Thunder Matt's Saloon
Slow clap.
You couldn't have captured it better.
Simply put, a great post.
I've been living and dying with the Cubs since 1982... and along with the heartbreak my thirteen-year-old self felt in 1984, this was probably the worst yet. It simply tears your heart out to follow a team, year after year, without much expectation of winning, much less glory. Occasionally we stick our heads above the pack, only to get it chopped off in most ignominious fashion. And that's where we find ourselves again this year.
There's not much to be said. It was a great summer; the world was ours for the taking. But in just a few days it came crashing down, and now there's nothing to do but wait 'til next year.
The Cubs have now had 100 'next years', and all of us have shared in at least a portion of them. Many, many others have lived and died waiting for their own 'next year'. Although it seems morose and pessimistic, as hard as we wish for it we may never live to see our Cubs go further. I'm sure a 100-year drought would have shocked the folks of 1908. Why should it shock us today?
But it doesn't matter if next year is our year, or if it's 2108. We bleed for our team. We feel our wins and losses, joys and sorrows, far greater than any other fans in organized sports. We have heart. And today, our hearts are broken. But we've got all winter to heal. So let's get 'em next year.
Go Cubs.
Amen, Jason. And you too, Chaim. This sucks. It sucked last year, even though my expectations were much higher this post-season. This is why you play the games. This is baseball and we got the short end of the bat. But I'm not gonna cry about it and bemoan the curse. There is no curse. It was our guys against their guys and their guys were better, at least for these 3 games. My one comfort is that we didn't get out-coached. 2003 will always be the bitterest pill for me because that series was ours. It was in our grasp and Dusty got schooled by Jack McKeon. Bartman? Nope. Even the Gonzalez error wasn't catastrophic on it's own, had Baker made smarter moves. Dusty failed to see that his ace was rattled and he failed completely in Game 7 by not utilizing Matt Clement, Zambrano, or Juan Cruz in the way McKeon used Josh Beckett. 2007 and 2008 will never burn in my memory the way 03 does.
The 2008 playoffs were cancelled. Didn' tyou hear?
Commenting by HaloScan
