Oh, They Want It

Just because baseball players earn more money than anyone of us could ever dream of doesn’t mean that they don’t care when they lose. In the case of the Cubs, they show their frustration.

When it came to losing two of three games to Pittsburgh, the boys weren’t at all happy. Lou Piniella was actually pleased when he heard the news.

“The guys were upset," Piniella said. "That's good. Look, our players want it. They just have to go out and grab it, but they do want it.

What do they say? That sports are 90% mental? Or is it 99%? No, that can't be right. You can't just play with 1% of talent. That means I could be playing professional baseball and I know the world isn't ready for that. Anyway, I don’t know the exact percentage but it’s more mental than physical is what I’m getting at. And if a team wants it bad enough, can see every run scored and every game won, that’s more than half the battle. This is clear. The Chicago Cubs want it.

And in that yearning for success, big guys are delivering. We all know that Derrek Lee is one of the best first base players out there. He’s at the top of the list in the fielding category with only four errors in 132 games played. But he’s also 13th on the overall batting average list with a .312. There can be no denying that Lee has come up with some fantastic hits when it’s needed the most. And what about Aramis Ramirez? He’s 10th on the batting average list with a .315. Let’s not forget about Alfonso Soriano. Even though he was injured while base running, he’s come back and helped Chicago win. He’s 28th on the list with an average of .289. Some people are worrying about the Cubs pitching heading into the middle of September, but Ted Lilly is going to be there for the team. He’s 33rd in pitching with an ERA of 3.85. And of course the other players, Zambrano, Theriot, DeRosa, etc. are going to be key factors as well.




I don’t know about you, but I feel pretty good about the rest of September. It’s not going to be easy and it’s probably not going to be pretty (at times), but these guys and the rest of the team are going to pull through. The Cubs are now .5 games ahead of Milwaukee and I can only hope that they are going to keep extending this lead. If Lee, Ramirez, Soriano, and Lilly have anything to say about it, I’m betting they have a pretty good chance at doing just that.