People often ask me, given my preeminence in the study of Cubness, whether it’s fair to judge the 2008 team based on the Cubs’ gloriously uninterrupted history of failure. Back when I landed my first media job at age 11 delivering the Bridgeport Post in Connecticut, I would have said yes. But as I’ve grown older, my position, as John McCain might say, has “evolved.”
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On the one hand, this is a team whose ancestry includes a 1979 squad that scored 22 runs in a game against the Phillies and not only lost but never once led. A 1917 club whose ace pitcher, James “Hippo” Vaughn, hurled a nine-inning no-hitter against the Cincinnati and lost—because Reds pitcher Fred Toney not only threw a no-hitter himself but didn’t wilt and allow two hits and a run in the tenth. A 1909 team that paraded around the Cubs’ old West Side Grounds led by a marching band and then hoisted a banner celebrating their 1908 World Series championship (yes, that world championship) atop the centerfield flagpole—only to have the rope pulley break and the banner fly off beyond the stadium—like a mighty Dave Kingman blast. As everyone knows, I could continue.
Two teams—the Phillies (ex-Cubs Scott Eyre, Jamie Moyer, Matt Stairs) and the Dodgers (Juan Pierre, Nomar Garciaparra, Greg Maddux)—are doomed this year by the Ex-Cub Factor. Frankly, I don’t understand why they’ve bothered to show up for the playoffs.
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