It’s the 4th of July and the Cubs are 17 games over .500 with a 4.0 game lead on the Cardinals as the series begins today.
Truthfully I don’t think it would be possible for me to be any happier.
Some notes on that:
- I’m dead serious this is my 2nd favorite Cubs team of all time at this point in the calendar
- I’m obsessed with how hard they play. How prepared we are every day. How hard the bullpen battles. How much we get from bad starting pitching (on paper). How we don’t have our best pitcher. How we missed our 2nd best pitcher for a long time. How the schedule has been so hard but we just battle and dominate anyways. All of it comes together and makes me feel obsessive
- The Cardinals are in big trouble for a day game in 90 something temps after an emotional walk-off win last night
- The Guardians lost 3 in a row to the Cubs including the 3rd in extra innings. Sound familiar?
- Literally just one decent 3rd baseman away from having a first round bye in the MLB playoffs
- We win on the road
- We win at home
- We beat good teams
- We beat bad teams
- The 5-6 guys that make up the core of the bullpen have a combined 1.35 ERA in 156 innings
- Most of those guys are completely and utterly forgettable
- Caleb Thielbar
- Daniel Palenica
- Drew Pomeranz
- Brad Keller
- Chris Flexen
- We have 2 starters in the NL All Star outfield
- Craig Counsell is growing on me at such a rate that the other day I had to fondly reminisce about David Ross with a purpose.
- Reese McGuire is basically Henry Blanco behind the plate throwing out 3 base runners last night and that’s one of my favorite plays in baseball. A caught stealing to end an inning or to get to 2 outs in a jam? No better feeling. And on topic, Dansby’s fundamentals around the bag making the tag are quite literally unmatched.
Best thing?
We take the field in like 4 hours against our division rivals on the nations birthday to further assert our division leading dominance.
I don’t think there’s a better way to celebrate a 4th.
Some personal notes on that:
- I’m playing golf with Mahoney today at Kemper Lakes and I think I’m going for a 76-78
- Then I’m going to Edison Park for a BBQ with my in-laws which should be awesome because they throw a great party and the people in Edison Park are amazing
- I’m hoping for decent traffic but you never know on the 4th. My gut says people won’t be on the road but you never know with traffic on 90
- I’m actually running late and need to go pick up Mahoney so I’ll just stop here and say God Bless to you and your family. Have a wonderful holiday and don’t do anything too stupid.