The streak goes on, the Curse of the Billy Goat, but not for much longer.  Now there is hope, there is belief, there is a reason to really root for the home team on the Lake.

They wake up this morning with no more games to play, these young Chicago Cubs, but they go towards the off season knowing how far they have come in such a short distance, and how much money they have available to get even better next year.

The season is over, swept out by the New York Mets, but the season ends with great confidence better times are ahead.

For all the years of losing at Wrigley Field, and yes 1945 was a long time ago, that last World Series appearance, the Cubs are just one offseason acquisition or two from being the next National League representative in the Fall Classic.

The years of Harry Caray saying “Cubs win-Cubs win” will truly have meaning next fall.  The cries from the booth of the late Ron Santo “oh no” won’t be heard in the future.

President Theo Epstien, GM-Jed Hoyer, and Player Personnel guy Jason McLeod, have put together a deep young everyday roster, drafted well, and have more youngsters on the horizon in the farm system.  And Joe Maddon managed them to a prosperous season.

It’s the draft, the signing of Cubans, a select free agent or two that have jettisoned the Cubs from loveable losers, to pennant contenders.

Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Jose Baez, Starlin Castro, Miguel Montero and Jorge Soler are the combined best group of young players on the job right now, in any stadium, any batting order.  And most are all home grown.

The off season looks promising, with the emergence of Jake Arrietta, the continued strength of veteran Jon Lester, the growth of Kyle Kendrick, and an array of young arms out of the bullpen..

The best part of the talent level, is the player budget.  Because they are so good, and yet so young, hardly any are arbitration eligible.  It means the Cubs have fixed young slotted salaries, and checkbook money to use to add more arms.

Think what a front line starter like David Price or Jordan Zimmerman, high priced, but yet affordable to Chicago, would mean in 2016.

This year was a step towards respectability.  Next year is the season to look forward to, World Series credibility.

Think I can close my eyes and hear the echoes of Harry Caray, “Cubs win-Cubs win” a year from now.  Wrigley Field always rocks.  2016 is might explode.

–0–

A Memo to the Mayor and the County Commissioners.

It’s time to think of alternative plans for the future of San Diego sports. The drive to build a new Stadium for the Chargers has stalled, because the owner has set his sights on making millions and billions of dollars in the Los Angeles market.

Every word uttered by Dean Spanos’ mouthpiece Mark Fabiani, has a negative attached to it. Spanos’ heart, soul, mind and checkbook is about Los Angeles and additional wealth.

The alternative ideal, is for San Diego to move on to the next team available. The Raiders. They’d become a Southern California team, more of a regional asset, and you’d still have a franchise in a new stadium.

Forget the hatred and the history with the Raiders. That was decades ago, that was Al Davis, this is a different time and place. You may question the abilities of current owner, Mark Davis, the son, but there is no question about the following the team has, or its future with the young players they have drafted. And it is now about keeping an NFL franchise in this city.

The Raiders can get nothing done in Oakland. That city, and Alameda County are destitute and cannot pay their bills, much less pour money into the Coliseum City sight. Mark Davis is on record as saying his contribution, with the NFL’s help, would be 500M, more than Spanos has offered.

The Raiders as sole tenant in San Diego would be very profitable. As a co-tenant in a shared Stadium in Carson, would mean splitting everything.

Maybe the idea of ending your relationship with Spanos is distasteful to our civic leaders. What’s distasteful is the disgraceful way the owner of the team has treated this group of leaders. This is a different era, where City-County money, are available. Spanos has refused to come to the table to try and get a deal done. Maybe Mark Davis would, finding a solution to his longtime problem.

He’s not going to bring up the history of past mayors who failed. He’s not demanding a new stadium in the era of 9/11, the collapse of the global economy, San Diego and California near bankruptcies, or the real estate downturn. It’s 2015 and he would listen, whereas Spanos demanded things in impossible economic times.

Utmost important to San Diego is a new stadium. Second most important is a tenant, and if Spanos won’t negotiate, then invoke the end of his lease, and let the Raiders move in. The Chargers can go to that Toxic Waste sight in Carson, or be second tenant to Stan Kroenke, who has the team, the money and the Hollywood Park sight.

San Diego’s leadership has done all it can at this point, with an owner who does not care. Move on to the next franchise available, and get a team for our city to welcome.

I said Dean Spanos’ legacy would be written by whether he helped build a stadium in San Diego, or moved in the middle of the night to Los Angeles. It’s evident he no longer cares about his legacy in San Diego. Why should the city care after the way the owner has denounced every effort to help him make more money in his adopted town.

San Diego has shown the Chargers loyalty for 50-plus years. This owner is unwilling to show that loyalty back now, by even trying to find the right dollars-and-cents combination..

The NFL axiom about players is ‘next man up’. San Diego’s stance should be per the stadium, ‘next team up.’
 

–0–

What’s the old phrase in baseball, “Good pitching beats Good hitting”?

Are you sure about that, based on what we have seen the first two weeks of baseball’s post season.

The New York Mets surely subscribe to that, with their bevy of hot young pitching arms. Those hired guns have shutdown the Chicago Cubs young bats, as they head back to Wrigley Field for Game 3-of the NLCS in Chicago. The Mets lead that series 2-games to none, thanks to Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndegaard.

But good pitching has not beat good hitting in the Blue Jays-Royals ALCS. The Jays ace David Price has an awful post season record in the playoffs, stretching from Toronto back to Detroit to Tampa Bay. The Royals rotation in this postseason has included the erratic Johnny Cueto, the enigma that is Edinson Volquez, and even ex-Padres-journeyman Chris Young got a postseason start.

The Cardinals had great pitching all year long, running to the finish line with a (100-62) regular season record, but it surely didn’t mean much. The Cubs clubbers knocked John Lackey, Michael Wacha and others around. So long St. Louis.

How about the Dodgers, the awesome numbers put up by Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke. Their super human in season accomplishments meant nothing, as they were battered out of the postseason.

Houston’s bats got them to postseason, but even ace Dallas Keuchel couldn’t carry them much beyond that first round, and then their bats went silent.

The Yankees had no pitching, then they stopped hitting. Pittsburgh’s fabulous season led them to being one-and-done.

Even Texas, with the front end of the rotation featuring Cole Hamels, is sitting at home, unable to advance.

Maybe baseball is changing. Maybe you need more bats than arms. Maybe you need the ability to rally back in any inning against anybody, anytime. Maybe the truth is pitchers from start-to-start, cannot be trusted to get you to the finish line now in baseball, because everyone’s got hitters who can take you yard.

Jose Bautista and the Blue Jay bombers are something to see. Same with Eric Hosmer and his guys in Kansas City. Still waiting for Rizzo-Bryant and all those young Cubs to get it cranked up too.

Good pitching beats good hitting. Once upon a time it did. But in 2015, I need runs, lots of them, because it’s likely the other guy is going to score a bunch too.

-0-

It was a sight to behold, that Sunday shootout where the unbeaten Green Bay Packers held on to hold off the Chargers.

A sight to behold, a choked up Chargers coach Mike McCoy unable to answer questions about how the heart, face and voice of the franchise, desperately tried to ‘will’ his team to victory.

A sight to behold too, an upbeat Philip Rivers talking about a battered-beaten down team, holding together, and fighting to a near victory, where most everybody who goes into Lambeau Field,  loses.

Not yesterday, not the Chargers.  They were never intimiated by Aaron Rodgers (48-10) career record at the yard on Lombardi Avenue.

Rivers rewrote all the pages in the Chargers record book, a (43-65) day, worth 503-yards and a couple of touchdowns.  He survived sacks, survived two more fumbles from his 1st round draft pick running back, survived the loss of 14-catch receiver Keenan Allen.

They fought back in a game where they could have been blown out, trailing early (17-3).  They took control of the game going no huddle, no deep passes, everything short.

At one point they had 195-yards to a minus-15 for Green Bay, on the Packers turf.  Thanks to his defense, the Packers went 20-minutes without a first down, and had 4-three and outs in a 5-possession span.

The offensive line held tough till late in the game, when the Packers came out of character and went blitz mode, to slow the Bolts down.

The defense, as weak as we have seen it in years, ran blitz packages we have not seen before.  They sent Weddle, Addae, Verrett to wreak havoc.  The inside defensive lineman played gap control.

Aaron Rodgers had nowhere to go, could not scramble left or right, and when he stepped forward, there was traffic everywhere.

And yet Green Bay won, because they were able to make big plays early, and a few big plays late.  And the Packers defense stuffed San Diego in a goal line stand on the final two snaps of the game, one on a Danny Woodhead run, the other on a pass in the flat to Woodhead.

This was a loss, but this was also a moral victory.  You take that unbeaten team to the final snap of the game, and you’ve accomplished alot.

You only wish this Chargers team did not have all the walking wounded they have.  Somehow they found the resolve to play as a unified front with Rivers, and the defense manned up for the first time anytime this season.

Yes they are (2-4), but bad teams are on the schedule just ahead, including the woeful Bears, the substandard Baltimore Ravens to mention a few.

Bill Parcells was famous for mentioning after a bad loss, ‘no medals for trying’.  In this case, maybe the Bolts deserve purple hearts for that effort, in that stadium, against that team.

Parcells would say ‘you are what your record says you are’.  The record book should show the great leadership, courage, fire that Philip Rivers is, and how much better he makes everyone around him.

McCoy was too choked up to talk much about the defeat.  Rivers stepped in and showed his quality and his belief, if this group plays this way again, they’ll win their share of games.

-0-

We’re watching baseball this weekend, the American-National League Championship series. We’re watching and wondering if the Padres are ever going to get there.
The General Manager, AJ Preller, has begun his search far-and-wide for the next leader of his troubled franchise.
He had 3-guys in his dugout this past non-playoff season. Bud Black, whom he inherited and fired, Dave Roberts, the interim one game manager, and Pat Murphy, the Tripla A-boss who was here asd the team plunged into 4th place.
Preller’s credibility is very much on the line now. He acquired all those expensive players, that did not work out. He dealt away a number of quality prospects for players, who did not make a difference..
And now he needs to hit a home run with the hire of his next manager. There are lots of guys out there to talk to. Preller may relish the ‘rogue’ identity he has developed in baseball, the stealth moves in the middle of the night, the daring deals etc, but if they don’t work out rogue becomes rotten and rancid.
Ron Gardenhire has to be the lead candidate. Ex-Twins manager, who worked wonders in a small market with bad ownership, accused of penny-pinching. He had 8-winning seasons in 13-years before his veteran players left for free agency.
He brings fire, an old-school mentality, and attention to detail. He deserves a second chance, and likely gets hired by somebody by November lst.
Phil Nevin has done everything asked of him, in the lower minors to Triple A, land finished last year at (81-63) at Reno. Do you know how hard it is to manage at that level with the revolving door of talent in your clubhouse. He won at Erie-Toledo and now Reno.
Baseball smart, a little old school, young enough to adopt sabermetrics. You put good bench coaches around him, it should be his time. He’s had 5-interviews in two years, and has Tony LaRussa’s stamp of approval.
Ron Washington has a track record, some good, some bad. Yes Preller knows him, and no, you cannot ignore the off field stuff that led to his leaving Texas. I close my eyes and I see his glazed look in the Rangers dugouts during some awful posstseaosn losses. I can’t forget either the issues with substance abuse and the decision to walk away with problems with women. That’s a bit too much baggage.
Dusty Baker brings a world of experience and respect, but age, lots of age..
Andy Green, Rick Sofield, are young an unproven. Preller cannot afford to have somebody learning on the job.
Dave Roberts has certainly plied his trade, is loyal as the day, and knows the game, as a player, coach, and then bench coach.
Mark Kotsay could be the next Mike Matheny, just retired, but can you take that risk.
Other names will surface, but if you have a proven commodity who has won at this level, why not Gardenhire? If you want, but proven, why not Nevin?
The top two are seemingly about to get hired. Why not here?
For Preller, some will call it a do-over, a 2nd chance to get it right, but I call it the last chance to rally this flailing franchise, and regain his credibility..