There’s obviously not going to be a lot of optimism in Chicago this season, as least for the North Siders, as the Chicago Cubs have entered yet another rebuilding season with new manager Dale Sveum, general manager Jed Hoyer and president Theo Epstein. But the beauty of baseball is that even in rebuilding years, miracles can happen, and the Cubs could be that Cinderella team that comes from nowhere this year to surprise us all. That’s some good optimism right there.
Unfortunately, not a lot of people share it. As you can see in the banner image, CLTV took a fan poll yesterday to gauge optimism among the Cubby faithful and at least at one point things weren’t looking so hot. But don’t worry, polls are stupid and there are some positive people out there still.
“Ideally, you win,” general manager Jed Hoyer said. “I had an interesting experience my first year (as GM) in San Diego. We had no expectations. Las Vegas thought we were going to be under 70 wins, and I think we had the best record in baseball in mid-August, and we ended up winning 90 games. To say I expected that would be a lie.
“The most important thing you can do is be prepared every game, have a team that plays hard every game. If you have that, anything can happen. … If that doesn’t happen, if that isn’t our script, I certainly hope that throughout the course of the year we continue to add talent to our roster and build for a great day in the future. But I would never give away any one season. Given the personnel in that clubhouse and given the coaching staff, there’s no reason we can’t surprise a lot of people like one or two teams does every year.” (Via CLTV)
See, Cubs fans? There is faith to be had. Nobody thought Hoyer’s Padres were going to be any good and they proved everyone wrong. In fact, I’m going to offer my own positive prediction for you right now – the Cubs will win the National League Central.
*mouths “No they won’t” to everyone else*
Enjoy the season, Cubbies. After all, you have this on your side…
(Banner image via my good buddy Matt Sebek of Joe Sports Fan, and be sure to check out their new podcast that kicked off last week.)
