I was looking for a greeting card yesterday and found in addition to the usual categories:  birthday; wedding; sympathy; graduation; etc.; a new one:  recession cards.

        There were several. 

        A typical card showed on the front a tipsy man with a wine glass saying:  “If the economy gets any worse, I’m going to have to give up buying wine.”  On the inside:  “Ha. Ha.  Sometimes I crack myself up.”

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        For those of you outside the United States, in baseball a ‘closer’ is a relief pitcher who comes on to protect his team’s lead in the ninth, usually the last, inning of a game.

        Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees is generally accepted as the greatest closer of this era.  Playing for fifteen years with the Yankees, who usually go into the ninth inning with a lead, Mariano Rivera has had abundant opportunity to display his skills.

        In Chicago I can watch all the games of both the Cubs and the White Sox on television.

        As American readers know, the Cubs haven’t won the World Series in 102 years.  Teams from places that weren’t even places in 1908--Arizona; Anaheim; Florida--have won the World Series since then.  A local joke is, “Well, any team can have a bad century.”  But the Cubs are well launched into a second.

        I sometimes watch the Cubs, and we are going to a game a week from today to experience Wrigley Field.  Tickets are easy to come by this season, when the Cubs are playing much more poorly than expected.

        The Cubs have a few good players.

        One of the best is their closer, Carlos Marmol.

        Marmol is almost unhittable.  As opposed to Rivera, who is known for his control, Marmol is a little wild.  This is not necessarily bad for a closer, as it keeps opposing batters off balance.  His strike out ratio is phenomenal.  As of today, 98 strikeouts in only 54 innings pitched.

        Marmol’s problem is that he plays for the Cubs, who very seldom enter the ninth inning ahead.

        A local newspaper reported “A rare Marmol sighting” yesterday when he come on to save a 3-2 victory over the Saint Louis Cardinals. 

        It had been nineteen days since he last played.  During that stretch the Cubs went into the ninth inning behind in sixteen successive games.

        Marmol might be one of the best closers in baseball, but who can tell? 

        Talent without the opportunity to display it is always a misfortune and sometimes a tragedy.

        Still it is hard to feel too sorry for Carlos who is being paid $2.15 million to work a few minutes every three weeks.

        On the other hand, Mariano Rivera is paid $15 million for working a bit harder.