Chicago Tribune overreacts to Opening Day loss, begins trolling Chicago Cubs

‘Still Rebuilding’ claims Chicago Tribune headline after Cubs’ Opening Night loss

It’s a rare March when the Cubs are the talk of the league, but years of rebuilding are finally expected to pay dividends for the long-suffering team this season. They added ace Jon Lester, centerfielder Dexter Fowler, and catcher Miguel Montero, and are expected to get real contributions from rookies Jorge Soler, Javier Baez, and uberprospect Kris Bryant (once he’s done “working on his fielding” in the minors, that is). They may not fulfill that Back to the Future II prediction, but for the first time in a while, they have a real shot.

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But not, apparently, if you ask the Chicago Tribune. After the Cubs fell 3-0 to the Cardinals on Opening Night, the Tribune declared the team to be “Still Rebuilding” in the newspaper’s headline:

Well there ya have it, folks. Put those World Series hopes in a coffin and seal it in the ground, because the Cubs are still rebuilding. One game has told us all we need to know.

Though the Cubs didn’t exactly look great on Opening Night, overreacting to one game like this is a little silly. It’s just one game–the 2001 Mariners, owners of the best record in league history, still lost 46 of them. Anything can happen in one game, as the Royals proved continuously in last year’s postseason.

Then again, it is the Cubs. Rooting for a team like that is enough to make anyone assume the worst immediately–they’ve been conditioned for it for 100 years.

The truth, as it usually does in these situations, probably lies somewhere in the middle. The Cubs probably aren’t going to win the World Series; they’re banking way too much on rookies and unproven players for that to happen just yet. But they look competitive, and this year is the first real proof that Theo Epstein and company’s plan is really working. We should see a competitive team with a chance to become perennial playoff contenders if things break right.

So let’s not bury the Cubs’ season before the other 28 teams even begin theirs. It’s going to be an exciting time to be a Cubs fan, and they’re just getting started.

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