April 02--No Cubs spring training drill more aptly prepared outfielder Jason Heyward for the upcoming season than being stung 10 times by a swarm of bees during a recent exhibition game.
No image during an often wacky six weeks in Arizona served as a better metaphor for Heyward and his new Cubs teammates.
A virtual hornets' nest awaits on the North Side, where they enlarged the Wrigley Field clubhouse if only to make room for the oversized expectations. A buzz indeed.
The Mets and Cardinals aren't as big a threat to the Cubs as irrationality in a year in which consecutive losses could create civic angst, Jake Arrieta blisters are feared like tumors, and perspective threatens to take the summer off. A clear view of the Cubs season is no longer only the concern of rooftop owners.
The Cubs and White Sox begin the 2016 season Monday in California dreaming of the same thing: a World Series title. The reality is the Sox could win 90 games and call it a success no matter how long their October lasts, while the Cubs have created a World Series-or-bust mentality that makes anything but a National League pennant a major disappointment.
To that degree for the Cubs, the first pitch of this season resembles the way 2004 started, with the opener feeling a little like Game 8 against the Marlins. A playoff-like atmosphere surrounded regular-season games, and the tension in Wrigleyville was palpable. The daily intensity drained a team that carried similarly high hopes into a season that ended in one of the team's worst collapses since 1969.
Cubs manager Joe Maddon makes this team comparison-proof and immune to anxiety, we are told, because Maddon's magic can make stress disappear. His toughest act opens, but one season into his tenure suggests Maddon possesses a rare quality that will keep the young Cubs from getting caught up in the hoopla.
Maddon never lets tension in the clubhouse linger long enough to become a tenant, evicting anxious feelings at a moment's notice with gimmicks designed to help players relax. Whether using mimes or zoo animals to lighten the mood, Maddon has proved adept at making men playing a boy's game tap into their inner kid.
The Joe Maddon Variety Show, which received rave reviews in Arizona, returns for an encore at Clark and Addison, though laughs will be harder to come by if the Cubs get off to a slow start. The novelty of last year wore off the minute Jason Hammel was booed off the mound at home against the Mets -- in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series.
