Waiting Till Next Year

It's a common refrain we hear on the North Side of Chicago: "Wait 'till next year." It's, sadly, a refrain that we've heard for 107 years and counting. And now, we have to hear it for another year.

Late in 2011, the Cubs made sweeping changes to their administration, bringing in Theo Epstein from Boston to be the president of baseball operations, and begin a full fledged rebuild. I knew then that the next few years would be painful, but like Theo said, "There's a day coming." To a degree, that day is here.

Two incredibly painful years followed a year of some guarded optimism as the pieces began to fall into place. The prospects were lining up, and 2015 was beginning to see projections for the beginning of contention, even though Theo himself said that he was expecting 2016 at the earliest to be contention time. Instead, the Cubs arrived a year ahead of schedule. I correctly had them third in the NL Central behind St. Louis and Pittsburgh, but even I underestimated just how quickly this team would come together and make a run.

This was the first baseball season though that I had really looked forward to. I made it to Milwaukee to see the Cubs in early May, and got to see Kris Bryant hit his first Major League home run. Less than a week later, Kristen and I made the annual pilgrimage to Wrigley for a game, and it was a long day that turned out quite all right. Games like that set the stage for a fun summer filled with walkoffs, watching the young guys grow up before our very eyes, and see an ace turn into one of the best pitchers in baseball. It all culminated in a trip to October, earlier than expected.

As I'm sure you can imagine, I enjoyed the fact that the Cubs knocked off Pittsburgh in the Wild Card game, and even more so the elimination of the Cardinals at the Cubs' hands while the morons amongst the Cardinal fan base whined. I was all but on cloud nine. Then the NLCS started.

I don't know that I've ever been more frustrated by a baseball playoff series. Ultimately though, I have to tip my cap to the Mets. They were clearly the better team, and they've absolutely earned the right to play in the World Series. They're going to be a challenge for whoever comes out of the American League. I developed a sports hate for Daniel Murphy in the span of a week, but I can let go of it. Dude got hot at the right time; it happens.

It's depressing to see your team's season end when the hopes were so great, especially given Cubs history. I'm a veteran of the 2003 and 2008 heartbreak, so it doesn't surprise me that on all of the days the Cubs could have been eliminated, much less in a sweep, it's on the day where Marty McFly came to the future in Back to the Future II and found out the Cubs won the World Series. Of course, because he changed the future/past, he altered that timeline and probably made it so that the Cubs wouldn't win it. Time travel hurts my head.

The heartbreak has, to a degree, subsided this morning. I'm bummed, sure, but I'm still optimistic. Unlike the prior years, you can see that the foundation is in place for this summer's success to be sustained. This core will be around for years to come. Obviously, tweaks need to be made (i.e. the Cubs need more pitching), but I trust Theo to make the right moves.

2016 may not be The Year. But it has just as good a chance as any other to be, and I look forward to seeing what this team has in store.