Chicago Cubs Baseball

Upon his arrival newly-appointed manager Lou Piniella said one of goals was to change the culture of Chicago Cubs baseball.  He has succeeded.

No longer can the Chicago Cubs be called the loveable losers of baseball.  No, they have become the consummate chokes of the game.

With back-to-back Central Division titles and holders of the best regular-season record in the National League, the Cubs have shed their loser image.  In its place, they’ve made the circuitous journey from jokes to chokes.

And while the laugh might be on us, there’s nothing funny about it.

Chokes.  There is no other word for it.

Too harsh?  Not in the least.

This Chicago Cub baseball  team is the ultimate collection of not-ready-for-prime-time players perhaps ever assembled at a price tag of $118,000 million.  That’s the combined payroll for the 2008 Cubs.

Cubs general manager Jim Hendry’s grand plan was to design a team that could make it to the show.  In that he succeeded.   Where he failed - and miserably - is in assembling a team that would make it to the big stage, not knowing none of them can act.

The Chicago Cub offense is built on two of the game’s streakiest hitters - Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez.   In 43 post-season games, Soriano has slugged a whopping four home runs and has a dismal batting average of  .219.  Ramirez?  Even worse.

But these two are not the lone culprits.  From Hendry’s building of this team to Piniella’s managerial decisions to the players in the field - all share in the culpability of this crime against Cubdom and baseball.

All phases of the game has failed  has failed Cub fans, the City of Chicago - and most of all, themselves.

The Cubs were given an opportunity.  But when it came time to step up to the plate, they’ve chosen to bail.

Every last one of them.  They should all be ashamed.