DIFFERENT BREED OF CUBS
Pearl Jam frontman Vedder got it right when he proclaimed: ‘It’s a brand-new day’
Full-time Cubs fan and sometimes singer Eddie Vedder got it perfectly right before the National League wildcard game last week in Pittsburgh.
‘‘It’s a brand-new day,’’ the Pearl Jam frontman told the Sun-Times’ Gordon Wittenmyer.
Sounds like a song. Or a slogan. Mostly, it sounds like the truth.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been writing that these young Cubs don’t know any better, that the secret to their success is in their inability to fully grasp what they’re up against. First baseman Anthony Rizzo said the same thing in a champagnesoaked clubhouse Tuesday, just after his team had pointed the Cardinals toward the offseason.
But it dawned on me Wednesday that the Cubs know better than anybody what they’re facing— surely better than those of us who are flinching, twitching Veterans of Cubs Wars. And they don’t care. They know that a heavy past isn’t an immovable object. A bat wedged just right can act as a lever, heaving history out of the way.
They are headed to the National League Championship Series because they do indeed know better. Saying that they don’t carries with it a certain amount of condescension. It chalks up their success to blissful unawareness or soulless automation. These Cubs are perfectly aware of what they’re doing. All the good things that are happening seem just right to them, as natural as playing catch with a friend in the backyard.
They treated the archrival Cardinals as though they were made of tracing paper in the NL Division Series. Crumpled them up and tossed them aside. There was no disrespect or disdain from the Cubs, just impatience. You’re in our way, they said, without saying a word.
Kyle Schwarber. Kris Bryant. Jorge Soler. Addison Russell. Javy Baez. These are kids playing a kid’s game and having a blast doing it. Lots of teams over lots of years have tried to convince themselves that they should play the game the way they did as children, lose themselves in the joy of competition until they hear their moms calling them in for dinner. But the pressure and grind of a long season and the business of sports tied most of them into bundles of nerves and left them on the side of the road.
Maybe it helps that Bryant, et al., aren’t that far removed from childhood. Some of them were playing Little League less than a decade ago.
Millions of people are watching them now, and the players seem to love it. The spotlight doesn’t burn them, as it has so many Cubs in the past. It reveals them. Schwarber’s massive Game 4 home run landing on top of the video board in right field? In the biggest game of his short life? Are you kidding me? Truly, a brand-new day. The front office, the coaches and the veterans haven’t treated the youngsters as youngsters. That’s part of the secret here. Manager Joe Maddon could make a rock feel good about itself. So making a rookie feel like an important cog in the machine? Child’s play for the hipster skipper.
‘‘It could have been a totally different story if I was on a different team,’’ Schwarber said. ‘‘Coming into this organization and them believing inme, all the way from our front office to our ownership to our coaches. Then when I did come up with our players, they made it so easy on me to just domy job, and that’s play baseball. It could have been, ‘Rookie this, rookie that, you do that.’ It wasn’t any of that. It was, ‘You’re here to help us win. Let’s go.’’’
Where will this go? Who knows? Just know this: Cubs fans deserve medals. After years of watching their team lose, they have flocked back to Wrigley Field. They deserve everything they’re getting.
‘‘The fans were in it all series,’’ Bryant said in the clubhouse Tuesday. ‘‘We have a great time playing in front of them. I’m happy we did it for them. I’m sure they’re partying out there pretty hard. Just an amazing day.’’
By the way, ‘‘Brand New Day’’ is the name of a 1999 Sting song. It’s probably a bit dated and mellow to be the theme song for this team. Coincidentally, a Police song perfectly sums up the Cubs’ existence for the last century-plus: ‘‘So Lonely.’’
The days of joking about the franchise seem over. I don’t think I’m getting ahead of myself here. These young players know exactly what they’re doing. Best to get out of the way.
Follow me on Twitter @MorrisseyCST.