thanks for some very nice coverage of the Cubs this season. Catch you at the Cubs Convention.

Dempster got his 200 innings, so that’s good.

but a fun year on BCB.

I’m going to the Cubs fantasy camp in January.

Even if we couldn’t make it a good season on the field, it sure was interesting in the threads!

There’s always next year.

I have discovered that I don’t really like knowing in advance which is the last game of the year.

Well, this should be a distracting fall and winter for me. With exquisite timing, I closed on my new house on Wednesday of last week, and will be all moved in a couple of weeks. Let the “Honeydew” projects commence…

And a Happy Offseason to all!

what gets done in the off season. I’ll check in here every day. Thanks Al for putting up with all of us. I know it hasn’t been easy.

The Saints are 4-0 and LSU beat UGA yesterday to go 5-0, so I’ve been in good spirits lately despite all this. Next year will be better for the Cubs. Wait until next year.

The Cubs didn’t seem to good, but they finished over .500. The Cubs had players who were not as good as they should have been. There were also players who did more than any of us would have thought. There was a cycle this season; a cycle of either bad hitting, or bad pitching.(Mostly bad hitting). We as fans thought we were getting a great team. We only got a good team.

I’m glad it’s over, and the 2009 Cubs will be stricken from my memory soon enough. This offseason should be full of fun debate and interesting rumors. I can’t wait

Dunno why but when the Cubs are out of it they and the Yanks are my go-to teams.

I for you appreciate your insights and knowledge of all things Cubs. We shall meet again, hoping 2010 is the end of a long journey to the top. Have a good off season my friend.

An interesting year indeed. Just think we can start the Milton watch and count the days until he gets moved. The day that happens is the day the glass goes half full.
 Pulling for a Rockies/Twins Series so MLB and the TV ratings go down the tank.

Al I’ve been a reader since last year and I just joined I want to thank you for all the work you do.

I’m excited for I am finally making the trek out to Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park in late June to see three Cubs games (One at Chi Sox, two vs. Pirates)

should be fun…

Al said:

Also, apart from the delayed 2001 regular season, which ended on October 7 due to the one-week suspension after the 9/11 attacks, this is the latest regular season date ever at Wrigley Field.

I remember going to a game at Wrigley on my wife’s birthday, which happens to be October 5. The game was 10/5/1986 and the Cubs beat the Cards 8-1 (box score). The immortal Guy Hoffman went 7 innings to pick up the win.

Just like that, the Cubs season is over. I’ll be rooting hard against the Cards, but other than them losing, I don’t really have much of an interest in the postseason this year.

Thanks for another great season’s worth of posts, Al. What do you have planned for this offseason (blog wise)?

I simply quit going elsewhere for Cubs info. This is the best. Another great BCB season.

Dan

Well done as always. Thank you for the hard work this season. To everyone here (not that I won’t be around all offseason) keep those "W"s saved in a safe location. I’ll be smiling from ear to ear when we get them out in April. Everyone have a safe winter. Better days are ahead.

Al, I love and at the same time am saddened by the Giamatti quote. It does seem a fitting end to each season.

But those of us fans who have been lucky enough to grow up listening to Ernie Harwell of the Detroit Tigers know that he BEGINS each new season’s first broadcast with a biblical quote:

“For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.”

We may lose Ernie to cancer this winter, but for me, THIS is what I look forward to each winter as we await the start of a new baseball season.

GO CUBS! And thanks for all the hard work you put into this site each season. It is very appreciated by thousands of Cubs fans.

Al, thanks for another great year!

I am looking forward at starting fresh, nothing seemed to work out this year as planned….other then DLee’s great year. In some way it reminded me of Dawson’s year in ’87. A great effort by DLee with not too much else.

Al thanks for a great year of BCB even though I’ve been pretty much absent this whole season.

Bad year on the field great year of BCB.

Due to life circumstances I have caught less of this season than any other in my 41 years on this earth. ITS MY FAULT!

I’m glad this season’s over, but I hate when the season ends….

is the last day of Cubs baseball. And so it goes.

Al, let me join the chorus of “thank yous” to you and BCB readers for making this site thrive. I see I’m not the only one who comes here first — ahead of mlb.com, espn.com or the local papers’ web sites — to get the latest ‘n’ greatest info about what’s happening with our team.

Now we make the sad transition to the Hot Stove League… and count down the days ‘til Spring Training ’10. I’ll be here for the ride!

Glad I was there to see it. One itty bitty mistake Al which I admit I am the only one who would notice. Scully’s " Little Sam Fuld" call which is a classic was from his LEAPING catch of Manny’s would have been HR. Scully also gave a nice call for the diving fence call but not for " little Sam".
Everyone in my section was looking at me when Sam hit it and to be fair Wally had suggested Sam might hit a homer at the start of the game but I thought he was a little nuts. After the game I went to see if I could get a Fuld T shirt at a discount price. I had seen some at some of the stalls especially on Waveland. Well they were selling shirt for $20 instead of $25 but they had no medium size left and you know WHY they didn’t ?
SAM’S WIFE BOUGHT THEM UP YESTERDAY. Lady at the stand said his wife was stunned they had them as they don’t sell them in the park and the bought 10 in various sizes. Well I suppose it is more important for the Fuld family to have them than me.

Your blog is a daily multiple check in site for me….365 days a year.

Your coverage of the Cubs is the best sportswriting I’ve read in years – vibrant, engaged, well-informed and also (a bit of a rarity these days) always respectful and sportsmanlike. I look forward to it every day.

While 2009 has been your best year to date, I project a step up in 2010 numbers to at least 300 WARB (witticisms above replacement blogger).

Thanks for all you’ve done for this whole community!

…chime in and say, “Thanks, Al.” Great work throughout the year on all fronts! Looking forward to the off season news, and Spring Training!

And well, at least it was sunny today. A’s managed to score just one more run than the Cubs today, otherwise it was about the same experience; it’s just over.

for a wonderful time and a chance to re-connect with my Chicago roots.

I hope everybody has a great off-season.

Eamus Catuli

Seeing that Joshua got let go brought me back to the appallingly unprofessional way the Cubs released Gerald Perry of his duties. That was embarrassing.

Fire the manager.

As many have said before me, and still more after me, thanks for all your hard work, Al.

Enjoy your offseason, and keep the updates coming!

I don’t remember last year being so contentious, but then again, people are going to be happier when we’re winning. I enjoyed every single one of your recaps and previews, and look forward to doing this all again next year. Thanks also to a bunch of posters who know who they are who kept it real this year. With you guys, there was always laughs and good discussion without treading into name calling and what not.

So yeah, that said, looking forward to more discussion, movie reviews, funny quotes, funny pictures, etc. Take care everybody!

At least I won’t spend the rest of the year without a baseball team to root for. The Giamatti poem doesn’t apply to warmer weathers with winter leagues, I guess.

Another season is gone. At least the Cubs played over .500 baseball. A few improvements should put the team in real contention next year.

Thanks for the season recaps and analysis, Al. And thanks to all who made my days enjoyable in this web site.

One of these days, I’ll make it to your section o the bleachers and say ‘Hi’

Stick around this winter — should be one of the most interesting offseasons in many, many years.

Very sorry to hear about your big gulp. I’m off to start my 10 word fanpost on the importance of the hitting coach and why it’s all Perry and Joshua’s fault.

I also want us to start a pool for how many days it takes for the following to be mentioned without code or abbreviations: BR, PV, HWSNBN, KW, MD. Starting now.

I’m pretty close to wanting to fast forward past the playoffs to get to hot stove and see what can be done with this roster, but I guess I’ll try to enjoy October.

It was an… umm… errr…. uhhh… interesting season to say the least.

But in spite of the unmet expectations, I still had a ball. Actually three balls – an ex-Cub (McGeehee), a clutch Cub (ARam), and a %&$# Cub killer (CYoung) all found their way into my glove this year. Needless to say, ARam’s was the highlight of my year. A big ballhawk shoutout to cubnational for sending me footage of that catch.

And with that, I am all too ready to put 2009 to bed, save for a little nightcap of some (hopefully) exciting postseason ball. I’ll be practicing my ABCYs the rest of October – Anyone But Cardinals Yankees. And I look forward to an interesting offseason – both here on BCB and there at 1060 W. Addison. And I hope and pray it’s the good kind of “interesting”…

And thanks to everyone else too. I’m probably the least knowledgable of anyone here, but you’ve helped me learn a lot this year. Thanks!

As pointed out in this fanshot yesterday’s loss was huge—as in it was very good for us. Had we won, we would have finished ahead of Tampa Bay in the standings and had the 15th best record in baseball. As it was, we have the 16th best record which means we have a protected first round draft pick next season.

We can sign a Type A free agent this off-season and we’ll lose our second round pick, not our first round pick. Probably the only time I’m happy to see a loss.

And congrats to a great season for Al, as well, of course. It’s easy to write good things when things are going good. It’s harder to keep going in a season like this.

I went to Sunday’s game, the only one this season. Had a great time, getting to see Sam’s first home run/rbi was awesome.

Oh, and there’s always next year!

I won’t miss Cubs baseball much.

I think.

:(

I know all the games count… and you can do a lot with stats.

That said… if you toss RD’s first month (as he was dealing with his daughter’s condition), his ERA further drops to 3.34. It still isn’t sub-3, but I would imagine most of us would have “taken” that when the season started.

And let me echo all of the thanks to the BCBers for the hard work this season.

but I hope you will remember all of Kool-Aid drinkers who will be here through thick and thin with you.

So I toast you Al with a big glass of Kool-Aid:

To a great 2010 and a trip to the World Series—finally. Since we are both in our 50s, I know that waiting more than half a century is long enough! Keep up the great work on BCB, you are the glue that keeps the community together.

Thanks for creating the environment that allows this online community to thrive. I read a few other sites that are sometimes better in one way or another, but they are mostly lone voices, and you have really pulled together something that is bigger than you and even bigger than the sum of its parts.

Keep up the good work.