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CHICAGO – Introspection and baseball converge with the ease of two magnets with identical poles. Sport, with its 162 games, its menagerie of minutiae, its need to change on the fly, actively discourages deep thought. What made the scene even more incongruous after the game with generic cards of the National League on Tuesday night. With their season over, their dream of winning another title in the championship, the Chicago Cubs did not lament the Colorado Rockies' 2-3 win over the Colorado Rockies, they attempted to answer a familiar question to anyone who Is engaged in a personal reflection: Who are we exactly?
There were no clear answers, not yet, which made the question all the more embarrassing. Because the Cubs, separated by two years from their first World Series victory in more than a century, found themselves in a baseball purgatory a year after another Series Series victory, thinking that everything would be fine without the knowledge. Their manager is going to be a lame duck, and their farm system seems unlikely to provide a whiff of talent ready for the major leagues, and their core – the same core that was bursting with dynastic aspirations in 2016 – had just come out of the post-season 2018 dramatically. fashion.
In just over 24 hours, the Cubs went from their home advantage in the playoffs to their preparation for the winter. It was a vertiginous turning point characterized by a demonstration of offensive impotence that bled from September to October. It was an appropriate microcosm of the season: in fact, opportunity after opportunity, the Cubs were simply not able to give the coup de grace that had been given to them two years ago, by getting their gold rings and Oversized diamonds in extra sleeves.
What's next for the Chicago Cubs? (Getty Images)
It was different It was the Cubs who were excluded for seven innings by a pitcher who made his first start in the playoffs, losing no more than three days, before missing a race. It was one race after another, and each at bat had the opportunity to leave the Rockies and engage in a series of vengeance with the Milwaukee Brewers, who had pocketed Newfoundland's central crown a night earlier. It was a zero in the ninth, then 10, then 11, then 12, until 13, making it the longest win-go-home playoff game in baseball history. It was Tony Wolters, third receiver of the game of the Rockies, in the victorious race against Kyle Hendricks, third starting pitcher used by the Cubs in their despair. It was more than a reminder that if it was not practical to glean too much from one game (or two, three, 10 or even 20), it would also be irresponsible to ignore how this game was mingled with so many other similar – only two points and nine hits in 22 innings over two days.
"Sometimes you have to get your [expletive] hit the mud to appreciate your position, "said Jon Lester, the Cubs starter who eliminated nine Rockies in six exceptional heats. "You know what, maybe we needed that, maybe we had to turn an ankle or two over to realize that nothing would be given to us."
Lester is one of the clever spiritual leaders of the Cubs, a 34-year-old sensible man, who admitted that his efforts to put the night of Tuesday in context might have seemed too positive. In Chicago, on sports radio, Twitter and other rehearsal rooms in a fire, the sky had been falling for months. Then he crashed on Tuesday and the Cubs were taken care of. How would the team's president, Theo Epstein, and the general manager, Jed Hoyer, react and if the manager, Joe Maddon, would manage the last year of his contract without a new deal, and why a season with so many promises crumbling so fast.
"It will make everyone crazy," said Lester. Go crazy, Theo, all those guys. There will be a huge harvest of free agents this year. But I do not know if we need anyone. We must make people healthy. We must be right. We must be the Cubs. "
Who are the Cubs exactly? These are Kris Bryant, who never looked to the right, his left shoulder being out of order. This is Javier Báez, who filled this niche of superstar with aplomb. They are Anthony Rizzo, their heartbeat. This is Willson Contreras, whose postgame tears were the furthest thing from the crocodile. They are Lester and Hendricks and José Quintana, bases of a strong rotation of departure.
They are also Jason Heyward for another five years and Yu Darvish for another five years and Tyler Chatwood for another two years. The three will earn more than $ 50 million next season. It's a team that preaches culture – and that always has a player in the middle of a match to win absolutely sitting in the clubhouse and scrolling through an iPad, much to the chagrin of other players in the canoe who lived and died with each throwing. They find themselves in this uncomfortable place where they have to start thinking about the future as well as the present, lest they spread into the past and cause the chaotic spiral of other successful franchises that have lost sight of their window and watched it snap on the fingers.
In the clubhouse, at least, the feeling was that any change in depth would be useless. "Honestly, I do not anticipate much," said Maddon, and his feelings were shared by those who saw the injuries inflicted on Darvish and Bryant and the closest to Brandon Morrow and imagined how much Team 95 wins would be better with her at full strength. . And it's true, everything is fine in a hypothetical world, but injury-free seasons are a dream, and such considerations must be incorporated into any rational assessment of the future.
Baez explained that the Cubs needed to play more as a team and, okay, that's fine. This may be true, but it is too difficult to quantify for anyone outside the room to know. And Heyward said the season was not a success, as the Cubs did not blow any bottles during the celebrations, which, of course, even if the reality is a month of October, makes sure that the most people do not feel confused. And Rizzo planted his flag for Maddon, saying that "without his leadership, the guys are not playing the way they play" and that "Joe's best year has been this year in managing all moving parts" , which does not look like it's the kind of talk a guy who expects to play for a new manager next year, even though the Cubs still have so much coverage as possible if they had to replace it.
"I love this team," Rizzo said. "I liked this team from day one. We lost against better teams than us. That's all you can say. We fell short. "
Transforming 4 hours and 55 minutes of baseball – alternately tense and slogging, a good substitute for the 2018 season – in something bigger after right now, is not an easy task. There was a sadness, but not overwhelming. There were backslaps and cuddles, but still room for smiles. There was a failure, but in the middle of that blood.
"Our guys give a [expletive], Says Lester. "It's hard to describe. I hope the fans will understand it. I hope the fans see it. I feel that you can not describe that enough. "
Caring only goes so far when the feeling of this victory two years ago is still almost bodily – it must be touched, savored, possessed. It's addictive. It's infuriating. This restores the sports DNA. That's why it looks like a crossroad for Cubs, even if it's just a stop sign. Take a break, look at both directions, evaluate things, go ahead. Do not complicate it.
This is the path the Cubs will take to try to answer this imperative question: who are they exactly? They have a very good idea. There have been misplaced losses and moves, but it's still a very well run organization with an enviable talent base. The genre that has won 95 games this year. The kind that, with some modifications rather than revisions, can imagine next October with a magnet returned, opposite poles facing each other, everything goes as planned.
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