Yesterday’s Cubs game was pretty entertaining.  Any win over the Cardinals is a good one, but with Jake Arrieta dominating on the mound, the Cubs playing smart and taking advantage of Lance Lynn trying to pick off Anthony Rizzo1, and they got a clutch hit from Starlin Castro.  The bullpen hasn’t given up anything in two games so far.  So that was fun, right?

Mostly it just seemed to inconvenience the worst of our ilk.  They still only want to talk about the important stuff:

  • When’s Kris Bryant going to get called up?
  • Where am I supposed to pee?
  • When will the Cubs call Addison Russell up?
  • When they call Russell up where will Castro play?
  • Am I really supposed to put mustard on my hot got not 30 feet away from where some guy is shitting inside a big plastic box?
  • Why do we still have three catchers?
  • When’s Kyle Schwarber going to get called up?
  • How many times did Javy Baez strike out for Iowa?

Let your old pal Andy give you some advice here, kids.

Shut the fuck up.

We’ve been waiting for years for this team to be good again, and you know what, while you’re obsessing over shit that’s going to sort itself out in due time, you’re going to miss watching them actually play.

Bryant’s coming up soon.  We all know that.  He’s not coming up today, or tomorrow, so just let it go for a while.

The rest of that stuff?  Just let it all go.  I’ve got news for you.  Porta potties are hardly any more disgusting than a regular Wrigley bathroom.  And, the place where the hot dog was actually made was probably a lot closer to someone taking a dump than the mustard dispenser is to the outhouse on the concourse.  Humans are dirty, filthy beings.  You should be used to that by now.

Let’s just try to enjoy this now.  It’s what we’ve been waiting for.  Stop obsessing over the next move and next year.  Those things are going to happen.  Try to enjoy this year, the game that’s on right now, the players who are here.

Castro’s a great example.  He’s a helluva baseball player.  Yeah, he does some careless stuff sometimes, but he does a lot… a lot of really good things.  Instead of wishing him away for the next shortstop you’ll be sure to turn on, just try to enjoy him.  He learned from an at bat earlier in the game when he struck out with a runner on third and came up with a huge hit in the seventh to give the Cubs the lead, and made a head’s up baserunning play that set up the insurance run.

“But he made an error the next inning!”

Oh, you’re right.  That completely negates any of the good stuff he did.  You’re right.  We’re wrong.

At some point, “What’s next?” has to be replaced with “What’s now?”  If you don’t do that, you’re going to miss all the good stuff, while you feverishly pace back and forth worrying about what’s coming.

Let’s leave worrying about two months, six months, a year, two years from now to the guys who get paid by the Cubs to worry about that stuff.  They’re doing a pretty damned good job.

Watch the team that’s here now.  It’s actually pretty good.

Here are those annoying footnotes.

  1. Who was standing about six inches from first base when Lynn threw over…and away.