Nothing scares me more than the Chicago Cubs becoming TOO successful. I only say that because I watch way too much “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and I saw what success did to “The Gang.”

If you have not seen “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia,” it is essentially about five ragtag, alcoholic, insane friends who own a bar in south Philly. Nearly everything they do would be frowned upon in the real world.

The fictional characters, called “The Gang,” as well as the professional and very real Chicago Cubs baseball team, are similar in their path to success. Again, I watch way too much of the show and have a deep love for it, so that is why I have this crazy thought.

Some more background on the show. The Gang is Charlie, Dennis, Dee, Mac and Frank. Charlie is basically the janitor for the bar, which he attributes the success of the bar to because of how clean it was. Dennis, a bartender, says it is because of his good looks, Dee thinks the success is because of her being the pretty waitress with “one-liners,”—even though her jokes never land.

Mac considers himself “the beef” of the bar, the security tough guy, which he really is not. And Frank basically just hangs around and does nothing. They spend more time drinking in their own bar than they do serving the extremely limited customers they do get, but after years of failing, they tip and become successful.

For the Cubs, their tipping point last year was when the won the World Series, obviously. They started doing all the right things a couple years before and eventually they tipped. And if you follow baseball, you know they clinched the National League Central Division Wednesday.

Now this is where I get scared. The Cubs have gotten so good, so can they tip too far? If they are as similar to The Gang as I see it, maybe.

What happens to The Gang is that Dee spends too much time being funny, Charlie gets way in over his head because he has to bartend, Mac gets severely obese and Dennis puts chemicals on his face trying to live up to physical perfection. Put all that together, and they are back to their original ways of being complete failures.

Javy Baez is a fun player to watch. Can he become so flashy that he focuses too much on that instead of being successful? Can John Lackey get way in over his head trying to do too much and start yelling at his teammates, just like Charlie screamed at customers? Can Anthony Rizzo get extremely fat and stop being the player he is? And will Kris Bryant be too focused on being a poster boy for the Cubs, like Dennis wanted to be for the bar?

Who knows? All I know is that The Gang failed horribly and went back to their original ways after getting the bar packed. Can the Cubs get too good and go back to their 100-loss season ways?

Tipping too far can be costly.

Just kidding. The Cubs are winning it all again.

Sean Hastings can be reached at 581-2812 or smhastings@eiu.edu.