It's the Cubs, so they must do something
That oil' Cubs thing is rearing its paranoid head again.
The Brewers inflicted an emotional Brewhaha on Wrigleyville. Cubs fans are wearing Cubbie Blue but feeling Cubbie Brew. Tears of Brew-hoo-hoo are welling up.
OK, I'm out of Brew cracks, but that doesn't dismiss what Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said Monday: "We're going for it."
The Cubs have to do something!
Of course they do, but not just because the Brewers acquired C.C. Sabathia from Cleveland. They have to because, well, they're the freakin' Cubs.
This team is the defending division champion, has been in first place most of this season, and verges on being healthy.
The Cubs are so good that they placed seven players on the National League all-star team, the same number the fabled Red Sox placed on the American League team. Yet the Cubs really do have to do something!
Forget about the sky falling on Wrigley Field. The 290-pound Sabathia has.
(Speaking of the left-handed pitcher's ample self, he turned down the Indians' four-year, $72 million contract offer. . . presumably because it wasn't enough to keep him in groceries.)
Anyway, the Brewers have initiated an arms race in the NL Central. If they add bullpen help, say Colorado's, Brian Fuentes, look out.
Regardless, an odd competition is brewing.
Chicago has a team that hasn't won a World Series in a century or even played in one since 1945.
Meanwhile, no Milwaukee team has won a World Series in a half-century or even made the playoffs since 1982.
As always St. Louis is in contention and could mess up everyone else's plans.
The Cubs remain the division's best team, Sabathia in Milwaukee and history in St. Louis notwithstanding. But the Cubs are the Cubs, which means North Side streets are paved in panic.
A sports-radio host recently urged a caller to ignore the Cubs' sorry tradition and focus on this year's team.
Sorry, no can do. The Cubs' past is prelude. It can't be ignored any more than a curse, hex or jinx can be.
Yes, this Cubs team is good. Yes, it should win the division. Yes, it looks like the entire NL's best team. But other Cubs teams seemed that good, perhaps even good enough to win the World Series.
Yet every time a year was supposed to be the long-awaited next year, a 290-pound anvil fell from the heavens to create a living hell.
So ignore the past? Er, no, better to fear the future.
The Brewers now have a Big Three starting rotation of Sabathia, Ben Sheets and someone named Manny Parra.
The Cubs counter with Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster and Ted Lilly. The first two are all-stars and the third has 9 victories. Not bad, but sentiment, history and logic demand that the Cubs add another quality starting pitcher.
Candidates abound - Rich Harden, Randy Wolf, A.J. Burnett, Erik Bedard and some eighth-grader scouts say is the next Greg Maddux.
All this angst over a 290-pound pitcher who any day might bolt to challenge Joey Chestnut to an eating contest?
It's a Cubs thing that you can never be too secure or too paranoid. Seriously, folks, the Cubs have to do something!
mimrem@dailyherald.com