Cry after they slap me?

Stop being modest BD.

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My dad was an ardent Cubs fan from the late 1930s and up. I don't think the Maddux trade disturbed him all that much -- because at that time, he had so much respect for Greg that he wanted him to have a chance to improve himself and go on to championships.

Things like Lou Brock's success likely bugged him though -- anytime the Cards' sucesses came at the Cubs' expense, it really tended to frost his balls. He was hopeful the Cubs would pick up Ron Fairly from them (1976) but it never happened.

To anyone of my generation, Brock + '69 Cubs = World Series win and we would have been saved the years of annoying stories about the Miracle Mets.

Maddux was great and the Cubs should have kept him, but the loss of Brock was exponentially more damaging. The '69 Cubs had 4 HOF players and a HOF manager. Maddux would not have had that kind of support at Wrigley.

Juicer. Who cares.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Yeah, Cub fans cry more about Brock than they ever have about Maddux. But I'm not sure how anyone thinks you could have had Brock and Williams in the same outfield. Balls would have been bouncing off the top of their heads with regularity.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

Just step away from whatever your allegiance might be and consider a team not resigning a 26 year old who had averaged 17 wins per year over the last 5 and was the reigning Cy Young.

Also, the whole space time continuum would have been different and we'd be living in a different reality. So this thread is moot.

Yeah, it was goddamn dumb in retrospect. But Larry Himes was a sharp guy. He may have been the most important guy in Cooperstown yesterday what with his influence on the careers of Maddux and Frank. I think he looked at Maddux and couldn't believe he could really keep doing what he was doing. This little guy who didn't throw hard. Guys like that are underestimated. Nobody I know considers Maddux a strikeout pitcher, but he struck out way more than many guys who are defined by their ability to strike guys out. Chicks dig the fastball. So do general managers.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

If he had only been doing it for 1 or 2 years I could see that thinking. But it was already 5 straight years of dominance.

I dont think it was that Himes didnt want to keep him. Trib didnt want to pay.

But they ended up giving more money to the other two turds they signed. I think it was a pissing match with early Boras. When you look at the money it was over now, it seems comical.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

I know it was like a couple mil but ya gotta look relative to other deals at the time.

Here's a decent article. Maddux was a good influence on the older pitchers
http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/10264400/letting-greg-maddux-leave-was-hall-fame-blunder-chicago-cubs

Maddux shit the bed in the '89 playoffs against the Giants. God forbid if Rozner ever brought that fact up when sucking his ass during a what seems like a weekly "kiss his ring" column. Theo would have let him go too.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Theo would have locked him up in 89