Saturday’s Cubs game
Saw history being made
Nothing’s forever
Cubs fans are constantly reminded that it’s been 70 years since the team’s last World Series appearance, 107 since they were World Champions, blah … blah … blah.
But many Cubs fan knew of another streak – this one more positive. Today, the entire baseball world knows because on Saturday afternoon at Wrigley it ended, thanks to the lights out pitching of the Phillies’ Cole Hamels – and a couple of dramatic catches by Odubel Herrera in center. Here’s the one that ended the game:
Until yesterday the Cubs hadn’t been no-hit for 7,920 games, since Sandy Koufax pitched a perfect game on September 9, 1965. For the past 3 years fans have been entertained by the @CubsNoHitStreak twitter account, a side project of ChicagoNow’s Community Manager Jimmy Greenfield. Each game he would tweet out the first Cubs hit of the game and let us know the current number of games the streak had lasted. Like this one on Friday:
No. 7,920: Anthony Rizzo singles with two outs in the first for the #Cubs. The Streak lives!
— Cubs No-Hit Streak (@CubsNoHitStreak) July 24, 2015
Late on Saturday afternoon, it ended:
No. 7,921: Cole Hamels has no-hit the Cubs. The Streak dies.
— Cubs No-Hit Streak (@CubsNoHitStreak) July 25, 2015
The fact that Hamels has been the subject of trade rumors that have included the Cubs, made the situation all the more surreal. Someone on Twitter wondered if a pitcher had ever thrown a no-hitter and made his next start for the team he had just no-hit. (My apologies for not giving credit – I failed to “favorite” the tweet at the time and as you can imagine, searching Twitter for anything related to the Cubs and Hamels doesn’t exactly narrow it down) It was a disappointing loss for sure, but it’s always exciting to see a no hitter.
Today’s no hitter / Third one I’ve seen in person / Also the saddest #Cubs @CubsNoHitStreak — Ed Nickow (@TheCubsInHaiku) July 25, 2015
With one streak ended, Cubs fans are ready for another streak to end:
As I’ve always said, winning the World Series came before The Streak. One dream is over. The other can and will only end with victory. — Cubs No-Hit Streak (@CubsNoHitStreak) July 26, 2015
Even in haiku:
@CubsNoHitStreak @thecubsinhaiku Nothing we can say / Can console this dreary day / ‘Til we WIN IT ALL
— Michael Weiland (@mlweiland) July 25, 2015
In that regard, the Cubs are now 1.5 games behind the Giants (who they’ll host in a couple of weeks) for the Wild Card. That might seem to the haters like a Cubs fan reaching for something positive. But the fact that we’re even looking at the standings during the last week of July shows how much things have changed on the north side.
When history is made you can read about it in haiku. To be sure you don’t miss anything, “Like” my Facebook page and subscribe for email updates. Type your email address in the box and click the “create subscription” button. My list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.
Filed under: Cubs
