"2008 has been a great year."

It is EXACTLY because of statements like that that this franchise has not been in a World Series since 1945, and not won one since 1908. Do you think the Yankees think like that? The Patriots? The Red Sox?

This season will be nothing less than a complete and utter failure unless they win the Pennant. If you ask me, Pinella's job should be on the line for next season. There needs to be a massive overhaul of the bench and the bullpen. Fukudome is a situational substitute at best.

This team deserves exactly what it's going to get if it gets eliminated in the first round again, and even moreso if it gets swept tonight.

We should be booing this team off the field on opening day 2009 if they go down in this series.

Division championships are meaningless. Just ask the Braves. It don't mean a thing without the ring.

Screw civility, it's been 100 years. I've had it, and you should too. If you haven't, you're just another yuppie robot zombie that Sox fans call us.

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"Ditkith"? See that? That's your I.Q. Buddy! ZERO! ....I'd rather talk to HIM!"

Hear, hear!

Boo here, boo now, lose less!

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"Ditkith"? See that? That's your I.Q. Buddy! ZERO! ....I'd rather talk to HIM!"

C'mon Steve. It's more than a "2-game losing streak" as you put it. What are you talking about? This is the playoffs. Cubs are the best team in the NL. It's win a World Series or bust. That's the stakes. You certainly have to get out of the first round.

It's also the way they lost. It's a choke. That's what it's been. I actually think they can win 3 in a row. You have the pitching to do it in LA. Zambrano will pitch game 5.

Just the fact, Steve, that you lumped in the final regular season game to say it's a "3-game losing streak" shows you don't get it. Who cares about that last game in Milwaukee? It's not about losing streaks and total wins in the season. It's not about "back to back" division titles as you have mentioned. So what? You have to win a World Series. You shouldn't settle for anything else with this team.

im a huge fan of the cubs, watch almost every game, and will be bitterly disappointed if the cubs dont go any further. that being said, i had a great, exciting year watching them play. it was fun, they had a good team, and i got a lot of pleasure from them this year, even if they get swept. the "all or nothing - if they dont win the world series the year was a complete failure" angle is silly. fuck yeah, i feel sick about what is going on, but dont tell me that because i enjoyed the season more than any other i have watched that i am a "yuppie robot zombie". i would tend to think anyone who is so hung up on winning the whole thing that they can't enjoy watching the games and talking baseball and enjoying a fun season is missing out on what baseball is all about. i would also say they listen to boers and bernstein too much.

believe it or not, all cubs fans want the team to win the world series. me booing from my living room isnt going to change a damn thing.

Ok. Can't tell you how to feel. It just amazes me.

I'm happy about the Sox fighting their way in. Those are good memories. It was a special way to win a division. I know the Sox aren't as good as most teams in the MLB playoffs. So if they lose it won't hurt as much. Still is painful during the games. Don't get me wrong. I won't say this is a "great Whie Sox season". It was fun cuz they overcame expectations and key injuries to get in. That's it. If they lose it was the way it should have been. You can't say that for the Cubs. Especially losing in the 1st round. Especially the way they lost their first 2 games.

The Cub season will be an utter failure when they lose in the first round. They got swept last year and are on the same path now. Progress? More wins in the regular season means nothing if they can't move on in the playoffs. The old saying that it is a new season still applies. Cubs are 0-2 in a 5 game season. If you are satisfied with that, then you get what you deserve. Me, I prefer a championship rather than memories of good regular season games.

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You cannot make me care about the WNBA.

Thanks, hootmon. I'm sure most Cubs fans feel like you. Steve and M.O.F.O are in the minority of Cubs fans. I don't get their logic.

For example: You could have been happy with the 1998 Cubs. That was an average team that got in and got killed by the Braves like they should have. That team is similar the 2008 Sox. Both won a "play-in game". That makes those 2 teams more similar. So you have that nice memory Cubs fans. There should be no nice memories, this year, if the Cubs lose.

1998 Cubs and 2008 Sox were nice teams that got in. It was all they could do. You don't have to curse the 1998 Cubs. This Cubs team is different.

EVERYONE prefers championships, not just "win-or-complete-failure" believers. nobody would be satisfied with a loss in the first round. that being said, i have had a lot of fun watching this team. i have had a full summer of entertainment watching the games with my son. we will watch tonight, and if they lose, we will both be very disappointed and feel sick. that wont erase all the fun we had all season enjoying the games.

by the way, the season isnt over yet. maybe everyone should watch the game tonight (and hopefully beyond) before hanging themselves.

whether i am in the minority or majority means nothing to me. all i know is that i am able to keep things in perspective a bit, and i find reading the threads on here after a cubs loss hilarious, reading the "all-or-nothing" philosophy followers freak out.

I know it's not over. I think your Cubs could win 3 in a row. I said that.

It shouldn't be "all or nothing" every year. I told you that 1998 was an example of that. But this year it should be "all or nothing" for Cubs fans.

Once again, I can't tell you how to feel M.O.F.O. You have the right to feel how you want.

I agree with you, except that I have exactly zero positive memories because of the whole Sosa/McGwire steroids HR chase. I felt completely conned and still do. But that's just a weird circumstance; I think your comparison is apt.

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Fire Phil Emery

I have not seen anything in the last two games to make me think they could win two in a row let alone three.

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You cannot make me care about the WNBA.

naturally, if you look only at 2 losses in a row where they played very poorly for motivation, you won't see the possibility of 3 wins in a row. im going to aim for one in a row, i think they win tonight. after that, at least a little of the pressure flips back on LA. hopefully i can worry about game 4 on sunday.

I think watching games 1 & 2 should give you more confidence that they could win 3 in a row.

You're not gonna walk guys and make errors like you did in games 1 and 2. That was just weird and doesn't happen like that. Not for this Cubs team this year. It's likely not to happen in LA. That should make you feel better about their chances.

It's okay to have fond memories from this season or other past season. I still remember crying like a baby when Ararmis Ramirez defeated the Brewers with a ninth-inning home run in Wrigley in 2007. I will not forget that moment. My dad had passed away a few months prior. He was a Cubs fan, and I felt like I was sharing the moment with him.
I also remember sitting in a friend's bar during Game 3 of the NLDS last year or watching Game 6 and 7 of the 2003 NLCS and Game 2 a few days ago with my buddies at work. I was almost visibly ill. My heart went out to the die-hard fans, because I'm sure their pain was about 1,000 times more intense.
As for an overall sense of a season, failures like this will leave a more bitter taste in one's mouth. It's just very hard to believe that anyone can feel a sense of accomplishment when the playoffs are such a train wreck.
Steve, you were the guy with "THE CUBS WILL END THE WAIT IN 2008". Now that doesn't appear to be the case, and you want to a put a smiley face on this season

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President of Blake Shetlon fan club

Any season not winning a title is a failure and a disappointment. Titles are all that matters.

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my high school and college career was a failure and disappointment, too, but that doesn't mean i didn't enjoy every minute of it and retain a lot of good memories!

Right, but you were actually a member of the team. My statement was from a fan's perspective.

It's not that I don't look back on certain cubs memories or Bears memories with joy and fond rememberance, but I don't want a team actually being competitive during the season and flop in the playoffs to be the standard. I want teams that win titles and prove excellence.

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who doesnt? the fact is you arent always going to get that. we all want the same things, and i want it as bad as anyone here, but i dont understand how anyone can keep their sanity with a "win or total and complete failure" attitude. who wants to live like that? there must be a lot of very unhappy people around here. at the end of the day its entertainment, and i was entertained all summer, and hopefully it will continue.

Exactly, and it was fine entertainment. I hope that the very best of 2008, remains to be seen. But if that turns out not to be the case, there were a lot of good times had, a lot of exciting games won, another division crown captured. There is plenty of good to look back upon. Again, hopefully there will be more to come.

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Go Cubs!!!!

You can have good memories. I have good memories of games from bad Sox seasons. Especially as a kid.

But to say this has been a sucessful season is absurd. There you go again, Steve. You keep saying "another division captured". So what? This was a team built for a World Series title.

2008 was not a great year if you get bounced out of the playoffs for the 2nd straight season.

BD, i totally agree. any season that doesn't end in a championship cannot be defined as a great year. i have no argument with that. my only point of contention is with the "championship or complete failure" people, you are setting yourself up for a life of miserable discouragement and disappointment with that attitude. there is gray area. you aren't a champion or a complete and total loser.

its baseball, i love watching, playing and coaching it, and losing a championship is not the end of the world, the whole season is a blast, i'm not going to scowl and pout my life away because my favorite team didn't win.

Just look at what the Phillies have done, as a gauge of why it's so disappointing seeing what the Cubs have done. The Phillies went out and DID THEIR JOB at home. They took the first two games. They will most likely beat the Brewers. They deserve to. But they have been a very good team all year.

So have the Cubs. And yet they wet the bed at home. And why? Phillies fans are as bandwagony and fairweathered as they come. Trust me, throughout the late 90's and early 2000's you didn't hear a blip about the Phillies on WIP or through anything more than whispers from "fans". So it's not like the Phillies were riding on the fans or anything.

The Cubs could take a lesson or two from them. Go out there and do what you've done all year to get those 97 wins, and keep it up. It wasn't a fluke. You can't sustain a fluke for 6 months...

however...somehow the Mariners wound up doing what the Cubs seem to be about to do...but the Mariners don't have the storied history nor the "curse" factor.

So if the Cubs are to do the inevitable and get swept or lose in the first round, it is obviously a very disappointing year, but not just because they didn't win the world series...but because everything was set up for them to do so, and they didn't reach out and grab it.

So fuck 'em. We have every right to turn our backs on them right now...we have every right to be pissed.

But we'll be back...and so will they. And life goes on...

I understand what you're saying, and agree for the most point. It's not healthy to be a fan who thinks "title or failure" of as Ricky Bobby would say, if you're not first, you're last. But when you're not even competing against a lesser regular-season opponent as the Cubs currently are, it's embarrassing.

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Cubs get bounced tonite, 2008 is a pure and utter failure. The Cubs showed they were the best team in the NL bar none. And I'm not talking a 1 week sample size either. I'm talking basically mid April to September. They were the best team in the league. To lose close, hard faught games is one thing. To have back to back HOME games and simply not show up is embarassing.

And Steve, WYC with posts like this? We had to deal with you being a meatball all year long and ending each every post talking about how "there is going to be a great party in Chicago when....THE CUBS END THE WAIT IN 2008" and then you pull this crap?

You not only give Cub fans a bad name, you give Chicago sports fans in general a bad name. Its fans like you that I will point and laugh at later tonite when the Cubs lose. Its fans like rfcd, kerchungathunk, and many others that I will buy a round for.

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WTF frank what about me. I said I would listen to your crappy band play.

Good luck tomorrow night. Seriously.

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I would like to officially nominate W_Z's post for "Post Of The Year."

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas