The Chicago Cubs in the Postseason

By Lou Parrotta

The Chicago Cubs have finally broken a 95-year curse ­ they were able to win their first post-season series against the mighty perennial contenders Atlanta Braves.  In five games, their dominant, young starting pitchers were able to prevent the veteran Braves from making the National League Championship Series that began this week.

Either the Chicago Cubs or the Florida Marlins, another amazing baseball story under the tutelage of ageless manager "Trader" Jack McKeon, himself making his first post-season trip, will be play the New York Yankees or their arch-rival Boston Red Sox in the World Series.  Oh, what a post season this is!

If the Cubs are to play the Red Sox, a series that will alleviate at least one "curse" with its outcome, then a team who has not won a World Series in over eight decades will finally secure one.  If the Marlins make it, they will be making their second trip to the Fall Classic in the past 7 years, both as a Wild Card team.  If the Yankees make it, they will be trying to secure their 27th Championship in 100 years, more than any other team in any professional sport, and insure a perfect send-off to probably the greatest pitcher in the past 30 years, "Rocket" Roger Clemens.  Finally, if it's a Cubs-Yankees World Series, the buzz will be the fact that the last time those two teams met was in 1932 when the legendary Babe Ruth supposedly called his famous shot over the centerfield wall in Wrigley Field.

Back to the Cubs, though.  If only Harry Caray were alive today!  I could just hear him screaming at the top of his lungs "HOLY COW!  CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN!  We're Goin' to the Championship Series!"  Boy, would there be any sweeter sound that Caray rooting his beloved Cubbies, the loveable losers of all of baseball, in his totally off-key but truly sweet rendition of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch of each Cubbie home game?

I am a lifelong New York Yankees fan who has been enjoying this magical ride of post-season glory since 1995 tremendously.  However, I am also a baseball fan who appreciates all aspects of the lore this great game brings.  In 1987, I rooted for Andre "Hawk" Dawson and the Cubs and again in 1989 when they won the National League Eastern Division Title.  Both years I was disappointed in the end result.  Those two seasons cemented my affinity for the Cubs, and I have waited for them to again reach this pinnacle for 14 years now.  It may not be as long as most, but it is long enough.  So, if my beloved Yankees cannot secure another well-deserved title, I will not be heartbroken to see the Cubbies win it.  On the contrary, I will be ecstatic.  To see such Hall of Famers as Ernie Banks and Billy Williams and players like Ryne Sandberg and Andre Dawson at the park in October cheering on their old team is simply sweet. 

Since this column is on the Cubs, I ask you to extend your thoughts and prayers to another Chicago icon, should-be Hall of Famer Ron Santo.  Santo, the Cubs former star third baseman and current broadcaster, has suffered from diabetes for several years.  He has lost both his legs to this rotten illness, and has now found out he has bladder cancer.  He needs everyone's prayers for a speedy recovery as he awaits a possible "call to the Hall" in 2005.