GO TO PREVIOUS SECTION: August 12 to August 18
PART IV, continued
August 19th to August 25th
August 20, 2005
It’s funny what a three game winning streak will do.
On August 2nd, the Cubs beat the Phillies 2-1 to improve to 54-52, where they sat only four games behind the Wild Card leading Houston Astros. Would this be the time when the Cubs surged ahead? Would they finally be able to make this team click, a team that, from the start, has seemed destined for mediocrity? Would they take advantage of the two remaining months of the season and soar into the Wild Card lead?
Of course not.
Instead, they plummeted, losing eight straight and ten of thirteen. We sat at 57-62, with Houston, Florida, Philly, and even Milwaukee moving up. Was there any reason to hope for a turn around? None at all. This team is playing terrible baseball, they still haven’t developed any kind of identity, and with the trade deadline long gone and the Cubs only move being the acquisition of journeyman outfielder Matt Lawton, Jim Hendry’s worst season as Cub GM continues. And yet we hope, and we pray, and we Look On the Bright Side, waiting for Pargo to hit another three or for Mike Brown to snatch another interception out of the air, and for our prayers, we are given a three game winning streak.
So now we’re flying high. Two games under .500, creeping back into the race…
Bah! Bah to them! I will not be fooled…Oh, I wish I could say that, and yet, I must admit, I am a sucker. I am a Cubs fan, and a three-game winning streak to a Cubs fan is a ten-game winning streak to anyone else. Only a Cubs fan could watch his team drop eight in a row and ten of thirteen, and then think that three straight victories somehow balances that out. It’s absurd. It’s foolish. Cub fans are fools. We are fools! We are jokers! We are the perpetually hopeful and the perpetually duped. We are the puppets, dancing on the strings. We are the pathetic Vegas regular, the guy who drops a grand at the craps table on Friday, another grand on Saturday, wins five hundred dollars on Sunday, and comes home talking about his big weekend.
So what happened today? What always happens? We lost. We lost 4-2 to the pitiful Colorado Rockies. And now we see. Now we see that the three-game winning streak was part of a string of eleven losses in seventeen games. Now we see that the losses were real, while the wins were the fantasy. It’s like ten minutes of television and twenty minutes of commercials. Is this what we deserve? Year after year, having our hopes renewed and then dashed? There is nothing about this team that suggests it will be able to turn it around. I know that I said I never give up, but there is a big difference between a playoff team in a playoff game falling behind, and a mediocre team in a terrible season falling well below .500. Is there time to turn it around? Sure. Will we? Not a chance. But most painful of all, hands down, is the knowledge that at the slightest sign of hope, at the briefest taste of success, I will be right back into it, cheering my heart out, Looking On the Bright Side and waiting for a championship.
After all, if the Red Sox can get one, anyone can.
August 21, 2005
When Kevin Garnett became the first high schooler in twenty years to skip college and go straight to the NBA in 1995, and when Kobe Bryant and Jermaine O’Neal followed his lead in 1996, I knew that in 2000 there would be a kid my age who would do the same. That kid was Darius Miles, the East St. Louis standout who ended up being drafted third overall by the Clippers, and ever since then I’ve seen more and more kids my age or younger enter the ranks of professional sports. The guys I cheer for now are no longer my heroes. They are my peers.
The Bears looked terrific last night in a preseason win over the Colts, and the White Sox lost again to drop their seventh straight, but the biggest news in the sports world is the sudden death of San Francisco 49ers rookie offensive lineman Thomas Herrion. Shortly after the end of the Niners-Broncos game Saturday night, the 23-year-old Herrion collapsed from an apparent heart attack and passed away. This brings back the debate about “how big is too big” for football players, as well as “how hot is too hot” for outdoor practices—Korey Stringer, an o-lineman for the Vikings, died in a similar fashion on August 1st, 2001, and Northwestern safety Rashidi Wheeler collapsed and died of apparent heat exhaustion two days later—but all that I can think about is that a kid my age who was looking forward to taking the next step in his life died suddenly. His online profile from the University of Utah is still on the internet. It reads:
Thomas Herrion
Class: Senior
UTAH: Honor candidate has loads of potential…will start at left tackle after starting at right tackle last year…selected to 2003 Utah Football Leadershi Committee (dependable, team player, strong academics and discipline, team spokesman).
PERSONAL: Son of J.C. and Janice Herrion…plays drums in his church band…enjoys jazz, hip hop, and blues…sociology major…born Dec. 15, 1981.