Sweepless wonders

On Sunday, the White Sox wore 1906 throwback uniforms. Knowing the White Sox's general attitude towards the Cubs, I can only assume that this was an attempt to stick it to the North Siders by reminding us of a time when not only were the Sox the World Champions (for the first of three total times) but they had gone through what was supposed to be a greatly superior Cubs team to do it. The '06 Cubs, in the first season of one of the most dominant five-year runs in the history of the game, went 116-36; the White Sox had won just 93 games (for a winning percentage nearly 150 points lower) and were dubbed the "Hitless Wonders" for batting .230 as a team during the regular season. The Cubs had Tinker, Evers, Chance, and Mordecai Brown's 26 wins and 1.04 ERA. In fact, the Cubs' team ERA was 1.75. On paper it was a mismatch.

But in the World Series, the teams were pretty much even - particularly in the batting column, where the Sox hit .198 and the Cubs a mere .196. Oddly, the Sox had just 11 hits in the first four games, yet won two of them; they proceeded to suddenly explode for 8 runs in each of the last two games on 26 total hits to win the Series in six. Then, of course, the Cubs won the next two World Series, the Sox won in 1917, and until 2005, the teams were tied at two titles each.

The funny thing about this weekend's series is that the Sox - despite being the much better hitting team so far this season, with three regulars over .300 to the Cubs' none - sort of turned back into the Hitless Wonders, and yet, as in '06, they were able to get it done. But this time it wasn't necessarily because the Cubs didn't hit, just that they didn't score.

Consider the following:

Game One: Cubs - 1 run on 2 hits; White Sox - 6 runs on 10 hits
Game Two: Cubs - 0 runs on 9 hits; White Sox - 7 runs on 6 hits
Game Three: Cubs - 7 runs on 10 hits; White Sox - 4 runs on 5 hits

All right, so the first game makes sense. But look at the next two! The White Sox put up just 11 hits over the two games, yet 11 runs crossed the plate; meanwhile, the Cubs got 20 hits - more than one per inning - and plated just seven runs, all in Game Two.

Of course, Hill did walk five guys, and Zambrano enjoyed giving up solo home runs today, so I guess that sort of thing will happen. It continues to be annoying how mediocre, and generally inconsistent, the Cubs' offense is, however. Even today, they had just four hits through the first seven innings - and were trailing 4-2 before suddenly showing up in the eighth.

But that's this team lately, isn't it? And it's not even the lack of hits so much as the lack of runs. Through May 1, Michael Barrett and Matt Murton had 34 RBI between them; since then, they've had a total of three, and that includes Barrett finally getting his 20th today. Heck, Jacque Jones is up to 19 now (and he's suddenly hitting .273!).

I've said it before and I'll say it again - how can one guy make that big a difference? Sure, Barrett hit right behind Lee, and Lee was on base a lot - a .448 OBP in the 14 games he played. But other guys have been on base, even if not as much. Todd Walker, who has filled the 3 hole, is second on the team in OBP, after all.

Maybe Lee will come back and everything will be fine. On the other hand, he doesn't get back for at least another couple weeks - and as much as we miss the guy, I hope he doesn't come back too soon - and the Cubs are already seven games under. Maybe this is just destined to be yet another year in the long Cubs history where they seem to have potential and end up failing to seriously contend. Last year's team was pretty similar and it finished under .500 (it's hard to believe that the Cubs haven't been able to string together a mere three straight winning seasons since a run from '67 to '72, though even then they squandered Jenkins, Santo, and Williams to the tune of three second-place finishes but no division titles); this year's team has a true leadoff guy, but then what's Pierre done since getting here?

We'll see if Lee comes back healthy, and Wood gets in a groove, and Maddux rebounds, and Prior and Miller come back solid. But unless all those things happen... this is probably a .500 team. And I can't help but feel like that's a ridiculous underachievement. How do you fix a team where all the players should be great and most of them are just okay?