War Makes Strange Allies

In the regular season, you would never find a Cubs fan rooting for the Atlanta Braves let alone the dreaded St. Louis Cardinals. However, drastic times call for drastic measures. Take for instance the Pirates vs. Cubs game this past Sunday at Wrigley Field.

It wasn’t a close game by any means. The Cubs defeated the Pirates 8-0 with Zambrano reaching a career high of 17 victories. But the fans weren’t paying any attention to the game at hand; they were more focused on the scoreboard. When the number 4 went up signifying that Atlanta was beating Milwaukee, the stadium broke into cheers. With every bit of news out of Atlanta, the fans began doing the “tomahawk chop” as an acknowledgment to the Braves. It would seem that it was forgotten that the Cubs faced the Braves the last two times they made the playoffs. And we all know how that turned out. Not good.

If cheering for Atlanta seems strange, rooting for the Cardinals is just plain bizarre. It seems like Cubs fans everywhere can put their hatred for St. Louis aside for at least the three games against the Brewers. Cardinals catcher Gary Bennett was saying Monday how he was talking to his dad about the situation.

“I was driving up today and talking to my dad at work. He goes, 'All those Cub fans I've been fighting with all year are my best friends now.' "

Hey, what can you do? When it’s this close, strange things can happen. However, I wouldn’t expect both teams’ fans to become best friends any time soon. Especially when the Cards don’t come through for the Cubs. Last night, Milwaukee crushed St. Louis 13-5. Ok, so Chicago is still 3 games up but COME ON ST. LOUIS!



And what’s coming up for the Cubs? They start their three game series against Florida tonight and on Friday head to Cincinnati. While they are so close, they still have a long way to go. Manager Piniella knows that this thing is not in the bag.

“But let me tell you this: We've still got some work to do. This is a tough little trip to South Florida and then to Cincinnati, two teams that are playing well and scoring runs. "We've got to take care of business. I am excited. I'll be more excited if and when we clinch. We're in a good position, but again, there's baseball to be played."

I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch but if anyone has any Cubs playoff tickets available, contact me. I just have a feeling…