Cubs had Sister Jean, the curse breaker, all these years and never knew

Sister Jean threw out the first pitch at Wrigley Field before the Cubs’ home opener against the Pirates today.

When I heard the news that Sister Jean would be back in our lives today I was ecstatic. It had been almost two weeks since we’d heard from her and while I haven’t up to much, I’ve been dying to catch up with Sister to see how she’s doing. Had things settled down in her world at all? Was life different as a celebrity? Had fame changed her?

Thinking about her throwing out the first pitch, I had even more questions.

Would she wind up or throw from the stretch? Overhand or underhand? How much further would her throw go than Carl Lewis’s infamous first pitch or Miss Texas’s bowling pirouette?

It warmed my heart watching her very impressive underhand toss roll into the catcher’s glove. Immediately after though, the joy and excitement I’d felt quickly disappeared as something dawned on me — the Cubs have had one of the greatest good luck charms in the history of sports in their backyard all this whole time and didn’t even think to use it until two years after they’d won a World Series.

Are you kidding me Cubs?????

A century’s worth of self-loathing fans, the lifetime of “this is our year”, all the talk of curses and goats, the entire Steve Bartman incident — it all could have been avoided. We could have been done with this so long ago.

Why do you even have a scouting department if they can’t identify the once in a generation talent that’s been living less than four miles from Wrigley Field since 1961 (according to Sister Jean’s wikipedia page)?

Why????

And why does Theo Epstein get so much credit for bringing a World Series to the Cubs? All he had to do was make one phone call and send a Town Car to Loyola when he was hired in 2011. Instead, he spent five entire seasons just developing a farm system, collecting assets, building a core of young pitching, and throwing money at free agents before the Cubs finally won it all.

After I took a deep breath and remembered that I’m not a Cubs fan, I calmed down.

For any Cubs fans who came to the realization that I did today, it had to sting. Also, the Cubs lost the game 8-5.

Questionable decision rolling Sister Jean out in April. Given her track record of postseason success it would have made more sense to have her throw out the first pitch of a playoff series. I guess they can still do that too. I hope they do, not so the Cubs’ can win another World Series or anything though. I just think “Sister October” is an incredible nickname.