There was no way for the Cubs to enjoy good fortune this month without stirring up memories of past disasters. I went apple picking in Michigan two Sundays ago and remembered seeing, on a TV at the same orchard, LaTroy Hawkins blow a three-run lead in New York as the Cubs began their 2004 collapse. This time I emerged to hear the Cubs on the car radio beating the Cardinals 4-2 in Saint Louis to stay a game ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers. Yet now they’d be coming home to face the Cincinnati Reds, the team that sealed their downfall three years ago in a final-week series at Wrigley Field.
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The Cubs whipped all three of them. They moved three and a half games ahead of the Brewers heading into the last week of the season. The fans grew ever more manic at the Friendly Confines, making everything that much more agonizing. If the Cubs make the playoffs, and fans start gathering along Waveland and Sheffield to chant “Let’s go Cubbies” the way they did during the playoff series with the Florida Marlins four years ago, I don’t think I’ll be the only one vulnerable to post-traumatic stress disorder. Put it this way: any guy walking down the street in a Cubs cap, glasses, and Walkman headphones just now is putting his life in jeopardy.
DeRosa followed Piniella at the postgame media conference. “I’m sure Lou said it. We didn’t play fundamentally sound baseball tonight,” he said. “But all in all we never stopped fighting.”
The sellout crowd pushed the season attendance to a team record 3.25 million. This time thousands of fans stayed in the stands after the game and sang “Go Cubs Go.” It was as if they were holding their seats for the playoffs.
