I like  most lifelong Cubs fans of my generation have always had a common complaint, “Why won’t they just sell the team?” I have been through a lot as a Cub fan in my lifetime. I remember as a 4 year old in 1984 when the Cubs won the division my dad telling me “I hope you remember this because it doesn’t happen very often.” No it doesn’t. For some reason I do remember that night only because my dad was so happy to see the Cubs make it to the playoffs and actually have a legitimate chance to make it to and win the World Series. After going up 2-0 on San Diego the Cubs did what they always do, choke away another opportunity. I have always been thankful I wasn’t older when this happened because it probably would have hurt a lot more. Kind of like the 1989 playoffs against San Francisco. I can still remember Will Clark hitting the home run that left me in shock for about two days. There was the wild card year in 1998 when Sammy Sosa and Mark Mcgwire electrified baseball and brought back the fans after the strike in 1994. Although we would learn later it was all a sham as those two balloon heads were juiced more than Ben Johnson and Hulk Hogan combined. 2003 was especially painful because I really did think that team was the best in the National League coming down the stretch that season and with Prior and Wood at their best who could beat them? Well so much for that. I was in Wrigleyville the night of game 6 of the NLCS and was never more sure of a team a I was that night. Why wouldn’t I be? We had Prior on the hill and he was absolutely dominant since his return from the shoulder injury earlier in the season. He went 18-6 with 245 strikeouts and a 2.43 era that year. “Its a wrap” I told my buddies as we walked towards the stadium. You just felt it in the air this was thee night. Nothing more need be said on what followed.

Leaving the bar we were at that night after witnessing the game from hell I was speechless for the entire ride home. “Did that really just happen?” we kept asking ourselves over and over. That night changed everything for me as a Cub fan. Since that time the Cubs have two division titles under their lightweight belt only to get swept each time worse than when The Bulls swept Detroit in the 1991 East Finals. Change is on the way!!!! No not that change. The Cubs have a new owner. A face instead of a corporate image. My take? It still doesn’t matter.

Tom Ricketts seems to know how he wants to execute his plan. He absolutely killed it at his introductory news conference which was a great start, but it will take more than improving the food and fixing the bathroom cesspool. This team is a cesspool that will not be an easy fix.

It would help to have a general manager who knew how to build a team through its farm system rather than over spending on free agents. (Insert your Milton Bradley joke here). With only one trad-able piece that anyone wants(Zambrano) the remaking of this team will last well beyond the 2010 season. Nobody wants the gimp left fielder who couldn’t hit sand if he fell off a camel. Soriano has less value than Ashley Simpson’s acting career right now. It will take a miracle for somebody to actually make the dumb decision of…..”Yea, let’s make the trade for Milton Bradley. He’ll be great for our chemistry.” This team has so many holes not even the grand plan of Tom Ricketts can save it. Have I mentioned they have a manager who manages in a coma? It really is an amazing accomplishment.

We have waited and waited for that magical Cubs season to occur. We stay loyal because we want to be there when it finally does happen. That’s why it pains me to say that before the 2010 off-season starts the 2010 regular season is already down the tubes. It has been 101 years of futility and as much as it pains me, a year from now Cubs fans will be going on 102 years……and counting.