If Winter Comes, Can Spring Be Far Behind?

Now that we have discussed the winners (from the Fatdaddy Bracket Challenge) let us move on to something slightly less pleasant. Now, those who know me know that I am loyal to an absolute fault. I hate bandwagon jumpers, and I love my teams with the same passion and fire most people reserve for things like politics or pre-meditated homicides.

So for just a moment, let us pretend that this empty blog space is a water cooler and I am Carlos Zambrano, and let me go ballistic about the one thing I hate to love.

The Chicago Cubs.

Did any of you see the implosion that was opening day?

What the crap was that all about? I asked for you to pretend I was Carlos Zambrano, but the way that fat, screaming lunatic pitched yesterday, it might as well have been this fat, screaming, lunatic out there.

He had an ERA of 54! That means that if he pitched that way all the time, he'd give up 54 runs EVERY NINE INNINGS!!! No one has gotten lit up like that since Ted Kennedy died. Then Loopynella pulls him (about ten pitches too late) in favor of that Notre Dame football reject Jeff Samardzija who goes out there and flames out for another 5 or 10 runs. They removed the rosin bag from the mound in favor of a fire extinguisher. Did someone forget to tell them that batting practice was over?

Lest the hitters chuckle...that robust .154 team batting average was very nice. So much for the new hitting coach being the man to lead the Cubbies into the promised land. I've seen more contact at a seminary girls pref dance. Unforgivable.

Now they may rebound and rally. Even if they don't, I'll keep watching anyway, because I'm pathetic and unemployed, and I've been cheering for the Cubs from the time I could understand the game. But geez....

My Brother in law (a Dodger fan who has forgotten more about baseball than I'll ever know) tells me every year that there are five little words that every true Cubs fan must memorize and repeat in an endless loop. You can change the emphasis to modify the meanings.

They will break your heart!
They will break your heart!
They will break your heart!
They will break your heart!
They will break your heart!

The thing about being a Cubs fan is the creative and unusual way they go about breaking the hearts of their fans. One year, they get four outs away from a world series only to have Bartman interfere with a foul ball. Another year, they get the best record in baseball only to melt down in the first round of the playoffs against a Wild Card team that has one hot home run hitter surrounded by a batch of triple-A scrubs. But most years they are wont to remove suspense and my heart with an early exit from the race and a year long chase for the first pick in the draft.

I got me a bad feeling about this batch. I hope I'm wrong. I really do.

In "Ode to the West Wind" Percy Shelley sums up the heart felt pain of every Cubs fan when he writes "If winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" Wait til next year we tell ourselves. Wait til next year.

Is Opening Day too soon to start looking toward next year?