Official "2008 Cubs World Series or Bust" thread!

[GTDawg]

You have no idea what it's like to invest something in a team...

[PShabi]

Ok, ok, you were a fucking bat boy. Whooopdeee fucking dooooo. In '03. I called off work for two days str8 after the collapse with Florida. I was too depressed to function. I stayed in a depression for 2 weeks straight, where the first thing I thought of after the alarm was the Cubs. EVERYDAY.

The 135/162 games was keeping it simple w/o going into every pathetic detail of my fandom.

When Santo and Banks talk about the glory of Wrigley and being a Cub on those sappy ass WGN specials, I cry. When I hear the Eddie Vedder song, I cry. When I think of the fans who have languished a lifetime, a FUCKING LIFETIME, w/o seeing this team win a WS, I cry.

All day before game 1 of this god forsaken series, I was on the Cubs message board sharing these sentiments w/ others, just like me. Got teary eyed all day.

I'm sure you love the Braves. But comparing that city to Chicago, comparing that team (how many postseasons??? 15 straight?) to my the Cubs, comparing those fucked up fair weather fans to the Cubs fans across THE COUNTRY, that is a fucking joke. As is you telling me I don't know what "investing in a team" is. The Cubs are my religion and spirituality these days. I just found out Santa Claus wasn't real.

You can take all that...and shove it up your ass...til you smell it.

You don't know shit about me.

Let's go Cubbies.

[GTDawg]

lol

Take a breath there, Champ. There's no need to be a pretentious asshole.

I'm impressed that you are such a diehard fan that you get depressed when your team loses. Everybody does that to some extent if they are a live and die fan.

I'm not sure where you got the comparison of the Braves to the Cubs. But, whatever. There's no need to flip out because I made a one sentence comparison.

However, fandom is still one part of investing something in to a team.

In the middle of January when everybody is getting ready for spring training and the players are taking extra hitting. You're there packing stuff up. You're sorting uniforms. Carrying equipment to the trucks. Working a few hours every day just getting ready for the season.

During spring training? At the stadium setting things up. Moving all sorts of equipment around the clubhouse. Cleaning everything under the sun. Getting the clubhouse, visitors clubhouse, training rooms, offices, bullpens, everything ready. When the team comes back after spring training? Best day of the year. And, before they got there, I was already there for 4-5 hours cleaning shit and getting it ready.

At the stadium 14 hours a day 81 times for 6 months. This is on top of watching every single road game. And, at 2am at the end of the roadtrip, you're at the stadium working when they come back.

When the team loses, you get to be upset and go get ready for tomorrow's game. Try standing in the clubhouse doing your job while everybody around you is pissed off. Just wait til it gets towards the end of the season and everybody realizes that their work is going to be worthless since the season is ending early.

Try becoming friends with some of these people and then watching their careers end. Tell me what it's like when you watch someone break his arm during a game and end his career. You can turn off the TV and go do something else and feel sad about it. I have to help him pack up his stuff when he realizes he's not ever going to play baseball again.

It sucks when a player you like gets traded or released. You get attached to them. You enjoy watching them and following them. When they leave, you're sad and you move on because you love your team. I was friends with them. I hung out with them at the bar and at the golf course. I met their wives and their kids and their parents. For most of the year, you spend more time with them than their families. I'm there packing up their stuff and driving them to the airport.

You're watching the last playoff game with a tight chest hoping for things to change so you get that one last chance to win? Yeah, me too. I'm sitting there in the clubhouse watching the last pitch as your team is bounced from the playoffs. There's no option to turn off the TV and call in to work sad, though.

I'm not comparing the Braves to the Cubs. The Braves won't ever have the fanbase that the Cubs do and that's for a whole host of reasons.

But, it's damn arrogant to think you're the only one that can understand what it's like to invest your entire life in to a team.

[GTDawg]

I will add...the only fanbase that I could see as resembling the Cubs is the Red Sox.

I can't think of any other team in any of the major pro sports with a similar fanbase.

[Reel Deal]

Green Bay Packers.

[GTDawg]

Well, sort of. But, I think there is something extra that goes in to it. And that is losing. A lot.

The Packers are loved in Wisconsin and everybody treats the players as royalty and many cheer them very hard.

But, as can be seen in this thread, there's a certain level of living through the heartaches and curses and freaky occurences and bad decisions that solidifies the fanbase and makes the winning all that much more important.

The appeal of the Red Sox was the cursed team. If something could go wrong that would allow them to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, it was going to happen. It was just a question of when. And, given the recent winning, it's almost as if that angle of their luster has dulled.

It has also been placed directly on the Cubs

The Cubs are America's lovable losers. Everybody wants them to win. They want to see their fans cheering. They want to see Wrigley field rocking. I mean, it'd probably be the most popular WS in recent memory right next to the Red Sox series in 2004. But, for whatever reason, it just never seems to work out.

[PShabi]

TL;DR except the last line.

You're right about that. Which is exactly what I was pointing out to your hypocritical ass in my morning rant. Isn't that exactly what your post was claiming?

[GTDawg]

I was making a throw away comment about investing time and energy in to a team.

It's not the unbelievable questioning of your integrity and desire that you seem to be reading in to it.

You remember those fan commercials about fantasy football where someone makes a comment and the other guy flips out and tries to out Fantasy Football someone because of something insignificant? Yeah, it's like that.

[PShabi]

I have no idea what commercials you're talking about.

[GTDawg]

The first comment is a random comment on an internet message board. From your reaction, you'd think I had punched your mother or something.

The second comment is slightly annoyed because you reacted like a pretentous douchebag over that same message board comment.

If it helps explain things more, it wasn't someone scoffing at you "dude, you don't even know what you're talking about when you invest time in to a team".

It was more of a "As a fan that sees it first hand, you have no idea what it's like to invest time in to a team"

If someone tells you that they had a bad day and your day was just as bad or worse in some ways, and they say "Dude, you have no idea...". Do you view them as questioning your entire livelihood and your ability to have bad days?