Wednesday night, I got home from the Tri-Parish Business After Hours at LSUE and got a notification on my phone that Ian Happ singled on a ground ball to give the Chicago Cubs a 1-0 lead in Pittsburgh against the Pirates.
The wheels in my head starting turning at that point, and I posted the following on social media: “Best case scenario... Cubs win tonight to stave off elimination, sweep the Cardinals this weekend to avenge the home sweep at Wrigley, win the second Wild Card, beat the Nationals in DC, beat the Dodgers in NLDS, meet up with and beat Cardinals in NLCS, then on to World Series. Worst case scenario... It’ll be another 105 years. I probably should just put the DVD from the 2016 World Series on repeat.”
Well, the Cubs lost Wednesday and were eliminated from playoff contention for the first time in four seasons. It is officially the worst case scenario. Does a DVD play on a Blue-Ray machine?
I have a few reasons why the Cubs missed the playoffs this year. Main reason is they could not win on the road. Back in May, they beat the Washington Nationals two out of three games when I was there. But, that was an anomaly on the season as a whole.
Another reason is getting swept on two occasions down the stretch at home. The Nationals swept the Cubs in a three game series at Wrigley, and then, just recently, the Cardinals went into Wrigley and swept a four game series. This is insane.
Before I stroke out from all of this, let us look at the future since the regular season ends today on Sunday. The Cubs should keep the core nucleus from the 2016 team intact for 2020 and build around it. I will probably stroke out for sure if they let Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, and Ben Zobrist walk.
They should, however, let the manager Joe Maddon walk. Maddon, to me, is like Les Miles. He is a mad genius who tried to outsmart himself after winning a championship. Either he is trying to outsmart himself, or it is too much hair dye that has seeped into his brain.
In other Cubs related news, the team played its last game on WGN this season. They will move to their own television network next season.
WGN is why I fell in love with the Cubs in the first place back in 1995 when I was in the 8th grade. Everyday when I came home from school, the Cubs were on TV. I can still remember watching Howard Johnson hitting a walk-off home run to give the Cubs a 1-0 win that season. I was hooked after that.
Three years later, in 1998, I came home from school in time to watch Kerry Wood strike out 20 Houston Astros. The Cubs were rained out the next day, so WGN reaired the Kerry Wood game. I taped it and still have that tape today.
That same year I followed the home run race between Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa as both chases Roger Maris’ record.
Years later, WGN became an affiliate of the WB network and quit airing as many Cubs games as in years past. I sent WB an email complaining about the decision, but they sent me back some lame response.
Since then, WGN became more of a superstation like TBS and began airing less and less Cubs games. Luckily, thanks to DirecTV, I am able to watch Cubs games on NBSSportsChicago and other local networks. If DirecTV will not offer the new network, then they will get an angry email from me.
One last point about the worst case scenario... I should be content with one World Series championship in my lifetime. Countless generations of Cubs fans have never seen it in their lifetimes. With all that said, hope will always spring eternal, and the ivy on the brick wall at Wrigley will always turn green. That is the true best case scenario.
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Tony Marks