Pick Your Poison

[SKO]

Rosters:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CHC/2000.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CHC/2006.shtml

[Gilgamesh]

Any team with a Kevin Tapani is a team you have to watch.

and Ishmael Valdez.

[Tinker to Evers to Chance]

I missed most of the summer of 2000, so it'd be like watching that team for the first time.

[Slaky]

I missed most of the summer of 2000, so it'd be like watching that team for the first time.

And yet there would be the familiar tang of crushing depression.

[SKO]

I don't even know if these are the two worst in recent memory. 2006 probably, but I can't really say 2000 was any worse than 2002, 1999, or 1997. But the conversation started at shittiest rotation and 2000 immediately sprang to mind.

[SKO]

DPD. Apparently by runs allowed alone the '99 Cubs were the worst in franchise history after the unforgettable 1894 squad. 920 runs allowed. 2000 was close at 904. Holy fuckballs.

[Slaky]

I don't even know if these are the two worst in recent memory. 2006 probably, but I can't really say 2000 was any worse than 2002, 1999, or 1997. But the conversation started at shittiest rotation and 2000 immediately sprang to mind.

For me, nothing will be worse than 2006 because I was living right next to the field. I had never been actively angry at the Cubs before that season. At least in 2000 I was miles away in Champaign for the last couple of months of it.

I had to walk by Wrigley twice every day to and from work. Watching the ticket brokers beg passers by to take their tickets well below face value was pretty funny and of course less people in the area meant less of a hassle.

Still, it was awful and I wouldn't wish that season on any of us every again. Unless it somehow got Fro Dog to off himself.

[Brownie]

The archivist here failed to archive the recap of 2000, but here's a look at how the only site covered it.



And here's Andy's wrap on 2006.

I'll go with 2000. Tickets were easier to come by, we weren't yet jaded by all that was to come, it was the farewell tour for Mark Grace's pack of Winston's, and Kyle Farnsworth hadn't quite yet discovered pussy and beer.

Oh, and the Cubs opened in Japan against the Mets, so you always had hope that as you watched Rick Aguilera cough up a late lead while having your bacon and eggs, a 9.1 earthquake and tsunami could ravage both teams' rosters.

[Slaky]

Oh dear God...Jock Jones.

[Chuck to Chuck]

Barret, Jacqueshit, Neifi and Dusty.  Big time win for losing over 2000.  There was no one on that team to hate.  There was hardly anyone on 2006 to like.

[SKO]

Barret, Jacqueshit, Neifi and Dusty.  Big time win for losing over 2000.  There was no one on that team to hate.  There was hardly anyone on 2006 to like.

I'm pretty sure I managed some serious rage at Ruben Quevedo and Daniel Garibay.

[flannj]

Buck Coats.

Guh.

[Slaky]

Barret, Jacqueshit, Neifi and Dusty.  Big time win for losing over 2000.  There was no one on that team to hate.  There was hardly anyone on 2006 to like.

I'm pretty sure I managed some serious rage at Ruben Quevedo and Daniel Garibay.

I was too busy trying to figure out why they thought converting Garibay from a jockey to a reliever was a good idea.

[Brownie]

Thanks to Whatifsports.com, I put the 2000 club against the 2006 club for a seven-game series. I gave the 2006 Cubs home field advantage because only the 2006 team inspired a steamer in the dugout.

I chose to play 2006 without Derrek Lee until game 7, as I'm sure D-Lee's presence will be irrelevant by then anyway.

OK, Game 1:

Lieber vs. Zambrano

2000 Cubs lineup

Young, 2b
Grace, 1b
Sosa, cf
Rodriguez, LF
Hill, rf
Guttierez, ss
Greene, 3b
Girardi, c
Lieber, p

2006 Cubs lineup
Lucky Pierre, cf
Barrett, c
Jock, rf
E-ramis, 3b
Nevin, 1b
Ginger, lf
Walker, 2b
Ron Ce, ss
Zambrano, p


2000 Cubs 4, 2006 Cubs 1
Summary:
Big Z retires the first six batters, but then gets into a bases-loaded, one-out rally when Mark Grace hits into a 3-2-3 double play (Nevin and Barrett play defense!)

The next half inning, Zambrano touches Lieber for a solo shot to left-center field. The Gladiator responds with a rocket down the left-field line which unfortunately misses Al Yellon's head by inches. The next inning, Willie Greene leads off with a double to left-center (really should have been caught by Murton, but he misplayed it, and then it would have been a single, but Pierre wound up fielding it so Greene stretched it into a double) and Joe Girardi hits a two-run homer off of Zambrano, who shouts at his outfielder, home plate umpire Bruce Froemming and 2000 Cubs manager Dusty Baker. Mark Grace's RBI single drives in EY in the seventh. The game otherwise plods along with neither Baylor nor Dusty making any substitutions until Baker calls on rookie Ryan Theriot (looking to become the Cubs' shortstop of the future) to pinch hit for Carlos Zambrano with two outs in the ninth. Theriot fouls out to Willie Greene to end the game.

2000 Cubs 1, 2006 Cubs 0. More to come later.

[Yeti]

2011 Cubs