The Cubs are gone, the streak of futility continues! I just watched the last three outs of the Cubs season and I’m flabbergasted at how the best team in the NL for the entire season could have fallen so flat in the playoffs. If this were March, I would feel like my NCAA bracket just got busted.
What went wrong for the Cubs? Well just about everything, but specifically the series turned south for the northsiders in game one when James Loney’s fly ball landed in the center field bleachers for a grand slam. From that point forward the Cubs played as tight Steven Tyler’s pants.
There is plenty of blame to go around – Alfonso Soriano will take the brunt of it. Soriano hit .077 in the series and countless times came up small in big situations. The reality of the post-season in baseball is pitching rules and while the Cubs hitters sucked badly, the pitching has to take its share of the blame. The decision to start the series with Dempster (or Dumpster) was arrogant and foolish. With the division clinched, the Cubs had plenty of time to set their rotation and they decided to go with Dempster instead of Zambrano or Harden. I personally would have gone with Harden in game one, with Zambrano in game two. Then you bring Dempster/Lilly in games in LA.
For those counting at home, the Cubs have now lost nine consecutive playoff games and have gone, gulp, 101 years without a title. My heart goes out the Cubs fans!
Oh and Dodger fans, the 30,000 or so of you that recently traded your Kirk Gibson jersey in for a Manny Ramirez one, I promise you that you will not
win
the World Series. The Phils, Brewers or any of the Al teams will not lie down like a New York City chick’s hair in heavy rain the way the Cubs did.
