Rain — Patty Griffin
It’s hard to listen to a hard hard heart
Beating close to mine
Pounding up against the stone and steel
Walls that I won’t climb
Sometimes a hurt is so deep deep deep
You think that you’re gonna drown
Sometimes all I can do is weep weep weep
With all this rain falling down
Strange how hard it rains now
Rows and rows of big dark clouds
When I’m holding on underneath this shroud
Rain
Its hard to know when to give up the fight
Two things you want will just never be right
Its never rained like it has to night before
Now I don’t wanna beg you baby
For something maybe you could never give
I’m not looking for the rest of your life
I just want another chance to live
Strange how hard it rains now
Rows and rows of big dark clouds
When I’m holding on underneath this shroud
Rain
Strange how hard it rains now
Rows and rows of big dark clouds
When I’m holding on underneath this shroud
Rain
Strange how hard it rains now
Rows and rows of big dark clouds
When I’m still alive underneath this shroud
Rain Rain Rain
And on that note I’m done. I can’t do this anymore. I was raised to be a Cub fan, and boy oh boy my parents really fucked up on that one. Thanks Mom and Dad! Being a Cub fan has taught me that no matter how much you love and beieve in something, it just doesn’t fucking matter. There is no happy ending just the same fucking bullshit that’s been going on for a century, that will probably last for another 100 fucking years. Fuck the Cubs, fuck this lousy fucking sport that I’ve devoted way too much time to. We had the best fucking team in the league, and the Cubs couldn’t even get out of the first fucking round. There is nothing else that can be done, the Cubs are a lost cause, as long as they keep playing in that cursed shithole known as Wrigley Field. Call me when the Cubs are 4 outs away from the World Series, then maybe I can start to believe again. But I’m done, life is too short to waste on these cocksuckers.
2008 Cubs…
Full of sound and fury signifying nothing…
I think this is that rare thing, a collapse of such a kind and in such a context that many people who’ve followed the Cubs (too) intently all their lives, henceforth become casual fans, or stop following the team altogether.
I know I have no interest in following the team next season. I know for a fact the club’s biggest hitters don’t show up in postseason, at all- almost to the point where it seems as if they’re on strike, or are protesting something by their performance- so why follow them anymore? They could win 160 games next year and it wouldn’t mean anything, because they’d lose the 3 immediately after that.
Suck a dick, Mel. I’m as pissed off as anybody, but as pissed off and disappointed as I am, if you give up on the Cubs now you never were a true fan to begin with.
Yeah, we could have won it all this year. And it would have been poetic and happy and sunshine hippy flowers would have rained from the sky. But if the only reason you root for a team is World Series rings, then go be a Yankees fan and jerk off to Derek Jeter. Because Chicagoans are made of sterner stuff.
We got some shitty, deplorable, inexcusable baseball for the last 3 games of the year. But we got a great 162 before that. Was it enough? No. But everything that worked this year is going to be back next year, and there’s plenty of room for improvement – and at least one guy is going to do everything he can to make sure this team gets better. That man is Lou Piniella, and he’s damn good at what he does.
So I won’t tell you not to be angry, not to be depressed even, but I will tell you that if you’re done being a Cubs fan, you probably never knew what it means to be a Cubs fan in the first place. Baseball teaches us a lot, but Cubs baseball teaches one thing above all else – perseverance. It’s known by other names too: character, grace under pressure, toughness.
The Cubs can try our patience and test our mettle, but they never stop being OUR Cubs, and if they’re not YOUR Cubs anymore, fine. It makes no difference to me how many pretenders drop off. World Series or no, bandwagon or no, good times or bad times, the Cubs are my team.
“It’s known by other names too: character, grace under pressure, toughness.”
I don’t get it … you guys choked big time. WTF? You should be hanging yourselves.
Hah. ‘Cause the Dodgers, they never choke. Get over yourself, douche.
Like the poster above me said, go ahead and leave all you fake fans. The Cubs are not lovable losers anymore. They are like what the 3rd highest payroll in baseball, and with Mark Cuban likely coming they will stay that high or go higher. So the Cubs are going to be in contention likely for a long time, just like the Yanks and Red Sox, so it will come soon. Just stop being a bunch of pansies all the time. Yeah the Cubs sucked it up this year, and they have some holes, but at least they had a great regular season. At least they’re not the fucking Pirates or the Nationals, whens the last time they did anything?! And at least the Bears look like they are going to win the North this season.
Yeah uhhhh I’e been a fan since 1967 or 8 and think the curse has merit and needs to be broken by other methods than the usual assemble a great team, coaches and manager etc…. There is a goat in our past, what else? I will work on your basic witchcraft this winter, Cubs will field a new roster & maybe owner and we will see if Y101 breaks the drought. Hold on, scratch that As this game is also one of inches, does anyone have a problem with the Cubs just getting to the Series next year and not all the way? I don’t. And I’ll spend less on expensive spells.
From a geophysical quack spirituality gobbledygook perspective, maybe the Obamas from Chicago AND the Cubbies in 08 was far too much for the gods to stomach…..
Ha ha ha ha…couldn’t have happened to a better team!! Have a nice winter,Cubs fans, thinking of what might have been!! ha ha ha ha
A message for #9
Dude, I hope you enjoy dusty dude.
“Curses are for hookers and fat people.”
Seriously that’s all I can muster a bunch of non sequitur references right now.
So I say to the cubs, Taste my tears, taste the sad.
And I’ll see you in March
Time can’t heal a broken gun
I guess “It’s Not Gonna Happen.”
I am extrememly senile.
You people need to stop. Yes, it sucks they lost. Yes, it sucks they haven’t won a World Series again. But this team had the best record in baseball. They kicked a$$ ALL YEAR. More to the point, everyone — from ownership on down — did their best. They tried their best, and that’s all you can ask from a team. You want to see a team worthy of jumping ship over, come on down to DC where the owners (a) won’t even pay the rent on a taxpayer-funded $600 million stadium and (b) won’t sign their top amateur draft pick over money and (c) are reduced to advertising THE F@CKING FOOD COURT to get people to show up (the chili half-smokes are good, I must admit). They trot out every malcontent (Milledge, You Dead, Dog) and reject (Tim Redding) and ex-Red (Wily Mo Pena, Dmitri Young) they can find and try to pawn THAT off as a major league team. Because we have the second coming of Bud Selig as owner. Since Bud got to pick and all.
When the Cubs sink to THAT level, yeah, throw them under the bus. Til then — and may that day never come — hope springs eternal. They’re not cursed and they don’t suck.
If a 97 win team can’t do any better than this in the postseason, it’s never going to happen. Fuck this bunch of losers.
I couldn’t help but to laugh last night. Swept out of the playoffs, TWO years in a row. I love this team, always have and always will. They were no doubt the best in the league this year. Of course, that is completely irrelevant now. When they play like they did the last three days, they didn’t deserve to win either. I’m convinced that with the way this team is built, they need to come into the postseason on a roll, not clinch early and rest up, hoping to get things going again in the postseason. Oh well, see you all in March.
This past series had to rank amongst the worst series they have played all year well maybe only since June. Maybe Lou was outmanaged and outpsyched by the ex New Yorker who has discovered and promotes green sawgrass tea and is in dire need of an agent?
#17 agreed – in fact they can thank Milwaukee for that untoward vacation. If those guys had vomited in early Sept, sobered up in week 2, theres a good chance we would not even have made it this far
What’s with all the long comments? Queers.
I can’t control what happened. I can only control how I feel about it. It doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. Not even as much as last year really. It’s all so surreal, like another scene in a strange television we’ve been watching all summer. But it didn’t leave me with a cliffhanger like last year’s playoff flop. That seemed to be the start of something bigger. This? Sh*t. I don’t really care what it’s the start of. I’m numb. I feel almost nothing and I have much more important things going on in my life that demand my attention, effort and emotion.
I hope I don’t feel this way come March. The long Chicago winters have a way of beating the numbness out of me so I’m not too worried about this. Besides that I love baseball. So I’ll probably be out there rooting like always. But something’s different. Something died inside me and I don’t think it’s coming back.
Hell, that might be a good thing.
You described perfectly how I feel. Last year I was angry, but this year I’m apathetic. I told everyone I knew after Game 1 that the series was over. They told me I was crazy, but I reminded them I’d seen this before and I knew better.
They may have a team that’s good enough to win in the regular season, against inadequate pitching, but they’re not built to win in the playoffs. They could very easily win 95 games again next year, but I think any excitement will be tempered by the thought that it won’t mean shit in October.
This franchise has peaked.
22. And I fear there aren’t going to be many changes. Hendry seems to fall in love with certain players. D-Lee might be done, not done done, but he’s never going to be that MVLEE everyone fell in love with.
I sincerely hope the one thing that dies with the Cubs’ loss in the NLDS this, is Cubs’ fans wrapping up the success of this team in their own existential crises. It’s the most annoying and damaging quality of Cubs “culture.”
To make it abundantly clear to people who still don’t get it, this series loss had nothing to do with:
– Wrigley Field
– Goats
– 1969, 1984, 1998, 2003 or 2007
– Old Style vs. Bud Light
– the team not being built for a “short series” (my personal favorite)
– your crazy, messed-up personal neuroses
They don’t have to redeem Ron Santo, Ernie Banks, Leon Durham, the trade of Lou Brock, or your ticket purchases. In fact, **** those people and **** us. The current team has to clear their heads and figure how to make next year better. That’s the end of the story.
Sure, they get paid a lot, but that doesn’t make them immune to it all. A full 162-game season is grueling enough as it is. The saddest thing I saw during the series was the body language in the Cubs dugout, even at pitch #1 at Game 1. They were exhausted – physically and mentally – and primed for the outcome we all witnessed. They just didn’t have anything left in the tank. We all saw the way they played September.
I’m looking forward to Spring Training and Cubs baseball in 2009. I had a lot of fun with the 2008 season.
Hey Brooklyn, Are you sure the Cubs wouldn’t have tried harder and done better if they knew Mel (#1) was going to bail on them if they lost? I mean he invoked his fuckin Grandfather as a proof source. Despite your logic, I think this series had something to do with Mel
Only one team in LDS history has won more meaningless regular season games before being swept out in the first round. And that team actually won a World Series once in the last 10 years despite being a late-90s expansion team.
A lot of people will say this was a fun team to watch during the season. I will not be one of those people. The epic failure this team gave us in the postseason completely erases any good memories that can be taken from this year. 2008 was just another year of failure for this franchise. Except this one was played out in epic fashion.
As some one else put it when referring to Ryan Dempster, this season was a six-month practical joke at the expense of every Cub fan. This team tricked us into thinking it had the sack to win a World Series then proceeded to show us their true cowardly colors once the bright lights came on in October.
This will be a long miserable winter with nothing to look forward to next season except another meaningless division title and subsequent cornholing in the NLDS by an inferior opponent that goes on to get destroyed in the next round.
won’t have any representation in the WS
You’re absolutely right patpeiper, I in fact now blame Mel for the Cubs losing.
We now henceforth will blame all of the Cubs losses on Mel. It’s the Curse of Mel.
Mel, what the ****? We have a enough problems.
I learned after Game 1 that there’s a lot of merit to the “parents should monitor what their kids watch on tv” thing. Perhaps if my parents hadn’t put a tv in my room when I was 9, I wouldn’t be stuck on the Cubs. But here I am.
For me, this year and last year didn’t hurt as bad as ’03. I think I’m desensitized to playoff collapses. I was cautiously optimistic last year. I was a little more optimistic this year, but I was terrified of the Dodgers. It turns out I should have been afraid of the Cubs.
Right now, I plan to take a step back. I can certainly understand the people who can’t take any more—and I think it’s their prerogative if they can’t do this any more. As for me, I plan to spend less time following the Cubs next summer, and more time fishing.
Then again, I’m sure that when the winter meetings begin and pitchers and catchers report, I’m sure I’ll be paying attention.
Please, just send us somebody who can deliver us to the promised land.
At least we got the Bears. Here in SD they thought the Chargers were going to be the shiznit, and they lost to the Dolphins today!
thanks for that absolutely pointless parallel. go back to your fruits and nuts.
You want to find a culprit to why the Cubs continually collapse late in the season, it’s me. Period.
Should we sense sarcasm?
To make it worse, the Comcast guide on TBS right now says “Chicago Cubs at Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of NLDS playoff series”…
I too am sorry I was grown up a Cubs fan… This epic, pathetic, sick failure just assures the Cubs are without a doubt the WORST franchise in the history of pro sports. Love them or hate them (I am doing both right now) that is a fact. If I am wrong, somebody name me any team, ANYWHERE on this earth, I don’t care if it’s a damn cricket team, that has had a CENTURY of ineptitude. Jesus they should just consider folding the whole damn franchise. I’m only 29 and realize I’ll most likely never see a title in my lifetime. That’s just f’in pathetic…
Being a Cubs fan is sort of like me, except a Cubs fan experiences more suffering and doesn’t live as long.
Who knows why we have to bear this burden? But we’re saddled with it, and the people who exult in our suffering simply aren’t as strong as we are.
But Goddammit! How can anyone explain this performance?
WTF does that mean?
“That man is Lou Piniella, and he’s damn good at what he does.”
Winning a lot of regular season games then not even showing up in the postseason? Yes, yes he is.
When they lost Game 2 of the NLDS, I considered not being a fan anymore and even went to bed thinking that, but as I lied there, I kept thinking about that, and I thought to myself……..Why? I have waited this long why should’t I keep waiting, I have been a Cubs fan all my life, through good times and bad…..AND I DON’T REGRET ONE DAMN MINUTE OF IT. I wouldn’t root rather root for any other team in baseball. I am just as proud as I was in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. Any of you who are thinking about changing teams or just not being a fan anymore, when you go to bed tonight, think about it, how would you be any different from the Cubs thmeselves, making it this far and then just giving up. We have suvived the Black Cat, Billy Goat, Bartman, Riggleman, and Ronny Cedeno. The Yankees may have there fans, but they won a World Series just 8 years ago, The Red Sox have theres too, but just last year they went all the way! Like I said when you go to bed tonight think about it, do you really want to give up now
It’s arguable how much being a fan of any team, even a successful team, actually enhances the life/ consoles the fan of that team. And it seems certain, to me, that being a die hard fan of this particular team does much more harm than good. It’s like losing at roulette fifty times in a row. Do you really want to give up now? Next one’s bound to turn out better. Or, get the fuck out of there and call it a day.
Fulham FC and Hull City AFC, just to name two teams in the Premiership. Been around for at least a century each and haven’t won any major trophies.
A medical emergency prevented me from watching Game 1. I decided against watching the rest for my own sanity.
I agree that something has changed. After 2003, the change was we were apparently entering a new era where the Cubs would compete every year and win a WS. Obviously, 5 years on, that’s become a ruse as well.
Now, here in 2008, where an above-average team should have been able to win the NL, we’re left with another change — an odd feeling we’ve spent too much time, money, energy and passion on this team and now it’s time to go do something else.
I don’t know what that something else is, but it sure as hell is not going to be living and dying with this team every single day.
I hope they do win it all one day and I’ll be there when they do, but I’m not going to obssess about it anymore.
Why did anyone ever expect anything else?
Yeah, but that’s soccer. Who gives a shit about that?
At least you’ll have me to drag the Cubs down from here the next five years. Think winning back to back Division Titles is good? You’d better, cause it ain’t getting better than this. Next year when we finish in third place, I’ll still have three houses to go home to. Thanks Cubbies!!
Take a chill pill folks. Everybody is upset who is a Cubs fan and rightfully so, but let’s start acting like we belonged there in the first place. The Cubs raided the bar in ’03 and fans expect the team to win a World Series. That’s a good thing. Unfortnately it just isn’t a foregone conclusion that you win it because you made the playoffs, best record or not.
The Cardinals were pounding on the door for a half a dozen years before they won the World Series with one of weakest teams they entered the playoffs with.
Getting to the playoffs on a regular basis is what matters and if the Cubs do, they’ll have their day in the sun.
Let’s face it, this organization is not the one that used to make a little noise every 5 or 10 years.
Things need to be improved on the team but it’s not a major overhaul. If they can keep a strong rotation, they should improve the other parts of the team enough to have as good as chance as anyone to win the big one.
Hit the nail on the head. While being the best team during the regular season is nice, it doesn’t guarantee anything. It is good that the Cubs are now held to a higher standard, and that winning baseball is expected. As long as they are able to be competitive within the division and league, there’s always a chance. And, IMO, the Cubs were as likely to do what they did in the playoffs as win the WS. You could tell during the last few weeks that this team had lost their swagger. Hopefully they can build off the success (yes, I would call two consecutive division titles success) and do even better next year, like maybe make the postseason and win at least one game. This isn’t the end of the world. If you’re going to jump ship now, when things are relatively good, you’re a fool.
Hit the nail on the head. While being the best team during the regular season is nice, it doesn’t guarantee anything. It is good that the Cubs are now held to a higher standard, and that winning baseball is expected. As long as they are able to be competitive within the division and league, there’s always a chance. And, IMO, the Cubs were as likely to do what they did in the playoffs as win the WS. You could tell during the last few weeks that this team had lost their swagger. Hopefully they can build off the success (yes, I would call two consecutive division titles success) and do even better next year, like maybe make the postseason and win at least one game. This isn’t the end of the world. If you’re going to jump ship now, when things are relatively good, you’re a fool.
Thanks 47 for cock-blocking me @ 48. As if I don’t have enough to worry and lament about as it is.
Seeing that I was bumped to 49 by a double post…have you no shame?
Just like the Cubs 08 season…everyone will be wondering what post ’48’ could…have…been.
See you all in March.
“The saddest thing I saw during the series was the body language in the Cubs dugout, even at pitch #1 at Game 1. They were exhausted – physically and mentally – and primed for the outcome we all witnessed.”
Gee, well maybe if that’s the case, perhaps the Cubs shouldn’t have been concerned about bullshit “integrity of the game” arguments and rested their fucking starters completely for the final eight games of the season, like they easily could have, and let the Mets and Brewers decide the Wild Card on who best can beat a Triple-A lineup?
Tired is the most idiotic excuse for this team I’ve ever heard. They clinched ten goddamned days before their first playoff game. What the hell do they need to be rested, a sabbatical?
I have to agree. In fact, I think at least part of the reason the bats were so cold is that the regulars were on the bench too much in the last 2 weeks of the season. If they were playing every day, I’d like to think that they wouldn’t have been nearly as disjointed at the plate coming into this series.
I feel like Lou should have gotten these guys into the playoff mindset early. Had they been using the regular starters and playing passionately against the Mets and Brewers, two potential postseason opponents, their mindset would have been much different entering October. Instead, they coasted through the last two weeks of the regular season, playing like it didn’t mean anything, and carried that lack of motivation with them into the Dodgers series.
They just choked plain and simple. You can make the argument that they coasted through the last two weeks and that carried over into the postseason, and if they hadn’t done that, you could make the argument that they looked tired because Lou hadn’t rested them enough going into the postseason. Fact is they didn’t step up when they needed to, rest or no rest.
if anything this sweep has strengthened my resolve sure it sucks now it hurts almost as much as ’84 because we did have a great team. now is not the time to jump ship. like it was said earlier if you are giving up now you were probably never a true cub fan to begin with.
There are very few teams whose fans pour so much of their energies into being spectators as Cubs fans do. I probably watched about 125 games this year (mostly on TV and I don’t even want to think about how much of my time that is). We probably hope it’s worth it when someday (hopefully) that pays off and our team rewards us with a championship. On Saturday night, I probably would have flipped out and completely rethought my life as a sports fan if the other teams in my life weren’t giving me some hope (Roll Tide and Go Bears and thank God I have them).
My point is that I think the Cubs players know that their fans hinge more of their energies on the season that most other teams’ fans. As sad as it may be, part of our happiness depends on our team’s performance. Normally the players appreciate how much Cubs fans are into the game but in the playoffs I can’t help but think that part of the choke is due to the weight of that pressure. It would be nice if the Cubs went into the playoffs and took the lead early and never relinquished it and swept all 3 series, but it probably won’t happen that way. I’m not into the curse excuse, but I do believe in the negative energy that comes with our pessimism affecting the play of the team. I can’t help but think that us booing our own players in our own park may have been partly responsible for how the season ended.
I’m really sorry for the longest post ever, but I guess like many of us, I’m looking for some closure and hoping this will help me.
Go Cubs. It’s a brand new century.
I should blame Selig for this too:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-astros-backearrest&prov=ap&type=lgns
It might be a little rough, but when these guys fail to show up to the playoffs two years in a row, and considering the money they make to do just that, I think the fans were a little bit justified in booing the team. I mean they cheered for Z because he was out there pitching his heart out, but when the rest of team looks like they don’t even want to be there, that’s sad.
Year 25. I have only been a Cubs fan for a quarter of this century of futility so maybe I haven’t been around long enough to want to pack it all in. Or maybe, some of these Cubs fans have only been around since about 1998 and are boo-hooing because the Cubs haven’t won in the last 10 years. If that’s the case then don’t let turnstile hit you on your way out! We have won in the last 10 years by the way. We have 1 wild card and 3 division titles. Batting .400 will get you into the hall of fame. Continuing to make it to the playoffs 4 out of every 10 years will get you into the World Series too. It may not happen on the first few trys, but it sure as hell beats the 2 playoff sightings we had from 1945 until 1998. The freakin Red Hose played in the World Series 4 or 5 times (or more: I don’t really know but it is many more than the Cubs) during that stretch and didn’t win. They stuck it out, the fans stuck it out, and now they have 2 fancy trophys. The Atlanta Braves went to the playoffs something like 14 out of 15 years in the 90s and early naughts and only have 1 World Series trophy. We make fun of them because their fans stopped showing up. Cubs fans flew to Atlanta in 2003 because it was easier to get tix and cheaper to fly there than see them at home. We are not Atlanta.
My Grandfather has a DieHard Cubs Fan card from 1928 and has actually seen the Cubs in the world series a couple of times. He hasn’t given up in 80 years even though every time they lose in the playoffs it becomes much less likely he will ever see them win it all. He knows they are trying now. He hates the guys who dog it, (Soriano, I’m looking at you) but at least they are attempting to put a team out there that can win. P.K. Wrigley decided to market the field and did not really care that they didn’t have a decent team for 60 years. There have been much leaner times in Wrigley World my friends. So if you haven’t been around long and haven’t figured it out, it is good to be a Cubs fan right now and I will continue to love it for another hundred years. (Or 20-25 judging by my diet, horrible job, and lack of excercise) See ya next spring. Go Cubs!
I love when the holier-than-thou assholes come out and tell you that you aren’t allowed to be a fan because you’re fucking pissed about getting swept by an inferior team.
Fuck you.
I love when assholes who were in love with the Cubs throughout the season decide to completely dump them because they made the playoffs but didn’t win. I never said I wasn’t pissed. I’ve got a sore hand and a completely uhharmed wall that knows I flew off the handle a bit, but I’m not going to stop being a Cubs fan. So if that is holier than thou, it is because thou is a whiny bitch with no intestinal fortitude or loyalty.
Oh shit! Do you really think so? Oh fuck, time to evaluate some things.
Good news, if the economy keeps tanking, maybe there won’t be a next year?
Let’s not become a version of the Yankees who just keeps buying players and has no farm system and has a team that continues to break down with no young talent to come in and fill gaps and continues to need to win so they keep buying more players and it continues on and on and on. That would be unfortunate….
I haven’t recovered yet:
http://bluemoonstudios.com/blog/index.php/2008/10/the-cubs-will-never-win/