Do not mistake the tone of this post for anything less than serious, because it is.
I mean, yes we're all aware that pitchers and catchers reported, and by now everyone for each team is pretty much in camp, but this season isn't even a blink of an eye old and the Cardinals lose their ace to what sounds like Tommy John surgery.
Adam Wainwright blew out his elbow yesterday, and it looks like it could be a year and a half of recovery if it's as bad as they think.
Plus Albert Pujols and his probable departure.
Plus infielder Nick Punto got a "sports hernia" and is out for a couple months.
That is brutal, and before you say it couldn't happen to a nicer team, watch it or Mr. Karma will swoop down in the form of another Cubby Occurrence and...even things out.
You don't wish that kind of injury on anybody, even a Cardinal.
Wainwright is one of those guys you love to hate because he's just so damned good.
But happen it did, and it's pandemonium in St. Louis (just read Bernie in the Post Dispatch).
What does it mean for the Cubs?
Well, it knocks the wind out of the biggest rival, but doesn't change anything in Milwaukee or Cincinnati. And you can bet Dave Duncan will make something out of somebody we never heard of.
If you read Bernie's take (that link above), he thinks without Wainwright the Cards starting rotation is only 3rd or 4th best in the division.
Anyway, gigantic news for such a young point in the season.
Lastly, awhile back I was trying to paint a Cubby Occurrence.
Like, an invisible force or the Smoke Monster from "Lost" or...I don't know.
What does it look like, out there in the atmosphere, waiting to dive bomb some foul hell on our favorite team?
Then my daughter, she spent some time researching the Krampus (who is sort of the Anti-Santa Claus) and she made a little sculpture.
When I saw it with the big tongue and all those teeth I thought yeah, that's what Cubby Occurrence looks like.
Don't worry.
I'll keep it here in my basement, tied to a tack on my bulletin board so it can't, you know, get us.
