My final thoughts on the Cubs, for a little while

This is the text of the e-mail I sent to Dad last night, a couple of hours after the game ended last night. I was sitting up, and decided to send this off:

I don't even know what to say. I felt like losing
last night [in game 6] would take the wind out of their
sails. Which is why I said what I did when I called.

The Marlins are good. And if you give them the
opportunity, they'll beat you. We gave them the
opportunity.

But in the end, I wasn't expecting to get this far.
So I'm happy. I enjoyed it.

But I'm not going to say "wait until next year."
Because right now, that seems a million years away.
"Next year" for the Cubs has a way of being 6 and 7
years in between. And it feels hollow in my ears.

I hope it's different, and next year really is next
year.

Love you and Mom,

Tommy

And "wait till next year" still sounds hollow. I'll mellow a bit, I'm sure. And I'll start looking toward next year before long. But next year has a habit of being just another in a series of disappointments.

And make no mistake. This is probably the biggest disappointment in my fandom....and also in a year which has had a few disappointments of its own.

It was late, and I would have called, like I did at the end of Game 6. But I e-mailed.

What I said to my Dad after Game 6: "I don't think they'll win tomorrow night. I don't think they have it in them."

Part of that is my own kneejerk reaction.

Part of it is remembering the 1986 World Series, which Steve Lyons kept bringing up. When the ball rolled between Buckner's legs...it didn't just lose that game for the Sox. It lost game 7. Because the Sox came out dead for game 7.

I was partly wrong.

The Cubs didn't come out dead for Game 7.

They came out fighting.

But they also came out tired. 174 games will do that do you.

But more importantly, the Marlins came out inspired.

And a team as good as the Marlins doesn't need to be that inspired to beat you.

As an aside, I now have perhaps more respect for the abilities and gamesmanship of one Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez than I do any other opposing baseball player. I paraphrase the Uncouth Sloth: that's how a superstar comes to play in a playoff series.

And one more Marlins thought, before the World Series: Especially with Javy and Sheffield leaving the Braves....the Marlins are now the team to beat out of the East, in my mind.

And maybe they'll draw more than 5,000 to a game, and then their fans will actually deserve the championship they have a possibility to win. You had a great team from May on, folks. You didn't even care until the playoffs.

(With apologies to Joe, who was limited in his fandom by the fact he lives in Knoxville)

We packed our stadium every damn day.

Digressing....

Finally, I say, once again, Thank You to the Cubs. Even if you're my team...I'd picked you to finish a distant third behind the Cardinals and Astros in my own picks at the beginning of the season. And I spent the entire season waiting for the other foot to drop.

September was one of the greatest months of Cubs baseball I can remember. It was a pleasure actually wanting to open up the sports page (or ESPN.com, as it were) to see the standings on the 15th of September, when usually by that point in the season, I was checking where the Cubs were out of habit, rather than actual need to know.

And it was nice to see the Cubs actually looking like they were having fun, instead of just playing out the schedule.

It was an utter pleasure getting to see in person Kerry and the Cubs get to down the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of the NLDS.

And it was absolutely wonderful....and awesome sight, to see Wrigleyville full of people in October, more people outside the stadium than in....just wanting to soak up the atmosphere, to be a part of something great.

Baseball does not have enough of that anymore.

So. I'm going to take a day or two on the baseball thing.

Good luck to the Sox. Boston's the only other city that can have a community reaction like the Cubbies, I think.