Opening day is always a special time in Wrigleyville.
The bars and restaurants that have been collecting dust all winter welcome the incoming wave of Cubs fans like long lost friends at a college reunion. The ballhawks take their assumed positions outside the left-field wall on Waveland Avenue, waiting in vain for home run balls to defy the wind and land in their 40-year-old gloves.
Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney emerges from his office in the Cubbieplex building next to Wrigley and goes on a media tour to reassure fans the revenues are all going straight back to the baseball operations department … but if anything goes wrong this year, Jed Hoyer’s office is down the hall.
It’s a great day for baseball, beer drinking and bellyaching, three things Cubs fans truly love.
Is new closer Ryan Pressly the next Mitch Williams or a Hector Neris’ clone? Will the Cubs re-sign Kyle Tucker, or should fans just enjoy his presence for now and worry about that come November? And if the torpedo bats really work, why don’t they make every Cubs hitter use one instead of just Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner?
Those were but a few of the questions heard at Wrigley on day one of the home season as Cubs fans returned to their home away from home. So I was eager to see whether the anxiety level had subsided by Saturday in the second game of the series against the San Diego Padres, which the Cubs won 7-1 before 35,391 while wearing their new baby blue alternate jerseys, affectionately known as the “Montreal Expos knockoffs.”
Spoiler alert: Not really.
The Cubs bullpen is the main cause of the serial nervousness, thanks to a 5.61 ERA and 1.90 WHIP heading into Saturday’s game. Pressly picked up saves in his first three opportunities but did so in Neris-like fashion, allowing eight hits and walking five in his first five innings of work.
His jittery, 33-pitch ninth inning while saving Friday’s 3-1 win reminded me of my first opener as a baseball writer for the Tribune in 1989, when Williams loaded the bases in the ninth on three singles before striking out Mike Schmidt, Chris James and Mark Ryal to save a 5-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Williams was soon nicknamed “Wild Thing” after Charlie Sheen’s crazy closer character in the film “Major League.” He lived up to the image, averaging 5.7 walks per 9 innings in 76 appearances while still managing to save 36 games and help lead the “Boys of Zimmer” to a division title.
Cubs fans would rather avoid the inherent drama that comes with a closer experiencing control issues, especially after last year’s problem closing games. Still, it’s too soon for manager Craig Counsell to make a change to Porter Hodge, despite all the groaning from the not-very-cheap seats. Check back in May.
So why are Cubs fans so panicky so early?
A confluence of events has led us to this point — a four-year playoff drought,
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