Holey Rotten Starts: Cubs Must Avoid 0-14

Built in 2007, O-14 tower in Dubai commemorated a dubious 10-year anniversary.

Watching the Cubs start the season losing to a Braves team that looks really good has me all nostalgic for the bad old days. In 1997, the schedule makers decided to curse the Cubs in a much more palpable way than any goat-loving tavern owner could ever accomplish. They gave the Cubs ten straight games against the Marlins and Braves.

The starting pitchers the Cubs faced looked like this: Kevin Brown, Al Leiter, Alex Fernandez, Denny Neagle, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux,  Al Leiter, Alex Fernandez, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine. Looking back, the 0-10 start shouldn't have been too surprising, although I did expect more from the Cubs' freshly imported closer, Mel Rojas. Foolish me. By the time dust settled . . . well, the dust never really settled. The Cubs lost the first 14 games of the season and never reached .500.

Yeah, the 1997 team and this current 2010 squad share a similarity to the O-14 tower in Dubai in that all three have quite a lot of holes. But the Cubs schedule doesn't start nearly as brutally. After the Braves, the schedule lightens up considerably. Whether the Cubs can take advantage of that is another story. But it's not 1997.

Let's just get the rock out of Atlanta and see what happens next, shall we? Game on.

The L Flag Flies Again

Oh look, another El.

At some point, the Cubs will win a game. If they're the worst team in the league, they'll win 60 times.

At some point, the Cubs will lose again. If they're the best team in the league, they'll still lose 50 more times.

This is what happens when you watch baseball. Almost everything you see, you'll see a lot of it. Maybe the bullpen sucks. They (Grabow) gave up two runs. They will give up a lot more. Maybe the offense sucks. They scored only two runs. They'll score a lot more. There will be a lot of wins. There will be a lot of losses. 

There will be a lot of panic. I refuse to do so until after they win at least one game. I'm not going to get too riled up watching the plane crash before it leaves the runway.