Getting To Know: The Chicago Cubs

In an effort to diversify the coverage of the teams here at Major League Jerk, I am going to provide a regular series called “Getting to Know”. My intent is to interview a fan of a team and ask them what we need to know about that team. If you want to be the first one on your block to be interviewed by me, the Great RomanWarHelmet, please send an e-mail to majorleaguejerk@gmail.com and put Roman in the subject. Well, this installment should be a very special treat to two people that comment here. Neither of whom I asked to do this. Instead, when I asked the MLJ crew over breakfast at the MLJ compound was there anybody they knew that could help me, Stigs piped up and claimed he had a friend that would do a great job with the Cubs. After clown pointed out to Stigs that he had no friends, we all laughed. Stigs cried and then had this guy contact me. It turns out he actually knew Stigs, and while he wouldn’t call him a “friend” he said he did know him and was comfortable answering my questions. The person in question goes by the pseudonym The Jammer. The Jammer was very helpful and I thank him for his words. So without further ado, let’s get to know…The Chicago Cubs.

As always, I like to start by getting to know how one becomes a fan of a team and how they follow a team and interact with it’s fanbase. This is where The Jammer begins (The Jammer’s words are in bold).

I became a Cubs fan through a combination of factors. Just cause it sounds good, let’s say 3 factors played in to my choice of the Cubs as my team.

The first factor was geography. I guess it’s a family tradition. One Grandpa grew up in Ohio, and was an Indians fan. One Grandpa grew up in Iowa, and his local television affiliates broadcast the Cubs, so that’s who he followed. My dad grew up in South Chicago as a kid so he liked the White Sox. Finally, I was raised in Illinois, and landed with the Cubs. Now one might ask, why not pull for the Sox? They are in the same city, and they are your old man’s team…which brings me to…

The second factor: my dad’s office had season tickets to the Cubs. When I was 5 years old, and just starting to get into MLB, (via Topps baseball cards), my dad decided to snag some of the office tickets and take us into Wrigley for a Cubs/Cardinals tilt. For the record, Tom Herr hit a solo homer in the first inning, and the game ended 1-0 Cardinals. Obviously a real action packed game for a 5-year-old kid to watch. Regardless, the whole exposure to the Wrigley atmosphere must have made an impression, cause I’ve never wavered since. Which is the way it should be when a kid picks a team, regardless of sport, but ESPECIALLY in baseball.

The third factor was most definitely channel 9. If anybody is reading this that ever lived in Illinois, they know what I’m talking about. If you don’t know what I’m talking about in other parts of the country it’s now called Superstation WGN or some shit. Anyways, channel 9 was the shit. They had bozo every morning before school, and Harry Caray and Steve Stone after school (if it was April, May, August, September, and damn near NEVER October…except 1984 and 1989). They also had these sweet ass Unocal 76 commercials about this old fart named Murph who had a gas station. And Dennis Franz commercials where he would ask a guy in the stands, “What is a Met?” in a baseball trivia pissing contest. Oh, and of course the Cub Fan/Bud Man Harry Caray beer commercials. So I watched the Cubs all the time, because you didn’t need cable for channel 9.

Really Harry Caray doing a beer commercial? Shocking. So how do you currently follow the team?

Now days I catch them on TV when I can, (usually night games, after I get out of work). However since I am confined to a cubicle most days, I follow them on the Internet, or just flip on 720 AM, and listen to the excellent Cubs radio team of Pat Hughes and Ron Santo. Another stunt I’m prone to pull to follow the Cubs, which you didn’t touch on, was via a mobile phone. I text ‘cubs’ to MLBGO at least once a week to see what the score is of a game while I’m out and about, so that’s another way I stay on top of what’s going on.

Sorry not to bring my tech savvy to the table. I am happy your ability to use a phone enables you to follow the Cubbies. Stop making me feel bad. Anywho, how do you interact with the fan base and what type of traditions does the fan base adhere too?

How do I interact with other Cubs fans? Good question. Here’s a quick fact about my situation. I currently live probably 10 minutes from the home ballpark of a division rival, so my interactions with Cubs fans occur a) during Cub road games at this stadium, b) via cell phone to my vast network of Cubs fans who I am friends with, or c) during the yearly odyssey to Wrigley. Needless to say, I’m not really in Cub friendly territory at the moment, so my interactions are pretty limited. As far as Cub atmosphere and traditions, there’s quite a few if you really want to dig deep, but some of the more famous ones are tossing back opposing teams home runs, singing the 7^th inning stretch with the Celeb du jour who comes to town for a game, and Wayne Messmer, the dude that sings the national anthem before every Cubs game.

I just want to put my two cents in here. The 7th inning stretch thing a Wrigley bothers me. Only because 90% of the time it is some asshammer looking to promote something. When Harry Caray did it, he was drunk. I like to think he would have been belting out “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” about 3:45 PM every afternoon after his 5th scotch on the rocks in his living room, none the less Wrigley Field. But I digress, besides telling me that they are awesome, give me an overview of this year’s team.

Top to bottom, this year’s team looks like the most complete team from an offensive standpoint I can remember us having in my lifetime. When everybody is healthy, the team doesn’t really have an easy out one through eight, and if Big Z is dealing, then basically we’re pretty tough one through nine in the order. I can’t really spell it out to you in any fancy terms. The stats aren’t lying. We’ve got a great offense, and we score a lot more runs than our opponents, hence the gaping run differential this season between us and our opponents. That said, as a greedy fan, I’d love to see us add another stick or two before the trade deadline, but I’m thinking more along the lines of Randall Simon than Nomar Garciaparra here…

As far as pitching goes, this isn’t the best staff I’ve seen us with, but they are obviously getting things done. The bullpen is doing a good job this season, and really if you pay attention to baseball trends over the years, good bullpens are almost ALWAYS necessary to even get a sniff of post season play, so that’s promising. Regarding our starting pitchers, we’re not loaded like we were in ’02, with Wood, Prior, and Zambrano all having very, very good seasons. Instead, I’d actually liken this year’s staff to the 1989 starting rotation. In ’89 the Cubs won the NL East, and Mike Bielecki came out of nowhere to put together a really good season, which basically nobody would have predicted. I would argue you could say Ryan Dempster’s performance this year sort of echoes Bielecki’s ’89 season…you sort of wonder if it can last more than one year. Additionally, we’ve got a youngish ace in Zambrano, much like our youngish ace Greg Maddux in 1989, (and no I do not think Zambrano will have Maddux’s career, for the record). The addition of Dick Harden really legitimized our rotation, and at this point, I would assume Hendry is done tinkering with the pitching staff, and we’ve got the guys we’re going to war with should we make it to the postseason.

So in a nutshell, a dangerous offensive team with a solid, above average pitching staff, obviously a recipe for success, which is exactly what we’ve been lucky enough to have up to this point in the season.

Dick Harden? Oh, I see what you did there. Cute. Are there any guys on this team that are getting overlooked by the media, whether it be good or bad?

I think the obvious guy here is Ryan Theriot. (I think this may be the brother of Mike Theriot who Hef loves so much. No, you will never ever live it down Mr. Baseball. Ever.) At least to me. Sure he seems to get a lot of notoriety amongst Cub fans, and to an extent the Chicago media, as a guy who is a good ball player, but the fact that he didn’t make the all star team on a team where seemingly everybody else did kind of leaves him the odd man out, and gives him the appearance of an under rated player. I’m thinking your average Rangers fan, or Mariners fan, or Padres fan would probably not be able to tell you what Ryan Theriot brings to the table as a ball player, but as a Cubs fan, he’s a guy you really appreciate watching. He hustles all the time, and comes up big when it counts.

Another guy that gets overlooked is young Ronnie Cedeno. I’ll say this. I’ve seen the guy get up to bat with the bases loaded like 3 times this year. I’m fairly certain he’s got a grand slam once, a triple once, and a single once. That’s Lloyd McClendon goes to Williamsport, PA type numbers.

As far as an over rated Cub or a guy who gets too much credit, I think it’s fair to say Kosuke Fukudome probably didn’t deserve to start in the outfield for the NL in the All Star game. That said, I love the guy, am glad he’s a Cub, and I think he plays the game the right way.

Fair enough about those guys. I think every team has guys that do more than their numbers show. I also think the overrated aspect of Fukudome wasn’t helped by a certain Illustrated magazine about Sports. What do you think of the job performances of Lou Pinella and Jim Hendry?

Please keep in mind a few things here. I’m a Cubs fan. I’ve been a Cubs fan for roughly 25 years. We’ve never been this far over .500, or had the best record in MLB at the All Star Break during that time, (at least as best I can remember). So for me to sit here and say anything other than that I’m tickled pink by what’s happening and that Sweet Lou is meeting and exceeding expectations would be stupid. The success we’ve had so far this season is really unprecedented by my memory, and I’m pumped.

As far as Hendry goes, I think he does a pretty outstanding job keeping this team in the mix. He’s probably not viewed on the same level as a Beane/Epstien/Schuerholz/Hart guy, but he really does a fine job keeping us stocked with talent, and I hope he’s not done shopping just yet.

Are there any prospects on the horizon we should know about?

Felix Pie (OF) is a guy that has been on the cusp for a couple years now. When he’s come to the bigs, he’s struggled with the junk that big league pitchers can bring. One thing to keep in mind though is how young he still is though at only 23 years of age. I think he’ll make a fine outfielder in the next 2-4 years…it’s just a matter of time before everything clicks for him. Otherwise Jeff Samardzija (P) gets a ton of publicity because he used to catch footballs for Notre Dame, and Josh Vitters (3B) is the latest high draft pick we’ve signed. I could honestly rattle off like ten names here, but it’s all speculation, and to the non-Cubs fans, they would just be names.

I remember watching a game last year where Kerry Wood was on his way back and Eddie Vedder caught a bullpen session for him. When Kerry and Eddie was walking to the bullpen the crowd erupted. I thought it may have been for Eddie but the more I heard it the more I realized it was for Wood. Please give me your thoughts on Kerry Wood and his relationship with the Cubs fan.

Kerry has rallied back this year, and it was pretty excellent seeing him on the All Star team. I think he fits that classic baseball type of ‘what could have been’ to an extent, maybe not on the level of a Bo Jackson or a David Clyde or JR Richard, but still he’s in that conversation, which is regrettable. That said, he’s having a very good, consistent year, and it’s very satisfying to see him healthy and enjoying some success. One thing most Cubs fans will tell you though, is that he’s a Cubbie closer, and therefore there will always be a sliver of our hearts that doesn’t trust him…we’ve simply had our hearts broken so many times over the years.

As far as what he means to Cub fans, I can’t really say. I won’t speak for everybody. Personally though, Kerry is a guy I treasure. When I was a kid the Cubs weren’t wheeling and dealing like they have been in recent years. You had your guys, and you pulled for them. Guys like Mark Grace, Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson, Rick Sutcliffe, Keith Moreland, Leon Durham, etc. These were guys that stuck around with the Cubs for a long time. Now days it’s more of a rarity. GM’s get itchy trigger fingers and liquidate guys for prospects, or of course Free Agency opens doors to avenues that probably weren’t available back when I was a kid, (although that’s how we got Dawson, and how we lost Maddux). So having Kerry stick around is nice. As oft injured as he has been, he’s sort of perversely become the old reliable of the club. He’s slowly become the guy that’s on the team every year. Whether we’re winning the wild card in ’98, or stinking out the joint, or going 5 outs from the Series in ’02, or stinking out the joint, or sitting atop the NL at the All Star break in ’08 – this guy is the one constant.

Well, this is getting a bit long but I have a few more questions since the Cubs are so fucking fascinating. What are your thoughts on the ownership situation? Who should Zell sell too?

My thoughts on the ownership situation are pretty brief and simple. I hope whoever buys it appreciates the team history, and doesn’t make any sweeping changes. As far as who he sells the team to, I think either Canning or Cuban would probably do fine. I believe they would both aggressively pursue a title, which is really what any MLB fan should want their team’s owner to do. Just don’t sell to the Pink hat guy.

I hope it’s Mark Cuban. I totally see him putting a Jumbotron in. That would rule. Speaking of that, Wrigley Field, majestic old ballpark or crusty pile of bricks?

Too easy. It’s really a national treasure, and one of the crown jewels of Major League Baseball. A very historically significant sporting venue, especially if you factor in the NFL goliaths that played there, (Butkus, Sayers, Halas, etc).

HA! You said Butkus. Tee Hee. But seriously, if Wrigley is such a majestic ballpark and it’s fans are so great, why would you as a fan base vote for so many Cubs for the All-Star team if you actually want a good shot at winning a World Series?

Because sometimes what our hearts tell us and what our brains tell us are two different things, and when it comes to the Cubs, we listen to our hearts. Why else would a logically functioning individual keep coming back to a team that hasn’t won a championship in a century?

Well, fine then. I would like to thank you for you time, The Jammer. I am certain Sportsgal will complain about the length and content of this post. If anyone is still reading this? Tatis. Thank you.