One Brief, Not-So-Shining Moment

Remember a few days ago, when I briefly mentioned that the Cubs and the White Sox were in the post-season in the same year for the first time since 1906? When I wrote that, I didn't know how much emphasis would be placed on the word "briefly."

The Cubs, despite having the best record in the National League, were swept out of the playoffs by the Dodgers, who had the worst record of any team in the playoffs this year. That doesn't make them bad, obviously--in fact, for the last month of the season, they were the hottest team in either league, and the Cubs had the misfortune of encountering them when they were still tearing the cover off the ball. The Cubs also suffered from a lack of support from players who'd been money all year, like Ryan Dempster, who'd won 17 games and had been downright dominant at Wrigley Field; or Alfonso Soriano, who vanished into vapor for the second post-season in a row; and Aramis Ramirez, who'd driven in key runs all year, only leave his bat at home come October.

(In the past, I've accused Ramirez of not being a clutch hitter, of being a guy who collected most of his hits and RBI when it didn't matter. This year, I was prepared to eat my words with a touch of salt and a dash of Trappey's Louisiana Hot Sauce--until Ramirez demonstrated that he'd saved up his choking for the worst occasion possible.)

The White Sox, on the other hand, had to scratch and claw to get into the playoffs, overcoming injuries, drama and the general bitchiness of their manager, Ozzie Guillen, to win the last game of the season, forcing them to play and win a makeup game (which is nothing like makeup sex, though oddly satisfying in its own way) with the Tigers, forcing them to play and win a tiebreaker game with the Twins.

After all that, winning in the playoffs would have been gravy. Unfortunately, they ran into the surpise team of the year, the Tampa Bay Rays, who'd never even finished over .500 in their 11-year existence, much less made the playoffs. The Sox didn't go nearly as meekly as the Cubs, winning one game before finally succumbing in the 4th game of the series.

But now a playoff season that had visions of Red Line rivalries dancing in the besotted heads of fans on both the North and South Sides has ended not with a bang, nor even a whimper, but with sullen silence.

Oh well. The Bears are playing now and leading their weak division, and the Blackhawks start their season this coming Saturday night--the game will even be on WGN, marking their first regular-season appearance on local broadcast TV in decades.

It's not much consolation as the baseball playoffs continue without our fine city's participation, but as the chill of fall settles in and the days grow shorter and darker, we'll take whatever consolation we can get.