Depressing End of a Season

My beloved Cubs just collapsed in the final week and got eliminated from the playoffs. It's sad in a way, and it's symoblic of an overall downer week for me right now.

On the one hand, pro sports is a stupid addictive waste of time anyway, and it's good that I'll save some time each day following it. On the other hand, baseball is part of the essence of who we are as a people quite unlike any other sport, and it's always sad when another season slips into yesterday.

Hope springs eternal. Next year will be our year. And I mean it this time!

There are lessons to be learned. After a long season when a team has lost many games, all feels hopeless. Yet it's not. There will be wins next year -- maybe even the World Series. And such is life. We get focused on the negative, the things that go wrong, the "losses" we suffer, and when too many of them come in too short of a time, we think there's no hope.

Yet, just like the fact that a ten game winning streak can always start tomorrow, life too can turn around in a hurry.

So please apply this to your family, your church, your personal problems, etc. I know I will. I'm not focused on the losses of this passing season. I'm preparing for next season's victories. And most of all, I'm looking for a few people to join me -- a few people who know what it takes to be on a winning team.

(Note added on Thursday, 9/30: I've cursed them by the entry below! Since posting they've lost three in a row, and two of those in the 12th inning . Three games to go, and we're 1 game out, but playing really badly. Reality says it's over. I'll cling to naive hope.)

Breaking the Silence for Cubbie Countdown 2004

I have much to express eventually, and it may be deep and depressing (considering the Ohls difficult season combined with the Carders & Harshmans decisions to relocate, etc.).

But for now, it's time for the 2004 version of the "Going to Glory Update" (those who read my blog this time last year will remember).

The Cubs are 1 game ahead in the National League Wild Card with six games left. "We're going to glory!" For those who think (as I often do) that pro sports are stupid and greed-motivated, and that and I shouldn't be so into it, please realize that I have rooted for my Cubbies since 1982, and since then they have never won the World Series, they have only teased me with the playoffs four times in those 22 years, and they have never had back-to-back winning seasons until now, and never had back-to-back playoff seasons until (cross my fingers) this year. Go Cubs. I still believe.

And anybody who wants to endure a long, drawn-out (though potentially life-changing) explanation of why baseball is still the greatest game on earth, schedule lunch with me (better set aside two hours) and I'll be happy to share!