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.

[Charles Henrickson]

We love them because they play in the most beautiful ball park in the world.

[Charles Henrickson]

This could be Series.

[PMCarey]

Name a team that has more loyal fans.

The Green Bay Packers. They own their team afterall.

[TruBluKentuckian]

Wrigley is a beautiful sight isn't it.

Unfortunately I've never been able to go there. Someday I will. My brother has been there and he said that television doesn't do it justice.

[discostu]

The Packers sucky years are only about 1/5 the Cubs sucky years. That's the mark of true loyalty, when not one single person you've ever met can remember a time when your team was a legitimate contender, and you root for them anyway.

[geege]

My beloved Yanks......may God bless......Cubbies.....you'll have to wait another 90+ years to WIN THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!!!!!!YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.....CRUSH....KILL....DESTROY THOSE RED S*UCKS....Ahhhhhhhh.....I feel better now:0)

[Question_Assumptions]

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

Eh. Rutgers Football was great fun when I was going there. They used to beat the teams they were supposed to lose to (I seem to remember them beating Penn State one year) and lose to the teams they were supposed to beat. They could have just rolled dice, the results were so random.

But, face it, if you want to find a winning Rutgers team, I think Women's Basketball has pretty much been it.

[Chi-townChief]

I just heard Dusty Baker on the radio and he said that although Game 1 is important, it is not "pivotable" like in a five-game series. Maybe Daley's rubbing off on him.

[#3Fan]

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

LOL

[.cnI redruM]

It pivoted pretty hard once the Cubbies bull pen got unleashed.....

Let's see how the ComSox fare versus The Axis of Cupidity.

[Burkeman1]

As a die hard fan of the Red Sox the author does have a point. All this nonsense about the curse and self pitying one hears on Sports Talk Radio is really annoying and it feeds into a really obnoxious negative fan attiude that I think has effected the team.

Look what happened to Buckner? That guy was a GREAT player and played well for the Red Sox. He won't even come back to Boston to this day because of how he was treated by the fans. And he didn't even lose that series- there was a seventh game! It is just tough to be a major league ball player in Boston where every public statement you make is endlessly criticised by over sensitive fans. Patino- when coach of the Celtics had a famous quote about Talk Radio Boston callers that says it best but I won't post here.

GO SOX.

[PMCarey]

The Packers sucky years are only about 1/5 the Cubs sucky years. That's the mark of true loyalty, when not one single person you've ever met can remember a time when your team was a legitimate contender, and you root for them anyway.

The Packers have had their sucky years too - like 25 years straight of general suckiness. It didn't effect ticket sales - Lambeau was completely sold out and the length of time to get off of the waiting list for season tickets grew to about 300 years.

Cub fans are great. Though I live in Wisconsin and generally root against all things Chicago, I don't root against the Cubs (I guess it was growing up watching the Cubs on Sunday afternoon with Jack Brickhouse, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Ernie Banks, Ferguson Jenkins, etc. etc. - that was a wonderful team).

The Brewers suck too, but without the charm. They just suck.

[discostu]

And while the Pack was putting together a quarter century of lameness the Cubs put 39 years between playoff appearance, then got crushed in the first round and stayed away for a decade.

Pack fans are loyal. Cubs fans are neurotic. They were talking to a guy in the left field homerun area (across the street) that claimed to have hung out there to shag homeruns (in that crowd of nutso) for something like 4000 games. Now I realize with the length of the baseball season that only like 3 years ;) but still that's a long time to be hanging outside a stadium listening to the game on radio (you can't see into the stadium from street level) hoping to catch a ball.

I still haven't decided if I want it to be Cubs - BoSox. On the one hand having a garauntee of a curse broken really speaks to the romantic in me. But I have a terrible fear the BoSox will beat their curse first, then the Cubs will be all alone (I of course have no sypathy at all for the BoSox if they wind up alone with a curse).

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

Either team losing in a spectacularly nailbiting fashion would please me immensely. Let the selfpity continue.

Looks like you got your wish, in spades! Both teams were 5 outs away from advancing to the World Series. Both teams had their staff ace on the mound, with a 3-run lead. If you had written a novel about a baseball postseason like this one, it would go straight to the fantasy section. Or, more likely, it would never get published, with the most commonly cited reason being "Too contrived, too unrealistic."