It’s taken me a few hours and miles of walking to try and simmer down after last night’s ignominious start to the second half of the season. I didn’t expect the team to respond favorably to Jed Hoyer and David Ross’s recent pep talks, but I did think all of the usual excuses would be in the past.

The Cubs and White Sox aren’t the only two teams that have decisions to make re the upcoming trade deadline, but they’re the only teams I read and hear about on a daily basis. The idea that both central divisions is foolish when neither team can boast a .500 record.

For the record, I was at home watching the Cubs on TV and listening on the radio. I admit to catching a couple innings of the Braves rout of the White Sox. I like to watch the best in the game.

As the Cubs were getting whomped by the Bosox, I realized the broadcast and not the results were bothering me. I accept that every team has its own group of homers on staff. In fact, I usually love my own homers. Harry Caray was among my favorites and that he openly rooted for the Cubs didn’t detract from a solid call. Same goes for his time with the Sox. However, and unlike most homers, he called it like it was and wasn’t afraid to tell it like it was. He reacted to bad plays, poor pitch selection and lineup construction the way any fan would. He voiced our reactions and opinions. I can still picture Harry reacting to an opponent’s home run with an “Oh sh%t, he gave up a homer to this bum.” Even the uber-pro, Pat Hughes, tone and attitude changes when the other guys do something good. He often sounds like a favorite pet just expired.

Unfortunately in mind, the Cubs current TV crew creates sort of a victim mentality. I think Statcast and like technologies have something to do with this attitude. The guys in the truck and the PBP guys can control the narrative-calling for replays whenever they disagree with an umpire’s call. They don’t ask for a replay when a Cub pitcher benefits from a generous strike zone. I think most reasonable fans would agree that home plate umps have had a harder time and the pitch clock has only added pressure.

If you happen to disagree with this premise then please stop calling for the ABS aka robo-umps. I know you are out there and I’m not disagreeing, but rather just pointing out the irony. My point is during most games, the umps have been botching calls for both teams.

Many homers harp on how certain pitchers give up soft hits and yet the opponent is often scoring runs. Sometimes they chalk it up to luck or something explained by analytics. A perfect example is how the local guys focus on Kyle Hendricks only giving up weak hits. He only gave up 4 homers last night and one barely made the basket. Conversely, one of Cody Bellinger’s shots landed in the first row behind the basket. When they were playing in New York against the Yankees, they complained about the cheapies hit to right field as if the hometown guys are the only ones allowed to hit them there.

None of this is to suggest the players are to blame for this attitude or mentality, they’d probably side with me-without speaking badly about the perps. I think Boog Sciambi is the primary culprit here, but not the only one. He’s an outsider with a very good national reputation and is a very solid PBP guy. He’s just trying so hard to ingratiate himself with the Cubs fan base. During last night’s game, the Sox Jaren Durran legged out a double (to left-center). Boog talked about the great play that Ian Happ made after a slight bobble. Unfortunately, neither Nico Hoerner nor Christopher Morel caught the ball. Hoerner may have deked out Morel, but the end is the same-the ball went uncaught. Ergo, not a great throw or play.

Over the past two seasons, Hendricks has been the victim of 10+ multiple-homer outings. Does that make him a bad person? No, but he hasn’t been perfect. I don’t like him any less, but I’m not going to pretend it’s the route back to the World Series.

Since I’m talking about Chicago baseball and the dreaded homer, I have to bring up Hawk Harrelson of the White Sox. For a couple decades Cub fans felt a false sense of superiority because our guys weren’t blatantly that annoying. Towards the end of his run with the Sox, he started calling out the Sox when they blundered badly, but before that his anti-ump rants were legendary and mainly because he thought the umps were against him and the Sox. He took it that personally, but he created this, victim mentality and some fans believed it. Inferiority complexes are hard to overcome.

I know most broadcasters aren’t averse to tipping their caps to opposing players. In fact because they are much closer to the players and often have dealings with them, their appreciation is that much greater. It wouldn’t hurt if the guys and gals in the booth (homers of course) would let out an occasional “Dang, that guy kills us.”

I’m not sure who said it last night, but they commented on how the left-handed hitters in the Red Sox lineup play pepper with the Green Monster. A fair and accurate statement-which could have been followed with “why don’t the Cubs move their outfielders accordingly” rather than-“Gee another ball hit to the gap.”

We can all see what’s happening and we don’t need all of the excuses or explanations. In his most famous non-home run calls, Ron Santo’s “No, Oh No” spoke volumes, but offered no excuses. I fear that if that game were played in 2023, we would have heard about how hard or weakly the ball was hit.