Contented – My Cubs Marketing Campaign

I watch Cubs games when I can.

I follow the scores on Gameday most of the time. 

I at least check the alerts informing me of lead changes.

I kind of care if the Cubs win.

I read the occasional blog post and news update about the Cubs.

I have had neither the time nor the energy for much else.

I'm in my own personal rebuilding phase.

So I kind of like this phase in the development of the Cubbieverse. Don't get me wrong (or do, I don't really care), I would rather the Cubs were awesome . . . I guess. But if the Cubs were awesome, I'd probably still be missing it. So the fact that the Major League Cubs are playing baseball at a level well below the mediocre mean of Cubness makes me feel one with this team. Even if we barely see each other. I mean, really, how much do either of us care? We both know my passion for the Cubs is just as ineffective as their passion for winning. We might be committed, but we're not fooling anybody. We suck. And we're contentedly waiting out the suckiness. In the National League Central. In life. In general.

I like the fact that September brings no drama for the Cubs. I can't really handle that right now.

But I also like the fact that the Cubs are a no-drama team. Not just in September. Not just in the ever-expanding playoff hunt. In general. No drama.

There have been many developments that would have gone differently in past Cubs regimes. The trading of Alfonso Soriano, for instance, passed with cooperation, admiration, and respect between the Cubs and the now-stellar Yankee left fielder. Fonzy's former team, both his bosses and his colleagues in the clubhouse, spoke fondly of him amid the trade rumors and after the trade. If this happened 10, 5, or even 2 years ago, there would have been a special PR campaign developed by the team to ensure everyone in the English-, Spanish-, and Japanese-speaking worlds (The Fonz is trilingual, let's not forget) knew what a jerk he was. 

Not this Cubs team. This year, it was handled with class.

The same thing happened when the Jeff Samardzija rumors started swirling (you're welcome). The team handled it quietly and with honest dignity. Samardzija did the same. It passed like any other rumor without much drama. NBD.

Then there's the Starlin Castro thing. Since he kind of sucks this year, it would have been very easy for his recent surge in mental and performance lapses to turn into something huge. Instead, it was handled pretty much exactly how it should have been handled. He was removed from the game after letting a runner who was closer to him than to home plate score almost uncontested. But not immediately after. He was dropped in the lineup. He was moved to the top. Dale Sveum talked about him in a negative light, but not an overly dramatic one. Castro even expressed his frustrations to the media. In, oh, about one sentence worth of complaining. And then it passed. I don't know, did the media cover it? It seemed less than dramatic to me. Almost boring.

Of course I'm well aware that the Cubs blogonauts have gone through the semiannual routine of freaking out about what it means to be Cubs fans and what the Cubs need to do and what a pain in the ass Al is. Such is life. But the team itself? No drama.

And I'm perfectly happy with that.

For now. 

If the Cubs can keep the no-drama approach in the non-baseball side of things and eventually work their way into exciting fall baseball once I'm ready to sit down and watch more than a game or two a month, I shall count myself one lucky fan. It would almost be like we were watching real grown ups do baseball. We're probably not ready for that. But in time we will be. And so will the Superfriend Cubs.