I’ve got tickets for the probable first Cubs play-off date…but unfortunately they’re to see Bill Cosby in concert. Oh, well. Hopefully it will be a night game, and I can see both the Cos and the Cubs. I doubt it, though. I’ll have to have Paul or my brother TIVO it.
I’m jumping the gun a little bit, especially since we’re talking the Cubs here. Still, with yesterday’s win and the concurrent Brewers loss, our magic number fell to 4, with a combined 13 games remaining. That makes the odds pretty good for us, although frankly I’d like to just win at least four of our last six games–the Cubs are off today, then play through Sunday–and not even have to worry about what the Brewers do. However, if the Brew Crew loses tonight, you can put a fork in them.
This doesn’t happen very often for us Cubs fans, but we’ve spent a ton of money lately, and will have new owners by next year. Given the other cities represented in the National League Central, there’s no reason the Cubs shouldn’t be considered an automatic, favored candiate to win the division each and every year. Maybe we’ll finally become that team.
In the meantime, our bats are booming (we scored something like 30 runs in the last three games), and our pitching continues to be strong, especially our immaculate relief corps. The guy taking the greatest bashing, Ryan Dempster, in no way deserves it, and has been a money closer all year.
I don’t know how far into October we’ll be playing ball, but it would be like the Cubs to win the World Series *one year* before hitting the century mark for the sport’s longest arid streak. In any case, here’s to a fun ride.
