Cubs fans face another October with Wrigley Field being lifeless

The last time the Wrigley Field faithful roared in a game beyond the 162-game regular season was on October 2, 2018, when Javier Baez hit a game-tying double late in the winner-take-all Wild Card game. Unfortunately for the Cubs, they lost that game 2-1 in extras to the Rockies, ending their brief 2018 run. Since then, the old ballpark on the North Side has heard nothing but passing traffic, field sprinklers, and the humble Chicago breeze in October and early November.

Yes, they played two playoff games in the 60-game COVID-19 2020 season, a series with zero fans in attendance, and the stands were as quiet as the Cubs' bats that series. That run never felt real, and the magic of a Wrigley Field postseason atmosphere was absent.

Once upon a time, postseason play on the North Side was truly a rarity and the few trips there felt like a massive privilege for many. Now, our expectations have changed, and the gaps between postseason appearances are not as accepted as they once were. The Cubs' chances of reaching the postseason this year are pretty much gone, so barring something insane, it will be another no-go for October. It will be six years since Cubs fans packed Wrigley for a postseason game come October 2. First, the hope of a long sustained window with the World Series core faded into oblivion, and now back-to-back years of middling around .500 has resulted in no postseason play in five of the last six seasons.

Cubs are moving further from a streamline of postseason success.

The run from 2015-2018 had fans gearing up for years of postseason baseball at Wrigley. Even if the fanbase did not expect a World Series championship in 2024, there was hope and expectation they'd compete for the postseason. Four years under the Jed Hoyer regime has resulted in zero games played past 162, the closest being them missing by a hair last year after a rough September. The team in a big market with fans filling the ballpark and surrounding area every game day, who will now see an already expensive experience get even more expensive, will sit on the couch again. Meanwhile, the small market rival Milwaukee Brewers will play in the postseason for the sixth time in seven seasons despite a much smaller payroll.

Speaking personally, I miss that thrill of waiting for a Cubs postseason game to begin. Then living and dying with every pitch as my heart pounds out of my chest. When something big happened and the crowd at Wrigley Field went nuts, that was goosebumps-inducing. The joy of a postseason win was one of the best feelings in the world as a fan during that magical run in the mid-2010s, and even back as a kid in 2003. I want that feeling again and it will be another year to wait for another chance. I was a broke college student and a recent graduate during the Cubs' golden years, and I could not afford to go to postseason games. Now, I can but I have to wait until they get back there.

It's frustrating, pure and simple. The Cubs are not bad overall, but they are not good enough to get into the big dance. Mediocrity has been a plague in this huge-market sports city, and it's a shame, considering how much fans invest in the teams every year. Hopefully, this will change in 2025, and that is all we have to look forward to now—again, barring something beyond wild happening.