A New Curse Abounds on the Northside

Forget the Goat of 1945. Black cat of 1969? An afterthought in comparison to what has just occurred. Steve Bartman, my friend you are off the hook. there is a new curse that plagues the " love-ables" and he is an enigma with a bat of gold. I give you the new curse of Manny Ramirez.

I guess the Cubs didn't get the memo on arguably the best right handed hitter in the game, so allow me to refresh your memory. This is a man known for taking old curses and crushing them like one of the 527 home runs he's crushed over his major league career.

I believe there was one where he used to play and they are now going through one of the most prosperous (although at times obnoxious) periods in their franchise history winning two world series in a period of four years.

This was a team that had ZERO titles and a string of bad luck for 86 years before this man showed up in 2000.

But alas like all good things they must come to an end, and his was a public one forcing his way out of Beantown and over to what can now be called "Mannywood" as he took a team loaded with young talent and brought it within an eyelash of its first World Series birth since 1988.

Which now begs the question why is he the new curse? Because the Cubs not signing Manny Ramirez this off-season will be the biggest mistake that front office has ever made. Sure you got Milton Bradley but how sure are you Cubs fans that this is the man to end 100-plus years of heart ache.

The messages were loud and clear after that first round embarrassment to (what do you know) Manny and those LA Dodgers that it was time to do something drastic. It was time to look beyond winning the Central and do something so out of the ordinary that those same longtime fans that left last October had reason to rejoice again.

Cubs brass made a huge attempt to land Padres ace Jake Peavy and improve an already stellar rotation. My question:

What for?

They paced the bigs last season with a 3.75 ERA as a team. their bullpen includes All-Star set-up/closer Carlos Marmol, and they re-signed Ryan Dempster who was very solid for them last year.

So what was the real problem you ask? The line-up was exposed badly in the playoffs. There was not one player the Dodgers had to pitch around. no disrespect to any of those Cubs hitters but none of them are being talked about in pre-game warm-ups as a "we can't let this guy beat me" type hitter.

The one hitter on the market who changes this notion was Manny Ramirez and the Cubs blew it. For the record I am not a Cubs fan. I am an avid Braves/baseball fool, so this is not coming from a Cubs fan desperate for a big signing.

In Many ways Manny made sense. Forget the talk about his problems in Boston and realize that teammates and players respect this man. He's one of the hardest workers in Baseball and his track record proves that along with his durability.

So why not stick him in the middle of the line-up with Derek Lee and Aramis Ramirez batting third and fifth respectively. Move Soriano back to second and bat him lead-off and you've got a team that no one can beat in the Central division.

But alas it did not come true for the wonderful fans of the Cubs. Not only did they make the mistake of letting go super utility-man Mark DeRosa and Cub stalwart and closer Kerry Wood, but the additions were very mediocre in Milton Bradley (who promises as many injuries as problems) and Kevin Gregg who has postseason meltdown written all over him.

So I advise you Cubs fans to get ready for a long season and think about the job your front office has done. I advise you to prepare yourself for the constant reminder of what could have been. How 100-plus years of frustrations were prolonged by a curse brought on by the very men trying to break the others. The Curse of Manny Ramirez.