NEWSLETTER
We can’t say that Jon Lester speaks for all ballplayers or even all Chicago Cubs, but when he speaks on bigger picture things, I think the veteran has earned an ear.
The question? It’s the one we talked about last week: is this season, and any championship derived therefrom, considered legitimate?
“A ring’s a ring,” Lester told Cubs.com. “I’m still fighting for that. I don’t care if it’s 60 games or 190 games or whatever it is. You still have to play well to get that trophy …. You still have to win. You still have to play good baseball. It’s not like they’re just handing them out at the end, like, ‘Oh, hey, here’s your participation trophy because you guys showed up this year.’ That’s not the case. We have to go out there and there’s a lot of good teams, not only in this new division that we’re playing in, but there’s obviously good teams across the league you have to go through to get to that point.”
If there’s a title to be won, Jon Lester wants it. Echoes of his manager and friend:
And why not see this title as just as valuable and important as any other? When you consider all that these players and teams and staff are going through to try to make this season happen? The winning team is still going to have accomplished something impressive, both because of the results, and the fact that they pulled this thing off.
I feel pretty good that, *if* a season can be completed, and *if* the Cubs were to make a real run in the postseason, I’m gonna be really darn excited about it. And if they happen to win it all? That’s gonna be its own kind of very, very special.
In other words … get Jon Lester ring number four.
