{"id":176845,"date":"2025-09-23T17:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T17:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/176845\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T17:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T17:50:07","slug":"the-short-porch-is-uninspired-by-the-2025-cubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/176845\/","title":{"rendered":"The Short Porch is uninspired by the 2025 Cubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maybe it\u2019s the gray clouds blanketing the area around Wrigley Field a few hours before the Cubs are scheduled to begin their final regular season homestand of the year. Or maybe it\u2019s the offense, that has been sporadic, but mostly flat since a torrid pace in April and May. Perhaps it\u2019s the unceremonious way the Cubs were swept out of Cincinnati during a four-game series where the Reds looked geared up for October and the Cubs\u2026just looked a bit lost. Whatever it is, this might be the least inspiring prelude to a playoff series ever.<\/p>\n

As Al noted earlier today, Kyle Hendricks announced his retirement<\/a> yesterday. Since the Cubs had an off day I decided to watch one of my favorite baseball games of all time: Game 6 of the National League Championship Series against the Dodgers in 2016. The difference in emotions was stark. I was giddy watching the Cubs put up two runs off playoff Clayton Kershaw (another retiring pitcher) in the first. I laughed hysterically when Joc Pederson got upset that random fireworks distracted him during an at bat, distracting him just enough to result in this swing, missing a Kyle Hendricks 89 MPH fastball at the eyes by a mile:<\/p>\n

I was elated as Willson Contreras took Kershaw deep with a missile to left field in the fourth inning and over the moon when Anthony Rizzo did the same thing an inning later, breaking a future Hall of Famer in yet another playoff game:<\/p>\n

But mostly, I was just puzzled. I could not figure out why I felt so much more connected to a game from nine years ago. A team full of characters who now all play somewhere else or are nearing the end of their careers. My heart sank a bit as I realized the most joy I\u2019ve felt at Wrigley Field this season came in a Cubs loss last week when Anthony Rizzo came home and retired a Cub.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

It was obviously never going to be like 2016 again, but 2017 was fun! And 2018 was a blast before it was the most excruciating brand of heartbreak baseball can offer. Trying to make the playoffs in 2019 was fun with Nick Castellanos embracing every day as Opening Day. Even the pandemic shortened 2020 season had its moments. My \u201cW Bus\u201d Obvious Shirt<\/a> always makes me smile.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, a competitive team is more fun than a non-competitive team. I\u2019m already signed up for the lottery for playoff tickets and am sure I\u2019ll be looking for deals on the secondary market if the Cubs host the Wild Card Series. But a team that seemed like a bit of a juggernaut early in the season has been just ever so slightly above .500 since the end of May. They were exactly .500 in June, 14-10 in July, 15-14 in August and are staring at a potential sub-.500 month in September with a 10-9 record and six games to go against the Mets and the Cardinals.<\/p>\n

Kyle Tucker is seeking outside opinions on a calf strain that may or may not clear up before the playoffs. Pete Crow-Armstrong hit 25 home runs in the first half and four in the second half. Seiya Suzuki put up an All Star caliber first half and then also saw his production crater, with 77 RBI in the first half and 14 in the second half. At this point, we\u2019ve seen as much mediocre Cubs baseball as we saw exceptional Cubs baseball. Will it really surprise anyone if Tucker never rejoins the lineup, the team limps into the playoffs, loses their ability to host the Wild Card Series and is unceremoniously shown the door?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s hoping things look brighter when the clouds break. A few W\u2019s this week would go a long way to fixing these melancholy vibes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maybe it\u2019s the gray clouds blanketing the area around Wrigley Field a few hours before the Cubs are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[16254,105314,15056,9307,4279,45448,95098,10006,363,105313,5530,4261,37318,99,40434,67650,7648,24278],"class_list":["post-176845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-anthony-rizzo","tag-baseball-games","tag-cincinnati","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-dodgers","tag-joc-pederson","tag-kyle-hendricks","tag-kyle-tucker","tag-mlb","tag-national-league-championship-series","tag-nick-castellanos","tag-pete-crow-armstrong","tag-seiya-suzuki","tag-sports","tag-the-cubs","tag-the-mets","tag-willson-contreras","tag-wrigley-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}