Cubs or Red Sox World Series victory would mean fewer self-pitying fans (Operation Meathead)

CNN/SI ^ | October 6, 2003 4:25AM | Phil Taylor

[.cnI redruM]

I have this feeling that the Chicago Cubs or Boston Red Sox are going to win the World Series this year. Actually, that's not quite accurate. I have this fervent, desperate, oh-please-if-there's-a-merciful-God-in-heaven-let-it-happen desire for the Chicago Cubs or Boston Red Sox to win the World Series this year.

[tallhappy]

I like how you disingenuously pretend you didn’t know it was a Schwarzenegger movie

It wasn't hard to figure out.

[presidio9]

If the Yankees don't win the one thing that would take the edge off a bit for me would to see the Red Sox blow the Series in some new and spectacularly heatbreaking fashion. Cowboy up.

[#3Fan]

I know what this guy is talking about. It's kinda fun to be a fan of the Cubs since they haven't won in 95 years. We're getting a lot of attention. We'll trade our uniqueness for a World Series win though.

[Timesink]

The World Series will be Yankees vs Cubs. Winner: Yankees in 6 or 7.

[Timesink]

If the Yankees don't win the one thing that would take the edge off a bit for me would to see the Red Sox blow the Series in some new and spectacularly heatbreaking fashion.

Amen.

Buck-nerrrrrrrrr! Buck-nerrrrrrrrr!

[TruBluKentuckian]

How very wrong you are.

I've been amazed the past couple of weeks at the selfish attitude of many baseball fans. I've seen a lot of bashing of the Cubs and their fans. Why? Because one of their everyday fallbacks to make themselves feel better is going by the wayside. They can no longer say "it could be worse, we could be Cub fans".

We Cub fans are a strange lot. We have something that is sorely lacking in the world today... loyality. Cub fans are the most loyal on earth. We love the Cubs, not because they are the best, not because they are trendy, not because it makes us look smart. We love them because they are the Cubs. We love them because they play in the most beautiful ball park in the world. We love them because,despite the years of losing and frustration, they never give up. They are like you and me, the common man, the simple man, the average Joe around the corner.

I ask you, what is more "American as Apple Pie" than a common, average guy finding success after years of frustration? What is more "American as Apple Pie" than an underdog becoming a champion? What is more "American as Apple Pie" than someone trying to remain as close to the purity of their convictions against huge odds, and then finding themselves on the cusp of greatness?

THAT is why we love the Cubs, and there's millions of us out here.

[RightWhale]

The Pittsburgh Penguins eventually started winning. If they can do it, anyone can.

[presidio9]

1918!!! 1918!!!!

[Chummy]

The White Sox last played in a World Series in 1959 (look how many times the Red Sox have been in the WS since then), and last won it in 1906!

Ahem. Beg pardon.

1917.

And then summarily tossed it away two seasons later to the Cincinnatis.

[presidio9]

"Growing up I had a choice of rooting for the Chicago Cubs or the St. Louis Cardinals. All my friends chose the Cardinals and grew up happy and liberal. I chose the Cubs, and grew up conservative and miserable. Liberals are temperamentally inclined to see the world as a harmonious carnival of sweetness and light, where goodwill prevails, good intentions are rewarded, the race is to the swift and a benevolent Nature arranges a favorable balance of pleasure over pain. Conservatives (and Cub fans) know better…Conservatives know the world is a dark and forbidding place where most new knowledge is false, most improvements are for the worse, the battle is not to the strong, nor riches to men of understanding and an unscrupulous Providence consigns innocents to suffering." -George Will

[dead]

We Cub fans are a strange lot. We have something that is sorely lacking in the world today... loyality. Cub fans are the most loyal on earth.

One day, there will be a professional sports team whose fans don’t all make that claim.

One day.

[TruBluKentuckian]

Name a team that has more loyal fans.

[dead]

BTW, I'm a long-suffering, loyal Rutgers football fan.

And there are dozens of us.

[TruBluKentuckian]

LOL... and I'm a University of Kentucky football fan... I know exactly what you mean.

[Charles Henrickson]

The White Sox . . . last won it in 1906!

Not quite. It was 1917. (The Hitless Wonders did beat the vaunted Cubs, though, in 1906.)

The teams that have gone the longest without winning:
Chicago Cubs, 1908
Chicago White Sox, 1917
Boston Red Sox, 1918

For some reason, the Pale Hose get overlooked when people talk about baseball's longest-time losers, even though it is the ChiSox (and not the BoSox) who have gone the longest in the American League.

GO CUBS!

[TruBluKentuckian]

Might be that whole "Blacksox" thing.

[discostu]

I actually extend the claim to all Chicago area sports fans. Chicago is a sports mad town (and across the board too, unlike other places that are baseball towns or football towns in Chicago it's sports as a concept) and yet the place has very few championships at the professional level (by my highly unofficial basically unresearched count the Bulls magical run with Jordan more than doubled the number of championships Chicago has since 1900). Chicago is a place that expect mediocrity from its teams, and goes anyway because you're supposed to.

[Charles Henrickson]

TIME FOR ANOTHER!

[Charles Henrickson]

Memo to Wrigley Field staff:

If a guy with a goat shows up at the gate, please let them in this time!

Thank you,

P. K. Wrigley

[weegee]

My friends and I are worried that it would mean the end of the world if the Cubs and the Red Sox played against each other in the World Serious...