2015 NLCS Thread: Chicago Cubs vs. New York Mets

[Slaky]

I think the Mets kind of suck. The Cubs should sweep them. If they don't, whatever but this series will be a cakewalk compared to the Cards and Pirates deathmatches.

I know I shouldn't be saying stuff like this. It's arrogant and stupid and flies in the face of everything I've ever learned during my 39 years on this planet. But I am damn glad it's the Mets. And not the Dodgers. There's a strangeness about West Coast games that can affect any team. It didn't affect the Mets, I guess, shitty and barely competent goofs that they are, but I just eliminating that whole element makes me personally more comfortable about the games ahead. And that's not important, but I think it's the conversation we're having right now.

In 1998 my Mets hatred reached its zenith. When Bobby Valentine vehemently defended Sammy Sosa in the wake of his bat corking scandal, I softened on him and the team as a whole. I don't know why. They've just been irrelevant to me for so long I can't pretend to care.

They're roadkill anyway so let's just relax and enjoy this series. Cheers, everyone.

Seriously.  I don't care about the '69 Mets.  But fuck the '15 Mets and their melon-shaped-head Thor and their "aw, shucks" grandpa manager and their stupid cry-baby SS and their Commie LF and everything else about this fucking team.  Fuck them.

And again, if I see one more person retweeting that THESE AINT THE SAME METS THE CUBS SWEPT and posting their awful lineup from that last game they played in July without noting that the Cubs started Johnny Buckets and Mike Baxter (with Montero/Coghlan/Denorfia batting 3rd/4th/5th) in the game I will riot. The Mets got hot as shit when they added Cespedes and Co, sure, the Cubs added Schwarber and the version of Castro that hits and a bunch of other stuff and had a better post-deadline record than the Mets anyway. Fuck 'em.

I was drawing a complete blank and had to look up Mike Baxter. Completely forgot about him. That seems like years ago.

Right, I know the point they're trying to make is that these Mets actually have a functional major league offense now, and good for them, but the Cubs for most of the first half were every bit as abysmal offensively as the Mets, just for different reasons. Both clubs improved massively in the second half, but for all of the narrative of them overtaking the Nats, the Cubs improved more than New York. It was just largely internal rather than external changes.

We've come a long way from the days of Baxter and Schlitter.

And Taylor Teagarden.

I just tweeted a pic of the lineup in a 6-1 win over the Mets at Shitty Field. It's an abysmal starting nine save for Arrieta, who hadn't even truly hit his stride yet.

Mets fans can fucking do one.

[SKO]

I think the Mets kind of suck. The Cubs should sweep them. If they don't, whatever but this series will be a cakewalk compared to the Cards and Pirates deathmatches.

I know I shouldn't be saying stuff like this. It's arrogant and stupid and flies in the face of everything I've ever learned during my 39 years on this planet. But I am damn glad it's the Mets. And not the Dodgers. There's a strangeness about West Coast games that can affect any team. It didn't affect the Mets, I guess, shitty and barely competent goofs that they are, but I just eliminating that whole element makes me personally more comfortable about the games ahead. And that's not important, but I think it's the conversation we're having right now.

In 1998 my Mets hatred reached its zenith. When Bobby Valentine vehemently defended Sammy Sosa in the wake of his bat corking scandal, I softened on him and the team as a whole. I don't know why. They've just been irrelevant to me for so long I can't pretend to care.

They're roadkill anyway so let's just relax and enjoy this series. Cheers, everyone.

Seriously.  I don't care about the '69 Mets.  But fuck the '15 Mets and their melon-shaped-head Thor and their "aw, shucks" grandpa manager and their stupid cry-baby SS and their Commie LF and everything else about this fucking team.  Fuck them.

And again, if I see one more person retweeting that THESE AINT THE SAME METS THE CUBS SWEPT and posting their awful lineup from that last game they played in July without noting that the Cubs started Johnny Buckets and Mike Baxter (with Montero/Coghlan/Denorfia batting 3rd/4th/5th) in the game I will riot. The Mets got hot as shit when they added Cespedes and Co, sure, the Cubs added Schwarber and the version of Castro that hits and a bunch of other stuff and had a better post-deadline record than the Mets anyway. Fuck 'em.

I was drawing a complete blank and had to look up Mike Baxter. Completely forgot about him. That seems like years ago.

Right, I know the point they're trying to make is that these Mets actually have a functional major league offense now, and good for them, but the Cubs for most of the first half were every bit as abysmal offensively as the Mets, just for different reasons. Both clubs improved massively in the second half, but for all of the narrative of them overtaking the Nats, the Cubs improved more than New York. It was just largely internal rather than external changes.

We've come a long way from the days of Baxter and Schlitter.

And Taylor Teagarden.

I just tweeted a pic of the lineup in a 6-1 win over the Mets at Shitty Field. It's an abysmal starting nine save for Arrieta, who hadn't even truly hit his stride yet.

Mets fans can fucking do one.

Yup, the 2015 Cubs as they are right now didn't truly start to congeal until Joe moved Castro off SS and admitted that they needed Schwarber's bat in LF every day, without even mentioning the parts where they didn't have Jorge.

I always like to point to the Bryant walk-off vs Colorado as the real turning point of the season but I'd really say the first series where the true 2015 Cubs appeared once they were done with all of their beta testing was probably that 4 game sweep of the Brewers right after. From that point on, including playoffs, they're 47-19.

[PenFoe]

Mets broadcast is already talking about 1969, claiming "they still haven't gotten over it on the North Side, so all the pressure will be on Chicago."  I feel pretty comfortable guaranteeing that not one individual in that Cubs clubhouse gives one green shit about 1969.

Not inside the Cubs clubhouse, but it does seem like there are plenty of old-man fans who apparently aren't over it.

As long as none of those old-man fans needs to play SS, we're good.

Cubs fans in general just aren't over most of their history and we all know we won't be until they actually pull this thing off. Those kids don't give a shit, though.

I get that, but why aren't there any fans that wanted to "exorcise the demons" that came from the Dodgers sweep in '08?

Huey does.  By killing DeRosa and Dempster.  Literally.

If I could use some ShoutBox lexicon (moment of silence), I believe I've sorta done been FACED.

This was somewhat satisfying for me.

This was incredibly satisfying for me.

[R-V]

My overriding memory of the Mets from when my baseball awakening occurred in the late 80s/early 90s:

Fuck Gregg Jefferies.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

Also for what it's worth I don't know if 1969 has ever played into my hatred of the Mets. Maybe I just inherited it like most things from my grandpa. I'm also too young to remember the late 80s battles for the division with them. I think I've just always hated the Mets and never needed a reason why, but if I had to single anything out Victor Diaz and Craig Brazell or whatever sure pop up right quick.

I was 3 in 1969 so I don't remember any of that. My hatred comes from 84-85-86. Seems like they brawled a lot and Lenny Dykstra got a beer dumped on his head by somebody in the bleachers at least once a season. Good times.

'84 Mets were great villians whom the Cubs just laid pipe too.  It was glorious.

Keith Hernandez
Strawberry
Wally Backman, whose grittiness provided the additional displeasure of reminding my dad of Al Weis from the '69 Mets.  What a pain in the ass that guy was.
Fucking Gary Carter
Gooden--he was damn good but cocky as  shit.  He shut the Cubs down three times, but also got his ears pinned back the other 2 times, before winning like his next 26 decisions or some absurd shit against them in the years afterward.  Fuck Dwight Gooden.
Davey Johnson
OH I'M RON DARLING!  I CAN DO THE NYT CROSSWORD IN 9 MINUTES WHILE WAITING FOR A BUS!  Fuck you, too.
Bill Robinson, the hitting coach who in one game tried going into the stands at Wrigley
Ugly-assed Jesse Orosco

In any event, the whole "Cubs Mets" "thing" is just proof that 1969 will never go away, even with a sweep here.  It was supposed to have gone away when these beloved '84 Cubs wiped the floor with that laundry from New York.  When the '89 Cubs rallied, it was past the Cardinals, Expos and mainly, the Mets again.  In '98, the shit-pantsed Riggleman-led Cubs were allowed to back into the playoffs after losing 6 of their final 8 games thanks to the Mets' barely worse ineptitude down the stretch.  

Eventually, with this consistent pwnage, along with the continental drift of realignment, the thing about the Mets has faded for me almost entirely.  I think I hate the Cardinals more than I ever hated the Mets, even in 1984.  I have no historical axe to grind.  In my lifetime, the Cubs have just about always pwned the Mets when they've needed to, and there's certainly no reason I would expect it to change with this series.

But fuck Miami and San Diego forever.

[Waco Kid]

Ah the 80s Mets where cocaine was delivered to them in 50 lb bags.

[Quality Start Machine]

Also for what it's worth I don't know if 1969 has ever played into my hatred of the Mets. Maybe I just inherited it like most things from my grandpa. I'm also too young to remember the late 80s battles for the division with them. I think I've just always hated the Mets and never needed a reason why, but if I had to single anything out Victor Diaz and Craig Brazell or whatever sure pop up right quick.

I was 3 in 1969 so I don't remember any of that. My hatred comes from 84-85-86. Seems like they brawled a lot and Lenny Dykstra got a beer dumped on his head by somebody in the bleachers at least once a season. Good times.

1969 was the first baseball season I remember beginning to end. I really never had any bitterness toward the Mets, I always believed (and still do) that Leo screwing the fucking pooch was the reason the Cubs didn't win more than anything the Mets did.

[ChuckD]

OH I'M RON DARLING!  I CAN DO THE NYT CROSSWORD IN 9 MINUTES WHILE WAITING FOR A BUS!  Fuck you, too.  

I feel like there's a story here that needs to be told. I'm imagining you riding your bike past a bus stop where you happened to see Darling working on a crossword and turned instant hot potato.

[Waving hands around] HMMM I'M RON DARLING AND I RIDE THE BUUUUUS. HRRMMM I'M RON DARLING AND I DO WORD PUZZLES.

Also, what day of the week was this. Because if we're talking anywhere from Weds to Sunday, that would just be downright impressive.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

OH I'M RON DARLING!  I CAN DO THE NYT CROSSWORD IN 9 MINUTES WHILE WAITING FOR A BUS!  Fuck you, too.  

I feel like there's a story here that needs to be told. I'm imagining you riding your bike past a bus stop where you happened to see Darling working on a crossword and turned instant hot potato.

[Waving hands around] HMMM I'M RON DARLING AND I RIDE THE BUUUUUS. HRRMMM I'M RON DARLING AND I DO WORD PUZZLES.

Also, what day of the week was this. Because if we're talking anywhere from Weds to Sunday, that would just be downright impressive.

It was some item either in a Sporting News or Sports Illustrated from between 1984 and 1986 that someone espied Darling knocking out the Times crossword while either standing on a bus or waiting for one, I can't remember.  The point was that gosh that Ron Darling is smart.  He went to  Harvard you know.

[flannj]

OH I'M RON DARLING!  I CAN DO THE NYT CROSSWORD IN 9 MINUTES WHILE WAITING FOR A BUS!  Fuck you, too.  

I feel like there's a story here that needs to be told. I'm imagining you riding your bike past a bus stop where you happened to see Darling working on a crossword and turned instant hot potato.

[Waving hands around] HMMM I'M RON DARLING AND I RIDE THE BUUUUUS. HRRMMM I'M RON DARLING AND I DO WORD PUZZLES.

Also, what day of the week was this. Because if we're talking anywhere from Weds to Sunday, that would just be downright impressive.

It was some item either in a Sporting News or Sports Illustrated from between 1984 and 1986 that someone espied Darling knocking out the Times crossword while either standing on a bus or waiting for one, I can't remember.  The point was that gosh that Ron Darling is smart.  He went to  Harvard you know.

He went to Yale.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

OH I'M RON DARLING!  I CAN DO THE NYT CROSSWORD IN 9 MINUTES WHILE WAITING FOR A BUS!  Fuck you, too.  

I feel like there's a story here that needs to be told. I'm imagining you riding your bike past a bus stop where you happened to see Darling working on a crossword and turned instant hot potato.

[Waving hands around] HMMM I'M RON DARLING AND I RIDE THE BUUUUUS. HRRMMM I'M RON DARLING AND I DO WORD PUZZLES.

Also, what day of the week was this. Because if we're talking anywhere from Weds to Sunday, that would just be downright impressive.

It was some item either in a Sporting News or Sports Illustrated from between 1984 and 1986 that someone espied Darling knocking out the Times crossword while either standing on a bus or waiting for one, I can't remember.  The point was that gosh that Ron Darling is smart.  He went to  Harvard you know.

He went to Yale.

Yeah.  That.

[CT III]

OH I'M RON DARLING!  I CAN DO THE NYT CROSSWORD IN 9 MINUTES WHILE WAITING FOR A BUS!  Fuck you, too.  

I feel like there's a story here that needs to be told. I'm imagining you riding your bike past a bus stop where you happened to see Darling working on a crossword and turned instant hot potato.

[Waving hands around] HMMM I'M RON DARLING AND I RIDE THE BUUUUUS. HRRMMM I'M RON DARLING AND I DO WORD PUZZLES.

Also, what day of the week was this. Because if we're talking anywhere from Weds to Sunday, that would just be downright impressive.

It was some item either in a Sporting News or Sports Illustrated from between 1984 and 1986 that someone espied Darling knocking out the Times crossword while either standing on a bus or waiting for one, I can't remember.  The point was that gosh that Ron Darling is smart.  He went to  Harvard you know.

He went to Yale.

He went to Potato

[ChuckD]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/nyregion/ron-darling-finds-the-calm-before-the-game.html

CROSSWORD AS CAKE Dessert for me is the New York Times crossword puzzle. I usually do it around 7 or 7:30. There's still nobody up, so it's a good time to concentrate. I'm probably an hour or half-hour guy with the puzzle — not in Bill Clinton's elite category, but not too bad.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/nyregion/ron-darling-finds-the-calm-before-the-game.html

CROSSWORD AS CAKE Dessert for me is the New York Times crossword puzzle. I usually do it around 7 or 7:30. There's still nobody up, so it's a good time to concentrate. I'm probably an hour or half-hour guy with the puzzle — not in Bill Clinton's elite category, but not too bad.

Ha!

My savant-like recall of specific Reagan-era factoids is validated!

[Bort]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/nyregion/ron-darling-finds-the-calm-before-the-game.html

CROSSWORD AS CAKE Dessert for me is the New York Times crossword puzzle. I usually do it around 7 or 7:30. There's still nobody up, so it's a good time to concentrate. I'm probably an hour or half-hour guy with the puzzle — not in Bill Clinton's elite category, but not too bad.

Ha!

My savant-like recall of specific Reagan-era factoids is validated!

Speaking of idiot-savants, how the fuck can Ron Darling do that crossword, and be such an absolute dipshit every time I hear him open his wordhole?