Earlier today, we wrote briefly about Ryan Dempster's believable bit of post-playoffs Cubs psychoanalysis. His contention was that the Cubs weren't prepared for the offseason, that they didn't transition from the marathon nature of a 162-game season to sprinter's battles that are the first round's short series.
We suppose it makes some sense. We also suppose it's folly to overanalyze players' mindsets, because at the end of the day, performance varies, and sometimes it varies at just the wrong time. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Still, it didn't take long for word of Dempster's remarks to get back to whatever beachside resort Lou Piniella was at today, and he didn't take too kindly to his pitcher's thoughts:
"Look, the team was prepared," Piniella told ESPN-1000’s "Waddle and Silvy Show" this morning. Piniella pointed to the lack of offense as the main culprit for the Cubs' collapse, and reiterated they need more left-handed hitting to balance out the lineup. "It's very much alike, one through eight," he said. "It's right-handed, it's power-hitting, and it's not very quick."
We don't think Dempster was directing his comments at Lou for a second, but because Lou is the manager, and it is ancient baseball tradition that the manager is the one responsible for the mental states of his players, he probably thinks the remark reflected poorly on him. Oh well. It happens.
While everyone else is busy constructing emotional arguments for why the Cubs lost, we'd like to posit a theory. One day, in the locker room, Kosuke Fukudome was looking at his favorite web site: Postsecret.com. Looking over his shoulder, his teammates were enraptured, and each went home that night to discover the site for themselves. They were hooked. And before they knew it, Postsecret's curious blend of faux-depression, sad-clown-laughter, creative art, and eventual redemption left them too emotionally crippled to hit and throw baseballs with their usual acuity.
We'd say that makes just about as much sense as "100 years" and "we weren't prepared."
