One and Done
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So how do you revenge fuck a baseball team? You follow a baseball team for six months, 161 games, and just about every play of every inning and then they go and just tear your heart out. The one time you really needed them, the one thing you ever wanted out of this relationship and they can't even be bothered to show up. For six months they were the best girlfriend a guy could imagine - not only did you have that special spark with them, but they had all the fundamentals as well. They were the kind of girl that you needed more than she needed you, but still would bring you lasagna at work...just because it was a Wednesday. |
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And then it's the big weekend corporate retreat with your promotion on the line and she ends up forgetting to take her anti-depressants, sleeps with your boss, then the guy you were vying for the promotion with and you find this all out when you walk in on her taking on 3 guys from the sales team. On top of that, the only reason she brought you lasagna on Wednesdays was she was meeting up with your boss at a hotel room around the corner once a week.
Fuck the Cubs!
I feel like I should go root for the White Sox or Brewers now, just to show them. Or try and bang some of the player's wives, but I don't think the Angel Fan wife will approve of that one.
Observations from the ballpark after the jump...
- The Angel Fan Wife and I headed to the game and she broke out the T-shirt she made in June for the last Cubs/Dodgers game we went to, since it ended in victory. The shirt has a Cubbie Bear logo on it and the words, "Let's face it, he's married to the Cubs and I'm just his mistress". They'll soon be widely available at TCR store. She also brought out the Angels cap to make sure we caught hell from everyone we passed.
- I mapped out a pretty solid route to the park to avoid the major conjested areas since not only was there the Dodger game, but also a USC home game and a concert downtown. I made it from Long Beach to parked in 40 minutes, 15 of them waiting in line for parking. I was surprised to see the lot full with about 25 minutes still to game time. I guess Dodger fans were taking this one seriously.
- We actually did end up around about half a dozen Cubs fans surrounded by a sea of Dodger fans of course. To say the least, they took every opportunity to heckle the Cubs fans, although they really hated the one guy wearing Yankees gear whenever he stood up to take a whiz. But the Dodgers fans right in front of us, who were the most vocal, were a pretty good-natured group and the heckling is a lot easier to handle when the jokes are pretty good. There was one unfortunate asshole who literally talked through the entire game while looking back at the group of Cubs fans looking for someone to engage him. I'm not sure he saw more than 10 pitches. He was equaled out by the obnoxious Cub fan filled up with liquid courage that decided to stand up and scream at the slightest Cub positive moment. I think he got hit by about 100 ice cubes and two cups of beer plus other assorted ballpark snacks throughout the night. And no, I was not that fan. This was me throughout the night.
- First pitch - Soriano swings. I'm ready to jump off the upper deck.
- Kuroda was popping 95-96 mph to start on the Dodgers stadium gun and I wondered where the hell that came from. Harden was hitting 88-91 and whenever he tried to put a little extra on it was nowhere near the strike zone. That's when I wrote "Game Over" in my notebook. Just kidding, I didn't have a notebook, nor do I hate Jews.
- I couldn't tell from my vantage point if Martin was safe on that play from third, but the Cub fan next to me got a text message on his cell that said the replays showed he was out. When things go bad, they go real bad for the Cubs, as we all have painfully learned.
- The Dodgers crowds usually get a bad rap and for the most part it is deserved. But last night's crowd was quite electric, and they even managed to get through a game without doing the wave. Heck, they even stayed for the 9th inning.
Not much else to say, I think I'm probably gonna take a few days, maybe weeks off from this baseball thing. This one's a little too painful...
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#1 Re: One and Done
Thanks for the recap -- you'll have something in your e-mail by Monday.
There's always a bright side: we're not Dawson Leery.
#2 Re: One and Done
Fuck the Cubs!
Fucking A.
That quote fucking made my morning. Forever fucking grateful the fucking MVN move was made.
#3 Re: One and Done
Sigh. Just when I had gotten over the last time and was ready to open up my heart and love again. What's the baseball equivalent of a hooker?
#4 Re: One and Done
Fucking Cubs. Verily, fuck them.
#5 Re: One and Done
Seriously debating giving up on the Cubs.
I mean best record in the league and lie there like lambs waiting for the kill.
They gave away two games and didn't perform in the other.
#10 Re: One and Done
Nah, Jacos, we need you. See you around March?
#6 Re: One and Done
First, where was Reed Johnson? Veteran presence, competitor, hits for average, does very well with RISP. If there was anyone I would not see choking it would have been him. And there is no loss in defense with him instead of Fukudome.
Second, the ONE game it made sense to start Fukudome was game 3 against Kuroda. He knows him better than anyone, and clearly looked more comfortable facing him. Why start games 1 and 2 and not 3? I don't get that one.
I think the Cubs are where the Red Sox were at a few years ago. They have a solid nucleus, were always in contention, but couldn't break though. Then, down 3-0 to the Yankees, the come back, win the World Series, have won another since, and are always in contention. The Cubs need their breakthrough to prove to themselves that they can win in the playoffs. I was holding out hope that last night would be the start of it, but it didn't happen.
And of course we all say that we are going to back off and take a season off, etc. but after 4 months of no baseball and - for those of us in the midwest - a balls-cold winter, I imagine we'll be back at it come late February like every other year.
At least when I turned on a game this year I had almost a 2 in 3 chance of seeing them win. That is something that has happened in very few seasons in my lifetime.
At this point though, I am fucking pissed, but not really surprised. This is afterall what they do best. I'll check out from baseball until free agency heats up, I can't even really get into the rest of the playoffs at this point.
Also, in a sign of Cubs-fan solidarity, I'm not going to report the results of my and Real Neal's bet re: Fukudome/Theriot in September. Both sucked so miserably in the playoffs that I think at this point their September performance is a moot point.
#7 Re: One and Done
Great post, Rob G. Painful and hilarious. Sorry you had to be there in person.
I don't feel devastated, just tired and frustrated. '03 was a sucker punch in the chest. Compared to that year, this is just a boulder on the heart.
I don't want to give a shit about baseball for a while either, and I want to say "Fuck you, Cubs," but the bitch of it is I know that when the spring is on the horizon, I'll get worked up again.
I think it must be what a menstrual cycle is like, but 12 times longer.
Go Rays, I guess.
#21 Re: One and Done
lol Brick!
At least I can still laugh, it turns out.
And thanks for the post, Rob. It probably wasn't easy to force yourself to write something (and something worth reading, at that).
#8 Re: One and Done
You follow a baseball team for six months, 161 games, and just about every play of every inning and then they go and just tear your heart out.
All the effort and time one expends in following the club sure seems futile and foolish when this kind of thing happens, although at least I can say that I enjoyed myself thoroughly at the time.
But what really hurts now is thinking about all the great and small things that have to go right in order to have a great regular season, and wondering if all of those planets could ever align like that again. We all know what those things were this season; do you see them all happening again, or anything like them? It's hard to imagine right now.
#9 Re: One and Done
As painful as watching the game at Lodger Stadium (where did they find all those fans?) must have been, it couldn't have been worse then listening to the re-animated corpse of Dick Stockton trying to call the game. TBS - Where formerly decent tennis announcers go to die.
...
So, the FA pickings are pretty slim. I would say our areas of need are:
RF
CF
Setup Men
Backup Catcher
Starter - if Dempster doesn't come back
Now that we stunk up the playoffs, it sort of sucks that Pie didn't get more chances in September. I think Hendry and Pinhead know not to try Edmonds again, but they're probably going to hope that Fukudome gets sorted (he looked pretty good last night, at least). The free agent market is pretty barren for anything other than left fielders, and with Fukudome's and Soriano's contracts on the books it's doubtful we'll throw money at one of the big bats (Ramirez, Dunn, Ibanez, Burrel, Abreu). There's no free agent CF's that give me confidence we'd have an improvement over Pie/Johnson.
Offering around a Cedeno/Marshall package for a center fielder seems like a good idea. KC seems to have their middle infield sorted out now, so OfJesus is probably out. There's some other scrap-heap guys that should be avaiable and cost less than those two, Tavares, And Jones, Jeremy Reed etc.
Wheeler is a free agent, and Hendry has a penchant for offering solid setup guys 3 year deals, so I could see him being a target, especially if Wood goes somewhere else. Mota and Juan Cruz could be other targets. From the left side there's not much either, assuming Marte's option gets picked up. Affeldt could be a guy the Cubs figure they could straighten out to replace Eyre's role in the grand bullpen scheme.
All-in-all it looks like Hendry's going to have a tough off-season if he wants to improve the club. Getting Hill going again will be huge.
#11 Re: One and Done
I think you're right that Hendry will be looking to throw cash at free-agent relievers, but I wish he wouldn't go that route, or that he won't have to. AZ Phil will tell us if any farmhands can become reliable middle relief/setup men; I sure hope so, because it's not like the Remlinger/Veres/Howry/Eyre method has reaped much reward.
I have deep and genuine respect for Marshall, who only did everything the Cubs asked of him with noticeable success and without complaint. I hope he won't be traded, partly because I like what he brings to the Cubs, and partly because I wonder what kind of return he would bring on the trade market. I guess he is one of their more movable players, though.
#12 Re: One and Done
On that play at third in the first inning, Ramirez doesn't know how to tag a guy sliding head first. The play ends up with Ramirez' glove on the guy's shoulder. What is the ump supposed to make of that snapshot? He knows the runner's hand must have touched the base a while before.
You're supposed to make a swipe tag and pick up your glove, so that the only question in the ump's mind is whether the throw beat him.
If you think you've seen that botched tag before, it was on September 11 in St. Louis, when Brandon Ryan, the tying run, led off the bottom of the 9th with a double. The next guy bunted and Lee threw late to third. Ryan overslid third and the replay showed that in trying to get back, he reached safely past Ramirez' shoulder tag.
The Cubs got the call in St. Louis, but last night they didn't and it cost them two runs.
#13 Re: One and Done
Epic Fail
#14 Smokey...
They asked me how I knew
My true love was true
Oh, I of course replied
Something here inside cannot be denied
They said someday you'll find
All who love are blind
Oh, when your heart's on fire
You must realize
Smoke gets in your eyes
So I chaffed them and I gaily laughed
To think they could doubt my love
Yet today my love has flown away
I am without my love
Now laughing friends deride
Tears I can not hide
Oh, so I smile and say
When a lovely flame dies
Smoke gets in your eyes
Smoke gets in your eyes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOBdQykKQY
#15 Re: One and Done
Vegas, Dec 8-11...
http://lasvegas.51s.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=...
and upcoming dates of import...
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/schedule/important_dates.jsp
#16 Re: One and Done
It's not that I don't suffer, it's that I know the unimportance of suffering. I know that pain is to be fought and thrown aside, not to be accepted as part of ones soul and as a permanent scar across ones view of existence.
-John Galt "Atlas Shrugged"
I'm as pissed as anyone about this latest playoff disaster, but at least I had something to cheer for this season. I went to my first Cubs playoff game ever (Game 1 - CF bleachers under an unwelcome rain of Dodger homers). This season felt a lot better than giving up on baseball by June. You can't win if if you're not even in it. Hendry needs to pull his shit together and start brainstorming for the offseason. Here's looking forward to a 2009 division title and many more to come. Someday we'll go all the way!
#17 Re: One and Done
cubbie occurrence
another bad century
when's it gonna spill?
#18 Re: One and Done
for some reason I forgot about it, but a hardy F U to Soto and/or Mike Quade not scoring from third on that chopper.
#66 Re: One and Done
I thought Theriot's not going to third on the fly ball to right, then almost getting thrown out at third on a ball that bounced 6 feet from the catcher was the highlight stupid running sequence of the evening.
#19 Re: One and Done
This is all a bad dream, right? I mean it's really only September 30th, I'm sure. The playoffs don't start until tomorrow, right?
Anyhow, since there are probably a few other women that read this blog, I'd like to provide the following comparison for us:
This regular season was like dating Mr. Darcy, only to find out yesterday that it was actually Mr. Collins (the bumbling idiot) or John Willoughby (the philandering liar) all along.
Last night I was at peace with everything ("There's always next year"), but this morning I am pissed again. How the fuck can this team only score 6 fucking runs!?!?!? THey had as many fucking ERRORS as Runs!!! (I am also glad that this blog is no longer at MVN... nothing is as cathartic as saying Fuck repeatedly.)
-Thanks for allowing me to vent.... (off to watch Pride and Prejudice with a bottle of red wine and pint of my other lovers: Ben and Jerry)
#20 Re: One and Done
thanks for the providing perspective for the other half of the world :)
#130 Re: One and Done
I always wondered what a woman felt. Chad is going to love this post.
#22 Re: One and Done
Well the other perspective to all this pain is probably a little more realistic and mature:
Sometimes success is a lot more of a long term process than we might otherwise have it.
In the music business I have learned that talent is actually fairly easy to come by and that what is much more important is resilience and dedication.
In the case of the Cubs it is only recently that they have really entered the field of play as a perennial playoff presence. Hell this is the first back to back appearance since, what, 1945?
Hendry and company have done a good job in my opinion of building a winner, and in a pretty darn tough division (that also has more teams than any other division!!).
Passion and memory and irrational dreaming and history have trained us Cubs' fans to almost hope that we GET LUCKY and sneak a World Series victory on some sort of magical roller coaster ride.
But perhaps the Cubs' process will be more that of the Atlanta Braves . . . slowly learning how to run an organization so that it is in the playoffs on a yearly basis and then slowly learning how to win in the playoffs. It's not how I would have it, but it makes sense if you put aside all the history.
The bottom line as so many have said is that the Cubs were very poorly run for many many years.
Now they are dedicated to winning, akin to an Alcoholic who quits drinking and then expects everyone to react with approval and for things to suddenly go well . . . in that same way because the Cubs have gotten serious we expect immediate rewards. Well maybe it's a little harder than that.
So as completely mystified and heartbroken as I am -- I think if the Cubs keep hammering the strike zone with good teams we will get our WS victory in coming years. Boston went through exactly that process and it took the Braves many appearances but that run only yielded ONE WS victory.
#114 Re: One and Done
Good thoughts here, jimmer. I would rather compare what the Cubs are doing to the Boston organization though: using huge amounts of money and the farm system to build a winning ball club. Not to mention the fact that the RedSox have won a whole lot more playoff games recently than the Braves have. Here's to a perennial playoff team that will eventually get over "The Hump".
#121 Re: One and Done
I agree. All you can ask for is consistent regular season excellence and pray that postseason excellence will somehow follow. I'd rather be strung along like this and lose in the playoffs than go 66-96 like we did two years ago.
How can the Braves be smart enough to win 14 straight division titles and dumb enough to win the World Series only once? (And the 1995 edition of the Braves probably wasn't the best Braves team during their run.)
#23 Re: One and Done
2014.
Soriano is signed THROUGH 2014 and has a full non-trade clause (not that anyone would take him).
Un-fucking-believable.
#39 Re: One and Done
guys normally don't play out their contract like that. I doubt we see a limping 38 year old Soriano in 2014. 3 or 4 more years for sure but after that they will probably pay his salary to play somewhere else.
#45 Re: One and Done
Good point, but I just have a hard time imagining anyone wanting him. Maybe he'll go in a future expansion draft. . . .
#24 Re: One and Done
Hey, it's alright guys. We'll regroup and go get 'em tonight.
Right, guys? Right? [insert Van Der Beek here]
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