No one’s thinking about the Chicago Cubs. Die harder’s or otherwise. The curse. How long it’s been since 1908, 1945 or that it could be another hundred years. For all we care they should’ve moved out to Rosemont like the owners threatened. You want to see the tourist attraction of a ball park buy a post card at a hotel gift shop.

No one cares that they’ll win just fifty games and Wrigleyville will be a ghost town by June. Who’ll be traded at the deadline since it wont be the Ricketts or Theo Epstein. Ticket prices will be about .50 by mid season. Rich Renteria will have a meltdown worse than anything Lou Piniella or Lee Elia could ever produce since his will be in Spanish. They still wont trade Starlin Castro no matter how many managers he will have gotten fired. Anthony Rizzo won’t hit any better than the .240 he hit in 2013 no matter who the hitting coach is.

Starting pitching has improved. Again trade fodder for the ever growing pool of talent in the minors because this is the level of talent they have on the field. Three games in and I’m already bored. I’ll be able to hear the booing from the ball park blocks away opening weekend because they can’t score runs against Philly pitching. The forecast calls for rain the entire weekend. Perhaps mercifully the entire series will be rained out.

After one hell of a winter in Chicago fans have little patience as well as the nonsense chatter over the plans for gaudy renovations of the ball park. We are more focused on filling the many pot holes left by the polar vortex. Expectations are so low we’ll forget there’s a north side ball club and wish that football season comes right after basketball season or that the Blackhawks go deep into the playoffs again.                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                Baseball season has become a bad word in Chicago. We have two baseball teams that finished in last place last season but people still choose to trumpet their loyalties. The White Sox were sold out on opening day and that’s probably the most fans they will see all season win or lose. Were the Cubs a European team they wouldn’t he heard of outside of the neighborhood. And still they would draw nothing but laughter. I’d bet moving to Rosemont isn’t sounding so bad right now. Perhaps the Ricketts family should wait until there really is a major league ball club for Wrigley Field before they do any of those renovations.

                Now to the case of challenges to umpire rulings, call me old fashioned but it seems to me the league is still trying to become the NFL. First with interleague play which has lost its intended effect in my mind. It should’ve been a limited experience between the American and National leagues. Eventually it was lauded for the rebirth of rivalries such as the Cubs and White Sox. No more would they be exhibition games between the two teams. They would count against a teams win-loss record. Interleague and manager challenges are a case of not stopping when one is ahead with the aforementioned series played home and away the same week. Extra rounds in the playoffs for undeserving teams. As if MLB needs more money.

                With the introduction of manager’s challenges, I’m not one to complain about the length of games. With the lack of quality programming on television I can tolerate a nearly four hour game. But it’s reason to build massive screens in the outfield like Cubs are planning. After a while there’ll be no reason for umpires. The once romantic idea that human error is a natural part of the game has gone by the way of technology. Whatever happened to the idea that you play well enough the umpires don’t figure in the outcome.

                Sports like life is ever changing in ways we do and do not like to be sure. There are still people who hate lights at Wrigley Field. But the clubs don’t play well enough to keep the umpires out of it. Again why they’ll win only fifty games in 2014.