Is It Deja Vu All Over Again for the Cubs?

goat-face

The last time the Cubs came close to reaching the World Series came in 1984. The Cubs blew a 2-0 won-games lead over the San Diego Padres in what was the last year of the “best of 5” NLCS, allowing the baseball-busting fathers to move on to The Show:

The 1984 National League Championship Series (NLCS)

Chicago Cubs versus San Diego Padres

A Game Line Table on How It Played Out:

GAME	DATE	SITE	GAME WINNER	SERIES STATUS
1	10/02/84	WRIGLEY FIELD	CUBS, 13-0	CUBS UP, 1-0
2	10/03/84	WRIGLEY FIELD	CUBS, 4-2	CUBS, UP 2-0
3	10/04/84	JACK MURPHY STADIUM	PADRES, 7-1	CUBS UP, 2-1
4	10/06/84	JACK MURPHY STADIUM	PADRES, 7-5	TIED, 2-2
5	10/07/84	JACK MURPHY STADIUM	PADRES, 6-3	PADRES WIN, 3-2

As of very late last night – and into the wee small hours of the morning for those of us who watched the game on TV east of the west coast – the Cubs have recorded the same game pattern in the 2016 NLDS that they demonstrated in the 1984 NLCS of 1984. The 2016 NLDS is still governed by the old “best of 5” game plan.

The 2016 National League Division Series (NLDS)

Chicago Cubs versus San Francisco Giants

A Game Line Table on How This One is Playing Out:

GAME	DATE	SITE	GAME WINNER	SERIES STATUS
1	10/07/16	WRIGLEY FIELD	CUBS, 1-0	CUBS UP, 1-0
2	10/08/16	WRIGLEY FIELD	CUBS, 5-2	CUBS UP, 2-0
3	10/10/16	AT&T PARK	GIANTS, 6-5 (13)	CUBS UP, 2-1
4	10/11/16	AT&T PARK	5:30 PM, PDT
5	10/12/16	WRIGLEY FIELD	IF NECESSARY

Could it really happen to the Cubs again? And, if it did, how is your own mind prepared to interpret such a calamitous result?

The answer, we suppose, again depends upon how each of our minds are wired to perceive why things happen.

If the Cubs crash again, never winning another game against the Giants. how will we explain that result, first of all, to our own minds – and then to everyone else, if we even deign to try?

Whether you travel the trail of superstitious billy goats – or walk the straight and mathematically considered path of relative probabilities – and how they are affected by random and intervening variable effects – have fun with arrival of your conclusions.

In the end, it is what it is – whatever we each conclude it to be. Or so it seems.

Let’s simply enjoy these last few sips of the 2016 baseball season before we start congregating around that off-season hot stove talk that suffices to keep us warm for about four months each winter until we again reach that sweet spot moment the following early spring – when we once more hear the popping sounds of baseballs spanking leather – and of bats pounding baseballs.

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