It's Fun Again

Well, I hope everyone else is enjoying this as much as I am. The Cubs have started out of the gate better than we had a right to hope for and I’m simply thrilled. Not only is Cubs baseball thoroughly fun again for the first time since last July or so, but right now it’s really fun. So far, there’s been little evidence prompting caution; my mental voice has yet to say “Enjoy it while it lasts, sucker.” Despite its flaws, this team is going to be fun to watch all season long.



Fun might not be the same thing as winning a division, but they’re not that far apart either. I say give into it! At least for now, what's not to enjoy? More to the point, you can answer that question if you want, but why bother?

The story so far has been Greg Maddux, of course. 3-0 with an ERA barely above one from a Cy Young winner several times over merits attention. A lot of writers are spending a lot of time on him, and it’s all deserved.

But here’s the point that I haven’t seen: might not the fire that’s under Greg Maddux be the same fire that’s spread under the whole team? Or, isn’t it reasonable to figure that maybe behind the scenes guys noticed that Maddux showed up ready to pitch, and followed his lead right from the start? If we’re looking for a cause to explain the winning effect, might not Greg Maddux have been the catalyst? The leader? Not that there’s only one cause, but I have to figure that Maddux’s attack is a significant part of it.

There’s no doubt this team is playing with enthusiasm again. Again, as in for the first time since practically the first half of 2004. It was most evident in that Cardinals series, and while it’s easy to look back at it this way in hindsight, it seemed to me that the team was a half-step quicker that first home game when Maddux came out and started with a 1-2-3 inning the third game of the season. His defense was behind him that game, turning a pair of double plays among other fine picks. Between that, and the suicide squeeze attempt, it was already starting to feel... different. Make that better.

Maybe the competitiveness in Maddux has prompted him to angle towards making this his year. The year he decided that he was not content being less than the ace as he ages. The year that reminded us to pay attention because we will have more to remember him for than the '90s. Or the year in which at the very least he was going to give everything he had because with all the complacency we witnessed on that ’05 team, someone had to step up and be a man. The man. The one who knows what excellence for its own sake is, and how to harness it towards the pursuit of something even bigger when it materializes.

Yep, soak it in, because times are good early on. There are an awful lot of great storylines unfolding simultaneously. No one’s saying it’s going to happen, but if the Cubs are to win a pennant in 2006, this is the way the plot is supposed to start.

Let’s not kid ourselves about this team having the kind of makeup to stage a late-season surge after a slow start, had that happened. By the time all the negativity and doubt would have piled on, residual from all the recent disappointment, this team would have had to stage a miracle to overcome a sizable deficit in the loss column. It was start strong or bust, the way I had it figured. Not even Wood & Prior coming back could have provided that much of a jolt -- not with all the pressure the circumstances would have put on them.

Start strong they have. Derrek Lee shows no signs of slowing down, squaring on every ball near the plate and having reached base on 12 hits and 11 walks, to only 5 strikeouts. With the contract extension, we get to watch one of the best first basemen in the game in an era of great first basemen, for several more years. This is just fantastic, friends. Meanwhile Barrett is slugging the ball and I’m not concerned about Ramirez since he’s always been something of a streaky hitter, and his hands are coming through the zone lightning quick.

And when’s the last time the Cubs had three rookies to dote on? Cedeno looks like he’s gonna be just fine, Murton looks even better than that, and Marshall has got all the tools. A lot of people are spending a lot of time analyzing Cedeno especially, trying to figure out how high his trajectory will be –- role player or star, shortstop for a decade or a failed experiment. Who knows? What I do know is that it’s fun watching him range ridiculously far, bounce up like he’s caffeinated and sling it across to Lee. I’ll take a kid playing the game that way -- throwing errors and all -- at this point in his career over someone who played more conservatively any day.

Then there’s Dempster, who is in the middle of a freaking remarkable run of shutout innings and completed saves. He’s simplified his approach, and while he will continue to walk guys because his stuff is not so overpowering that he can blow it past a hitter down the middle, I have yet to see any evidence of the wheels falling off on his ride either. It’s not rocket science for Dempster right now: balls breaking down and away out of the zone get hitters out when you're pitching with the lead.

Just like I didn’t want to blame Dusty too much for a lot of what happened last year -- not to give him a free pass, just that I wasn’t sure anyone else could have done better -- I’m not willing to give him too much credit for this one either. He’s been competent or better, but he also has much less room to tinker. Either the lineup he had to draw up would make it work or it wouldn’t, and so far they have.

Maybe it can’t last. It was almost 100 degrees here again today but as I type this there are thunderclaps echoing off the hills and this unusual early heat spell is about to snap; perhaps with it the Cubs hot start will break as well. Still, going in I was hoping for a 14-10 start, and that means going 6-6 the next two weeks. That’s it. Until they show me a reason to stop -– a fatal flaw -– I’m going to enjoy this to its fullest tilt. They’re not perfect, but they’re a lot better than they were a year ago, which is more than enough for April.