By Marty Gangler

At this point in the season, the Cubs are essentially like that proverbial car accident that you slow down to look at just to see if there is anything interesting going on and then you speed up quickly and go on your way.
We slowed down during the Nationals series, for example, to watch the benches empty because bench coach Jamie Quirk and catcher Steve Clevenger were being babies about Washington was still trying with a 7-2 lead in the fifth inning.
And how ’bout that play by Brett Jackson?

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Posted on September 10, 2012

By Marty Gangler

The most interesting thing that’s happened lately to the Cubs has nothing to do with the Cubs. It has more to do with the Dodgers and Red Sox, but it certainly relates to the Cubs. What is becoming clearer is that teams in major markets make an ass-load of money.
The Dodgers proved that as a team that somehow could barely make payroll last season went out and got a quarter-billion dollars worth of contracts. Do they do that if they couldn’t make that back somehow?
And what about the Red Sox? A team that could take on that kind of payroll just decides to give up on the cornerstone of the deal (Adrian Gonzalez) and throw in a few other horrible contracts.
So how does this relate to the Cubs?

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Posted on September 3, 2012

By Marty Gangler

Giving Theo and Co. the full benefit of the doubt, does this season feel like a success? I’d say no, it feels like a huge failure. Theo hasn’t kept up his end of the bargain.
The bargain was that we’d accept a team that didn’t win a whole lot in order to engage in an organizational housecleaning and culture shift. But we’d get a team at the major league level filled with kids who hustled and “played the game right.”
Is that the team we’ve been watching? Resoundingly, no.

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Posted on August 28, 2012

By Marty Gangler

Am I the only one who thinks it stinks to be a Cub fan right now?
Because it does.
Not only does the team stink, the new management has come out and admitted it stinks.
And this doesn’t really sit well with me.
True, I’m so used to management trying to blow smoke up my butt that the honesty is refreshing.
It’s like being relieved that your wife is at least telling the truth about her affairs instead of pretending she’s been out late taking macrame classes. She’s still having an affair, though.

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Posted on August 21, 2012

By Marty Gangler

The Cubs clubbed the Houston Astros last night at Wrigley Field but consider that the Astros have 10 more losses this season than our hapless Scrubbies. That’s not much fun to watch, and in fact, it’s not even fun to pay attention to with a modicum of hope for the future anymore since the trade deadline fiasco that delivered middling prospects to Class A and not much else. You’re losing us, Theo.
We get the whole “get worse to get better” thing, but if the “better” is a huge bet that today’s prospects will become tomorrow’s superstars in . . . 2015 and counting, we’re gonna need to see more than balls rolling between Starlin Castro’s legs sandwiched by Brett Jackson’s strikeouts. Are we truly any better off than when we started the season? It would be a lot easier to believe in the plan if Alfonso Soriano wasn’t still starting every game in left field.
You can build for the future while remaining competitive – or at least simply respectful of your paying customers – at the major league level. That’s what good organizations do. The free pass is just about expired.

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Posted on August 14, 2012

By Marty Gangler

Well, that didn’t take long.
The slashing of the roster has had an immediate impact on the Cubs.
As Cub vets were moved at the trading deadline for a look to the future, the present started to really stink up the joint again.
And for a season that started with let’s-see-what-we-have-now, to boy-we-don’t-have-too-much, to now-that-Rizzo-is-here-they-aren’t-horrendous, it has moved back to let’s-see-what-we-have-here.
But it’s already close to we-don’t-have-too much and could turn into, sheesh-what-else-is-on?
With this in mind we here at The Cub Factor would like to provide some pointers to watching the rest of the season.

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Posted on August 6, 2012

By Marty Gangler

So, did you see that this happened last week? The Cubs dressed up like superheroes. Who knew?
We here at The Cub Factor think this is just too good to pass up. So while the Cubs did their best to be funny and hero-y, we have a few ideas for personas they should have adopted.
Geovany Soto: Made a weak attempt to be a Ghostbuster. But we think he should have gone as the Buffett Buster. From coast-to-coast no Old Country Buffett is safe!

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Posted on July 30, 2012

By Marty Gangler

At times this column turns personal. And really, isn’t that why we follow sports, and especially the Cubs? It’s the personal connection. And I’m not even talking about Ron Santo. This week another lifelong fan of the Cubs, my father-in-law Jim Casey, will be passing on without seeing them win a World Series.
What makes Jim different than your garden-variety Cub fan was that he was a minor league guy to the core. The Tennessee Smokies, the Iowa Cubs, the Peoria Chiefs, he went everywhere. Even saw them on the road. As a retired Greyhound bus driver, he had no problem logging the long miles needed to literally follow his Cubs wherever they played.
And he loved the kids; always said how this guy and that guy was a good player and was going to be good. He wasn’t often right, but, well, we all know that the Cubs haven’t yielded much from the farm system in the last, well, forever. But he still went and still believed in the kids.

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Posted on July 23, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

In true Cubs fashion, the team is about to sell off just about anybody they can short of Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo now that they’ve won 12 of their last 16 games. Does any franchise work in reverse as well as the Cubs?
It’s about to get a lot worse for this team, just as they are performing their best.
Cubs!

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Posted on July 16, 2012

By Marty Gangler

As we hit the All-Star break this week, it’s time to sit back and reflect. What do we have here?
We here at The Cub Factor think this season thus far can be summed up in the in the immortal words of Megadeth: So Far, So Good . . . So What!

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Posted on July 9, 2012