Fenway
08-14-2005, 01:12 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/story/337118p-287914c.html
One of the more amusing images in the aftermath of the Red Sox's World Series sweep of the Cardinals last October was a kid sitting on the curb outside St. Louis' Busch Stadium, wearing a Cubs cap and jersey and holding up a sign that read: "We're next."
It was a reasonable notion, given the fact that the Cubs and Red Sox had been linked for so long as baseball's eternally cursed franchises. And with visions of a healthy Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, the Cubbie bandwagon was SRO this spring. As 1918 had been erased by the Red Sox, now, too, would 1908 by the Cubs.
If only baseball fantasy could repeat itself. Alas, the 2005 Cubs have turned out to be pretty much a carbon copy of so many other mediocre or worse Wrigleyville contingents over the last century. But before you can say "What do you expect when Prior and Wood broke down again?" consider the Braves, who lost three-fifths of their starting rotation, plus Chipper Jones, for extensive time and still managed to scramble their way to their customary perch atop the NL East. The Cubs go down as one of the biggest disappointments this season, if only because of the expectations held for them.
The cruel irony of the Cubs' latest demise is that the crosstown White Sox, with the best record in baseball, have been making a statement for breaking their owned cursed history of not having won a World Series since 1917. Unfortunately, as has been the Sox's fate, Chicagoans are far more consumed with the loveable-loser Cubbies. The Cubs are averaging 38,897 in attendance to the White Sox's 28,552.
One of the more amusing images in the aftermath of the Red Sox's World Series sweep of the Cardinals last October was a kid sitting on the curb outside St. Louis' Busch Stadium, wearing a Cubs cap and jersey and holding up a sign that read: "We're next."
It was a reasonable notion, given the fact that the Cubs and Red Sox had been linked for so long as baseball's eternally cursed franchises. And with visions of a healthy Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, the Cubbie bandwagon was SRO this spring. As 1918 had been erased by the Red Sox, now, too, would 1908 by the Cubs.
If only baseball fantasy could repeat itself. Alas, the 2005 Cubs have turned out to be pretty much a carbon copy of so many other mediocre or worse Wrigleyville contingents over the last century. But before you can say "What do you expect when Prior and Wood broke down again?" consider the Braves, who lost three-fifths of their starting rotation, plus Chipper Jones, for extensive time and still managed to scramble their way to their customary perch atop the NL East. The Cubs go down as one of the biggest disappointments this season, if only because of the expectations held for them.
The cruel irony of the Cubs' latest demise is that the crosstown White Sox, with the best record in baseball, have been making a statement for breaking their owned cursed history of not having won a World Series since 1917. Unfortunately, as has been the Sox's fate, Chicagoans are far more consumed with the loveable-loser Cubbies. The Cubs are averaging 38,897 in attendance to the White Sox's 28,552.