Another Season Down The Toilet

Well, I am waving my white flag early this year. I know the Cubs are one game over .500 but trust me this team is as dead as the phrase you go girl. The boys in the blue currently have three rookies in the rotation, our best hitter is on the DL and won’t be back for at least five more weeks and we have lost five of the last six games by a combined score of 45-5. If that isn’t all you need to hear well then what is?

I often wonder just what I have done to deserve such a fate. As I sit there night after night and watch this teams futile attempts at trying to win, I have to live with the fact that White Sox are 19-4 in their last 23 games. They already won last year, they had their fun, when is it our turn? They have a solid five man rotation and their guys never have shoulder problems or food poisoning. Is it just plain luck or is it something else?

To me it comes down to philosophy. The White Sox management even after winning a World Series went into the off season and re-tooled. They went out and got another starting pitcher and bolstered its offense by picking up Jim Thome. What did we do? We signed the .248 hitting Jaque Jones to a three year deal and kept up the foolish belief that Prior and Wood would be healthy. Well Jones is hitting .239 and Prior and Wood have yet to throw a pitch this year.

The good news is that most Cub fans I know are finally fed up enough to voice their frustration at this nonsense. The booing at Wrigley is getting louder and more constant. It took the White Sox winning to wake up Cub nation but awake we are. I for one am not going to stand for this. It is only May and it is shaping up to be one hell of a long season. I will not accept mediocrity for another year. Our minor league system is running dry and the major league roster is nothing special.

I was reading a Baseball America prospectus ranking the top 25 prospects in the game and there wasn’t one Cub on the list. That is an indictment against Jim Hendry, Andy MacFAIL (yes I purposely spelled his name wrong) and the entire Cubs scouting system. It is time to re-boot folks, because this regime aint getting it done. I call for a complete system upgrade.

I would fire the lot of them. Hendry did not have this team ready for this season. Sure he shored up the bullpen but he didn’t give us an adequate right fielder and he didn’t address the starting rotation. It is not second guessing when most of Cubdom was screaming about both things in the off season. MacFAIl has been here since 1994 and we have one division title and one wild card appearance to show for his time here. I don’t know about you but that is not good enough.

Dusty Baker and his entire coaching staff all need to be let go as well. Baker is the most un-imaginative manager in the game. Wear your wrist bands some where else and take Larry Rothschild and Gene Clines with you. So, now that we have successfully removed the virus we need to get healthy.

I would hire Whitey Herzog to be the President and General Manager. Herzog is a sharp baseball man who knows the game. He would change the philosophy overnight. Being above .500 will no longer be the goal. He will want to win and will do anything to do so. I then hire Lou Pinnela to mange the team. You think Pinnela would tolerate Aramis Ramirez loafing it down the first base line?

Lord knows I could be wrong and this team could some back and salvage this season, but I doubt it. I want the Cubs to win so badly that it kills to me to watch this mediocrity. I am tired of having to hear shit form Sox and Cardinal fans. I think we have been the punch line long enough. It is time to stop getting kicked in the stomach and start doing some of the kicking ourselves. I think for as long as we have suffered we deserve a little happiness.