Vigilante Sports

Ok, I’m crawling out of my despair to write this. This was THE team right? This was the one that was going to right all of the wrongs. It had the pitching, hitting, defense… it had everything. So what went wrong against the Dodgers? Are they a really better team than the Cubs? At this point, all signs point to “Yes”.

For some reason, it looked like the Cubs thought that the series would be handed to them. There was no sense of urgency for them. When Mark DeRosa (the Doctor) hit his 2 run homer in Game 1, everyone seemed to think that was it, pack up our things and head the NLCS. It doesn’t happen that way. A team has to execute, make plays, make pitches, get hits to get to the NLCS. It’s not enough to be talented, or have the best record in the National League.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers were hungry, and happy. Their dugout was into every one of the games and was having fun. The Cubs dugout looked like a bunch of guys who snuck into a bar when they were 16; they just didn’t want to get caught. Maybe it has been all the talk of the curse? Apparently the chairman of the Cubs  thought that bringing in an Greek Orthodox priest to sprinkle holy water on the Cubs dugout would help them win this series? Totally ridiculous for the management of a professional baseball team to even entertain that notion. It certainly did nothing but remind the team of the pressure the organization feels.

I cannot fault the pitching in this series (except for Dempster). Zambrano, Harden, and even Sean Marshall pitched great. It was the offense and the defense that let the Cubs down. And I have to say, the manager. Lou, it’s your job to make sure your bench is fired up and ready to play in these games. I know that Lou told the team that the last 100 years wasn’t on them and they just had to win this year. Lou dropped the ball this playoff series, and did it in very similar fashion as last years sweeping exit from the playoffs.

I don’t think it’s time for Lou to go, but I would like to see some changes. Maybe it’s a bench coach? Although I really love me some Alan Trammel. There needs to be something different about this team come Spring Training. I need to see a player with a killer instinct, or something like that to help me believe that the same thing will not happen again in October.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Chicago Cubs, MLB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.