Coming to terms with the Cubs

December 28, 2008 / Filed under: Sports, Life

Cubs fans need therapy. Not because they are Cubs fans, but because after last season's horrific meltdown, it is difficult to come to terms with what happened. I'm still in shock three months later, and will continue to be in shock well into the start of the 2009 season.

This "shock" is bad for fans because all trust has been lost. I realize the entire 2008 season was not just a waste, but it's going to be extremely difficult to place any trust or hope in the 2009 Cubs (and beyond). This loss of trust is unhealthy.

Life gives us challenges, and most hardships result in a new understanding for the way things are, as well as enlightenment and wisdom for coming to that understanding.

What new understanding do fans have from the Cubs miserably blowing the last two season's playoff appearances? What enlightenment or wisdom is there to come of this? How do Cubs fans come to terms with this traumatic letdown?

The 2007 performance was painful to witness, but nothing near as gut-wrenching as the most recent 2008 collapse. The cards were lined up perfectly and completely fell over. You can't have a more well-defined regular season that the 2008 Cubs had, and then go and waste it all in one week's playoff performance.

So, if the 2008 regular season was so perfectly leading up to something greater in the playoffs, how can we ever trust that any future regular season performance will not let us down once again? Even if the Cubs come out in 2009 and coast along in first place the entire season, that doesn't mean anything to Cubs fans anymore. Why get excited when they've constantly let fans down, year after year?

It's like the boy who cried wolf as a joke, but when he really needed help, no one answered his cry. If the Cubs play well in 2009, who's going to trust it?

Absence is inexcusable

It's not the fact that the Cubs merely exited the playoffs the past two seasons. It's that they did so without competition. To say they "didn't show up" is an understatement. And this is exactly why therapy is needed.

If, for example, the Cubs won a few playoff games (or heck - perhaps an entire playoff series!) the past two seasons, things would be different. Therapy would not be needed. Because then, Cubs fans could console themselves knowing that the Cubs played their asses off, and just ended up on the losing side.

A loss, putting forth all the effort possible, is fair, natural, and acceptable. But a loss without effort - absence - is inexcusable.

These past two seasons have been inexcusable.

There's an old saying that goes something like this:

Beat me once, shame on you. Beat me twice, shame on me.

Cubs fans put their hope and trust in the Cubs, even after 2007's lack of effort. Then in 2008 it happened again.

It's time to stop pointing the finger at the Cubs, and instead point it at yourself.

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