Frank showing perseverance and stick-to-it-idness.

Respect.

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Clearly, I was referring to this sentence:

Anything less than a World Series appearance is an utter failure.

Technically, the other sentences you wrote aren't facts, either, but we won't even get into that. They're closer than this sentence.

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You are the one who bolded 2 factual statements and then tried to claim they were my opinion.

Technically, a 103 team who had a 17 game division lead at one point and clinched said divison almost 20 days ago not making the World Series is a failure, but we won't even get in to that.

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Do you believe this statement is a fact?

_________________

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If you are a fan of the team, it should be a fact. Clearly you and Hank are not true fans.

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Glorious.

And tell us what we should do about this "failure."

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Tell everyone you know it doesn't bother you in a desperate attempt to convince yourself it's true.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Call for Thoyer's head!

Dave Stewart is available now and I'm sure LaRussa will be in a couple of days.

It doesn't matter. Frank has declared who is and is not a fan, and I didn't make the cut.

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There's always next year.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I didn't decide anything. You guys decided its sad, but ultimately no big deal if the Cubs lose.

Thats not a fan.

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You are confused.

I will be crushed if and when the Cubs lose. I will not, however, consider it a "failure" based upon a single season/playoff run.

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Then as Mr Farve Fan so eloquently stated, wait til next year.

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Would you consider it a failure if they didn't win a World Series in 5 years?

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This regime has made one of their goals to win a World Series. If they fail to do that, they failed to accomplish their objective, and that is failure.

However, I think MANY use it more as a "gotcha" word because they hate the Cubs and their leadership.

From a fan's perspective, I think it's too nuanced to say that it is or is not a failure based on no championship in 5 years. There are other considerations. What was the reason for their lack of a World Series? Was it complete futility? Was it a lack of playoff appearances? Was it struggling in the playoffs every year? And why? Was it the same reason for struggling every year, and they never attempted to correct it? Additionally, how does the franchise look moving forward? Is it in better shape than when they got here?

Certainly, we would not act as though a team that was terrible for five years and a team who made the World Series or made the playoffs consistently but lost were the same, would we? Would we just call both of them "failures"? This is not binary, as much as some want to force it to be.

At the end of the day, those factors listed above would play into my opinion of whether this was a "failure."

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Thank you.

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Well, you're very welcome. I think we've made progress here.

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I'm not sure why you think that's an 'either/or' proposition.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Simply put, yes.

They've seemingly built a team that should allow multiple bites at the apple. I think that is why my high if they win will be more pronounced than my low if they lose this year. In the back of my mind, I see this as the beginning of a run rather than a last ditch effort to cobble together a team and run at the title. Of course everyone could get injured or start sucking and in 3 years I'll look back at 2016 as their only legit shot and be pissed they didn't make it happen when they had the chance.

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You don't have to explain. It seems like we fully understand.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.