After Series Win Over Phillies, Chicago Cubs Still Need Retooling
At the conclusion of the Cubs-Phillies game, which the Chicago Cubs won decisively 3-1 Sunday night, a fan was wildly enthusiastic. "The Cubs are coming back!" he yelled at Wrigley Field, as fans high-fived all around him. "This isn't just a good night. They are coming back, baby!" Sunday's score was Chicago, 11, Philadelphia, 6.
As much as one would like to hope, there's little evidence of that.
Now that the All-Star Break has come and gone, the Cubs are still under .500 with a season record of 40-50. New owners the Ricketts family have done absolutely nothing to better the fortunes of this ball club. Everyone likes to talk about the Loveable Losers, but just two years ago, the team won their division in fine form.
They were, as most Cub fans will attest , the best team assembled in many years, with terrific pitching, fearsome hitting, and a proud unit of utility fielders who could interchange whenever manager Lou Piniella felt the need. They were the team Cubs fans dreamed about.
Then they went off to the playoffs in Los Angeles and stood like catatonic freaks while the Dodgers romped all over them.
Oh, let's be kind; they underperformed. Badly.
At this point many Cubs fans tore off their jerseys, set up bonfires in Wrigleyville in Chicago and said "Never again. We've been fooled for 99 years, but no more!"
Guess what? It's now been 101 years, and the fooling goes on.
You'd think the Ricketts team would get wise and start moving some people around, make a few trades, even tear up a contract or two. But no, like the frozen Cubbies of two years ago, they don't dare make a move and somehow expect the Cubs to come alive.
The definition of insanity, goes the old saw, is repeating the same old mistakes and expecting different results.
By this token, the whole Cubs organization has sunken into madness. How else do you explain the continued appearance of Anfonso Soriano, the left fielder who does not much of anything but draw catcalls?
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