Sympathy From the Devil

Virgil, please lead us out of this Inferno. Sometimes we feel like we're crossing through the circles of hell to the frozen lake just to meet face to face with Lucifer. I mean, I don't want to exaggerate, but it's just so brutal when the Cubs seasons are sabotaged before they ever have a chance. I'll be optimistic again by tomorrow -- don't get me wrong -- but today I'm feeling distraught. Just for a moment, I feel doubt.



I'm talking about Nomar, and I will not resort to using the C-word that rhymes with "urse" but I keep waiting for some sort of sign that this team can finally make it happen and let's just say that a groin injury to the best career hitter in the lineup is not that sign.

This was Nomar's year for redemption, and with it would come redemption for the team. This is the narrative I'm supposed to be writing. A brilliant hitter with something to prove, playing like it, infecting the whole team with enthusiasm. Nomar was the one guy in the everyday lineup with a star résumé on a team filled with guys with star potential.

Instead, a tendon connecting Nomar's groin muscle to bone has been ripped away. He's done, maybe for the season. What this means for the Cubs is a lot of runners left on base with a lineup with too many weaker links. They're going to have to scratch and claw to win a lot of close games if it's going to happen this year. Otherwise, only 2 more until the century mark.

This is the 97th year since 1908. Job 42:16 says that "After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations." I will not live that long, OK? There's thousands of us that are suffering, and not one of us will live that long. So is it time to cut a deal or something?

What's next? Will Zambrano finally take a hit off his bare hand because he's always reaching out to block balls hit back up the middle? Is that what the blister on his finger is telling us, as a portent? You're going to take away the one guy we feel like we can count on all season long?

So before you get any ideas, Virgil, or Destiny, or whomever, let me just say this: enough is enough. If you feel guilty, you can make up for it by giving us a star rookie. It shouldn't be a centerfielder like Jerome Walton since Corey Patterson is just fine with us, but they could sure use a phenom shortstop right now. Or a corner outfielder if Hollandsworth or Burnitz gets run down or hurt. But someone to inject some life into the lineup, to make more than one out of every three innings feel like possibilities-- is that too much to ask for?

Or maybe you can reach down and inspire the bullpen because frankly they're not looking good enough to let me feel confident about all the close games we'll be in now that Nomar is gone and the lineup is weaker, great starting pitching or no.

Tomorrow Pittsburgh rolls to town, and I'll convince myself that this team can win. Against Pittsburgh, I'll be right. At least I'd better be. But after that?

Cubs fans, it's going to be a tense season. A tight season. A lot of close games. Winning the hard way. Take a deep breath, and prepare for it. Here we go.

Of course, that will make it all the more enjoyable when we win the World Series this year. In fact, I feel better already. Screw doubt. We can win this thing.