Seeing All The Cubs Get Emotional About Ian Happ Is Breaking My Heart
I know Ian Happ is a divisive figure among Cubs fans. He gets a ton of shit online. I don't care. I love Ian Happ. Good dude. He's the longest tenured Chicago athlete ever. Missed the glory of the 2016 Cubs by a season. Witnessed the end of that core, endured a rebuild, helped get the team back to the playoffs twice, played a Gold Glove left field for years. He was frustrating at the plate and part of that was because of where they consistently asked him to hit in the lineup. You could always tell that he LOVED the Cubs, loved Wrigley, and appreciated the fans. If you love Wrigley, the Cubs, and us then I love you. That's the way it is and I am sad that it is always definitely the end of the run for Ian Happ in LF. If that makes me wrong I don't want to be right. I want the good guys to win and he's one of the good guys. I'll miss him.
The team just wasn't good enough. The weirdest year I can remember. Insane highs. Disgusting, demoralizing lows that made a two game sweep feel like another 10 game losing streak.
Other than PCA, nothing really ever felt right. This group was sort of snake-bitten all year. In March we thought we could have a potential MONSTER starting rotation. Cade Horton, Justin Steele coming back, and Cabrera coming in. On paper that looked like a nasty 1-2-3...zero for 3. And somehow they cobbled together a staff that was good enough to make the playoffs. Never thought PCA would reach these heights, but also didn't expect a big regression from Hoerner and Busch. Didn't think Bregman would take 4 months to get going. Then when he was on fire heading into the final stretch of the season he breaks his face.
The Cubs weren't great, but they were also unlucky. So much of sports is timing. Being lucky, being healthy, and getting hot at the right time. None of those things were in the cards. If the starters were healthy maybe the Cubs are able to flip assets for bullpen help at the deadline instead of grabbing three starters they needed to just finish out the season.
And now we head into a LONG off-season with a work stoppage apparently all but guaranteed. Whenever the Cubs come back they're going to look a lot different. Happ gone, Seiya probably gone, Shota, Gausman, etc etc. We've had good summers with those guys, just bad autumns. I'll still love those guys. I'll cheer whenever they come back.