Being a Cubs fan wouldn’t be all that bad if it weren’t for two things:
1) the soul-crushing losing
2) other Cubs fans.
For the past three years we’ve had it pretty easy. The team has been purposely horrible (as opposed to the unintentionally horribleness of most of the 103 seasons before it), and while dumb Cubs fans have been grumbling about the team not signing free agents or trading for aging, former, stars, the team’s non-competitiveness have caused most of them to lose interest before they could really annoy the shit out of us.
But that time, thanks to the hard work of Theo, Jed, Jaron and the rest of the preppy name club, is either over, or certainly ending. We’re in phase two, which is actually trying to win all the games now. This is going to be fun. We’ve been waiting for it, and we’re glad it’s here. But there is one problem.
It should hold the dumbest of Cubs’ fans interest. They’re going to be around all the time now. And they still don’t get it.
The biggest misconception in sports, is that when your favorite team doesn’t sign a free agent they very publicly go after it’s because they screwed up. They should have:
a) paid more
b) offered more years
c) thrown in a no-trade clause
d) taken the player to a better strip club
e) put pants on the mascot
f) kept Todd locked to a bike rack
etc.
Here’s a little secret. Not every player wants to play for your favorite team.
And sometimes, in fact, almost all of the time, it has nothing to do with your team. Jed Hoyer alluded to it after Lester’s visit a couple weeks ago. Sometimes it’s because the player wants to live closer to something that’s not your city, or maybe his wife wants to live somewhere else, or maybe your old park is a shitheap even if you’re burying a doublewide under the parking lot to triple the size of your clubhouse.
There are a lot of factors that go into any free agent’s decision. Some of them are sensible and relevant, many of them aren’t. Most of the time, it’s easy. Players pick the team that offers them the most money. They like money. You and I like money. Nobody offers us millions of dollars to do our jobs, but if they did, we might suddenly realize that the idea of “there’s no difference between $90 million and $100 million” is bullshit.
It’s ten million dollars. And if you argue that there isn’t anything you can buy with $100 million that you can’t buy with $90, I’ll tell you this: “I’d like to try to find something.”
The Cubs are going about this the right way. They are willing to spend, but they aren’t going to fuck up a very promising future by panicking.
This franchise should know this lesson. In December 1992 they let Greg Maddux leave for the Atlanta Barves because he asked for more than they were willing to spend. You could almost defend that argument, until they said, “Hey look at all the guys we signed with the money that would have gone for ONE Greg Maddux? We got Jose Guzman AND Dan Plesac AND Greg Hibbard!” You just took the money you wouldn’t pay for your 26 year old reigning Cy Young Award winner, and you overpaid three shitty OLDER players. Oh, AND you also later signed Candy Maldonado AND Randy Myers.
The lesson is if you don’t get the guy you are willing to spend big money on (for whatever reason–back in 1992 it was because they were too fucking stupid to slightly up their offer and keep Greggie), don’t just run out and spend the money on whatever is left.
The Cubs have a gaggle (nice word) of promising young position players. If everything broke right, they would conceivably have a very good and very cheap every day lineup. They have this offseason, the July trade deadline next year, the August waiver trade deadline next year and next offseason to find impact pitching. We’d love for them to sign Lester right now and start the winning, but if he goes back to Boston or to San Francisco, it’s not the end of the world. Don’t just write a big check to James Shields (who is a solid starter with a totally undeserved nickname).
Just because you think a player should sign with your favorite team doesn’t mean he actually wants to.
Shocking. I know.
