This is one disgusted Cub fan

Two years ago, the Chicago Cubs came within five outs of the World Series. There followed the next year a season of catastrophic injuries during which the team never got off of the starting block.

Then, their General Manager- Jim Hendry, who had in the past turned dross like Todd Hundley, Hee Seop Choi and Bobby Hill into gold like Eric Karros, Mark Grudzielanek, Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee- did something really, really dumb.

He had to get rid of Sammy Sosa, a player in steep decline who had become a clubhouse cancer. But no matter how long I live, I will never understand what possessed him to non-tender Moises Alou at the same time- and then, despite the deep pockets of the Tribune Corporation, not to adequately replace either. Instantly, the Cubs were effectively without an outfield- and, instantly, they lost any rational claim to being contenders.

The best Hendry could do for corner outfielders were Todd Hollandsworth and Jeromy Burnitz, both average- to- slightly- above- average outfielders with career numbers which were quite appropriate for either fourth outfielders or a starters on a .500 ballclub, but no better. And then- surprise!- they did pretty much what their numbers predicted, Hollandsworth was traded; Burnitz was not offered a new contract.

The problem was exacerbated when the one outfielder they had with the kind of talent one associates with a starter on a pennant contender- Corey Patterson, a kid with tremendous ability but absolutely no plate discipline- fell completely off the boards. He had always swung at airliners flying over Wrigley Field. Now, he began swinging at passing comets. He was so bad last year that he was sent down to Triple A, and never truly earned his way back.

Earth to Jim Hendry! Teams without outfields don't win pennants!

Well, Hendry started off well this off-season, signing free-agent center fielder Juan Pierre of the Florida Marlins. With that move, the Cubs effectively replaced Patterson with something they had lacked for years: a legitimate leadoff man. Hendry completely revamped the Cubs bullpen, signing a couple of much-coveted free agent relief pitchers who made the Cubs' pitching staff (assuming Kerry Wood and Mark Prior can remain healthy all season for the first time in two years) a thing, at least in theory, of terrible beauty. True, he missed out on signing Raphael Furcal to be his shortstop. But no matter; youngster Ronny Cedeno isn't exactly chopped liver, and supposedly Hendry is still in pursuit of Julio Lugo. As long as veteran-loving manager Dusty Baker doesn't start Neifi Perez at shortstop (always a danger; when Baker managed in San Francisco, marginal veterans who might have made contributions as role players were released lest Baker start them), things there will work out. There are worse second basemen than Todd Walker, and our corner players- Ramirez at third, and Lee at short- started for the National League All-Star team last year. Lee was the National League batting champion, threatened for a while to win the Triple Crown- and, had the Cubs done better as a team, would certainly have been the National League MVP.

Matt Murton is a young outfielder with promise who may be able to play every day, but who at worst is a quite adequate left fielder in a platoon system. Michael Barrett is a fine catcher. But until Hendry completed that outfield, the Cubs still would suffer from that fatal, self-inflicted wound Hendry dealt the team when he let two thirds of his outfield go last year without an adequate replacement for anybody.

Well, today the Cubs signed their right fielder. He's Jacque Jones, formerly of the Minnesota Twins.

Essentially, he's Burnitz with Patterson's plate discipline.

Now, I would be angry and frustrated under ordinary circumstances. But the circumstances are far from ordinary. Last year, the White Sox- having made a trade for Scott Podsednik Hendry could have made, and having, in short, simply rolled up their sleeves and did what needed doing- won the World Series.

Nobody who didn't grow up in Chicago can understand what that means. The Cubs are second-rate in their own city right now, and will be until they do what the Sox did. Mind you, the Sox are a relatively impoverished team with nowhere near the resources the Tribune Corporation, the owners of the Cubs, have. They resemble the St. Louis Cardinals in that respect.

But like the Cardinals, they value success, and use their resources as best they can to do what needs doing.

Unlike the Cubs.

Jim Hendry said after the World Series that he felt no additional urgency about winning the Series just because the Sox had; that he was already as motivated as it was possible to be. Well, guess what? He should have been more motivated because the Sox won. And either he, or the Trib, or somebody doesn't seem to be any too motivated at all.

I am the cousin by marriage of a Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer, selected by the Tribune several years ago as the greatest player in the history of the team. My dad rooted the Cubs home to their last world championship, and grew up across the street from their stadium. It took me a while to develop a taste for baseball- I was all of seven before I first became interested in the Cubs- but that still means that I've followed this team for forty-eight years. I lived through the frustration of the 'Fifties, the humiliation of the White Sox pennant in 1959, and the wasteland of the early 'Sixties, the hope of the latter part of that decade- and the utter devastation of the Cubs collapse which alone made the "Miracle Mets" of 1969 possible. I lived through the yearly frustration of watching a team with three Hall of Famers, and which should have a fourth- "the greatest team never to win a pennant-" always come up short, year after year, until time itself slowly caused it to crumble.

Futility again through the 'Seventies- and the heartbreak of the near miracle of 1984, when for the first time in my life the Cubs broke my heart after coming within five outs of the World Series. The disappointment of 1989. The mediocrity of the 'Nineties, and history repeating itself in the heartbreak of 2003, when the Cubs once again came within five outs of a pennant, and couldn't get it done. And then, the humiliation of a team from the South Side which wasn't supposed to be even close winning the World Series because its ownership an management- unlike ours- cared about such things.

The Cubs owed me Johnny Damon in right, or Manny Ramirez, or Bernie Williams. Or at least a re-signed Nomar Garciaparra, who was willing to make the switch to the outfield. And the Cubs' ownership has the resources- unlike the White Sox or the Cardinals, who do what needs doing anyway- to sign two of them, if they had truly returned my loyalty. They could have fixed the Hendry blunder of last year. They could have put the finishing touches in place- if they returned my loyalty.

But they have given me Jacque Jones instead.

I do not say this lightly. Believe me, after forty-eight years, I do not say this lightly. But the Cubs are skating on thin ice with me.

I have given them my loyalty for nearly half a century. I have suffered with them. They have broken my heart over and over again, yet I have supported them still.

They owe me. I will watch with great interest as Hendry attempts with the dregs of a budget largely squandered on role players and the likes of Jones- I do grant him the drastic improvement in the bullpen- to assemble a team for 2006.

But I am not impressed so far- and gentlemen, this is not close to being good enough.

There is a team on the other side of Chicago who my mother's family always rooted for. There is a team in St. Louis, where I lived once, and where they always seem to do the best they can with what little they have. And there is Baltimore- granted, another city whose ownership shows little apparent interest in winning, but my American League team since the days back in high school when I decided that there would be no conflict of interest in having a second-favorite team in the other league that won once in a while.

I have lived and died with the Chicago Cubs for nearly half a century. But Mr. Hendry, and Mr. McPhail, unless you take care of business- unless you show me that you return that loyalty- my allegiance to the Cubs will not reach that nice, round figure of fifty years.