Thank you, Chicago Cubs.

It always seems that as long as one of your favorite teams is doing well, it’s enough to divert your attention from the others that aren’t living up to personal expectations. Forget the quarterback controversy hovering over the Bears, and forget about the 1-4 record of the Huskie football team. Right now, it’s all about the Cubs.

Last year, I was in full-out Bears mode in late July, right in time for the start of training camp. Everyone knew the team was a Super Bowl contender and “Bears Fever” quickly spread as the team started out 6-0. At the same time, the Cubs were working their way toward a last-place finish in the NL Central.
But who really cared? The Bears were in the spotlight.

Funny how things can change. After Sunday’s embarrassing loss to the Lions, of all teams, I wasn’t mad. I didn’t worry about the Bears’ eventual beat-down next Sunday at the hands of the surprisingly good-but-still-very-much-hated Packers.

Granted, I will still wear my “Green Bay Sucks” T-shirt with pride, no matter how out of hand the game gets. But, instead of singing the “Superbowl Shuffle,” I’ll be singing the most popular song in Chicago these days: “Go, Cubs Go.”

No matter how crazy it was last year with the Bears, nothing can top the atmosphere that comes along with a Cubs postseason birth. How many other teams have a pre-postseason rally in which hundreds of people attend? Not too many. Chicago and Cubbie Nation in general can hardly wait for Wednesday’s 9 p.m. first pitch.

But maybe all the excitement will go for naught. Maybe all the Cubs jersey’s being worn around campus will go in the closet by the weekend after being ousted by the Diamondbacks in the first round.

But maybe not. What if they beat Arizona and advance to the NLCS? What if they beat the odds and make it past the billy goat, the black cat and the Bartman ball to advance to the World Series?

If nothing else, the Cubs in the postseason provides at least a week of attention being diverted from how hard your classes are or how hard it is to watch the Bears and the Huskies this year. All I can think about is how nuts Chicago and campuses around the state will be if the Cubs advance. And you thought the White Sox celebration was crazy.

As Cubs announcers Bob Brenly and Len Casper would say: Stay tuned.

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