As I sat in my living room, frustrated after another game that seemed to get out of hand way too quickly, I began to think about something. A question stuck with me all day that I really do not think I know the answer to. I'd like to see the Cub fans weigh in on this question so I will argue both points of view to present an unbiased opinion on both, because I am, as I said before, on the fence regarding this question. Given the current state of this team, I propose the following inquiry of all Cub fans. Please leave a comment and fill it all up with your arguments for the answer you choose.

Question: Which of the following would you prefer for this year's Cub Team?

Make the playoffs via the Wild Card and hopelessly get beat in the first round.
Make the playoffs via the Wild Card and get swept by the Cardinals in the NLCS.
Fall just short of the Wild Card in the final days of the regular season.
Fall way out of the Race by September. 1st

There are no good answers to this question, but all of them are certainly possible based on what the Cubs decide to do in these next few weeks against sub .500 teams. They can rise to the occasion, put some kind of a healthy winning streak together and take this playoff birth by the balls or they can put their tail between their legs and limp pathetically to the finish line.

Here are my arguments for each of the answers. You choose the one you think should happen this year, since it doesn't seem that a World Series is in the future this year.

Answer 1: This would at least give us the ability to break that horrible tradition of failing miserably the year after making the playoffs. We did it in '84, 89, and '98. By making the playoffs, it also helps our case to Nomar that we can and should win the World Series. If we miss the playoffs, I don't know that he'll want to re-sign with the team, despite the constant smile on his face since arriving.

Answer 2: This could be good because at least we would feel like we didn't take a step backward from last year. We would get to the same spot in the playoffs, and could blame it on the horrible injury bug that plagued this team all year. We would have played above what was expected of a team with that plague. It would hurt to get beat again in the NLCS, but it would again give us the sense of being so close.

Answer 3: This could be good because it would be a wake up call to this team. We have guys on the team who are not carrying their weight for this team (i.e. Sammy Sosa, Moises Alou) and should be removed ASAP. It would let Hendry know not to ever get so comfortable that he doesn't evaluate every player on this team no matter what their contract or hall of fame future is. It would also keep us into baseball for the whole season.

Answer 4: This could be good because at least we know what this team is going to do. If you're not going to make the playoffs, quit teasing us. It would also give us more time to watch the Olympics, which would be nice.

I'm not sure which I would prefer, but I don't think we'll have to wait too much longer to find out what the answer is. Hopefully I'll be wrong and the Cubs will just wake up and go nuts like last year down the stretch. If not, we'll see what answer was right. Please, if you read this, leave a comment about which answer you would like to see if World Series isn't an option and why.

Written by Joseph E. Aiello @ 11:34 AM

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