The Chicago Cubs March to the 2008 World Series - Page 4

In the playoffs your magic number is the number of wins it will take to win the World Series, not the LDS. So their magic number would actually be 10.

Dempster looked like shit last night and the Dodgers (when they weren't being issued free passes) were seeing the ball really well. I haven't lost faith, but Soriano's performance last night reminds me of how all the Cubs hitters (except Soto) disappeared in Arizona last year.

It's also worth noting that 24 out of 28 times the team that wins the first game in the LDS wins the series.

Here's to 101 (and counting) years of losing.

Wow. I come from the debate and the Cubbies are blowing it. Bravo....bravo. I can't help but take a certain amount of pleasure from the Cubs' pain. It's fun for the rest of us to see them lose.

Aaaaand... the Dodgers give Chicago Cubs fans another reason to hate Steve Bartman.

On the bright side, this isn't a team of aged veterans. A lot of the guys who played great this year could have many more seasons of playing great.

They just need to quit being so fucking uptight and scared of the fucking ball during the playoffs. It's the same ball that you used in the regular season, guys! Take a swing at it! Catch it! Throw it! Don't fucking cower in fear at it!

*hangs up the 'Thread Closed, See You Next Year' sign*

You Cub fans bitch WAY too much. Seriously. Like you deserve a championship or something. Like it should just be handed to you. The sense of ownership of that really boggles the mind. I can't believe the stuff that Cub fans have been saying on the radio. They had a great team this year and blew it. Yeah, it sucks to lose, but you know what? There's no fault on Hendry or Pinella here. None. They did everything they could and came across a really hot Dodgers team. It happens. To say that Hendry's got a lot to do this off season is dumb. He's got the foundation of a team that's gonna be good for probably the next couple seasons without doing much. He just needs to tinker in a few areas.

I think the biggest problem with the team was that they seemed to buy into the whole "team of destiny" bullshit. There's no such thing ever.

I will say it was nice to see Zambrano, Soriano and Ramirez exposed (once again) as horrible big game players, though.

Zambrano got put into an uncomfortable position though. He didn't lose that game, you can't survive the sieve that was the Cubs infield during his outing. However, coming off the DL and being ridden for as many pitches as he was during his no-no (unavoidable really, you can't pull a guy with a no-no going) led to his being ineffective for the rest of the season. It would've been ballsy to keep him on a count in that game, but maybe it would've paid dividends to the team later on to have done so.

I think you're confusing the venting of frustration with bitching. It's not that Cubs' fans think we deserve a championship, it's that this is one of the best Cubs teams, (if not the very best) many of us have ever seen, and they still got swept...that's where the frustration comes from. There isn't a sense of ownership or a feeling that the title should be handed to the Cubs; there is however a sense of missed opportunity as it seemed the Cubs actually had a legitimate shot at winning this year and they managed to fail in spectacular fashion.

Oh well, there's always next year.

I have no real sympathy for Cubs fans. At least they have an owner willing to spend money to bring real talent and keep that talent playing for the team. My team hasn't even sniffed .500 ball for the past 15-16 years. Who cares if your team doesn't make it to the World Series, no team is destined to win no matter what. It's the play of the team. Yeah, Cubs won the NL Central... congrats. Be proud of that. I wish my team, the Pirates, would go .500 once and a while.

I don't think you fall into that group, but seriously Cubs fans don't know how good they got it. They can watch their team on national television, they can see their team sign big names and win big games, they can vote for their undeserving (see Soto and Fukudome) players for the All-Star Game, and their team is constantly talked about on sports tv shows and loved by millions. My team is constantly ignored... the only thing we have is the BEST baseball stadium in the country. Don't think about taking that title away from us too.

Yeah, the Cubs should have clearly moved on at least one round. Losing in the NLDS is always a bit crappy unless you're a horrible wild card team. I honestly thought they'd do better this postseason.

I think it does come down to tightness. The hitters were pressing too much and not able to relax and take their natural approach.

As far as other factors, the pitching was decent but the fact that Zambrano was not at 100% since the no-hitter was really the toughest blow. Sure it was the infield that blew that game for him (seriously 4 errors in one game?) but the question mark over him is why he didn't start Game 1 and they didn't have their confidence or 'juggernaut' face on and again, led to them playing with that same pressing.

From what I've watched this past decade, it seems that when you're in the playoffs you need someone to kind of break that tension or else you get wound to tight and just struggle. When you come in with a 100-win season or whatever, there is always more pressure on you to perform. The Cardinals had two 100+ win seasons and couldn't win the World Series in either of them. Instead it took a shitty 87 win season with an end of September seven game losing streak and two other eight game losing streaks to get them loose enough that they cruised through the playoffs.

Pittsburgh's ballpark is absolutely beautiful, it's one of the few reasons I watch Pirates games (I have the baseball package with DirecTV, so that's how I get it here), because the park looks so great in HD. A close second is the Astros new ballpark though.

Gah, don't bring up Minute Maid Park (the juice box as we call it). You'll get my patented rant:

Yep, and to our tenth title.

Well, ya gotta admit there's just a little of hubris in naming your thread "The Chicago Cubs March to the 2008 World Series". It could be taken as being hopeful or just smug.

Better luck next year.

Hasn't that been Anya's running gag now for something like five years?

Sure, and I think it's the one single thread every year devoted to one single team. Everyone else seems to be satisfied with the generic season and post-season threads.

I'm not picking on Anya or anything, more power to him, really.

We just need our own corner so we can inevitably weep into our glasses of Old Style at the end of every year.