I Used to Love Jet Blue, Now I Have to Kill Her

Back in the airport again, this time a 45 minute delay back to Boston. Been away from my computer for a few days but now that I’m stuck here I guess I can no longer delay the inevitable.

So this site is missing a lot of blue flags from the past couple of days. The Cubs are currently losers of 6 straight games and two games below the .500 mark. They got swept by the team formerly known as the Expos. Some lowlights from that series, which I unfortunately listened to all of:

1. Game 1 - Jeromy Burnitz, after hitting what was initially called the game-tying two run homer, gets the call reversed only to hit a double, drive in a run, basically steal third on a short sac fly, then get picked off third representing the tying run with one out.
2. Game 3 – After Aramis Ramirez hits a two-run bomb with two strikes and two out in the bottom of the ninth, Todd Walker throws away a double play ball, leading to three runs. (The fact that the Cubs once again rallied while down to their final out only made things more difficult.)
3. Series wide – I don’t care if they’re in first place, they’re still the Expos.

Now they’ve dropped the first two games against Atlanta, a primary wild card contender, and Smoltz is going tomorrow. But that’s not the worst news; Derrick Lee left the game in the third with a sore shoulder. Who knows how bad it is, but being the Cubs we can expect the worst. If he goes down, I will officially give up any hope of the Cubs winning again…ever.

But in listening to all of these games, and most of the previous 81 this season, I have come to realize that Ron Santo is one of the premiere broadcasters in the game. The reason is simple; he makes it quite evident that he hurts just as much as every other Cub fan out there. It’s great to listen to. You can always count on a “GOSH!” when the Cubbies ground into a double play with a runner on third, or, my favorite, the speechless approach when a Northsider makes the inevitable game turning error and Santo is left with nothing to say except, “I just don’t know what to say.”
Me either. I want to not care, but I can’t. I can write them off 30 times a season, but I always end up back on board. It’s not looking good though. Any hope of catching the Cards is basically gone, Atlanta is hot and Florida has been dangerously close to being good all year. The Cubs will have to have one of the best second halves of the season in franchise history. Seem likely? No.

But the good news is, with this post I’ll resume updating the site. If you remember from my second to last post, the Cubs were undefeated during that time period. Since then, 0-6. Get that mojo risin’!