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Chicago Cubs are currently the crown jewel of Chicago sports
Despite a disappointing finish in 2019, the Chicago Cubs still boast the best recent and potential future success amongst the major sports teams in Chicago.
If you could take a time machine back to January of 2015, you’d find the Chicago Blackhawks were the talk of the town in the midst of a great run of success in one of the best sports cities in America. However, over the past five seasons, a new belle of the ball has emerged on the Chicago sports scene – one who had been long relegated to “lovable, but unimpressive stepsister.”
Granted, the Chicago Cubs weren’t the ugly stepsister, but they had to struggle for loyalty and love while splitting their billing in baseball with their counterparts on the South Side. They also had to overcome the city being a football town that also had seen much greater runs of success from their respective basketball and hockey teams.
With such a rich tradition of success and popularity among many of the varied franchises, the Cubs certainly had their work cut out for them just five years ago. Fast forward to today, and the Blackhawks haven’t made it out of the first round of playoffs since their Stanley Cup in 2015.
The Bulls, who had all the makings of another great run with the Derrick Rose-led bunch, fell on tough times as Rose became a shell of his former self following catastrophic knee injuries.
The Sox haven’t even had a winning season in seven years. Da Bears, while teasing all of Chicago with a great run last season led by (of course) a defense reminiscent of Buddy Ryan‘s squads, looks to be falling apart because of yet another failed quarterback.
Chicago Cubs: Let’s hope we experience deja vu in 2020
The Cubs, meanwhile, have enjoyed five straight winning seasons, four trips to the playoffs, three trips to the NLCS and a World Series trophy in 2016. Sure, fans are disappointed at the outcome of 2018 and 2019, but these are also the same fans who would have given their right arm for a trophy and sustained success from a ballclub that had always been the lovable losers.
Now the (somewhat) lovable winners, many Cubs fans have been transformed into entitled prima donnas who expect nothing less than a trip to the series every year. My, how times have changed.
Everything they do is now bigger and better. The Cubs spend big, they go after big stars, they have big stars on their current roster, and they have big expectations. A season without a trip to the playoffs is a huge meltdown now for a team that just five seasons ago pretty much expected such things on a yearly basis.
The Chicago Cubs are also primed to be the best team going forward for at least a couple more years as well. While they have some holes, they have an established starting rotation featuring Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks, and Yu Darvish. They have a core of talented position players including Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and Javier Baez.
Chicago Cubs: This is as good as it gets in Chicago sports
They also have youngsters who give the club flexibility, and even some emerging stars loaded with potential. The farm system isn’t what it was in 2015 or 2016, but how could it be with the MLB talent the system has graduated, many of whom have blossomed into All-Star caliber players.
With a few tweaks and some key additions around the periphery and fringe of the ball club, the Cubs will once again be back in the playoffs in 2020. And, in baseball, you just need an invitation to the ball to have a chance with the prince…er city… er in the playoffs.
Get your pumpkins ready – it’s not just Halloween for Cubs fans – it’s also time for another ball in 2020 and the Cubs are looking to be a more mature, sophisticated, and ultimately different kind of Cinderella. They’re already Chicago’s most attractive princess at the moment.
With another couple trips to the playoffs and possibly even another trip to the World Series, the Cubs could continue to be the best franchise in the Windy City – let’s just hope fans don’t take this run of success for granted without the gift of hindsight.
Next. Cubs could lose Kris Bryant in 2020. dark
Just look at what has happened to the once mighty Blackhawks, Bulls or even the Dodgers and Yankees in MLB. Success and trophies aren’t a given, so be thankful for what you have.