Why blog about the Cubs?

OK, so, I know that I'm going to get some responses here, but I want to qualify everything I'm about to say...

1. My wife is a die-hard Cubs fan. Thus, I live in a very tolerant household. I will watch the Cubs and occasionally root for them; but I'm not a Cubs "fan" in the sense of, I don't get too high or too low if they win or lose. I did not grow up hating the Cubs.
2. I'm looking at this from an unbiased standpoint. Those of you who know me know that I'm completely capable of that. Maybe you agree, maybe you disagree, I don't know. Either way, it's one man's opinion, and actually, I know a few Cubs fans I've shared this with who have agreed with me on its face. In other words, I'm not ripping Cubs fans "while they're down" (I'm not even ripping them, honestly...I'm just saying I'm disappointed).
3. I'm not saying EVERY Cubs fan is this way...in fact, most of my friends who are Cubs fans probably don't fit into this -- though I don't really know, in that I've been mostly "locked away" in my house this week with minimal social interaction (on vacation from work). Like I said, too, a couple of them have agreed about the topic.

So, now, on to the real meat of the post: Cubs fans in the NLDS thus far.

I don't believe in curses. I cringe every single time I hear someone refer to the Goat or the Bartman incident in the 2003 NLCS as just another extension of the curse on the Cubs -- for several reasons, not the least of which being that he did not drop a sure double-play ball that would have ended the game shortly after he supposedly "interfered" with a foul ball. Curses are for marketing folks and people trying to make a buck. And, unfortunately, this Cubs curse has nabbed Cubs fans hook, line and sinker.

And, after watching most of the first two games of the NLDS against the Dodgers, it HAS HURT the team. Home-field advantage? Gone, because of the supposed curse, which caused, in Game One, the entire crowd to sit mostly silently while Ryan Dempster pitched his way through the first inning. For comparison, in many of the other playoff games, the crowd was AMPED during the first inning, cheering before almost every two-strike pitch and cheering as though each out were the World Series-clinching out. I had not seen this little enthusiasm since watching the Braves in the playoffs in the '90s, when no one in Atlanta cared anymore, because it became a "been there, done that" atmosphere.

The problem is, Cubs fans are not silent because of a "been there, done that" mentality. They're silent because, unfortunately, they seem scared. All year long, all we ever heard, propogated mostly by the media, was "It's Gonna Happen" and "This is the Year" and all that other crap. Now, we get to the playoffs, and Cubs fans are nervous. And if it wasn't nerves in Game One, it was overconfidence -- that the Dodgers would roll over and leave town down 2-0 because the Cubs were that good.

Now, obviously, the fans aren't to blame for the Cubs losses -- the Cubs have played like crap. I'm not blaming them for anything. However, they certainly did not help the cause much. Back in 2003, Cubs fans were rocking and rolling, and the team fed off it. This year, the team doesn't have anything to feed off except the strange silence of a typically raucous Wrigley, all brought about by the belief that this so-called curse exists. This is the best Cubs team I've seen in my lifetime, and Cubs fans went into this series, some overly worried, some overly confident, but few actually enjoying the fact that the Cubs were in the playoffs again. That's a shame, especially given this town's sports history.

Take, for example, a very close parallel: the Red Sox. The Red Sox supposedly also had this bullshit curse. When they made the playoffs, however, the fans were crazy. They "never gave up" on the team and never let the nerves of breaking the curse cause them to worry to the point that they were silent. It was always a loud, raucous crowd, no matter how disappointing the team played.

If the Cubs manage to wake up on the road and bring the series back to Wrigley Field, I hope that Cubs fans also wake up a bit more and really get behind their team. Give them something to feed off and play for. Sitting and waiting for something to happen isn't the way to cheer your team on in the playoffs. Helping them make something happen by supporting them and cheering in anticipation is the way to do it.

This is the playoffs, and while Cubs players have a lot of stepping up to do to salvage what's left, Cubs fans certainly can step up their game as well. I hope Cubs fans get another chance to do it.