September 17, 2008

     I was going to wait until they clinched, but the editor may be away then, so here goes.  What the heck, they're leading their division by nine games with only about a dozen left to play.  So, the Chicago Cubs will be in the playoffs.
 
     Doesn't mean anything.  They were there last year and lost.  There in 2003 and lost.  Maybe the hitting is a little better this year and, yes, their ace, Carlos Zambrano, did pitch a no-hitter the other day.  But hey, these are the Cubs were talking about.
 
    I mean, the last time they won the pennant was in 1945, 63 years ago.  The last time they won the World Series?  A century ago, 1908.  Must be the longest losing streak any time, anywhere. So we know they're not going to win, don't we?  Wrigley Field might fall down if they won.
 
     Still, if you're a Cubs fan, your heart races just a little.  You find yourself thinking, well, maybe this year is different, maybe....
 
     I know how to sum this all up.  It's a line from the Village Voice back when it was new, in the 1950s.  There was someone, I don't remember who, who wrote short nifty essays.  One week he was writing about this terrific woman he'd met, just like this other terrific woman with whom he had just concluded a miserable, unhappy affair.  Looking ahead to the new woman, the new affair, he wrote, "Oh man, I dig the pain ahead."
 
     Could have been a Cub fan.  

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