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What the Washington Post termed “a bizarre, localized cold front” hit Chicago on Tuesday afternoon, suddenly turning a warm spring afternoon into a chilly night.
Meteorologists called it a “pneumonia front,” comparing it to the chills one experiences when getting ill.
Coincidentally, Cubs fans also have been going through a pneumonia front after a feel-good start to the 2023 season evaporated into thin air, leaving them cold and confused and looking for someone to blame.
The Cubs blew a five-run, eighth-inning lead Wednesday night in Houston in a 7-6 loss to the Astros, extending their losing streak to five games and falling to 19-24, tied with the rebuilding Cincinnati Reds for third place in the National League Central.
Drew Smyly pitched seven perfect innings in a 13-0 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 21, leaving the Cubs at 12-7. They’ve gone 7-17 since, wasting another strong outing by Smyly on Wednesday.
The Cubs batted .242 with a .709 OPS over the 23 games before Wednesday after hitting .290 with an .820 OPS beforehand. The pitching that helped carry the Cubs early has sputtered of late, giving the offense little margin for error.
Rookie Hayden Wesneski is back with Triple-A Iowa after his audition as the No. 5 starter failed, and the Cubs are still without a reliable closer. Cody Bellinger’s hot April bat has disappeared in May — he had no home runs and two RBIs with a .578 OPS in 13 games this month before Wednesday.
First baseman Eric Hosmer was batting .200 with a .532 OPS in 22 games since April 12 but remains as a role player, even with Matt Mervis up from Iowa.
“You have to be patient and realize, be thankful that some of our guys have gotten off to hot starts, and that has allowed some of the other guys to struggle,” President Jed Hoyer said April 20. “And when those guys struggle, the other guys will pick them up.”
But that was before the pneumonia front arrived. Now all bets are off, and manager David Ross has received the brunt of the blame. When addressing fan criticism in early April, Ross had a brash response.
“I may have my reasons for doing things that may not align with others,” he said. “But those are my reasons and the good thing about being the manager is I get to make those decisions.”
When the DraftKings sportsbook opens soon at Wrigley Field, some fans no doubt will rush to be the first in line to bet that Ross will be the first manager fired despite getting unfavorable odds.
Ross has no reason to sweat Hoyer changing his tune, but unless the Cubs revert to their early April form, the bulk of the anger from disappointed fans will be directed squarely at the manager.
The Cubs marketed this team with the slogan #NextStartsHere, suggesting things would be different from the last two years.
#SameOldS***StartsHere just doesn’t work as well.
On the other side of town, White Sox manager Pedro Grifol continues his quest to convince fans his struggling team remains in contention, even as Grifol said he pays no attention to the standings.
The Sox are a woeful 12 games under .500 after Wednesday’s 7-2 win over the Cleveland Guardians, which would be enough for any manager to worry about job security if he weren’t still in his honeymoon period.
You might find yourself feeling sorry for Grifol, who probably didn’t know what he was getting into when he accepted the Sox’s offer to revive a team that fell on its face in 2022. After his introductory news conference in October, Grifol told NBC Sports Chicago: “We’re going to prepare every night to kick your ass, OK? And that’s just what we’re going to do.”
That hasn’t happened, and in fact the Sox have been handed their behinds much more often than they’ve kicked anyone else’s. Grifol’s early bravado has been mocked in tweets, and NBC Sports Chicago analyst Ozzie Guillen pretended to fall asleep during one postgame show while the network aired Grifol’s interview session.
But now is the time for the Sox to make their move. This homestand began a stretch of 28 games in which the Sox play 18 times at home. They’re 3-2 in the first five games as they go for the sweep in Thursday’s finale against the Guardians.
“We’ve just got to dig deep,” Grifol told reporters Tuesday. “We’ve got to dig down deep and we’ve got to will ourselves to become that team we know we can be.”
That comment sounded like a blast from the past, hearkening back to former broadcaster Ken “Hawk” Harrelson’s patented metric “TWTW,” which stood for “The will to win.”
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Surely you remember TWTW. Harrelson was making fun of analytics during an interview with MLB Network’s Brian Kenny in April 2013, suggesting there was much more to a player’s value than numbers.
“TWTW is going to supersede anything sabermetrics brings in,” Harrelson predicted.
The Sox bought in and created and sold TWTW T-shirts in the ballpark gift shop. Vice president and chief marketing officer Brooks Boyer told mlb.com: “The guys are using it as a bit of a rallying cry.” Harrelson mentioned it a time or two hundred on Sox telecasts.
The Sox finished with a 63-99 record in 2013, 30 games behind the division-winning Detroit Tigers. Suffice to say we didn’t hear much about TWTW after that fateful season.
But maybe those unsold TWTW T-shirts can be brought out of mothballs and hung in the Sox Park gift shop again.
Like your mom once said, never throw out those old clothes.
One day they’ll become trendy again.
