Lincicome: The Cubs will celebrate again, and this season too

Having rehearsed their celebration already, the Cubs have the photos and the stained laundry to prove that whatever happens next, the season wasn’t half bad, although it was only half good when you look at where the Cubs were once and where they are now. As Rick may have told Ilsa, they will always have Pittsburgh.

A strange vibe this playoff business in baseball, a tournament for the undeserved. Afterthoughts and unearned runs are welcome.

So it is that the Cubs and Padres join the circle of celebration, each facing either early elimination or temporary convenience, like place mats at a barbeque.

Neither team is expected to be there at the finish, figuring some time around the end of daylight saving time, but they do have each other to whittle on and communities that will pay attention.

The greater society of baseball will wait patiently for the Phillies or the Dodgers, the Mariners or the Yankees. A little light housekeeping will tidy things up until then.

Oh, sure, wild-card teams have won it all, eight times, in fact, twice by the Marlins and most recently by the Rangers, leaving no lasting legacy nor positive aspiration. Flukes fade.

And, by the way, the term “wild card” is derisive if accurate. It means a gimmick to grow the pot. In games where cards are actually played, the joker usually fits the purpose, although threes and nines are wild in night baseball, a distortion much like playoffs in real baseball.

The goal, according to no less than Cubs manager Craig Counsell, is to reach October, where “real baseball is played.” If true, and it is, the previous 162 games will have been presented in order for 12 teams, six in each league, to play maybe 22 more. Not the most efficient business model, selling the box and holding the gift.

The Cubs are a good example of the wonders of May becoming the woes of August, and yet here they are still damp from champagne, their ski goggles stored for more.

So what happened? There was Pete Crow-Armstrong filling the celebrity vacancy for the Cubs, an all-star for no real reason other than efficient hype, my endorsement included, suddenly ordinary at bat if still marvelous in the field. Easy enough to blame him for being too good too soon, as well as easy to find fault with Seyia Suzuki, designated to hit but more frequently to strike out.

Franchise fixer Kyle Tucker floundered and then became injured, doubling his inadequacy, while pitcher Shota Imanaga became a friend of the fans reaching for home run balls. The bullpen pitched with its fingers crossed. Extraordinary became common without announcing why.

While interest in the home run scuffle between Seattle’s Cal Raleigh and the Yankees’ Aaron Judge may have marked the season, Cubs fans found themselves gripped by curiosity as to whether Nico Hoerner could win the National League batting title without hitting .300.

And at the same time, the team in Milwaukee found competence and confidence, zipping past the Cubs without a turn signal, likely awaiting again should the Cubs proceed.

While all of that may sum up what and why, it does not explain a noticeable lack of enthusiasm for what is still a fitful achievement for the Cubs. Melancholy is missing, however still possible as well as inevitable.

Blame those Cubs teams of a decade or so ago who carried a century of burden on their backs. They managed to win a World Series and lurk importantly for several seasons on. All the curses and the romance died in 2016.

Frequency has not yet made its way to October with the Cubs, this being the first visit since 2020, a season shortened and a time when baseball was not as central as taking your daily temperature, when wearing masks was a common courtesy and not an ominous menace.

Still, rarely do the Cubs get to make big things out of modest occasions. Until something resembling lack of wonder replaces these infrequent achievements, Cubdom can still celebrate being the fourth-best team in one of two leagues as enthusiastically as if this were the destination and not just the point of departure.

I pick the Cubs to sweep the Padres. After that …