Dear Lou: Welcome to our heartache

Lou Piniella signs up to take on the baddest curse in baseball. Will he be the one to lead my beloved Cubbies to a World Series victory denied to us by a damn billy goat? Will it be next year, or will he wait until '08, making it an even century? Why am I even bothering to engage in optimistic speculation when I know my dreams will come crashing down around me in, oh, say August, just as they do every year?

Rick Telander sums it up quite nicely:

Lou, if you ever win a World Series here, your statue will be massive and instantaneous.

I'm thinking it will need airplane lights.

But if you are able to get close to the championship, weird things will happen to derail you.

It's the Cubs.

Tradition is your Darth Vader.