"Fun"

Cubs’ pitcher Jake Arrieta said something Sunday that struck me as odd.  Arrieta doesn’t care who is team faces come the first round of the playoffs, Giants or Mets.  “Who gives a s--- who we play?  Now the fun starts.”  Oh, really?

What were those 162 games about, then?  This notion that only the postseason counts comes from other, lesser sports—college basketball and football, the NBA, the NFL and the NHL.  In baseball, everything counts.  In 1927, Babe Ruth hit 60 homeruns during the regular season; then in 1961, Roger Maris hit 61.  Joe DiMaggio hit in 56 straight games in 1941, the year Ted Williams hit .406.  This year, Ichiro Suzuki reached the 3,000-hit mark.  The postseason had nothing to do with those accomplishments.

If only the postseason counts, then what does Arrieta make of the careers of Cub greats Ernie Banks, Ron Santo and Billy Williams, assuming that he knows who they are?  None of them went to the World Series, and only Williams made it to the playoffs, after he was traded to Oakland.  So, Jake, does Williams’ HOF career boil down to three games and eight at-bats in the 1975 ALCS?  I would hope not.      

We get to enjoy baseball for the regular season as well as what comes after.  If only the postseason counts, then Arrieta should base his contract demands on what he does in October.  That career 2-1 won-loss record with a 3.66 ERA includes going 0-1 against the Mets last year.  Five innings and four earned runs must’ve have been a lot of fun, though, for the Mets.