I am a lifelong Cubs fan. I bleed Cubbie Blue (a great Cubs blog, by the way). Some of my greatest and most devastating memories involve the Cubs. But I live in Texas, which makes it a bit more difficult to be a Cubs fan. Luckily, I get WGN and can watch a healthy portion of the games.

I also live less than 10 minutes away from Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, where the helatively hapless Texas Rangers hold court.  This also means that for most of the day, I am subjected to Texas Rangers talk.  While I don’t consider myself a Rangers’ fan, I do go to plenty of the games and root for them to win, as I want to see them do well.  It benefits the community when the local sports team is competitive.

As of this writing, the Rangers have a 44-41 record, putting them three games over .500 for the first time since Ron Washington became the manager last season.  They are also going for the sweep (a word not often used positively around here) against the Evil Empire (heresy!).  With these facts, things in Rangerland are a little bit loopy right now.  There is a lot of positive talk about how the Rangers are finally coming of age, that there is something special about this team, so on and so forth.

In Chicago, things are looking somewhat grim.  The Cubs’ three best players (Soriano, Zambrano, and Aramis Ramirez) are out of the lineup for various reasons.  The Cubbies have lost 6 of their last 10 games, seem to be in an offensive funk, and millions of Chicagoans are poised at the edge of their balconies, ready to plunge into another summer of futility.

Funny how that works, huh?  The Cubs have the second best record in baseball (1.5 games behind Tampa Bay, which is weird to even type), have scored the second most runs in the majors (oddly enough, second only to the Texas Rangers) and lead their division by 2.5 games. The Rangers have a wide lead in the Runs Allowed category, sit 6.5 games behind the Angels in their division, and (if past history holds true) will probably come crashing back to Earth with alacrity.

Right now, Rangers fans are walking with their heads held high.  Cubs fans are down in the dumps.  Looking at the big picture, though, who would you rather be right now?  How is your team doing?  Is your summer going to be interesting or boring? Let me know in the comments.

Tags: cubs rangers records fans