Disaster

The Cubs' new shortstop, Cesar Izturis, has a career batting average of .260 and a career OBP of .295.

He's good defensively- which, as bad defensively as the man he's replacing, (new second baseman Ronny Cedeno) has been this year, is not our biggest problem. Izturis cannot get on base, which we need him to do. Often. And his acquisition in exchange for Greg Maddux guarantees that Jim Hendry will not pursue a middle infielder who could actually fill that need during the off-season.

My disgust with Hendry and with the Cubs' management generally continues to grow. If we let Aramis Ramirez get away this summer, you can forget about the Cubs for a generation. The thing to do would be to back up the truck and go for prospects and hopefully success in the next decade- after firing McPhail, Hendry, Baker, and the entire Cubs management, and hiring replacements who specialize in the development of young players.

Never in a half-century as a Cubs fan have I been so disgusted. This team came within five outs of the World Series only three years ago- and by foolishly assuming the best possible scenario as a given over and over again, year after year since then, this inept management has avoided doing the comparatively few things it would have taken to close the deal. We continue to go backward under McPhail and Hendry, year after year, and it's becoming increasingly difficult for this second generation Cub fan whose dad lived across from the old West Side Park when the Cubs won the Series in 1908, who is a cousin by marriage of the late Hall of Famer Gabby Hartnett, and who has stuck by this team through all the frustrations and disappointments of the past fifty years to even to care anymore.

The Cubs are rapidly approaching the territory the Blackhawks have already reached for me: a team I remain a fan of in principle- after a lifetime of allegience, that can hardly change now- but which I will try as hard as possible to simply ignore as having been rendered unworthy of my attention by an utterly incompetent management and the absolute absence of any reason to hope.