For a Cubs Fan, the Sweetest Four Words in Sports: Pitchers and Catchers Report

Here it is, the ninth of February, and once again my wife is getting edgy.  I have come to expect it the last several years because she knows how to read a calendar as well as I can.  The Pro Bowl was played, and now she knows that she has to get ready for another summer spent primarily with just the kids.  I am a Cubbie blue-blooded fan, and my wife knows this.

Spring training 2009 starts this Friday at Hohokam Field when pitchers and catchers report.  This is my favorite time of the year for a lot of reasons: Winter is coming to an end, football season is FINALLY over, and my scheduled two weeks of vacation will soon start.

But the biggest reason is because I will soon be reduced to a visceral mess for the next six months.

The Cubs are built, once again, to be the best team in Major League Baseball.  Look at the rotation: Big Z, Ted Lilly, Ryan Dempster, Rich Harden, Sean Marshall, and Aaron Heilman make up arguably one of the best in the Majors. 

Geovany Soto, MLB's Rookie of the Year, is not only a fantastic backstop but also can flat-out murder a baseball.  Yes, they traded their best utility player in Mark DeRosa.  But they have Ryan Theriot, who can cover any infield openings that may arise due to injury, and Reed Johnson, who plays like a latter-day Jim Edmonds in the outfield—flat-out all the time.

Then there is Alfonso Soriano who, some say, gave his best in horrid thin black pinstripes.  Healthy legs could mean a run at the postseason again.  Milton Bradley was a great addition, so Kosuke Fukudome should therefore watch out for his spot in the outfield this year.

Yes, on paper before a pitch is even thrown, the 2009 Chicago Cubs look like the team to beat in the NL Central.  But you know what?  I am a Cubs fan, so I know what is going to happen.  This is going to be a 162-game roller coaster ride this summer, putting to shame anything they have at any Six Flags Amusement Park.

By summer's end I will be an emotional wreck again.  Something will happen, and they will blow it.  Again.  A visceral mess, again.

But I am okay with that.  I'm a Cubs fan.  Not one of those fans that follows them because it is suddenly cool to do so.  Or one of those yuppie, Johnny-come-lately, 'cause-this-might-be-the-year type of fans.  But a fan that remembers 1984, still loves Ryne Sandberg, misses Harry Caray during the stretch, still dreams of that first trip to Wrigley. 

You see, I think Biblical scholars have it all wrong.  There will be no war or pestilence or physical incarnation of Beelzebub that will harken the end of the world.  I think if the Cubs made it through the playoffs into the World Series and emerged victorious, the world would probably spin right off its axis and directly into the sun. 

But I would love to find out.