George Ferguson Column: Waiting until next year has become very futile

For a lot of reasons, I can’t wait until next year. I’m the type who loves looking forward to exciting things, things like a planned vacation to the U.S. Open tennis tournament, playing golf again and going hiking in wild places like Glacier and Yellowstone National Park.

And, this time of year, I’m always looking forward to next year, because, eventually, another season of Havre High tennis will be upon me.

But, there’s one forward-thinking issue that I just can’t stand, and that’s the mantra of Cubs fans. For lifelong Cubs fans, young and old, it’s always about next year. And it’s becoming very tough to swallow.

Of course, watching the Kansas City Royals celebrate a world championship Sunday night doesn’t make it any easier as a Cubs fan. After all, the Royals just clubbed the New York Mets, who swept the Cubs in the NLCS. But, hey, Me’s fans, be like us, there’s always next year.

Now don’t get me wrong, it was an exciting summer, and a pretty fun fall to be a Cubs fan. Because for the first time in seven years, the Cubs were good, they were actually a contender. Yes, the Cubs’ young lineup of power-hitting rookies and 20-something’s combined with the stellar pitching of Jake Arietta and Jon Lester made for a pretty powerful team, and one that I don’t even think the most diehard baseball experts saw coming.

But in the end, the Cubs did what they always do, or at least have for over a century now — and that’s not make it to the World Series, while leaving hopeful fans heartbroken once again. Call me a cynic, but no matter how hyped up I got about the Cubs as the summer went on and the wins piled up, I really didn’t believe for one second they were going all the way this year.

And even after the Cubs turned back arch rival St. Louis in the NLDS, I didn’t really allow myself to believe the Cubs were going to beat the Mets, let alone win it all.

Even if one of my all-time musical idols, Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), who wrote a song about the Cubs going all the way someday, believed in the miracle of 2015, I just couldn’t do it. And even though the Cubs won the World Series in 2015 in the movie Back to the Future II, that wasn’t a good enough omen for me.

No, I’ve had to wait until next year too many times before, and, this season turned out to be no different.

However, experts tell me, including my good friend and Havre Daily News sports reporter Chris Peterson, that the wait till next year thing is going to end sooner rather than later. They say, the Cubs are loaded with young talent, talent that’s only going to get better. They say, the Cubs have enough money to continue stock piling good free-agent pitching, and they say, Joe Maddon is a managerial wizard who will get the Cubs to the top of the baseball world, and quickly too.

Heck, Las Vegas has already made the Cubs the odds-on favorite to win the World Series in 2016.

Well, that’s all good and well, but you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t sit on the edge of my seat counting the days until baseball season begins again. Those experts, Chris included, will have to forgive me if I’m not already plotting how I can go watch the Cubs in the World Series next October.

Call me cynical, call me negative, but there’s just been too many next year’s in my life already. There’s been too many next year’s that don’t pan out any better than the season before it, or the one before that. In fact, I’m so numb to it, that I consider it a miracle and a blessing that the Cubs went as far as they did this season at all. I consider 1984 and 2004 successes, not failures. That’s the life of a diehard Cubs fan. And that’s what I’ve come to live with.

So yes, all of us Cubbies will wait until next year — mainly because we have no choice. But please forgive me if I don’t think the Cubs are going all the way in 2016 just yet. After all, I’m a Cubs fan and we never go all the way.