I admit it...

[PenFoe]

I'm not nervous at all. Not just because I believe Jake Arrieta will throw 17 scoreless innings if that's what they need to win, but also because it isn't like 2008 where the window was closing. The window is still not fully open. Whatever happens here is just the next step in the plan.

No nerves here either, Brother Fork, and I think I'll be ok if the Cubs lose. I just don't want them to lose through some boneheaded idiotic fluke soulcrushing play.

Fuck that.  I'm nervous as hell and I will absolutely not be all right about the Cubs losing.  Are you kidding me?  162 games as one of the very best teams in baseball and all of a sudden, good night?  I'll be fucking gutted.

Do you have a way to watch over there? Or are you going to have to follow Gamecast or whatever? That'd be even more brutal.

Mlb.tv on my PS3, old chum.  I'll be watching both live, and in HD.  And in the small hours of the morning.

Does MLB.tv include the postseason? I thought it was regular season only. I guess you'd know better than me.

Yeah, you buy a full-season pass at the beginning of the year.  In case I've bungled (and I'm sure I haven't), though, you can buy a post-season pass for next to nothing anyway.

Ahh, looks like you're good because you're international. It's not included for us here in the U.S.

I wonder if Canada counts as "international." I hope so.

I don't believe so. You can blame the Blue Jays for that.

[Canadouche]

I'm not nervous at all. Not just because I believe Jake Arrieta will throw 17 scoreless innings if that's what they need to win, but also because it isn't like 2008 where the window was closing. The window is still not fully open. Whatever happens here is just the next step in the plan.

No nerves here either, Brother Fork, and I think I'll be ok if the Cubs lose. I just don't want them to lose through some boneheaded idiotic fluke soulcrushing play.

Fuck that.  I'm nervous as hell and I will absolutely not be all right about the Cubs losing.  Are you kidding me?  162 games as one of the very best teams in baseball and all of a sudden, good night?  I'll be fucking gutted.

Do you have a way to watch over there? Or are you going to have to follow Gamecast or whatever? That'd be even more brutal.

Mlb.tv on my PS3, old chum.  I'll be watching both live, and in HD.  And in the small hours of the morning.

Does MLB.tv include the postseason? I thought it was regular season only. I guess you'd know better than me.

Yeah, you buy a full-season pass at the beginning of the year.  In case I've bungled (and I'm sure I haven't), though, you can buy a post-season pass for next to nothing anyway.

Ahh, looks like you're good because you're international. It's not included for us here in the U.S.

I wonder if Canada counts as "international." I hope so.

I don't believe so. You can blame the Blue Jays for that.

That's ok. I'll just VPN it. Starting tomorrow night, and for hopefully 3 weeks, I'm going to be British, guv'na.

[Oleg]

...at this point I think Fork is mostly trolling SKO and Eli with his "the Cubs are going to be guaranteed awesome for the next 5 years" bit and I get a big kick out of how quickly they pounce on every statement.

I'm pretty sure he is, too, but I don't really care.

I'm just slowly venting it all out now so I don't stab Fork or anyone else who tries to play Cubs Fan Emotion Cop here or on twitter when some of us have the gall to actually be upset about our team losing in the playoffs. If they lose an NLDS to the Cardinals or something on a walkoff homer or a blown save or something and I hear WELL THEY WERE A YEAR AHEAD OF SCHEDULE ANYWAY before I have had the chance to properly grieve someone's gonna get my rage vomit all over 'em and it won't be pretty.

Y'all have been warned.

Look, I'm not going to tell you how to live, and I know this thought probably never crossed your mind, but you might want to stay off the internet starting at about 6 pm tomorrow.  

I intend to. That is my gift to you. My wife is taking possession of my phone, and some friends are coming over so that I have to pretend to not be a crazy person in their presence (while this may seem counterproductive, it is a method that's proven successful in the past as there's only a select number of people I will make a total ass of myself in front of).

Well, aren't we the lucky ones?

Like many people I scoured the internet until finding a fringe messageboard what could tolerate my insanity.

You assume too much.

Maybe you should instead accept your part of the blame. Perhaps 14 year old SKO would have been better off if he'd discovered the pollyannas of BCB, but instead he found you people, and his formative years were spent listening to PANK's rants and Slaky's cynicism and Andy's irreverence.

Y'all corrupted my youth and want to bitch about the man I became. For shame. FOR SHAME.

Made you a criminal and sent you down a wayward path before stealing your youth?

Once, as a wet-behind-the-ears youth who had never even hailed a cab, I took the train into the big city to meet these people. A tiny man offered me weed. I got caught in the middle of a stand down between a man in a velvet blazer and an angry Sun Times columnist obsessed with debt loads. Some older gentlemen conspired to ply me with free whiskey until I found myself disgorging a not inconsiderable amount of bacon and sausage into the tiny man's toilet.

Yet these same people wonder how I turned out so angry and messed up.

I'm good with all this.

[InternetApex]

I have no idea how I'm going to feel tomorrow. I would anticipate an extreme level of distraction, which is a bad deal for me considering how challenging my job is right now. If they lose, I'm going to be pretty bummed out, not because of what happened in 1984-2008 but because I have been really excited about watching the playoffs - as I do every year - with the Cubs included. Missing out on that will probably sicken me to the point that I won't watch anything past Wednesday.

Now that I'm all-in on skipping this NFL season, the Blackhawks have given my mouth a bad taste thanks to Kane and the NBA season remains a month away, I would have more time to dedicate to my job, and the process of finding a new one that doesn't make me want to jump off of a high rise apartment building every day.

So Go Cubs.

[Quality Start Machine]

I'm not nervous at all. Not just because I believe Jake Arrieta will throw 17 scoreless innings if that's what they need to win, but also because it isn't like 2008 where the window was closing. The window is still not fully open. Whatever happens here is just the next step in the plan.

No nerves here either, Brother Fork, and I think I'll be ok if the Cubs lose. I just don't want them to lose through some boneheaded idiotic fluke soulcrushing play.

Fuck that.  I'm nervous as hell and I will absolutely not be all right about the Cubs losing.  Are you kidding me?  162 games as one of the very best teams in baseball and all of a sudden, good night?  I'll be fucking gutted.

I think Fork thinks that people are literally incapable of being both A)disappointed if the Cubs lose, because this is a good fucking team with a  real shot and anytime you miss one of those chances it sucks and B) optimistic about the future of the team regardless.

People are capable of any feelings they want to have. That even includes having fun prior to the work day being done.

[Canadouche]

I have no idea how I'm going to feel tomorrow. I would anticipate an extreme level of distraction, which is a bad deal for me considering how challenging my job is right now. If they lose, I'm going to be pretty bummed out, not because of what happened in 1984-2008 but because I have been really excited about watching the playoffs - as I do every year - with the Cubs included. Missing out on that will probably sicken me to the point that I won't watch anything past Wednesday.

Now that I'm all-in on skipping this NFL season, the Blackhawks have given my mouth a bad taste thanks to Kane and the NBA season remains a month away, I would have more time to dedicate to my job, and the process of finding a new one that doesn't make me want to jump off of a high rise apartment building every day.

So Go Cubs.

If you don't mind my asking, what are you doing for a living?

[InternetApex]

I have no idea how I'm going to feel tomorrow. I would anticipate an extreme level of distraction, which is a bad deal for me considering how challenging my job is right now. If they lose, I'm going to be pretty bummed out, not because of what happened in 1984-2008 but because I have been really excited about watching the playoffs - as I do every year - with the Cubs included. Missing out on that will probably sicken me to the point that I won't watch anything past Wednesday.

Now that I'm all-in on skipping this NFL season, the Blackhawks have given my mouth a bad taste thanks to Kane and the NBA season remains a month away, I would have more time to dedicate to my job, and the process of finding a new one that doesn't make me want to jump off of a high rise apartment building every day.

So Go Cubs.

If you don't mind my asking, what are you doing for a living?

Too much.

[Tony]

I have no idea how I'm going to feel tomorrow. I would anticipate an extreme level of distraction, which is a bad deal for me considering how challenging my job is right now. If they lose, I'm going to be pretty bummed out, not because of what happened in 1984-2008 but because I have been really excited about watching the playoffs - as I do every year - with the Cubs included. Missing out on that will probably sicken me to the point that I won't watch anything past Wednesday.

Now that I'm all-in on skipping this NFL season, the Blackhawks have given my mouth a bad taste thanks to Kane and the NBA season remains a month away, I would have more time to dedicate to my job, and the process of finding a new one that doesn't make me want to jump off of a high rise apartment building every day.

So Go Cubs.

I know exactly what you mean. Job sucks, NFL sucks, everything else is meh... but I would really miss coming home from work, turning on the Cubs, pointing my baby boy at the TV, and watching some baseball with him. If they lose baseball is basically over, and I'm not ready for it to be over.

[ChuckD]

... I'm not one for superstitions, but there's a flock of 5-6 Cardinals bouncing around on the ground outside the window of my basement laptop science lair. They're chirping incessantly and generally being annoying little fuckers.

[InternetApex]

... I'm not one for superstitions, but there's a flock of 5-6 Cardinals bouncing around on the ground outside the window of my basement laptop science lair. They're chirping incessantly and generally being annoying little fuckers.

They're worried. That's why they're fucking with you instead of some Pirates fan.

[Canadouche]

I admit it: I'm grateful you guys have given me a chance to participate in Cubs talk this season on this forum. It's nice to be able to talk about this team with folks. You obviously didn't have to do that, since I've given you plenty of reasons in the past to ignore me or go after me for being here. Thanks especially to Mike who seems to be going out of his way to stick up for me. I'm hopeful that I don't do anything to mess this up.

... he posts, practically begging people to fuck with him.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

I've never actually seen Back to the Future II.

[Saul Goodman]

I've never actually seen Back to the Future II.

[Bort]

I've never actually seen Back to the Future II.

It's the DIE HARD of Back to the Future movies, if that helps.

[Shooter]

...at this point I think Fork is mostly trolling SKO and Eli with his "the Cubs are going to be guaranteed awesome for the next 5 years" bit and I get a big kick out of how quickly they pounce on every statement.

I'm pretty sure he is, too, but I don't really care.

I'm just slowly venting it all out now so I don't stab Fork or anyone else who tries to play Cubs Fan Emotion Cop here or on twitter when some of us have the gall to actually be upset about our team losing in the playoffs. If they lose an NLDS to the Cardinals or something on a walkoff homer or a blown save or something and I hear WELL THEY WERE A YEAR AHEAD OF SCHEDULE ANYWAY before I have had the chance to properly grieve someone's gonna get my rage vomit all over 'em and it won't be pretty.

Y'all have been warned.

Look, I'm not going to tell you how to live, and I know this thought probably never crossed your mind, but you might want to stay off the internet starting at about 6 pm tomorrow. 

I intend to. That is my gift to you. My wife is taking possession of my phone, and some friends are coming over so that I have to pretend to not be a crazy person in their presence (while this may seem counterproductive, it is a method that's proven successful in the past as there's only a select number of people I will make a total ass of myself in front of).

Well, aren't we the lucky ones?

Like many people I scoured the internet until finding a fringe messageboard what could tolerate my insanity.

Good luck in your new environs.