Filed under: Cubs | Tags: Cubs, Diamondbacks, Indians, Juan Rincon, Kerry Wood, Nolan Ryan, Rangers, White Sox
According to reports, Kerry Wood is expected to sign a contract with the Cleveland Indians as long as he passes his physical Thursday. When I say knock on wood, I mean it. Kerry has a long history of injuries and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him fail the physical and lose the contract offer. With that said, I hope that doesn’t happen.
In my previous blog I briefly speculated where the long-time Cub would land. I had mentioned Texas since he idolized Nolan Ryan. Guess I was wrong there, but I did know he lives in Arizona so part of me had hoped he would sign with the Diamondbacks. Then I could actually cheer for the hometown team and look forward to seeing him pitch just as much as usual. But I couldn’t have been more thrilled to hear my second favorite team in baseball signed Woody. My mom was born in Ohio and I view it as my second-city for sports teams.
The 97′ Cleveland Indians remains one of my favorite groups of guys ever assembled. I remember always picking them when I played All-Star Baseball 1998, one of the best baseball games of all time may I add. Now besides him playing for my second-city, my Dad brought up a point I hadn’t even considered; He’ll be playing in the same division as the White Sox! Kerry now has several opportunity to close out the South Siders and make them look silly which gives me great satisfaction.
Still the though of him being on any team but the Cubs still sounds wrong to me. And picturing him wearing another jersey is so impossible, I customized an Indians jersey just to see what his jersey would look like (That is if the legendary Juan Rincon gives up his number for the legend.) Nothing compared to the blue pinstripes, but I’ll take it.
After the most recent post-season disaster, the Cubs seem to have fallen under harder scrutiny than usual from critics and Cubs fans alike. I understand the critics bashing us, it’s their job. They believe we didn’t support our team during the playoffs. There have been knocks on the Cubs fans for booing their own players. Critics claim this flop is different from past year’s close encounters. The consensus feeling is that this loss has created a bitterness among Cubs fans. From this year’s mantra, “It’s Gonna Happen,” to “It Will Never Happen.”
Now what I don’t understand is why some Cubs fans are validating these critic’s claims. For example, a Cubs fan recently attempted to sell his loyalty on eBay before it was closed down because it violated eBay’s policies. The potential winner of the auction was willing to pay $7,100. Why? He was a White Sox fan.
Then most recently, Bill Murray appeared on this SNL skit mocking the most recent presidential debates. Fast forward till there is 3:20 left in the video to see the part I’m referring to. But to summarize Bill Murray, a life-long Cubs fan, asks the candidates what they would do as President to ensure such playoff losses never happen again. “Obama” responds by telling him the Cubs may make the playoffs next season, but they won’t win. He goes on to say that as a nation, we need to find a new team for Cubs fans to cheer for. “McCain” agrees with “Obama” adding that the Cubs will never win.
Had I watched that skit even a few days ago I would have been enfuriated. But I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. The critics need to understand that there is a new breed of Cubs fans who have only come around once the Cubs were in first. Those fans can sell their soul. They can change their allegiance. But the real fans have endured too many years of getting their hearts broken that they can’t stop now. I’m one of those fans. And in Chicago, loyalty is spelled C-U-B-S.
Filed under: Cubs | Tags: 100 years, Bears, Bulls, Cubs, curse, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Eddie Vedder, Ernie Banks, Mets, White Sox, World Series
since this is the first blog, i wanna take a second to explain what this blog will be all about. i was born and raised in chicago and am a die-hard chicago sports fan. well everyone in chicago except the white sox. reason being…i’m from the north side. if from you’re from the north, you’re a cubs a fan. if you’re from the south, you’re a sox fan. and if you like both, you’re really not a sports fan because that’s a sin. so each time i blog i’m gonna discuss some aspect of chicago sports and my biased feelings. for now till the end of october when i believe the cubs will win the world series, i’m gonna focus on my beloved cubbies. but look for a lot of mentions of da bears and da bulls after that time period. oh “da” is “the” in chicago talk just like everyone’s dad’s name is bob in chicago.
so anyways, my cubbies only have a few games left in the season and are guarenteed to finish the best team in the national league. the lovable losers actually are the best not only in my heart but in the standings for once. it’s been 100 years since they lost won the world series, and like a true cubs fan… i believe this is the year. i still don’t know who the cubs are scheduled to face yet but it will be either the mets or the dodgers. we have history with the mets so it would be nice to play them and get revenge on them for the cursed season of 1969 but i really don’t care who we play. i know we’re better than both of them. but i’m only gonna take this one series at a time. last year we got swept in the first round by the freakin dbacks, so i’m just gonna try my best to stay level-headed. for now i’ll leave you with a new popular song sung by pearl jam’s eddier vedder. former cub great ernie banks urged him to write a song for the cubs since vedder is a huge fan. i just heard it the other day and it’s stuck in my head. so here’s the youtube video for eddie vedder “all the way.”
