Get Your DeLorean, Cubs Fans

In 1981, the sweetest, most glorious sports car, ever, was introduced to America. It was going to change the landscape of motor transportation forever. With stainless steel panels, gull-wing doors, and a fiber glass underbody, it was suppose to be superior to every car before it.

Of course that car, that model of excellence was the DeLorean. It didn't exactly live up to expectations. Nope, it actually never made it atop the throne of cars. Sure we all wanted one because McFly busted through time, punched out Biff, and altered his family's existence from being a group of unmanageable dorks into a solid family unit of successful professionals. But that was as far as the DeLorean made "it". An investment gone terribly wrong.

Flash forward to 2010. I give you the Chicago Cubs. Just like the famously failed DeLorean, the Cubs have managed to make $140+ million disappear into the abyss of completely wasted money. A team that's supposedly built to win has become nothing more than a team looking to survive the first 2 months of the season.

How could this have happened? Surely there's a reasonable explanation as to why a team, who's payroll is in the top 3 in all of Major League Baseball, is destined to be one of the biggest flops this sports year. Let's see, could it be team chemistry? Can't blame it on Milton Bradley because he's gone, and the team seems like it's void of any Michael Barret-Zambrano situations. What about hitting? Well, several Cubbies are hitting well over .300, all be it not while runners are on base, but there's still hope that changes. Even Soriano's hitting, so we can't blame it on him, much to the dismay of Fonzie haters. Then there's the D Lee/Rami situation; you'd have to combine their averages in order to get it around .300 and that's obviously a problem. Maybe we should put the blame solely on the shoulders of those two. I mean, they are the veterans of the club. They're the leaders of the team and the RBI guys, so let's just blame them and move on. Naw, there's more to it than that.

I'm starting to think Sweet Lou is the problem. That's fair, right? He is the manager of the club. He's the one that's championed with getting the overpriced talent to produce. It's his job to get these guys to compete, isn't it? And he's not getting it done. "We've just gotta hit" isn't an acceptable sound byte after a loss, anymore, and that's the pre-programmed response we've too often heard from him this year. His ability, or lack there of, to push the right buttons in order to run a winning team out on the field daily has to come into question, at some point. And it needs to happen sooner than later or this team might quit by July. It's not like we're talking about the Pittsburgh Pirates--who swept the Cubbies right out of town, recently--no, we're talking about a team that's stocked with talent. Enough to win and certainly enough to be at least a .500 team, at this point. Yet we as fans are asked to sit back and wait. As if we haven't waited throughout the entirety of our lives for the Cubs to make an appearance in the World Series. Sometimes it takes a change and I'm not talking about sending Fontenot away via a trade or upgrading the bat boy. It starts with Lou. Regardless of his track record in the as a manager, he has to produce and at a high level and he's been unable to. It's not like he's acquired tenure or anything. Cut him loose, bring in some new blood, or at the very least give him a stern talking to.

Maybe the Cubs will rebound this year. Maybe Lou will right the ship. Maybe, just maybe, the Cubs will remember what it's like to win consistently and surprise us all. Or, and this is highly likely, they'll continue down the path of complete failure and end up like the DeLorean....New Coke....The XFL. A once grand idea, with so much promise, that refused to succeed. I can only hope, for the sake of all Cubs fans, that's not the case.

I guess if Back To The Future part II was right, we'll get the chance to see the Cubs win a World Series in 2015?