The Chicago Cubs are not my team, but they don’t need to be my team for me to understand and recognize the significance of them winning the World Series for the first time in 108 years.  Last night’s game was about as epic as a baseball game could possibly get, and make no mistake, it most certainly was a battle worthy of the two deserving best teams in Major League Baseball in 2016; seven games, rain delays, scoring on both teams’ supposed untouchable relievers, and extra innings to decide a winner, it was practically a microcosm of an entire season in a single game.

Last night’s game amazing to me in so many ways.  So rarely does an odds-on favorite prior to the start of a season actually end up going all the way, often times falling prey to the hype, injuries, the rise of an upstart, the hot September team, or the San Francisco Giants.  Not only were the Cubs the proverbial hype machine all the way back in February before Spring Training even began, they marched through the season with dominance, almost winning in defiance of the monumental hype outlets like ESPN heaped upon them on practically a daily basis, winning 100+ games and marching into the playoffs with little doubt that they belonged.

Where they ended the obnoxious curse of the San Francisco Giants and the even-numbered year, to which at this point I was just grateful for that, and rooted for the Cubs out of gratitude and the fact that I was meh on the idea of the Cleveland Indians or Toronto Blue Jays winning a World Series alternatively.

It’s like I know a little bit about baseball or something, when just about every single concern I previously expressed about Joe Maddon’s pitching management came to haunt the Cubs last night, and there’s little I like more than being right about things.  But in spite of Maddon’s over-managing and over-meddling with pitching changes that almost sunk the Cubs in tragic fashion, his players simply wanted it more, and in an amazing display of genuine curse-breaking, overcame an unexpected choke job when momentum was clearly on the side of the Indians.

Continue reading “Simply amazing” →

Game 6 of the World Series couldn’t have been a more perfect scenario for the Chicago Cubs; the Cubs get a big lead, and the need for key relievers goes down.  Aroldis Chapman can get an extra day’s rest a day after throwing 2 1/3 innings and prepare for the winner-take-all Game 7 the following night.

Or at least that would have been the script of just about every baseball manager, regardless of if they’re old school or new school.  Simply, there’s no reason to tax key pitchers in scenarios where they really don’t need to be used.

Instead, despite the fact that the Cubs were up 7-2 in the 7^th inning, we saw Aroldis Chapman warming up in the bullpen; at first, I figured it was just a routine bullpen session, just to keep loose.  But then two Indians hitters were on base, and Maddon was walking out to the mound, tapping his left arm, signaling for the unleashing of the All-Star closer.  Chapman only needed two pitches to get the third out of the inning, but not before he stepped awkwardly on first base and came off the field with a noticeable limp.

Continue reading “In Joe we trust, but I don’t like it” →