March is great month to be a Cubs fan

by Joe Ruffolo
@BrewMastrJoe


The last 7 baseball seasons haven't been kind to the Cubs.  Some might argue, they haven't had a good season since World War II.

But I'm going there.

(See the many blogs before this one)

Since the reconstruction of the baseball side of the Cubs franchise, fans of these "Lovable Loser's" have been waiting patiently for this tree to bear its fruit.

Very patiently.

I can't help to wonder, is this all just hype?  Excuse my pessimism on the subject, but is drumming up all this interest a way to sell an underdeveloped product in a underdeveloped ballpark?

I'll tell you what isn't underdeveloped.  Kris Bryant.  Oh, and the Cub's farm system.

But I digress.  Back to the pessimism.

We all know how ESPN works.  They're the proverbial hype-man of the sports TV world.  It's almost comical really.  Whenever they have a barn burner of a Monday Night Football game, watch the promos.  It's no different than watching that little guy on the big stage, yell into a mic, running back and forth going on and on about how amazing "this" is.

I'm just hoping that's not the Cub's season in a nutshell this year.

Since Theo was brought on, I lowered my expectations to the point I was no longer emotionally invested into any competitive game the Chicago Cubs played.

Not even a fist pump when they would win a one-run game.

A lot of the celebrating I had done in the '03, '07, '08 has now been relegated to the offseason.

The offseason?!?

When they drafted Kris Bryant, if you were my neighbor, you'd think the Bears just traded Cutler for Rodgers.  When we dealt "The Shark" to the A's last year, I was so used to the veteran-for-prospect flipping, it was just business as usual for Cubs fan.

But I still celebrated that move like it was 1908.

Ugh.

After 4 seasons of celebrating "off-season" moves, I'm ready to finally re-invest emotions into the Cubs.

Or am I?

It's very exciting to finally know I can re-invest my emotions and time back into the Cubs.  It's quite refreshing really.  I was there when they were at their peak with Lou Pinella.  And then watching it all crash down (in person) in 4 errors, and topped off with, a Manny-Ramirez-steroid-induced home run. To see this team go from glory, to being deconstructed to a 100 loss team, and back to showing promise, has been a lengthy journey.

My "fan-ternal" instincts are telling me to push my chips to the middle of table and go full boar into this season and expect a Cubs World Series run like never seen before.

But this is why I love sports.  The fact that a team can emotionally inspire me to believe in them no matter what they have put me through in the past is a testament of my love for my team, city, and sport.

However, I refuse to open myself up to that.

I will watch my Cubs this year.  I will be at the edge of my seat.  I will fist pump strike outs, home runs, one run games won by the Cubs, any crazy move Joe Maddon makes, I'll be the first to back it up.

Cubs fever will be sweeping that nation this year, and I have a feeling no matter how much preventative medicine I take, there will be nothing I can do to prevent this disease from infecting me.