If I were on the Los Angeles Dodgers or Arizona Diamondbacks, the two National League teams playing in the other National League Division Series, I would not want have the Chicago Cubs waiting for me in the National League Championship Series. But that looks exactly like what’s going to happen.
The Cubbies had a tepid first half of the regular season, but came on strong in the second half, pulling away from mediocrity in the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers. But now they’re playing against one of the best teams in baseball, the Washington Nationals, in the NLDS, winning the first of two games of the series at Nationals Park. How crazed will Wrigley Field be Monday for Games 3 and 4? Granted, one could make the argument that the Nationals might turn out to be one of these teams with gaudy stats that just can’t win in the playoffs. But this possibility doesn’t take away from the winning baseball the Cubs have played for the past two and a half months.
If you’re a Cubs fan, no doubt you’re looking somewhat nervously at the Los Angeles Dodgers, thinking other than a relatively minor blip, this has been their year. But if you’re a somewhat detached observer, you’re not convinced that the Diamondbacks won’t still make things unpleasant for the Dodgers.
So assuming the Cubs make it back to the World Series, whom will they meet? It seems that it’s now likely the Houston Astros or the Cleveland Indians. And what an American League Championship Series match-up that will be! How can you not pull for a guy like Jose Altuve, to say nothing of the entire, Harvey-ravaged city of Houston? By the same token, hasn’t it been quite long enough since the Indians won a World Series? I know the Astros have not ever won a World Series and have won only one pennant, that in 2005 when they were in the National League. But they didn’t even exist when the Indians won their last World Series, in 1948. So, to me, the Indians have many more years of futility and near-misses to wash away by winning the World Series than the Astros. And that other-worldly win streak of the Indians tells me they will find themselves matched up for it all with Cubs. You gotta love it!