Chicago Cubbies Guaranteed Postseason Ticket by Playing 'The Game'

For years, Milton Bradley has guaranteed $200 for passing “Go”, and we moved our thimble, hat and race car around the board to collect on the promise. In baseball, Cubs loyalists have been promised a postseason berth in 2009, once their pieces are moved from city to city and through the stretch of 162 games.

This guarantee is also issued by Milton Bradley, and he supports it with his personal history on baseball rosters.

Bradley believes he’s the key to any team’s success, and quickly points to postseason appearances by the Dodgers and A’s, as a member of their rosters, and the Padres missing the playoffs by a single game, after he suffered an injury in San Diego.

In other words, his presence alters a baseball landscape faster than a twister sweeping the plains.

Now, I won’t deny his statistical contributions are often shadowed by his character, but with an ego sweetened in Candyland, he failed to mention his 2008 stint in Texas, where he and the Rangers finished 21 games behind the Angels in the West.

Also, in his efforts to build a monopoly on roster success stories, he points out how close his Padres came to the postseason, but ignores San Diego winning the NL West in 2006, the year before he arrived.

The Cubs of 2008, without Bradley, finished with 97 wins, leading the National League and tied for second best in the majors, only to be swept out of the playoffs by a Dodgers team winning their first postseason series since ‘88, also without him.

Bradley’s roster stays are normally short-lived. His warlike temperament often leads to another sunken battleship and forced swim to shore. And despite the trouble, his diamond production makes him worth the risk, and another GM will pluck him from the chilled waters.

But he should fully acknowledge his new surroundings, and see that in Wrigley it’s more than a pastime, but also a game of life, with the faithful already suffering nearly 100 years of diamond failure.

Anyone giving Chicago a postseason guarantee, has no clue. The Cubbies have been there and done that. They want promises of something bigger, and egos are not included. 

I think one man, playing a team sport, and claiming his lone performance is the difference between franchise success or failure is not only narcissistic, but also cheesy...but since the subject is Milton Bradley, wouldn’t it be Parcheesi?

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