Sabermetrati: Pythagorean Baseball: Mirage in Chicago

Or as Bill James and the Shondells sang so many years ago…

Mirage, that’s all you are to me
Mirage, something I only see...until others picked up on my theorem.

I’m sorry for any Red Sox, or Cleveland, Phillies, or San Francisco fan out there, but there is no worse fan that one can be than of the Cursed Cubs. They lose when they’re predicted to lose, and they lose when they’re predicted to win. In short, all they really do is lose. It’s not a curse--that is ridiculous. But the negativity surrounding this team is palpable: fans don’t cheer when they’re behind, the players take on all the expectations of finally being “the one” that they inevitably press and try too hard, and inevitably as well, lose. Game after game. Home field advantage or not, they lose. As the game goes on, rather than trying to calm down and get good at-bats, they swing at pitches in the dirt like single-A minor leaguers. Pitchers overpitch and end up walking everyone they face. If you’re a Cubs fan, that is the most pathetic thing to be. In the Cubs’ sabermetric world, the usual saying is the same, except let me put it in mathematical notation: Wait ‘til Next Year. “Next Year” = ∞