Go ahead and push it. I won’t blame you if you do. We have once again managed to put ourselves into a hopeless, terrible situation, and have really shown nothing in the first two games which would give you any reason to believe that we’re capable of coming back and winning this series not getting swept. I know that.
But if you push that button, there’s no going back. If, somehow, we wake the fuck up, realize it’s the postseason, and put away this shitty, lucky-ass Diamondbacks team, you’re not allowed back on the bandwagon. If you push that button, turn in your tattered Cubs hat, your fucking “Believe” signs, and your “Hey, Hey, Holy Mackerel” 8-track. If you push it, you’re out.
Look, all I’m saying is that stranger fucking things have happened, and you Cubs fans of all people should fucking know that. If only I could give you an example of that. If only I could think of a team in recent history that found itself facing elimination, needing to win three games in a row to advance to the next round. Maybe a team that was told it had no chance to advance. Maybe a team that had Derrek Lee on it. A team which was facing much tougher pitching and a hostile ballpark for 2 out of the 3 remaining games. A team that had to trot out Carl Pavano and Mark Redman for two must-win games.
Stranger fucking things. That’s all I’m saying.
- This is why I’m good. Here are some of my reactions to the media second-guessing me about pulling Zambrano in Game One.
“To bring back memories of the goat and 99 years of frustration because I removed a starting pitcher in the sixth inning, I think it’s getting a little crazy.”
“When you manage a team, everybody’s a manager, what can I tell you? The only thing, the people who write it have a chance to write it after the fact, not before or during.”
“I don’t care about ESPN or anything else.”
“This wasn’t gut. This was thought out. Sometimes your best plans just don’t go the way you expect, but what are you going to do? If everybody was perfect, we wouldn’t have to be playing these games.”
“How many people here wanted me to close [Marmol]? There you go. Now I bring him in the seventh inning of a ballgame and it’s like the billy goat came out of the grave, and what the (heck) is his name, Durocher (’69 manager Leo) turned over in his grave and everything else. For God’s sake. I think there’s a little overreaction to this.”
- If the worst happens, do you think you could stomach an expansion NLCS?
- I see. When you can’t criticize me for pulling a starter too early, you’re going to criticize me for pulling a starter too late.
- Jesus, we’ve struck out 23 times in 67 at-bats? This aggression will not stand.
- Congratulations to Mike Bauman, who has written the first article on MLB.com actually worth reading.
- Well, shit, the Cubs have won three postseason games in a row before? Weird. The media told me that was damn-near impossible.
- Hey, Mark DeRosa says we can still do it. That’s good enough for me.
I’ll see you folks in Wrigley Saturday AND Sunday.
-Sweet Uncle Lou
Who you crappin’?
You listen to the Score way too much. Which is to say, you listen to the Score at all.
“But if you push that button, there’s no going back. If, somehow, we wake the fuck up, realize it’s the postseason, and put away this shitty, lucky-ass Diamondbacks team, you’re not allowed back on the bandwagon. If you push that button, turn in your tattered Cubs hat, your fucking “Believe” signs, and your “Hey, Hey, Holy Mackerel” 8-track. If you push it, you’re out.’
That is amazing. Fuck fans who can’t go two games without making it about themselves.
I think that should be “This aggression will not stand. Man.”
Other than that egregious error, I have to say I feel the same way. If you think it’s over, then don’t watch on Saturday and you can tell everyone that you predicted we would lose a short series after being down two games. That and a dollar gets you on the bus.
I’m actually surprised at how deliriously hopeful I am this morning. I feel like one win on Saturday changes everything. These guys haven’t done anything the easy way all season. Just a few clutch hits (and the subsequent reaction at Wrigley) should bring them back. Sure, we’ll have to face Captain Fugly again, but the second time around in a week should be better right?
Maybe it’s the quaaludes talking, but I’m still on this flaming train of death.
Hop aboard, Pat. The Cubs should win the next two games, and it really shouldn’t be close. If they do, all the fatalist, doom-and-gloom dickbags will come back for Game Five. Those of us who stuck around can treat them like lepers.
Semi-kudos to Mike Bauman for almost calling out the media for their invasive curse fixation. He seems to recognize the lunacy of reporters constantly asking the players about perennial futility and animal husbandry, but then he pushes the phenomenon back into abstraction (“it is pervasive…it refuses to disappear”), and then he gives in to the superstitious premise completely (“the weight of history can be removed”). So: media types are off the hook, it’s just those old Cubbies, what are you gonna do?
Piniella seems, even still, to be astonished at the extent to which reporters who cover the Cubs take it as their God-given right to get in his players’ heads with this nonsense. Although this runs counter to his usual media savvy, it’s hard not to sympathize with him.
This is not to say that the media are to blame for the intensely terrible plate approaches of many of the Cubs’ hitters in the last two games, or for the meatball Lilly teed up for Young. But Lord, the media sure don’t help.
I’m still here, too. I’m all in, bitches. Even if we go down in 3, I’m not giving up on this turkey turd of a team. If Rich Hill mans up and we take Game 3, then we have El Toro (who suddenly seems to have lost the loco part) on the hill in game 4. After that, it’s back to the dismal desert where we have as much chance as Britney and Kevin’s kids do at avoiding therapy the rest of their lives. Still, I’m hopeful. This team can’t be this bad in Chicago, can they? Christ, I hope not. Bright spots, small though they may be:
Geo Soto. Meet your 08 starting catcher, folks.
Kerry Wood. Has he been nails his last few appearences or what? We need to make sure we resign him. I’m still not sure he could ever close, but he’s been money in middle relief. I’m glad I didn’t burn my wood shirts the way I did with anything with the number 22 on it.
Hell yeah – still hanging strong.
This team can definitely still win.
Though I wouldn’t mind if Aramis would get a hit at some point.
Is you is, or is you aint, my constituency? I, for one, is in the constituency, and will be here until the end. As the great HST said many times, “buy the ticket, take the ride”. Why bail out now, after we all made it through April and May? You’ve all paid for it – take this thing all the way to the finish line.