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Cubs are 0-2? Relax

Posted by: Tony Bleill

Thursday, April 3, 2008 1:34 PM

The major league baseball season is but two games old, yet the NL Central favorites are 0-2 and -- according to some folks -- panic has set in for the North Siders and their fans.

OK, let's do this exercise together. Deep breath. Blow it out. Relax. There are 160 to go.

To make it through a season in which the Cubs are expected to win the Central -- and they will -- there are a few steps Cubs fans should take, in my opinion.

1) Ignore Jay Mariotti's absurd columns in the Chicago Sun-Times. Actually, I take that back. Mariotti's work is so ridiculous (today's column being a prime example) that it is an endless source of comedy, laugh-out-loud stuff. Mariotti's constant questioning of Lou Piniella's moves are akin to me second-guessing George Lucas about sci-fi movies. I mean, can anyone take this guy seriously? Is there any reason to believe that Mariotti knows anything about baseball? Anyone with a half-dozen brain cells can recognize that Piniella is one of the best managers in the game. Does he make the right move every time? Of course not. But for Mariotti to question Piniella's decision to move Alfonso Soriano back to the leadoff spot is beyond stupid, given Piniella's track record of success.

People like Mariotti get a kick out of second-guessing folks for one reason: Because they can. They do it for shock value, to get people talking about their columns for the sake of selling newspapers or -- even worse -- personal attention. They are best ignored. Or, if you're like me, you read them for comedic value. They are never to be taken seriously.

2) Never forget this point: The NL Central is to MLB what the Big Ten is to big-time college sports. Thatis to say, it's terrible. The division is strictly a two-team race between the Cubs and the Brewers, and it will take some serious underachieving by both clubs to allow anyone else in the race. And while the Brewers have outplayed the Cubs through two games, would any knowledgeable baseball fan prefer the Brewers' roster over the Cubs?

3) I'm not a Cubs fans and, to tell the truth, I get a huge kick out of the hyperbolic statements of the sort that appeared in USA Today's front-page feature on the Cubs earlier this week. "It's a clarion call to celebrate the real interesting history of a great team that a lot of people care deeply about," said author Richard Johnson. (Excuse me, but if the Cubs are "a great team" without having won anything in 100 years, then what exactly are the Dodgers? Yankees? Cardinals? Red Sox? Twelve organizations have won more World Series than the Cubs. No objective person would suggest the Cubs are a "great team." A great team doesn't go 100 years without winning a World Series.)

A more salient point, however, is that everything the Cubs do is magnified, often to such an extent by the fans and media that reality is distorted. People like Mariotti only exacerbate the situation, of course, sacrificing common sense and perspective for less virtuous goals.

If, in six or eight weeks, the Cubs are struggling and Piniella's moves are backfiring and all hope is exhausted, go ahead and believe that these are "the same ol' Cubs." But don't fall into the cliches perpetuated by Mariotti or a segment of unenlightened baseball fans.