There are very few guarantees in life:
- We will all die someday.
- Food always tastes better when it’s free.
- And some Cubs fans will always freak out two weeks into the season if the team isn’t undefeated.
I swore to myself going into 2018 that I would try my best to refrain from writing this article that discussed a notion that I figured most logical Cubs fans would understand — it’s a long season. However, after the team’s 2-3 start, some Cubs fans can’t take it anymore and have had enough. I open Twitter daily and read tweet after tweet of Cubs fans bitching about how terrible the team is and making some outlandish claims.
And while I’ll never say that a fan shouldn’t get frustrated from the team’s performance, some of the over the top shit that I’ve read on Twitter the past week is absolutely insane.
Which is a great segue into a fun fact about me: As part of “research” for an end of the season article, I take screen shots of every stupid tweet that I see from Cubs fans. If (when) the team clinches the division in the Fall, I’ll start sending those same tweets out to prove all the panic in April and May was absolutely silly.
Absolutely cannot WAIT to write my first article of 2018 about #CubsTwitter melting down about something irrelevant.
Screen shots will be a thing again this year, be warned 😂😂 #LetsGo
— Adam Nissen (@nissen54) March 29, 2018
Call me petty all you want, but I think it’s therapeutic for people to look back and see how stupid they sounded in April/May when the Cubs couldn’t score a run (plus it’s hilarious to hear their excuse of, “I was just joking around bro, I didn’t mean it when I said the team should trade Kris Bryant.”)
I’m embarrassed to say that through five games, I’m already up to double-digit screen shots.
The overreaction on Twitter this year seems to be on a different level and a lot of that stems from the team’s great Spring Training. Every article I read this winter talked about how great the vibe in camp was and how the team was re-focused after a disappointing 2017. Well now what we’re into the 2018 regular season, fans want to see those same positive vibes (and results) that they saw all through Spring Training.
I know you may not see the positives, but my fellow Cubs writer, Aldo Soto, highlighted many of the positives through the first five games of the season.
It blows my mind but now the players themselves are being asked to speak on their 2-3 start to the season. Keep in mind, the Cubs are not the only team to be “struggling” this early in the season. Both the “powerhouse” Dodgers and Yankees are both sitting at or below .500.
Cubs pitcher Jon Lester was asked what his thoughts were on the team’s start and staying true to his straight shooter style, Lester said what every logical Cubs fan has been thinking through the first five games.
‘‘All across baseball, you see certain guys that aren’t having the starts that people want, and it’s like front-page news,’’ Lester said. ‘‘It’s the first [five] games. We’ve got a long ways to go. I don’t think anybody in here is worried about one start. You start putting a month or so of that together, and then maybe we need to re-evaluate some things. But one start is not going to make or break guys’ seasons.’’
As soon as I read Lester’s perspective, I had this exact reaction…
It’s pretty depressing that the guys who play on the actual team understand how minor the team’s start is yet fans who work a 9-5 downtown probably are losing sleep at night because the Cubs haven’t won every game this year. Like Lester said, if we get a month or two into the season and we’re still seeing the same issues on the field, then I’ll start to worry.
Until that happens — it’s still the Cubs division to lose.
