The Battle For Lake Michigan

It's on now right? Maybe I'm guilty to some degree of the Brewers getting Sabathia last month--maybe. You see, I scored tickets to the final series of the weekend in Milwaukee. As the Cubs jumped out to a lead in the division and the Brew struggled, I began to wonder if the tickets would be to an important game or if it would be the Cubs giving their expanded roster some p.t. as they geared up for the playoffs. Fuck me.
The underlining lesson all Cubs fans need to learn is not to get ahead of themselves (a lesson more than likely learned by my father and everyone else in his generation back in 1969...a lesson learned by people in the 1984 season...and a lesson I had beaten into my head everytime I watch "the inning"). So I slipped up. I started to feel disappointed that the Cubs were going to "walk away" with the division crown (and that's not even bringing the Cardinals into consideration). So--my punishment from the baseball gods, or whoever decides how these things go down--give the Brewers one of the five best pitchers in baseball...give them Ray Durham (who seems inspired after his first few games in Milwaukee)...and give them the Cubs as the North Siders are playing their worst ball of the season. Fuck me.
For a minute though, let's be honest with ourselves. I had a conversation with a co-worker of mine named Dan. Dan is one of those fans that I would classify "1969". It's more or less of a lable one could use to pigeon hole a Cubs fan into when they "lost their cherry". For most Cubs fans over the age of 50, it was 1969...for fans over the age of 30 it was 1984 or 1989. People my age, it's 2003. In fact the interesting thing about "cherries popped" in 2003, is that it managed to claim the 1969 group all over again. I'll never forget my father telling me in the final weeks of the regular season and into the Atlanta series, "don't get ahead of yourself". About a week and a half after the Atlanta series ended, we sat in silence as the Marlins mobbed each other on the infield. My dad was caught up in it again. The team that pulled the rug out from underneath him in 1969 and 1984, did it too him again (even though he probably never thought he'd let it happen again).
Back to Dan. I was working with him one day and we got on the topic of how the dream scenario would go if the Cubs won the series. He said, "Win it in four games--win it by 10 runs each time."
I called bullshit to his suggestion that it be easy for the Cubs. The fact is, this is the Chicago Cubs we're talking about--they'll never make it easy on their fans. Think back to 1998 when they beat the Giants in the one game playoff. The Cubs appeared to be on their way to an easy 5-0 win until the late Rod Beck allowed 3 runs and about a million heart attacks in the top of the 9th. The Cubs will eventually prevail (we're still about 10,000,000 years from the Earth crashing into the sun)--but they're going to take as many of their fans with them before they do. It comes with wearing a red C on your blue baseball cap.
It's the same thing as the Boston Red Sox. When they won the pennent in 1986 it was after a cardiac arrest game 5 that led to the losing pitcher's suicide three years later. When they finally broke through in 2004 it was after dropping 3 games and 8.5 innings to the hated Yankees before pulling the fading pulse of nearly 15 million back to life and capping the most improbable comeback of all time.
If the Cubs do win this whole thing with ease--it might be spectacular. It might be among the greatest days in the lives of every fan. But in no way is it the Cubs way of doing things. We want the pain if through it we'll get the pleasure. The problem is--the pain kills our own before the pleasure. Two generations of Cubs fans have died off without seeing a World Series title. Quite frankly, if the win the World Series, it'll kill off the third.
But ask any Red Sox fan if they'd trade the 2004 scenario for a less gut wrenching route to the title...they'll tell you no...and I'll bet they don't even think about it.
Hold on to your fucking hat Chicago--this thing is just about to get interesting.