Sunday, October 05, 2008

Two Perspectives on the Cubs' Being Swept in the NLDS

The Dodgers' three-game sweep of the Cubs in the NLDS, culminating with a tense 3-1 victory last night at the Stadium, has left the aftertaste of a very bad hangover in the mouths of Cubs fans. ESPN.com's Gene Wojciechowski references a horror film in his thoughtful series recap (excerpt of a much longer article here; it's worth reading):

It wasn't a collapse. "Collapse" is too nice a word. A collapse would mean the Chicago Cubs actually showed up for the National League Division Series.

It wasn't a choke. A choke is what happened in 2003 when the Cubs were exactly five outs away from their first World Series in seven decades. A choke is when you blame someone sitting in Section 4, Row 8, Seat 113 of Wrigley Field.

No, in some ways this latest Cubs playoff zombie film is worse than 2003's, and it's definitely worse than last year's October three-and-out. The 2003 choke produced anger and tears. The 2007 postseason losses produced disappointment, but with them came a weird, wait-'til-next-year optimism.

Next year just came and went. The Cubs have become playoff-irrelevant, which is the cruelest thing you can say about a team. They simply don't matter once the leaves change. ...

It's funny how Los Angeles fans had almost penned up a similar eulogy for the Dodgers going into this series, in which we drew the short straw of the best team in the National League (no thanks to the Brewers for winning the Wild Card), and given our horrible post-1988 postseason record of 1-12, as the victim of three straight series sweeps of our own. But this postseason series win banishes many of our playoff ghosts. It was wonderful to see the exorcism occur in person last night (my comments later; in the meantime, Orel is doing a great job of recapping the evening, especially good since he was the only Son smart enough to bring a camera).

But wait, I promised you two perspectives. So here's the other one from a friend of mine, a Cubs fan, who sent me this email after the game:

F*** you and f*** the Dodgers and f*** baseball and f*** the Cubs....I officially give up. At least until next f***ing year. Go Mark Cuban!

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