Padres Editorial: What Back to the Future Day Got Wrong

The fun thing about movies in the not-too-distant future is when that time actually comes your predictions will be analyzed to death.

Fortunately or unfortunately for the Cubs, Back to the Future II predicted that in 2015 the Cubs would win the World Series for the first time since 1908. As the Theo Epstein / Jed Hoyer led team had a fantastic 2015 season, many Cubs hopefuls thought this would be the year that they fulfilled that prophecy. Instead, today on “Back to the Future Day”, that dream was shattered as they were eliminated from the NLCS in four games.

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Not that we should really be surprised that the movie was wrong, but perhaps we should be surprised at how good the Mets looked doing it. Ignore for a second the fact that Bobby Bonilla is getting paid more by the Mets this year ($1.2M) than Matt Harvey and Jacob de Grom combined. How about Daniel Murphy, who after hitting 15 home runs in the regular season has homered so far in a MLB record six straight post-season games. Or that Bartolo Colon has been a valuable reliever for the Mets. Do we get to see him hit though?

Great form.

For the Cubs, while this year is disappointing after a terrific season by a plethora of rookies and Jake Arrieta, their future is bright. Anthony Rizzo is the veteran of the infield at 26 and already over 100 career home runs. Just one of those was with the Padres when he was called up in 2010 in an attempt to be a late season spark plug for the Padres in their last winning season. Might things gone differently for the Padres if he had performed better in his 49 game call-up?

For every kid that dreamed of a hovercraft coming to a toy store near them, the Cubs saw the Anthony Rizzo trade more than any other as the one that started the rebuild towards the dream of a 2015 World Championship. As their talented team came together and Joe Maddon became their manager before the 2015 season, how could things go wrong?

The Cubs beat the rival St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS and looked good doing it, with 10 home runs hit in the NLDS and a moon shot from rookie Kyle Schwarber, who doesn’t do much for defense but is amazing on offense. Kris Bryant will likely be the Rookie of the Year and Jorge Soler came up big in the series as well.

I find it odd that a team that believes in the Curse of the Billy Goat and a black cat would think that a movie predicting them to win the World Series would be anything else except a cruel jinx. Yet as Jake Arrieta dominated down the stretch with Jon Lester as the number 2 starter, it was obvious these two starters could hold pulse with any aces in the playoffs.

The Mets dominated this series start to finish and now they move on to the World Series. Sadly for Cubs fans this exchange from the movie won’t come to fruition:

"Marty McFly: ‘Cubs win world series… against Miami’?Old Terry: Yeah, it’s something, huh? Who would’ve thought? 100 to 1 shot! I wish I could go back to the beginning of the season, put some money on the Cubs.Marty McFly: I just meant that Miami- What did you just say?Old Terry: I said I wish I could go back to the beginning of the season, put some money on the Cubbies!"

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