Is it too early to start talking about a Cubs-White Sox World Series?
It probably is. I mean, we’re only about 40 percent of the way through the regular season.
(But what if? They’re both in first place.)
It seems so farfetched, what with one team that has struggled to hit this season and the other with a track record that suggests it has offended someone who wears a robe, has a long, white beard and is omnipotent.
(But have you seen the way this kid Carlos Quentin is hitting for the Sox? Insane. Can he keep it up? Probably not, but perhaps he can keep it going until some of the other hitters start — what’s the word? — hitting. And signs of life recently have been detected in those bats. The Cubs? It’s obvious somebody up there finally likes them.)
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The Cubs have the best record in baseball. That is such a strange sentence to type on my computer. It’s like writing, Charlie Brown leads the NFL in field-goal-kicking percentage. Surely this can’t be happening.
(It is. You know things are going right when the Cubs pick up Jim Edmonds, a guy all but residing on the scrap heap, and he starts hitting. Until recently, he wouldn’t have been able to hit one of those huge exercise balls if it were on a tee.)
Even thinking about what Wrigley Field would look like on a late-October evening makes me feel silly. Wrigley’s standard late-fall look would best be described as “locked and shuttered.” I think I’ve seen it written that the Cubs last won a World Series 100 years ago. That’s a lot of years.
(Yes, but this version is an offensive machine. My goodness, have you been paying attention? Soriano, Theriot, Lee, Ramirez, Fukudome, Soto, et al. That’s a recession-proof lineup. Mark DeRosa batted eighth the other night, and he was hitting .301. So it’s easy to imagine Wrigley being dressed up in its red-white-and-blue finest. Can you see the auburn ivy? Can you feel the chill in the air?)
The Sox are going to fall apart. Everybody is waiting for it. They’re just not that good. The Twins always give them trouble. The Tigers and the Indians are going to come on like gangbusters very soon.
(Except they haven’t. The Sox’s lead in the American League Central is 51/2 games after they destroyed the Twins 12-2 Sunday. Teams don’t just snap their fingers and decide it’s time to be good. The Sox’s pitching is reminiscent of 2005. Jose Contreras might be older than Grandfather Time, but he’s 6-3 with a 2.76 earned-run average. Who expected that?)
The Cubs are going to fall apart, because that’s what they always do. Death, taxes and the Cubs in little jagged pieces. Count on it.
(Hard to see it happening anywhere before the World Series. If you see a team that can compete with the Cubs in the National League right now, please tell me. The NL is as weak as expected, and the Cubs are better than expected.)
Ryan Dempster eventually is going to come back to earth for the Cubs. He has to. There isn’t a whole lot in his professional background to suggest he’s this good: 7-2 good.
(Well, guess what? If there’s justice, he’ll go to the All-Star Game. If you’re thinking his record is a product of all that good hitting by the Cubs, he has a 2.90 ERA. Maybe it’s just his time, my friends.)
The Sox have way too much in the way of turmoil. Manager Ozzie Guillen doesn’t sweat, he gives off shrapnel. A team can’t win when there’s always a controversy brewing.
(People keep saying that, and the Sox are still in first place. And the same crazy manager was running the show when Sox won it all in ’05. The same overly sensitive general manager was calling the shots three years ago.)
Someday, Carlos Zambrano will completely lose it. Today it’s a smashed water cooler, tomorrow Wrigley Field will “accidentally” burn down.
(It’s a fine line, and sometimes Zambrano stomps on it, but he’s a better pitcher and the Cubs a better team when he’s pumped up.)
Just wait until Alfonso Soriano goes into another one of his arctic spells at the plate. And if you think the Cubs are going to win with his adventures in left field, you’re crazy.
(OK, the guy isn’t a leadoff hitter. This is true. But not even a hot-and-cold leadoff hitter is going to bring down the Cubs this season. They’re too good. And he can hit home runs and carry a team for a few weeks at a time.)
The Sox are better than the Red Sox?
(No. But what’s your point? Colorado got into the World Series last season as a wild-card team.)
Ken Williams made a mistake with Nick Swisher.
(Let’s talk about the Sox general manager’s best move, besides Quentin: choosing not to trade Joe Crede, who is easily one of the best third basemen in the majors and who is a hitting fool these days. For what it’s worth, Swisher went 2-for-4 Sunday with a homer and four runs batted in.)
Trying to imagine what this town would be like during a Cubs-Sox World Series is like trying to imagine a Beatles reunion on Mars. It isn’t going to happen. Have you seen the way Jim Thome and Paul Konerko are hitting for the Sox? Do you really believe the Cubs’ rotation will hold up over the long haul?
(Imagine World Series tickets playing hard-to-get. Imagine kids making cases, loudly, for their teams. Imagine brother against brother, sister against sister. Imagine a city in a frenzy.)
As if.
(But what if?)
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