Now Those are the Cubs I Remember

I was going to post this after the six or seventh loss of The Streak, but then I thought I’d wait for when they lost their 8th of 9, which seemed inevitable what with the tenuousness of Z’s victory the other day.

These are the Cubs I remember. It’s like the 1970s all over again. Raise expectations with a great, but ultimately futile, season. Check. Produce back-to-back-winning seasons with contention through September. Check. Right about now, it’s time to dash all hope as the realization sets in that our team is just not that good. In the early ‘70s, our hopes were raised and dashed, raised and dashed, and then the slow, unending decline set in that beat fans down with cruelty and no pity.

Last week I tried to look at the Flip Side of things, trying to find reasons to be cheerful, or at least not despairing. Today, I don’t have a good feeling about the rest of the season, and I’m starting to think the Cubs’ record will be 23-31 when I finally get home to Chicago to see the Cubs on June 7th and 8th next month.

Why? I can’t rehash the litany you all know so well. (The one that goes: “Corey/leadoff/Bullpen/Closer/Hawkins/Hollandsworth/Dubois/Injuries/Dusty/Blah/Bloody/Blah”)

I don’t like it, but I am jumping on the bandwagon of pessimists among us. It seems the familiar thing to do.