Disappointment

The Chicago Cubs are my favorite NL team. And they needed to win tonight. They needed to win because the north side of Chicago has waited 58 years for a pennant. They needed to win for that fan who tried to catch the ball last night. They needed to win to keep the great story of this post-season going, and story which cannot be repeated for a long time. But they didn't, while a much-maligned "has-been" catcher, a manager who was wrongly fired three years ago, a pitcher named Josh Beckett no one except baseball afficionados had ever heard of, and a 20-year-old rookie living out his dream proved they were champions.

I do like these Marlins. I might root for them in the World Series. But right now, I'm seriously bummed. The air was pregnant with a celebration such as the baseball world has seldom seen, cackling with a hope which emanated from the streets outside Wrigley to right here in Madison and beyond. And now, there is but a painful, empty disappointment as we realize that hope was never more than an especially vivid illusion.

Wait until next year.

UPDATE: Matt Bruce addresses this a lot better than I just did.