The Business of Baseball

When will Cub fans learn?  Do they still pack Wrigley Field to see this team?  Because they do, the Championship will never come.  It is, after all, the business of baseball.

It's the sixth inning of their second game of the year and they are still looking for their first run of the season.  Sixteen innings of futility is hardly anything for a franchise with over 100 years of championship-less baseball.  However, it is an indicator of the current Cub team.

Starlin Castro is the closest thing to an All Star in the lineup and he lacks the consistency needed by a Major League shortstop.  He seems streaky with the bat, and has prior off field problems.  Seems like a model citizen in today's "You don't qualify with less than three felonies" athletic world.

Jeff Samardzija is the unquestioned number one starter.  It could be an interesting problem when a contender makes a trade for him as their number four starter.  He does pitch with guts and still gets his wins without a lot of support.  He deserves a better fate only available to him in another city.

Chicago is living up to Tom Dreesen's credo: "Chicago raised bad baseball to a higher art form."  The business of baseball says, "If the seats are filled without winning, why make the effort to win?  If less money is spent on the field, it fills my coffers."

The Reds were my team as a child until I started playing and practicing so much golf, nothing else could fit.  I picked up the Cubs in 1984, a diversion from playing college golf.  Thirty years I have stayed true.  I have followed the Angels even longer, picking them up after reading a book on Nolan Ryan.  In 2002,  a World Series victory was my reward for waiting for all the late scores.  It was a sweet feeling.  The Angels got down to the business of getting it done.

My son even lived and died with Sammy Sosa: lived a lot when he hit a lot of home runs and kept taking the Cubs to the playoffs, died when he turned out to be a steroid monster.  While he plays high school baseball, he rarely watched games any more.  He describes himself as a Rays fan.  It's the business of getting on with life.

I might be forced to follow his lead.  I might only get as far as Cincinnati.  I still have my Angels, and hope to regain some of the feeling I lost as a kid.  Marty Brenneman used to call it "...and this one belongs to the Reds."  Joe Nuxhall closed the postgame with "This is the old left hander, rounding third and heading for home."

And so I shall.  A lot of Cubs fans will say "Get lost.  You weren't a real fan anyway."  Really?  After thirty years?   Good riddance to the frustration.  It's the business of life: infinitely more important, and meant to be enjoyed.

So...am I off base?