Chicago Cubs Baseball

Friday night turned out to be a big day for Chicago Cubs baseball.

The Cubs not only defeated St. Louis in the opening game of the weekend series, but maybe for the first time in this interstate rivalry did a manager come to the defense of the opposition.

As strange as it sounds, Cardinal manager Tony LaRussa kind of rose to the defense of the Chicago Cubs. Particularly the Cubs penchant for losing, and specifically the club’s 99-year history without a World Series championship.

Following the Cubs 5-3 win, LaRussa felt compelled to become part of a story other than the one that took place on the field.

It all began when a St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist wrote a piece entitled, “Cubs: No Tinker. No Evers. No Chance.” Set to the 1910 poem immortalizing the Cubs double-play combination, it was a piece that detailed why a World Series title has escaped the Cubs and why they’ll never win one.

I highly recommend the piece, if you haven’t read it yet.

Myself, I found the article to be well-written, witty and entertaining. Everything you can ask from the printed form.

But most of all, as a Cubs’ fan, I found it to be totally unoffensive. There was nothing in the article that no Cubbie blue baseball fan hasn’t muttered to himself or out loud at one time or another.

In fact, I found LaRussa’s post-game behavior more out of line than the article.

For the record, LaRussa found the article objectionable and refused to answer any questions posed by the Post-Dispatch beat writers.

“I have a right to state an opinion and when there’s a cheap shot against the Cubs I don’t want to be a part of it,” La Russa said. ”I want everybody to know that the St. Louis Cardinals and their manager have an absolute disregard for that.”

It was an odd decision by LaRussa based on the following:

1. Neither of the beat writers were involved in the article.
2. Neither of the beat writers were involved in the decision to print the article.
3. No where in the article was LaRussa’s name mentioned or aligned with any quotes.
4. No where in the article was the Cardinals organization mentioned with the exception “the Redbirds have won 10 World Series, finishing ahead of the Cubs in 63 of 98 seasons.”
5. Never argue with the man who buys his ink by the barrel.

I have no way of knowing the motive behind LaRussa’s actions. Unless he was attempting to deflect questions about his team’s poor early showing. Or maybe he was attempting to  defend his good friend and Cubs’ manager Lou Piniella.

Regardless, the post-game silent treatment gave the appearance of the little boy who wants to take his bat and ball and just go home.

The only problem with that is LaRussa and his Cardinals are already there.