CSNChicago reports that Garza stood at his locker and met with the media for less than three minutes. He insisted that this was just another game and that he was just trying to keep his mechanics in line and stick to the game plan. It was still enough time to deliver a few money quotes, because the Cubs still strike a nerve.
“It’s a lot of fun to win,” Garza said. “You go through three years of constantly hoping, you kind of run out of hope. You come to a team like this, where every day we’re going out to win. We’re not going out to hope to win.
“We’re going out with the attitude that we’re going to win. It’s a lot different. It brings up a lot more emotion, a lot better emotion than hope. It’s confidence. That’s what we’re playing with a lot right now.”
This is a constant drumbeat so far this year. Many different articles have quoted different players, including former Cubs, current Cubs and free agents that passed on the Cubs who all have put great emphasis on one thing: losing.
Jeff Samardzija must be channeling Garza about now. After three seasons of "rebuilding," the Cubs team as currently constructed is unwatchable. Fans have lost hope about the team even winning a series, let alone have a competitive record. Management and ownership does not seem to care, which adds to the depressing "no hope" bandwagon.
Gordon Wittenmyer of the Sun-Times was more harsh.
As if the Cubs have become
baseball’s Alcatraz, where players do time until free agency or the
inevitable trade while the lucky ones get reduced sentences by virtue of
one-year flip contracts.
Just listen to Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Matt Garza’s advice to Jeff Samardzija, who will be on the trading block this summer.
“All I can tell him is keep
pitching; pitch your way out of it,” said Garza, who was acquired by the
Cubs in 2011 to help the team win, but instead endured the worst
three-year stretch in franchise history. “Keep your eyes focused, your
eyes straight ahead and just pitch. There’s nothing else you can do.”
When the Cubs could not sell out the most important day on their home schedule, Wrigley's 100th birthday party, the rest of the season will be down hill from there. Hope is the expectation and desire that something will happen in the future. But reality is a cruel knife that cuts through the misty dream fog of a Cub dynasty. There is nothing that bodes well to change the rut the Cubs team is currently mired in. The best pitcher in the Cubs system, C.J. Edwards, has come down with a shoulder injury. That is never good with a young pitcher with whippy mechanics. Observers now have concluded that Mike Olt is not a third baseman but a DH stumbling about the infield when he gets a chance to play. The Cubs bullpen continues to be a messy AAA turn style. Fan patience has gone the way of hope.
