Have you ever watched the movie Fever Pitch? You know, the one where Jimmy Fallon plays a die hard Boston Red Sox fan. Well, there’s a time in the movie where it talks about the team playing with a fan’s heart and emotions. Right now, the Chicago Cubs are doing just that. The Cubs are riding high after Sunday’s no-hitter by Carlos Zambrano and near no-hitter by Ted Lilly.

But we all know, this is the Cubs we are talking about (billy goat, black cat, Steve Bartman…). So, when will they implode? Sure, the Cubs are well on their way to a postseason appearance, yet we all have to wonder will it be the divisional round the the NLCS before they show us why they earned the nickname of the ‘Lovable Losers.’ Or, would Chicago pull the ultimate heartbreak on a Cubs fan by making it all the way to the World Series before turning into the team everyone expects to lose?

With only a couple of weeks left in the regular season, we won’t have to wait long to find out what the next chapter of Cubs’ history will look like. But, we can only guess it won’t turn out favorable for those poor fans that have waited so long for a winner.

Image: Newscom

Hey Scott! Quit bullying all of the MLB owners and general managers with these ridiculous contracts! Photo: Newscom

Here we go again. Super-agent Scott Boras is making news in Major League Baseball. This time, Boras has informed the Pittsburgh Pirates that his client, Pedro Alvarez, will not be signing the contract they agreed to on August 15.

Alvarez was the Pirates’ first-round pick in the June MLB First-Year Player Draft. However, the MLB Players Association is filing a grievance on behalf of Alvarez, stating that the two parties agreed to the contract after the midnight deadline on Aug. 15.

I’m pretty sure we all know what’s going on here. Alvarez chose Boras because he knew he was the guy to bring him big money. However, Alvarez probably wanted to get a deal done and now Boras was probably in Alvarez’s ear telling him they will pay more money if we make a scene. Classic super-agent drama. The kind that needs to go away.

The Pirates are trying to fight back to placing Alvarez on MLB’s restricted list. We’ll just have to see which side wins out. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, this was a good player that could have helped their club in the next couple of years. It would be nice for him to get some time in the minor leagues before they bring him up to help turn around the franchise. But it’s times like these that I really, really hate agents.

Last night’s Rockies - Padres game was exactly what October baseball is supposed to be like. I’ll admit, I was skeptical at first. I mean, it was a Rockies - Padres game, after all. Nothing against those teams in particular, but the home team had black sleeveless jerseys while the away team wore sandstone. All of this airing on TBS in between House of Payne reruns just didn’t make me think epic playoff baseball at first. But as the Monday Night Football game became increasingly unbearably boring, the Padres and the Rockies churned out one of those baseball games that causes sleep deprivation. One of those games in which each inning is more tense than the last. One of those games where the crowd energy becomes more palpable with each pitch. One of those games where the mascot goes behind home-plate and turns his giant mascot head around in an attempt to distract the opposing pitcher. (Seriously, I think that triceratops thing that the Rockies have creeping around got to Hoffman. At the minimum it traumatized some kids.)

But really, that was the epitome of October baseball. (Or as Dane Cook says, Auctoober!) Extra innings, rallies, disputed plays at home plate. Fantastic. But really, the National League had been the epitome of September baseball as well. With the Diamondbacks inexplicably having the best record in the National League while simultaneously being outscored by 20 runs this season. From the Rockies’ meteoric climb the Mets’ catastrophic fall, the National League was simply much more exciting than the American League this year. The only thing really different about the American League this year is that the Red Sox and Yankees switched places, but they both still made the playoffs.

I’m an admitted AL guy, but this year I’m looking forward to the National League playoffs a bit more. Even though the AL teams are far superior, the if the NL playoffs are anything like the regular season it will be enough for me to give up sleeping all together.