For the first time since 1907-1908, the Cubs are in the postseason two years in a row, and it looks like they could end up as the best team in the National League. Can they get to their first series in 63 years? Can they get to their first title in a century? Who cares? If you’re a Cubs fan, you know that winning seasons come along rarely enough. Just enjoy the ride as long as it lasts. Hoist the W flag and sing along!
Corso, what caught my eye was: The doctor was worried about my kidneys with what I’m on, and I get…
Even though I was born in the Boston area and am thus a member of Red Sox Nation, as a resident of the southwestern suburbs of Chicago I am required to say “Screw the Cubs!” Nothing personal.
If the Cubs end up meeting the White Sox in the World Series, God help us all.
as a resident of the southwestern suburbs of Chicago I am required to say “Screw the Cubs!” Nothing personal.
None taken; Pale Hose fans aren’t that bright, they can’t help their foolishness. :P
And the ChiSox aren’t going to the series. They suck. They’re just lucky my AL team the Twins suck more.
I confess that I do not follow the NL in nearly as much detail as the AL. My guys are in a battle down to the wire with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, but I think the Rays will finish in first in the division unless they choke badly. But the feeling around Chicago seems to be that the Cubs have an excellent chance to get to the World Series. The papers are usually doom-and-gloom about them. They don’t like Lou Pinella. Hell, they don’t like anybody, the papers are mostly of the philosophy that controversy sells papers and if there isn’t a good controversy going they’ll make one up. But I haven’t seen anyone saying that the Mets or Phillies or whoever are going to get them in the playoffs.
My guys are in a battle down to the wire with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays…
Nope. Impossible. No such team. They changed their name to the Tampa Bay Rays last winter. I really hate the change, but what are you gonna do?
Oh, yeah, it’s hard to keep track of what all the expansion teams are doing. What kind of rays would that be, then? Sting rays? Death rays? Ray-Bans? Transmorgifier rays? My brother-in-law Ray’s?
[oldtime fire-and-brimstone accent]God has smiled upon the Rays because they have expunged the Devil, yea, they have cast out the Devil, and they have been raised up![/ofba]
All kidding aside, I too am a lifelong Red Sox fan (something Ron and I have in common! who knew?), but I can’t help a sneaking pleasure in watching the Rays turn all preseason prognostications on their head. Don’t we all love triumph-of-the-underdog stories? I’d prefer that the Rays get the wild card, since if the Sox get it they will have to face… uh oh… LA. Then again, my belief that the Sox can handle White Sox-Rays better than having to deal with the Angels is probably based on old data (read: the Rays’ lot in life is to fatten the Sox’ and Yankees’ W columns).
Of course the Cubs have a much more venerable underdog pedigree. If the Sox can’t get there, I’ll happily and raucously cheer on the Cubs.
… I can’t help a sneaking pleasure in watching the Rays turn all preseason prognostications on their head.
Well, not intelligent pre-season prognostications. http://ussmariner.com/ has been talking about how good the Rays are for the last year or more. The Rays know how to analyze statistics and evaluate players and have built a solid, solid team. Exactly the opposite of the Mariners (which is why U.S.S. Mariner has been talking about the Rays for quite a while.
The Rays are probably better than the Angels. The White Sox just aren’t that good. You are wise to root for your team to avoid the Angels in the first round if the White Sox are the alternative.
Living in the Chicago area as I do; the White Sox’s bullpen has been weak as of late. I don’t see them getting past the first round of the playoffs.
The Cubs and the Red Sox used to get compared a lot when both had sufferered long streaks of not winning the World Series. But there was and is a difference. The Cubs had the image of “lovable losers”, where the fans in the stands were more interested in drinking and hitting on the opposite sex than they were in following the game. For those of you not aware, the Cubs are smack dab in the middle of the Wrigleyville neighborhood, which is mostly young adults with no kids. It’s been called “Chicago’s largest singles bar”. Whereas Fenway Park is near BU but is in a commerical area, and the fans there are fanatic about the game. They didn’t grin and bear it, they despaired witih grim determination when the Sox lost.
Another thing is that the Cubs were pretty much out of it by the All-Star break most of the time, although there was that one playoff they were within 5 outs of the World Series. The Red Sox had good teams in the 30’s and 40’s and since 1967, but they kept just missing, often at the hands of the Yankees. That’s the final difference, the rivalries. Sure, the Cubs have a rivalry with the Cardinals, but how often have the Cardinals either kept the Cubs out of the post-season or knocked them out once they were there? As opposed to how often did the Yankees do that to the Red Sox? Lots of times.
Red Sox fan? Yes, I was born 20 miles from Fenway and saw both my first baseball game there (against the Washington Senators) and my first football game there (Patriots-Bills, in the AFL days). I remember lousy teams in the early ’60’s, the Impossible Dream, Rico Petrocelli getting thrown out at home because he fell down rounding 2nd in 1972 and the Sox losing the pennant by 1/2 game to the Tigers (strike year, the owners wouldn’t make up lost games), the ball between Buckner’s legs, and on and on. When that bouncer came back to the pitcher and he made ready to make that throw to 1st that would finally win the World Series, I, a true Red Sox fan stood up and … cheered … ? … no. I stood up and screamed DON’T BLOW THIS! seeing in my mind’s eye the throw going over the 1st baseman’s head and into the stands and the Cardinals coming back and doing to us what we did to the Yankees. But no … he caught it … they really won ….
To give you an idea what that rivalry is, it was seriously considered by some Red Sox fans that having come back from 0-3 to defeat the Yankees made actually winning the subesquent World Series not important.