With the Yankees beating the Guardians last night, the LCS are both set. In fact, the NLCS got underway last night. You may have noticed who was on the mound for the Padres; you may have seen a certain home run get absolutely demolished yesterday by a certain Phillies player. Maybe you noticed another familiar face in the outfield for the Phillies last night in San Diego… Not sure if you caught the Yankees’ celebration, but a certain first baseman’s raised arms certainly brought back memories. I’m not even talking about the manager of the Astros… Although the Cubs were nowhere near this postseason, they kind of are; it’s kind of like an ex-Cub party.
I’m trying not to get too pissed about this; getting angry, staying angry is exhausting isn’t it? Well, at least for me it is. This summer was really rough because half the time I was bitching about how the Cubs threw in the towel for the season before it even began. And now we have to watch 2 Wild Card teams in the NL battle it out for a spot in the World Series; let me hold my tongue. Today, I’m specifically talking about the players that played in front of the Wrigley faithful that are now, doing their thing elsewhere. Am I upset that they are not in a Cubs uniform any longer? Yes. Am I happy that they get to play on the big stage? Yes. Am I rooting for them to do well? Yes. If I take that approach, this postseason has turned out to be a no-lose situation.
Let’s start with the captain, or at least the guy that should have been our captain. Anthony Rizzo should have never wore another uniform for the rest of his career, period. On and off the field, the dude was all-time. Yeah, the back issues, the inability to hit the high cheese in the playoffs; nobody is perfect, ok? Now, he’s helping the Yankees put their best foot forward in the postseason. He’s not “the man” on the Yankees; Judge certainly has that covered. But to have someone with a World Series title under his belt playing a key role… must be nice; go Yankees because of Anthony! On the other side of the field in the ALCS will be Dusty Baker. Yeah, that whole staying mad thing… 2016 helped me exorcise a lot of demons, even 2003 Dusty Baker. I’m not mad at him any more (OK maybe a little); he may be the single reason I’d be OK if the Astros won it all.
In the NLCS, we got the Mighty Schwarbino, who was on full display in Game 1. My God, did you see that home run??? Fricking crushed that ball. Bravo Kyle. A World Series hero in his own right… we know the story of that season, specifically for Schwarbs. And yes, he was not without faults on the field either, but seemed like a classy guy, and oh yeah, he still hits dingers, and that’s kind of important. Throw in Castellanos, who we only had for a short amount of time in Wrigley, but man…really loved that dude’s energy; he seemed to reciprocate that love too. Why not resign a guy like that? What do I know… And then there’s Yu Darvish. Rough start to his Cubs career, followed by an absolute dominant stretch… then we dumped him, for pennies on the dollar. What? It’s not like we need any starting pitching or anything like that… OK, I’m trying not to get mad.
No, I choose happiness, always. I will root for each one of them, knowing that however the rest of the playoffs unfold, one of them will be celebrating a World Series title. Go Ex-Cubs!!!
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