SEARCH IS NO PARTY
CUBS STILL TRYING TO LEARN WHO THEY ARE
Remember the halcyon days of 2012, when the Cubs closed June with a 28- 49 record and stared into the abyss of another 85 games with Darwin Barney, David DeJesus, Joe Mather, Chris Volstad and Justin Germano?
OK, I know, that season was awful. Compared with the current one, though, it had a few things going for it. Like innocence. Like hope. Like invisibility.
That was Season 1 of the Theo Epstein era. The challenges of Season 6 are arguably even greater.
Innocence? A veteran rotation that’s a shell of its collective 2016 self is anything but innocent. Manager Joe Maddon, who practically ruined Kyle Schwarber by putting and keeping him at the top of the lineup — and who has been almost too calm amid the storm of a season in disarray — has earned a degree of skepticism. A roster- building savant who took clubhouse chemistry and leadership for granted has to be questioned.
Hope? These Cubs haven’t won consecutive road games since April. They’ve trailed in 61 of their 79 games. They haven’t been more than four games over .500 at any time and have been anywhere from two over to two under for the last
five weeks. At what point does what they’ve been become who they are?
Invisibility? Think of what have been the biggest Cubs stories this season. Schwarber’s flameout. Addison Russell’s trouble at home. Miguel Montero’s speakup- and- shipped- out. Top it with Wednesday’s impossibly awkward White House visit, and baseball’s most disappointing team in 2017 also has been one of its least warm and cuddly.
Or maybe I’m just overreacting to it all. Watching Kris Bryant, the Cubs Cubs’ best player, be helped off the field while Kyle Hendricks, Jason Heyward and Ben Zobrist already are out with injuries will do that to a guy.
“It’s an important time for us to come together as a team and for us to establish our identity,” Epstein said. “I don’t think we’ve found our edge yet that we’ll need to play with to win games.”
Whose fault is that? Maybe it’s everybody’s. It becomes harder to keep track of what’s going wrong and easier to paint this team with a broad brush.
“Wins don’t just happen because you’re talented and you show up,” Epstein went on. “You have to come to the park with an edge every day and come together as a team every day and play to win, and play with a certain edge that we’re striving for as a group. I think we all feel that way, and we’re going to find it.”
Cubs teams have found “it” before. The 1989 team was only four games over .500, not to mention in third place, through June before rolling to a division title. The 2003 Cubs moved one game above .500 — for the 12th time that season — on the last day of July, yet made it all the way to, well, you don’t need me to tell you how that October went down.
Lou Piniella’s first Cubs team, in 2007, was a disappointing, frustrating 39- 40 at June’s end but ended up on top of its division. And we all have fresh memories of the 2015 tale- of- two- halves Cubs, who were in the weeds at 40- 35 — 10 ½ games behind the St. Louis Cardinals — through June and didn’t really put the pedal to the metal until late July.
Let’s not kid ourselves: The 2017 Cubs, defending World Series champions, have more talent than any of those teams. Of course they’re capable of ramping things up and heading into October in fine shape.
Yet, some seasons simply are strange and unfulfilling. The 1999 Cubs weren’t expected to light the world on fire, but they had Sammy Sosa and Mark Grace and a rotation of proven veterans. They were essentially a .500 team into late July — before a spectacular collapse during which they lost 40 of 50 games.
“It doesn’t always happen,” Epstein said. “You can be searching all year.”
The 2017 Cubs could eat the 1999 Cubs for breakfast. We all know that. But their own search continues and — you might have noticed — it isn’t going very well.
“It’s an important time for us to come together as a team and for us to establish our identity. I don’t think we’ve found our edge yet that we’ll need to play with to win games.” — Theo Epstein, Cubs president