Something Crazy Happened? Must Be The Postseason...
Is there some kind of law that says that every damn baseball game played in October has to have something crazy happen in it? Is FOX scripting these games? Truth is truly stranger than fiction, and last night's Cubs/Marlins game is a monumental testament to that fact.
We all know the backstory: The Cubs have a long history of futility and near-misses. They last played in the World Series in 1945, a series which they lost. The great Cub shortstop (and later first baseman) Ernie Banks hit over 500 home runs in the '50s and '60s, but never played in a post-season game. The 1969 Cubs tortured their fans (24 years removed from the post season even then) with an historic collapse that saw the Miracle Mets become fate's darlings instead of the Cubs. The 1984 Cubs were ahead of the Padres before Steve Garvey hit a home run off of Lee Smith to lead to a decisive fifth game. But why would the Cubs worry? They had Rick Sutcliffe on the mound, who had gone 16-1 after a mid-season deal to the Cubs that year. But then future St. Paul Saint Leon Durham booted a ball, and the Padres went on to get smashed by the dominant Detroit Tigers. 39 years since the last Series, and counting.
The Cubs made their way back into October ball in 1989 (loss to the Giants), and 1998 (lost to the Braves 3-0, I personally saw the Jim Riggleman blow out Wood's elbow on a cold October night in the final game of the series).
But 2003 was to be the year, 58 years after that lost trip to the Series. The Cubs had dominant pitching, Dusty Baker, and a lineup good enough to get the runs. What's more, after dispatching the hated Braves in the NLDS, the Cubs were going to get to feast on an underdog, the Florida Marlins. They came back to Wrigley yesterday with a 3-2 lead, and the best pitcher in the league on the mound in Mark Prior. Wrigley was amped. A huge crowd was forming on Waveland Avenue. Chicago was going to party like it hasn't partied since the Bulls and Bears were in their heyday.
But it was even beyond that. A persona was going to be changed. The Cubs were going to be loveable losers no more, and there would be no talk of collapses or curses or anything at all but the marvelous pitching of the Cubs and the long-suffering fans finally catching a glimpse of the joy they had seen other (perhaps even less-deserving) fans bask in.
Prior was cruising. The Cubs' 1-0 lead felt so much bigger than that. This was exactly how it was supposed to go. Just for giggles, the Cubs added two insurance runs, Wrigley went nuts, and I walked my dog in the cool October night. I knew it was safe to leave, you see, because the Marlins had brought Dontrelle Willis into the game. I love Willis, though he has struggled in the postseason. I left because that's the tell-tale move of post season desperation: to bring your star pitcher into the game in relief, when he would ordinarily never be pitching. It's like pulling the goalie in hockey--it almost never works, and the game is pretty much over at that point. After all, the Marlins would need a miracle to score three against Prior, the way he was cruising, and the Marlins were down to six outs now.
So, I walked my dog, I returned, I ambled down to the basement and wondered if the game was still on. I figured I might turn it on to see a wild Chicago lockerroom. After all, I had been gone about 45 minutes, and the way Prior was mowing them down...
I turned it on to see that the Marlins were leading 4-3. I then saw Mike Mordecai drive one into the gap to make the score 7-3, and eventually it was 8-3.
Naturally, I was stunned. How the hell had this happened? I heard the announcers talking about how the Marlins were an opportunistic bunch, and they took advantage of a big break. "Hmm," I thought to myself. "I wonder which Cub booted the ball. What a goat they are going to be."
And then, I saw what happened. Briefly, for those people who didn't see it: A fan reached over the railing and prevented Cubs LF Moises Alou from catching a foul ball that would have been out number 2 in the eighth inning. There was a runner on second, and the score was still 1-0 in favor of the Cubs. In other words...It was a pretty big non-out.
It shouldn't be possible for this much irony to exist. You wouldn't buy this story if somebody put it in a novel. You'd say, "No way. You can't write it that way. Nobody will believe it." In what kind of bizarro world does a Cub fan, a guy with a Cubs hat and headphones and great seats who has no question deemed this one of the great events of his life, to see the Cubs go to a series, personally help the Cubs achieve a new level of spooky cursedness? I mean, how raw is that? Cubs fans, those reservoirs of defeatism and false hope and cynicism, get within five outs of a trip to Heaven, only to see one of their own screw the team.
Now, it needs to be said, that poor guy didn't allow all eight runs to score. The Cubs walked guys, they booted balls, there were a lot of things that went wrong. It's not all on that one guy. But it's no coincidence at all that most of the bad things that happened to the Cubs happened after the foul ball out that wasn't. Prior walked Luis Castillo, the guy who got the fan-ordered reprieve. Think Prior wasn't rattled?
The fact is, a lot of the great events we remember in baseball history as deciding post season series' in fact didn't happen in the deciding games. Buckner's ground ball in '86? That was only in Game 6. The Red Sox could have come back and won Game 7, but of course they did not, and that probably had a little something to do with the shell shock leftover from Game 6. The Royals in 1985? Don Denkinger's blown call wasn't in Game 7, it was in Game 6. But once that call happened, the Cardinals were done. Kansas City rolled to an 11-0 win in Game 7.
You think the Cubs aren't thinking about that stuff? You think they've just put last night completely out of their heads?
I feel so bad for the fan. He just had a brain cramp, and he saw the ball, and he tried to catch the ball. That's it. But at the same time, you gotta be a little more savvy than that. I'd like to think most serious baseball fans would understand the situation, and give their own fielders a wide berth going for any ball. The worst part? The guy was listening to the game on headphones. He must have heard the radio call in real time with his own actions. Imagine the soundtrack the guy is hearing goes something like this:
Radio: "There's a foul ball. Alou is moving over. He's going to have a play, what a big out this would be...NO! I DON'T BELIEVE IT! Some idiot in a Cubs cap reached over and took the ball from Alou. You idiot! You idiot! The fans are pelting him with beer and menacing gestures. Oh, man. I wouldn't want to be that guy. He'll live with that the rest of his life!"
And imagine the poor fan, sitting there, drenched with beer (he was), and starting to get the very sinking feeling that not only have you potentially cost your team, but you might have a bit of a, um, security situation on your hands. And he sits there kicking himself, but he thinks, "Maybe it's no big deal. I'm sure Prior will get these last two outs, and the Cubs will keep the lead. Please get these last two outs, Mark Prior. Please, God, help the Cubs get out of this inning with no damage, because if they don't, I'm afraid that..."
Bam! Then the Marlins score not one, not two, but eight freaking runs.
I'm concerned about that guy's well-being, truly. But even if nobody ever lays a hand on him, he'll beat himself up, oh, for about, let's say...forever. Anybody who doubts that doesn't know what it's like to be a fan. Yeah, we know, it wasn't all his fault. It wasn't. But he won't feel that way, his family won't feel that way, his coworkers won't feel that way. I'm not saying it's right. I'm saying it's real.
The only way, and I mean the only way, that guy's life isn't altered in a very negative way, is if the Cubs come back and win tonight. In fact, it would help if they won the whole thing, because if they win tonight but lose in the World Series, there will be pitching rotation issues that could be a direct result of their loss last night. Again, not at all completely that guy's fault. But there would be a lot of people who still thought about that guy's role in it, and he surely would.
I've been rooting for the Marlins. I love that team. But how can you not like the Cubs? And I'd take either of those clubs over the increasingly loutish Red Sox and the always-hated Yankees. But rooting interests change fast, and now I have to admit that a part of me wants the Cubs to win tonight, just so that guy's life isn't ruined or endangered.
Either way, we have been provided with a substantial amount of new and interesting lore. Either the Cubs overcome this bizarre and in many ways tragicomic event to get to the World Series, thus making the achievement an even greater journey for the team and their fans, or they don't overcome it, and the Cubs fans' torture will now rival that of Red Sox fans in a very real and unique way.
Because you see, Boston fans can always curse Buckner, they can curse Dent, they can even curse Babe Ruth's curse, but they have never had reason to curse themselves, as Cubs fans now do.
10:35:27 AM 
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