Winning the Battle, Losing the War

The Cubs put a whooping on the White Sox pitchers yesterday, scoring 15 runs on 20 hits!! Who cares that they gave up 11 themselves, they never trailed after the first inning. But this could very well be a case where a win is really a loss...

What this victory does for the Cubs is give Dusty Baker and Jim Hendry a chance to hold their heads up and say "See, this team really is good!" followed shortly by "I did a good job!" Had the Cubs been swept by their South Side nemesis, Baker could have been gone this morning. A losing record is bad, but fans won't stand for getting romped by the South Siders. Unfortunately, Cubs fans and maybe even management were left with a feeling of hope after avoiding the three-game sweep. "We can hang with anyone!" Now that's just silly.

Unfortunately, you can't let a manager go after a win, and you can't boot your GM at this point either. Who cares that the team is 21 games below .500. Who cares that your "closer" (who the GM handed the manager, and the manager continues to use) has blown 5 of his last 10 save opportunities. Who cares that the team misses signs, refuses to play fundamentally and constantly swings at the first pitch.

None of that matters, because they beat the Sox, hit a bunch of home runs, and made the crowd happy.

Yes, they won the game. In fact, they pounded the Sox and their usually stellar staff. But in this case, the Cubs' one step forward is really just two big steps back.