Playoffs are a crapshoot! Cubs are ready!
https://medium.com/sportspickle/cubs-ex ... .vp6lprp2nCubs excited about opportunity to be the most disappointing team in franchise historyCHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs led Major League Baseball with 103 wins this season, but the team knows its place in history will be determined by what it does in the postseason — and it’s that fact that has Cubs players and coaches excited about October.
“Baseball isn’t like other sports where you can just impose your will on lesser teams,” manager Joe Maddon said today. “We’ve talked about that as a team. Having the best record in the majors means nothing in the postseason. We have a 1-in-8 shot at winning the World Series, which is terrible odds. We’re almost definitely not going to win.”
But the always-upbeat Maddon says his team has already come to grips with its impending failure and is instead looking at the silver lining: that the 2016 Cubs will go down as the most disappointing Cubs team in 118 years of Cubs disappointment.
“Win or lose — and, again, it’s most definitely lose — we will be remembered forever,” said Maddon. “How can you not be excited by that? We will live on for all time. Even 118 years in the future when the Cubs still haven’t won a World Series, they’ll talk about this 2016 team, the team that won 103 games and was loaded throughout the roster, as the biggest letdown of all. The biggest letdown of all from a franchise that has some of the biggest failures in sports history. This team losing will make the Bartman year look like nothing. That team only won 88 games. They weren’t half as good as we are, which means we’ll be more than twice as disappointing. Chicago will never forget our names. This team will live on forever. Our names will be cursed long after we’re all dead and buried.”
First baseman Anthony Rizzo said he believes it will be for the best when the Cubs get eliminated.
“Do I want to win? Sure. Every baseball player wants to win the World Series,” he said. “But I worry about Cubs fans. They love us so much and I want what’s best for them. If we win, they’ll just become unbearable and obnoxious like Red Sox fans did in 2004. No, it’s probably best if we lose in the playoffs, and in the most painful way possible. It will let our fans keep their identity.”
As for Cubs fans who will remain positive about the team even when they lose this year due to the franchise’s young core of players, Maddon cautioned them that’s the wrong approach.
“There are no dynasties in baseball anymore,” said the manager. “This year could be our one shot. Or at least our best shot. We had a young core in Tampa and never won anything. The Royals won the World Series last year and didn’t even make the playoffs this year. You can’t count on the future, only the present. Which is why this year’s defeat will be so crushing.”
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