Cubs Are All In

I mentioned Friday in my recent article about how much I hate that mascot from St. Louis that my baseball blood has begun to simmer. Boiling, though, is on the back burner. Not that I don’t love Pitchers and Catchers reporting, but everyone knows the next month will be filled with the same, tired storylines: an old player who is in the best shape of his life, minor leaguers who are going to make an impact at the major league level very soon, why this year’s team is way better or way worse than last year’s, etc.

The Cubs have made a habit of adding another story to this list of on going storylines: a team motto. In 2016, it was “Try Not to Suck,” and last year it was “That’s Cub.” Now, I enjoyed Try Not To Suck. However, That’s Cub pissed me off because, while I understood its intentions, it was now the automatic punchline for whenever the Cubs struggled. Also, it wasn’t good on a t-shirt. NEEDS to work on a t-shirt for me to rally around it.

Today, the Cubs announced their 2018 slogan- Everybody In. I’m back and forth on it. Seems simple enough, but again give me a solid t-shirt that I will honestly consider buying after a couple of beers and a close win against the Cardinals. The interesting part of this ordeal has been Cubs players posting on Social Media the slogan with their signature at the bottom, essentially signing a contract  that this year will be different. That they are committed to getting that spark back that they had in 2016

Most people consider this hoopla, and will brush it off. Me, though, well I was waiting on one person to claim he was in before I bought into the hype of this team. Not Rizzo. Not Bryant. Not even my Comeback Player of the Year candidate Jason Heyward.

That’s right. My personal Best Friend, Clark the Cub said he was in. Need I remind you that when Clark makes a promise...

 He stands by that promise?

Am I saying “buy your World Series tickets now” or “make sure you have already told your boss that you won’t be at work in November because the hungover you will have after winning the World Series will be pretty intense?"

No, but planning ahead is nice.