Bright young stars carry Cubs to new heights

CHICAGO — Goats? To quote the T-shirt Bill Murray wore wore to Wrigley Field last week, the Cubs ain’t afraid of no goats.

There are a few reasons why not, including the leadership of four veterans who already own World Series rings and manager Joe Maddon, who announced upon his arrival in Chicago that he “doesn’t vibrate at that frequency.” But the biggest might be that these Cubs — who will play either the Nationals or the Dodgers on Saturday in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series (8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on FS1) — are too young to know better.

Game Date Time Matchup TV Gm 1 Oct. 15 8 p.m. LAD/WSH @ CHC FS1 Gm 2 Oct. 16 8 p.m. LAD/WSH @ CHC FS1 Gm 3 Oct. 18 TBD CHC @ LAD/WSH FS1 Gm 4 Oct. 19 TBD CHC @ LAD/WSH FS1 *Gm 5 Oct. 20 TBD CHC @ LAD/WSH FS1 *Gm 6 Oct. 22 TBD TBD @ LAD/WSH FS1 *Gm 7 Oct. 23 TBD TBD @ LAD/WSH FS1 *- If necessary | All times listed ET  • Complete postseason coverageShop for postseason gear: Cubs | Dodgers | Nationals

“Nobody really cares about a curse or a goat or anything else,” Jon Lester said on Tuesday, a few hours before the Cubs eliminated the Giants in the NL Division Series. “It’s what you make of it. If we make a mistake, we’re not going to blame it on a curse or anything else like that. We’re going to blame it on ourselves and be accountable for it and move on to the next play or the next moment.

“I think we got too many young guys in there that don’t even know what that stuff is. It’s almost better to play naive and just go out and worry about us, worry about the Cubs and not anything else in the past or, like I said, any animals.”

Lester is right. These Cubs are the biggest, best collection of young talent that a team has put together in 40 years, if not longer. Anthony Rizzo, Jason Heyward, Kris Bryant, Addison Russell and Jorge Soler were the primary players at their position this year, and all were in their age-26-or-younger season.

Chicago is in the NL Championship Series for the second consecutive season. If it wins the World Series, it will be the first team to do it with five regulars that young since the 1969 Mets — and that list of young Cubs doesn’t include Javier Baez and Willson Contreras, who played leading roles in the Game 4 comeback against the Giants.

Youth has many advantages. One of them is the innocence and lack of scar tissue that comes from having known too …

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