Chicago Cubs Baseball

Patience can be a virtue. Or, wait too long, and patience can become a vindictive, slack-jawed, jack-booted goon, ready to deliver a kick to the groin or a rabbit punch to the back of the neck.

Fortunately, in the 2oo7 saga of Chicago Cubs baseball, patience is more the former than the latter. Why should I be surprised? It seems when this franchise was formed the virtue of patience was hard-coded into its bylaws with the blood of some Billy Goat.

This Cubs baseball season has been no exception. Ebb and flow could describe this Cub summer, as easily as ping and pong or will and grace for that matter.

For every action there’s been an equal and opposite reaction. It’s been as much a study in emotional physics as determining the trajectory of a home run or the velocity of a pitch.

And that’s the beauty of patience. As we ride the roller coaster of Chicago Cubs baseball, if we wait and watch, good things can happen. Like reclamation, redemption and respect.

When the week began, for example, which one of us in Cubdom thought the Cubs would sit atop the Central Division standings at week’s end? But there the Cubs are, reclaiming the top perch despite a two-game pounding from Cincinnati’s Reds, and two weeks of weak baseball that preceded it.

But Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella said the club was in it for the long run. And heading into tonight’s rain-delayed game with St. Louis, it looks like he could be right. It doesn’t hurt a team’s chances, of course, when heroics are involved.

Yesterday it was Daryle Ward’s grand slam that helped seal a Cub win and add some separation between the Cubs and Cards. But the true Cub hero of the season’s second half has been Jacque Jones, a player who’s found his way back from Chicago’s fifth outfielder to its most consistent player.

And to think it was but a short two months ago the Cubs had traded Jones to the Florida Marlins for a song, some salsa and a couple of players to be named. Only by the grace of the commissioner’s office is Jones still with Chicago.

The commissioner’s office demanded the Tribune Co. pay Jones’ salary upfront. When the Cub owners denied the request, Major League Baseball denied the trade.

To Piniella’s credit, stuck with Jones or not, , he gave him a second chance. Piniella’s patience has been paid with redemption from Jones, and probably the primary reason the Cubs are still in contention.

As for the respect portion of this patience play, two words - Carlos Zambrano. On Friday, Zambrano got the deal he deserved before the season began, signing for $91.5 million over five years. While the Tribune Co. was waiting for the season to end and the sale of the Chicago Cubs to begin, Zambrano and his contract was left in wait.

Zambrano could of kissed his career with the Cubs good-bye and chose to move on. Instead, he waited - was finally was rewarded.

What’s ahead for the Cubs? Who knows. But I bet if we’re patient enough we’ll eventually find out.