North: Baseball magic not easy to duplicate
I can't help but talk Cubs baseball as we get ready for the one-game playoff game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
I feel good about playing a wild-card game against the Pirates, a playoff tested team that would be more difficult to beat in a best-of-seven series than the battle-weary and injured St. Louis Cardinals.
The Cubs are a loose bunch and manager Joe Maddon has been the tonic, but animals, magicians and balloons won't matter in the one-game playoff.
Ace pitcher Jake Arrieta hopefully will start the game for the Cubs, and if he pitches like he's capable the Cubs should move on.
The quiet excitement with this team and the fan base right now continues to surprise me a bit, but I like the attitude. If the Cubs manage to get past this game, then the frenzy will probably kick in and I just hope their collars don't start to get tight.
This young team doesn't realize how difficult it is to get back to this point. How many times have the fans thought there was a dynasty in the making? In 2003 with the home-field advantage the Cubs, led by Dusty Baker and pitchers Kerry Woods and Mark Prior, took on the Florida Marlins for the National League Championship. Even though the Cubs were up 3-1, they ended up losing the seven-game series. Still with two ace pitchers, I think most fans believed the Cubs would return to win a World Series, but of course that didn't happen.
In 1998, the Cubs faced a tiebreaker against the San Francisco Giants and won that game, but eventually were swept by the Atlanta Braves in the NL Division series. The 1984 Cubs managed by Jim Frey looked unbeatable after Cy Young winner Rick Sutcliffe won the National League Championship opener 13-0 against the San Diego Padres. But the five-game series was lost to slugger Tony Gwynn and NLCS Most Valuable Player Steve Garvey.
I certainly can't skip over the glorified 1969 team that was in first place until mid-September only to lose 17- of its next 25 games to finish the season eight games back of the New York Mets. At the time, fans expected clear skies all the way to the World Series led by the lovable Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo and Fergie Jenkins, yet that team never even tasted playoff champagne once.
My point: repeating a magical year is much harder than it seems, because something always seems to get in the way.
Maddon is a difference-maker and though I heavily criticized Theo Epstein in the past for his 66-96 season in 2013, several of his subsequent moves have proved successful.
This team now looks poised for big things, but we've heard that before and the Pirates and Cards aren't going anywhere. That said, I'll still take my chances with this Cubs team for the next five years.
Program notes:
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