As always, I’ll be rooting for the Saint Louis Cardinals in their coming series with the Cubs. But this time around I have a queasy feeling. Unlike other Cubs teams that found themselves in the playoffs, this 2015 team isn’t there by accident. The Cardinals won most of their 100 games early in the year; the Cubs won most of their 97—now 98—in the second half. They might be the best team in the majors.
Alienation is one of life’s quiet pleasures. I’ve enjoyed it all my life—as an American living in Canada, and later as a Canuck-a-phile living in the U.S., and ultimately as a Cardinals fan living in Chicago and as a journalist living anywhere. The mob goes its way and I go mine, marveling at the willingness of some people to put on garish jerseys and silly hats and dissolve their beings into something they think is bigger: the collective identity of young athletes who don’t know they exist.
