2011 Chicago Cubs: Career Years for Everyone!

[R-V]

I was leafing through the channels the other day and spotted Ken Burns' Baseball documentary was being re-aired on one of the 12 WTTWs that I receive. I remember watching some of this when it originally aired but not enough to remember details. The episode in question was covering the decade from 1900-1910. As all of you are aware, this is without question the best decade the Cubs have ever had. Not only did they have (arguably) the best team in baseball history in 1906 but they won back to back World Series titles in '07 and '08.

Why is this important? We all know this. But here's why it's important: perspective. See in the last five or six years I've grown to hate the part of me that likes baseball. The person that used to hope against hope that the Cubs would somehow pull out enough wins to get to the playoffs. Maybe they'd catch a few breaks. Maybe if I yelled loud enough it would somehow help. I used to not get incensed when someone used the term "Cubbies". I used to not think a person suffered from mild retardation when they said undaunted by history that this was going to be the year. Spring used to be a time of hope.

While it's possible I just grew up and became a realist, it's really disturbing to me what has happened here. Luckily I've found solace in this message board because you're all like-minded Cub fans. Yeah, it's a hive mind but to me it's more of a support group. I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you. The best part about this place is how people who bring the anger like LoneStar used to are mocked mercilessly but a wry, sarcastic quip about the hapless Cubs or the awful general manager is met with subdued approval. It's an interesting place to get the hang of and that's why I love it here.

Thing is, watching that documentary, I missed the old fan in me. The old us, I assume. I realized, for the first time in a long time, just how long ago that last World Series title was. You don't really think too much about it when someone says 102 years. Your eyes roll. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Until you see the pictures. Until you hear the stories. Until you see the still frames of Polo Grounds sitting beside Coogan's Bluff, fans storming the field as Johnny Evers tries to retrieve the ball to complete the force out at second that would propel the Cubs to the NL Pennant and eventual world title.

That was over one hundred years ago. At that time Rube Waddell, an actual mentally-retarded person, was pitching in the major leagues because they couldn't diagnose a retard. That's amazing. Black people had to play on their own teams. Fans basically sat on the field of play. The Cubs best pitcher had three fucking fingers on his pitching hand. In 1904, Jack Chesbro won forty-one games in a season. To understand just how long ago this was you have to understand what was going on peripherally not just that the Cubs won a championship. It may as well have been a different sport.

And now here we are bitter and angry. One hundred percent convinced that the Cubs will not only fail this year but next year. And the year after that. I don't expect anyone to change their minds. I don't expect that I'll change my mind. I expect failure and I'll protect myself from it the way I always do. Even if the Cubs are improbably leading the division in August or September. Even if they make the playoffs. I will set myself staunchly against success and expect the worst to happen.

I guess that's just what we do here. Baseball used to be fun.

Great post. I give you 3.5 KDs for sincerity.

I don't think of myself as a bitter Cubs fan. I basically go into each year looking for reasons that these assholes will win the division. Where's the fun of defaulting to bitter before the season even starts? Sports are supposed to be an escape from our mundane, soul-crushing lives, not more of the same.

I think it's possible to balance optimism and cynicism. Optimism until the assholes show they're not worthy of it, cynicism the rest of the year.

[Quality Start Machine]

I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you.

You have to have a hopeful Cub fan deep down inside. Why else would anyone keep rooting for this team?

I don't have a choice.  It's hardwired, like one's procvlivity toward dangerous activities like drug and alcohol consumption.  After a while, once the addiction sets in, the biology takes over.  NACHO HELMET!!!

This makes even less sense than most of your posts.

I corrected the formatting, but it doesn't help.

Huey buys a helmet...oh, nevermind.

[Slaky]

I was leafing through the channels the other day and spotted Ken Burns' Baseball documentary was being re-aired on one of the 12 WTTWs that I receive. I remember watching some of this when it originally aired but not enough to remember details. The episode in question was covering the decade from 1900-1910. As all of you are aware, this is without question the best decade the Cubs have ever had. Not only did they have (arguably) the best team in baseball history in 1906 but they won back to back World Series titles in '07 and '08.

Why is this important? We all know this. But here's why it's important: perspective. See in the last five or six years I've grown to hate the part of me that likes baseball. The person that used to hope against hope that the Cubs would somehow pull out enough wins to get to the playoffs. Maybe they'd catch a few breaks. Maybe if I yelled loud enough it would somehow help. I used to not get incensed when someone used the term "Cubbies". I used to not think a person suffered from mild retardation when they said undaunted by history that this was going to be the year. Spring used to be a time of hope.

While it's possible I just grew up and became a realist, it's really disturbing to me what has happened here. Luckily I've found solace in this message board because you're all like-minded Cub fans. Yeah, it's a hive mind but to me it's more of a support group. I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you. The best part about this place is how people who bring the anger like LoneStar used to are mocked mercilessly but a wry, sarcastic quip about the hapless Cubs or the awful general manager is met with subdued approval. It's an interesting place to get the hang of and that's why I love it here.

Thing is, watching that documentary, I missed the old fan in me. The old us, I assume. I realized, for the first time in a long time, just how long ago that last World Series title was. You don't really think too much about it when someone says 102 years. Your eyes roll. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Until you see the pictures. Until you hear the stories. Until you see the still frames of Polo Grounds sitting beside Coogan's Bluff, fans storming the field as Johnny Evers tries to retrieve the ball to complete the force out at second that would propel the Cubs to the NL Pennant and eventual world title.

That was over one hundred years ago. At that time Rube Waddell, an actual mentally-retarded person, was pitching in the major leagues because they couldn't diagnose a retard. That's amazing. Black people had to play on their own teams. Fans basically sat on the field of play. The Cubs best pitcher had three fucking fingers on his pitching hand. In 1904, Jack Chesbro won forty-one games in a season. To understand just how long ago this was you have to understand what was going on peripherally not just that the Cubs won a championship. It may as well have been a different sport.

And now here we are bitter and angry. One hundred percent convinced that the Cubs will not only fail this year but next year. And the year after that. I don't expect anyone to change their minds. I don't expect that I'll change my mind. I expect failure and I'll protect myself from it the way I always do. Even if the Cubs are improbably leading the division in August or September. Even if they make the playoffs. I will set myself staunchly against success and expect the worst to happen.

I guess that's just what we do here. Baseball used to be fun.

Great post. I give you 3.5 KDs for sincerity.

I don't think of myself as a bitter Cubs fan. I basically go into each year looking for reasons that these assholes will win the division. Where's the fun of defaulting to bitter before the season even starts? Sports are supposed to be an escape from our mundane, soul-crushing lives, not more of the same.

I think it's possible to balance optimism and cynicism. Optimism until the assholes show they're not worthy of it, cynicism the rest of the year.

That's a much smarter, healthier way to approach each season.

However, I'm not sure why I keep subjecting myself to Joe Cowley's feed. He's decided to follow the Cubs around instead of the Sox and basically lampoons them every chance he gets which is to say always.

[Bort]

I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you.

You have to have a hopeful Cub fan deep down inside. Why else would anyone keep rooting for this team?

I don't have a choice.  It's hardwired, like one's procvlivity toward dangerous activities like drug and alcohol consumption.  After a while, once the addiction sets in, the biology takes over.  NACHO HELMET!!!

This makes even less sense than most of your posts.

I corrected the formatting, but it doesn't help.

Huey buys a helmet...oh, nevermind.

"No, the man and his boy.  You know, the -- the boy is named Bart.  I don't know the name of the man.  Bar!  What's the name of the man?"

[Internet Apex]

I want there to be a hopeful Cub fan deep inside me.

[CT III]

I want there to be a hopeful Cub fan deep inside me.

(||)

[Tony]

There needs to be a good balance of optimism, cynicism, hope, realism...all that crap.

The dopey "Cubbie" fans that give us a bad name annoy me enough to push me towards the bitter side. I went to a game a few years ago, when Dusty was still in charge, with some out of town fans that were really into a meaningless game at the end of the year because they loved the Cubbies and wanted to see a W. They couldn't understand why I didn't give a shit if they won or lost. If it's not leading to a championship, either that year or by building to one down the road, then I don't care.

Maybe the title drought is getting to me as a fan. I'm sure it gets in the heads of the players, which is why they tend to shit their pants in the playoffs. There's not a curse, but there's enough talk about a curse to fuck with all of us.

So if all that matters is a championship, why should we care about this team this year? They aren't contenders, and there's no plan in place to make them contenders. I was looking forward to this year without hype, without a big name manager giving false hope, without expectations. I just wanted to watch baseball. There should be enough decent young players to keep me interested. Maybe once the season starts I'll enjoy it.

[Internet Apex]

There needs to be a good balance of optimism, cynicism, hope, realism...all that crap.

The dopey "Cubbie" fans that give us a bad name annoy me enough to push me towards the bitter side. I went to a game a few years ago, when Dusty was still in charge, with some out of town fans that were really into a meaningless game at the end of the year because they loved the Cubbies and wanted to see a W. They couldn't understand why I didn't give a shit if they won or lost. If it's not leading to a championship, either that year or by building to one down the road, then I don't care.

Maybe the title drought is getting to me as a fan. I'm sure it gets in the heads of the players, which is why they tend to shit their pants in the playoffs. There's not a curse, but there's enough talk about a curse to fuck with all of us.

So if all that matters is a championship, why should we care about this team this year? They aren't contenders, and there's no plan in place to make them contenders. I was looking forward to this year without hype, without a big name manager giving false hope, without expectations. I just wanted to watch baseball. There should be enough decent young players to keep me interested. Maybe once the season starts I'll enjoy it.

Some people only get to see the Cubs play at Wrigley once every year or more. If they want to get drunk and go balls-out hoping for a win even though the team iis out of contention, that's fine with me. If they're having fun and not being dicks, that's cool. If they're trying to get me to give a crap when I'm on game 8 that season and haven't seen a win since April when I froze my dick off, then I might flip them off.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

Something in my brain broke during the 2008 NLCS and things just haven't been the same since.  I get very little joy out of these buttplugs nowadays.  I'm just being honest.  I hate this organization, its fanbase and most of all myself.

[Internet Apex]

Something in my brain broke during the 2008 NLCS and things just haven't been the same since.  I get very little joy these buttplugs nowadays.  I'm just being honest.  I hate this organization, its fanbase and most of all myself.

I don't want you deep inside me.

[Gilgamesh]

Something in my brain broke during the 2008 NLCS and things just haven't been the same since.  I get very little joy these buttplugs nowadays. (||)  I'm just being honest.  I hate this organization, its fanbase and most of all myself.

Umm.

[JD]

I think this year is going to be special.  Yeah, it's gonna be a good year.  You watch.  You'll see.  Good things are gonna happen.

[CBStew]

It is impossible for me to respond to Slaky's post without sounding like a crybaby.  You have heard all of it from me already.  So I will keep my mouth shut this time, except to say I will hang around this year with absolutely no expectations of anything other than another crap season.

[PenPho]

It is impossible for me to respond to Slaky's post without sounding like a crybaby.  You have heard all of it from me already.  So I will keep my mouth shut this time, except to say I will hang around this year with absolutely no expectations of anything other than another crap season.

The Cubs should sign Delroy Lindo to play RF.

[Slaky]

It is impossible for me to respond to Slaky's post without sounding like a crybaby.  You have heard all of it from me already.  So I will keep my mouth shut this time, except to say I will hang around this year with absolutely no expectations of anything other than another crap season.

Bullshit - I was specifically hoping for you to respond.