Getting used to not-so-new Cubs norm of mediocrity no problem if you know history – Chicago Tribune

It was back in mid-May that Joe Maddon first urged Cubs fans to "embrace the suck," one of the rare Maddon catchphrases that never caught on.

The Cubs were a mediocre 21-19 when he unveiled the T-shirt during a pre-game news conference at Wrigley Field, and they remain a mediocre 43-43 after Friday's 6-1 victory over the Pirates.

But for one reason or another, no one has embraced the fact the Cubs suck, especially those who paid a whopping 20 or 30 percent increase on their season tickets.

They have analyzed it, debated it and denied it, but embracing it is another matter altogether.

Of course the point of the slogan, as well as the original 2016 version, "Try Not to Suck," was to poke fun at the franchise's well-chronicled failures of the past century. Maddon effectively was de-Cubbing the Cubs image, turning the loveable losers tag on its head for a laugh, with proceeds going to charity.

It worked fine in 2016, but not so much now.

For the first time since he came to town in 2011, President Theo Epstein is under pressure to make changes and avoid the suck. Epstein said Thursday most of the answers can be found inside the Cubs clubhouse, and he doesn't feel the urgency to make a splashy trade.

But remember that one of the first things Epstein said when he took over the Cubs was he prided himself on being unpredictable, suggesting "being unpredictable is a competitive advantage."

So far Epstein's biggest decisions have been predictable dumping Miguel Montero for his rant about pitchers not holding runners and sending Kyle Schwarber down to Triple-A Iowa for a couple of weeks.

Maybe it's time for an unpredictable move just to shake things up.

Waiting on the Cubs to get hot has been mind-numbing, and it's time to consider the possibility this just isn't the year. It doesn't appear as though this particular team is capable of matching last year's postseason success even if they get in, so maybe it's best to enjoy each game on its own merits without fretting over the big picture.

It was once common to do that to go to Wrigley and take in a game without the extra baggage of really caring whether or not the Cubs win. "That's Cub" had a totally different meaning to the generations of fans who endured a 20-year stretch of bad baseball from 1947-66, when only one team the 82-80 Cubs of 1963 were above .500.

Losing seasons were taken for granted, yet they kept coming out to the Friendly Confines, and now their grandkids are doing the same. Some blamed that laissez-faire attitude for allowing Cubs ownership to field mediocre teams continuously, knowing the ballpark was going to be a drawing card win or lose.

But now that the Cubs finally have won, just going to Wrigley for the sake of being there isn't quite enough.

Games like Friday's, when Ian Happ ran into Schwarber on a routine fly and knocked the ball out of his glove, and Gregory Polanco took an extra base after Addison Russell flipped the ball to an inattentive Eddie Butler without calling time, make you nostalgic for the days when Larry Biittner lost a fly ball in his cap.

You laughed off the ineptitude back then and chalked it up to being a Cubs fan. Those days are over now, thanks to that shiny trophy and dreams of a dynasty.

The new norm of Cubs' mediocrity may be hard to stomach for those who expected utopia based on a young, talented roster and one of the top managers in the game.

But the dinosaurs among us have endured worse seasons and survived. One of the more memorable examples occurred 40 years ago in 1977, when the Cubs finished 81-81 after being 25 games above .500 on June 28th.

It was a classic Cubs choke, but for a while it was some of the more enjoyable baseball we had seen on the North Side, and a fun time was had by all, with the possible exception of manager Herman Franks and his team.

Two years later, after another underachieving season, Franks quit and ripped his players, calling them "crazy" and leaving with one of the greatest exit lines ever on outfielder Mike Vail: "There isn't enough money in the world to pay me to manage if I have to look at that face every day."

Maddon never will channel his inner Herman, and probably could find a silver lining in a pothole, as his glass half-full assessment of Thursday's 11-2 loss to the Brewers showed.

"If there is a way to get your butt kicked properly, we did that yesterday," he said.

Embrace the butt-kicking?

Now that's Cub.

psullivan@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @PWSullivan

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Getting used to not-so-new Cubs norm of mediocrity no problem if you know history - Chicago Tribune