Chicago Cubs Baseball

Mark Prior is reportedly healthy and throwing pain free. Chicago Cubs baseball is happy and Prior-free.

Whatever small coincidence, it’s a win-win situation for both. And a long-time since either party could say that about themselves.

Healthy and happy. Two traits neither Prior nor Cubdom experienced much of from 2004 to the spring of ‘07.

Through those bitter years, Prior was Cub fans’ right-handed hope - an all-star for certain, a World Series hero in time.

But time couldn’t wait. While the injuries and the disappointments mounted, hope became hype, and promise and Prior appeared in the same sentence less and less.

No coincidence at all. Even if injury-free, Prior and the Chicago Cubs were a doomed affair. I get the feeling Prior would have remained a reluctant icon in Chicago, no matter the amount of accolades nor the arms ready to embrace.

He always seemed more comfortable in the shade than the limelight. The wrong person for a team like the Chicago Cubs and its fans. Cubdom may not always be fair, but no one can doubt its passion.

Did Prior mistake passion for pressure, pennant fever for unchecked fervor? Evidently so.

”I don’t think anything could prepare you for getting thrown in there at 21 years old,” Prior said in a recent interview from his new home in San Diego. ”I don’t know if you could be in the game for seven, eight years and then get thrust into that market — or a New York or a Boston — and be prepared for it. It’s just at a different level.

”At the time, did I understand my role? Probably not. Looking back, I understand how important and crucial I was. It’s not that I didn’t want to be a major player every year and be part of something special there. Unfortunately, my health just wouldn’t allow me to do that.”

True confessions or the tell-tale heart? Probably both. Certainly, no one could sum up Prior’s career with the Chicago Cubs better than those few words.

He’s back home in San Diego now - a new team, a new beginning and another opportunity to duck for the shadows or the shade. Either one is void of light, and the light is where heroes are made.

And for now Cubdom couldn’t be happier.