Real hope for the future cushions the Cubs’ fall in the NLCS
CHICAGO — All climb until the sudden and final plunge, the wild and unexpected ride of the 2015 Chicago Cubs came to a full and complete stop on Wednesday night. The journey ended a surprising total of 101 victories from where it started, rejuvenating the fans at Wrigley Field and validating the plan that team president Theo Epstein asked everyone to buy into four years ago.
Everyone exit to the left and toward the nearest bar on Clark Street.
And, please, wait ‘til next year.
That’s been a familiar saying in Cubdom for 107 years now, of course, but the difference is that most of the fanbase doesn’t seem to have a problem complying as we head into the winter. Neither does the team. Music played when the clubhouse opened after the New York Mets finished off a dominating four-game sweep in which the Cubs never held a lead. Players talked more about reporting to Arizona in the spring than losing 8-3 to the Mets in Game 4 of the NLCS a few minutes earlier.
The sweep was disappointing, but hardly devastating.
“We know what we have here,” rookie Kris Bryant said. “Everyone else knows what we have here.”
The core of this Cubs team is so young and so ahead of schedule that it was often repeated in Chicago the team was playing with house money. The years between 2009 and 2014 had been so meager and bleak that every blast from Bryant and every ace start from Jake Arrieta was celebrated with a genuine joy. Not that it has ever needed one, but Wrigley again had a reason to party. Not to mention guests of honor that it soon grew to adore.
How fully did Cubs players and fans bond over the course of a season? Neither left the park on Wednesday until the players saluted the fans and the fans saluted them back. The chants of “Let’s Go Cubbies” were so loud that they drowned out the noise being created by the pennant-winning Mets and their fans on the first-base line.
It may never be like this again, of course. With 97 regular season wins and playoff triumphs over the Pirates and Cardinals, the Cubs have set quite a bar for themselves. They’re likely to rest atop the top of the Vegas odds boards for the 2016. They’ll occupy real estate on preseason magazine covers and field infinitely more “Is this the year?” questions than they did last season.
The pressure will be greater. Future playoff disappointments won’t be treated so lightly by the Chicago media. The weight of the franchise’s 107-year title drought might start to be felt by a group that wisely pled ignorance to it this time around.
Maddon said the team would head to Mesa, Ariz., next February knowing “exactly what we want to do and how we’re going to do it.” As one of the team’s veterans, Arrieta quickly embraced the challenge of already dictating the team’s expectations for the next season.
“As a group we need to understand that we’re no longer going to play games that don’t mean anything in April and May,” Arrieta said. “Every game is important and I think playing in the postseason establishes that mindset.”
A reporter mentioned that the Cubs had set the bar quite high for themselves with 97 regular season wins.
“You don’t want to set it low,” Arrieta said.
Sure, but winning 97 games in the majors is not a thing that’s easy to repeat.
“Well, yeah, then we’ll get 100 next year,” Arrieta said. “That’s fine.”
Arrieta continued.
“When you get this close, it makes you even hungrier to get there,” Arrieta said. “You don’t want to see the opposing team celebrating on your turf. Whatever motivation guys need I’m sure this will add to it.”
The team will almost assuredly look different once the front office works its way through winter meetings and the hot stove season. Maddon mentioned he’d like to tinker with the pitching, a give-in considering the Cubs will have plenty of money to spend and have often been mentioned as a potential David Price suitor. The bullpen, which relied on several DFA castoffs this postseason, will be bolstered while Epstein and Co. will look for ways to create more runs without relying so heavily on the home run.
While everyone seems confident with the Cubs’ direction, it’s worth underscoring that there are no guarantees in baseball. The playoffs are a random thing, the type of place where someone like Daniel Murphy hits a home run in six straight games and leads Maddon to compare him to 2002 Barry Bonds. The Cubs could win 100 games for the next three years and fall victim to the Daniel Murphy of that year in the NLDS. This isn’t the NBA where eventually Michael Jordan or LeBron James breaks through after enough yeawrs.
For every core-heavy team like the 2007-2010 Philadelphia Phillies (one World Series title, two NL pennants), there’s title-free but well-run teams like the Tampa Bay Rays or Detroit Tigers of the same era. Having money more to patch the holes in the farm system’s output often doesn’t matter, either. Look at the Los Angeles Dodgers of recent years.
Then there’s a team like the 2012 Washington Nationals who were told their devastating loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS wouldn’t matter once it had romped throught the next few seasons. The Nats are still waiting for a NLCS appearance in Washington, let alone a trip to the World Series.
Of course, there will be plenty of time for the Cubs to succeed and fail on their own and whatever happens will continue to be one of the most interesting stories in baseball. This year’s team resurrected interest in the franchise, outpaced almost everyone’s expectations by at least 10-15 wins and completed such a full culture shift on the North Side that the team’s best pitcher threw out 100 wins in 2016 as a goal.
Now the really hard work begins.
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Kevin Kaduk is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KevinKaduk
