It seems like yesterday.

Well, the Cubs 7-game winning streak came to an end yesterday (June 30, 2007). The Cubs lost big, 13-4, to first-place Milwaukee. They play Milwaukee again this afternoon. Would be nice if the Cubs took 2 of 3. Funny thing about baseball. Sometimes, you catch the magic. Everything goes your way. You win games you shouldn’t win. It’s a streaky thing. When things go right, you expect ‘em to keep going right. Like you’re in a groove. And when they go wrong, you expect them to keep going wrong. One captures an attitude. Positive attitude. Negative attitude. Vibes. It makes a difference. The good teams go on hot streaks. And then they play .500 baseball for a while. Maybe they go 5-5 over the next 10 games. Then maybe they get relatively hot again, and win 5 or 6 straight. Over the span of a 162-game season, if you can win 15 to 20 more games than you lose, there’s a decent chance you qualify for the play-offs, and you have the possibility of getting a hot streak then and into the World Series. Last year, St. Louis got lucky. At the end. Won only 4 more games than it lost. In the Cubs’ division. And won the World Series. It was a fluke. Just happened to get hot during the play-offs. And lucky. It happens sometimes that the best team doesn’t win it all.

I find it easier taking a 13-4 loss than a 5-4 loss. Because when you lose a ballgame by one run, you look back and reflect on the missed opportunities. When you lose by 9 runs, like the Cubs did yesterday, you just write it off. As a bad day,. You were never really in the ball game. The Cubs started off the season losing so many, many one-run games. I think they went 3-14 in their first 17 one-run decisions. So many, many games they could so easily have won. If they had won only 5 or 6 of those games instead, they’d have 5 or 6 more wins and 5 or 6 fewer losses. A 10 or 12-game swing. If. If. If. So many ifs. One ponders the ifs. Which is a dangerous thing to do in life. To speculate about ifs. Instead of accepting what happens. And always wishing for something else. That’s what so many of us do. I see it on the Alzheimer's message board daily. I see it around me. With the people I encounter daily. Even with myself to some extent. But not nearly as often as it used to be.

Anyway, baseball and the Cubs often get me thinking. The Cubs, by the way, have won 7 of the last 8 games decided by one-run. They're winning the close ones. That's the difference.

Baseball fascinates me. I was drawn to the game. Not as a player. But a spectator. It’s a game that develops slowly. So many surprises. So many strategies. You have to think. And play the odds. Make difficult decisions. And a game filled with errors. Mistakes. Failures. The best hitters bat around .300. Which means you get a hit about once every three at-bats. You make out two out of three times. In a sense, you fail far more often than you succeed. Isn’t that a refection of life? You play a long, long schedule. With so many ups and downs. Even for the best teams. And hey, it’s a real team effort. Nine players on a team. So many opportunities for each one to succeed, and for each one to fail. It’s got to all come together. You have to help each other.

Baseball used to be our national pastime. But I think it’s lost much of its luster. With people. Maybe they have better things to do. But I’m hooked on baseball. On the Cubs. Because I grew up with ‘em. I became addicted as a kid. And it wasn’t just the Cubs. It was baseball. So many of us were addicted. When the World Series or a big play-off game came, they even broadcast the big game in school, over the PA system, at Watertown High School. Imagine that happening today. No way. But in 1951 when I was in the 11th grade I was sitting in Myra McInnes’ social studies class and the PA system was on and broadcasting a National League play-off game between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was an historic moment. An historic baseball season. One I won’t ever forget. In mid-August, the Dodgers had a 13 ½ game lead over the Giants, and it looked like the Dodgers would run away with the National League pennant. But in the last 6 weeks of the season, the Giants got hot. And they caught the Dodgers on the last day of the regular season. Tied ‘em for first place. And I was listening to the play-off game that would decide who went to the 1951 World Series. And it was the bottom of the 9th inning. And the Dodgers were ahead, 4-2. Ralph Branca was pitching for the Dodgers. And the Giants had two runners on. And Bobby Thomson at the plate. And he hit a home-run to win the game for the Giants, 5-4. And everybody (the Giants fans really) went nuts. And the announcer shouted. And I remember teacher McInnes was confused. She didn’t quite understand what had just happened. And I had to explain it to her. And so I remember that day. Very vividly. A day I’ll never forget. I know where I was when Bobby Thomson hit that homerun. And I imagine the same goes for many, many baseball fans who were alive in late September 1951. A long time ago. But it seems like yesterday. --Jim Broede