Constable: Cubs, fans both out of sync
Last year's MLB All-Star break was like the intermission of a play, and we Chicago Cubs fans just knew the second act would end with the Cubs taking a curtain call. This year's All-Star Game was more like a two-minute warning for the Cubs. If 2016's leading men are still struggling by the end of July, it sets the stage for some understudies to get more playing time.
The Cubs rejoin the fray Friday in Baltimore against the Orioles. With a record of 43-45, the Cubs are tied for second place in the Central Division with the hated St. Louis Cardinals, 5.5 games behind the surprising first-place Milwaukee Brewers. Last year, the Cubs went 50-23 after the All-Star break. If the team can do that this year, the Cubs' 93 wins should be enough to win the division and make the playoffs
Then, maybe the 2017 fans can go back to being the 2016 fans.
Sitting in Wrigley Field last Sunday, my wife and I and our neighbors, Joanne and Cheri, witness something that was unimaginable last season: Cubs ace Jon Lester. who pitched in six 2016 postseason games and the Cubs won five of them, surrenders 10 runs to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the top of the first inning and is lustily booed off the field.
My wife and I, remembering how we once saw the 1989 Cubs storm back from a 9-0 deficit to get an extra-inning win against the Houston Astros, never give up. But in front of us, a trio of Cubs fans (one a transplanted Yankees fan) don't even show up until the second inning and leave for a bar when the score hits 12-1.
Today's fans have short memories. They also are a bit shortsighted when it comes to the future. You hear it inside Wrigley, in bars, on social media and from callers to sports radio programs. Some fans will turn on any 2016 hero who falls off that pedestal this season.
Clearly, the Cubs aren't playing as well this season as they did last year. Even team leaders Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant are behind last year's pace. Outfielder Jason Heyward is the only Cubs regular whose batting average is higher this year than it was last year, and he had the worst hitting season of his career in 2016.
As a team, the Cubs are hitting .239, 28th out of 30 MLB teams.
Not a single Cubs starting pitcher is on pace to win as many games as he did last season, and that group has given up more first-inning runs (80) in the first half than it gave up (71) all of last season.
But unlike many fans, I still envision the Cubs getting hot, going into the postseason on a roll and winning the World Series (in Wrigley Field this time). But if they don't, I'm not ready to give up on this team.
In 2004, the Boston Red Sox, under general manager Theo Epstein, who now heads the Cubs, broke that franchise's 86-year championship drought by winning the World Series.
The next season, Boston barely made the playoffs as a wild-card team.
After they were drummed out of the playoffs by our Chicago White Sox, Epstein let All-Star outfielder Johnny Damon sign with the rival New York Yankees. After the Red Sox didn't even make the postseason in 2006, Epstein let more players from the World Series team leave.
Only eight players from the 2004 team were still around to collect rings when the Red Sox won the 2007 World Series, and designated hitter David Ortiz was the only player left from 2004 when Boston won the championship again in 2013.
Cubs fans shouldn't give up on this year's Cubs yet. But if the team falters, Epstein makes some deals and the Cubs win the 2019 World Series behind Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and a few other 2016 holdovers, fans will be happy.
In the meantime, neighbor Joanne adds some perspective.
"Wow," she says in recapping the day, "we got to see the World Champion Cubs play."
Very few Cubs fans in the last 108 years have been able to say that. Appreciate it.