They lie. They've always lied. And they always will. Do I speak of politicians? Not a bad guess, but no.
I refer to those that say early season losses in Major League Baseball don't matter much. How many times have we heard some talking head or scribe -- after their home team found a way to lose a game they should have won -- say -- it's only April, or May. Not to worry. It's early.
They lied.
Consider the Chicago Cubs. They were just ousted from the playoffs. Somewhere the ghost of Harry Karay moans. Michael Wilbon of Pardon The Interruption, a die-hard Cubs fan, sighs, again.
As we know, first the Cubs lost, at home, a one-game playoff with the Milwaukee Brewers for the National League Central Division championship. That made the north-siders a wild card team. The very next day, again at Wrigley Field, they would host the Colorado Rockies in said wild card game. A one game knockout. Which the Cubs lost again.
This is what happens when a team plays 22 innings (the latter went 13) and can only manage to score two measly runs.
But if they'd have won just one more game anywhere throughout the season, they wouldn't have found themselves in such a predicament. The Cubs would have been Division Champs, assured of at least a 5 game "quarter-final" series.
That game back in April or May, or perhaps June or July, that they let get away -- pick one -- ultimately sealed their fate.
It WAS important. Just as much so as the last game of the regular season in a tight pennant race.
So the next time you hear or read a pundit saying "it's early, the loss doesn't matter much", know that they're lying to you.
Because as the Cubs showed this year, every game counts just as much as every other one.
Pity. I've long been a closet Cubs fan myself. I feel your pain, Harry and Mike.
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