Chicago Cubs Baseball

Anyone who’s visited this blog during the 2007 season knows I haven’t always been the most sympathetic to Chicago Cubs baseball. There’s a good reason for that: I refuse to be another Cub apologist.

Like anyone in Cubdom remembers, last season was a shameful stain - even for a franchise that carries the moniker, “lovable losers.” From upper management’s woeful waiting for the return of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior to the absence of fundamentals on the field, 2006 will be remembered as a journey through the abysmal - major league baseball’s own version of Dante’s Inferno.

Like the 14th Century poet, I too, believe in Paradise. And the epiphany came last night.

Trailing 6-4 to Cincinnati’s Reds and heading into the bottom of the ninth inning, the Cubs rallied to win on Mark DeRosa’s fifth hit of the game. Five hits in a game is a remarkable enough feat in itself. But how it came about lifted the film from my eyes and shed light into my dark Cubbie soul.

With the bases loaded and none out, Cincinnati interim manager Pete Mackanin not only pulled his infield in, but brought Norris Hopper in from center as a fifth infielder. An odd decision to say the least, but it didn’t stop DeRosa from bouncing a single off of David Weathers’ glove, scoring the Cubs’ winning run.

Most any other September and a Cubs’ win like last night would have been overlooked by Chicago sports fans in favor of focusing on Rex Grossman’s passing efficiency - or lack, thereof.

But this is September 2007, and though Chicago Cubs baseball clings to the thinnest of leads in the National League Central Division, there’s not only hope for the elusive title in Cubdom, but belief. There’s a belief both by the fans and by those fragile psyches of the Cub players’ themselves.

Even a Cub cynic like the Corked Bat is shedding the cloak of Cubbie despair. Here’s five reasons why:

• Joey Votto, 1B
• Brandon Phillips, 2B
• Jeff Keppinger, SS
• Edwin Encarncion, 3B
• Norris Hopper, CF-Infield

I figure if five infielders can’t stop the Cubs from scoring on an infield single, the only thing standing between Chicago and a division title can be a slow pitch softball team with a short center fielder.