More fans are paying attention and that's not good for some people

The manager and the TV network do their best work when nobody cares

Since the great sell-off at the 2021 trade deadline the Cubs have functioned with far less interest than they were used to. Attendance fell to 2.61 million last season, lower than the depths of Theo Epstein’s rebuild in 2013. Viewership was way down on their half-assed TV network, too.

And then, in the offseason they threw around some bucks and patched a few holes and thanks to their unique position as the only major market team in their division, they positioned themselves as fair to middling team that might compete in a fair to middling NL Central.

They got off to a good start and interest in the team increased. With that interest came something that a couple of very prominent parts of this franchise were unprepared for.

Scrutiny.

Fans interest in the Cubs again has been a boon to guys having breakout seasons like Nico Hoerner and Justin Steele. Veterans like Dansby Swanson, Cody Bellinger, Marcus Stroman and Ian Happ have performed well and earned new fans.

It’s May 15 and the Cubs are smack in the middle of the division four games behind the Brewers. They are one game out of the third wild card spot in the National League.

And, as they will be sure to tout to you, their run differential is third in the league (although it took quite a drubbing against the punchless Twins on Saturday and Sunday, with 11-1 and 16-3 losses).

While fans are excited about young players like Matt Mervis and Christopher Morel who were finally recalled from triple-A Iowa after more than a month’s exile for….reasons, one thing has really united the fans.

They have all discovered that the Cubs’ manager, David Ross, is a dumb shit.